Now We Are Ten: Celebrating the First Ten Years of NewCon Press

by Peter F. Hamilton

  He was flustered by my unannounced arrival, but of course acceded to my wishes.

  I recalled the times, growing up in the asylum, when Anna de Birkenstock had visited me. A woman identical to myself, though older: how much older had been hard to fathom, as anti-aging procedures, as well as surgery, had worked their wonders. I recall her kindness, the compassion in her eyes – a solipsism I mistook for altruism, back then.

  Dr Franklin escorted me into Anna3’s room, announced me and withdrew.

  She was standing by the window, staring out, and turned as I crossed to meet her.

  She was, of course, identical to the girl I had liberated from the clinic just hours ago.

  She smiled. “Ms de Birkenstock... a pleasure.”

  “Would you care for a walk around the grounds?” I said. “I’d like to hear how you are enjoying life here at the hall.”

  She acceded – no request of Anna de Birkenstock’s was ever refused – and we left the room and descended the wide staircase. I told a hovering Dr Franklin of my desire to enjoy the sunset. He smiled uneasily, discommoded at the lack of precedence, but simpered and gestured us across the hallway.

  We emerged into the warm early evening and walked away from the house. Despite my confidence that nothing could go wrong, I felt as if a target were pinned between my shoulder blades.

  We strolled across the vast lawns towards a stand of elm.

  In a soft voice she told me of her studies, how she was looking forward to university in three months. She was eighteen, like me, with all her life ahead of her.

  I made the occasional comment, but my thoughts were far away. I recalled my reaction when Richard had told me the truth of my existence – when he had, in just a few words, laid bare the lie of my life. I had not believed him, of course – how can you believe that everything you held as true was no more than a sham, and what is more an evil sham perpetrated by people who you had not only trusted but, in some cases, even loved?

  I had refused to believe him, six months ago, until he had produced medical records to back up his claims, and promised that he would help me to escape.

  I would not tell Anna3 now, for fear of provoking a hysterical reaction. Richard would explain everything later, and I’d introduce her to Anna2 once we were back at the apartment.

  We walked through the elms, rounded the house, and came to Richard’s flier stationed beyond the wall of the kitchen garden.

  He opened the rear door and I gestured Anna3 to climb inside. With an uncertain glance at me, she did so.

  I slipped in beside the girl and Richard powered up the turbos. We rose, turned and banked away from the hall.

  Anna3 sat forward, alarmed, and stared at the rapidly diminishing shape of the stately home. “Where are we–?”

  She said no more, as I directed a sedative spray at her face and she slumped back in the seat.

  The flier swung south and accelerated towards London.

  *

  Three

  Richard emerged from the bedroom we had allocated to Anna3.

  “How is she?”

  “Very much as you were, all those months ago when I broke it to you. Shell-shocked, in a word.”

  I brushed past him. “I’ll talk to her.”

  Anna3 sat on the bed, her knees drawn up to her face, her head bowed.

  She looked up as I approached. She had been crying.

  “I know exactly how you feel,” I said, sitting beside her. “I know exactly what you’re going through.”

  She nodded, dumbly. “It’s... hard to believe. Everything I thought... My life...” She broke down.

  I held her hand and murmured platitudes.

  “We’re identical,” she said, “you and I.”

  “Identical on the outside,” I said, “and on the inside, too, right down to the chromosomal level. Which is why Anna...”

  “Don’t!” she cried, pressing her forehead against her knees and sobbing.

  A little while later she looked up. “So... Why have you saved me?”

  “How could I leave you there?” I asked. “And also... You can help us.”

  “Help you do what?”

  “Eventually, to kill Anna de Birkenstock.” I smiled. “In the meantime, I’ll introduce you toAnna2.”

  I led her from the room, through the apartment, and knocked on a bedroom door. A small voice said, “Yes?”

  I opened the door and ushered Anna3inside. She stopped on the threshold, staring at the identical girl sitting on the bed, hugging her shins.

  “I’ll leave you two to talk,” I murmured, and withdrew.

  Richard was waiting in the lounge. He crossed to me, took my shoulders and pulled me to him. I stiffened, as always.

  “Anna...” He gestured to the spare room.

  “No, please... I can’t.”

  “You can trust me, you know?”

  “It isn’t that,” I said. “Give me time.”

  “You’re so cold.”

  “And wouldn’t you be cold, if you’d gone through what I’ve gone through, been brought up to believe...?”

  “I told you, you can trust me.”

  I honestly didn’t know whether or not I could trust him. But my reluctance to give myself to Richard, physically and emotionally, was more fundamental than any notion of trust. Quite simply, I felt nothing for Richard... or for myself. I was consumed by the desire for revenge, and felt nothing more.

  Even a desire for life was beyond me, for I fully expected not to survive the forthcoming ordeal.

  *

  Four

  We sedated the Annas’ bedtime drinks and at ten that night set off in the flier.

  We had little time to lose. By now the authorities would be aware that Anna2 was missing, and that an impostor had breached the security of Allenby Hall and abducted Anna3. As we sped from London, heading for the South Downs and Kemp House, I knew that security surrounding the rest of the Annas would tighten considerably. Abducting Anna4 would be far more difficult than the taking of Anna2 and Anna3.

