Ill-Fated (Ill-Fated Series Book 1)

by S. C. McMurray

  He entered the house and was greeted by one of his father’s servants. A plump woman named Barbara. She’d worked at his parent’s house since Adam was ten years old. She was quiet and kept to herself mostly, but she stashed candy in the deep pockets of her apron and would routinely sneak a piece to Adam when his parents weren’t looking. That small gesture had been enough to win over the heart of a ten-year-old and Adam never forgot that.

  “Can I have your coat, Master Adam?” Barbara asked as he entered the large front room of the house.

  Adam slipped the SS coat off his shoulders and arms and handed it to Barbara. She folded it neatly and laid it over her left arm. “I will press it for you, and the rest of your uniform if you would like.”

  “Thanks, Barb.” He answered politely, but lacking his usual warmth.

  The old maid noticed. “Is everything alright, master Adam?”

  “Yes,” he lied. “Everything is fine. I’m just going to go upstairs and get some rest.”

  She nodded and pulled a piece of red peppermint candy from the pocket of her apron. “Here you go, Master Adam.”

  Adam took the candy. “Thanks, Barb.” He gave the old maid a quick hug then headed up the steps to the guest room where he was staying.

  When he was about half way up the stairs Barbara called to him. “Master Adam.” She tapped her forehead with her palm, “I nearly forgot. A fellow dropped off a package for you.”

  Adam half smiled to himself, Reg.

  “I laid it on your bed. He said it was for your eyes only.”

  Adam nodded his appreciation to Barbara and hurried to the guest room. A large yellow envelope was sitting on his neatly made bed just like the old maid had said. He shut the door behind him and then picked up the envelope. It was very light. He opened the envelope carefully and reached his hand inside. Taped to the inside of the paper was a small holodisc. He squinted.

  “For my eyes only…”

  He hurried to the door and locked it and then pulled the curtains shut over each window, before taking a seat at the edge of the bed. He pulled out his holophone and slipped the disc into the port on the side. Within seconds a hologram image of Arthur Grieves emerged.

  “In order to hear the message you must answer this question: What book did I give you, the first year we met?”

  The image of Arthur Grieves dissolved as the holodisc’s security system waited for Adam’s reply.

  “The Biography of First General Vivian Thorne.” Adam answered.

  The data chip registered the answer and the hologram image of Arthur Grieve reappeared. He was anxious and spoke with urgency.

  “I do not have much time. Forgive me, Adam, for the silly security question but the information contained on this data chip must be protected. Shortly after you and Evelyn left, I heard back from my former colleague and he confirmed the existence of the Moirai Initiative. Program 88, as it was officially known, was commissioned during the last years of First General Thorne’s administration for the purpose of protecting the unity of the UPA and the authority of the Party through population control.

  “The goal of the program was to reengineer the genetic code of DNA so that the wills of the population would be bent to serve certain purposes. They attempted to achieve this through cloning and genetic manipulation. In other words, Adam, the Party was attempting to program clones before they were born to fulfill certain purposes.” He paused and waved his arms. “Imagine the usefulness of it. If the program was successful, soldiers could be bred with the sole purpose to fight or others with the sole purpose to labor and toil. In theory, over a few generations, an entire population would be bred to be loyal to the authority of the Party. There would be no need for the App test and no need for laws.” He stopped himself. “I apologize, I do not have time to philosophize. According to my colleague, the program was put into hiatus when the head of the Science team behind it, a man named Dr. Nicholai Larkin, vanished. But not before they managed to create four embryos.” Arthur paused again, he took a troubled breath. “How do I put this? Using the documentation my colleague obtained for me, I managed to match three of the embryos to the families that birthed them. Your friend, Evelyn, was one of them. The second was a male given to a couple named Alexander and Lillian Jones of Satrapy 4 and the third, well, he was given to your parents, Henry and Cassandra Phelt.”

