Removed

It had taken hold, they said. Too deep, too secure to remove it now. Too late.

Why had I let them do this to me? Those few, but long, long years ago. It would help me in the battles to come they told me. They did not know or did not care about the battles that would rage within me.

Just one chip. A tiny little thing. Just one cut. Nothing more. It would make me more likely to see the dawn after a night of war.

But I would know, always, exactly when that sun would rise. I would know the weather, the tides, the very movements of the earth. I would be aware of the enemies around me, seeing in a long complex curve through the cameras of the drones. I would know where those cameras were in the sky, I could order them without a word or an action. Just a thought.

Maybe it was the size of the chip that was the real problem. If it had been just a little bigger, it might have had an off switch. They said that it would be good practice to have it on all the time anyway. It would be useful, even. I used to oversleep, but now I never will again. Or undersleep. I'll just wake up perfectly on time. It wasn't supposed to do that.

They put a little bit of code in it. A military grade infiltration program. It seeks out all kind of internet enabled technology to see what it can see. It sees much. And tells me all of it. Just little pieces of information, data. A man enters an elevator on floor 7. A woman and another man enter the same elevator on floor 9. And so on. So much from so little.

I want it out now, I never much wanted it in. it seemed the logical thing to do, another little tool to help me keep my skin and my country safe. And it has. I've lived through confusion and violence beyond anyone's comprehension. I comprehended it, and wove my own pattern through it. People are so predictable. I found order in the madness, and a path to victory using my internal light. I am a master of war, a master of madness and chaos.

They will not end it for me, and I long ago resolved never to end myself for it. The battle is not over.