Episode 14: In the Wink of an Eye
Part 5
As usual, K leaned his elbows on his desk with his fingers laced, waiting for the fateful call from Red that would shed light on the bizarre happenings at HimTak. While Grasshopper relaxed in the chair in front of K’s desk, Nick paced the room, poking at any random thing in K’s office.
A twist of the desk lamp revealed hidden compartments that released dangling grooming tools. A comb, nail clippers, tweezers, a razor, and… was that an eyebrow trimmer? Nick’s eye twitched involuntarily. A spin of the globe beside K’s desk revealed meticulously stored hidden weapons, including several sleek daggers and Berettas; very K. They complimented the framed antique Nambu pistol hanging behind his desk. Surprisingly, the last two compartments featured food instead of weapons: bags of Fritos and a large pile of Reese’s peanut butter cups.
“Is this really candy, or are they small explosives?” Nick asked as he picked one up, tossed it in the air, and caught it.
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing is all too trusting of the sheep.” Grasshopper chuckled.
K cleared his throat. “It’s really candy. Please refrain from ransacking my office.”
Nick unwrapped the candy, popped it in his mouth, then continued pacing around the room. As he ran his hand along the picture frames on the wall, they swung, then settled just slightly askew, revealing a tiny laser embedded in the wall behind each one. When they appeared, the lasers fired, narrowly missing Nick as he walked but singing the wall directly opposite them. Nick flinched when he reached the edge of the wall, finally noticing the menacing lasers behind him. With a laugh, he placed his hand behind his head and slowly walked back, flicking each picture frame back into place as he did. “Oops.”
K leaned against his laced fingers. “008–”
Despite K’s protests, Nick continued pacing the office. Another interesting item on K’s desk sat directly beside the nameplate. Nick picked up the marble horse head paperweight and turned it over to find a small button on the bottom. After Nick pressed it, a familiar voice echoed across the room.
“Is this really candy, or are they small explosives?” it asked.
Nick turned to K with a grin as he pressed the button on the bottom of the horse, silencing the voice. “You’ve been spying on us? What’d you bribe Pearly with for this?”
“Bribery is unnecessary.”
“What else is in here?” Nick set the horse head down, then shrugged and reached for the ceiling fan’s string. “Are knives going to pop out of here?”
“008, I insist–” Though K reached out his hand, the ringing phone interrupted him.
Nick clenched his fist and flopped into the chair beside Grasshopper, pulled from his distracting antics by concern for his friends. Still, he wrinkled his forehead and nose at K’s brief exhale before answering the phone. Was that… relief? What the hell does the ceiling fan do? he thought to himself.
“This is K,” he answered, pressing the speaker button on the phone.
“Tox screen was clear,” Red responded with a twinge of shakiness in her voice.
“So they’re not drugged?” Nick leaned forward, palms pressed against the arms of the chair.
“No. Well, Archie’s blood contained trace amounts of a combination of drugs, so he–”
“Red,” K interrupted. “Has your evaluation given you other concerns that would justify an underlying medical cause?”
“You saw them; something’s not right, but… as far as I can tell, it’s not something medicine can cure… It could be an extreme reaction to the lockdown…”
“Too extreme in a matter of weeks.” K laced his fingers. “Thank you; we’ll be in touch.” He hung up the phone, ending the call.
“A tiger in captivity retains its stripes but loses its roar.” Grasshopper crossed his arms and frowned.
Nick groaned. “Okay, so Red says there’s not much we can do medicine-wise. Who else do we have left to help? Clearly, Di, Jay, and Pearl are out. No way I’m asking Lancy for help. Emerald and 007 are on a mission…” Nick slumped and held his head in his hand. “I can’t believe I’m saying this… Have you called Vitruvian?”
“I made an attempt, but he did not answer,” K answered.
“He was late today, too.” Nick ran his hand down his face. “That’s really shady. I’ll investigate him, and you–”
“008, our first order of business is finding out how many of our employees have been affected, then seeing if there is a common thread. You said yourself that 009 is behaving unusually; perhaps he is also affected.”
