MARK
Mark went undercover with the Proletheans for reasons we have yet to determine. While there, he fell in love with a fellow Prolethean named Gracie, and they escaped the destruction of the Prolethean compound by Helena. Mark also survived the purge of Castor undertaken by Sarah, Helena, and Paul.
STYLES
This is one of the Castors who ran security at the base in Mexico in which both Sarah and Helena were imprisoned.
PARSONS
Helena told Sarah of this Castor clone, who suffered from the same neurological disorder as the others. They literally cut his head open in order to study his brain up close while it was functioning. According to Sarah, he begged Helena to kill him. Helena, unsurprisingly, obliged. Under the circumstances, I cannot say that I blame her. Even Rachel would, I think, hesitate at vivisection, but the masters of Project Castor obviously do not have even her scruples.
IRA
The only Castor clone we know of that was raised outside the military structure of Coady’s “mothering,” instead raised by foster parents and later met and moved in with Susan Duncan. Because he was not part of Coady’s project, he survived the destruction of Project Castor.
* * *
COMPLAINANT: Patricia Natale
OFFICER TAKING COMPLAINT: Det. Arthur Bell
DATE: 15 January 2014
* * *
I met a man in a bar named Rudy. He said he was Special Forces and I have a thing for men who are ordered to carry guns. I guess he figured that out. We talked, he bought me a few drinks, and I liked him, so we went back to his place. He poured me another drink, took my coat, very much a gentleman, at least until we got into bed. Even then, he was a very sweet lover, but then I felt four hands on me, which freaked me completely out. His twin brother Seth got into the bed with us. Seth looks exactly like Rudy, but with a mustache and shorter hair. He also had the same tattoo as Rudy on his left arm, a two-headed horse. Still, I didn’t like him, and I didn’t like being ambushed with a threesome like that. I’ve done threesomes and they don’t do it for me. I like the one-on-one attention. And I came up to the room to be with Rudy. I didn’t even know the other guy and so what that he looks like Rudy? After that it got even weirder. I thought they were going to kill me and even as I was frantically putting my clothes back on they were writing things down in a notebook about me and they yanked out some of my hair, putting it in a baggie. Only after that did they let me go.
COMMENTS
* * *
Det. Bell, followup report 20 January. Natale is suffering from an illness that has manifested as bloodshot eyes and cervical bleeding, with doctors saying that she is now no longer capable of having children. Her full diagnosis remains unknown, and she is under treatment, though the sterilization is permanent. She also believes—as do I—that it is something that may have been sexually transmitted from her assailant.
MPSDC-02(REV)
CRIME REPORT
037012-VR9
SUSPECT NAME: ID / DRIVERS LICENSE
UNKNOWN SUSPECTS
DEPT CODE
02-B/ASLT
V/D/S/RP
ATT
LOCATION OCCURRENCE
EMERALD GARDEN HOTEL
DATE AND TIME OF OCCURRENCE
AS PER INCIDENT REPORT B9T5, 14.9D1
WEAPON, FORCE OR MEANS USED (Describe cal, type, etc.)
UNKNOWN
REPORT ON INCIDENT OCCURRENCE
SEXUAL ASSAULT / ASSAULT CAUSING BODILY HARM
VEHICLE USED BY SUSPECT(S) - (Yr-make body-col-lic. no & I.D.)