  Which was why, this time, I would not be presenting myself in the guise of Anna de Birkenstock.

  *

  We came down a mile from the house and proceeded the rest of the way on foot.

  Security had, as I feared, been stepped up. We sedated three guards, one by one, in the grounds of the house, leaving them trussed and gagged. We broke into the house through a ground floor bathroom window and crept through the silent house to the second floor. A guard sat on a chair at the end of the corridor, leafing through a magazine. Richard breezed up to him, spraying sedative in the man’s face when he looked up, startled.

  “Where now?” I said.

  He pointed along the corridor. “Third door on the left.” He had worked with Anna4 for a month before being seconded to the asylum where I had been imprisoned.

  We approached the door and I lasered the lock to slag.

  Anna4 was still asleep as we crept into the room. We had decided that the best way to abduct the girl, this time, would be to sedate her; Richard would then carry her from the house, myself leading the way with the laser set to stun.

  I applied the sedative spray and Richard eased the girl over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift.

  Cautiously we made our way down the stairs and out through the front door. Ten minutes later we were back at the flier and heading north to London with our unconscious cargo.

  *

  Five

  Sunlight slanted through the kitchen window. The four of us sat around the table, nursing mugs of coffee. Anna4 was wide awake now, and recovering from the shock of discovering exactly who and what she was.

  We wore identical pyjamas which I’d bought in preparation. A stranger, peering in through the window, would have beheld four identical sisters.

  “It’s strange,” Anna3 said, smiling at us, “but I’d often wondered what it might be like to have a sister.”

  Anna4 laughed. “The same.”

  I said, “I
magine how I felt when Richard told me that I had multiple sisters.”

  Anna2 looked at me. “How many?” she asked.

  “Nine,” I said.

  “Nine sisters...” Anna4 said in wonder. “Ten in all. Ten sisters...”

  We heard the front door open and Richard entered the kitchen. “Anna5 is being held at a small cottage hospital in Carmarthen,” he told me. “Security is lax.”

  I stared at him. “It is? Why on Earth...?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way.”

  *

  Richard showed his pass at the reception desk, introducing me as his assistant. I wore an auburn wig and wire-framed glasses. The nurse hardly gave me a second glance.

  We made our way through the tiny hospital to the private room, and Richard paused outside the door. I was not looking forward to meeting Anna5, knowing what she had endured.

  I entered after Richard and crossed to the figure in the bed.

  Anna5’s head moved in our direction. I tried not to gasp in despair.

  The girl’s eyelids were stitched shut after the operation to remove her eyes.

  “Hello?” she said, tentatively.

  Richard sat down beside the bed. “It’s Dr Elliot,” he said, taking her hand.

  “Doctor!” Her face, it was no exaggeration to say, lit up. “Doctor, no one will tell me... But when will I be able to see again?”

  He squeezed her hand, and my stomach turned as he lied, “Soon, Anna. Quite soon, now.”

  He eased past me and looked up and down the corridor, then tapped my shoulder to signal the all clear.

  I moved to the bed, slipped the sedative from my bag and sprayed her in the face. Richard opened the window and, together, we carried her from the bed and eased her out.

  Minutes later we lifted off and returned at speed to London.

  *

  Six

  The following day we discovered from an orderly in our pay that Anna6 and Anna7 had been moved from the Manscombe Mere in Derbyshire and secreted in an unknown location. From another source we learned that Anna8 had been transferred from a hospital in Scotland to a secure psychiatric unit near Manchester, and we agreed that a raid on the unit would be too risky.

  However, from the same source we found out that Anna9 and Anna10 were due to be transferred from a safe house near London to hospital in Kent. As promised, security was deliberately light to avoid drawing attention, but even so I was relieved when everything went to plan. We stopped the ambulance in a roadblock, stunned the guards and liberated the Annas.

  We returned to London, and I revelled in the knowledge that by now Anna de Birkenstock would be well and truly rattled.

  *

  We sat around the kitchen table that evening, the seven of us. Richard had retired to bed, alone, despite his entreaties for me to join him.

  We drank coffee and discussed the future.

  “And the other Annas?” asked Anna4. “Annas six, seven and eight?”

  “We will liberate them, eventually – perhaps after we have eliminated de Birkenstock.”

  Anna5 leaned forward, eager. “And how will we do that?”

  I counselled caution. “We can’t rush into this,” I said, “despite our wanting to get it over with.”

  “To exact revenge...” Anna10 said.

  “There will be time enough,” I said. “We must plan carefully, take everything into consideration. Security at the castle she calls her home will be tight, even though they can’t know exactly what we’re planning. They must know we’re up to something, and they’ll be prepared for every eventuality.”

  “And when she’s dead?” Anna4 said. “What about our futures?”

  I had looked no further than exacting sweet revenge. “Then our difficulties will be just beginning.”

  Anna5 murmured, “And will I ever see again?”

  *

  Seven

  The following evening over dinner I noticed Richard and Anna10 exchanging glances. They were guarded, surreptitious, but I knew the look in Richard’s eyes, and the corresponding willingness from Anna10.