“Or this is another plot by the mole, and it’s him!” Nick jumped to his feet and slammed his hands on K’s desk, knocking his chair to the ground behind him. “Don’t you think it’s even a little weird that all this stuff with FANS started happening right before he got promoted?!”
While K remained silent, Grasshopper stood and placed his hand on Nick’s shoulder. Nick flinched back in response.
“Armies crumble with defection.” When Nick turned to look at him, Grasshopper placed his other hand on Nick’s other shoulder. “Doubt is a dangerous toxin, one you know all too well… Kaos.”
Nick snarled but deflated beneath Grasshopper’s touch. “But there’s a mole and…”
“Internal rivalry is like the ouroboros eating its own tail; there is only one end.”
“Fine.” Nick stared at the ground, balling his hands into fists. “Should we stay together or fan out?”
“Fan out,” K answered.
***
Nick raced through the halls of Himitsu Takana, scrutinizing any suspicious activity he noticed. Chris clawed at Diamond’s closed dormitory door. Nick shrugged; wouldn’t be her first secretary that did that. Billie cackled and shot at Serena, who was naked for some reason. Nick stared at the two women, completely dumbfounded for a moment, then pried the gun from Billie’s hands and locked Serena in Grasshopper’s office. He chuckled to himself as he set the safety and placed the gun in his cargo pocket. The confusing lecture from Grasshopper would be hilarious.
When he passed Vitruvian’s office, he paused. One peek behind the closed door wouldn’t hurt. As Nick stalked toward the door, Kate rushed to it and gripped the door handle like a vice.
“I’ll never let go! I’ll never let go!” she shouted.
Nick froze. What the hell is going on? he thought to himself, then turned the other direction.
While all this behavior was weird, there didn’t seem to be any common thread. It affected everyone from 00-agents down to secretaries. Red was sure it wasn’t something toxic, so what the hell could it be? As Nick pondered possible causes, he passed the training hall.
“STOP!” Grasshopper’s bellow shot from the room, an odd and alarming occurrence.
Nick sprinted through the door, eyes wide in horror at the sight. “Fucking shitballs.”
Several lower-rank agents lay on the floor, clutching body parts that seeped blood. Stained weapons scattered across the training mats, remnants of battle. Phones also randomly dotted the ground. In the center of the chaos, Grasshopper held two young agents by the collars of their shirts as they tried to slice each other with swords. Though Nick wasn’t quite sure exactly what an ouroboros was, obviously, Grasshopper had meant something like this would happen.
Springing into action, Nick grabbed two things from the wall beside the door: an automated external defibrillator, also known as an AED, and a cordless phone. He quickly dialed an extension on the phone as he ran toward Grasshopper.
“Training room,” he said, then hung up. After shoving the phone in his pocket, he peeled the stickers from the AED pads, then quickly stuck one to a bare patch of skin on one of the agents. After securing the pad, he kicked the agent, sending them flying to the ground and flinging the weapon across the room. “Move!” he shouted at Grasshopper as he repeated the action with the second agent.
Grasshopper nimbly jumped away from the two agents as Nick turned on the AED and slammed his hand on the shock button, knocking the two agents out. Grasshopper bowed and picked up one of the cellphones from the ground with a frown.
As Nick stared at the carnage around him, he pulled the cordless phone from his pocket again and dialed another extension. “Hey, Red. Are you and Archie doing well enough to create a mobile hospital? Shit hit the fan. Training room, now.” Nick hung up before she could answer, then pocketed the phone again as he turned off the AED and stormed toward Grasshopper.
Perplexed by the cellphone, Grasshopper remained silent.
“I know you hate technology, old man, but you have to call someone when shit like this happens!” Nick shouted, forming a fist. “You could have gotten yourself killed! Call for backup!”
Nick reared back to punch Grasshopper with his full might, but Grasshopper cupped Nick’s fist before it made contact, immobilizing the force of the blow. When Nick yanked his hand back to free it, Grasshopper tightened his hold on Nick’s fist.
