Free The Amazon Code by Nick Thacker Page A

tell my family that I love them, and… ” He couldn’t finish the statement. “Yes. You know. Well, at approximately 8:55pm, the NARATech facilities were breached and entered by what appears to be a military operation. They immediately shot and killed our two guards on duty, and raced toward the main laboratory section, where I was testing a theory. I was able to move to the conference room and begin uploading this video, along with some of the research that I believe proves my theory.”  
    The man was analytical, and Ben could tell he was trying to outline the events in as clear and concise way as possible. To him, it must have seemed surreal, but his education and training took over and he tried to keep his voice steady for the camera, providing as much detail as possible that might be useful in the inevitable police investigation that would follow.  
    “I will try to send a quick update directly to your phone, but it will no doubt be low quality. Since you are watching this video, you’ve obviously seen that video, and the message therein. Here is the entire message: I have a theory about the golden man we have seen in the dreams of the subjects. ‘Pega-veretas’ is a game I play with my daughters. I saw the sticks, and how some of them seemed to point in a certain direction.”  
    The man paused once more, gathering his thoughts, then continued.  
    “There is not time to fully describe my thought process, so unfortunately the scientific method will have to wait. ” He smiled. “I’m sure you can understand the results I’ve collected in these folders. ”  
    The video ended, abruptly, and Ben wondered if there was supposed to be more to it. He almost asked, but Amanda and Paulinho seemed more concerned with the files tucked away in each of the folders.  
    “What’s the ‘golden man?’ Julie asked.  
    Paulinho seemed stumped as well, so they all waited for Amanda to respond. When she did, she turned to her left to address all of the small SUV’s occupants.
    “It’s exactly what it sounds like. A man, completely gold-colored, that we’ve been observing.”  
    “Like watching ?” Paulinho asked.  
    “Yes, but in our subjects’ dream-states. They have dreams, we observe the dreams and record what video we can, and then discuss the results when they wake up. But in some of our subjects we’re seeing this golden man. He’s always looking directly at us.”  
    “How is he looking at you?”  
    “Well, technically it’s an impression from the subject’s subconscious imaging. Their mind is preparing the image of the golden man, and they are preparing it in a way that the man is always looking directly at the subject — what we have been calling the ‘camera.’”  
    Ben shuddered. The research they were doing at NARATech was even creepier than he’d initially thought. Recording dreams? ‘Watching’ peoples’ memories?
    “This golden man has been the subject of much debate in my company for the past month. We couldn’t figure out why he shows up in only some of our patients’ memories, and why the patients themselves have no idea who he is.”  
    Ben leaned forward in the chair. “Wait a second — the patients don’t know about the golden man?”  
    Amanda shook her head. “No. They’re completely clueless, and sometimes even argumentative when we show them the playback of the recording. They’re adamant they’ve never seen the man before.”  
    They sat in silence for a moment, taking it all in. They turned left onto a long, dirt road, and Amanda spoke again. “What’s more, our technology isn’t strong enough to clearly transpose all of the electrical signals output by the brain. We generally get close, and we can tell, for example, that a subject is walking down a street, or driving, or at a party, but we can’t see faces clearly, and most objects are blurry shades of light.”  
    Ben waited for her to say, ‘ but.’
    “But,” she said, “the golden man —