Imprint (Pt. VI)

"Hello? Briggs? Someone get me out of here. What the hell is this Briggs!"

Chelsea continued screaming and pounding on the blank walls with fury. After two hours of constant rage, General Matthews had ordered him to "Get in there and calm her the f--- down before she dies of a stroke!"

After slowly making his way down there, he had been cowering outside the door for the past ten minutes hoping she'd take a breather on her own, but had just come to the realization that it was highly unlikely, and that Matthews would be expecting to see him enter the room through their video feed. As she continued ranting, he took a deep breath, said a little prayer and punched in the code

Hearing the beep of the door, Chelsea momentarily stopped her screaming and waited. As the top of his head appeared, she recognized it was Briggs and immediately charged at the door, pinning his torso in the opening.

"Ahhh, Chelsea, back up! You're crushing me! It hurts! Can't breathe!"

"Good!", she screamed digging her feet into the floor and pushing with all her strength.

Noticing the commotion, two MPs at the end of the hall, ran to help. Unable to hold off the two large military officers pushing back, Chelsea bounced backwards as the officers each grabbed an arm, and pinned her back on the opposite wall. Turning her around together, they grabbed both hands, slapped a pair of restraints on her and forced her into a chair. Taking a second pair of cuffs they latched her to the chair.

"Thank you boys," Briggs replied sheepishly, "you can go."

Chelsea glared with venom from her chair as Briggs gently rubbed his chest. After sufficiently catching his breath, he began pacing and quietly mumbled,

"I'm sorry Chelsea. It was for your protection. There are bigger plans in the works, and no one wanted you to print some crazy story about a bogus government mind control scheme using an alien cover story."

It took Chelsea a minute to put the pieces together in her head before she realized what she had begun to suspect was true and he had just unintentionally confirmed all of it.

She began lining up the pieces of what Briggs had just suggested with the story she had learned from "Syd", and everything else she had reported in the past eight months.

Briggs had just been feeding her the government's story. They had created the Imprint program, not the aliens. The public feeding frenzy that followed was all part of the plan. Now the aliens would just be a scapegoat for whatever they were trying to do, just as the Breakers were recruited to make everyone believe the aliens were trying to take control. It was plausible, but why? What does the government gain by going to all this trouble?

Briggs had stopped pacing and was now staring at her, awaiting a reply. Chelsea put on her reporter hat knowing that Briggs had no idea what he had just revealed.

"Bogus story, huh? So no one intentionally blew away an entire roomful of government recruited hackers who figured out how to take down Imprint?" It was her trump card, and she had played it hoping that Briggs would be intimidated enough to reveal more.

Briggs was shocked at the question.

"We never really started our discussion at Lou's," she continued, with an icy glare. "How do you know anything about any "bogus story" I'm supposedly writing?"

She knew more than he had suspected and he was terrrible at spinning stories under pressure. He had revealed too much. Thank God they had muted the audio before he left the room upstairs. Although now that she was no longer screaming, he was positive they had unmuted it to hear his conversation.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Chelsea? It was just a "for instance".

He's trying to sound in control, she thought to herself, but the shakiness in his voice told her otherwise. Control. That's it. That's what they gain.

"Bigger plans to control the public. Is that what you mean," she said, baiting him.

"No, I......that's absurd Chelsea," he replied hesitantly, "Do you realize how absurd that sounds?" The generals upstairs were certainly squirming in their chairs by now.

"That's what the government craves most, isn't it Briggs? Control. Power. I mean if you can control the public, who's to say you can't control what they watch, what they say, what they read, or even how they vote."

As she said it out loud she knew she was on the right track. But why use aliens as the scapegoat?

"Someone has to be in control, don't they Chelsea?" Briggs said timidly, trying to convince her it was a necessary evil.

"Last time I checked, we lived in a democracy, Briggs, so no, I don't think anyone needs to be "in control" of the public, or the press or....the aliens!"

The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. There was a bigger plan, just as Briggs said. The alien visits they could no longer deny were happening represented a threat to their control. If they could turn public opinion on the aliens they could justify anything, including attacking them. Imprint allowed them the control they needed to justify an attack, ultimately keeping control for themselves.

She thought back to her phone conversation with Briggs...

"You're going to attack an alien race that has already infiltrated our systems with no real knowledge of their capabilities and hope it all works out in your favor? That doesn't sound particularly well-thought out, now does it Briggs."

By this point, she could tell, Briggs was feeling guilt-ridden about their entire plan, and his part in it when an unfamiliar voice interupted.

"Briggs to Control. Briggs to Control," it said in a demanding tone.

He immediately recognized the voice from the overhead speaker as belonging to General Matthews and cringed. As he opened the door, he recognized his own words coming back to haunt him. Twisting his joke from their earlier phone call, she shouted,

"Just because I'm skeptical of what you have to share doesn't mean it isn't true."

Wondering what happens next? Once each short chapter has at least 20 views, I'll write and publish the next so if you enjoyed this story, please keep on reading or check out some of my other stories . Thank you for your support.

Chapter VII coming soon....