Title: Claim Day
Chapter 19: Misbehaving
04/06/2025 — Edward
I was heading to the MRI room for our daily briefing when I caught sight of something that stopped me dead in my tracks. Down one of the side corridors, partially hidden from the main hallway, Dr. Smith had one of his claimed women pressed against the wall. It took me a second to place her. Lenore, that was it. The physicist with the purple streak in her hair. Elaine’s fiancée, I realized.
They weren’t just talking. Smith had his hand tangled in her hair, his mouth on hers, and she was responding with enthusiasm, her hands clutching at his lab coat. As I watched, frozen with surprise, his other hand slid down to grab her ass, pulling her against him. Christ. I cleared my throat loudly, and they jumped apart like teenagers caught behind the bleachers.
“Barrett!” Smith’s face went red as a tomato. “This isn’t… we were just… I was checking her for symptoms of—”
I crossed my arms, not bothering to hide my annoyance. Smith was stammering like an idiot, but Lenore smoothly stepped in.
“Dr. Smith was concerned about my elevated heart rate,” she said, straightening her blouse. “I’ve been experiencing some anxiety about the project timeline.”
“Right,” I said flatly. “Look, I don’t give a shit what you do with your women, Smith, as long as it doesn’t interfere with our work. But I gotta say, I’m a little surprised. Isn’t Lenore a lesbian? And engaged to Elaine?” I couldn’t help realizing that Elaine hadn’t mentioned Lenore once since I claimed her. Not once. “Out of the three women you claimed, she’s the one you’re fooling around with?” Probably not the only one, obviously...
Something flickered across Lenore’s face at the mention of Elaine: a brief shadow, nothing more. Not the reaction I’d hoped for. The claiming really did a number on these women.
Smith’s embarrassment vanished, replaced by defensiveness. He squared his shoulders, looking me straight in the eye. “I expect you’ve been enjoying Elaine just as thoroughly,” he said pointedly. “Don’t pretend you’re above this.”
I actually laughed at that. “I haven’t touched Elaine that way,” I said. “But thanks for the insight into your own activities.”
“Please,” Smith scoffed. “I’ve seen how Warda acts around you. The way she stands close, always watching you. You’re clearly not above enjoying your claimed women either. And why shouldn’t we? We’re saving humanity here. Why not take a little reward while we can? They’re literally begging for it!”
I felt my jaw tighten. “Warda and I were already involved before all this happened,” I said coldly. “She asked me to claim her to keep her safe. That’s a completely different situation than whatever this is.” I gestured between him and Lenore. He was right on one thing, though. Claimed women seemed to default to sex as a pretty straightforward way to please. I had no idea if this was part of their programmed, or if they just realized men were easy to please in that way. In any case, I could understand why someone would take the bait, but it didn’t make it right.
Before Smith could respond, footsteps echoed down the main hallway. Ritter and Duncan deep in conversation about power allocation. Smith’s relief was palpable. I said nothing as we all gathered outside the MRI room door. No point making a scene now.
I knocked firmly on the heavy door. “Ramona? Phoebe? We’re here for the briefing.”
“All clear!” Phoebe’s muffled voice called back.
We filed into what had become our command center over the past week. The place was a mess, more so than the day before: empty coffee cups, protein bar wrappers, and stacks of printouts covered every surface. The air was stale and smelled faintly of body odor and desperation. As fucked up as it was, I was getting used to it.
Ramona stood at the center table, dark circles under her eyes. She looked up as we entered, her gaze sharp despite her exhaustion. We gathered around her, ready for whatever news she had to share.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said. “I know the pressure we’re under is immense, and I want to acknowledge how well you’ve handled your… women… so far. The teams are functioning efficiently despite the circumstances.”
I noticed Phoebe didn’t even flinch at the mention of our “women” this time. Three days ago, she would have shot Ramona a disapproving glance. Now she just stood there, arms crossed, expression neutral. Guess she’d either made her peace with our fucked-up situation or was too tired to keep fighting it.
