The Sixteen Page 10

  ‘That can’t be right Dynamo. I don’t remember that.’

  ‘No, but that’s the whole idea! You can’t remember because Ken had to switch off your conscious brain so you won’t be able to remember anything Geordie. You may have heard of people sleepwalking and even killing someone while still in that state, or of others who have been put under hypnosis then asked to do silly things like taking their clothes off, and when they wake up they don’t remember doing any of it at all. That’s because it was their subconscious that was doing it. Do you see Geordie? When you go to sleep your conscious brain switches off. It goes to sleep, but your subconscious is like a movie camera, it records everything. That’s how you have dreams and you see pictures that seem so real and if they are good, when someone wakes you up you may become upset or angry, but if it is a terrible dream it can turn into a nightmare, where you wake up terrified or even screaming and sweating because it felt so real. Just look at what happens to drug addicts and alcoholics. If they don’t get a fix then they live in a different world to the rest of us because their subconscious is out of control.’ He paused to take a drink of his tea.

  ‘So where do you get these dreams from?’ I asked him, fascinated and wanting to know more.

  ‘It’s something you have seen in the past,’ he told me. ‘What Ken did was put you to sleep, to switch your conscious brain off. So we know how to programme your subconscious to accept and remember “The Machine”.’

  ‘I just can’t see how that’s possible, to physically take part in something over four days and not remember anything about it. How is that possible?’

  ‘We know how it’s done. They taught us.’

  ‘Who taught you?’

  ‘Look you don’t need to know, you don’t need to remember.’

  The three of them now sat down at the table while Dynamo continued talking to me:

  ‘What you have learnt in four days should have taken months, it’s called programming. Don’t ask any more questions. You are very weak and probably a bit numb – if you pinch yourself you won’t feel it. Oh, by the way, you’ll find that you have a few loose teeth at the back and they will probably fall out soon.’

  ‘Loose back teeth?’ I prodded around with my tongue; he was right, on either side of my mouth the molars were wobbling loosely in my gums.

  ‘You’ll also find that you have a cut across your knee and a few light scratches on your arms too,’ Dynamo went on. ‘But that’s all Geordie, other than that you’re perfectly OK. You got through and we got you back.’

  ‘What do you mean you got me back? Back from where?’ I wanted to know. ‘I thought you said we’d been here all the time?’

  ‘That’s right, you have. The reason they call it the “One Step Beyond” is that the procedure you went through can be very dangerous sometimes. The mind just can’t take it and then we wouldn’t be able to get you back; in other words you would be brain dead. You’re OK aren’t you? So not to worry,’ Dynamo said with a wink, then he grinned at me and stood up.

  ‘But why didn’t you warn me about this in the beginning?’ I wanted to know.

  ‘We thought you wouldn’t understand and besides your mind would have resisted and that would have made it more difficult.’

  This was the first thing he’d said that really made any sense to me because I truly didn’t understand any of it.

  ‘Yes I think it’s just as well you didn’t tell me, I can see that now. What you’re saying is that if something had gone wrong I might have ended up like a cabbage. Now that I’ve had time to think about it I am glad that you didn’t tell me. Have you all been through this “One Step Beyond” programming? What is it you called it, another dimension?’

  ‘Yes of course we have but that was a few years ago.’

  ‘But why pick me?’

  ‘Well you seemed to have all of the qualities we require, plus the fact that you obviously believe in clean living: you didn’t drink or smoke and you were very good in the gym too. How many men do you know that don’t drink or smoke? So it was a bit of a miracle that they found you.’

  ‘Yes but what about that stammer I had? Why didn’t that put them off?’

  ‘Well, Geordie, as I said you had many of the qualities we look for. To be honest, your recruitment had nothing to do with us, that’s their job. Besides what’s a stammer? You were just a bit nervous that’s all.’

