Chapter 3
Flash Imprint

I stood up clumisly to go shower off when there was a light knock on the door. Walking and opening it a crack, I saw Robaer staring back at me from the crack. Throwing the door wide, I gestured for him to come in. It was dark in the room, so I hit the lights, and the area was thrown into bright relief.

Robaer looked warn. His white hair was kept cut short and close. He was clean-shaven, as always and had piercing blue eyes with crows feet pinching the corners of his heavily lined face. He had been the head of the Watchers for close to 45 years now, and still he did not slow.

Sitting down at the small table that took up the front of the room, flicked his long blue coat out around him to allow him to be seated comfortably. He stripped his long gloves off, and removed his glasses. He just sat, looking at me. Pulling a shirt on, I sat down across from him. "Yes, commander?"

He smiled slightly. "You did a fantastic job last night, my boy. And, given the mound of bodies you had to create I'm not surprised you came back here to drown yourslef in liquer. You made it to the Extraction point, and you were all but incoherent. You're ok though, I trust?"

I furrowed my brow. I had made the EP? I thought...I thought I'd left through the door for some reason...picking my way acorss the corpses. I said as much. The commander blinked. "The door? No boy, you made it to the hovercar. They wanted to extract you to headquarters, but I reccomended sending you back here to sleep it off first. We managed to take one of the survivors in captivity. We got some good info out of him, and he's being reconditioned now. But, to do that, we need your help of course."

I nodded. The assaulting officer had to be on duty, as the most recent memories would be the most powerful. I had to be there to help erase any memory of myself. "Alright, just let me shower and get dressed. Then we'll head out." The commander nodded and starred off out the window as I went about my morning.

Freshly dressed in the same blue-white attire of my commander, we left the hotel through the window, launching ourselves up and on to the next building. The uniform we wore was an exact copy of the high-ranking military officers. A long blue coat with white trim and buttons, blue shirt and blue pants. Knee high, buckled, black combat boots and blue gloves with white knuckles completed the outfit.

Standing on the top of the building, Robaer put a hand to his ear, and contacted the pilot who was waiting near by with a hovercar. Climbing in, I picked a pistol up from the weapons rack on the back of the pilots chair, and shoved a cartridge into it. The commander looked at me. "I've had a strange feeling that something is going to go wrong today, so I figure better safe than sorry, Commander."

He nodded. "I thought you looked haunted. Maybe its time for you to...take a break?"

I shook my head. "Hardly. I just didn't sleep well last night. That whiskey really hit me hard."

A short while later, we landed at the Government Military Office. Walking through the building we kept up the facade of being just another couple of generals in the military. Visiting, of course, from another locale. We got to the back of the building, to the elevators. Entering, Robaer punched in a quick sucsession of numbers, and the elevator began to drop. About 15 floors down, the lift stopped and opened up into a grand room complete with television, bed, bathroom and refrigiration unit.

Stepping out of the lift, it retreated back into the cieling and sealed off the roof. I walked over to a pannel and slapped a button. Now began the long ride. This personal lift was so equipped due to the time it took to reach the Watcher section of the building. Roughly four hours.

Sitting down in a leather chair, I lit one of the cigars sitting on the table and drew deeply on it. Blowing it out, the ring of smoke envelopped my head. "Does this person have a history of being reconditioned?"

Nodding the commander took a drink from the crystal decanter. "Yes. This is his last strike. He keeps going back to the same cell after being reconditioned. The Flash Impulses are more powerful with him for some reason. "

I looked at him questioningly. "Flash Impulse? I've been doing this job for about 4 years now, and never heard of that."

The Commander arched his eyebrow. "You've been involved in Re-Conditionings before right?" I nodded. "Did you not ever wonder what causes repeat offenders to become Hackers again?"

"I thought it just...happened. I didn't really think much about it."

Robaer laughed. "Hardley. A Flash Impulse happens when the individual sees something that sparks a horrificaly powerful memory. It undoes everything that re-conditioning is supposed to do. That is what causes repeat offenders. "

Thinking back on my dreams from last night, what litle I could remember, I lapsed into silence. When at last we arrived at the base, we removed the uniforms and donned the normal, Watcher atire. Black clothing. I, again, favored my jacket and black pants. I kept the combat boots, they're comfortable.

We made our way to the re-conditioning chamber to find the process already underway. The Conditioner was starting with the most basic for of brainwashing. Water torture. The man was having his head repeatedly shoved underwater till he was about to black out, then hoisted out and forced to answer questions till he no longer knew the answers.

When we arrived, the Conditioner, in his full black out fit and mask grabbed the unfortuneate man, and threw him onto a table where he had electrodes hooked up to him. He leaned over the man and said in a gruff voice. "Now, lets see what happens if you remember anything these men ask you about." With that, he injected the man with truth serum. Whenever he answered with the truth to one of our questions, he was shocked until he forgot the answer.

And so it went on. Till we go to the last question. I looked at him. "Have you ever seen me before?"

He grimmaced "Yes. I see you every morning when I look in the mirror." The machine shocked him.

"Wait." I said. How can that possibly be true?" He starred at me hard...something stirred behind his eyes."Those eyes." I said. "You have...my eyes."

I reached over him, and pulled back his hair line. Stitches. "This man has been cosmeticaly altered." Everything slowed down. Something flickered in my mind. I saw a woman with red hair and green eyes. And men...men who looked like me.

"Vecks' Syndrome." I said. "He's a clone....a clone and you're....." Both the Conditioner and Robaen pulled dart guns to sedate me. This time, however. I was ready. Pulling my gun from my holster, I shot the Conditioner, the back of his head blowing off and splattering on the walls. Flicking the blade out of the gun I spun in a tight circle, delfecting the dart from Robaer. Moving in, I cut his hand, and he dropped the gun.

I brought my knee up into his got and pressed the barrel of the weapon in to the back of the old man's head. "You're going to tell me what I want to know, and you're going to tell me now. Who am I, why am I here, and what do you want with me. You're going to tell me now, or I'm going to blow you to kingdom come. You're choice. 10 seconds old man." I was not going to be reconditioned again
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