by Adam Steel
Kristoff shook her hand curtly and fumbled with his watch after she had moved on.
Ellie thought he looked awkward.
‘I am pleased to meet you all. It is my pleasure to conduct the tour of our F2-Genie Project,’ Henson said.
‘Nathan here,’ Henson gestured to Nathan (who was waiting for his cue) ‘will accompany us and answer any questions.’
A nod from Henson signalled Nathan to usher the group out of the room and down to the end of Dome 1. Henson led the way, escorted by her personal body guards. They went through a set of double doors followed by the group. The little group of candidates followed the strutting Nathan down the corridor and into the Genie facility.
He even moves like a drag queen, Ellie thought.
The tour began with a visit to the staff living quarters. It was much more opulent than Ellie had expected. There were no windows. Instead the outer walls were all holograms. It gave the appearance that the staff lived surrounded by a rich, lush jungle. A thundering waterfall ran down the wall of the entrance corridor. The illusion was so life-like the delegates kept to the other side of the corridor to avoid slipping off the imaginary edge. Jon Li had had to put a hand on the wall just to reassure himself it was actually there.
Next, came the tour of the laboratory complex. The Genie facility housed more than just the core reactor. It also encompassed a vast and highly advanced laboratory that strived to improve on the Genie model. From what they had seen on the introductory video that task seemed impossible. The labs were split into levels like a huge pyramid. Behind thickened glass technicians, dressed in white gowns, sterile boots and gloves, busied themselves at various benches and machines. The environment was absolutely spotless and ordered. Everything seemed to be working like clockwork. Benches full of conical flasks, glass apparatus, things that filtered, dispensed and extracted, filled every useful space. The technicians didn’t talk to each other.
Henson explained how the labs worked independently of the TAU. They were reserved for ‘special projects,’ although the group was unable to extract any further details.
Nathan had mentioned something about “spoiling the surprise.”
Finally, Henson brought the group to a halt in front of steel double doors.
‘The section that we are about to enter is occupied by Masons, Jonus and Alexis Coney,’ she said proudly.
Victor gasped in awe, ‘Ah, Excellent. I have long waited to meet the good Doctors,’ he said, rubbing his hands in anticipation.
Before he could say anymore, Henson cut in, ‘As you are no doubt aware, they are the co-founders of the F2-Genie Project and head up our Research and Development team here. They are both eminent Professors who have dedicated their lives to this project. They work continually to improve the efficiency of the Genie Project. Without them I fear we would all still be stumbling around in the dark!’
Henson was wearing one of her immaculate practiced smiles.
The group uttered a nervous laugh. The statement was a little too close to the truth to be funny. Behind them Kristoff checked the time on his watch again. It seemed to be an obsession with him.
‘The Coney Twins,’ Ellie whispered to Jon Li.
Jon Li nodded and leaned in close to Ellie.
‘Yes. Never thought I’d actually get to see them in person,’ he said in hushed tones.
Nathan bent in close on their conversation.
‘They never leave this place you know. They live right on the site in their own special suites. You can’t tell them apart. Just try,’ he goaded in a quiet hushed whisper.
Jon Li looked straight into Nathan’s face. He was so close he could even see that he was wearing a tiny touch of brown eyeliner.
‘Sure. If you say so,’ he said backing away from Nathan.
‘Nathan. Please escort the group to Mason’s Jonus and Alexis’s section,’ Henson retorted loudly. She followed it up with a fierce stare.
Henson looked straight at the guard next to her. She gave him a familiar look. The guard had guessed that Henson was going to give Nathan a good chewing over the minute the tour was over, and it was going to be his next job to escort the budding drag queen to her office.
Nathan uttered a nervous little laugh and retreated behind the guard.
‘Yes, Mason Henson. Of course, Mason Henson,’ he said, in a meek and obedient voice. He flicked his hair back twice in quick succession.
