Captain Brian Armstrong was an important asset to the Marine Corps during key campaigns that were undertaken for the restoration of democracy in South America, especially in missions that took place in Venezuela.

The company that he commanded, which was ultimately based in the Colombian side of the border, across the Orinoco River, was assigned with taking part in the capture of the Venezuelan dictator from his bunker in Puerto Ayacucho.

In the evening preceding the attack, a squad seized a launch with enemy soldiers, who were tortured with Captain Armstrong’s knowledge and approval. However unreliable, one of the captives eventually claimed that the dictator would be transported to Brazil that very night.

Traveling by land stealthily was unpractical for the Venezuelan forces that supposedly were in charge of transporting the dictator. Besides, not only all Venezuelan airports were already under control of the United States, but also traveling by air from the Puerto Ayacucho area without being noticed by the American forces was extremely unlikely.

There were American platoons watching the margins of the Orinoco River outside Puerto Ayacucho, and an enemy base at La Esmeralda had also been taken, which meant that using the Casiquiare Canal to reach the Negro River was not an option for the Venezuelans. There was not a single reasonable way to transport the dictator to any place whatsoever.

Still, blinded by the possibility of capturing the dictator and based on the information that had been extracted from the captives, Captain Armstrong ordered his company to attack the enemy two hours before the scheduled time. His men were ambushed and outnumbered, and a massacre ensued.

Some time thereafter, the other companies arrived to the battle and eventually managed to capture the dictator alive. However, the success of the mission did not prevent Captain Armstrong from being sent to the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

Captain Armstrong had conformed to doing his time in The Castle, until he was offered a life-changing opportunity: if he agreed to take part in a governmental program that aimed to enhance the skills of American soldiers, he would be free to start his life over afterwards.

Even though he barely had any information on the program and did not know what kind of experiment would be performed on him, it was clear to Captain Armstrong that anything would be better than rotting in prison. He promptly accepted to join the program.

There were so many familiar faces in The Compound that it looked to Captain Armstrong that he had been merely transferred from one prison to another, the difference being the body bags that were often carried from the practice rooms to the outside.

The most shocking memory of his life in The Compound or anywhere else for that matter, however, was discovering the first side effect that was caused by the device that had been implanted in him as part of Project HETO.

The day after the procedure, Captain Armstrong was trying to figure out a way to make the device work without injuring his own body. Suddenly he started hearing a lot of loud voices that were seemingly inside his head.

The voices were so many and so loud that he could not tell what any of them was saying. In fact, Captain Armstrong could not even listen to his own voice or thoughts, and trying to cover his ears with his hands did not have any effect.

It took several weeks for Dr. Volkov’s team to learn that Captain Armstrong’s brain was capturing the electric currents that were generated by the thoughts of everyone within The Compound and processing the information.

Captain Armstrong learned how to control his ability to listen to thoughts before Dr. Volkov’s team found a way to block it by using the discharges that are generated by a plasma globe to protect the electromagnetic radiation of thought.

That is how Armstrong knew that Dr. Volkov did not plan on releasing any of the subjects from The Compound, even though the scientist was obliged to do so eventually as part of his agreement with the government.

Now there he was, lying on a gurney and fulfilling an agreement that he had made earlier with a man that he despised. Armstrong was not proud to take part in that scam, but it was the best option that he had.

As Captain McCoy entered the intensive care unit at the designated time, Captain Armstrong immediately detected that Captain McCoy and Dr. Minett were attracted to each other, and he did not need to listen to anyone’s thoughts for that.

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Captain McCoy noticed that Captain Armstrong was lying on the gurney that was closer to the door and Gawrro’s movable structure, separated from the next gurney by a white plastic panel.

McCoy assumed at first that a new applicant had just arrived to The Compound, but soon dismissed such theory when it occurred to him that, as far as he knew, he had been the only officer to be trained for the program in its only preparatory camp.

Captain McCoy did not have any doubt that Captain Armstrong was one of the volunteers that were already there before he joined the program, and settled for the assumption that the man was there to remove or upgrade his device.

McCoy thought that he would probably have an opportunity to ask the other man in the room who he was and why he was there, and turned all of his attention to Dr. Minett, who was sitting on the same chair and in the same place as she did the previous night.

“Good evening, Dr. Minett.” – Captain McCoy spoke with a joyful voice and a grin.

“Good evening, Captain McCoy. How are you feeling?” – Dr. Minett reciprocated both the joyful voice and the grin.

“My stomach is burning, but other than that I’m fine.”

“Don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal. I’ll prescribe you a proton pump inhibitor for that. Did you make any progress today?”

“I can get a finger through a paper sheet now. It’s really cool.”

“Good for you. Did you notice any skill or ability that’s not related to what you were doing?”

“No. Nothing yet.”

“Okay. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

As Dr. Minett started placing the electrodes in Captain McCoy’s head, he stared at her face and noticed that she had a tiny beauty spot below the right side of her lower lip, just like he had seen in his dreams.

Ben hoped that he could dream of Susan again that night, and be lucky enough to learn any information on her that he could remember and use upon waking up in the following morning.

Captain Armstrong was not sure whether he should interpret Captain McCoy’s last thoughts literally, since they sounded more like a desperate delusion of a hopeless romantic than anything real. Then again, Armstrong considered that his mission had nothing to do with what McCoy was thinking of when he was awake, and decided not to give it too much importance.

Captain McCoy was mentally exhausted from all the effort that he had expended during his first day of practice and fell asleep a few minutes after Dr. Minett had left the intensive care unit.

Captain Armstrong noticed a strange movement of energy in the room seconds before Captain McCoy entered a coma. Then, Armstrong felt that McCoy’s brain generated electric currents that went somewhere else, and now it seemed to Captain Armstrong that Captain McCoy was brain-dead.

After a long period of waiting, Captain Armstrong noticed the same movement of energy that he had witnessed before Captain McCoy’s coma. This time, however, he started seeing images as if he were at a movie theater.

***

Ben was sitting on the carpet of a living room along with a blonde girl that seemed to be approximately seven years old and looked exactly like Sue. Both of them were coloring a page as the girl sang along to a cartoon that was broadcast on the television that was behind her.

Susan walked down the stairs that led to the living room, wearing an elegant red dress, and, with a smile on her face, watched Ben playing with the girl for a few seconds before saying:

“I’m ready, baby. Where’s the nanny?”

Ben looked at Sue, got up and answered:

“She’s at the kitchen, baby. Let’s go.”

The little girl stopped what she was doing, got up and jumped toward Ben. He caught her, held her high in the air and started spinning around as she laughed. After a few seconds, Ben stopped spinning, kissed the girl’s forehead, put her down on the floor and said:

“I love you, Claire. We’ll be back soon, okay?”

“I love you, daddy” – the girl seemed to be fine with her parents going out and leaving her with a nanny.

Now Ben was in a restaurant looking at Sue while ordering their dinner to a waiter that was standing by their table:

“We’ll have the Risotto al Gorgonzola and Amarone wine.”

“I can’t believe it’s been ages since I last ate my favorite dish” – Susan said with a happy expression on her face.

***

Captain Armstrong did not know what had just happened, but it seemed to him that he was actually watching Captain McCoy’s dream. Armstrong noticed that, when the images stopped, McCoy’s brain activity seemed to be back to normal.

Captain Armstrong did have a valuable information to give to Dr. Volkov after all. He thought that maybe the tide was starting to turn in his favor.