“We have some developments,” Phoebe said, stepping forward. “I’ve managed to establish contact with a former colleague at EISCAT, the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association. It’s a high-powered radar facility in Tromsø, Norway, primarily used for studying the ionosphere, but critically for us, it could transmit a VLF signal worldwide by ionospheric heating.”
She pulled up a satellite image on the tablet she was holding and passed it around.
“My contact there is Dr. Einar Vokter. He says the facility is mostly empty now, just a skeleton crew of scientists and staff who decided to stay rather than flee during the Claiming. They’ve essentially barricaded themselves in to stay safe.”
“And they can help us?” Ritter asked, leaning forward.
Phoebe nodded. “EISCAT might be our only shot at transmitting a counter-programming signal globally. There are very few facilities on Earth with antennas powerful enough to send VLF signals that could reach everyone, most are military.”
“We don’t know yet if that’s how we’ll need to proceed,” Ramona interjected, “but we need to plan for that possibility. If we develop a counter-program, we’ll need a way to distribute it.”
“And Vokter is willing to help?” Smith asked, still not meeting my eyes.
“Yes,” Phoebe said. “But there’s a catch. They’re reliant on the power grid. Once Norway loses power, EISCAT goes dark. If that happens before we’re ready, we might not get another chance. The few other facilities with similar capabilities are military installations, and we have no idea who’s controlling those now.”
I frowned, considering the logistics. “Why can’t we just build an antenna here at Echelon? We’ve got the technical expertise.”
Ritter shook his head. “VLF requires enormous antennas. We’re talking miles long, and massive power. The wavelengths are so long that you need a huge physical structure to transmit them effectively. EISCAT already has that infrastructure in place.”
“There is some good news,” Ramona said. “Norway’s power grid is primarily hydroelectric and extremely reliable. According to Vokter, even with the current chaos, they should maintain power for three to four weeks, assuming no one deliberately sabotages the infrastructure.”
“That’s assuming we can maintain contact with them,” I pointed out. “If we lose internet here, or they do there, we have no way to send them whatever counter-programming we develop.”
Duncan cleared his throat. “Not necessarily. We have HF radio equipment here at Echelon. If the weather is good, we could transmit the program that way. It would be far slower and less convenient than the internet, but it’s a backup option.”
Ramona nodded. “There’s more. Dr. Vokter has been analyzing The Source’s signal. Based on signal strength, propagation patterns, and timing, he believes it originated from Jim Creek, Washington.”
“Jim Creek?” I asked, the name vaguely familiar from my military days.
“It’s a Naval Radio Station,” Phoebe explained. “One of the most powerful VLF transmitters in the world, primarily used to communicate with submarines.”
Duncan whistled low. “So The Source definitely had military connections. That’s… concerning.”
“Or government,” Ritter added quietly. “Or both.”
I nodded, pieces falling into place. “Washington state has gone dark, communications-wise. No internet, possibly no power. We’ve been monitoring amateur radio chatter, and there’s been next to nothing from that region for days.”
“Deliberate, you think?” Smith asked.
“Has to be.” I shrugged.
The room fell silent as we all processed the implications. Whoever had done this had access to military-grade communications equipment, the expertise to engineer a virus that rewired women’s brains, and enough influence to essentially blackout an entire state.
We weren’t just fighting against time and technical challenges. We were up against an enemy with resources that dwarfed our own.
Phoebe stepped forward, her eyes bright with the kind of intensity that only comes from a scientific breakthrough. Despite the exhaustion evident in the dark circles under her eyes, she was now practically vibrating with energy.
“Team Two has made significant progress decoding the signal,” she said, pulling up a series of complex waveform patterns on a nearby screen. “What we’ve found is… frankly incredible. The signal isn’t just a simple command or even a complex program as we initially thought. It’s a carefully designed patchwork of specific patterns meant to trigger very precise regions of the brain through the matrix created by the virus.”
She zoomed in on one section, highlighting what looked like a series of peaks and valleys.
“It’s almost like someone recorded specific patterns of brain activity, then edited and aligned them to produce exactly the desired effect. They’ve essentially isolated the grammar of the mind itself.” Her voice held a reluctant admiration. “Instead of containing words or code as we understand them, this signal contains ‘sentences’ in the form of specific neuron activations that achieve a very specific goal.”
