White Noise

A short I've had kicking around for so long, younger readers won't understand the reference at the end. For my older American friends...I think you'll remember the sound well.

Dr. Jack Fisher waited patiently for the police to take him in on the front stairs of the cheap motel where he had been cubbyholed.  He expected a bit of a wait; after all, he'd run from the Feds for the better part of six months.  "I'm sure Agent Osage will want his face time as payback for what I've put him through", Jack thought with a lopsided smirk.

He heard no sirens yet; he wasn't sure he would.  Just the usual side-road small-city traffic on a Monday morning.  Watching the cars and pedestrians pass with no particular interest, his scientific curiosity wandered into reconstructing what exactly had entered his mind that compelled him to call the locals and turn himself in.

He had been Stopped; that much he knew.  The President himself had had a cadre of Special Service agents searching for him, and Jack had avoided capture (by the skin of his teeth more than once) for half a year.  But this morning, something...something had happened that hung just outside the reach of his hyper-observant consciousness.  He heard...no, saw...no, heard...something.  The TV and the radio were on at mid-level, just in case Marsha called; they would help scramble any listening devices that might have found him by chance.

But Marsha had not called...again.  Hoping, futilely hoping, that she had escaped capture, he waited every Monday morning for three rings, silence, then two rings and silence.  Their private code, even back at the lab when he was working past midnight on...what?  He pounded the heels of his hands on his head; they can't have taken that from me so quickly!  I worked for years on...on...yes! The frequencies of sound that alter electrical and chemical reactions!  Yes!!!  I grabbed that memory back from them.  Maybe I can undo whatever it is they've

resistance is futile

What??  

there is no escaping the future

Jack shook his head violently.  Whatever was done, was done well; the interrupting thoughts were in his own voice.  His unconscious mind, programmed in a matter of a few seconds to undermine any self-will he had.  Yet...he could still think...he could still reason.  He must remember what the last thing his fully conscious mind heard...even if he couldn't resist being Stopped, he might be able to warn others about

join with all to build harmony

Goddammit! Jack felt his fury rising with the full realization of his helplessness. "This is stupid!  All I have to do is get up and leave!", he yelled at himself. He tried to stand

and his legs were frozen to the concrete stairs as if they were poured at the same time.  He snorted an ironic chuckle, and a memory floated to the surface.  He and Marsha were at Mallory Square at sundown, and a street hypnotist had shaken hands with her, pulled her hand in front of her face, and had her in a deep trance in a matter of seconds.  While under, she forgot her name, the number six...and had her feet frozen to the pavement, unable to walk.  Absolutely hilarious at the time.

Okay...that means that whatever I heard somehow hypnotized me...or had subliminal suggestion implanted.  Which is why I can't move now. So...the TV and the radio...the last sounds I heard were

you will join the movement

A dull ache was forming in the back of Jack's skull as he fought off the subconscious blockade.  He was getting closer to what had happened; the sweat starting to drip from his temples attested to the effort.  There was a sound...and I should know that sound

the movement is invincible

"...because I created the blasted thing!", and burst out with a sardonic laugh.  Now he knew...he had been Stopped by the very technology that he had slaved over for 20 years, that had been hijacked by the NSA.  He had found a harmonic frequency that neutralized the alpha waves in the waking mind, and generated the theta waves usually found only in the deepest states of meditation or trances.  In effect, he found a sonic version of the instant hypnosis he saw in Mallory Square, except that the frequency worked on every human mind, not just the highly suggestible ones.  A free pass into the inner workings of every soul on God's green earth.  In Jack's research, it had freed smokers, overeaters, alcoholics, bulimics, anorexics...any addictive behavior that had any psychological root at all.  In his test cases, he had had a 92.5 per cent recovery rate with dissociative patients.  In the hands of healers, it had allowed hopeless patients to live their lives at peace with themselves.