“Grass–”
“Do you recognize this?” Grasshopper held the cellphone out to Nick, showing the immediately recognizable purple tones on the screen.
“That’s just that damn Wink app everyone’s obsessed with!” Nick shouted, pushing the phone away and rearing back with his other fist.
Without hesitating, Grasshopper dropped the phone and cupped Nick’s other fist in his palm.
“Let me go!” Nick snarled, planting his foot back to kick.
“008! 004!” K’s familiar shout echoed across the training hall. “What the hell happened here?!”
In the same moment, Grasshopper swept his leg across Nick’s knees, knocking him to the ground. When Nick struggled to get up, Grasshopper stepped on his chest, pinning him against the mat.
“Let him up,” K commanded as he reached the two agents. “And explain.”
When Grasshopper removed his foot, Nick coughed and pushed himself off the mat. “See? When you actually call people, they come help.”
“008!” K snapped again.
Grasshopper pulled the phone from the ground again and handed it to K. “Do you recognize this?”
K frowned as he stared at the phone, then Grasshopper dropped another phone in his hands. When Nick stood, Grasshopper handed him a second phone as well, then proceeded to pull a fourth phone from the ground.
Nick held his head in his hand as he stared at the screen with the feed of videos and sparkly purple menu tones. “I told you, it’s just that damn Wink app.”
“On all of them?” Grasshopper asked, placing the new phone in Nick’s hands.
Nick and K shared a quick glance, then whirled back toward the chaotic training room. Every phone on the ground with a visible screen had the same purple feed pulled up.
“It’s pretty popular.” Nick shrugged. “I can’t find my phone, but I’ve been hoping to download it since Di showed it to me this morning. Lancy showed it to me too…” Nick trailed off, not wanting to admit that he spent an hour doing a weird dance with Lancy that morning.
K stroked his chin as he clenched his hand around the cellphone. “Pearl mentioned it this morning, too. And I caught Jay recording a live video for it this evening.”
“It’s just an app.” Nick frowned. “You heard Red; maybe everyone’s just acting weird because of the lockdown…”
After scanning the room of bloodied agents, K crossed his arms and stared at Nick, who flinched back at the stern look.
“Twice is a coincidence. A multitude is a clue.” Grasshopper nodded. Though he probably meant it to be sage, Nick couldn’t help but feel it was a little smug, too.
K set the cellphones back on the mat, then pulled out his own phone and walked toward the door. He spoke in hushed tones, intermittently glancing back at Nick and Grasshopper as he hung up the call and began another. After ending the second call, he placed the phone back in his pocket, then strolled back toward them. “I will stay here to assist Red; she said she’s on her way. Both of you go to Pearl’s laboratory. I’m adding a fourth employee to this mission.”
“Finally got a hold of Vitruvian?” Nick frowned, still bristling from Grasshopper’s smug mannerisms and quick reflexes.
“I promise this new addition will be an asset.”
“Fine. Let’s go, old man.” Nick huffed as he stomped toward the exit, then turned over his shoulder. “You’d better call us if something happens!”
Though K remained silent, the hint of a smirk crossed his lips as he stared at Nick and Grasshopper.
Nick snarled as he turned back toward the door. The whole thing was ridiculous! What could an app possibly do to make everyone crazy?
***
Pushing aside the heavy door, Nick barged into Pearl’s lab and strode toward the chairs pushed against the desk beside the monitors that played various scenes across HimTak HQ. Nick spun one of the chairs forcefully, revealing its inhabitant. The lanky boy with a mop of curly dark hair waved at Nick, then adjusted the sleeves of his button-down shirt. “Hey.”
“Who the hell are you?” Nick frowned, slightly startled to find someone other than Vitruvian waiting for them.
“Seth Cooper. Is Ms. Professor Pearl with you?” He looked around the laboratory expectantly. “Mr. K said I would finally get to meet her today.”
“She’s indisposed at the moment.” Nick groaned. “K said you’re supposed to help us.” He gestured to Grasshopper, who stood behind him.