  I had suspected, of course, that with other Annas from whom to take his pick, he would soon move his attentions away from me.

  But did I suspect even more? Even then, my suspicion primed, did I expect an ultimate betrayal?

  That night I waited behind my bedroom door and listened for the sound of Richard’s door opening along the corridor. At a little after midnight I heard the quiet sound of footsteps. I cracked my door open half an inch and watched as he crept along the corridor and slipped into Anna10’s room.

  I moved along the corridor and pressed my ear to the door.

  Their voices were indistinct, but discernible.

  “She doesn’t suspect?” she said.

  “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t.”

  “She’s a clever one,” said Anna10. “When does she plan to...?”

  Richard replied. “She thinks you’re still at the castle. She said it’s best to bide our time, let the furore of the abductions die down.”

  I hardly believed what I was hearing. She thinks you’re still at the castle...

  Their conversation ceased and they made love.

  My heart hammering, I hurried back to my room. I found my laser and crouched down against the wall beside the door, listening for the sound of Richard leaving Anna’s room.

  In the early hours I heard a door open and footsteps passing along the corridor. I allowed five minutes to elapse.

  Enraged and yet exultant, I slipped from my room and approached Anna10’s... Except, of course, the woman behind the door was not Anna10.

  I had waited months for this moment, envisaged the look on Anna de Birkenstock’s face when I raised the laser and told her that, far from living for ever, she was about to die.

  I turned the handle and hurried into the room, switched on the light and approached the bed, gripping the laser in my outstretched hands.

  Anna sat up, sleep-confused and blinking. “What...?”

  I stood over her, the laser aimed at her perfect head.

  I tried to discern in the lineaments of her oval face some indication that she was older than me and all the other Annas. But it was as if I were staring into a mirror, seeing only a reflection of the face I knew so well.

  “Very clever,” I said.

  She smiled at me. “What are you talking about?”

  “Infiltrating the Annas,” I said. “Very clever. But why?”

  She tried to bluff. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m Anna10...”

  “No, you’re not,” I said. “I heard you talking with Richard earlier. I heard everything. It was a set up,” I went on. “You used Richard, paid him to tell me the truth.” I shook my head. “But why?”

  Perhaps to buy herself time, she said, “I thought I knew you all – all of you Annas. You are, after all, me. I thought I knew how you’d react to anything. But you’d each been brought up in slightly different environments, each susceptible to slightly varying stimuli. I selected the one I thought the strongest – you, Anna1, and had Richard tell you the truth.”

  “To see how I’d react?”

  She smiled, sadly. “No, Anna,” she said. “I wanted you to know the truth so that I might explain myself.”

  I stared at her. “Explain?”

  “To make you understand why–”

  I interrupted. “I understand why...”

  “No, you don’t! That would be impossible. You’re young, in perfect health. If you were like me, old and failing–”

  “How old are you?”

  “Would you believe that I am almost sixty?”

  I swallowed, sickened. “No.”

  “Of course, I don’t look that old. I have access to all the best anti-aging drugs... But drugs can only do so much. When my organs fail, one by one...”

  “You bitch!”

  “I don’t want to die yet, Anna,” she said, almost pleading with me, beseeching. “D
on’t you see?”

  “So you had us cloned, to harvest...”

  “If you were me, Anna...” she began. “Look into your heart, your soul, and admit that I am right. You would kill any of them, out there, for increased longevity.”

  “No!” I cried, backing up against the door.

  She said, “I wanted to explain myself, to try to make you understand. To... to gain your absolution.” She shook her head. “I never envisaged that you would be this strong, this resourceful. I didn’t expect you to flee, and rescue the other Annas”

  “You could have stopped me at any point,” I said.

  “Of course. But I was intrigued. I wanted to see what you were planning. Richard suggested stopping you, once he learned that you wanted to kill me – but I wanted to talk to you, face to face, to make you understand.”

  “Understand?” I laughed. “Oh, how I’ve dreamed of this moment! How I’ve dreamed of getting revenge. How does it feel to know that you’re going to die, very soon – how does it feel to know that, despite your dreams, you won’t be living forever?”

  She maintained her poise, I’ll give her that. She smiled at me as her left hand inched, little by little, beneath the pillow.

  I raised the laser and aimed at her head. “I really should bring all the other Annas in here to watch you die.”

  I had meant to extend our dialogue, make her repent, perhaps admit the errors of her ways, but I knew that that would be impossible.

  And, perhaps, I feared something that she had said: that she wanted to make me understand. I feared that I might sympathise with her.

  As her hand moved towards whatever weapon she had concealed under the pillow, I pulled the trigger, once, and the laser drilled a neat hole through her forehead. She didn’t even have time to look surprised.

  In the silent aftermath, my heart thudding, I stared at the corpse and considered my actions, and what I should do then.

  I checked that the corridor was clear, then lifted Anna de Birkenstock’s body and dragged it across the corridor to my room. Having regained my breath, I arranged the corpse on the bed and slipped the laser into her hand.

  Then I made my way back to her room, lay on the bed and tried to sleep.

  *