Brian was glad he had brought a toothbrush to work. He did his best to get all remaining jelly bean residue out of his mouth and rinsed thoroughly.
TV, does this mean Bentley is an Observer? Brian shuddered at the possibility that animals could be Observers also.
No, I do not believe so. The chip injected by the gun must be paired to a first-generation chip. Because the upgrade gun was still tuned to your original chip's ID, it seems the chip injected into Bentley was linked to yours.
Brian's head swam with the information. I guess what really matters is, am I stuck with Bentley in my head, until death do us part?
Yes.
Yes? Brian's heart skipped a beat.
However, I believe I can simply block out the signal coming from his chip, permanently.
Brian sighed. That's a relief. I think the jelly beans would have killed me, eventually.
Biting people's ankles might have been a problem as well.
Returning to his office, Brian found Ralph still there, with his foot propped up.
Ralph was looking at him with a peculiar expression. "Boss. You... okay?"
Brian grimaced. "I am now. Sorry you had to see that."
Ralph nodded slowly. "Me too. Does that, uh, happen often?"
"Apparently the chip you shot into Bentley is tied to mine, somehow," Brian said, scratching his head, "So, for a while there, I was sharing his thoughts—until TV blocked him."
"Wow," Ralph said, letting that sink in, "That's awesome!"
Brian winced. "Not the word I would choose."
Ralph began stroking his chin. "So, if I shot myself with that gun... we could talk to each other with our thoughts, like ESP?"
Brian raised an eyebrow.
That is a possibility, Brian. However, I would not recommend—
Ralph darted for the gun, distracting Brian from his thoughts.
"Ralph, wait!" Brian said, "we're not sure—"
But Ralph had already grabbed the gun. And then he pulled the trigger.
Brian stared at him, frozen.
Brian, it seems I am now receiving Ralph's thoughts.
Brian sat down. He wondered if he was about to be subjected to memories from bygone superhero conventions and cosplay events. You can protect me, right TV?
Human thoughts are somewhat different than canine thoughts. I should be able to patch through communications, while filtering out everything else, in the same way I have learned the difference between your general thoughts, and when you are speaking to me.
You're saying, he would be able to talk to me. In my head. Just like you.
Boss?
Brian's eyes widened. "Ralph, was that you?" he asked, looking at him sharply.
Ralph's face brightened. "You heard that?!"
* * *
"So, you and Ralph can talk to each other in your minds?" Jessica said, stunned.
Brian had called a full Participants meeting, and they all sat in the conference room adjacent to Dale's office. Brian had filled them in on his upgrade, as well as Ralph's escapades with the gun.
"Right," Brian said, as Ralph nodded enthusiastically.
"And... now Ralph can hear TV, too?" Dale asked.
Brian shook his head. "TV can only talk to me, for some reason, but he can hear Ralph's thoughts, and he facilitates the communication, somehow."
"That's amazing!" Jessica said.
"There's more," Brian said. "I can enter the Gateway from anywhere, now, without a phone. And, I found an exact copy of the bunker there."
Dale frowned.
"Really? How is that possible?" Jessica asked.
"I don't know for sure," Brian said, "but I have a theory."
"Let's hear it," Dale said.
"Aunt Carol told me she had been in contact with a Borae entity at one point. An ally, of some kind. I believe Zed, the creator of the Gateway program, is the one she spoke with."
"What do you think that means?" Jessica said, chewing on her lip.
"I'm not certain. I think I need to reach Zed—the real Zed—and see if I can get some answers."
"How are you going to do that?" Dale asked.
Brian told them about his conversation with Zed's avatar and the needed password.
"And you think you can get the password from Carol?" Jessica asked.
Brian shrugged. "I'm not sure. She doesn't know about TV or the Gateway, so I can't just ask her for it outright. And anything I ask her about will probably make her suspicious. But, I have to try."
Jessica suddenly pulled her phone out, looking at it with knitted brows. "That's strange."
"What's up?" Brian asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's Carol," Jessica said, frowning. "She doesn't normally contact me this way. She says Brian and I are to report to the bunker immediately. Jim Watkins is en route to pick us up."
"What's this about?" Dale asked.
"I don't know," Brian said, frowning, "but Aunt Carol told me this might happen."
Ralph grinned. "Perfect timing! You can ask her about the password!"
"I don't think this is a good sign," Brian continued. "It probably means something big has happened or is about to happen."
"Take the invisibility device," Dale said, "And you can keep in contact with us thru Ralph."
Ralph stood up. "Hey, you guys should get injected too, so we can all talk!"
"You mean, like we're doing right now?" Brian said.
Dale looked around the room, his jaw set. "That's not a bad idea, given the circumstances," he said.
Brian looked at Dale in surprise. "Seriously? You're always talking about privacy infringement, and government surveillance and all that, but you're okay with having an alien in your head, able to see all your thoughts?"
Dale's face took on a grim expression. "The President has been shot. There are rumblings of Russia and China retaliating for the US counter strike on North Korea. Desperate times..."
Brian frowned. TV, we won't be able to communicate in the bunker anyway, right? The signal would be blocked.
Your Aunt said that the new chip's signal penetrates the Earth. We may be able to utilize that.
"Dale's right, Brian," Jessica said. "Maybe it could give us an edge."
Brian sighed. Sure you can handle taking on two more people, TV?
I was designed to support advanced parallel processing of multiple data streams. My capacity to process information has not been significantly impacted thus far.
Just wait 'til you have Dale in your head.