N/A
CHNL M
11-VPW X
SUSPECT WANTED
TRADEMARKS OF SUSPECT(S) (Actions or conversation)
SUSPECT A-
**IDENTICAL TWIN PERPS**
(REFER TO B/ASLT 37012)
-SCAR ON R.CHEEK
CURRENT AGE RANGE:
30-42 YEARS OLD
HEIGHT: 5 FOOT 10;
EYES: BROWN;
HAIR: BROWN
MEMO TO THE DIRECTOR
From: David Benchman
Re: Project Castor
As I feared, Major Dierden’s rather black-and-white view of the world has proven disastrous for the project. Upon his return from his long-term undercover mission, he has learned of the sterilizations. Predictably, he did not understand the long-term benefits of the program. I endeavored to solve the problem in as expeditious a manner as possible by assigning Rudy and Dr. Coady to secure the science and shut Dierden down, but they failed. Dierden is dead, but the entire laboratory was destroyed by a grenade. Coady is badly injured, and most of the personnel from the base are dead (some, sadly, by Rudy’s hand, as he was not discriminating in his carrying out of my orders). Both Leda clones who were imprisoned on the base are missing, as is one of the Castor clones, Mark. Most of the Castor clones are also now deceased or running out of time.
The classified nature of the project is such that the backups were kept in a bunker underground proximate to the base. Dierden sabotaged those backups before his death and his grenade took care of everything else. We’re at a dead end and have to start from square one. Years of work has been destroyed irrevocably.
From the diary of Dr. Delphine Cormier, Dyad Institute
The longer I got to know Aldous, the more I believed him to be un monstre. I thought his treatment of the Leda clones as scientific experiments first and people second to be appalling. I felt it even more once my job to get close to Cosima became my passion. One at which I succeeded far too well.
I know that many of the choices Aldous made—and that Rachel made, and that our supervisors at Topside have made—were ones that could charitably be called unethical, and justifiably be called illegal. There were times when I believed that it was worth the moral compromise because the science was so important, which is why I provided Aldous with Cosima’s blood even after she specifically asked me not to.
But there were many more instances where I believed we had crossed a line. It is why I kept the fact that Sarah had a daughter from Aldous for as long as I could. Now that I am in Aldous’s position, I find myself understanding him more. The responsibility for the Leda project is overwhelming, far more comprehensive and difficult than I could ever have imagined as Aldous’s protégé and employee. I was unable to see the larger picture.
From my new position, I can see the larger picture. Worse, I now know how easy it is to slide across the moral line that I thought Aldous was so craven, so weak as to ignore. But the work we do is so critical and so important that . . .
Non, that is not correct. It is the sense of self-importance that led to Aldous’s downfall, as well as to the fire in which the Duncans’ work was destroyed. It is why we cross the line so much, for we have deluded ourselves into believing that what we are doing is of such great importance that the rules of ethics, of law, of human decency do not apply to us. We do this to justify to ourselves that we are working for the greater good, because to think otherwise, we truly would become monsters.
The truth is this: We do not act as we do because the work is so important. Rather, we act as we do because the work is so entrenched. The Leda clones are people with lives that we are monitoring—and many of them are dying. Some of them have died, whether by their own hand like Beth or from within by this disorder that has already claimed Jennifer Fitzsimmons and may claim my beloved Cosima before too long.
Perhaps to lie that our work is so important is the only manner in which we may survive. But it is a lie. The only aspect of the project that can truly be considered important is the search for a cure.
When I was in university, I read Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Like most, I was raised on the cinematic interpretation from 1931 and therefore was surprised to find that the creature who was created by Frankenstein was quite eloquent, verbose, and intelligent. Not at all the mindless monster embodied by Boris Karloff.
But what truly struck me about the novel, and why I mention it n
ow, is the theme of abandonment. Victor Frankenstein created something remarkable, but as soon as he saw how ugly it was, he rejected it, ignored it, and refused to take responsibility for it. And so it became a savage, murderous creature.
Both Project Leda and Project Castor came from a similar place. Like Victor Frankenstein, the Duncans created life from lifelessness, but through Dyad, the creation of science has not been abandoned, but continually monitored and checked. Yet we still have Victor’s arrogance. We still have Victor’s impatience and unwillingness to accept consequences. And I have become un monstre myself.
There is a mole within Leda. The people behind Project Castor knew of Ethan Duncan’s copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau and were able to intimidate Scott in order to obtain it. So few people knew of the book’s existence, much less that it was held by Scott and Cosima, that there simply had to be someone providing intelligence to Castor.
