Sean had been suitably impressed with the brief tour that Chase had proudly led him through. In Sean's opinion, Chase's pride in the organization was not misplaced or undeserved. The small covert organization he had envisioned and created to interface with commercial allies and targets had grown into a true international conglomerate. Its tentacles reached out to many industries and at many levels. It was that scope combined with the ambition and talent embodied by the men and women he'd met so far that had Sean terrified. Yet Chase had hinted at bigger things on the horizon. Sean was convinced that Chase was alluding to the Minerva Project.
Sean walked down the narrow hallway with Chase in the lead and Arnold trailing behind. They were in a restricted section of headquarters and based on the door labels Sean knew they were in the scientific research department.
"Remember, Sean, I gave you the five year brief a month back?" asked Chase.
"Yes, I remember. I was stunned by how much progress had been made," replied Sean. "I have to confess all this is beyond my wildest dreams."
Chase grinned then said, "You set up the master plan. We followed it to the letter."
"I can see that," said Sean.
"Is this what you hoped for us to become?" asked Arnold.
"Let me think. My memory isn't as good as it used to be," said Sean. "At the time, I wanted a group that was effective and versatile enough to take on a variety of projects that the Bureau wasn't interested in or were considered too small to merit further exploration. The team had to be mobile, discreet and effective. A sort of scientific SWAT team I guess."
"But you set up an organization instead. How did that happen? By accident?"
"No, Arnold. Everything I did with the Gem Group was … deliberate and coldly logical. I had a goal and I wanted to see it done. I was a lot more singleminded in those days," said Sean. "I studied organization science before it was considered a science. Every agency I worked with I studied. I picked what worked and what didn't and why they didn't work. I studied the failed and incomplete cases of the Bureau, the DVX, Interpol and the rest of them. I think failures contain more valuable lessons than successes. I created a basic computer model to decipher failure models. The rules I made came from that model. They were meant not to assure complete success because that's impossible but to lessen the chance of failure. The winner of any game is the one who commits the least mistakes. And, lastly, I put the right people in charge like your parents and relations."
"You programmed a model system?" asked Chase. "That's not in your biography."
Sean chuckled. "Not everything I know is in there. I like to keep some things to myself. What good operative doesn't?"
"Very true," said Chase.
"Do you still work on programs, Sean?" asked Arnold. "As a hobby?"
"Spreadsheets are more my thing," said Sean. "Computer languages have gotten much more complex. I'm afraid that what I know is considered, um, ancient and not applicable in modern systems."
Chase paused by a set of double doors at the very end of the hallway. "Here's the project that Arn and I are anxious to get your … your opinions on. It's a special project that you charged my father with personally - the Minerva Project."
Chase slid an access card across the reader affixed on the wall. After a few seconds, the doors slid open revealing a small antechamber with an intersecting hallway at the end.
"The one you resurrected from the dead so to speak?" asked Sean.
Chase led the way through the antechamber and to the hallway. "It was never fully deactivated. I know you ordered my father to shut it down and he did … sort of. All new funding was stopped but there was still some trials going on. It was decided to let the trial continue until all the existing funds allocated to it were depleted."
"Trials? I was aware of only one trial. I was there when the treatment was applied and when the operation failed."
"Those details aren't in the records. What happened?" asked Arnold.
"The failure was … was in the field," said Sean.
"Were you there?"
"No but I felt the consequences," said Sean. "The element we had not included in the original trial was free will. Since human beings are the most stubborn creatures on the planet, it was a bad miscalculation."
"You decided to kill the project based on one failure?"
"Human nature and the human heart won out. You can shape nature but natural impulses are wild cards no one can prepare for. Simple as that."
Chase slid his card through another reader device on the wall by a steel door with frosted glass. The door opened instantly. Sean found himself in a small ward with four beds all occupied. Two seemed to be in extreme agitation. They trembled where they lay and their hands clawed at the empty air. One lay unmoving perhaps asleep. In the farthest bed, a tall woman in a lab coat covered the patient's head with the blanket. The doctor looked up at noticing the men's approach.
"I'm sorry, Chase, Arn, Mr. Donely. We did what we could," said the doctor. Her flame-red hair was set in a tight bun. The bun was the only severe thing about her. Her blue eyes were kind and her facial expression was mobile and reflected her emotions.
"What happened, Nat?" asked Arn.
"Seizures. They came out of the blue," said Dr. Natalie Burson.
Sean shook his head. "How often do you lose someone?"
Arnold answered before Natalie could. "We haven't not for a long time. This is a … a new development." He looked sharply at Chase. "We need to prioritize finding the … the right answers."
"Do you know what the cause is?" asked Sean.
"Yes, we do, unfortunately," said Chase. He looked at Natalie then Arnold. "All right. I'm convinced. We got a lemon. Deal with him … solve the problem once and for all."