Then came the day when by Executive Order, he was locked out of his own lab, paid for by private donors, due to "issues of overwhelming importance to National Security".  He knew that the Feds would use his discovery in all manner of inappropriate and inhumane ways; when he found that they had stooped so low as to use it on their own countrymen for political purposes, Jack gathered as much cash as he could, bought a cheap junker, and staged a crash of his Ferrari with a lab corpse inside.  He and Marsha had hidden well for four months; then came the morning when she drove off to get breakfast and had not returned.

Jack knew they had her; probably just as they were about to have him.  At least he had stopped his own voice from echoing the subliminals.   That made it easier to concentrate.  Still couldn't move, so it wasn't a complete success, but...think, man!  What was it you heard? How have they broadcast the frequency without arousing our suspicions?  They didn't just spam it over the television; you saw a few people change their attitudes about the President, and slowly, over the course of a year or so, his popularity rose to the point where there was serious talk of beatification while he still lived.

So...how?  You were in shaving, the morning news was on the TV, the radio on the oldies station...damn, there's Agent Orange and the sheriffs.  Great...now I can stand.  Just in time to get the handcuffs slapped on.  The press...wonderful.  You've been in on it from the start, and said nothing, just to save your own butts.  Smile for the camera, Jack..."What made you turn yourself in?" "Is the resistance over?"

I was shaving...just down around my chin...

The sheriff ducked Jack's head under the roofline as he was folded into the back seat of the cruiser.

The radio...the music stopped dead...an announcer...

The door slams shut, and sequesters him behind darkly tinted windows.

"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System..."

I didn't think much of it at first...

"In the event of an actual emergency, you would be instructed..."

Suddenly, I knew....  I dropped the razor, and ran toward the radio...

"This is only a test...................."

Reviews

[Jack E Khthon]

Cool read...Found it to be interesting and intriguing...looks like you have a good foundation for a larger story if you so choose....The pace was smooth, the point of view provided enough insight and the character was not so much liekable but interesting enough to wanna know more...

[.]

~ gosh... as i fight my battle against brainwashing... all i think about are "subliminals"... and here i am... reading the anatomy of brainwashing... the blue print... and i'm astounded by your brilliance... ~ this piece has a million insights i'll benefit from... actually and subconsciously... or shall i say subliminally... :P ~ thanks a million for this post, monsieur jewel... you know how badly i needed it... and it's right here... it was waiting for me to find it and now i have found it... :)

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Joel! this is great!

[Audrey Howitt]

Ok, now I am intrigued! Thriller?

[Mike732]

Good start. Nice tantalizing reveal, reflecting Jack's confusion by implanting a similar mental state in the reader. Political science (fiction) in action.
I was a little extra confused in the last ten lines or so about who was speaking, though Jack's own thoughts would be babbling at that point too.. but quotation marks and italics might straighten this out a bit? Good story; I enjoyed reading it!

[Joel M Frye]

Interesting how the ad at the bottom of the page here picked up on the overall theme of the story, and is offering various forms of mind control for sale. Brave New World, indeed. ;)
...just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean....

[LA Lorena]

I hate to admit it, but I do remember that sound! The feel of a quick panic, until you knew that it was only a test...this time. Your story captured that feeling for me, that sudden feeling of impending panic, then relief. Great story line, you built a real momentum, and kept a tense hold on budding suspense. Very enjoyable!

[ju]

this is cool. the frustration's loud and clear- makes me want more of the story. i love the ending with the radio.
the names feel natural as well- poor choice of names can trash a good write- But yours are spot on. this is really good- As lily says: you're a story teller too. look forward to more :)

[Lily Mae]

A storyteller too. I love it.. It does remind me of the fear of my parents in the old days and hearing that noise come across the TV froze us all.. Great write.. :) xx

[FJ Davis]

You've inflamed some of my worst suspicions.
Excellent product, here. You handle prose very well, Joel This is an intriguing, skillfully molded story.
I enthusiastically recommend it!