Remember Your Training
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...seriously I woke up this morning and got the idea for this fic at about noon and here I am six hours later.
Also, I am being a nerd again.
Title: Remember Your Training
Author: Mithrigil
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Ariadne, Yusuf, and the new class of security guards at Rulsan and Greene.
Words: 3900
Rating: Gen, Meta.
Warning: Implied powerpoint. :snerk: Art by pinstripesuit
Summary: --Wait a sec, are Ariadne and Yusuf giving a lecture on how to defend yourself from extraction?
“They’re here to tell you-well, to tell us all, really, this one’s new to me too-about a very specific kind of security risk that you might be encountering working for Rulsan and Greene.”
Remember Your Training
inception
They filter back in after their ten-minute break, which has stretched into about thirteen minutes already with no sign of letting up. Maureen’s coffee is cold, and she’s convinced that it’s starting to disconstitute in her thermos, but it’ll be fine, there’s just one more lecture before lunch. The itinerary in her folder says 12:00 - 1:00, Human Relations, but the managers mentioned something about pushing the HR lecture to the last slot of the day so that everyone could just fill out the forms and get back on the tube.
“How're you holding up?”
“Fine,” Maureen answers automatically. She still has to check the nameplates in front of everyone-right, right, Gregory Hobbes. He looks much more like a security guard than she ever will, big and Glaswegian.
“Orientation’s a bitch,” he says, grinning. He settles back in his chair, then reaches under it to pull a water bottle up. “They build you up to wearing suits and stick you in a jumpsuit the day you start.”
Maureen laughs. The small talk’s good, better than just waiting. “You know which lecture they’re pushing up?”
“Looks like the Cultural Sensitivity one-coming back from the john I saw the brass outside with the lecturers. Tiny lass, couldn’t be here for anything else.”
“I take offense at that.”
“She’s tiny even compared to you. Less than a meter and half, I could’ve knocked her upside with my elbow on accident.”
There’s a bit more noise at the door to the conference room, and the managers are bringing a crate in, and also a somewhat soft-looking Middle Eastern (or Indian, it’s hard to tell) man with curly black hair. Maureen almost doesn’t notice the small brunette lady in a skirtsuit and scarf until she steps up onto the crate behind the lectern. “You’re right, she is tiny,” Maureen says, maybe a little louder than she intended to, because the lady looks at her and smiles.
“Everyone here?” one of the managers asks-Maureen has to remind herself of their names, really-and when he gets a generally affirmative response, he smiles, looks at the lecturers, and introduces them. “As some of you remember, we’re switching the HR lecture to this afternoon, but we’re also cutting the Union Q-and-A a bit short to make room for this one. This is Miss Webster,” the lady finishes adjusting her scarf and waves, “and Mr. Bensaïd,” the man tips one of the packets he’s handing out, like a hat. “They’re here to tell you-well, to tell us all, really, this one’s new to me too-about a very specific kind of security risk that you might be encountering working for Rulsan and Greene. So we’re going to turn it over to them for an hour, and-is the Powerpoint set up? good-all right, then, have at them, Miss Webster.”
“Thank you,” she says, then taps a button on the lectern and lets the projection screen flare to life.
MIND CRIME, it says, in large, friendly letters.
“Okay,” Miss Webster says-she’s American or Canadian, then, it’s going to take a bit of listening for Maureen to catch on, “I know what some of you are thinking. And no, that’s not a crime in and of itself. You’re thinking that this is going to be a little weird and a lot Orwellian, and I’m going to look you all in the eyes and tell you that you’re right. When I was first introduced to the concept of Mind Crime and dream-sharing, I had about the same reaction. But it’s real, or at least people think it is, and the thing about Mind Crime is that it doesn’t even have to actually take place for you to feel its very real effects. And that’s why we’re here.”
She clicks the next slide-at some point, someone dimmed the lights, probably the managers, they’re sitting by the door, listening intently, and one of them is smiling just out of the reach of the overhead’s light. Miss Webster leaves just a small silhouette in the corner of the screen. Mr. Bensaïd has just given Maureen and Hobbes their packets, and he whispers, “Do not bother taking notes, it’s all here.” He has a sweet voice.
“Here’s the outline we’re going to be lecturing from. You can stop and ask us questions at any point, but if you think it’s going to start a big debate or make us run over, save it for the end, okay? First, we’re going to give a brief history of dream-sharing, and show you some of the hardware and chemicals that extractors use to make this possible. Then we’ll talk about the usual modus operandi of extraction teams, and tell you some ways that you can protect yourself. And at the end, we’ll go through how to tell if you have been the victim of a mind crime, or if someone you know has been, and where you can report. Any questions before we start?”
