Page 71 of Natural-Born Cullers

Simon was left alone with the quiet of the lounge a moment later, and slipping some earplugs in, he brought the laptop to life.

An image of a man came on screen, then… then….

Work at Thames House had taken up most of his day, and Gray sat at his kitchen table, coffee close to his laptop as he ran a look over the CCTV on screen. Simon had kept to his word over sorting surveillance with Ray, but every now and again, Gray would get a look that called out how Simon needed Ray out of there. He’d been off since he’d come back half an hour ago, but for how he looked like he needed to talk, he seemed to need the time to work something out in his head too. He kept a new laptop close by, one Gray hadn’t seen before.

Giving a frown, Gray kept one eye on the time because of it. Jack would be picking up Jan from work in an hour with Al, and whatever Simon needed to discuss, it needed to be done before they got back. He wouldn’t have MI5 talk done around them.

“I’ve been over it twice,” said Ray as he swiped at his iPad. He sat next to Simon, just a few seats down. “There’s no black spots for Light to exploit.”

Gray flicked the CCTV to the summerhouse, then shifted the cameras around to the outdoor pool. In another window open on screen, Light sat in the lounge, TV on, but since he’d come back from the MC, he’d had that distracted look out at the pool as if he chased someone out there.

“Codes are randomised on the doors,” said Simon. “Only us three have access to them. The sedative in Light’s ankle tag will knock him out before he gets across the green.”

“I’m also stopping any security going over there from here on in,” added Ray. “The fewer people over there, the better.”

Gray nodded. All the best laid plans had flaws. Light had also gotten out of the manor once before, just before Brin was killed, so all they could do now was stop and look at the world through whichever window Light stared out of to stop it from happening again. He knew how to take down the electrical wires to the perimeter fence. No matter how much the design was changed, it was still an electrical current that drove it, one that could be broken. “Run a check on the motion sensors around the perimeter,” he said eventually. Light seemed subdued, but Gray couldn’t take any chances, and from how quiet Simon and Ray stayed at the opposite end of the table, it had Gray tugging out his phone and thumbing a message to Cal.

You and Raif are marked as external emergency contacts.

Nothing came through for a moment, then—Problems?

Gray gave it a moment.Bad feeling.

Enough to text me, son…? Use my personal number.

Gray left it at that and sent both numbers over to Ray before he slipped his phone back in his pocket, his fingers brushing the note off Martin.

Ray frowned at his iPad before flicking a look over at Gray. “Al’s back early with Jack and Jan. George just cleared them through at the gatehouse.”

Gray checked his watch again as Ray got to his feet. Al shouldn’t have taken the trip over to pick Jan up for another hour, but heshouldhave notified them of any change.

“I’ll go check what’s going on,” said Ray, but his look was more with Simon, how he’d flipped his phone over onto the table so Ray couldn’t see what he worked on. Simon kept his ear turned in Ray’s direction, enough to say he needed to talk to Gray alone, and Ray no doubt picked up on that.

He waited until Ray left the kitchen, then Simon picked up the new laptop and came and sat by Gray.

“From a callout I got this morning.” Simon thumbed through and settled on an image before passing it to Gray.

The woman was early twenties, a little overweight, but the vacant eye sockets stole most of his attention.

“Self-inflicted,” said Simon, and the next photo saw an evidence bag help cement his point, along with the spoon. “A police officer also tried to tear out his.”

Gray cocked him a brow, and Simon nodded, then tapped the laptop. “You need to see this.” He powered it up. “I recommend headphones from here on in,” Simon added, and frowning, Gray pulled out his.

“I’ll keep the volume low, but you’ve had training like me, so this won’t affect you too much. I’m here just in case it does.”

Simon clicked play a moment later.

A man came on screen, his expression flatlined as he stared back at Gray. Nothing happened for the first twenty seconds, then a long pull on a cello came. Then four or five images flashed hard and fast, too quick to register what, and Gray suddenly gripped the edge of the table to ground himself over grabbing his pen and….

He recognised the signs, more the push into his instinct did, but to slow the hard slam of heartbeat, he tugged out the headphones just as the man on screen smiled at him, then faded away to nothing.

Now Gray was pissed off. “Memetic kill agent.”

Simon nodded.

Memetics were known to Gray’s department. They worked to the theory of Darwinism, how messages through images could spread like a virus through society. The Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv hoax, because that was what it had been on YouTube back in 2018, one of the first. Rumours had spread that if viewers watched it for a minute, they’d gouge out their eyes, followed at some time later to mail their eyes back to them. Horror forums had picked it up, spreading the rumour that YouTube had pulled the video, only leaving up twenty seconds of its footage to prove that people weren’t gouging out their eyes after watching it. The horror movie The Ring had worked on the same memetic kill switch, where if you watched a video clip for a certain amount of time, the watcher would die not long after. And like the Darwinism theory, the rumours spread like an infection, bringing in a whole new era of memetic hazards on the net, because not all of it was fiction. Terrorists used the same techniques to radicalise members with subliminal programming, or to kill targets over how watching it led to the nervous system cutting out or death.

“This one looks like an adaptation of the Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv,” Simon said quickly, and he broke the streamed meme down into clips, how images of someone gouging their eyes out and mailing them were inserted in between the stare off the man, all finished by happy, satisfied smile, suggesting ultimate peace could be found. “Only this one… this one uses a soundtrack to instil the subliminal message.”

---