Thirty Four Minutes DEAD (26 page)

Defence
“But you didn’t use the tools to any great effect did you, Mr Stevens? The scissors weren’t touched, and your efforts with the knife were nowhere near achieving decapitation. You had the perfect tool Mark, didn’t you - the machete? But you didn’t use it. I would like you to tell the jury why you didn’t use it”

Stevens
(sobbing) “I couldn’t, that’s sick. The knife made a mess; it made me throw up, but the machete - no that’s sick. It would have been too quick, too much blood. Taking the head was too much for me, I couldn’t do it. I’m so sorry for her. I just didn’t want anyone watching me later. I could have burned just a head but I couldn’t do it - I’m so sorry for her”.

Defence
“ But you had killed her, Mark. You had nothing to lose really, did you? One chop, one blow, that’s all. You were a killer after strangling Emma, weren’t you? You had the bag, you had the tools, but now you say that you didn’t have the ‘stomach’ to decapitate her! Why don’t you face up to one fact Mark, you didn’t have the guts to be a killer, did you? Really, you were more comfortable with just being a rapist, weren’t you? We all know that you did strangle Emma, you did in fact take your victim’s life but you only did that to get her head. If you hadn’t seen the MC-project findings, decapitation wouldn’t have motivated you and you wouldn’t have killed - would you Mark?”

Stevens
“No I wouldn’t - that’s right, I wouldn’t have killed her”.

The trial reconstruction was an excellent simulation, and after the pre-recorded screening, Sean Edwards returned to his
 
‘pulpit’ to address the live studio audience. A large contingent of the audience had been alarmed by what they had witnessed, and Edwards had to initially ask for calm so that the programme could proceed. Edwards was notorious for ‘loading’ his opinions upon his audience and the MC-project Sinquiry once again found him whipping up crowd hysteria. His words of devil’s advocate incitement started to cast their spell.

“So what’s upset you guys, then? Come off it. We just saw some semi-illiterate loser try to blame his evil actions on man’s greatest scientific discovery - didn’t we? I mean you didn’t buy that pile of excrement, did you? One thing though folks, maybe, just maybe, the actions of the loser illuminated something sinister concerning the discovery our secretive MC-project friends have given us. Tonight, you my friends are going to tell the nation whether you think the MC discovery is backfiring - is it creating killers?”

After Sean Edward’s melodramatic audience sparring, some crowd members were invited to give their comments about the MC-project, and reactions ranged from support to suspicion, and castigation was forthcoming from a few individuals. Edward’s cut short audience debate to allow for the entrance of the parents of Emma Robertson. In a read statement, Mr Robertson presented the couple’s position.

“The death of our only daughter was our worst nightmare made real. Mark Stevens effectively killed three people the night he ended the life of Emma and Joyce, and I have thought of little else since. Some say ‘time is a healer’, but it is our mutual view that whoever coined that phrase was ignorant of the escalating type of pain that we collectively feel. Things get worse, not better. As our thoughts have returned time and time again to the actual motivation surrounding the murder we both share the same opinion with regard to the attribution of blame. We feel certain now, more than ever, that our daughter would be alive if the MC-project findings hadn’t been broken to the world. We realise that the project is foundered in decency, but we also feel that when the world knew how dead minds store heightened visuals, an increase in the more macabre forms of crime would ensue. Unfortunately, it seems as though our daughter was part of this process.

My wife and I hate Mark Stevens, and we will never forgive him for his vile perpetration, but we both feel that Emma met her death because of her killer’s fear regarding detection. It was fear that made him kill, fear that made him attempt to mutilate her body and fear that changed him from a rapist to a killer. The MC-project effectively killed our daughter”.

Mr and Mrs Robertson withdrew from the Sinquiry studio, and the assembled audience applauded their gallantry in light of their loss. The applause was encouraged by Edwards to a level approaching fanaticism, although some of the people who witnessed his efforts felt that clapping hands should stay in the realms of quiz shows and not be utilised for hard hitting docu-dramas like Sinquiry. Whilst Vain felt slightly perturbed by the applause, Levene remained unaffected. Despite this difference, both project members were very surprised by Sinquiry’s next live studio appearance. As the Robertson’s left, in walked Mr Fray to take a position in one of the interviewee chairs. Edwards gave the high-ranking project figure another one of his melodramatic cued-up introductions.

“Well folks, thanks for that big hand, and keep the applause coming for Mr Vance Fray. Mr Fray is a key security figure within the MC-project. Now hold on folks, I know what you’re thinking - isn’t that the project division that keeps killing our journalists and blocking off our highways?
 
Well, put that aside, and let Mr Fray persuade us otherwise - if he can! Let’s see if he can make us feel secure about MC-project security”.

As Mr Fray sat uncomfortably in his chair, the audience became uniformly silent. Mr Fray didn’t like the interview style of Edwards but there was no going back now. The ordeal began.

“Mr Fray, we’re all very grateful to you for appearing on Sinquiry tonight, and we’d like to extend our congratulations to the whole MC-project team for taking the fiction out of mindreading”.

“Thank you”.

“Vance, if I can call you that…”

Fray interrupted

“No”.

“Oh, very well, I’ll keep things formal. Do you feel Mr Fray, that your explorations have been worthwhile on scientific and moral levels?”

“Without a doubt, as far as furthering scientific advancement is concerned. I am a key figure in MC-project security as you said, so I feel that I am an inappropriate source to answer any ethics based questions. Therefore I can’t answer the second part of your question”.

“But, Mr Fray, some innocent people are starting to hit the sidewalk - journalists, photographers, inter…”

A second cessation occurred.