Maureen has one, and asks it. “How do you two know about all this, Miss Webster? Unless it’s impertinent.”
“It’s not, thank you. I was the victim of a Mind Crime when I was studying in France,” she answers, with a slight tilt to her head. “After I found out what happened to me, I did everything I could to learn about it.”
Maureen nods, satisfied with that answer.
Miss Webster goes on, and shifts to the next slide. “The patent for dream-sharing technology was filed about twenty years ago, by a group of young designers and architects who were looking to make a quicker transition between thought and communication. The original inventor was English, actually, though he teaches in France right now. The first dream-sharers were artists, people who wanted to communicate their ideas without having to worry about losing them between thought and execution. How many of you in this room are artists, or composers or writers? -wow, more than I expected. Have you ever lost an idea because you couldn’t get it down on paper fast enough?” She gets several nods, and nods back at that herself. “So that’s what the PASIV was designed to combat. By allowing a dreamer to immediately create and execute her idea, the dreamer can articulate it much more readily in the real world, and also share it immediately with anyone else who is present in the dream.
“But the PASIV as we know it was built with military grants, about five years into the initial project. Eventually, they developed other uses for it. Once the original Dream Architects had standardized the concept of shared dreaming, the technology was appropriated for use in combat training and strategic planning as well, a sort of immediate virtual reality. Soldiers could enact, with very few physical repercussions, lethal operations, without expending military resources or even territory. A group of soldiers would go to sleep, hooked up to the machine, and wake several minutes later having run through an entire battle and emerged unscathed. A few years into its use, though, military application of the PASIV was ruled unethical and illegal in the International courts. It’s probably still being practiced anyway, but we can’t know. Question?” she asks, pointing at Hobbes.
Hobbes asks, “Why’s it illegal?”
Mr. Bensaïd steps up, and says, “I will be discussing that when we get to the hardware portion of the lecture.” He looks at Miss Webster, and they both nod, agree to continue.
Miss Webster pulls up another slide. “There are still legal applications of dream-sharing in practice in the world today. What we’re doing is one of them, and so is the next level, where someone trains your subconscious to defend against Mind Crime. The PASIV is also still in use by licensed psychiatrists and neurologists for communication with comatose patients and trauma victims, and in a few other places in the medical field. Also, whether it is legal to use the PASIV in torture during wartime is still up for debate in the UN. But about eighty percent of all people currently using dream-sharing technology today are doing so illegally. This includes recreational use, mostly in America and East Asia, and criminal use all over the world. Any further questions about the history of Mind Crime?”
“Yeah,” someone else asks, whose nameplate is turned so Maureen can’t see it, “how do you get started?”
Everyone laughs, most of them nervously. Miss Webster is smiling too. “That, I think, you’ll have to see me after the lecture for. Anyone else? No? Okay, Mr. Bensaïd, your turn.” She steps off the crate behind the lectern, and backs into the wall so Mr. Bensaïd can take her place.
He clears his throat, and brings up an image of an opened briefcase with curled IV tubes, phials, and a large yellow button. “This,” he says, “is a Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device. A PASIV. You can tell it was designed by artists,” he adds, with a little smile. “The modern PASIV is very little different from its original design, but extraction teams will often make modifications to suit their specific needs. However, there are several requirements and constants to the design, that you will be able to notice should you ever run across one. I have included all of these diagrams in your folders so that you may follow more closely.” The next slide shows the briefcase, open, in closer detail, but Maureen keeps her eyes on the projector. “The PASIV runs on Somnacin or its derivatives, a drug that affects the levels of sleep, and tends to keep the user in REM sleep-dream-sleep. Somancin, and other compounds within the PASIV, allow all those joined to the same PASIV to experience the same dream. One person dreams and creates the space-one person populates the space with his subconscious. A standard PASIV accommodates four participants at once, though they can be and have been modified for as many as twelve. The more dreamers, the more unstable the dream. Question.”
Hobbes again. “What do you mean, populate with his subconscious?”
“It is hard to explain when you aren’t dreaming, but extractors, who are out to get the secrets of their marks, use the PASIV to connect directly to their mark’s subconscious. They allow the mark to populate the dream, though the Architect still provides the context. We will talk more about the process of the heist later.
“Now, Somnacin is a multivariable compound used in conjunction with a BZD-an hypnotic sedative-and distributed intravenously and simultaneously to all the participants in the dream. The immediate effects are, of course, the shared dream state, and stimulation of brain activity, but also sedation and, depending upon the compound, partial paralysis. The PASIV monitors and regulates the dosage. Like most psychological drugs, somnacin is addictive, and also loses some effectiveness every time you use it. Experienced extractors therefore need to increase their dosages periodically, which poses even more danger to their targets.”