Ellie and Jon Li glanced at each other, before the whole group continued to the section which contained the Coney Twins.
Ellie could scarcely believe the once in a lifetime opportunity. The Coney twins were the most famous and revered of the masons and led extremely reclusive and sheltered lives. They were never seen in public, choosing to live on the facility. Even quotations from them were rare. They were famous for their incredible scientific innovations and had been the geniuses behind the F2-Genie Project that provided the lifeblood that fuelled the very heart on which Utopia was built.
The group continued through the steel doors, which slid shut behind them. They entered what was a long viewing corridor. On one side was a solid wall. On the other was an impenetrable wall of glass, which separated them from the mini laboratory that was the domain of the Coney Twins.
The Coney Twins were alone in their sterile world of science.
Ellie could hardly contain her excitement at finally getting to see the incredible scientists at work. Alexis and Jonus were sitting back to back at each end of their laboratory. They each occupied their own workstations which were neatly arranged with sets of expensive looking lab equipment. Computer screens spilling data across them. Behind them, a dizzying amount of what looked like medical apparatus and glass equipment filled the whole central bench. The back wall was fitted with whiteboards covered in a spidery scrawl of complex mathematical and chemical equations.
Looking into their world, Ellie was taken aback at their appearance. She could only stare. She had built up a picture of how she thought they might have looked. It did not match the real thing. They looked much younger than she expected. It was hard to tell whether they were male or female. They had short blonde hair and fine features. They were slim in stature with boyish looks. Each was dressed in the same garb as the technicians apart from the platinum key around their slender necks. The spectacled twins were flawless. Perfectly identical. She watched in awe as they worked – spidery fingers scribbling notes. They worked in perfect synchrony.
Ellie blinked. The image was so similar on both sides of the room that it looked like it had been split by a mirrored wall. Only the handwriting on the boards spoiled the illusion.
Mason Henson interrupted her deep thoughts.
‘So here we are. This is Masons Jonus and Alexis. As you can see they are hard at work building all our future,’ Henson announced.
The group stared in stunned silence.
One of the twins stood up and moved along the workstation. His movements were rapid, precise and robotic.
Kristoff placed a hand on the thick glass wall and observed the two twins.
‘Don’t we get to meet them? That’s two men that I want to shake by the hand,’ he said, sounding disappointed. His greenish-blue eyes followed their spidery movements.
Ellie could see the frustration etched in his features. She looked at the twins again. Now she could see them in person she wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to meet them up close.
Henson shook her head, ‘Out of the question. They would not thank us for interrupting their work. They could be performing a vital calculation and their environment has to keep strictly sterile for their experiments.’
Kristoff withdrew his hand from the glass and fell behind them again, deep in thought.
Victor took his place at the glass. ‘Remarkable...Which one is Jonus?' he said adjusting his spectacles.
Ellie frowned at him. She guessed that he must have been listening to their conversation.
Henson gave the briefest of pauses and Ellie could have swo
rn she saw a flash of annoyance crossing her perfect features.
Pointing an elegant finger to the twin on the right, she said. ‘That one’s Jonus. Hard at work as usual.’
Ellie couldn’t help but wonder if she was guessing.
As if in response to some hidden signal, the twins stopped working and simultaneously turned to look out on the little group assembled before them outside the glass wall. Their eyes scanned the group with razor precision, pausing to acknowledge Henson’s presence before continuing to scan the group in an analytical gaze. For a split second, one of the twins made eye contact with Ellie. She smiled warmly at him. His steel grey eyes looked straight through her. They were emotionless: examining her like a specimen under a microscope. Meeting the twin’s gaze was like diving into a deep, dark pool of forbidden knowledge. Ellie retracted. She felt like a nervous voyeur. It was not the feeling that she had expected. She noticed the look that passed between the Coney Twins. It was like a forbidden, silent language.
They returned to their work.
The small group of candidates had gone very quiet.