  After Dynamo explained this, Ken, who had been sitting quietly at the table, while I’d been chatting with Dynamo now spoke again as if reading my mind: ‘Who are “they”? Oh no, Geordie, we can’t go down that road because we don’t even know who they are.’ He stopped then and smiled at me. ‘Just eat and drink what you can. That’s it with the questions for now, although one thing I will say is that they have never been wrong yet; we all have the same things in common apart from the stammer.’

  ‘Can I ask just one more question? It’s very important to me,’ I begged him.

  ‘OK but just one,’ Ken warned me sternly as they all rose from the table.

  ‘Well, why all of this? I mean, why “The Sixteen”? What’s wrong with the army?’

  Ken gave me another brief smile. ‘Now that’s a good question; all I can say is that there are people at the top, the very top, who control the gold, the money, the oil, in fact they control just about everything including the army, AND THE GOVERNMENT. These people are greedy evil bastards who are not satisfied with what they’ve got, they want to rule the world and everyone in it. And they’re getting help from even higher places. They have meetings every year just planning that, and we are going to try to stop them Geordie! Without that certain technology they will find it difficult to achieve it. Our job is to try to stop them.’

  I was pretty baffled by his reply. ‘Well I have no idea what’s going on in the world, but for some reason I believe you.’

  ‘Good, that’s good,’ he said with a brief nod at me. ‘But please remember this Geordie: never trust anyone outside of The Sixteen. AND I mean no one, NO ONE! I simply cannot emphasise this to you enough.’ With that he sat down again, leaned back in his seat, put his hands behind his head and said no more.

  Dynamo came over from where he had been standing listening and slapped me on the back. ‘Have we got a surprise for you!’ he said, grinning down at me.

  As we had sat together talking and eating, they had made me feel as though I was already one of the team.

  Now Ken spoke again: ‘When you’re finished you’ll have to come downstairs and we’ll get you kitted out, Geordie.’

  Spot looked over at me and smiled too. ‘Well, Geordie, you’re one of us now, you just don’t know it yet!’

  I sat there in amazement, not knowing exactly what he meant by that, but one thing I did know – I didn’t have that ‘cabbage’ feeling anymore!

  The one called Dynamo seemed to be bursting with energy. He was constantly on the move, pacing up and down the room. Suddenly he spoke to me: ‘Come on, Geordie, let’s be having you, laddie!’ he said, using a strong Scottish accent. I could see that I was going to have some fun with these people.

  I finished what I was eating and followed him down the short flight of stairs into their training area.

  Talk about a ‘change of life’! From the very first moment I met my teammates and went through the ‘One Step Beyond’ that’s when the change came about. That’s when I woke up, you might say. The ‘One Step Beyond’ is certainly what did it!

  For all I still didn’t know exactly what had taken place, one thing I was completely sure of: the person who went into that little room at the top of those stairs certainly wasn’t the same guy who came out of it today!

  I looked at these four guys, complete strangers, yet for some reason that I couldn’t explain, I was sure that they were the kind of people I had wanted to be around all of my life, real men. I couldn’t really understand why they wanted me to be a part of their team but it was obvious that they knew exactly what they were doing. Yet it was very
hard not to think that I was just having a dream. It was difficult to believe that I actually was in that old rusty steel hangar all that time – four days – and we weren’t in there all that time because Ken liked the sound of my voice; naïve I might have been but stupid I wasn’t, despite what my father called me!

  So I followed Dynamo and stood holding my mug of tea, wondering what was going to happen next.

  ‘Well, how do you feel, Geordie?’ he asked.

  ‘Great! In fact, I feel bloody marvellous!’ Apart from the loose teeth.

  ‘Good! OK, come over here.’

