Cillian looked at the plumes of smoke billowing from the TechnoSmelters. “Will the heat from them mask us?”
“I hope so.”
“You really think we’ll be safe?”
“We’re a long way from safe,” Tess said quietly. “But at least here we can wait for the drones to give up.”
She led the way into the LCD shelter and slumped down. Cillian sat next to her.
“You OK?” she asked. “Apart from exhausted, cold and hungry.”
He nodded, but said nothing.
Then Tess watched as Cillian put his hands over his face, and vanished deep into his own thoughts.
44
The evidence from Gilgamesh rolled across a WallScreen 1,200 kilometres away: CCTV images, entry and exit points, aerial footage of the hostile terrain across which the quad bike had escaped.
“Were any of the subjects harmed?” Gabrielle asked when Cole had finished his briefing.
“Fortunately not.”
“I mean the whole point of running trials out there is to keep them safe from this kind of attack.”
“I don’t think it was an attack,” Paige interjected. “Not this time.”
“She was armed,” Cole said irritably. “She fired in anger.”
“But she made a point of not killing any of the patients.”
Gabrielle walked over to the screen and studied the frozen image of Cillian. “It’s incredible, isn’t it? Last week he was just a student with a head for numbers. Now look what he can do. Put him in a struggle for survival, a real struggle, and the things we engineered into him are self-activating.”
“The problem is he’s not alone.” Cole pulled up a picture of the quad bike speeding towards the security fence. “Now he’s tangled up with Revelation.”
“Which means he’s in real danger,” Paige added.
“From her?” Gabrielle enlarged the image. Tess was driving, Cillian sat behind, arms around her waist. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s not the point,” Cole insisted. “That girl is witnessing everything.”
“But that’s what’s so interesting. It’s because of the danger the girl’s putting him in that he’s triggering.”
“And at any moment she could turn round and kill him,” Paige said bluntly.
“Come on.” Gabrielle waved her hand dismissively. “I thought we had more guts than this.”
“We’re gambling with his life.”
“I know what you’re saying. But what’s happening here is incredible.” Gabrielle’s eyes were fired with excitement. “Cillian’s father died. He was lost and disorientated. The world he knew was crumbling, and his body reacted. His instincts changed, without us doing anything, no drugs, no intervention, nothing.” She looked at Cole and Paige. “It’s a testament to the quality of your work that he’s so far ahead. You should be proud.”
“But what if the pressure makes him unstable?” Paige asked. “What if he’s spinning out of control?”
“Why do you doubt his resilience?”
“Because it’s untested.”
“It’s the pressure that’s making him come alive,” Gabrielle said. “Conflict, the struggle with death, grappling with the unknown … that’s what drives us all, isn’t it?”
“So we just watch him suffer?”
“You’re getting too emotional about this whole thing. He’s not suffering. He’s searching. For answers.”
“I think he’s searching for you.” Paige looked at Gabrielle, trying to connect to the woman rather than the scientist.
“Maybe … but that’s quite a leap.”
“And if we don’t help him, then the experiment just got cruel.”
“You sound like one of those people who don’t like seeing death in nature documentaries.”
“He’s not an animal—”
“Of course he is!” Gabrielle saw how annoyed Paige was at the rebuke and checked herself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Paige shrugged, but said nothing.
“I just don’t want us to forget how valuable Cillian is,” Gabrielle went on. “He’s the first of the Line to start questioning his own identity, to ask ‘Who am I?’ I want to know how he’s going to answer that. I really do.”
“Please, let’s just bring him in,” Paige tried one last time. “For his own safety.”
“We can’t do that.” Gabrielle was adamant. “We need to let this run as long as we can.”
“So what are we going to do about Revelation?” Cole asked. “Are we just going to ignore the threat?”
“Of course not. Cillian needs our protection, but not our interference. Brief security. They can set up an extraction plan.”
It was only after Cole and Paige had left that Gabrielle allowed doubt to creep back into her thoughts.
She gazed at the images of Cillian scrolling on the WallScreen. She knew everything about him as a biological entity: the unique balance of his hormones, every letter of his DNA, the intricate biochemistry of his flesh and blood. But as a person…
Her fingers touched the pixels that were his face, trying to read his expression. Should she stand back and watch? Or reach out and help?
That he might be searching for her gave Gabrielle a strange flutter of vulnerability. Was Paige right? Was it cruel to leave him out there?
Suddenly she reached out and hit the keypad, wiping the images from the screen.
Keep it professional.
Stay focussed.
The last thing Gabrielle needed was emotion clouding her logic. This was just an experiment, no different to the thousands of others that had defined her life.
45
Tess could only watch as Cillian sank deeper and deeper into himself.
Several times she tried to talk to him, but he didn’t even look up; he just remained slumped on the ground as if his overloaded mind had shut down to protect itself. It was unnerving to be with someone who was so frighteningly absent.