"Carte blanche?" asked Arnold.
"Yes."
"Someone did this? Who?" asked Sean.
Chase cleared his throat. "We can discuss that matter a little later. We may need your help." He looked at the doctor. "Nat, please give Sean an overview of the project to date."
Natalie smiled and began to walk away. "I can do one better. I have a treatment session in progress. Follow me, please. Don't worry, Arn. I'm using one vial of the oldest batch we have."
"I thought we'd gone through our inventory," said Arnold.
"My assistant was clearing out the shelves and found one ampule. Chase has this high priority project and I thought to use it for that," said Nat.
Sean's ears burned at all the information he was hearing. They were in bits and pieces but any good analyst could come up with the fuller picture.
The group came to a small conference room. A large window took up nearly one wall as it is revealed the room beyond where a male patient sat in a full-body reclining seat in the middle of the room. The walls of the inner room were bare and painted a stark white. A rack of equipment was positioned by the window enhanced the coldly clinical tone.
"This is our observation room, Mr. Donely," said Natalie.
"Sean, please," said Sean. "We're all friends here. By the way are you related to Francine Burson?"
"My aunt," said Natalie proudly.
"There is a marked resemblance. She was a breathtaking woman in many ways."
Arn said, "Nat takes up after her. Believe me."
Natalie colored and managed to say, "Don't think all this flattery isn't going to my head."
The men laughed.
"Back to business, gentlemen," said Natalie. "The patient's treatment is in hour two. The full treatment lasts six hours. We've changed the treatment from what it was when it was first devised. The session has been elongated to six hours from four to allow for improved information absorption. Instead of the patient being awake, he is now mildly sedated. This allows for complete physical and mental relaxation. He's just above REM sleep now. His mind is not dreaming per se but it is in a highly receptive state."
"Is sitting better than lying down?" asked Sean. In his mind's eye, an image played as if in a loop - a woman laying much like the patient in the other room with her eyes covered by goggles. Her long brunette hair contrasted with the whiteness of the room as she listened to an icy recorded voice intoning key phrases and information again and again.
"The original method had the subject lying down but we found that the subjects were more physically comfortable in a reclined position," said Natalie.
"No black out goggles?"
"The weight of the goggles was a reminder to the patient of their circumstance. It was preventing them from relaxing," said Natalie. "We eliminated the goggles by putting the patient into this medicated trance."
"I don't hear any voice or voices," said Sean as he studied the patient through the window. "How is the … the subject getting their instructions for the mission?"
"Tiny earbud speakers placed near the ears play a combination of vocal instruction and music," said Natalie.
"Music?"
"Soft classical pieces serve best to keep the mind stimulated at a level most conducive to passive learning techniques," said Natalie.
"We didn't try music," said Sean. "How does that help in memorization?"
"The original intent of your project was to help an operative retain and recall as much mission-specific detail and profile information as possible for the duration of the mission. The methods used were rote learning and memory training aided by visual and auditory mechanisms. I believe that at the time the project's setup was adequate. But much depended on the operative's own personality and skills. Pick the wrong operative and the training and information retention won't ever be one hundred percent. Isn't that right?"
"Yes. However, don't sell the human brain and human motivations short. The right agent can do the impossible," said Sean. "Music, sedation and instruction. A simple formula. Why didn't we think of the music?"
"Actually, there are some other ingredients required - a conditioning process and one other drug," said Chase. "The patient must be conditioned a certain way as the very first step. Then just prior to this treatment here, a chemical called Compound X is administered."
"How long does the conditioning process take? What does it involve?" asked Sean.
"We provide the patient to a third party who handles the process," said Chase.
"Why not do it all in-house from start to finish?" asked Sean.
"Understanding the basics of the process is one thing. Replicating it is another. As I understand it, the conditioning process transforms the patient into what is clinically described as an amnesiac," said Natalie. "That level of … manipulation is quite sophisticated. The end result is someone who is figuratively and nearly literally a blank slate ready to be programmed into the agent profile we require. I estimate that it would take us at least one full generation to absorb the knowledge and another generation to reach the same level of mastery."
"And this third party is an expert?"
"They are better at it than we are," said Natalie.
Chase added, "We are continuously working on increasing our expertise overall. Our ultimate goal is to do it all in-house."
"How much of the conditioning process do you know already?" asked Sean.
"My father told me you liked to ask the hard questions first," said Chase.
"I don't like to waste time," came Sean's reply. "Should I be asking how little you know?"
"We have attempted to … to infiltrate our partner's operation with little success," said Chase. "The knowledge is in people's heads and they're spread out. No one person knows it all. What's in their computer records don't describe the nuts and bolts procedures and materials involved."
"Every man or woman has a price. Pay this expert what he wants and get it directly," said Sean.