  He picked up a canvas holdall, and then opened it up flat like a sheet on top of a table in front of me. Fastened inside of it was a strange looking belt, three boot-knives, and also a steel bow, which was in two halves, and a metal crossbow. They were without doubt some of the strangest looking devices I had ever seen, nor could I work out what they could possibly be used for. The arrows were not made of wood; they seemed to be made of a very strong plastic with odd rubber flights attached shaped into one large flight, like a plane’s rudder. There was a swivel attached made of metal in place of the nock and that had a hole through the side of it. Alongside of these items there was also a large selection of peculiarly shaped things.

  ‘This equipment is yours. We will explain exactly what it’s all used for later.’

  As they pointed out the various bits and pieces on the table they kept mentioning something called ‘The Machine’ to one another.

  ‘What’s this machine you keep talking about?’ I asked Dynamo. I was full of curiosity about this and wanting to know more.

  ‘“The Machine” is a special form of combat that I mentioned to you earlier. It’s very difficult to explain but you’ll find out. In fact, you know it already. The Machine is now in there,’ Dynamo said, pointing to my head. ‘You’ve been programmed with it. That’s what you’ve been learning over the last four days. In your first few hours here when you were with Ken, what he does in that time is to switch off your conscious brain. That lets us access your subconscious brain and then the programming can begin, first the fear elimination, then we install The Machine; you see the subconscious brain is like a form of film camera or recorder. The Machine we talk about is basically a weapon or tool which will enable you to disarm your enemy no matter what weapon he is carrying, whether pistols, rifles, sub-machine guns, machetes, batons, knives etc., and no matter what protection he might be wearing. The Machine gives you the ability to control him, kill him or to do sufficient damage to prevent him from fighting back, without incurring any injury to yourself. You see we never punch or kick. If you punch or kick your assailant you will inevitably knock him away from you. Because in order to punch or kick him you have to be facing him, so as he is expecting something to happen to him, and he will duck, pull back or move away. Also, what do you do to him if he is wearing some form of protection – a steel helmet, or bandoliers, or carrying grenades, bayonets and he’s got a pistol and a rifle – and it’s ten-to-one he’s not alone, he has his mates with him. I don’t think a punch is going to help you in any of those instances, is it?

  ‘It isn’t enough to simply hope that you might catch him on his own or half asleep or off his guard! So we don’t punch or kick, Geordie. We don’t need to and neither do you, because you are now the proud owner of The Machine and whether you like or not, it will be with you for the rest of your life. The next step is for us to prove it to you, and in order to do so we are going to attack you with some of the weapons you see laid out on that table.’ Dynamo paused here as he made a sweeping gesture with his hand over the table top, then he stared very directly at me as he went on:

  ‘Now, listen Geordie. We have to be very careful here because your conscious brain is not in control of The Machine yet, so the only thing we can do is to go through the motions and what I mean by that is that we will attack you.’

  Suddenly the one they called Chalky took over speaking and chipped in, saying: ‘Where the problem lies is in the fact that we are not putting you through a test to see if you can disarm us, we know you can. What we want to see is what you will do to us when you have taken the weapon. Let me try to explain that more clearly by giving you an example. You know when you first learn how to drive a car and you have trouble finding where the gears are or the clutch or the footbrake, so that when the car begins to move you have to look where you’re going while trying to find the gears and work the pedals and steering? Initially when you are still unsure about the gears, you have to keep taking your eyes off the road in order to look down and check and that causes a problem with your steering control and can often result in a crash.

  ‘But after practising a while the subconscious brain eventually learns how to drive the car and makes it seem second nature. It all just clicks into place and this enables the conscious brain to look where you are going and to forget about the technique involved, to the point where you could even eat an apple, think about where you are going that night or who with, but then if someone should step out in front of the car for all your mind is elsewhere thinking of other things, you instinctively slam on the brakes and hopefully stop just in time. Then in shock you think now how did I do that? But if that shocks you, then you can imagine if you saw a multi-car pile-up taking place right in front of you.

  ‘If you’re scared and fear takes over, then you will lose control, panic and won’t know what to do or be able to understand what is happening around you, tunnel vision occurs, and it is difficult if not impossible to perform complex or fine motor movements. So, Geordie, we have installed The Machine and the fear has now gone.