Seth sprung from the chair and raised a fist toward Grasshopper. “How’s it goin’, Grasshopper? Long time no see!” He grinned.
Grasshopper gently tapped his knuckles against Seth’s. “The sun makes even the mountain shine brightly.”
Once again, Nick’s eye twitched involuntarily.
Seth laughed. “Everything you say is mesmerizing. Speaking of mesmerizing, K said you’re having trouble with a distracting app?”
“What the hell kind of segue is that?!” Nick shouted incredulously.
“You must be that 008 I heard so much about. It’s great to finally meet you.” Seth grinned as he sat down in the chair and twirled it back to the monitors. “When he and Mr. Jay brought me here, they took away my phone and haven’t given it back yet, so I haven’t seen it. Does one of you have it on your phone?”
“I can’t find mine, and he’s antiquated,” Nick grumbled, crossing his arms. Who did this kid think he was? Suddenly, a smirk ticked on Nick’s lips; he couldn’t wait for Pearl to chew him up and spit him out like she always did with her assistants.
Seth began typing on the keyboard. “We can start with what I’ve found out so far. I heard Doctor Red Jewel say that even though it wasn’t a toxin, something made everyone lose their filters. So they’re doing things that would be unusual for them but not uncharacteristic.” Various feeds of old security footage popped up on the large screen. “Some interesting things sure have been happening today!”
Nick held his hand tightly on Seth’s shoulder, praying it was enough to stop him from pulling up any embarrassing footage of Nick’s earlier encounters that day. “Yeah, we know all that. Do you have anything that’s actually useful?”
“Don’t worry!” Seth held up a finger, then placed a small, plastic toy moose on the desk beside him. “Major Muffin and I have been on the case!”
For a moment, Nick felt the telltale twitch of his eye creep up on him as he stared at the ridiculous toy, then he froze and glanced at Grasshopper.
“The mouth of a river constantly replenishes the ocean.” Grasshopper nodded again.
Instead of getting angrier, Nick sputtered out a laugh. “You have a toy moose named Major Muffin?” As he laughed harder, he pounded the desk with his fist. Who is this kid? he thought. K and Jay usually got it right. If Pearl could get past being annoyed, they’d probably actually get along; he was her brand of nerdy.
Seth leaned on the desk. “It’s so much more fun being out of vetting lockdown. Everyone here is fascinating. I wish I’d hacked into your system sooner.”
Nick frowned as he pulled out the chair from beside Seth. “It’s not all fun and games here. Sometimes it’s the difference between life and death.” He picked up the toy moose and fiddled with it. “Pearl wasn’t happy about what you did last year. You should apologize.”
Seth glanced up at the various feeds on the screen as Grasshopper wheeled over in a third chair.
“The most powerful sword and shield man wields are his words.”
After patting Seth’s shoulder, Nick set the moose back on the desk. “You’re always all talk, Grasshopper.” He smirked. “Time for some action.”
Grasshopper smirked back. “Puppies are too eager to show off what they’ve learned in the face of a disciplined dog.”
“Oh yeah, your fight was awesome!” Seth exclaimed, “Especially when you stopped 008 with just your palm! And then–”
“We were there; we know what happened.” Nick gritted his teeth and sighed. “What did you find out about the app? Also, if you’re going for code names, just call me 00Carter…”
“I thought your code name was–”
“Or ‘Nick’ is fine.” Nick leaned on the desk, fiddling with Major Muffin again.
Seth cracked his knuckles and started typing again. “So I haven’t been able to trace the app back to its creator yet because I don’t have my phone, but I’ve been doing some research. Since Doctor Red Jewel is so certain it’s not a drug, I’ve been looking into other things that could cause people to behave strangely.” He pulled up a minimized tab. “Have you considered hypnosis?”
The video on the screen depicted a swinging watch with a spinning black and white spiral behind it. As Nick stared at it, he thought back to his earlier interaction with Diamond in the car and how normal she’d seemed once they started talking. Was there a codeword in the app he’d said without knowing it? Had he said something similar to Lancy?