"I've tried to buy him off and hiring him but he knows the value of what he has. He wields his leverage as he sees fit," said Chase.
"From what I've read, you've had this process for some years now but you know so little. Rather poor return on a project that I know cost us a bundle to start originally," said Sean.
Arnold bristled slightly. "Look, we've taken a failed project and turned it into a raving success. We have operatives planted and hiding in plain sight in over one hundred companies and agencies. That's not a bad tally in my book."
Sean said coolly, "Operational excellence is fine and good. True knowledge is power and control of that knowledge is-"
"… the key to winning the game," said Chase, Arnold and Natalie in unison. It was one of the oft-repeated Donely guidelines.
Sean smiled. "Nice to know you remember some things." He crossed his arms. "It seems to me that you're still missing some vital parts. Would you mind telling me who this expert is?"
"His name is Doctor Peter Sinclair," said Chase. "My father was clued in on his research - the amnesia drug - and thought that it should at least be tried. It was and, based on the results of the first trial, it was decided to take Project Minerva out of mothballs."
"The tip came from who? Where?" asked Sean.
"It was an anonymous tip. Dr. Sinclair later admitted that the note was from him," said Chase. "To assure exclusivity, we paid for a license on the drugs and the process. It's proven to have been a good investment."
"That arrangement would explain why this isn't better known," said Sean. "Were the results of that first test that good?"
"Yes. The test subject passed all the test parameters."
"How long has the subject been in the field?"
"She died in a car accident soon after the test," said Chase. "Unfortunate because Dad had thought to use her in a … a genetic continuation program."
Sean's response was curt. "Breeding program you mean. Using children is not something I put in the guidelines. I was never that drunk. I drew the line at children. Why would Jon think that would be a good idea?"
"The first trial used the most potent and least refined formulations of the amnesia drug and, instead of Compound X, the drug used for profile imprinting was called Compound A," explained Arnold. "Sinclair had suspected that in time the two drugs would in combination affect the subject's genetics. Being female, there was a high likelihood that any offspring would be receptive to the overall treatment. At that time, most of the test subjects had negative long term results."
"Like what?"
"After the treatment, the subjects would exhibit any number of defects such as personality disorders, delusions, hallucinations, escalating madness, suicidal tendencies, random memory loss or a general lack of mental balance and acuity. Walking lobotomies was how Sinclair described it," said Arnold. "But this female subject, code named Eve, had no adverse effects at all. In her, the process worked flawlessly."
Sean turned away as if to watch the sleeping patient but in reality he wanted to disguise his realization that his worst nightmare was coming true. All the pieces were fitting into place far too neatly for his liking - Sean to Anna to Faison to Sinclair to Eve to Robin to Andrew to the friendship that had been to him a path to redemption. Sean mastered his wayward thoughts. With effort, he concentrated on the present. "With … with the subject dead, why go on?"
"Why not? How many light bulb designs did Edison try?" asked Natalie. "The research and the trial were too promising to be ignored."
Chase added, "Dad had thought to try the process on Eve's relatives but she was an orphan with no siblings."
A single word flashed non-stop in Sean's head like neon lights on the Las Vegas strip - 'EMMA'. She had the potential to be a natural chameleon, and if trained by an accomplished operative like Anna, Emma could be the best of all of them. Once again, Sean turned this thoughts to the present. He turned back to look at the others. "The amnesia drug is still in use today? What about Compound A?"
"Compound A was too unpredictable for practical use. It proved its point though. One early subject I read about was imprinted to believe he was Kafka's cockroach. He lived and died believing that. The base formula has gone through a series of refinements. The latest variant is Compound X. It's extremely stable but it's not as permanent as Compound A," said Natalie.
"How temporary is temporary?" asked Sean.
"We give the field operatives a booster shot twice a year. They were able to retain the imprinted persona's traits and knowledge with relative ease." Natalie looked at Arnold and Chase. "I've noticed that the ones we've deployed in the last three months have needed boosters earlier than expected."
"Could they be developing an immunity to it?"
"To be honest it's because we're having issues with supply," said Arnold. "Sinclair supplies us with Compound X. We've been reverse engineering them for some time."
"Have you managed to make it yourself?"
"Yes and no. We know nothing about Compound A's first version. We know the general composition of Compound X. However, there are some chemical components that we've never seen before. Components created by Sinclair. There's no prying the recipe of those from him. We've tried," said Arnold.
"No poker player's going to reveal his best hand," noted Sean.
"I'm confident that with more study and research we can eventually re-create those same components," said Arnold. He glanced at Chase. "But it's not instant or quick."
"It would help if we had a computer system with the brute force and deep brains for analytical work," said Chase. "A supercomputer of our own."
"With all your business contacts, surely one of them can build you one," said Sean.
"One would think that. We're working on a solution," said Chase.
"What about the amnesia drug? Do you have that?" asked Sean.