As dawn broke, Tess heard the sound of the drones’ engines retreating. “I was beginning to think they’d never give up.” She peered through a gap in the trash, trying to glimpse the sky. “Half an hour and we can make a move.”
Finally, slowly, Cillian lifted his head. “I’m ready now,” he said quietly.
“Are you all right?”
No reply.
“I’ve got to say, Cillian, you were pretty awesome back there,” she said, trying to sound casual. “We were lucky to escape.”
“I didn’t escape.” Cillian looked at her with deeply troubled eyes. “I may be out here, but I can never escape. I see that now. Those faces in the glass cells … you saw how they looked at me. At me. Not you. They recognized me. As one of their own.”
Tess went very still, desperate not to give anything away with the slightest wrong reaction.
“In here.” Cillian touched his forehead. “That’s where it started. I used to think it was just about numbers and patterns, but the truth is, something happens … it’s like I’m being taken over from the inside … physically. Somehow I can move through time more slowly. It’s the only reason I survived the Metro bomb. It’s how we got through the forest and across the snowfield. Deep down, my mind has been … deformed. Twisted out of shape.” He closed his eyes, struggling to admit the worst. “And I think it was my father who did it. He was involved in those experiments. It’s why I’m like this.”
As Tess looked at him, Cillian’s strangeness seemed to melt away, leaving behind a boy trapped in his own terrible isolation.
“You don’t know that for sure, Cillian.”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m not a son, I never was. I’m just an experiment.”
“That’s not true. You can’t just tear up years of memories. Your father loved you—”
“Did he?”
“You had a life together. He nurtured you, protected you. You’re not locked away somewhere—”
“For how much longer? Maybe now
he’s dead they’re going to take me back. Maybe that’s what this is all about.”
“Then we have to stay one step ahead.”
“No.” Cillian stood up defiantly. “I’m not running any more.”
“We need to stay calm and think this through—”
“I’m done with thinking! I’m going back to the City. I’m going to blow this wide open. Gilgamesh, P8, everything we’ve seen, all over the Ultranet. People need to know what’s really going on.”
“You think they’ll believe you?”
“I don’t care what they do to me. They’re experimenting on human beings! On children.”
“I thought you were smarter than this,” Tess said, desperately trying to pull him back under control.
“And I thought you were the one who wanted to fight. To expose the truth.”
“When the time is right.”
“We’ve seen how wrong this is. With our own eyes. What more do you need, Tess?” He turned and walked out into the open. “What more do you need?”
She let him go, let him have some space. Tess knew she had to play this very carefully, because if she lost Cillian’s trust he would be of no further use to Revelation.
And that was a very dangerous place to be.
46
At the Northern Hub, Cillian and Tess ran straight into a wall of security checks. They may have had train tickets, but their clothes were trashed and their hands suspiciously cut and bruised. Tess’s big fear was that Gilgamesh had already circulated CCTV images and arrest warrants to the police.
Doggedly she and Cillian stuck to their cover story, that they were hikers who’d got caught in a flash flood, and eventually they were let inside.
Despite everything, it felt good to be back in a cocoon of civilization. Warmth and comfort reflected off every glossy surface. People were chatting over coffee, kids laughed as they ran around the gaming cloisters. Everything was reassuringly normal.
Cillian checked the schedule for the Bullet Train that would whisk them back to Foundation City. They had just over an hour to sort themselves out. After buying new clothes in the mall, they hired a couple of washroom suites to get cleaned and dressed.
Tess turned her steam-shower cubicle on to full blast, and while it warmed up she piggy-backed her smartCell onto the Hub’s system. Second attempt she got into Revelation’s network, and immediately started uploading her video footage. For the entire time they’d been in Gilgamesh, Tess had been covertly filming: maps of the complex, the layout of the ward halls, the strange mutated children imprisoned in Sub-Prime.
As she watched the upload bar flick across the screen, she could imagine the effect this was having at Cotton Wharf. It was the first time Revelation had penetrated so deeply into the workings of P8.
Moments after the last video went through, her smartCell rang. It was Blackwood. “Tess, are you safe?”
“Did you see it?”
“I know. It’s incredible.”
“There’s nothing incredible about it.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“You weren’t there! You didn’t see their pain.”
“Theirs and who knows how many others,” Blackwood insisted. “That’s why we’re fighting.”
“How long are you going to let P8 get away with this?”
“No-one’s getting away with anything. I promise.”
“All those victims—”
“Need you to be strong, Tess. In one day you’ve pushed Revelation forward years. Everything we’ve feared, you’ve proved is true. You’ve done that – I can’t tell you how proud I am.”
Tess nodded, but said nothing. Pride was the last thing she felt.
“By the time you get back we’ll have analysed the footage. And then we’ll strike hard. This is just the start, you know that, right? Revelation will win this fight. We have to. Science has gone too far – you’ve seen it with your own eyes.”
“I know.” Her voice was flat and drained.