Nick furrowed his brow. “That seems too complicated… Wouldn’t they notice something like that in a video?”
“It could be conditional brainwashing, where a certain trigger word turns you into a puppet.” Seth pulled up a clip from The Manchurian Candidate, then a clip from Zoolander. “I don’t know how well this really works, but I bet you could convince someone to believe whatever was true with enough effort.” He shrugged.
“Seems pretty specific for this many people, don’t you think?” Nick frowned. Lancy might fall for that, but Pearl, Diamond, and Jay would recognize it from a mile away.
“Films are deceptive,” Grasshopper muttered.
“Most of the things about mind control on the internet are from movies. No one’s really bragging about how they mind control people…” Seth frowned and pulled up a clip from Children of the Corn. “I guess unless you’re talking about cults… Did you hear about Heaven’s Gate?”
“A cult, really?” Nick raised his eyebrow. “Do you have anything more serious? Go back to talking about hypnosis.”
“These are not the film references you’re looking for.” Seth waved his hand in front of Nick’s face.
Nick shook his head with a glower.
“They train you well here. You’re obviously too strong for a Jedi mind trick.” Seth shrugged with a laugh as he closed some of the tabs. “What about Demonic possession?” Seth pulled up a clip from The Exorcist.
“How can a video cause demonic possession?” Nick crossed his arms, grumbling. Although at this point, demons would be just as likely as aliens.
“Cursed videos?” Seth asked as he popped up another window with a clip from The Ring.
“Stop showing us movie clips and give a serious suggestion,” Nick snarled.
“I’m guessing you don’t think you can manipulate people in their dreams either.” Seth sighed dejectedly as he closed a tab playing a clip from Nightmare on Elm Street.
“Nope,” Nick spat.
Seth continued closing tabs on the screen. “I guess the only other thing I can think of is subliminal messaging.”
“A suggestion is a powerful tool.” Grasshopper frowned as he crossed his arms.
“That’s in a lot of movies. Is it even real?” Nick frowned.
“Well, a lot of advertising companies think so. They definitely try to flash visual or auditory stimuli so quickly that your brain doesn’t process that it happened, hoping that it will make you buy their products.” As Seth spoke, he typed on the keyboard quickly. “And angry parents have theorized for years that musicians put subliminal messaging on their albums.” He laughed. “Did you ever see that episode of The Simpsons where Bart joins a boyband?”
“No…” Nick frowned. “Why did everyone feel like they had to make up a boyband in the 90’s?”
“Sex sells?” Seth laughed again as he pulled up a video from the episode. “I think boybands are one big mixed bag of subliminal and superliminal messaging about sex anyway. Have you heard some of their ridiculous songs? What else could ‘get down and move it all around’ mean?”
Nick simply shrugged but remained silent.
“Haven’t heard that one?” Seth chuckled, finally pressing play on the video. “So in this episode, Bart is recruited to join a boyband, and all their songs are pretty obvious metaphors about the military and war. It turns out that the songs are also filled with subliminal messaging about joining the military… or the navy in this case.”
“And you wasted our time showing us other ridiculous videos when this would be the easiest to do on an app?” Nick slammed his fist on the desk.
“K said you deal with some really bizarre stuff here. I thought it would be better than talking about mundane suggestions.” Seth sighed. “There’s not a lot more I can do without seeing the app, though… I’m guessing everyone here didn’t decide to put subliminal messaging into their videos…”
Grasshopper pulled a phone from his pocket and handed it to Seth. “Would this help?”
“Finally! I’ve been dying to see this.” Seth scrolled through the feed. “Anything look interesting that you want to watch while I figure out if it’s a coding thing? Hey, she’s cute!” Seth flashed the phone at Grasshopper, then at Nick.
A breath caught in Nick’s throat as he stared at Diamond’s seductive smirk staring back at him.
“Oh, you know her?” Seth plugged the phone into the computer, then continued typing. “006, Ms. Diamond Divine. Well, that will make it easier if it’s someone you know. You can tell me if she does anything strange during the video that looks like she’s adding subliminal messaging.”
