The Red Empire

"Keep our troops in place for now, we are not sending any troops to the island for the moment. However, we are not letting the Soviets develop that place that easily, controlling some of the creatures on the island to disturb them nonstop. But I wonder what will the Soviets do on those ores. Gather some and send them to Valeria, maybe they can give us an answer."

Nova-Australia, as the Soviets called it, was a backup plan for the Thalor, to prevent if there is one day their nation was losing, there would be a place for them to escape. Of course, they hope to develop the Island as well, but due to limitations of the Thalor technology and other factors, they can only do limited on it. 

Even they are confused about many things on the island, such as the Wonders, it seems that some of these wonders are relics of an ancient, lost civilization.

Due to all the reasons, the existence of the island was heavily secured by the Thalor, even the others do not know about the existence of it.

---

Odessa, a mysterious laboratory.

Chernov, after the last incident, had many rights restored. Who would be suspicious now if a sickle and hammer sign suddenly appeared on his chest?

Now, he is curiously observing the squid carcasses soaked in formalin. Beneath him in the pool, there are a few more that are alive, and they all share one thing in common, a shining necklace on their heads.

Sokolov by this time came to him,

"Colonel, everything is ready, follow me."

Chernov nodded his head and followed him into a room.

Inside a room, there is a big one-way glass, which allows them to observe the interrogation room behind it.

At the centre of the room, there is a metal metal, and also a prisoner with his handcuff on.

Sokolov nodded his head to the soldier beside him.

Two men then entered the interrogation room, they forced the prisoner to wear a necklace and unconscious him. They then removed the handcuff of the prisoner, put a box on the table and left the room.

Not long later, the prisoner wakes up and finds out there is a box in front of him. He opened the box and found there was a pistol in it. He immediately holds the pistol in hand and excitingly aims everywhere. Just as this time, an operator in the room beside seems to activate something, and the necklace on the prisoner starts to shine.

The excited prisoner immediately calmed down, and the pupils also began to dilate.

"Let him shoot himself."

As the order came, the operator continued to work on the device.

The prisoner hand then uncontrolled raise the pistol and aims at his head, then pulls the trigger without any hesitation.

"Bang!"

The momentum of the bullet brings the blood to the ceiling.

Chernov does not feel good in his heart when he looks at this. This technology is not good, even if the Soviet Union is holding it.

"Chernov, we have primarily some breakthrough on mind control, but as you can see, there is the limitation, we need to wear the device on them to control them directly." Sokolov at the side explains to him.

"What was the KGB plan for it?" Chernov ask.

"Comrade Chairman has ordered to set the research as the highest classified project. There are only a few who know even if it is in the high rank minister. Perhaps not long in the future, research on mind control will be stopped as well. Comrade Andropov knows how much damage it is."

"Our mind control is just primary. Once we control someone, the guy is considered brain-dead, losing all his thoughts and consciousness. In other words, it is just a human robot. However, we still decided to use it on the squid like you see before, we will develop them into our bioweapons. It is estimated that these squids will be assigned to submarines, and one submarine can directly control 6 to 12 squids."

Chernov nodded his head, however, there must be another reason that he was here, development of the navy should not be his business.

"So, is there anything I can help with that?"

"Yes Chernov, here is the reason why we are here. As there is a spear, there is a shield. Even though we are not interested in continuing the research on mind control, we are interested in anti-mind control. Our man in the future will need to face various types of situations where they may get mind control directly or indirectly."

"Even if we can eliminate all those low-level mind controls on our soldiers and workers using devices, we still struggle to address the higher levels that affect the high-ranking officers. It's as if we cannot detect when you are being controlled. Therefore, there are two objectives we hope to achieve with your ability, the first is to ensure that you will not be subjected to mind control by the enemies again, and the second is to identify and remove the mind control affecting our personnel."

Chernov frown.

"So I will need to be in that room and experience what the prisoner experienced?"

"No of course, we have the second method of mind-controlling, or more precisely Hypnosis, where we combine our modern psychology and mind control, the only difference is that it takes more time, but without any side effects. It will be similar to what you experience on that day, feels like there is a sound in your brain. We can begin as long as you are ready."

Then, the test on Chernov began.

He sits in the same position where the prisoner is now, around him is the modern equipment that was used to interrogate, like the buzzer, that used to create low or high-frequency voices making the prisoner unable to sleep, but now was customised to be one of the tools to Hypnosis.

On the other side of the glasses, Sokolov signals the operator to begin. The test will start from weak to strong and tend to test out what will be the limit of Chernov.

Soon, Chernov sits in the room boringly. It has been some time that he has been sitting here. 

"Sokolov, when can we start?"

Sokolov on the other side looks shockly on the device board, they have already made it to the strongest. In a normal situation, the one who gets hypnosis does not feel anything, but at the same time, they will also not have any consciousness, just like dreaming. It never going to be what happened now.

"Chernov, we started a long time ago, and it is the strongest currently, didn't you feel anything ?"

"Ehh, yeah, I was just sitting here and feeling nothing."

After getting the answer, Sokolov stops the test.

"Alright, the test has ended, you have just proven that the mind control is not working for you, at least from the highest level of mind control we can do."

Next, is the second test, identifying and removing the mind control.

Chernov was then brought to a place where a line of prisoners was standing.

The objectives are clear and easy, there is some of them have been hypnosis, and he will need to first find it out and, if possible, clean it.

Chernov looks at this line of men, he just felt helpless. Even if he had acquired these abilities, he didn't know how to use them. He is a Spetznaz, not a wizard.

"Well, according to the information we get from Plainspire, maybe you can try to close your eyes and sense with your heart. The books state that by that you might able to see anything different from the world. I know this is a little bit abstract but you just try to understand and do it."

Chernov did as he said, closed his eyes and senses with heart. Then something amazing happens, inside his brain, he can see what is happening even without opening his eyes, and those who have been in mind control, are all seen, in their brain, there is a red object with a line outside their body.

Opened his eyes, and identified all the ones that had been under mind control, even one of the soldiers that were not inside the prisoner lines. That was a hidden one, just to test how good Chernov's ability to identify those who get mind control.

The last is to remove their mind control. No matter if it is the Soviet or the Karak mind controlled, there is one thing in common, to achieve mind control one must plant something in the target brain. The Soviets called this object the docks. Karak by magic and Soviets by Hynopsis, the docks will then just automatically grow and plant in the brain.

Again, under the guidance, Chernov uses his ability, he only slightly waves his hand, and a wave of red energy stream comes out from his body, wiping out all the docks.

Sokolov who sees Chernov's performance exclaimed.

"Wow, you are out of our expectations, I thought you would need more time to do these tasks."

"Sokolov, I feel there are more things that my ability can achieve, maybe I will need some time to fit it. Do you know what is the arrangement for me in the future?" Chernov asked worrily.

This is a reasonable question, anyone will ask after they get the ability, who knows one day whether they will be sent to the laboratory to slice study?

"Well, I am not sure as well. But from what I have talked with Comrade Chairman, he seems like wants to send you back to Karak once you have passed all the tests. Let's just see what will happen."