Introduction: He controls his sister, mother, neighbor, and a stranger.
Read and enjoy.
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“So do you think uncle Harry hid money or valuables around his house?” I ask my mom as we’re driving down the interstate.
“What makes you think that?” She asks, surprised at my question.
“Well, he was pretty eccentric, you have to admit. He seemed like one of those guys who would stash things around the house and then forget where they are. We are going to search for hidden stuff, right?” My mom’s brother died in a car accident a couple of months ago and my mom is executor of his estate. Uncle Harry never married and as his younger sister, mom is his only living relative. Uncle Harry was 40, two years older than my mom. They grew up together but had less contact once mom got married.
My mom is one of those people who take family responsibility very seriously. Like every Christmas she doesn’t just send presents, she drives down and gives Uncle Harry his present. Last December, Mom and my sister Susan drove down just before New Years. It’s spring break now and I’m out of school, which is why mom asked me to come with her this time.
“Your uncle wasn’t eccentric.” Mom argues. “He was just very, very smart. Sometimes he didn’t have patience for the mundane things that we consider normal.” Uncle Harry really was smart. He was one of the leading neurologists in the country, with huge research grants. “I’m going to go through his personal papers and put everything in order, you can look for hidden ‘stuff’ if you want.” Mom says laughing. “Just make sure you tell me if you find anything, because I have to make a complete list of his assets.”
Uncle Harry’s house isn’t huge, but it does have a large office in the converted walkout basement. Mom is hoping to sort through everything in 4-5 days. The first day I help her catalogue all the furniture, paintings, etc. The second day mom asks me to make a list of all the books in his library, while she starts sorting through his office.
Some of the books are valuable first editions and some are just normal books that everyone has on their bookshelves. I have to look at the title page of each book to make sure I don’t overlook any of the collector’s items. He has about four hundred books and it’s taking a long time. Plus, I’ve gotten distracted a few times looking up the price of some of the first editions on his computer. When we break for lunch I’ve gotten about halfway through.
“How’s it going?” Mom asks as we sit at the kitchen table eating sandwiches and potato chips.
“Fine. Uncle Harry sure had a wide range of interests. He’s got everything from biographies to books on Wicca.” I tell her. “I’m about halfway through. How’s it going in the basement?”
“Slow. Your uncle wasn’t the most organized man in the world.” Mom says, sighing. “I’m really having to organize everything before I can start sorting through his finances. This may take longer than I thought.”
After lunch we resume our individual tasks. The third book I look at, one of the neurology textbooks Uncle Harry wrote, has two folded sheets of paper in it. I unfold them and read what looks like passwords or codes. One says, NEUROSUBMITTRANS and then NST1001#HD after it and the other one looks like a combination: 47-63-95-20. I get excited thinking, here’s the hidden stuff I was talking about, if I could only figure out what it means.
The first looks vaguely familiar and then I remember seeing a file on Uncle Harry’s computer, when I was searching for book prices. It was called NST. doc. I go to his computer double click on NTS. doc and sure enough a pop up box asks for a password. I type NST1001#HD and an MS-Word file opens. It’s some kind of research paper called Neurological Submission Transmitter. I wonder why Uncle Harry had it password protected. As far as I know he’s the only one who used this computer.
As I scan through the document, most of it is over my head. I’m still on High School physics. I skip to the ‘Summary of Findings’ section at the end. I read through and it seems to be talking about an actual transmitter that when tuned to a person’s specific neurological frequency will render them submissive. The summary is written in plain English without all the technical jargon. It appears to be a request for more grant money, documenting the potential uses for the device including helping doctors resolve abnormal or destructive behavior. To explain the transmitter in layman’s terms he uses an analogy of instant hypnosis. Wow! Uncle Harry really was a genius, if he invented an instant hypnosis device. I wonder where it is and if the other piece of paper has anything to do with it. I spend the next hour looking for a safe in the library and the bedrooms without any luck. I finally go down to the basement office.
“How’s it going?” I ask mom. I’ve decided not to tell her about the research paper just yet.
“I’m struggling through. Are you done with the books?” Mom asks, looking up from the desk where she has a bunch of papers all around her laptop.
“Not yet. I’m just taking a break.” I answer. “Did Uncle Harry have a safe or anything like that? I’m wondering if he had other valuable books in a safe or something.” I’m trying to act nonchalant about it.
“Not that I’ve seen down here.” Mom answers. “You can look around if you want.” I look all over the basement and don’t find anything that might have a combination lock on it. I give up for now and go back to cataloguing the books. I’m on the last bookcase just as it’s starting to get dark.
When I try to pull the books off the bottom shelf, one book seems stuck, but I can’t tell why. It’s not oversized or wedged into the shelf or anything. I pull hard but it doesn’t budge. Bending down I realize it’s a fake book that when all the other books have been removed it slides to the side, opening an access panel. Behind the access panel is a combination lock. I jump up, get the other slip of paper and after several tries of left and right combinations I open the lock. Inside is a small device that looks like an IPOD with ear buds attached to it. It has a small LCD screen and a thumb wheel with a button in the middle of it. I am so excited that I start to run and tell mom, then stop. I decide I’m going to figure out how it works before I tell mom about it. I open the NST file again and print out the entire document. It’s fifty pages long. I finish cataloging the books while it’s printing.
After dinner, I tell mom I’m just going to read one of Uncle Harry’s books. I sit up in bed reading the entire NST document. Most of it I don’t understand, but there are sections that appear to be written specifically for a non-technical audience. There is one section on the details of the experiments. It seems that whoever uses it has to wear the ear buds for protection against the transmitter and to tune in the correct frequency for their subject. Rotating the thumb wheel and listening for the steady tone, tunes it to the neurological frequency of a specific subject. Pressing the button then renders the subject submissive and responsive to suggestions. It appears that the research wasn’t complete and Uncle Harry was requesting more money so he could test the duration of the affect and what he called post transmission suggestions, which I assume are like post hypnotic suggestions. I decide to test it on mom in the morning.