I wasn’t a scientist, but I was getting the gist of what she was saying. Record the brain of someone when they think about devotion, and BAM, you could play it back to anyone else, thanks to their little virus and what it had done to women’s brains. Combine it with a bunch of other recordings, and you’d be basically writing code for the brain itself.
Smith leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “If we want to create our own program, how could we use this to our advantage? We can’t exactly copy what they’ve done if we want to reverse it.”
Ramona nodded, taking over from Phoebe. “Now that we have a basic understanding of the format and grammar of this programming language, we can try to understand what each part means by comparing it to the effects the programming has had on claimed women.” She gestured toward the door, beyond which our claimed women were resting, enjoying their Sunday, if they still enjoyed anything besides pleasing us...
“We might be able to use bits and pieces of it in a different order to achieve a different goal, like taking words from a sentence and rearranging them to say something new. Similarly,” she continued, “we could use the secondary MRI upstairs to record brain activity through various scenarios, extending the range of the vocabulary we can use for our own message. It would be like adding new words to our dictionary.”
Phoebe turned to Duncan. “That’s why we really need that MRI upstairs fixed and operational. Without it, we’re severely limited in what we can develop.”
Duncan nodded firmly. “I’m on it. With Dr. Dressen’s help, we could get it running much faster.”
“I’ll tell her to report to you,” Smith said quickly, then glanced at Ramona and Phoebe. “If that’s alright with you both, of course.”
Ramona nodded. “Yes, that should be done immediately. Time is our enemy here.”
Ramona sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s all Phoebe and I have to share for now. We’ll keep you updated on any new developments.” She looked around the table. “Does anyone else have anything to report?”
I cleared my throat. “I’m planning to send two of my security team into town after tomorrow: Salvador Rodriguez and Miles Reeves. Both armed, both level-headed. We need to assess the situation in Chantwell and see about securing additional supplies. People might be willing to trade for some of the non-essential equipment we have here.” I looked around the table. “Any specific requests I should add to their list?”
“Food is obviously the priority,” Ramona said immediately. “Our stores will last another week, maybe two thanks to Duncan’s own personal stock, but after that…” She trailed off.
“Clothes would be wonderful,” Phoebe added, tugging at her wrinkled blouse. “I’ve been wearing the same thing for almost a week now...”
Duncan nodded emphatically. “My claimed women could definitely use a change of clothes. So could I, for that matter.” He sniffed at his shirt and grimaced.
Ritter leaned forward, his expression serious. “My friend Cedric is still looking for his daughter. She was claimed by some man on Claim day, at the art campus across town.” He ran a hand through his hair. “He wants to go into town to try and find leads on her whereabouts, but I told him not to go alone. Would you mind if he accompanied your men tomorrow?”
I considered this for a moment. “I don’t mind, but he’ll have to follow orders. My guys’ priority has to be securing supplies.” Then something clicked. “Actually, I know a guy who worked security at that campus. If he’s still around, he might be able to access security footage, help identify who claimed the daughter and where they went.”
“I’m sorry for Cedric,” Ramona said, her voice firm but not unkind, “but this isn’t a priority. We can’t afford to lose time searching for one girl when we’re trying to save all women.”
Ritter’s jaw tightened. “If Cedric has even a small chance of finding his daughter, we should help him. It’s the right thing to do.” He looked directly at Ramona. “You know how much his daughter means to him.”
Ramona’s expression remained unchanged. “My personal feelings are irrelevant. Our resources must be directed toward our primary objective.”
“I could at least try to contact the guy,” I offered. “Wouldn’t take much time, and it might help. He owes me a favor or two anyway.”
Phoebe touched Ramona’s arm lightly. “A quick phone call won’t derail our mission.”
Ramona held Phoebe’s gaze for a long moment, then sighed. “Fine. Make the call. But if Cedric goes in town with your men, make it clear that our supplies come first.” She gathered her papers. “If there’s nothing else, I suggest we all get some rest while we can.”