Maureen shudders, and she’s not the only one. “So they-they, um, extractors?-they inject addictive drugs into unwilling people?”
“Exactly,” Mr. Bensaïd says. “But we will talk about the effects of that later. Here is a photograph of a typical PASIV setup. In most heists, the extractors will have one member of the team stay behind awake to deal with any problems or interruptions, and to wake the other participants up if they need to. Unless you are very heavily sedated, you can wake up from the dream easily: by dying in the dream, or falling from a great height; by understanding that you are in someone else’s dream and waking the dreamer up first; or by being physically woken up in reality, by a loud noise or a fall or a splash of cold water. If you are woken up early, however, that does not stop the flow of somnacin, and you will still feel some of the effects of the drug. Extractors count on that, and usually put their marks back under for a short time while they get away.”
Miss Webster speaks up, almost hidden beside the lectern. “We should go into the layout of a team,” she says, “unless there are any more questions about what a PASIV looks like and how it works?”
Maureen has a few, but frankly she’s more interested in how the people work, and so she says nothing; some of the other trainees are probably thinking the same.
“Okay, then!” Miss Webster says, and switches the slide. It depicts a flowchart, with the responsibilities of each member listed underneath, but the letters are rather small so Maureen turns to the corresponding page in her packet. “Extractors are essentially con men, and so the workings of a team are very similar to a con. Any member of the team can be its effective leader-it’s not like in Ocean’s Eleven or anything like that, with the roles clearly delineated. Most teams are small-remember, most PASIV only accommodate four people at a time-and people take on multiple roles.
“The single most important member of a heist team is its Architect,” she says, and if she smiles a little everyone seems to notice. “The Architect is responsible for the creation of the dream space and the scenario. Most of the Architect’s work is done before the heist, and the Architect usually teaches the other members of the team to maintain her designs on their own, so the Architect can often not participate in the heist itself. But if the Architect does come along, the Architect knows the layout better than anyone except possibly the dreamer. Again, since extractors are con men, the Architect will usually design the dreams to be both realistic and extremely confusing, so that the mark can’t find his way out.
“The Extractor is the member of the team who actually steals things. Most members of a heist team are capable of fulfilling this role, but there are ones who specialize. There’s also a specific kind of extractor called a Forger, who can change appearances in dreams, and convince the dreamer that he is someone the dreamer actually knows. You’re more willing to share your secrets with people you already know, aren’t you?
“Most heist teams, again like most con men, will also have a Point Man. A Po-”
“Like in basketball?” someone asks.
Miss Webster thinks about it for a moment, and laughs. “Yes. A Point Man is the one who goes in first, leads the offense, and takes on the riskier jobs. If the Point Man and the Extractor aren’t the same person, that’s usually because the Point Man is running damage control and preventing the mark from stopping the extraction. He’s kind of like a bodyguard.
“Some teams, especially ones who are doing really delicate extractions, or operations that aren’t extractions at all, will have a resident chemist to tailor compounds specifically to their needs,” Miss Webster says, pointing it out on the projection-
“-and in the case that a team has a chemist, the chemist is even more important than the Architect,” Mr. Bensaïd says, a bit abruptly, which makes Miss Webster laugh.
“It’s true,” she says. “If you run across a group of extractors before the extraction takes place, if you take out the chemist, you take out the team. But again, most teams don’t have chemists of their own.”
Hobbes asks, “Are there any specific teams we should watch out for? Ones that do have chemists and-forgers, right?”
Miss Webster and Mr. Bensaïd look at each other, and everyone in the room seems to turn to them at once, glancing up from their packets and scribbling.
Mr. Bensaïd is the one to answer. “There are only about five hundred known mind criminals in the world, some of whom also keep up fronts as legitimate practitioners. Some of them have banded into regular teams or preferential partnerships, but nearly all extractors are free agents. They know that what they are doing is highly illegal, and so they tend to form cells on a case-by-case basis. You’d do better to look for the members individually than by team.”
“So they don’t have names or anything?” Hobbes keeps going. “There’s no Dream Team?”
“It’s not all like basketball,” Miss Webster says, and everyone laughs, though it doesn’t dissipate any of the tension in the room.
Maureen thinks her neck might be sweating. She drinks some of the sludge her coffee has turned into.
“Anyway,” Miss Webster goes on, indicating on the projection, “in a typical heist, the Point Man and Extractor will put the mark-their target-under, in a dream that the Architect has designed. Extraction works on the principle that, in dreams, we subconsciously and instinctively fill protected spaces like safes and vaults and shoeboxes under the bed with our secrets. So while the Point Man is making sure nothing happens that can stop the Extractor, the Extractor goes after those secrets. It usually involves interrogating or at least engaging with the mark so that the mark can lead them to the secret. Then, once they’ve pinpointed the secret, the Extractor will go in and steal it.”