  ‘It’s time to connect the conscious to the subconscious now because it is that which puts you in control and that is when the subconscious is using The Machine; just like when you’re driving a car, the conscious brain does not have to look down to change gear. This means that we cannot attack you full-on until you have experienced what The Machine actually does. So when I attack you with this baton,’ he said while brandishing the weapon above his head, ‘what I will do is turn around like this with my back towards you.’

  As Chalky spoke he slowly performed the movement he was describing to me, then after only a brief pause he went on:

  ‘Then I will turn and try to hit you, but I won’t tell you which part of the body I will be aiming for.’

  ‘Hold it just a minute,’ I said, interrupting him. ‘Are you quite sure that I can stop it?’

  Chalky gave a little laugh, winked at me, then nodding his head slightly he said, ‘Oh yes. I am positive. OK Dynamo let’s go for it!’

  Without a second’s hesitation he turned and the baton was coming towards me, moving so fast it was barely visible, yet, in an instant, I had disarmed him and then I had the baton in my hand and was so close to him that my chest was now touching his right shoulder, and I had locked him in such a way that he was unable to move at all.

  I could see what I was doing but didn’t know how I was doing it, if you know what I mean. I could feel I was about to do something else to him, when I was grabbed by Dynamo and Spot, and I heard Ken’s voice firmly saying: ‘Hold it Geordie, just hold it!’ He clapped me on the back as he began to explain: ‘We had to stop you; you might have seriously injured him!’

  Then I heard Chalky chortle before he burst out: ‘You might have bloody killed him! But don’t worry Geordie, we won’t let that happen. Alright, all we have to do now is to repeat that until you are in full control of it.’

  It took me another three or four goes at it before I really began to feel in control of it – this awesome feeling of power – talk about a change of life! No words that I knew could have completely expressed just how I felt when, after several more practise runs, Dynamo suddenly said: ‘That’s it! It’s looking good. Now don’t look at what you’re doing, look at what’s around you. You need to put yourself into a position in order to take on the next attacker. Because you see you’re in control of the people who are attacking you, th
ey just don’t realise it until it’s too late. The idea is to keep the guy you have disarmed and disabled, and you hold him up right in front of you and pretend that you are still struggling with him while you hold him there keeping him to your front. So he now becomes your shield, then you manoeuvre yourself and him into a position where you turn your back towards the next attacker that you want to take out. You see Geordie, the conscious brain is instructing The Machine as to what move to do next, which will get you into a position to take on this next attacker. You see this guy thinks that you are not looking because you still appear to be struggling with his pal, only you know differently.’

  Dynamo, Chalky and Ken carefully demonstrated and slowly went through this manoeuvre as Dynamo was explaining it all to me.

  ‘Boy it gets better all the time!’ I said.

  ‘And it gets even better,’ Chalky told me with a nudge and a wink, ‘but first we have, or rather I should say, you have to keep practising this until you can do it in your sleep.’ They all laughed at this. ‘Then when you have done that, we start with strategy.’

  Dynamo began to explain: ‘You see you can’t just walk up to the enemy and take his gun, because obviously it is far more than likely he is going to shoot you the second he sees you! But there are ways to deceive your enemy, it is all psychology. You deceive your opponent by making them feel that there really isn’t any threat and even fool them into believing that they are in full control, when in actual fact you are. Because, Geordie, we need to be able to survive in a high-risk environment.’

  ‘And such survival must be achieved without weaponry or any form of logistical backup.’ It was Spot who had spoken. Until now, he had remained standing a little apart, quietly observing us while Dynamo, Chalky or Ken gave me instructions and information. I was fascinated by the way each of them was able to continue talking exactly from the point where another had left off. It seemed weird to me the fact that although these men were physically not alike, in their movements, mannerisms, gestures and the way they spoke they appeared to be almost identical.