  Adam’s entire body began to tremble. He took slow, uneasy breaths.

  “I’m sorry, Adam. I can’t imagine how you must feel. But, you deserve to know the truth, before it’s too late. I have included the documentation on the holodisc for you, but here is one more thing.” Arthur lowered his eyes. “Giving you this information will cost me my life but this old soldier isn’t going without a fight. Before I go, I want to thank you, Adam. You were a son to me and a good friend. I will cherish the times we spent together. Your genes may be bent to serve the purpose they have decided for you,” He pounded his chest, “but we are more than our bodies. When faced with a decision, search your soul, Adam. There you will find the answer you are looking for. Goodbye my friend.”

  The image dissolved, leaving Adam alone with only his thoughts in the guest room of his adoptive parent’s house. At first he was in shock and sat motionless on the bed. But then a rage began to boil and finally he stood to his feet. He grabbed a nearby lamp and hurled it across the room. He pulled a portrait of his family off the wall and smashed it under his heel. When he was done, the guest room was completely turned over but he didn’t feel any better. He had wet cheeks and was breathing heavily. He caught a glimpse of himself in the splintered wall mirror. He stepped over to it and stared into his fractured face. He thought of Evelyn.

  “What have I done?”

  He let out a yell and ripped the uniform shirt off his body then dropped to his knees. The final words of his mentor filtered in through his anguish like a solitary beam of pure light though the blackness of the darkest night. Adam repeated them to himself.

  “Search your soul.” He pondered that and the answer came to him. “She is my soul.”

  He stood up, changed clothes and quickly gathered his things. With his bag slung over his shoulder, Adam rushed down the stairs. Just as he reached the bottom, his father entered through the front doors, dressed in his typical golfing attire. Adam came to a stop on the bottom step. His father threw his arms open.

  “Ah, son! I take it Octavian gave you the big news.”

  Adam glanced down and nodded.

  “That is a massive achievement. Your mother and I are so proud.”

  “Why?” Adam said, disdainfully. “You knew all along that I was going to have that position.”

  “What are you talking about? Octavian just told me this morning.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Dad, not anymore. I know about the program. I know about the Moirai Initiative. I know that my fate has been determined for me.”

  His father’s face grew sober. He spoke gravely. “Who told you this?”

  “Is it true, Dad?”

  His father hesitated then said, “No, of course not.”

  Adam exhaled, then shook his head in disgust. “Thanks, Dad.” He said. “For proving that my whole life has been a lie.”

  Adam brushed by his father to the open door but he grabbed onto Adam’s shoulder. “Adam, you’re mother and I have guests coming over to celebrate your achievement.”

  Adam shook his head and said, “It’s the Party’s achievement, not mine.” Then shrugged him off and headed down the front steps.

  His father yelled, “You can’t leave! You can’t do this to your family! To your country!”

  Adam stopped at the bottom of the steps. He looked back. “Goodbye Dad.”

  His father yelled for him but Adam ignored his calls. Adam tossed his bag into the passenger seat of his car and then climbed in. He fired it up and peeled out. The voice of his car’s AI came over the stereo system.

  “Where would you like to go?”

  “The SS airfield.” Adam ans
wered. “I’ve got a flight to catch.”

  Senator Henry Phelt watched from to top of his front steps as the taillights of his son’s car disappeared into the mass of lights in the distance, his anger slowly dissipating. He was joined by his wife, the boy’s mother, Cassandra. She wrapped a loving arm around her husband’s waist.

  “Let him go, Henry. There is a lot of responsibility on his shoulders right now. Give him some time and he will be back.”

  Henry sighed, “I know he’ll come back. He won’t be able to help himself.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  It was nearing three AM when Adam finally found the place, a single unused mailbox with the address numbers 1020 haphazardly smeared on the side with white reflective paint. He was driving around in a SS security vehicle he ‘borrowed‘ from the local office. The night clerk had recognized him, but gave him the keys without asking too many questions. The benefit of being high profile was that the lower ranking officers assumed you were being honest with them and were afraid to ask questions for fear of being reprimanded.