“How do they take the secret out of the dream?” Maureen asks.
“They don’t. It’s not a tangible thing-it’s usually something like the layout of a building, or the plans for an offensive, or the combination to a safe in the real world. The Extractor finds the secret, and memorizes or copies it. And then, in the real world, someone else commits the crime, usually breaking and entering, or stealing, or fraud. So when you prevent extraction, you’re preventing two crimes at once; the one against you, and the one against the person you work for. That makes your position very important.”
The trainees nod, Maureen too, and one of the managers asks, “Would you two be interested in giving this presentation to the veteran security staff and the senior supervisors as well?”
“Of course,” Mr. Bensaïd says, and Miss Webster nods and agrees. “We’d be happy to. Anything to prevent mind crime.”
“We could even call in our people who actually train you to subconsciously resist extraction,” Miss Webster goes on. The manager looks pleased, and so does she. “Which brings us to the part where we can discuss preventative measures, unless anyone has more questions about heist procedure?”
No one does, or at least no one speaks up.
Miss Webster yields the lectern to Mr. Bensaïd again. He switches the slide, and starts, “First, there are several ways to tell if you have been the victim of a mind crime. Remember that the somnacin is administered intravenously; if you have puncture wounds in a visible vein that you did not put there yourself, residual swelling, or the marks of a tourniquet around your arm, you may well have been extracted from. If you think it is too late to check for any of these symptoms, it’s also worth noting that somnacin leaves you lethargic when you wake up, and tends to also induce a craving for salt.” This gets a few snickers, but he goes on: “Somnacin also has long-term effects that include insomnia, which itself is caused by a dependence on somnacin to induce REM sleep. People who have been using somnacin for long periods of time do not dream naturally. If you have trouble falling asleep or cannot remember dreaming for some time, it is another indication that you may have been extracted from. The effects wear off without continuous use. Somnacin is fast-metabolizing, but traces do remain in the bloodstream for a full waste cycle, about twenty-four hours. A doctor will be able to tell by a blood test if you get there quickly enough.
“You can also subconsciously recognize people you have seen in your dreams. If you feel a strange connection or aversion to someone you have not met before, he may be a mind criminal.”
Someone asks, “Can you be implicated as an accessory to a real-world crime if the criminals use information they acquired from you via mind crime?
Miss Webster has to think about that, but she answers, coming a little closer to the lectern, “Current legal precedent says no, not anymore than if you gave the information with a gun to your head. But some mind criminals who have been brought to trial cite their marks as accomplices rather than victims, and some marks have been arrested, though never convicted. Does this answer your question?”
“Yes,” that person says, and it turns out to be one of the managers, the same one who asked if Mr. Bensaïd and Miss Webster would teach the supervisors. Maureen thinks that’s interesting.
Mr. Bensaïd continues with the next slide. “There are also measures you can take to prevent yourself from being extracted from in the first place, though they are often expensive, and they do require willingly letting someone into your dreams to teach you how. It cannot be done in one session, and it is likely that you will have difficulty dreaming and sleeping for quite some time afterward.
“Remember that we described how the extractors permit the mark to populate the dream with his subconscious? One of the legal uses for the PASIV is for people who will literally militarize your subconscious, train your mind to notice and fend off invasion. If an Extractor enters your subconscious unprepared, your mind will arm itself and fend him off, waking him up and cutting the dream short. And even if the criminals prepare for the fact that your subconscious is militarized, they have to work in larger groups, which will make things more difficult for them in reality. If you would be interested in this sort of training, just see us after the lecture.”
That one manager nods, curt and emphatic, and Miss Webster smiles at him.
“But the easiest way, the way that we are going to teach you right now, is to discover that you are dreaming, and end the dream yourself. Think about how you got here,” Mr. Bensaïd says. “Think about what you were doing before you came to where you are. If you can’t remember, you may be dreaming, and if you discover that you are dreaming your projections will attack the dreamer, and you will wake up.”
Maureen considers. She applied for this job-what, two weeks ago? it has to be-and there was the first interview last week, they said she should come in and train-
But how many days has she been at orientation?
Miss Webster is glancing at the walls and saying something about how there’s just one more slide, and all the contact information and people you can call to report mind crime and what to expect, and Maureen drops her coffee thermos.
-
“You got it?”
“Yeah,” someone says-Miss Webster? It sounds like her, but Maureen can’t see yet, “yeah, it’s Beauchamp. We should go after him instead, McCracken was uptight about it.”
Something aches a little in Maureen’s right hand. She tries to move it.
“-Arthur, knock her out.”
She feels a towel drop over her mouth and nose.