After a few keyboard shortcut presses, the video appeared on the large monitor in front of them. Seth extracted the code and began typing away as the video played. Nick frowned as he stared at the familiar lavender dress and listened to the familiar song that had distracted him that morning. The last familiar thing she’d done… at least until he made her focus on something other than her phone.
“Wowee, she’s really popular! Thousands of likes on something she posted this morning!” Seth exclaimed as he continued typing.
Rather than continuing to stare at the screen as Seth switched between videos on the app, Nick fiddled with his anchor necklace. What kind of subliminal messaging could be in that app that made everyone crazy? Lancy and Pearl had seemed normal earlier that day too, but then… He clenched his eyes shut. He was used to Lancy or Diamond’s flirting, but not Pearl’s. And if it wasn’t real, and she was just brainwashed and crazy… he wouldn’t forgive himself.
“Eureka! Eu-freakin’-reka!” Nick nearly jumped two feet in the air as Seth’s exclamation ripped him from his thoughts.
Nick stared up at the paused video of Jay in a lavender boa and matching fedora. After blinking repeatedly, Nick frowned. “Eureka, you found Jay crossdressing?” Not the first time he’d done it.
“Eureka…” Seth raised his hand with a flourish and pressed the enter button on the keyboard. “I found our subliminal signals. Good job, Major Muffin!” He high-fived the moose’s antler with his fingertip.
Nick and Grasshopper leaned toward the screen, filled with strange angular symbols. They stared at each other, then at Seth.
“What the hell am I looking at?” Nick frowned.
“You don’t recognize it?” Seth frowned too. “Maybe this secret agency is more mundane than I thought. What about this?” He pressed a button on the audio file he had pulled up beneath the symbols, and a strange high-pitched whine filled the laboratory.
Nick pushed back his chair, but before he could stand, Grasshopper pulled him into a headlock. At the same time, Seth began furiously typing on the keyboard.
“I’m going to blackmail George Lucas for Star Wars spoilers! No! George R. R. Martin for A Song of Ice and Fire spoilers! No! Stephen Spielberg for production rights on his next movie!”
Nick gagged as he tried to pull away from Grasshopper, but his struggling only tightened Grasshopper’s grip. His vision and hearing went out in intermittent flashes, blurring the symbols on the screen and the sound in his ears. And despite almost losing consciousness, those brief blurring flashes provided windows of lucidity. I… have… to… stop… this… sound… Nick thought as he swiped at Seth’s hands, trying to force him to pause the sound. Thankfully, the ear-splitting screech paused, replaced only by silence as the three men stared at the screen.
Seth hurriedly closed the window with the angular symbols. “Woah! Looks like prolonged exposure to that stuff makes you do some crazy things. You okay, Major Muffin?”
Grasshopper finally released his hold on Nick and furrowed his brow. “It appears our enemy has traipsed around the playground of our minds.”
“Yeah, now I know you secretly want to kill me!” Nick coughed as he rubbed his throat. “So, that’s what’s in all those videos? How?”
“It was just a headlock,” Seth shrugged. “You’d probably wake up in a few hours, so ‘temporarily subdue’ seems more likely. Everyone must think you’re really annoying!”
“Watch it, or you’re next.” Nick winced and rubbed his throat again. He thought back to Diamond, Lancy, and Pearl, then glanced at the ground. “That’s a thing, right? Terrible thoughts that pop into your head, but you don’t mean them?”
“Intrusive thoughts? Yeah, they’re pretty normal.” Seth continued typing. “The difference is most people don’t regularly act on them.”
“Even sharp tools become blunt with overuse.” Grasshopper crossed his arms as he stared at the screen.
“Yeah, something like that.” Seth laughed. “That image and sound over and over again are probably making the processing system in the brain work overtime, like it’s overheating, so it wears down the part of your brain that says you shouldn’t do something.”
“I forgive you, Grasshopper,” Nick whispered. “We all think things we never plan on doing. So just… tell me if I’m annoying you instead.” When Grasshopper nodded, Nick continued. “So, how do we stop this, then?”