Ellie noticed that Henson had put her hand to the masons’ key which hung around her neck and she was stroking it lovingly. It was beautiful. A miniature of the insignia above the reception desk, except this one was made from platinum and had a microchip embedded in the shank.
Kristoff was eyeing her with interest. He seemed fixated on the key.
Henson turned and addressed the group.
‘Time to move on, we still have much to get through and are getting pressed for time.’ Please follow me,’ Nathan added, as Henson moved off in the lead.
She marched to the end of the glass wall with her guards trailing a short distance behind to either side of her and Nathan almost running to keep up with them. Ellie, Victor and Jon Li followed closely behind. Kristoff hesitated for a few seconds, until he noticed that Nathan had stepped back through the doors and was watching him.
‘Follow me,’ Nathan repeated at him from down the passageway.
He slapped the glass wall and the Coney Twins stopped what they were doing and looked at him through the glass. They looked at each other briefly then turned their backs on him. Kristoff backed away from the glass wall. He muttered something under his breath and turned to hurry up the corridor to catch up with the waiting group. Nathan frowned at him and stepped back through the doors.
The group left the sealed doors of the Coney Twin’s laboratory behind and headed down a long corridor. The corridor had windows all along one side and through it they could see rows of green hangers lined up like monopoly houses at the far end of the facility. Looming up ahead of them was a gargantuan, rectangular building, with a curved roof structure. It glinted in the strong sunlight.
Victor stopped at one of the windows and strained his neck up to see the extent of the building. ‘Is that the reactor building?’ he asked, pointing at the structure.
‘Yes. Sort of, you’ll be able to enter and see the reactor room but we won’t actually be going down to the worker level. Only specially trained staff are allowed down there,’ Nathan replied and flicked his head back, pulling his fingers through his hair.
Kristoff rudely cut in front of Victor and put his hand on Nathan's arm.
‘Will that be the end of the tour?’ he said flatly.
Nathan flinched. ‘Well, Henson will give a talk about the…’
Kristoff frowned and nodded once, cutting Nathan off. He released his grip and shrank back again.
Victor pushed his way back in front giving Kristoff a dirty look. He shuffled up to usurp the polite conversation that Ellie and Jon Li were having with Mason Henson.
The group moved onwards, coming to a halt in front of a solid looking security door at the end of a long glass tunnel. It led directly into the vast reactor building. One of Henson’s guards pressed his hand against a small computer panel by the side of the hatch. A holographic map appeared. It was displaying a bright image of yellow lines that looked like an underground subway map and a symbol which represented the generator building.
Ellie looked at Jon Li nervously.
Victor edged closer and studied the hologram, but before he could get a good look at it, the guard removed his hand and the image disappeared. Victor smoothed his chin.
‘Interesting,’ he said.
Somewhere from inside, metal grated on metal, and a hatch door that resembled the ones used in submarines opened. They all felt the rush of freezing cold air that escaped from the hatch.
Ellie shivered.
Inside the door the chamber was dark. A flickering blue strobe light flashed upwards from somewhere far below. Henson stepped over the metal plinth and disappeared into the darkness beyond. Both her guards (who were topping six feet in height) ducked to avoid the low hatch as they followed her.
Nathan turned to address the group with final instructions.
‘When we go through this door you will need to be careful. You are going to be very high up so you might feel disorientated. Also your eyes will need time to adjust to the light so tread carefully. We don’t want any accidents,’ Nathan instructed.
Having said his piece he gestured for them to enter.
‘At last,’ Victor said, as he paced cautiously over the threshold.
Ellie went next, followed by a ‘white-faced’ Jon Li.
You will be high up, Jon Li thought to himself very high up.
He had his eyes closed when he took the final step into the chamber.