“You call them innocent, do you? If they get in our way, they are gonna have to suffer the consequences you know. That usually just means moving groups of media people on, but occasionally we have to deal with things in a slightly firmer fashion”.

“Oh, like the thirty-eight journalists that are believed to have been ‘wiped’ in this country by your organisation in the last five years”.

“I deal in reality, not melodramatic speculation, Mr Edwards”.

“Oh come on Mr Fray, loss of life, murder - that’s reality. Are you saying that your organisation hasn’t had a hand in any deaths in this country?”

“I can see your loaded intentions here, Edwards. No comment”.

“Fair enough Mr Fray, let’s examine some statistics that show a heavy relevance for your project then”.

“I can’t wait, Mr Edwards”.

“Sinquiry have gathered in evidence that shows an alarming increase in macabre crime. Crime involving the act of decapitation that Mark Stevens couldn’t quite perpetrate. Since global MC-project exposure, decapitated corpses have been discovered all over the UK. It seems other people are, like Stevens, terrified of having their crime ‘replayed’ from their victim’s mind and subsequently many are ‘taking the head’. As Stevens intimated at his trial, a head is easy to dispose of in comparison to a whole body. Since exposure, the British police forces have located ninety-two decapitated corpses, and thirteen other corpses showed signs that murderers had ‘tried’ to decapitate their victims. Of the ninety-two missing heads, the police retrieval score was just four!

“Some of the victims looked like gangland killings, some died after rape and a few were murdered for small change. The bottom line, Mr Fray, as far as Sinquiry is concerned, argues that the global exposure of MC-project operations has offset a desperate ‘new’ type of criminal.

“Prior to MC exposure, decapitation in Britain was hardly practised, but now it is relatively commonplace!

“Sinquiry believes that the MC-project are guilty of introducing a new vicious trend into the criminal culture of the UK. Since your exposure, things are worse, not better - how do you answer that charge?”

Two hundred studio audience members and millions of television viewers awaited Fray’s response.

“With two words Mr Edwards - fuck you!”

Edwards had riled Fray from the outset. He hated the way that the interviewer tried to paint the MC-project as a guilty party as far as escalating criminal practice was concerned, and he felt that Edwards was representative of the narrow-mindedness that could slow his beloved project down. After his expletive based utterance, Fray stood up and ripped off his neck-mic. He barged past Edwards and exited the Sinquiry studio.

Sinquiry had been scheduled to include fifteen minutes of ‘questions and answers’ involving the studio audience and Mr Fray, but his departure meant a gap needed filling. Edwards took this opportunity to further incite the crowd.

“Well people, that was a representative of the way things are now! Mr Fray obviously didn’t feel that you folks were worth listening to, did he? You can bet your bottom dollar that his kids haven’t been ‘sliced up’, and he probably feels his conscience is clear when his unit wipe our reporters out. I think he’s wrong though. I think that the MC-project has become too unaccountable, and I think that we ought to let them know that we aren’t going to suffer the implications of their decisions any longer! I know that many people are heading to Trafalgar Square folks. It’s time we protested, loud and proud - 'cos many of us are fed up with having our future mind read. See you there!”

As Sean Edwards left the Sinquiry studio, he kicked over the MC-project display placards that had been installed to tie in with Fray’s appearance. The audience took this as a cue to start vandalising the studio, and the chair that Fray had sat in was ripped apart by the incited throng in a matter of seconds. As glass patricians were kicked in and seats ripped out, the studio cameras initially kept shooting and the television viewers were fed the violent outrage for over five minutes. Eventually, security staff restored order and the programme was terminated, being replaced with a repeated drama production for the duration.

Whilst Edwards didn’t go on to lead a revolution in Trafalgar Square, Sinquiry had acted as a catalyst for many MC sceptical viewers, and several thousand people did assemble in the heart of central London. Conventional security forces took over seven hours to quell the rioting that ensued after a selection of orators had echoed the type of hysteria that Edwards had put in place.

Central London wasn’t the only place to feel the chaos which mass anger generated. Violence and rioting took place throughout the nation, and the pivotal Designation B became the prime target for many. The venue exterior had been highlighted by the media to a high level of frequency and subsequently the enraged demonstrators had a clear target to aim for in addition to Trafalgar Square.

As over twenty thousand MC-project doubters made their way toward the Designation, dispirited conventional security ranks started to buckle, and Leif Denison made his second evacuation order. Fire had prompted his first decision in Chicago, but now it was mass hysteria that moulded his edict. Four ‘splinter’ convoys left the Designation and rocket launchers had to fire shells into the crowd to create a safe passage for escape. The MC-project would be re-housed in a rural Designation south of Oxford, but the organisational venue secrecy of previous years now looked a very remote restoration option. Vain and Levene left with the last splinter convoy and as their group left, petrol bombs rained down on Designation B. The future of London-region Designations looked very doubtful as hundreds of protesters ran unchecked in the grounds of the ‘favoured’ Neo-Gothic venue. As Designation B burned out of control, the place where Julia Venison’s mind was unlocked became a charred symbol of safer days.

The flames licked throughout the building, and yet in the Lower Chamber a chance meeting took place. Both men had their own reasons for seeing life out this way.

“I thought I’d be alone here. A fry up is hardly a crowd-pleaser is it?”

“Well I guess I’m sick of seeing the four horsemen. They didn’t tell me that the imagery would magnify over time!”

“Fair enough. Unlucky you, first of firsts!”

“So how come your presence, then? I thought you’d be counting the dead ones in until the final round!”

“It all began here really, didn’t it? In a way it seems fitting that it should end here”.

“Yeah, there’s a lot in that my friend. Too many know now anyway. Until the next day!”