Virtually Hers Read Online Free PDF Page A

buzz at COMCEN the day it was announced that their operative had taken the grand prize. Very little surprised him, but he had to admit he’d been surprised the funding committee had actually picked her. Even though he knew, from reports and personal observation, that Helen Roston should get the nomination, he also knew the bias against a woman was strong. COMCEN had taken a big risk in offering a female candidate, but then his agency had always been straight-shooters. Only the best. No exceptions. And Helen Roston was their best shot.
    Jed cynically suspected that most of the agency heads voting in had probably wanted COMCEN to fail. Whatever their motives might be, now the program was his agency’s, to do as they wished as long as they produced results. He had known immediately that the scientists at COMCEN wanted to try out the brain entrainment theories.
    TIVRRV, pronounced “terror”, stood for “Total Immersion Virtual Reality Remote Viewing”. It was their pet project and now they had the perfect candidate and, most important of all, the funding. As for the female operative—she became Jed McNeil’s to command.
    Of course, the big brass wasn’t so easily convinced. Not by a long shot.
    Jed could imagine the shouting behind closed doors.
    “A female?”
    “Remote what?”
    “Spying something with the mind? Then…going after it herself? Gentlemen, you must be out of your fucking minds!”
    The idea was met with incredulity and disdain from all quarters. So they had agreed to come together for one final test on Helen Roston. If she could remote view and successfully perform the mission afterwards, then the agencies would leave Command Center alone for now.
    Jed and his commandos had discussed it among themselves first. Theirs was a highly secretive outfit, and with people, no matter how highly placed, watching, there was a likelihood of making things a tad too public. Also, they had their own agenda with the remote-viewing program and COS Command Center certainly didn’t want that part of it making it through the covert grapevine.
    He thought of how important Helen had suddenly become.
    For the last few years, COMCEN had been working on brain pattern simulation and bio-stimulants experiments, testing different drugs on their own operatives. With the addition of the CAVE, a cutting edge virtual environment, mind and body could be put in different simulated situations.
    Helen Roston was the perfect addition. And she added another dimension—remote viewing. With the right handler-trainer, could they “share” what she saw in virtual reality?
    That assignment, naturally, was offered to him first. His job would be to verify what she “saw” with the brain entrainment program that would sync their brainwaves during her remote-viewing sessions. In essence, if the experiment worked, he himself would be “there” with her, “seeing” what she saw, and thus, the success rate of accomplishing a difficult mission would definitely be a lot higher than a regular remote viewer’s Intel.
    Thinking back now, Jed understood why he’d been reluctant at first. He had had enough experience with mind-control experiments to understand the intimacy involved between subjects. Helen Roston wasn’t going to be a regular “partner”. Because he wasn’t a remote viewer himself, he’d have to be the one “in charge” of certain parts of her mind.
    From the very first time he’d observed her, he’d known there was no fucking way in hell she would’ve gone for that. Reasons not to accept the assignment came easily. He didn’t want that kind of responsibility for a potential member of his team. Number Eight had wanted to try the serum and this experiment would be up his alley.
    Those were the reasons he admitted to out loud. He didn’t tell anyone that he was also very attracted to the candidate. She was the kind of woman that had always gotten his attention—sassy, bold, and full of secrets. She was also a GEM