Seth ran his hand along his chin. “Well, if we stopped when they went away, that would likely happen to everyone else, too, but it could take a long time… The faster way is probably if we do some subliminal messaging of our own. It looks like the encryption with the image and sound isn’t added until after the videos are posted, since it’s in every single video. So we just have to make our own video with new messaging.” He tapped his chin. “We should probably make our own app, too, because if we uploaded it to this app, it could mask it. Or this could be a really interesting way to see what subliminal messaging is stronger!” Seth started rambling as he continued typing.
“We are cheetahs in a tipped sandstorm that could shatter.”
Nick clenched his hand. “Grasshopper’s right; we don’t have a lot of time. What’s faster?”
“Just making the video should be fast enough, but they’re probably more likely to watch it if it’s on this platform they’re already familiar with… unless we just shoved a phone in their faces and played it. What’s something they’re likely to watch without us showing it to them?”
Nick stood and smacked his hand against his face with a groan. “I know the perfect thing, but we can never, ever talk about this ever again.”
“The mouth of a river runs but never speaks.”
“Sure. Major Muffin and I won’t say anything!”
Nick groaned. “Okay, there’s this dance challenge that everyone on there loves called the ‘100’ dance challenge. Lancy said a bunch of people are uploading videos of it. If I post one, they’ll probably watch it.” Nick pulled up the stolen phone and scrolled through it. “It looks like this person is friends with Pearl. Diamond said you can send private videos to people you’re friends with.”
Grasshopper smirked. “The wise sage is planning personalized training.”
“Something like that.” Nick nodded. “And I bet Pearl’s friends with Diamond, Lancy, and Jay. If we send a video to Pearl and snap her out of it, she can send one to the other three. We can record the same video now and then record separate subliminals for the four of them. Once Pearl’s back to normal, she should be able to do this on a bigger scale with you. Then both of you can trace the app back to its creator.”
“Sounds like the perfect first mission for Professor Pearl, Assistant Seth Cooper, and Secretary Major Muffin!” Seth cracked his knuckles and grinned. “What should the subliminal messaging be? Pictures of things around here they’re familiar with?”
“Yeah, that’s good!” Nick exclaimed. “And then the audio is… the thing they most need to hear? I don’t know what that is, though…”
“The strongest affirmation is that one is their own compass,” Grasshopper said with the whisper of a smile on his lips.
After staring at Grasshopper for a few moments, Nick crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, then snapped his fingers. “Yup! I’ve got it!”
“Okay, so what’s the song for this dance?” Seth pulled up YouTube again.
Nick groaned. He’d momentarily forgotten that he had agreed to film that stupid dance when he’d gotten caught up in the excitement of having his friends back to normal. After leaning over the keyboard, he painstakingly typed “100” into the search bar, certain it would pop up right away. The first video that appeared was of a Latin man who looked like he wanted to be the next Ricky Martin.
“That one.” Nick pointed at the screen.
Seth clicked on it, and the familiar song started playing.
“One hundred kisses, girl, straight to your heart…”
“Oh! That’s catchy!” Seth grinned.
Nick groaned again and backed up from the screen. “Let’s get this over with… Count down before you start it.”
When Seth pressed play and started recording, Nick breezed through the motions Lancy had taught him that morning. Hopefully, something this ridiculous would work.
***
Nick raced down the hall from Pearl’s lab to Red’s infirmary. While being near her before she watched it could be dangerous, he wanted to be close enough to know that it had worked. Plus, whoever owned this phone knew Pearl well enough to be friends on the app but didn’t have her phone number; she’d be suspicious of a random person telling her to go to her lab. Nick ran his hand down his face. Since she liked jumping to worst-case scenarios, she’d probably assume it was the mole and accidentally shoot Seth before she got to meet him. That wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, even without the random texts.
