by Al Cooper
- What you call ... alterations are actually tumors, very aggressive tumors, right?
Clerigan looked down again, so Kelly already knew the answer.
- Yes, unfortunately it's something that we still have to control. Hence, we decided to incorporate two eminent scientists to the project ... as you well know surely.
Clerigan didn't give her time to reply. He motioned to come out and shut the laboratory door. Then they followed their walk by the garden. For a few minutes did not exchange a single word. Kelly, on the one hand, believed that it wasn't time yet to let her position clear to the professor, there were still some dark spots that only he could clarify. On the other hand, she didn't know how to focus the conversation trying to avoid a confrontation between them that, sooner or later, was served. As they was walking near the tree where they had stopped earlier, came up with the perfect excuse to break the ice.
- Professor, before, when I asked you about this tree - she put his hand on the trunk - ... I was left with a doubt.
- Yeah, I know what you were going to tell me - Clerigan anticipated to her - actually I was surprised that you would not have asked it before. Too large for its age, right?
- Exactly.
- We have managed to accelerate the maturity also in the plant world, about the same proportion. Do you know what that it means? ...
- A huge step for agriculture, as long as ... it hasn't also side effects ...
- Exactly. And do not forget animal husbandry, the process can be applied, of course, to any living being. We could end hunger in the world at a stroke. It would not be needed resorting to the transgenics, which have aroused so much controversy, no need to modify the original incorporating DNA sequences from other species, since this would be the same specie with minimal genetic alterations necessary to accelerate the growth. Do you see how we shouldn't put barriers to science? Do you realize the importance of this project?
- I think that's precisely the problem. Like everything in life, its valuation depends on the purpose pursued. In a finding of this caliber, potential risks are proportional to its enormous possibilities.
There was silence again between them. Kelly felt compelled to ask the question in her head since they had left the laboratory. She chose a low tone of confidence, trying that he didn't guess any reproach in her words.
- Clerigan ... would it not have been easier that doctors Klein and Olsen were missing, no more?
The professor didn't need to know why she had asked that question. It was clear that Kelly had tied some ropes.
- We thought that enough was enough with the disappearance of Owen and myself and that would be the best option, to avoid suspicion.
- So you sent two clones of them.
- Right. We had his blood samples since more than four years ago. We had requested them when we thought about incorporating them into the project at an early stage.
- And you decided to create two clones. But they have had over four years to get them to reach a biological age of forty.
- You've seen Tommy. We can accelerate the life cycle until more of ten times.
- God! - Kelly couldn't avoid an exclamation then retained herself - ie in four years you are able to get an individual whose apparent age is about ... forty years!
- Right. We have this technology applied to human embryos, for almost five years.
- Bu I can't understand how the clones are provided to do the job ... A job where they can be killed.
Clerigan took a few seconds to find the best answer, Kelly noticed it..
- Their outlook on life is somewhat different from ours, Kelly. For them life is a gift that they enjoy thanks to us, we are their true and only parents, parents earthly and divine. - He paused - We raise them, we educate them, we give them everything they have. If we then ask them to do something for this project, which is also theirs, they make it happy to serve a cause, their, ours.
Kelly was forced to retain, once again, her impulses before responding.
- But ... are they aware of their problems, their diseases? ...
The attitude of Clerigan, head down and dejected, didn't transmit good vibrations to Kelly.
- Only to some extent. They know we're working hard to remedy this, we shall soon find the solution to their woes.
- But in the meantime, some of them die.
- Unfortunately, it's true.
- Or commit suicide, as the case of clones of Drs Klein and Olsen, why ... committed suicide, right? ... - Kelly's voice sounded grieved -
- Huh? Yes, yes, they chose to do so, they suddenly got worse ... and lost control.
Kelly stopped and stared at Clerigan, forcing him to raise his eyes.
- Professor ... did not commit suicide, right?
- What ... what makes you think that ...?
- If they trust so much in you, they would have endured until the end.
Clerigan began to spin from one place to another without meaning, Kelly already knew such kind of reaction. Then he began to speak very slowly, as if looking for any and all of his words.
- Before answering your question, let me tell you that I am not alone in this. There are decisions that are not mine, that I don’t even share.
- What are you trying to say? - Clerigan didn't answer, kept an eloquent silence - Answer me, please! ...
- Someone above me, not me, decided that given their condition and before anyone suspected, it would be best ... help them to die. Finally, after all, it's just about a kind of ... What would you call? merciful ... euthanasia.
