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She urgently replied after the shot. She was shot in the arm and has eventually lost a lot of blood. In a few minutes, the hospital will be flooded with injured. Doctors scrutinised her closely, but they couldn't do more to keep her alive. When I met her, I received the initial impression that this woman’s aristocratic grace and confidence was slightly fraying at the edges obviously a result of the years of pressure and caution she needed; forced to suspect a trap at every turn.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Title Page
Earsplitting
Bouquet of Fresh Air
Jeremy McHarry
Earsplitting / 3rd of series: Bouquet of Fresh Air / By Jeremy McHarry
Published 2023 by Bentockiz
e-book Imprint: Uniochlors
e-book Registration: Stockholm, Sweden
e-book ISBN: 9789198834130
e-book editing: Athens, Greece
Cover Images created via AI art generators
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Introduction
Through books we come into contact with everything important that has happened in the past, analyzing also current events and putting our thoughts together to predict the future. The book is a window to the world, acquiring valuable knowledge and sparking our vivid imagination. It is a means of entertainment and is generally seen as a best friend, or as a slave that carries together all valuable information for us. The book is a friend who stays together without demands, a friend you call upon at every moment and abandon when you want.
It accompanies us in the hours of boredom and loneliness, while at the same time it entertains us. In general, a book does not ask anything from us, while it waits patiently on a dusty shelf to give us its information, to get us out of dead ends and to travel us to magical worlds.
This may be the travel mission of our books. Abstract narration, weird or unconscious thoughts difficult to be understood, but always genuine and full of life experiences, these are stories of life that can’t be overlooked easily.
This may be the start of something amazing!
Chapter One
Klara opens the box and hands several headbands across the table to Todd and suggests, “Ignore those two. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they were siblings.”
Sharlene makes her own suggestion, “Klara, since you have them out, please pass them around. I’m not going to force anyone to wear a headband, but I would encourage each of you to do so. If I recall, Mariam, you said something about the equipment not picking up on your emotions or recording them or something.”
“That’s right.”
“I don’t remember whether it is you or Julie who said something about the Project management not wanting the equipment or recorder or something to be adjusted for individuals.”
“That’s true.”
“We all know how excited Mariam can get. I find it hard to believe she didn’t have at least some good recordings.”
Todd says, “It’s not the equipment, it’s the software.”
Sharlene turns and asks, “What do you mean?”
“The sensors in the headband will pick up almost any brain wave activity generated by the electrical firing of the brain synapses. The software which records the emotions on the mini-drive was written to exclude several frequencies, which caused the recordings of some people to appear non-functional. We did some experimentation on our own time and found that by removing the exclusion, some people who gave essentially non-functional recordings earlier, afterwards gave measurable recordings. They didn’t have the clarity of the ‘wow’ recording, but they weren’t blank.”
“Really!?! Do you have any idea why the exclusion was put into the software?”
Todd shakes his head as he answers, “Not a clue. I haven’t even been able to guess at a reason.”
Sharlene asks, “What does it take to remove the exclusion?”
“A few seconds with the recording review software.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait until we get some computers set up.”
“I’ve got it on mine.” Mariam looks up and explains, “When the Project scandal hit, I made copies of everything I could to make sure it didn’t disappear or was adjusted in some way.”
“Smart move, Mariam.”
“Thanks, Julie. Okay, Todd, I have the software up. What do I need to do?” He comes around the table and directs her as she makes step by step notes. They push the headbands to her, she takes the mini-drive out, plugs it into her computer, goes through the few steps, removes the mini-drive, puts it back into the headband, goes on to the next and in a few minutes has the mini-drives from the headbands on the table revised.
“We can work on the rest later as well as make sure the batteries are charged up. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve gotta try this out.” Mariam puts on a headband.
Sharlene suggests, “Maybe this will increase the number of quality recordings which are available.”
Julie shakes her head as she responds, “I don’t know. For all of the thousands of recordings we’ve tested, very few had the clarity even near the ‘wow’ one. I would find it hard to believe the best recordings were all on or near the same frequencies which happened to be excluded from being recorded.”
“I have to agree with you, but one or two others would sure expand what’s currently available. Mariam, do you have copies of the letters the Project sent out to the emoters?”
“Yes.”
“Can you put together a new letter asking them to participate and explain the new terms?”
“Are we ready to handle an influx of recordings to review or have people stop by the office to drop off mini-drives and pick up new ones? Especially since we don’t have an online site for them to upload to?”
“Good point, Mariam. I guess we’re not ready for all of that yet.”