  After Adam had commandeered the vehicle, he drove to the old bomb shelter first, but the SPC had abandoned it as he’d expected they would. It was obvious that they’d left in a hurry, thinking that he would come for them next. He didn’t, because they weren’t his objective. Evelyn was his objective and always had been. The capture of Carlson and the others was just collateral damage.

  He’d searched the abandoned SPC base for any clue of where they may have gone and two hours into his search he found a half burned receipt in the ashes of documents they must have torched on their way out. On the one side was the list of items purchased and on the back was an address. He searched for the address in the car’s database and it brought up photographs of a farm located about 60 miles south of the old bomb shelter. It was a flimsy lead at best but it was the only one he had.

  He covered the lonely strip of road leading to the farm in less than 40 minutes and after identifying the address on the old mailbox, turned down a long gravel lane leading to a darkened farmhouse. As he pulled the car to a stop in front of the house, he realized how flimsy his lead really was. The place was empty and overgrown with vines and weeds. He climbed out of the car anyway, determined to find another clue or something that may help him locate Johanna Vue. As soon as his foot hit the gravel, they revealed themselves. He was surrounded by gun barrels.

  One of the SPC soldiers stepped forward. “Freeze!” He ordered.

  Adam stopped, one foot on the ground, one foot still in the car. He raised his hands in the air. “I need to speak with Johanna Vue.”

  The SPC soldier motioned to the other soldiers. “Search him.”

  They promptly swarmed Adam, patting him down and searching his pockets. They found nothing because he had nothing but a bag of clothes. After reading through the documents on Arthur’s data drive during the flight to this Satrapy, he destroyed it and then tossed his phone out the window of the hovercopter.

  The soldiers stepped away from Adam. “He’s clean, sir.” One of them said.

  The SPC officer pointed to another one of his men. “Tell Johanna the betrayer is here and that he wants to speak with her. Ask her if we should bring him in or shoot him dead right here?”

  Adam added, “Tell her that her daughter is still alive and that she can still save her.”

  The officer nodded to the other soldier. “Go.”

  The soldier took off running behind the house. A few minutes later, he returned with Johanna Vue. She walked right to the officer and took the sidearm from his belt. She cocked it and pointed it right at Adam. “You have thirty seconds to tell me why I should let you live.”

  “They’re alive Johanna and you can still save them. The commander of the prison knows about the kill device and has disabled them somehow.” He paused and attempted to read her face. It was grief stricken and hard like marble. Adam lowered his eyes. “I know that it doesn’t mean much if anything to you, but I’m sorry Johanna. I shouldn’t have done it and I can’t fully explain to you why I did it but that is no excuse. I deserve for you to pull that trigger. I do. But before you give me what I deserve, let me try to make things right and when it’s all said in done, if you still want to pull the trigger, then so be it.”

  She lowered the gun a bit. “Why should I trust you again?”

  “Because I’m the only hope you have of getting them out of that prison.”

  “You’ve used that line before.”

  “I will give you insurance this time.” Adam responded quickly. “Place one of those kill devices in me. If the mission fails or if you suspect that I’m going to betray you, activate it.”

  “If I even agree to this, how do you plan on pulling it off?”

  “The prison’s defenses are formidable but the real problem is OPTIC. When he gets involved there will be no way of escaping.”

  “You can stop him?”

  “No, but I can shut down the security systems so that he won’t know there is a problem. It’s your only chance of getting out of there in one piece.”

  Johanna turned to the soldiers. “What do you think?”

  The officer spoke up. “My brother is in there and if this is the only chance we have of getting him out, then I think we ought to take it.”

  Johanna nodded to herself. She inhaled a long deep breath then exhaled slowly. “Alright.” She said decisively. “Tag him and give me the control. If he even moves in a direction I don’t like, I’m going to kill him myself.”