As Nick neared the infirmary, he slowed until he crept down the hall. Of course, he wanted his friends back… but what if it didn’t work? Maybe Seth focused on movies too much and got absorbed in cinematic world-saving fantasies. And not the fun ones with fast cars, fancy weapons, beautiful women, and suave suits. Nick groaned, praying that K and Jay had made the right decision bringing Seth on.
Just three doors left until the infirmary. Nick stared at the open phone in his hand, already loaded with the video in the messaging box. After a deep exhale, he shuffled against the wall, counting down to himself as his thumb lingered over the send button. One, he counted as he reached the first door. Two. He slid past the second door. Three. As he pressed send, he lingered at the door to the infirmary.
“A new video!” Nick heard Pearl’s voice shout from inside.
“I knew you were hiding that,” Red grumbled in response. “Hand it over. K said no phones until you’re all cured.”
For a moment, there was only silence. Nick fought the urge to peek in on the struggle he assumed the two of them were having over the phone. Unsurprisingly, Pearl must have won, as seconds later, “100” blared from inside the infirmary, followed by Pearl’s giggle and Red’s laughter.
“Okay, seriously, which one of you taught him this?” Pearl continued laughing. “Blondie is a dead-ringer for a boybander!”
Blondie… Nick gasped. Blondie! That was definitely Pearl. Regular Pearl! He jumped around the corner. “Pearl!”
“Nicky!!!” Lancy responded before she could, blowing Nick a kiss before tugging on his restraints.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Diamond cooed.
“Nick, you’re just in time for me to explain the benefits of nail polish!” Jay exclaimed.
“Uhh…” Nick stammered.
After closing the video, Pearl frowned, tugging on her shirt sleeve. “Can you let me up, Red?”
Red glanced between Nick and Pearl, then slowly rose from the bed. The expression on her face indicated that she carefully assessed Pearl’s vital signs. For a moment, she pressed her lips together instead of answering.
Despite her silence, Nick pushed toward the bed. Pearl simply held her phone toward Nick. “Pearl… The app–” Nick started.
“What’s wrong with the app?” Pearl asked.
Nick and Red gaped at each other. This was definitely Pearl, back in her sound mind.
“It’s the app?” Red asked as she unhooked Pearl.
“Thanks.” Pearl hopped from the bed.
“There’s some sort of subliminal messaging in it that’s causing strange behavior.” Nick frowned and handed Pearl back the phone. “We looked at it, and it had weird angular symbols and a strange high-pitched sound.”
“What.” Pearl snatched her phone from Nick’s hand. “Why didn’t you say that first?! Shit!” She pushed past Nick, heading straight for the door.
Nick blinked. “Why didn’t I… Wait!” He grabbed Pearl’s arm. “Diamond, Jay, and Lancy… There’s videos I sent you; you need to send them to them. In that order…”
“Nick! We have to hurry!”
“Pearl.” The look he gave her was a mix of his heart-melting smile and puppy dog eyes.
She groaned but quickly sent the three videos. One by one, the other three began laughing at the jubilant video of Nick dancing and singing along to the viral sensation.
“I taught him that!” Lancy tittered.
“You did a good job!” Diamond replied.
Jay simply laughed in response.
“You’re right; we should go.” Nick pushed Pearl toward the door.
“Lancy, huh?” Pearl grinned over her shoulder.
“Haha,” Nick replied sarcastically. “You’re acting like that’s the weirdest thing that’s happened today.”
“You singing and dancing? That’s a Tuesday, Blondie.” Pearl grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall.
Normally, it wasn’t his favorite nickname, but it meant that Pearl was back. All of them were back. And now, they were on their way to the lab so Pearl and Seth could help bring back everyone at HimTak. For a moment, he considered warning her about Seth, but decided it would be a fun surprise instead. As he grinned, he thought back to what he’d decided to put as the subliminal audio for Pearl.
“You are Kitana Pierson, Professor Pearl at Himitsu Takana. We’re friends, and you’ve got this. You are in control of your mind, and it’s stronger than alien technology.”
Grasshopper had been right, though Nick would never admit it. The strongest affirmation for anyone is a reminder of who they are from someone who really cares about them.
***