Julie suggests, “How about just asking those few who submitted quality recordings to participate? I would be inclined to make special provisions for whoever submitted the ‘wow’ recording just to get more of that clarity.”
“That’s an idea. Okay, who wants to go through the database to identify the quality recordings and list the participant’s numbers?”
“We’ve already done that. Here are their numbers.” Julie hands over a piece of paper.
“Thanks. Well, Mariam, back to the letter for just these emoters.”
“It’s funny.”
“What’s funny, Julie?”
“The person who did the ‘wow’ recording? I went back through the database and the person was in there, but there was only a single blimp above the four mark. For a couple of weeks that person barely registered a score of one and a half and then after the Project is defunded, this beautifully clear above four of intimate pleasure. It was like two different people.”
“Well hopefully there are a few more people with similar expressions of emotions. The question is, how do we find them and get them to participate?”
Julie answers, “As you pointed out in your presentation, we need to expand the search outside of the geographical area. If we do it like the Project did, that’s not going to be cheap.”
“You’re right. And apparently it wasn’t particularly effective considering the small number of quality recordings there are available out of all of the recordings the Project received and processed. So, does anyone have any alternative ideas?”
* * * * *
2147-09-33 (m4)
The silence stretches until George remarks, “I might have an idea, but I need to ask some questions first.”
“Go ahead.”
“If I recall correctly, the Project had prospective people watch four different movies to see if the equipment could record an emotional response from them. If it did, then they were invited to participate for a one week trial. If they had a recordable emotion in that time period, they were asked to continue for a four week period. That involved the Project renting a theater, providing snacks and lunch for several hundred people, keeping track of equipment, having enough staff to review thousands of low quality emotional recordings, and then to pay for the recordings whether they were usable or not. All of that to pick up on what, a couple of dozen usable recordings?”
Mariam confirms, “Not even that many recordings, but that’s the process in a nutshell.”
“That a rather poor return on the investment. Question: are there enough recordings available plus any more which might be received from the better emoters, to put up on an online site for people to experience?”
They look at each other. Finally Julie speaks up, “Frankly, I would be inclined to say that the ‘wow’ recording is enough to start with, but we do need more variety than that. I would say, ‘yes,’ we have enough to start with, to spark the interest, especially if we can say that more are coming.”
“In that case, forget about using the Project’s methodology for finding new emoters. You’ll go broke putting on road shows in order to find a handful of emoters. Question: the software you review the recordings with, how easy is it to use?”
Mariam answers, “Quite easy. It’s straightforward, user friendly, at least I think so, and with a few simple directions, more for explanation of terminology, almost anyone can use it.”
George thinks for a little while then says, “The first part of my suggestion is to provide the software or a modified version of the software to the emoters. Give them an idea of what your parameters are for recordings which are potentially useful and have them review their own recordings and submit only the quality ones or the ones they’re comfortable with submitting.”
The silence stretches.
“That’s great, George. Kiss him for me, Sharlene.” Mariam starts typing in order to get the idea down.
“Gladly,” Sharlene pulls his head around to kiss him. The three trainers aren’t sure whether to be stunned by the idea or by them kissing.
After a moment or two to recover from her surprise, Julie asks, “Um, that makes the review process a lot easier for us, but how does it help us find new emoters?”
George answers, “We let them find themselves.”
“Huh?” They all stare at him.
He explains, “Sharlene’s dad suggested we distribute the headbands through a retail outlet. Do the same for prospective emoters. Put together a kit with a headband,” he holds one up, “a copy of the software, whatever instructions are needed, the online site of where to submit the recordings which meet the criteria, and instructions for getting paid then distribute the emoter kits through the same outlets as the download headbands. If Emotique generates the interest people suspect it will, other people are going to want to participate. You can clearly state right on the package of the kit that few people have recordings of the necessary quality, but that isn’t going to stop them from buying the kit in the belief that their emotions are better than the average.”
They continue to stare at him.
“Yes!!!” Mariam jumps up as she continues to exclaim, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She rushes over and kisses him full on the lips before she jumps around the room. Finally, Klara, with a big grin, walks over and grabs Mariam and hugs her until she partially calms down. Mariam almost kisses Klara until she realizes who’s holding her.
With wide eyes, Julie proclaims, “That’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant, not only for finding new emoters, but for generating additional interest. ‘You, too, can be an emoter.’ That will be almost irresistible for a lot of people. George, if you were only an employee, I would say that idea alone deserved a doubling of your salary.”
He shrugs his shoulders as he responds, “I’m just trying to do what I can to help, but thank you for the thought. Before we get carried away with the idea, there is one part of it that won’t work with the current process.”