“Tess, come on. It’s nearly over. Then you can have some time off, get your head straight, OK?”
No reply. It felt like nothing would ever be OK again.
“Look, I’ve got a surprise for you when you get back. I’ve pulled a few strings, got you a river-view suite. You’ve earned it.”
Tess couldn’t believe Blackwood could be so crass. Didn’t he understand what she’d just witnessed?
“It’s going to be difficult to keep Cillian quiet,” she said, deliberately trying to puncture his mood.
“What do you mean?”
“He wants to go to the media.”
“No.”
“His mind’s made up—”
“Then you have to unmake it. You know the plan. Stick to it.”
“Maybe there’s a different way—”
“What we’re doing is the only way.” Blackwood’s voice allowed no room for doubt. “Tess, it’s your job to make sure Cillian stays silent.”
“But he’s not on their side. He needs our help.”
“What did you say?”
Tess could hear the alarm in Blackwood’s voice. He couldn’t bear the thought of her feeling any pity. “We need to help him,” she said defiantly.
“That’s the very last thing we should do—”
“I want to help him! The way he’s been created, it’s not his fault.”
“On the surface they look so normal, but his confusion, his vulnerability, it’s to put you off guard. He’s not like you and me.”
“He’s as angry as we are—”
“Tess, if you get drawn in, I won’t be able to protect you.”
“It’s not like that—”
“If you fail, I fail. Is that what you want? I’ve gone out on a limb for you, defended you when others doubted—”
“How can you say that? After the things I’ve done?”
“If we lose this battle, it’s not just Revelation that’s finished, it’s humanity. You mustn’t lose your nerve, Tess.”
“No-one could be more loyal than me!”
“But you have to prove it again. And again. Every day is a test for us. Every day. That’s what it means to fight for a cause.”
Tess could feel her mind clogging up with Blackwood’s arguments.
“Foundation City is a fool’s paradise,” he urged. “It shows no respect for what’s sacred. That’s why we keep The Faith. Doubt is Weakness. Weakness is Failure. You’re too good for that, Tess. Believe me.”
47
Paige found Gabrielle roaming among the beautiful hardwood hives of the apiary on P8’s roof garden. In summer the air up there was so thick with bees it was impossible to get close to them, but once the temperatures dropped, the roof became one of Gabrielle’s favourite places to come and think.
“You hear that?” she said as Paige approached. “That humming?”
Paige leant over one of the hives and heard a low, soothing drone coming from deep inside.
“That’s the bees shivering, fluttering their wings to keep the queen warm. They do it all winter. That’s their only job, to protect the queen.”
“I think I’d have made a lousy bee,” Paige said with a rueful smile.
“Oh…” Gabrielle sensed what was coming. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“I’m not sure this is for me any more … what we’re doing in P8.”
“After everything we’ve achieved? All the breakthroughs?”
“When we started it was about medicine. About getting round stupid regulations that held back progress.”
“Don’t forget the millions of lives we saved through the Derespino vaccine,” Gabrielle added. “Aren’t you proud of that?”
“I suppose … yes,” Paige said. “But now…”
Gabrielle watched a couple of lone bees leave one of the hives for a few moments, then quickly dart back into the warmth. “You’ve been intimidated by Revelation’s terror campaign.”
“No.”
“And that’s exactly wh
at they want. For people to live in fear of progress.”
“I’m not frightened. But we shouldn’t be doing this in secret any more,” Paige said. “I thought by now everything would be above board.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“The decisions we take in here –” Paige looked down into the cavernous light-filled atrium – “they’re too big for us.”
“You know what Einstein said about these?” Gabrielle rested her hand on one of the hives. “If the bee disappeared, then Man would have only 4 years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more Man. It’s apocryphal. It wasn’t Einstein who said it at all. But people like to think it was because that way it’s easier to believe. Otherwise it’s just a crackpot theory. And it’s the same with P8 – we’re just like the bees. If we’re shut down, human beings are finished long term.”
“That’s a big claim, Gabrielle.”
“Believe me, the things we’re creating here can save humanity from extinction for ever. But it could all be destroyed by ignorance.”
“We’re playing God with people’s lives. That’s not science.”
“It’s the highest form: it’s creation. If we can use science to transform our existence, then we must use it. It’s a moral imperative. The trouble is, people are terrified of creativity. To take a blank space and fill it with something new … it’s like magic, and it scares people because they can’t control it. We’re not composing symphonies or painting sunsets, we’re creating with the building blocks of life.”
“But if a painting fails, you can just burn it and start again.”
“I know it’s not easy. Sometimes there is a bit of … ethical drift. But it’s a price worth paying. You can’t doubt that.”
“So how much further will the ethics drift?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Then at least tell me how much longer before we can come out of the shadows?”
“You have to make a choice, Paige. Do you want to be a creator and wield the power that goes with it? Do you want to be in the heat of this battle, with all its mess and chaos? Or do you want to stand on the sidelines and criticize?”
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