-
---
-
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...seriously I woke up this morning and got the idea for this fic at about noon and here I am six hours later.
Also, I am being a nerd again.
Title: Remember Your Training
Author: Mithrigil
Fandom: Inception
Characters: Ariadne, Yusuf, and the new class of security guards at Rulsan and Greene.
Words: 3900
Rating: Gen, Meta.
Warning: Implied powerpoint. :snerk: Art by pinstripesuit
Summary: --Wait a sec, are Ariadne and Yusuf giving a lecture on how to defend yourself from extraction?
“They’re here to tell you-well, to tell us all, really, this one’s new to me too-about a very specific kind of security risk that you might be encountering working for Rulsan and Greene.”
Remember Your Training
inception
They filter back in after their ten-minute break, which has stretched into about thirteen minutes already with no sign of letting up. Maureen’s coffee is cold, and she’s convinced that it’s starting to disconstitute in her thermos, but it’ll be fine, there’s just one more lecture before lunch. The itinerary in her folder says 12:00 - 1:00, Human Relations, but the managers mentioned something about pushing the HR lecture to the last slot of the day so that everyone could just fill out the forms and get back on the tube.
“How're you holding up?”
“Fine,” Maureen answers automatically. She still has to check the nameplates in front of everyone-right, right, Gregory Hobbes. He looks much more like a security guard than she ever will, big and Glaswegian.
“Orientation’s a bitch,” he says, grinning. He settles back in his chair, then reaches under it to pull a water bottle up. “They build you up to wearing suits and stick you in a jumpsuit the day you start.”
Maureen laughs. The small talk’s good, better than just waiting. “You know which lecture they’re pushing up?”
“Looks like the Cultural Sensitivity one-coming back from the john I saw the brass outside with the lecturers. Tiny lass, couldn’t be here for anything else.”
“I take offense at that.”
“She’s tiny even compared to you. Less than a meter and half, I could’ve knocked her upside with my elbow on accident.”
There’s a bit more noise at the door to the conference room, and the managers are bringing a crate in, and also a somewhat soft-looking Middle Eastern (or Indian, it’s hard to tell) man with curly black hair. Maureen almost doesn’t notice the small brunette lady in a skirtsuit and scarf until she steps up onto the crate behind the lectern. “You’re right, she is tiny,” Maureen says, maybe a little louder than she intended to, because the lady looks at her and smiles.
“Everyone here?” one of the managers asks-Maureen has to remind herself of their names, really-and when he gets a generally affirmative response, he smiles, looks at the lecturers, and introduces them. “As some of you remember, we’re switching the HR lecture to this afternoon, but we’re also cutting the Union Q-and-A a bit short to make room for this one. This is Miss Webster,” the lady finishes adjusting her scarf and waves, “and Mr. Bensaïd,” the man tips one of the packets he’s handing out, like a hat. “They’re here to tell you-well, to tell us all, really, this one’s new to me too-about a very specific kind of security risk that you might be encountering working for Rulsan and Greene. So we’re going to turn it over to them for an hour, and-is the Powerpoint set up? good-all right, then, have at them, Miss Webster.”
“Thank you,” she says, then taps a button on the lectern and lets the projection screen flare to life.
MIND CRIME, it says, in large, friendly letters.
“Okay,” Miss Webster says-she’s American or Canadian, then, it’s going to take a bit of listening for Maureen to catch on, “I know what some of you are thinking. And no, that’s not a crime in and of itself. You’re thinking that this is going to be a little weird and a lot Orwellian, and I’m going to look you all in the eyes and tell you that you’re right. When I was first introduced to the concept of Mind Crime and dream-sharing, I had about the same reaction. But it’s real, or at least people think it is, and the thing about Mind Crime is that it doesn’t even have to actually take place for you to feel its very real effects. And that’s why we’re here.”
She clicks the next slide-at some point, someone dimmed the lights, probably the managers, they’re sitting by the door, listening intently, and one of them is smiling just out of the reach of the overhead’s light. Miss Webster leaves just a small silhouette in the corner of the screen. Mr. Bensaïd has just given Maureen and Hobbes their packets, and he whispers, “Do not bother taking notes, it’s all here.” He has a sweet voice.
“Here’s the outline we’re going to be lecturing from. You can stop and ask us questions at any point, but if you think it’s going to start a big debate or make us run over, save it for the end, okay? First, we’re going to give a brief history of dream-sharing, and show you some of the hardware and chemicals that extractors use to make this possible. Then we’ll talk about the usual modus operandi of extraction teams, and tell you some ways that you can protect yourself. And at the end, we’ll go through how to tell if you have been the victim of a mind crime, or if someone you know has been, and where you can report. Any questions before we start?”
