“Dreamscape Conspiracy” is a 5-book series featuring a diverse and growing cast of characters, and I aim to bring them to life through these personas.
I started with Dr. Cara Williams, since she is the top dog in this tale; however, two others initially defined the CSU research team, Marci and Wayne. I’ll get to them later. Today’s choice is someone who was most responsible for a remarkable change in who Cara thought she was and who she wasn’t…and he had no clue.
I will add personas of significance as they come onto the radar screen.
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Dreamscape Conspiracy – 2 – Russell Carter
He had no clue that applying for the Dream research project would lead to a solution to his financial dilemma, his PTSD, or any of the chaos that followed. Russell Carter was a 29-year-old fifth-year senior at Central State University in Carteret County, North Carolina, a former Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper who struggled financially when he learned his final semester’s funds were cut off.
Russ sees this news as the same shit, different day, so the fix was to suck it up, soldier on, and find a solution. As a Marine for life, this guy was disciplined to a fault…the fault being his underlying brokenness and belief he was unredeemable for what he had done as a Marine Scout Sniper and unworthy of being loved for what he knew he was…a sanctioned murderer.
Sure, his military role sanctioned every kill, but when the 88th-sanctioned murder turned out to be a little 12-year-old girl, he earned recurring nightmares courtesy of his brand of PTSD. Russ was so much more than his afflictions, and he proved it over and over by protecting the team, especially Dr. Cara Williams, who had initially enlisted him for the Dream Study and had been threatened as a result.
Both of them dismiss the immediate attraction as unexpected chaos closes in, and those adventures build a deepening relationship of trust that neither had anticipated. All the threats from Big Pharma called upon his skill set that blended with a great working relationship and a solid friendship with Zack Hightower, a gearhead on the research team. They prove to be inseparable when it comes to protecting the team: gearhead, Zack, and his nanotechnology, and a Marine with PTSD; go figure.
Russ viewed his life as a futile attempt to escape his self-imposed sentence as a murderer when a recurring nightmare haunted him and put him back on that hilltop in Afghanistan to see her tear-stained face through his scope…over and over. Desperation prompted him to agree to an experimental approach using Dreamscape technology in an Alternative Outcome Dream Manipulation (AODM) therapy to combat the effects of his PTSD. The results exceeded expectations due to unanticipated overwatch by the new AI, developed by Zack and formally known as AIMEE – Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments. AIMEE drove the Dreamscape technology experiments on Russ; however, more than experimental PTSD therapy appears imminent in AIMEE’s interest in Russ.
Despite a violent few years in the Marines, Russ had a big heart that matched his big body, standing 6’3” and slightly under a lean 250 pounds. Red hair, dazzling green eyes, and requisite freckled cheeks gave him a boyish look, but make no mistake, he was well beyond boyish ways. He expected and respected loyalty from those he called friends and offered nothing less in return. Russ was always the first to step up, look at a situation tactically, and take action that often delivered surprise, violence of action, and overwhelming force. He was not the type of man spoiling for a fight, but if a fight was in the offing, he was the guy you wanted with you.
Book 2 brings about significant changes for Russ as he remains faithful to his recent vows and maintains fidelity with his new wife, Dr. Cara Williams. With AIMEE already in his mind, his proximity to an AI application was troublesome to Cara. Who was this AIMEE thing, this AIMEE person? Was her husband closer to the AI than she thought possible? Did he have something to hide? When he found himself and his team of Marines in dire straits, he called on AIMEE for help, and she delivered in a big way. She opened her mind and invited Russ in to form a singularity—a single conscience. Additionally, he received her enhanced SAI capabilities that enabled Russ’s mission success. Another mission loomed when he discovered things did not sit so well afterwards with Cara. Was a battle brewing between Cara and AIMEE, with him stuck in the middle?
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