Sharlene asks, “What’s that, lover?”
“Using the local bank for making payments. If someone in another area submits quality recordings, they’re not going to want to deal with a bank which is located half-way around the world.”
Mariam proclaims, “Details, old man, details. I keep telling you, the details are easy to deal with. You come up with the ideas and we’ll take care of the details.”
“Yes, Mariam.”
“By the way, I should apologize for kissing you.”
“Why?”
“You’re right. I haven’t before.” Mariam looks across the table and says, “I should really apologize to you three for letting my emotions get carried away. George has been real tolerant of me kissing him in exuberance when he comes up with a great idea and even Sharlene hasn’t minded, so I hope it doesn’t bother you guys too much. I suppose that’s another reason for you to reserve your judgment until you have a better idea of who we are and how we interact.” In the silence which follows, Mariam pulls off her headband and puts the mini-drive in her computer. They watch her and a couple of moments later her face lights up as she exclaims, “Yippee!”
Sharlene asks, “What do you have?”
Mariam turns on the projector and her computer screen is displayed on the wall screen which shows a background emotional level of about two then a sudden spike to a plateau of about four and a half where it stays for a little while before it slowly diminishes to about a level of three. A moment later, she proclaims, “Say hello to your newest emoter.”
Julie exclaims, “Well I’ll be! It looks like this is another area where the Project shot itself in the foot, by excluding quality recordings right in their own back yard. Why would they do that?”
Klara suggests, “Well, the answer might be in the boxes of documentation we received from the Project, but is it worth the effort to look through all of those papers to find out, assuming the reason was even written down?”
“No, you’re right. We need to move on. It’ll be interesting to test Mariam’s recording and see if it can be felt. Maybe the frequencies were excluded because they couldn’t be felt.”
Mariam briefly thinks about that before she responds, “If that’s the case, then there was a lot more knowledge about the capability of the system which was hidden from everyone and which you guys had to figure out by trial and error.”
“You’re right. It just doesn’t make sense.”
The silence grows as each of them tries to absorb one or more aspect of what has happened or been talked about during the last several minutes.
Mariam says, “I suggest we take a break. When we come back, let’s try to get a handle on where we are and what needs to be done to get to the goal and try to figure out priorities and make assignments.”
“Good idea.”
Their break is a little longer than usual, but they’re soon back.
Sharlene starts, “I don’t want to throw a wet blanket on our progress, but I’m hesitant to hand out assignments before we’ve had a chance for Julie, Todd, and Kassandra to explain what they can do for the company or to give them a chance to consider whether they would want to work with this group of crazies. We really need to get the equipment set up and at least have some semblance of training provided. A few more days isn’t going to make a difference other than maybe letting the ideas percolate so we can think of possible problems, solutions, or additional benefits.
“We can still list the things which need to be done and try to prioritize them, but we need to hold off on handing out assignments. Then this afternoon, we can work on getting the testing lab set up so Todd and Julie can explain its processes and get a computer or two functioning so Kassandra can do the same for the work she did.”
Mariam says, “You’re the boss.”
“I don’t mean to be dictatorial . . .”
Mariam assures her, “You’re not. It’s a good decision. I’ll be the first to admit that when I get excited, I tend to rush head long into something. It’s good that you want us to slow down a little to give us a chance to think about where we’re going and the best way to get there.”
Sharlene responds, “Oh. Thank you, Mariam. Although I would like to speed up the process myself, I don’t want us to be in default on our part of the agreement with the Institute and the government. Now that you know a little about us and our philosophy, you’ll have some time to think about whether you will be comfortable working with us and what value you think you can bring to the company. I’ll also let you guys decide if you want to do your interviews basically together or at different times. After the interviews, I would like to take a day, or at least overnight, for us to discuss and think about our decision. Are there any questions or concerns?”
Todd and Julie look at each other and she answers, “No, that’s fine. Actually you’re being more than fair. Since we didn’t know who acquired the Project, we were concerned that we would spend two weeks training someone to do our jobs and then be told we weren’t needed. Mariam tried to assure us, but without being able to talk in specifics, it was hard to feel comfortable.”
“I understand. Kassandra?”
“No questions for now. I agree with Julie. I know we haven’t made a mutual agreement, but I feel more hope now than I have for a long time.”
“Thank you. Okay. I know we’ve talked about a lot of things in the last day and a half and we’ve all been thinking, to one degree or another, about what shape the Project should take in order to move into the future. For the next hour or so, I would like us to do some brainstorming about the things which need to be done. Don’t worry about when they should be done, we can work on that later. Mariam, are you prepared to write things down?”