"That is very problematic," said Natalie.
"Why?"
"Because the conditioning process is the process itself, the amnesia drug and other minor drugs used that are customized to the patient," said Natalie.
"Customized?"
"There is no set in stone formula for the amnesia drug that is applicable for all subjects," said Natalie. "In conventional medicine, dosage is a matter of the patient's physical status, medical history and medical condition. The amnesia drug is tailored for every subject and the mission's requirements. It must be so because each situation is unique. Having the formula, which we have, isn't enough."
"What criteria is used?"
"The physical attributes play a part but the subject is also put through a series of cognitive tests. The results of the test plus the mission requirements are used to determine the amnesia drug's final recipe and dosage for that specific patient," said Natalie. "We have not discovered the analytic algorithm that takes these test results and outputs the adjusted formula."
"Based on past conversations with Sinclair, I don't think there is such a program or system. Otherwise we would have found it by now," said Arnold. "I think he does it himself or someone he trusts looks at the results and decides. They don't process many subjects at one time. One person can do the analysis."
"It would have to be someone who has worked with the drugs and the process and knows them thoroughly," said Natalie.
Chase nodded. "Someone on Sinclair's payroll and inner circle I should think."
"The man has no friends, Chase. I think he has a triangle not a circle." Arnold counted on his fingers. "There's him, the late Elena Cosgrove and our mystery person. It has to be a really small group to have kept things secret for so long."
Another name sashayed across Sean's mind - Robin. He was convinced she was the mystery person. It had to be the reason that Sinclair kept her for years. Sean took a deep breath and said, "Elena Cosgrove of the Heritage Foundation?"
"That's the one," said Chase. "Which leads us to our next topic, Sean."
"What's that?" asked Sean.
"The Scorpios - Anna, Robert and their team. We strongly suspect that they were behind the downfall, no pun intended, of the Foundation.
"Robert faced off against Elena decades ago. I was there. A rematch was inevitable I suppose."
"We have firm proof that they retrieved their daughter Robin Scorpio from a bad situation," said Chase. "A situation that you know about."
Sean saw no need to deny this statement. His face was composed into neutrality but his mind clicked into a fast pace. He had practiced various responses to this line of questioning. He had to be believable and not give too much away. "From Vladivostok. How she got there is a mystery."
"How did they find her?" asked Arnold.
"I have no idea."
"None at all?"
"After the explosion on the tanker, our lives diverged. We're not strangers but we're not as close as we once were. Robin's my goddaughter but she was in Port Charles then away at school while my family and I were in Boston," explained Sean. He did not miss the sharp glance that Chase threw at Arnold. Was there tension between the two men?
Arnold pressed another question on Sean. "You didn't keep in touch?"
"Robin and my wife did as women do. Most young adults don't communicate regularly. They're too busy living their own lives," said Sean. "As for Anna and Robert, well, we all thought they were dead. I've never been a believer in seances and psychics."
"You moved back to Port Charles didn't you?"
"It was a good choice. We're joint investors in a new commercial real estate development - the Megaplex shopping complex and some urban renewal projects. Plus, I still have Donely Shipping to be concerned about. The city has been good to me. Coming back was a no brainer. Why the twenty questions?"
"Because we want to clear the air, Sean. You see we crossed paths with them in Vladivostok," said Chase. "Peter Sinclair had their daughter and … and we tried to get her back for him."
"Since they got Robin back, you didn't come out well did you?"
"One full tactical squad was taken out," said Arnold.
"That's not their way," argued Sean.
Chase shot a quelling look at Arnold. "It was another party not the Scorpios. We have NOTHING against them."
"Who took your squad?"
"Sinclair's associates we believe," said Chase. "He's in hiding for the moment. We are handling the matter."
"Wait a minute. He's your supplier. You can't take him out."
"Not yet, no, but like I said we're working on a solution." Chase walked towards the door. "Natalie, thank you for your time. We'll see you later. Sean, let's go discuss strategy and Scorpios."
"Strange combination," said Sean.
Arnold blurted out, "What do you know about the Scarecrow?"
"What?" asked Sean.
"I thought everyone in your generation knew about him."
Sean recovered quickly. "Oh, him. Yeah, we do. The last one disappeared. Must be dead by now."
"There's a new Scarecrow in the world and he's made it known that Robin Scorpio is under his protection."
Sean was surprised. "Now THAT'S interesting news."
"For various reasons, Sean, we want to count the Scorpios as allies. How about some quid pro quo?" asked Chase.
"I'm always open to talk business," said Sean.
The three men left the conference room. As they passed through the ward, Sean noticed that another patient had died. His heart and spirits sank lower. His throat turned dry. His dug his hands into his pockets to hide their trembling.
He had faced death before. He had even dealt it out himself. How could it be that he felt an immeasurable fear of it now?