Maureen has one, and asks it. “How do you two know about all this, Miss Webster? Unless it’s impertinent.”
“It’s not, thank you. I was the victim of a Mind Crime when I was studying in France,” she answers, with a slight tilt to her head. “After I found out what happened to me, I did everything I could to learn about it.”
Maureen nods, satisfied with that answer.
Miss Webster goes on, and shifts to the next slide. “The patent for dream-sharing technology was filed about twenty years ago, by a group of young designers and architects who were looking to make a quicker transition between thought and communication. The original inventor was English, actually, though he teaches in France right now. The first dream-sharers were artists, people who wanted to communicate their ideas without having to worry about losing them between thought and execution. How many of you in this room are artists, or composers or writers? -wow, more than I expected. Have you ever lost an idea because you couldn’t get it down on paper fast enough?” She gets several nods, and nods back at that herself. “So that’s what the PASIV was designed to combat. By allowing a dreamer to immediately create and execute her idea, the dreamer can articulate it much more readily in the real world, and also share it immediately with anyone else who is present in the dream.
“But the PASIV as we know it was built with military grants, about five years into the initial project. Eventually, they developed other uses for it. Once the original Dream Architects had standardized the concept of shared dreaming, the technology was appropriated for use in combat training and strategic planning as well, a sort of immediate virtual reality. Soldiers could enact, with very few physical repercussions, lethal operations, without expending military resources or even territory. A group of soldiers would go to sleep, hooked up to the machine, and wake several minutes later having run through an entire battle and emerged unscathed. A few years into its use, though, military application of the PASIV was ruled unethical and illegal in the International courts. It’s probably still being practiced anyway, but we can’t know. Question?” she asks, pointing at Hobbes.
Hobbes asks, “Why’s it illegal?”
Mr. Bensaïd steps up, and says, “I will be discussing that when we get to the hardware portion of the lecture.” He looks at Miss Webster, and they both nod, agree to continue.
Miss Webster pulls up another slide. “There are still legal applications of dream-sharing in practice in the world today. What we’re doing is one of them, and so is the next level, where someone trains your subconscious to defend against Mind Crime. The PASIV is also still in use by licensed psychiatrists and neurologists for communication with comatose patients and trauma victims, and in a few other places in the medical field. Also, whether it is legal to use the PASIV in torture during wartime is still up for debate in the UN. But about eighty percent of all people currently using dream-sharing technology today are doing so illegally. This includes recreational use, mostly in America and East Asia, and criminal use all over the world. Any further questions about the history of Mind Crime?”
“Yeah,” someone else asks, whose nameplate is turned so Maureen can’t see it, “how do you get started?”
Everyone laughs, most of them nervously. Miss Webster is smiling too. “That, I think, you’ll have to see me after the lecture for. Anyone else? No? Okay, Mr. Bensaïd, your turn.” She steps off the crate behind the lectern, and backs into the wall so Mr. Bensaïd can take her place.
He clears his throat, and brings up an image of an opened briefcase with curled IV tubes, phials, and a large yellow button. “This,” he says, “is a Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device. A PASIV. You can tell it was designed by artists,” he adds, with a little smile. “The modern PASIV is very little different from its original design, but extraction teams will often make modifications to suit their specific needs. However, there are several requirements and constants to the design, that you will be able to notice should you ever run across one. I have included all of these diagrams in your folders so that you may follow more closely.” The next slide shows the briefcase, open, in closer detail, but Maureen keeps her eyes on the projector. “The PASIV runs on Somnacin or its derivatives, a drug that affects the levels of sleep, and tends to keep the user in REM sleep-dream-sleep. Somancin, and other compounds within the PASIV, allow all those joined to the same PASIV to experience the same dream. One person dreams and creates the space-one person populates the space with his subconscious. A standard PASIV accommodates four participants at once, though they can be and have been modified for as many as twelve. The more dreamers, the more unstable the dream. Question.”
Hobbes again. “What do you mean, populate with his subconscious?”
“It is hard to explain when you aren’t dreaming, but extractors, who are out to get the secrets of their marks, use the PASIV to connect directly to their mark’s subconscious. They allow the mark to populate the dream, though the Architect still provides the context. We will talk more about the process of the heist later.
“Now, Somnacin is a multivariable compound used in conjunction with a BZD-an hypnotic sedative-and distributed intravenously and simultaneously to all the participants in the dream. The immediate effects are, of course, the shared dream state, and stimulation of brain activity, but also sedation and, depending upon the compound, partial paralysis. The PASIV monitors and regulates the dosage. Like most psychological drugs, somnacin is addictive, and also loses some effectiveness every time you use it. Experienced extractors therefore need to increase their dosages periodically, which poses even more danger to their targets.”
