The Invitation(14)

“That’s no accident. Garrett said he chose that angle to verify the recording was done in real time,” Colby says.

“This guy Garrett was thorough. He didn’t leave anything to chance,” Director Slaughter says as Mr. Pennington continues.

“I’m going to fast forward until just before he sits down.”

As the three men watch, they see a young man enter the picture, sit in the empty chair, and reach forward for a copy of ‘The Yale Shakespeare’. At a point where his arm is fully extended, and his face is projected forward, Mr. Pennington freezes the image.

“Sir, at this point I want to show you our facial recognition comparison so we can be sure of just who we’re looking at.”

Manipulating the facial image of the young Ken Myers, Mr. Pennington works the image until a full-frontal view is displayed. Beside it, a second image of President Myers is shown. Merging the two images for comparison, Mr. Pennington explains: “Sir this second image of the President was taken a year ago, and as you can see they superimpose perfectly. Halfway through the recording someone knocks on the door, and asks for Phillip, Phillip Garrett of course being the roommate of Ken Myers. Myers stops reading, and answers the door. We picked up enough of the audio to compare it with the sound of his voice today, and found the vocal signature patterns to be identical.”

“So there is literally no doubt that we are looking at Ken Myers here,” Mr. Slaughter says.

“That’s right. I wanted to nail this down before we watch the rest of the recording,” Mr. Pennington says, and continues.

“Okay, so let’s begin where we left off. He starts reading the first play, ‘A Comedy Of Errors,’ which is rather light, as Shakespeare plays go. He exhibits an unmistakable smile for the duration of his reading time which in this case is all of eighty-eight seconds.”

“Wow! He read the entire play in eighty eight seconds?”

“Yes Sir, start to finish,”

As the presentation resumes, the three men sit transfixed by the performance they are seeing. Turning pages every two or three seconds, the actions of Ken Myers appear highly automated, and unnatural, while at the same time the expressions on his face seem normal, and empathetic. After a minute and a half of quickly turning pages, he comes to the end of the first play where he pauses and briefly looks away in subdued laughter. Director Slaughter notes. “Freeze it Sid.”

The recording paused, the Director asks, “Why is he laughing? It seems out of character with what we just saw.”

“I can only speculate, but I think you’re seeing two different aspects of human cognition on display here. First, reading, and assimilating the written material, and secondly comprehension. That is deciphering the meaning of what’s been read. I think that because Mr. Myers has such phenomenal reading skills his mind is putting first priority on assimilating information as quickly as possible, and then comprehending the meaning afterward.”

“So in a sense he performs like a machine, but he responds like a human being,” Mr. Slaughter says.

“Exactly, He does the same thing after reading every play. His expression matches the psychological, and emotional tenor of what he’s just read.”

“What does that suggest to you?” Mr. Slaughter asks.

“It clearly suggests to me that he’s comprehending this material.”

“That’s incredible,” Agent Colby says.

“If that’s not enough, about twenty minutes after starting, he accelerates.”

“What?”

“I know it’s hard to believe. He peaks at about two hundred and ninety words a second.”

“You’re not serious,” Tim Colby says incredulously.

“Yes I am, Mr. Colby. Serious is what I do for a living,” Mr. Pennington says.

In silence the three men look at each other, then Mr. Slaughter says, “How do we know he’s not on some kind of performance-enhancing drug?”

“I’ve considered that, and in my opinion it’s not likely,” Mr. Pennington says.

“Why not?”

“Drugs typically used for that purpose like amphetamines, cocaine, and hallucinogens all increase heart rate and breathing. Eyes become dilated. The nervous system becomes hyperactive. They look wired. Mr. Myers exhibits none of those characteristics. In a strange way, he looks very calm and composed even when he’s turning pages every few seconds. In the middle of the recording he stops reading when someone knocks on the door asking for his roommate. He gets up, walks over to the door in a very relaxed, normal manner, opens it, and very calmly tells the person his roommate isn’t there, then walks back, sits down, and starts reading again. Completely normal behavior, that is until he starts reading again.”