Kristoff was the last one to step into the darkness. Nathan did not follow instead, he stayed out in the passageway. The balcony could not admit all of them. Without being asked, Kristoff slowly closed the security door behind them leaving Nathan outside. Nathan would have protested but he didn’t dare tarnish Henson’s unveiling of the Genie Reactor. Instead he gave Kristoff a sour look that disappeared in a crack of light as the door ‘clicked’ home.
They emerged into a giant cavernous structure and found themselves standing on a viewing platform. It was suspended so high up that the bottom of Genie was invisible.
Ellie gasped, awestruck. She was so overwhelmed by the immensity of the cavern she was looking into that she didn’t immediately notice the extreme drop in temperature. She felt for Jon Li’s arm to steady herself and looked back at him, not ready to peer over the edge of the platform. His face was as white as a sheet.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she could see Kristoff standing behind him by the sealed door. The spectrum of light changed from white to blue, as bolts of static electricity raced over the walls like icy fingers. It bathed them in a blue strobe light.
It made Kristoff’s eyes look blue. He stared back at her grimly.
The freezing cold air enveloped them and they could see their breath.
She turned, taking in the vastness of the chamber and guiding Jon Li (who still had his eyes closed), she joined Henson and her guards at the edge of the balcony. She placed her hands on the safety rails and peered over the edge into the black pit below.
‘Wow,’ Ellie gasped.
‘Exactly,’ Henson added.
A flicker of electricity lit up the smile of satisfaction on her face.
Victor was hanging over the railings, taking in the awesome sight.
‘Truly astonishing,’ he said.
‘Indeed,’ Henson answered.
‘Fantastic,’ Victor replied, and repeated, ‘Fantastic.’
Jon Li held onto the railings with his eyes tightly closed. You are going to be very high up. He could feel the updraft of cold air from far below on his face, just like the day he had stood on the tower block. It ruffled his hair which had begun to stand on end. The noise from the reactor ‘pounded’ in his ears: a loud droning noise. His hands were clenched tightly on the railings as he held on for dear life. They were covered in a very fine, icy mist. He could feel the energy in the room. It rolled all over everything, seeping into him. Crackles of electricity sounded far below. He co
uld feel their charge. It made the hairs on his arms bristle. Very slowly he inched one eye open to see what he was missing. As his vision focused, his eyes shot open.
‘Sugoi!’ he exclaimed.
Ellie looked at him in surprise.
His English had been so perfect, she had assumed it was his native language. She did not need a Japanese translator to tell her that he was as awestruck as the rest of them.
Jon Li stared downwards mouth agape. He could see other platforms below them that were very similar to the gantry that they were all standing on. They were metal, suspended on cables. Suddenly he was transported back to the tower block and the feeling of vertigo started to get the better of him. A nasty nauseous feeling was beginning to well up inside of him. In the dimly lit, blue hue, he could just about make out where the plant started. Far below them - very far below. Twisted metal pipes, like the roots of a tree, weaved around the base. The floor appeared to have a layer of something white and shiny on it but it was too far away to see what it was. Huge, transparent tubes pumped neon blue liquid along the length of the gargantuan, metal body of Genie. Distant technicians scurried around. Trucks and machinery barely visible were moving down below. Their noises being carried up like echoes into the vastness of the building. It reminded him of Notre Dame Cathedral, only a hundred times larger. He was thinking that even the coldness of the place felt similar. He could just about make out something moving further below them. Long chains dragged along by some mechanical means vanished into the blackness. Something silvery and bulbous ran the length of the oblong shape that was Genie. From the distant silvery shapes, bolts of electricity flowed over the entire body of Genie in fantastic arcs of light. Running through the centre of Genie an enormous, pulsing column hummed like a million angry bees. The loyal workers tended her like drones to a queen.
Kristoff took a step forward from the security door to stand behind one of Henson’s guards. He held his hands down at his waist crossed over each other. He was too far back to see over the edge. He looked down and checked his watch.
“Click. Sshiikk.”
Ellie looked up from the railings, startled by the strange noise from behind.