MARTIN OBEYED WITHOUT HESITATION and Benedetti followed him without thinking, into the darkness beyond the door. Finally, when they were all safe, Martin began the conversation:
— What is this place, Brad?
— Ah! This belonged to my father. He used to store wine for his cellar in this old warehouse. It's abandoned...
— I understand.
— Who is this? — he asked, seeing Benedetti, who answered for himself:
— I'm Carl Benedetti, and you?
— Agent? — Clooney asked, a little suspiciously, a little friendly.
— He's an old friend of Greg's. — Martin replied.
— Hmm... I'm Brad Clooney. — he said with a smile to Benedetti. — Are they after you too?
— Well... no, I don't know what it's about. — Benedetti replied, somewhat confused.
— Brad — Martin said, taking the flash drive from his pocket. — Did you watch the video you gave me? I hope this flash drive is still good...
— I couldn't, there were a lot of people paying attention there and I only had time to copy yours, but let's see, give it to me here.
Clooney had set up a sound system in that dark place. He put the media on the computer and began to watch the footage, with his enigmatic gaze, wide-eyed and hyperactive, which flew around every corner of the screen. Martin insisted on watching it all again and Benedetti tried to understand what it was all about. Thus, they saw again the terrible scenes of the people who were guinea pigs in that monstrous sound experiment.
—I think we can already get an idea of why there's a neuroscientist on the team, don't we? — Brad said with a strange smile at the corner of his mouth.
—It's the same thing we saw happen yesterday on Fifth Avenue, — Martin added.
— Without a doubt... — he replied with his hand on his chin in thought. — Let's watch another one.
Clooney opened another video that was in the folder and began to watch it. It was similar to the first one, similar experiences and under the same method, but the image quality was much better, as well as the facilities were different. There was no audio, just like before.
There was a well-lit, acoustically-insulated room, also seen from behind glass. There were two chairs in the center and a table in the corner, with a Beretta on top, probably loaded. Soon, a sheet of paper appeared in front of the screen, with data about the experiment, similar to that in the first video. Among the information, one caught Martin's attention : "TEST 213".
Inhumanity had persisted in that place for a long time... — he thought.
After the file was removed, two men came in, wearing identical white clothes, looking like prisoners, and sat down on each chair. Shortly after, both men seemed to hear the beep, as in all the other recorded experiments, and became very uncomfortable for a period of half a minute. Soon, one of them stood up and the other jumped behind him, starting a severe physical fight, in an attempt to get the gun. The fight lasted a little over a minute, until one of them reached it and fatally hit the other.
After this, he sat back down in the chair and waited, displaying somewhat strange behavior, full of sickly mannerisms and gestures, different from when he had first arrived there. A short time passed and the discomfort seemed to hit him again. He tried to cover his ears and seemed to scream in despair, until he stopped. He remained inert for a few seconds, as if he had entered a state of trance and peace, sitting there, looking ahead, without direction. He raised the gun, pointed it at his own head and fired.
The three watched that atrocity in great distress, they could not believe it was real.
The experiment was something very powerful...
— Oh, what the hell...! — Carl Benedetti exclaimed to himself, upon seeing the suicide shot.
—How could anyone do this? — Martin asked in astonishment.
— My question is, where did this go? — Clooney said.
Benedetti watched everything, both the video and the strange conversation between the two, silently, standing almost like a member of the British guard. At this moment, however, he decided to break the silence:
— What does that mean?
—What are you talking about? — Martin asked.
— Well... that written there, in the corner of the card... — he replied, confused.
Clooney went back to the point Benedetti had made, one of the times the sheet with the scene data appeared, like a caption.
— Look at that thing over there, right in the corner! — Benedetti said, pointing to the screen.
They looked at the information on the sheet, where the test number was written, some other data and, right below, at the end of the paper, the name: PANDORA EXP.
Clooney's gaze widened even more and Martin wondered how he hadn't seen that yet and condemned himself for his inattention.
—So, what do you think it is? — asked Carl Benedetti.
— I don't know, man, I don't know! — replied Clooney, very excited about the discovery.
He was one of those crazy types who always reacts with great excitement to research and discoveries, no matter if they are good, bad or catastrophic. The simple fact of achieving success was the drug that satisfied him.
— What are you doing, Clooney? — Martin asked, seeing him opening another program on the computer.
—What do you do when you dive and the light from the surface makes it difficult for you to see what's in the sea? — asked Clooney with a certain smugness.
— I don't know... — Martin replied, confused.
— You go where the light doesn't reach and let your eyes adapt. Go deeper! The internet is an ocean, my friend! It's an ocean!
— And do you think this information is out there, just like that?
Clooney just turned his head to Martin, looking at him with some contempt, and replied:
— The internet was developed by the military, where do you think they are? Web, Deep Web, Darknet, everything is connected in some way, you just have to know how to find it!