Maureen shudders, and she’s not the only one. “So they-they, um, extractors?-they inject addictive drugs into unwilling people?”
“Exactly,” Mr. Bensaïd says. “But we will talk about the effects of that later. Here is a photograph of a typical PASIV setup. In most heists, the extractors will have one member of the team stay behind awake to deal with any problems or interruptions, and to wake the other participants up if they need to. Unless you are very heavily sedated, you can wake up from the dream easily: by dying in the dream, or falling from a great height; by understanding that you are in someone else’s dream and waking the dreamer up first; or by being physically woken up in reality, by a loud noise or a fall or a splash of cold water. If you are woken up early, however, that does not stop the flow of somnacin, and you will still feel some of the effects of the drug. Extractors count on that, and usually put their marks back under for a short time while they get away.”
Miss Webster speaks up, almost hidden beside the lectern. “We should go into the layout of a team,” she says, “unless there are any more questions about what a PASIV looks like and how it works?”
Maureen has a few, but frankly she’s more interested in how the people work, and so she says nothing; some of the other trainees are probably thinking the same.
“Okay, then!” Miss Webster says, and switches the slide. It depicts a flowchart, with the responsibilities of each member listed underneath, but the letters are rather small so Maureen turns to the corresponding page in her packet. “Extractors are essentially con men, and so the workings of a team are very similar to a con. Any member of the team can be its effective leader-it’s not like in Ocean’s Eleven or anything like that, with the roles clearly delineated. Most teams are small-remember, most PASIV only accommodate four people at a time-and people take on multiple roles.
“The single most important member of a heist team is its Architect,” she says, and if she smiles a little everyone seems to notice. “The Architect is responsible for the creation of the dream space and the scenario. Most of the Architect’s work is done before the heist, and the Architect usually teaches the other members of the team to maintain her designs on their own, so the Architect can often not participate in the heist itself. But if the Architect does come along, the Architect knows the layout better than anyone except possibly the dreamer. Again, since extractors are con men, the Architect will usually design the dreams to be both realistic and extremely confusing, so that the mark can’t find his way out.
“The Extractor is the member of the team who actually steals things. Most members of a heist team are capable of fulfilling this role, but there are ones who specialize. There’s also a specific kind of extractor called a Forger, who can change appearances in dreams, and convince the dreamer that he is someone the dreamer actually knows. You’re more willing to share your secrets with people you already know, aren’t you?
“Most heist teams, again like most con men, will also have a Point Man. A Po-”
“Like in basketball?” someone asks.
Miss Webster thinks about it for a moment, and laughs. “Yes. A Point Man is the one who goes in first, leads the offense, and takes on the riskier jobs. If the Point Man and the Extractor aren’t the same person, that’s usually because the Point Man is running damage control and preventing the mark from stopping the extraction. He’s kind of like a bodyguard.
“Some teams, especially ones who are doing really delicate extractions, or operations that aren’t extractions at all, will have a resident chemist to tailor compounds specifically to their needs,” Miss Webster says, pointing it out on the projection-
“-and in the case that a team has a chemist, the chemist is even more important than the Architect,” Mr. Bensaïd says, a bit abruptly, which makes Miss Webster laugh.
“It’s true,” she says. “If you run across a group of extractors before the extraction takes place, if you take out the chemist, you take out the team. But again, most teams don’t have chemists of their own.”
Hobbes asks, “Are there any specific teams we should watch out for? Ones that do have chemists and-forgers, right?”
Miss Webster and Mr. Bensaïd look at each other, and everyone in the room seems to turn to them at once, glancing up from their packets and scribbling.
Mr. Bensaïd is the one to answer. “There are only about five hundred known mind criminals in the world, some of whom also keep up fronts as legitimate practitioners. Some of them have banded into regular teams or preferential partnerships, but nearly all extractors are free agents. They know that what they are doing is highly illegal, and so they tend to form cells on a case-by-case basis. You’d do better to look for the members individually than by team.”
“So they don’t have names or anything?” Hobbes keeps going. “There’s no Dream Team?”
“It’s not all like basketball,” Miss Webster says, and everyone laughs, though it doesn’t dissipate any of the tension in the room.
Maureen thinks her neck might be sweating. She drinks some of the sludge her coffee has turned into.
“Anyway,” Miss Webster goes on, indicating on the projection, “in a typical heist, the Point Man and Extractor will put the mark-their target-under, in a dream that the Architect has designed. Extraction works on the principle that, in dreams, we subconsciously and instinctively fill protected spaces like safes and vaults and shoeboxes under the bed with our secrets. So while the Point Man is making sure nothing happens that can stop the Extractor, the Extractor goes after those secrets. It usually involves interrogating or at least engaging with the mark so that the mark can lead them to the secret. Then, once they’ve pinpointed the secret, the Extractor will go in and steal it.”