There was only one new person in Cosima’s life, and as far as I was concerned, there could be no other person. They met via a dating site, and I had already proven that her profile was false, with a lie regarding her job and leaving out her military career. She even saw the book in Cosima’s laboratory.
Dyad is ruthless, but it was not until I went to Shay Davydov’s apartment that I realized that I was just as ruthless. I threatened her. I tormented her. I told her to remove her shoes and then told the story of a woman I went to university with who failed at a suicide attempt because she did not use the razor between her toes.
I terrorized her. And I did so because I knew, simply knew, that she had betrayed Cosima. That was the ultimate pain. My position and my promise to love all the Leda clones as I loved Cosima forced me to distance myself from my beloved. And now the next person to whom she had given her heart had stabbed her in it. I would not tolerate that. I would not allow such a person to live.
I was blinded by arrogance, I was blinded by love, and I was blinded by the surety of my position. After all, I was the head of the project. Topside entrusted me with Project Leda, and I needed to protect the clones at all cost. I needed to protect Cosima at all costs.
Instead, I betrayed everything, I tormented an innocent woman. Worse, I tormented an innocent woman who truly appreciated Cosima, who saw the vibrant, amazing woman that I fell in love with. I accused her of a horrible crimes, and committed many horrible crimes of my own. For nothing. Grace—the Prolethean woman who ran away from the cult thanks to Helena’s efforts—was the mole. She was in love with a Castor clone who had gone undercover amongst the Proletheans and Project Castor promised to reunite her with him in exchange for information about Leda.
What Grace did, she did for love, even though it hurt many of us. What I did, I did for love, even though it destroyed my soul and nearly got an innocent woman very badly hurt. Le monstre, c’est moi.
From the diary of Dr. Delphine Cormier, Toronto, Ontario
This will likely be my last entry. I do not expect to live out the night.
We have been betrayed. All of us. The woman lying in a coma in our infirmary is not Rachel Duncan, but rather another Leda clone named Krystal Goderitch, a cosmetologist. Dr. Nealon conspired with Rachel to spirit her away to an undisclosed location and leave Krystal in her place.
But Nealon’s revelations were far more thorough than that. Neolution is not, as I had previously assumed, the public face of Topside, the pop-science front for Dyad’s research. In fact, they are the puppet masters, behind both Leda and Castor.
Nealon attempted to kill me, but he didn’t reckon on my recent desire to keep a small firearm on my person at all times. I detest guns, but it became increasingly obvious that my position required me to carry one. It saved my life tonight, though Nealon’s last words were an assurance that I would not survive for long.
And so I must say my goodbyes. I have already given a woefully inadequate apology to Shay, as well as my blessing for her and Cosima to continue their relationship. I hope Shay can look past Cosima’s horrible taste in previous lovers and be there for ma chère. I somehow doubt it, but I felt the need to at least attempt to atone for the horrible manner in which I treated her.
I write this final diary entry while sitting in my car outside Bubbles. Cosima is in there, along with her sisters Sarah, Alison, and Helena, as well as Detective Bell, Alison’s husband, Donnie, Sarah’s brother, Felix and her mother Siobhan. Alison has been running for some manner of local office—I honestly can no longer recall which—and the results are to be announced tonight. I know that I am welcome there, despite everything, but the destruction that will be rained down upon me cannot affect them.
I have texted Cosima to say goodbye. I hope I am strong enough to stay out of Bubbles. Seeing her will be hard enough—to see the others would, I believe, break me. Bonne soirée, mes chères. Bonne chance. I fear that Neolution will stop at nothing to control you. I just hope that you will be able to stay strong.
I suspect you will, though. You, Alison, and Sarah are three of the strongest people I have ever encountered, and the number of others who are there in that store with you and on your side—Felix, the detective, Siobhan, Donnie—shows that they are stronger than ever.
