Introduction
That summer seemed to last forever. For a man like Marek, whose life revolved around the footballing season, summer just seemed like a huge waste of time. Many months of sitting around, without work to do was awful, but it did have its pros. It gave him time to gather to necessary information on the potential managerial targets. For Marek was closer to the sport than many, as literally his whole existence depended on the fact that he was good at doing his job. But what was his job? To please the men upstairs.
Since his first memories, Marek always remembered the men upstairs. His father taught him all he knew about his job, but the most important lesson he ever learnt was never to question those men. Those men had total control over your life, he said to a teenage Marek, obey and you will be rewarded, fail to obey, and even death will seem favourable compared to the fate you will suffer. Marek was a good child, and followed his father’s instructions, whether he understood their meaning or not. His brother Samuel was not the same.
Always a rebel, Samuel hated the strict rules he was brought up with. Tall, strong and handsome, the boy knew nothing about his greater role in the world, he only saw his life being wasted, part of something he would never understand. Of course, building a machine for mind control sounded crazy, but to be the test subjects for its success was something no man, let only a child, should have to endure. The nightmares began to take their toll on Samuel and by the age of 17 he decided to run away from the Institute. When he was caught the next day, Marek had to watch as his older brother was shot 12 times. Since then, he knew that he could never escape this life.
Flicking through the folders on his desk he saw the progress he had made whilst at the Institute. Test Subject 1 was the biggest breakthrough in its existence, but Arthur Anderson was never meant to last for so long. The poor child believed he was the victim of the Hillsborough disaster, and his life goal was to take down football from within. In reality, he was a schoolboy from Surrey who had never watched a game of football in his life. When it became clear that Arthurs mind could no longer be controlled by the Institute, Marek had to step in to end his life.
Test Subject 2 was the Marek’s first case as the head after his father passed away. Chosen by the Serbian himself, Robert Prosinecki was a brilliant choice. Now the machine had been adapted to be less extreme, it allowed the use of a figure already accepted by the football community. Prosinecki proved very successful, both in the sport and outside of it. However, even Marek could not have foretold what would have happened next. The event of winning the Europa League was too much for the man to deal with, and the mind control tore his mind apart. Marek had to terminate the project and removed the mind control, leaving Prosinecki to go back to his normal life, and lucky for the Institute, no-one suspected a thing.
Now Test Subject 3 had been isolated and the machine had been greatly improved, the stakes also rose. The men upstairs wanted results. They had spent too much of their money and time for them to give upon this. Test Subject 3 had to succeed, otherwise, it was all over. For Marek, this meant the end of everything he knew. The end of a life lived for one goal and purpose. The end of Marek. Termination.
