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Chapter One
Lomax
Slumped in my chair, feeling sorry for myself, I looked up as a willowy, almost wraithlike woman entered my private parlor.
“My apologies for the intrusion, Your Highness.” The intruder crept into the center of the room. “I did hail first, but there was no response.”
I had heard the chime. I’d ignored it. I wasn’t expecting anybody, nor did I wish to talk to anyone—except for Kat, and it couldn’t be her. A mere guest in the palace, she lacked access to royal chambers. She’d be stopped before she stepped an exdat into the wing where my personal quarters were located.
“The guards indicated I should come on in. I’m Sandria Seeher. I’m with the League of Planets.”
Since my fall from grace, I reported to an LOP case manager on a regular basis. I’d just seen him. “You’re replacing Aster-Rah?”
“No, I’m in addition to Aster-Rah. I’m with…the Mind Control Reversal unit.” She smiled apologetically. She wore the standard purple-and-gold-braided league uniform, but the insignia on the left side of her chest differed from Aster-Rah’s. A mega bureaucracy, the LOP had an insignia for each department, unit, task force, and rank. There were so many versions, I couldn’t keep them straight. Didn’t bother to try.
“Ah. You’re here to deprogram me.”
“That’s the goal,” she chirped, bright and cheerful. “Would it be permissible if I sat down?”
“Oh, of course. Sorry.” I swept my arm at the divans and chairs. “Take your pick.” A commoner didn’t sit in the presence of a royal until granted permission, even if said royal’s reputation had turned to chyt.
Seeher settled in a chair facing me and placed a case on the table between us. All four of her arms rested on her lap. The eyes in her face focused on me, but the ones on the tips of her antennas swiveled to surveil the room.
“I didn’t expect you for at least another month,” I said. “We were told the MCR unit was booked solid, and no one was available.” The unavailability suggested either the unit was extremely small and understaffed, or mind control had ballooned into a bigger problem than anyone realized—like alien species trafficking, which had seemed to explode overnight.
“Your criminal case can’t be adjudicated until you are deprogrammed, and you are a prince, so we reshuffled, and here I am.”
Because rank enjoyed its privilege, I’d bumped someone down the waitlist. I felt guilty, but I wouldn’t turn down the opportunity. I had to remember what the zigqat had caused me to join the anarchist Galactic Justice Warriors who sought to overthrow the League of Planets.
“Is there, um, a good success rate with reversals?” My stomach knotted in dread of a poor prognosis. If she couldn’t fix me, I was doomed. My brain was plotting against me. I had no idea if or when I would snap. There were huge gaps in my memory. I just wanted to be normal again. Until I was, I couldn’t even participate in my own defense. Assuming I had one. I’d be held accountable for any crimes I’d committed while under GJW influence.
“There are too many variables to quote a hard statistic,” she replied.
“So not good,” I inferred.
“I didn’t say that. The success rate depends on many factors—how long ago the brainwashing occurred, how in depth it was, the process used, and an individual’s degree of suggestibility. The easier someone surrenders to mind control, the easier it is to deprogram him.”
“So if I’m mentally malleable, I’ll be more likely to revert to normal. But if I have strength of mind, I might be screwed.” Kat Whalen had been teaching me Terran Universal slang. Screwed described my situation better than any Ara-Cope word.
“I catch the gist of what you’re saying, but you shouldn’t feel that way. There’s a lot of gray area in the middle, and we haven’t yet begun.
“Plus, you’re in good hands with me.” She waved all four of them and smiled at her own joke. “I’m the best mind-control-reversal expert the LOP has. I’ve deprogrammed hundreds of people.”
If hundreds of victims had been deprogrammed, how many were there? The situation was worse than we’d feared.
That made me one of the lucky ones. I would get help.
I shifted my gaze to the case on the table, wondering what it contained. “So, what’s involved in the process?”
“Indoctrination and reversal work the same way. We exchange one belief system for another. You can’t eradicate a belief without replacing it with something else.”
“Does it involve drugs?” I flicked my gaze to the case again. Had the GJW drugged me? Was that how they’d gotten me to flip? I hated the idea of being drugged again, but if that was what it took, then I guessed I had to accept it.
“Certain chemicals do enhance susceptibility, but I use them as a last resort.”
“So, what’s in the case?”
Chuckling, she popped open the attaché to reveal a metal headband in the lower portion and a computer screen on the top. “A neurological scanner so I can monitor your brain activity as we discover your triggers.”