I would not bet against them. I wish I could help them. Je t’aime, Cosima. I hope you live longer than I shall.
From the diary of Cosima Neihaus, Rabbit Hole Comics
Okay, so I’ve been reading everything that Delphine wrote in this diary of hers and looking at the material she gathered, and. . . .
Yeah, I got nothing. This is weird.
I’m gonna try to keep doing what she was doing. Gathering information. Knowledge is power, that’s what they keep telling me. And with Delphine missing and leaving this to me, I figure I should keep gathering that knowledge. Gathering that power.
Of course, power is what took Delphine away. She was given power and she had to back off. And then she used her power against Shay. (God, poor Shay. She probably thinks we’re all crazy. She’s probably right.)
I’m not really a diary person, the way Delphine is, but I’m gonna try to keep this thing up. For her sake. And maybe for all of ours, too.
From the diary of Dr. Susan Duncan
Ethan has done it to me again.
You would think that after so many years of being partners both in the laboratory and in the bedroom that he would be unable to surprise me. And yet, he has managed it. From beyond the grave this time.
Well, to be fair, it was beyond the “grave” last time. I had thought for sure that he had perished in the fire that Aldous set, but he had managed to escape.
For so long, I begged him to tell me who the originals were. I knew only that he had scoured the prisons of the UK looking for a man and a woman who would be the ideal donors for both Projects Castor and Leda.
But he did insist on going it alone. “Our work is too important,” he would say in that reedy tone of his. “It is ours, and we must not let anyone take it from us. And the only way to guarantee that is to make ourselves indispensable.”
Later, he argued that doctor-patient confidentiality meant that the identity of the original donors needed to be kept between him and his patients. It led to another argument—in the end, that was all we ever did—as I tried to convince him that we had already suspended most other medical ethics, why cling to that particular one?
He never did have an answer.
Now, though, the originals have been found, except the plural is unwarranted. Bless him, Ethan found a chimera, someone who has both male and female DNA. She absorbed her twin in the womb and therefore has two cell lines. Ethan extracted her male cell lines to produce the Castor clones, which were then given over to the U.S. military, while her female cell lines were developed by us.
At least at first. It became clear that Ethan was unhappy with the direction we were going in. It also later became clear that he had a contingency beyond simply saving himself. Two of the Leda embryos had been implanted in a Jamaican woman and Ethan contrived to have them b
e raised away from the program, away from Neolution.
It was a foolish notion, one that has come back to haunt us all. One twin, Helena, was raised by Prolethean lunatics and turned into a killer. The other, Sarah, has been a thorn in the side of our program for most of the last several months, and it needs to stop.
On top of everything else, Sarah has gotten her grubby little hands on the chimera. Her name is Kendall Malone, and she was relatively recently released from prison. Her murder sentence was reduced because she participated in Ethan’s experiment and now she’s being held by Sarah and her seemingly endless supply of colorful helpers, both fellow Leda clones and others.
I grow weary of this foolishness. We need to find a cure for the disease that is ravaging the Leda women, as well as the Castors, and we need to be able to make more clones, and Malone is the key to both those things. But we must jump through Sarah’s hoops if we are to succeed. Malone is an old woman now, and she has spent decades in incarceration. Even if Sarah and her gang don’t make good on their threats to kill Malone if we do not “play ball,” it is completely possible that she will simply drop dead.
And then where will we be?
I wish you had trusted me, Ethan. You said you loved me and I even played along and said that I loved you back. You should have accepted that I would have done what was best for the project. Now I have doubts that the project will survive the year.
But no, I am being a fool. We have Charlotte, and Rachel will, I’m sure, raise her properly. Even if we do not get the original, we will prevail. As we were meant to.
-Susan Duncan: relationship with Ira, her pet Castor clone, might be something to exploit
Orphan Black Classified Clone Reports Page 9