Free Videodrome: Days of O'Blivion by Lee McGeorge Page B

the girl didn’t flinch. She stared ahead unblinking,
mesmerised by the screen.
    Was it the new Veraceo
causing this? If so, that was a powerfully persuasive video signal.
He shut off the signal generator and came back to find Suzanne
nervously smiling. He waited a second to see if she realised what
she’d said only moments earlier… it looked like she didn’t. “How
did you find that experience?” he asked.
    “It was okay. I just…
wait… I’m sorry I can’t remember what we did. I watched a film
about… I don’t quite remember.”
    “Was the film true or
false?”
    “False!”
    Brian pondered her
answer. It was bizarre behaviour. She remembered nothing of the
film, but remembered she was supposed to say it was false. “Just a
moment, I want to try something. Could you watch the screen again,
please.” He went back to the workshop and reactivated the signal
generator then returned to the doorway. The girl was back to
staring at the colour bars. “Suzanne, when you leave here and for
the next hour, I want you to walk with a limp on your left leg.
There’s no pain, but your left knee is quite stiff and it makes you
limp for one hour. Do you understand?”
    “Yes.”
    Brian shut off the
signal generators.
    He thanked Suzanne for
her time and gave his business card. “If you have any problems. For
example, if you get a headache or anything looks strange, I want
you to call me. Do you understand?”
    She did.
    She left the building
after a handshake and a smile at the pocket full of cash… and with
a limp to her left leg.
    “This is bigger than
Video Truth,” Brian mumbled to himself. “This is Video Persuasion.”
In his head he immediately gave a new name to Veraceo-Three. This
was the Video-Persuasion-Signal. This was Viper-Sig… and it was
different. Very different.
     
    ----- X -----
     
    “These are your
detectors,” opened a large box. “I got a job lot on security
cameras and the circuitry was easy. There’s a small board that fits
inside the camera housing.”
    Brian took one of the
small cameras and turned it in his hands. It looked like a purpose
made unit except for the plastic embossing labels reading,
‘Veraceo’ and ‘Signal Clean’ beside red and green LEDs. He set it
up on the TV in the room next to the workshop and turned on the
colour bar test pattern. He activated Veraceo-1 and the light
changed from green to red. He played the Pittsburgh tape embedded
with Veraceo-Two and again the light changed. He activated the
hacked signal generators to send Veraceo-3 to the TV, the
Viper-Sig… the light stayed green. Not only did Viper-Sig produce a
different result, but the detector couldn’t see it.
     
    ----- X -----
     
    On his way to work,
Brian stopped at a photographic store and bought a flash gun. At
the workshop he dismantled it and replaced the xenon flash bulb
with two copper strips to draw off the low amperage, high voltage.
With a deep breath he held the copper strips and activated the
flash giving himself a fierce and powerful electric shock. “Fuck
me!” he yelled. He bounced out of the chair, shaking his hand and
pacing the room. He gripped one hand in the other and cried, “Ahhh,
that fucking hurt.”
    Today’s experiment
would be interesting. The test subject was a boy called Bradley
Etherington. Brian shook his hand on arrival. “What I’m working on
are special techniques to influence thinking in television
commercials,” he began. “I’d like you to sit here and watch the
screen. I’m going to go next door and talk into a camera and you’ll
see me on this screen.”
    “Is that all?” Bradley
asked.
    Brian nodded. “Yes… oh,
but you see that device beside you? It’s an electric shock device.
Whatever you do, don’t touch it. Okay? I don’t ever want you to
touch that, no matter what you see on screen, don’t touch the
device. Okay? It will hurt you and I don’t want you to touch
it.”
    “So why is it there?”
the boy asked.
    “I’m going to