Chapter Three

Barbara struggled to put the pieces of Dinah's story together. This just reeks of Federal involvement, she thought. But how … and where? Is it all Federal … or a combination public-private partnership? I could've sworn Uncle Sam was laughed out of the psychic-hunting business years ago … after the whole embarrassing story was made public.

There's no doubt in my mind that something happened to her; it's all just too detailed – and too consistent with what I know about Uncle Sam's past work in this area – not to be true. Furthermore, it's traumatized her to the point where she's now having flashbacks.

She mused about the name of the program. "The Factory" … truly a name only a bureaucrat could love.

She turned her attention back to Dinah. "What happened after you came to?" she asked.

"I woke up in another room just like the first one: gray walls, white linoleum tile floor, fluorescent-ceiling lights. Only this one had a yellow foam rubber mattress on the floor with a white sheet lying on top of it. I guess I was supposed to sleep there; I don't know how long I was out -- I never saw a clock once the whole time I was there."

"Did you sleep?"

Dinah shook her head. "I couldn't … there was this strange hissing noise being piped through the intercom system in the ceiling. It kept me awake."

"How was your head?"

"Here's the strange part … my headaches vanished once I was off the IV."

"Presently, your frontal lobe activity accounts for over 50 percent of your total brain activity", said Barbara. "These people may have been using a drug -- delivered via IV -- to increase those activity levels. Either your body was physiologically unable to withstand that level of frontal lobe activity … or those headaches were a side-effect of the drug itself."

"Waddya know", said Helena with a laugh. "Kid's a former lab rat!"

"Helena, please", said Barbara. She then turned her attention back to Dinah. "Please continue."

"After a long while, Crew-cut and Clipboard came into the room where I was sleeping. An older guy with gray hair who was wearing a green camouflage uniform came in with them. I think he was in the Army; he was wearing a patch that said 'U.S. Army' on his chest. I think he was a captain -- he had two black bars on his collar. That's what I called him … The Captain."

Definite military involvement here, Barbara thought. Army equals Pentagon equals Government. "Captain's insignia, yeah. Go on."

"Anyway, he told me to get up. I did … and he screamed the word -- I think it was something like 'kitsami' -- at me. He kept screaming it at me over and over and over again … Kitsami! Kitsami! Kitsami! I then asked him what the word meant."

"And?"

"He got in Clipboard's face." Tears began forming in Dinah's eyes.

"Did he say anything to Clipboard?"

Dinah's face was red now. "He told him … no, screamed at him 'You told me that this kid would be HYPNOTIZED!'"

They do a LOT of screaming in this outfit, Barbara noted silently to herself. "Hypnotized? How?"

"I don't know how!" shouted Dinah, now terrified. "I don't remember being hypnotized! That's what scares me!" Her hands began to tremble in fear.

Barbara put a comforting hand on Dinah's shoulder. "What scares you?"

"For all I know, I could've been programmed not to remember!" shouted Dinah, tears flowing now. "I'm afraid someone's going to turn me into a zombie just by saying the magic word!"

"It won't happen."

"How do you know?" said Dinah, the terror now rising in her voice.

"I know because I've studied it", said Barbara reassuringly. "I've studied it long enough to know that's not how it works.

"Hypnosis works because you want it to work," Barbara continued. "Hypnosis is basically the power of suggestion. Common sense dictates that you cannot accept and act upon a suggestion if you aren't even aware that it exists!"

"I still don't understand how they did it", said Dinah, calmer now, her face slowly returning to its normal color.

Barbara grasped her chin, lost in thought. That hissing sound… "Dinah, you mentioned hearing a hissing sound … a sound that kept you awake. Correct?"

Dinah nodded.

"I'm thinking that may have been the government's ham-fisted attempt at subliminal suggestion."

"Oh, my God", said Dinah, clutching her chest in panic. "What have they put into me?"

"They didn't 'put anything' into you. They couldn't 'put anything' into you … for the reason I mentioned earlier. As far as you were concerned, their 'suggestions' were nothing more than an annoying hissing sound that was keeping you awake. To put it bluntly, subliminal suggestion does not work. They might as well have tried to hypnotize you in Klingon."

