Pied Pipers (Johann genome)

It was late, around one in the morning, James peered out between the shades of his window. An ominous black van pulled up into his driveway. It was time for him to go, carry out the deed he was asked to do. He was escorted to the van by two tall men clad in a black suits. He was driven about for about an hour before the van pulled up in front of a sort of large cargo container. It felt like the middle of nowhere, except he knew he was near the coast, where many illegal activities take place. In the distance, just beside the far end of the container stood a large stout man, big Larry, accompanied by 3 others.

Earlier that day, James had got a call from big Larry. Big Larry was yet again in needed James' abilities. James was like any other ordinary man, except for the fact that he could easily hypnotize anyone. Have them look into his eyes and he'd have them spewing out things they'd never thought they'd reveal to anyone or doing things they swore they'd never do. When the underground drug and crime syndicates found out about people like him, the world changed. The crime rate in countries all over the globe had hit a record high. Ordinary people would carry out illegal operations in hypnosis, only to wake up not knowing who hypnotized them or what they had done. It became increasingly hard to identify the real criminals. These people were given the nickname, 'pied pipers', in reference to the fairytale by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute discovered that the ability is hereditary and is passed on by what they termed as 'the Johann genome'. Even though these people were extremely rare, they proved to be substantially dangerous to society if they were to misuse their ability, police forces all over the globe were taking action and many 'pied pipers' had to go into hiding. However, crime syndicate leaders such as big Larry were willing to provide quite a substantial amount for the services of these people, and James, who had recently lost his job, was in need of money.

Big Jim greeted James and explained, while avoiding James' gaze, that he had reprimanded one of his substance pushers in suspicion that he had stolen some cocaine to start a trafficking business for himself. This was a normal situation for James, he had hypnotized many drug pushers before because their leaders suspected they were stealing. Big Larry was one of his regulars. James was escorted into the large cargo container. The drug pusher was tied down, on a chair while another man grasped his hair tightly forcing him to look into James' eyes. Before he knew it, James had control over him. He had unlocked the man's unconscious.

"I'm going to ask you some questions and you must answer truthfully."
The man nodded
"did you steal some of Big Larry's cocaine?"

Before the man could answer there was a loud bang and the cargo containers door busted open with a whole team of navy blue clad men rushing in with black rifles and helmets. James had lost his concentration and the man broke free of his psychological grasp. The men pointed their guns at him and threatened that they would shoot him down if he does not cover his eyes with his hands. James was in shock, he wasn't careful enough. He never knew big Larry would do this to him. The government and police had no choice but to start working with crime syndicates in order to capture 'pied pipers' as only crime syndicate leaders were aware of their identities. They offered these syndicates a huge some of money in exchange for the capture of a 'pied piper'.

James was arrested and taken away, on the back of a police truck, his eyes covered shut by a metal constrictor, specially made for people of his kind. He soon found himself sitting in an interrogation room. Though he could not see anything through the metal constrictor he could feel the coldness of the room, the uncomfortable hard chair and icy metal table.

"James Saint Peters, yet another pied piper, you people have caused us so much trouble".
A man with a deep cold voice spoke.
James knew the only way he was going to be freed was to make up a story.

"I'm not a pied piper! You have to believe me! I just do this for the money! I'm broke, I heard about things like this and though I could fake my way into earning good money!"
He pleaded.

"Do you really think we're that dumb? You monsters look like us, talk like us, makes it so easy for you to get away with your shit, I'm sick of it, sick of partnering up with these filthy mafia bosses just to hunt down your sorry ass! You know, in NHGRI, they're already on their way to creating a vaccine for the Johann genome. Pretty soon pieces of shit like you won't have to be locked in high security prison cells, instead you'll be forced to live ordinary lives like the rest of us miserable folk!"

"I told you, I am not one of them! At least give me a chance to prove myself, if they can hypnotize people just by looking into your eyes then let me look into somebody's eyes! I'm a fake! I just do it cause I need the cash!"
James pleaded more convincingly this time, he knew under the law if he were to ask for a chance to prove his innocence they would have to oblige him if his demand is reasonable.

While staring away, the chief interrogator removed the metal constrictor from James' eyes while his partner sat across the table in front of James. While staring at the wall, away from James, he asked his partner to look into James's eyes, and told James to ask him to say something. He threatened if his partner were to repeat what James' had asked him to say he would shoot James there and then without any mercy.

James begins to mumble;
"Tell your partner, you just hate us because you wish you can hypnotize your into sleeping with you."

there was an eerie silence, the inspector's anger was resonating throughout the room.

The chief inspector's partner then began repeating the phrase.

"THAT'S IT! GO TO HELL!"
Just as the inspector pulled out his handgun and shot James right in the forehead, a sudden jolt shot through his body, as he heard the loud bang from his own gun.

His eyes bulged as his face went fire engine red.
"wasn't James on the other end of the table?" He thought.
Blood began spreading across the table from the man's head.
He had shot his partner, whom he thought was James, when he looked over James was gone, the door was wide open and his keys were missing. Then, he remembered, as he was removing the constrictor, he had accidentally, briefly looked at James in his reflection in the tiles on the wall across him. In that short moment James had managed to latch onto the interrogator's mind, contort his thinking and made him think his own partner was a whole different person. Traumatized, the inspector dropped to his knees, point the gun at himself and pulled the trigger.

The 'pied pipers' weren't given that name because they could hypnotize people, they were given that name because they were cunning, manipulative and downright evil. Much like the Pied pier of Hamelin who hypnotized all the children in the village and brought them to drown in a river just because the villagers mistreated him.