“How do they take the secret out of the dream?” Maureen asks.
“They don’t. It’s not a tangible thing-it’s usually something like the layout of a building, or the plans for an offensive, or the combination to a safe in the real world. The Extractor finds the secret, and memorizes or copies it. And then, in the real world, someone else commits the crime, usually breaking and entering, or stealing, or fraud. So when you prevent extraction, you’re preventing two crimes at once; the one against you, and the one against the person you work for. That makes your position very important.”
The trainees nod, Maureen too, and one of the managers asks, “Would you two be interested in giving this presentation to the veteran security staff and the senior supervisors as well?”
“Of course,” Mr. Bensaïd says, and Miss Webster nods and agrees. “We’d be happy to. Anything to prevent mind crime.”
“We could even call in our people who actually train you to subconsciously resist extraction,” Miss Webster goes on. The manager looks pleased, and so does she. “Which brings us to the part where we can discuss preventative measures, unless anyone has more questions about heist procedure?”
No one does, or at least no one speaks up.
Miss Webster yields the lectern to Mr. Bensaïd again. He switches the slide, and starts, “First, there are several ways to tell if you have been the victim of a mind crime. Remember that the somnacin is administered intravenously; if you have puncture wounds in a visible vein that you did not put there yourself, residual swelling, or the marks of a tourniquet around your arm, you may well have been extracted from. If you think it is too late to check for any of these symptoms, it’s also worth noting that somnacin leaves you lethargic when you wake up, and tends to also induce a craving for salt.” This gets a few snickers, but he goes on: “Somnacin also has long-term effects that include insomnia, which itself is caused by a dependence on somnacin to induce REM sleep. People who have been using somnacin for long periods of time do not dream naturally. If you have trouble falling asleep or cannot remember dreaming for some time, it is another indication that you may have been extracted from. The effects wear off without continuous use. Somnacin is fast-metabolizing, but traces do remain in the bloodstream for a full waste cycle, about twenty-four hours. A doctor will be able to tell by a blood test if you get there quickly enough.
“You can also subconsciously recognize people you have seen in your dreams. If you feel a strange connection or aversion to someone you have not met before, he may be a mind criminal.”
Someone asks, “Can you be implicated as an accessory to a real-world crime if the criminals use information they acquired from you via mind crime?
Miss Webster has to think about that, but she answers, coming a little closer to the lectern, “Current legal precedent says no, not anymore than if you gave the information with a gun to your head. But some mind criminals who have been brought to trial cite their marks as accomplices rather than victims, and some marks have been arrested, though never convicted. Does this answer your question?”
“Yes,” that person says, and it turns out to be one of the managers, the same one who asked if Mr. Bensaïd and Miss Webster would teach the supervisors. Maureen thinks that’s interesting.
Mr. Bensaïd continues with the next slide. “There are also measures you can take to prevent yourself from being extracted from in the first place, though they are often expensive, and they do require willingly letting someone into your dreams to teach you how. It cannot be done in one session, and it is likely that you will have difficulty dreaming and sleeping for quite some time afterward.
“Remember that we described how the extractors permit the mark to populate the dream with his subconscious? One of the legal uses for the PASIV is for people who will literally militarize your subconscious, train your mind to notice and fend off invasion. If an Extractor enters your subconscious unprepared, your mind will arm itself and fend him off, waking him up and cutting the dream short. And even if the criminals prepare for the fact that your subconscious is militarized, they have to work in larger groups, which will make things more difficult for them in reality. If you would be interested in this sort of training, just see us after the lecture.”
That one manager nods, curt and emphatic, and Miss Webster smiles at him.
“But the easiest way, the way that we are going to teach you right now, is to discover that you are dreaming, and end the dream yourself. Think about how you got here,” Mr. Bensaïd says. “Think about what you were doing before you came to where you are. If you can’t remember, you may be dreaming, and if you discover that you are dreaming your projections will attack the dreamer, and you will wake up.”
Maureen considers. She applied for this job-what, two weeks ago? it has to be-and there was the first interview last week, they said she should come in and train-
But how many days has she been at orientation?
Miss Webster is glancing at the walls and saying something about how there’s just one more slide, and all the contact information and people you can call to report mind crime and what to expect, and Maureen drops her coffee thermos.
-
“You got it?”
“Yeah,” someone says-Miss Webster? It sounds like her, but Maureen can’t see yet, “yeah, it’s Beauchamp. We should go after him instead, McCracken was uptight about it.”
Something aches a little in Maureen’s right hand. She tries to move it.
“-Arthur, knock her out.”
She feels a towel drop over her mouth and nose.
-
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