Dinah smiled and tried to stifle a laugh as she grasped the absurdity Barbara had just presented to her. For now, the tension had been broken.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you", said Dinah softly. "I should've known better."

"Don't apologize", Barbara replied. "You were thirteen … you weren't expected to know. In fact, most people don't. That's what they were counting on. You've been carrying that inside you for three years?"

Dinah nodded solemnly.

"This 'kitsami' ", said Barbara. "It sounds as if it was intended to cue a post-hypnotic response from you. Some nonsense word that is unlikely to be used in regular conversation."

"What need would The Factory have to get inside her head?" asked Helena.

"Any number of reasons, I suppose", Barbara replied. "Increased control over Dinah … a means of enhancing her performance as a remote viewer … who knows? But I digress…" she said as she changed the subject. She turned her attention back to Dinah. "Please continue."

"For some reason, something inside of me chose that moment to tell them that I was a telepath."

"They didn't know? You mean they didn't ask you about any of your powers beforehand?"

Dinah shook her head. "They never bothered to ask," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"What did you tell them?"

"The truth … I told them that I could read someone's mind just by touching them. I told them that Crew-cut kept slapping my face."

"What happened after that?"

"The Captain hit the ceiling. He really lit into Clipboard and Crew-cut. He told them, 'You … f-word … morons! You mean to tell me you didn't bother to screen her for other powers before you strapped her in?' " Dinah blushed as she related this; she normally didn't use that type of language.

"And what did they say?"

"Clipboard told him that they thought that I had been screened beforehand."

"What happened after that?"

"First, The Captain asked me if there was anything else that they should know about. I said no. Then The Captain ordered me back to the … testing room … for more experiments. After that, things went by pretty quickly. They did the same thing as before: they connected me to the machine, stuck the IV into me, gave me a set of map coordinates, and told me to describe what I saw at each of these coordinates. I failed this series of tests. Once they found out that I was no remote viewer, they put the black pillowcase over my head, handcuffed me, and drove me home to the Redmonds."

"I'm guessing that they were disappointed in you."

"Yeah", said Dinah sorrowfully with her eyes downcast. "Oh, and one other thing…" said Dinah, her face suddenly brightening. "Just before I was sent me off for testing for the second time, I remember The Captain telling Crew-cut, 'And for the love of God, DON'T TOUCH HER!' " Dinah's face broke out in a grin as she related The Captain's final words to Crew-cut.

Barbara looked at the clock on the wall that was directly behind Dinah. "4 a.m., Sunday morning", she said with a sigh. "Let's call it a night and get some sleep."

"Guys," said Dinah. "Thank you … both of you", she said, looking at Barbara and Helena. "Thank you for listening … and believing me."

"I was scared to death for a while there", said Helena.

"The mighty Huntress … afraid?" said Dinah with a sly grin.

"Sue me … I'm only human."

"Don't you mean meta-human?"

"Funny…"

"Guys, I hate to break this up," said Barbara. "But we really should be getting back to bed."

"This is the first time that I've ever told this story to another living soul", said Dinah.

"There's something I don't understand", said Barbara. "Why didn't you tell us this before? We were led to believe that your being sent to the center was nothing more than a threat made by The Redmonds to keep you under their thumb … a bogeyman."

"I didn't want to worry you. I didn't want you to think that I was damaged goods. I figured that if I … put some distance between The Factory and me … the flashbacks would go away. That's one of the reasons I came to New Gotham City."

Barbara put a hand on Dinah's shoulder. "It's in the past", she murmured. "They can't hurt you here. They can't hurt you anymore."

Dinah rose to leave. "Thank you", she said. "That's a three-year-old load off my chest." She then turned to leave.

"Good-night, you two."

Helena and Dinah bade Barbara their goodnights as they walked out the door. As they left, Barbara once again called out "Lights!" to the room. As the room was thrust into darkness, Barbara pitched herself bodily onto the bed and went back to sleep.

THE END