  A female soldier approached Adam with a device that resembled a staple gun. Adam held out his arm and the woman pressed it to his wrist. The woman pulled the trigger and Adam felt a terrible stinging sensation in his arm.

  Johanna motioned. “Come, let’s go make preparations.”

  Adam followed Johanna though the dark, escorted by the small cadre of soldiers. He rubbed his arm where the device had been implanted. Even then, he felt a swirl of conflict, two natures fighting inside himself, what he wanted and what was decided. A part of him hoped that Johanna would just activate the damned device now and put an end to all of it. But then he thought of Evelyn and he felt something different.

  Chapter Forty

  The door opened filling Evelyn’s cell with the blinding obnoxious light again. Evelyn immediately cowered in the far corner of her cell in an attempt to hide her face from it. She heard the shuffling sounds of boots on the concrete floor and when she opened her eyes, there were two silhouettes instead of just one. The two guards bent down and lifted Evelyn to her feet.

  They half-carried, half-dragged Evelyn out of her cell and through the hive-like corridors of the prison until they came to a large steel door where Commander Farez was waiting. He was pacing back and forth anxiously. The guards deposited Evelyn on the ground at the Commander’s feet and then stood with their arms crossed behind her.

  “My dear, Evelyn Smoak, it seems that the opportunity I’ve been waiting for may be drawing to a close. The Party command has ordered you to be transported to Washington and though it disappoints me, I’m obliged to follow their orders. And since my patience is already wearing thin with all of this and our time together is coming to a close, I am also obliged to ramp up my efforts to make you remember.”

  He pressed his palm against a scanner next to him and the large steel door slid open, revealing an open courtyard filled with the light of the late evening sun.

  “So, I have brought you here.” He turned from her and stepped out into the light. The guards lifted Evelyn up and tossed her through the door. She landed hard against the ground, her face scraping the turf. She spit out the dirt and grass from her mouth and lifted her head. The first thing she saw was the bloodstained whipping post followed by unoccupied gallows.

  Farez gestured to the two guards. “Stand her up.” They did as directed and lifted Evelyn to her feet. Farez cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Bring them out.”

  One by one, three prisoners, heads covere
d with cloth sacks, hands and feet bound by metal cuffs, were dragged to the gallows.

  “Welcome to my punishment yard.” Farez made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “This is also like a game show. The prize is their lives.”

  The guards slipped the nooses around the prisoners’ necks.

  “Stop this, please.” Evelyn begged.

  Farez ignored her. “Shall we meet contestant number one?” He turned and motioned to the guard standing with the prisoner on the far left of the gallows. The guard slipped the sack off the head of the prisoner, revealing it to be Everett.

  Evelyn could see his lips moving as he prayed to himself. Evelyn thought of his family, his wife and daughter. She shook her head.

  “No. No. No. You can’t do this he has a family!”

  Farez nodded and the guard pulled a lever. The trap beneath Everett dropped out and his body was jerked to a stop by the rope around his neck. He writhed vainly against the rope as it held him suspended above the ground.

  Evelyn closed her eyes as tears streaked down her face.

  She pleaded, “Cut him down, please! Cut him down, please!”

  “What is the formula?”

  “I’m trying but I just don’t remember!”

  “Try harder.”

  Evelyn racked her brain, repeating the word formula over and over again in her head. There was nothing. No numbers or letters, no proteins or ribosomes or chromosomes.

  Eventually the rope holding Everett stopped moving. Farez shook his head.

  “You could have saved him. Maybe Contestant number two will have better luck.”

  He gestured to the next guard standing with the next prisoner. The guard removed the sack revealing the prisoner to be her father.

  “No more please! I’m trying to remember. I am!”

  He gestured to the next guard and the trap dropped out below her father. The rope jerked and her father let out an awful guttural sound. The rope swayed as he squirmed like a dangling worm on a fishhook.