- Are you aware of what you're saying? Is it, Professor? - Clerigan could not stand the look of Kelly and lowered his -
- Let's say ... apart of educating them, we prepare clones for certain missions, but they must be quick and concise, you must think they are immature and inexperienced for their age and their education is limited in time. In four years we can't ask them to reach intellectual maturity of forty, when in fact their brain is the organ that the longer it takes to mature… Let's say ... an individual of theoretic forty years under a biological view and four under a chronological view, has the same intellectual capacity as one of ten or twelve years old. That means they must follow strict rules, like speaking as little as possible, only the essential. The longer they are immersed in a world unknowed for them and for which they are just basically prepared, they're more at risk, they and … we - Clerigan realized that Kelly was listening stunned each of his words –
- So, as you give them the life you feel entitled to take it away - Kelly said, about to explode -
- I'm explaining the views of my superiors, not my own.
- You talk about it as if you were exempting yourself from your responsibilities. Anyway, I still don't understand why the clones do not rebel against you, sooner or later they will realize of your iniquity.
- Iniquity? All they are, absolutely everything, they owe it to us. We have given them all they have. They trust in us, is it so strange for you?
- To put it another way. Under this trust, that faith, they think the same way that you have given their lives, have the solution to their illnesses. They've been led to believe it so, right? But really, once they concluded their mission ... this is a ... - Clerigan interrupted before completion -
- Eyesore? Aberration? It's the word you were looking for, right? ... I think you shouldn't have such opinion about me. Don't draw inaccurate conclusions, don't judge me by a particular case that did not depend on me, that wasn’t in my hands. Do you think that a parent looks for the worst for his children?
- If you've played to be God, you should accept the responsibility that belongs to you.
- Being God is not easy. They also must respect and obey me. Dear Kelly, I have had to play a role in a new world with a new order.
- Don't you realize that you have transgressed the boundarie
s of science to go into the scabrous world of morality? - Kelly shook her head in negation sign - I regret coming. Now I'm realizing all the damage that knowledge in the wrong hands can do. How could I? ... I admired you so much, professor! You can't imagine how much!
- Have you looked around you? Perhaps your God and mine, Kelly, has been concerned to solve the life that has given us? Do you reproach it to him perhaps? I would rather say that most religions revere their gods for what they are and not what they take away.
- You've gone too far in your research, professor. You probably never stopped to think about their consequences. And I'm afraid it's too late to rectify. You've opted for a forward flight, right?
- I knew you would not understand. I am their God, the only one they have. They owe me life, they never even had had a chance without me .
Kelly realized that she was discovering more things about herself than about Clerigan. She managed to identify the emotions that aroused her old love, and thus managed to control her visceral impulses, the same impulses that would have led her to disqualify him. The anger and helplessness that she felt at what she considered an insult to nature, if not to God, was compensated for the pain of seeing a loved and admired being turned into a madman, a victim of his frustrations. She only had to look at the contorted expressions of Clerigan's face as he tried to defend until the death of her charges to reach the conclusion that she was before a tormented person, torn, unable to accept his mistakes, someone who was closer to death than life, the life he proclaimed to have given, because when someone is spiritually dead is only a matter of time that his body follows the same way.
Clerigan was silent, waiting for a reproach, a passionate reaction from his former student that never came. Instead, a tear slid down by Kelly's left cheek. Clerigan noticed it, took out his handkerchief and wiped it gently. Neither understood nor dared to ask why that tear had escaped. If he had done it would have been one of the greatest moral shocks of his life. Behind that tear there was a retained feeling of pity, of disappointment, of impotence to do anything to remove him from the abyss. It was as if in that bottomless fall, Clerigan also had dragged down with him her memories of the past, as if he had brought forever something that belonged to her and only her.
The silence was suddenly broken by several shots from the mansion. Clerigan asked Kelly to take refuge near the bungalow as he ran in the direction that had sounded.
XXXVIII
Hanson came to the palisade and approached the gate of the entrance. He was surprised to not see the sentry because he had to admit he didn't trust at all in the empathy of Klein to win his sympathies. In any case he decided to risk as little as possible, he climbed to the near tree that allowed him to access the wall. From there he could see quite far an unmistakable silhouette of a woman. He felt so good, no doubt it was his longed Kelly, walking beside a man about sixty, that he imagined was Clerigan. His first impulse was going to her and rescue her, but then imposed himself a rule of sanity. He should continue with their plan without anything or anyone, if possible, altered it. After all, Kelly was being treated as a guest, it was obvious because the attitude of the man, who by his gestures seemed to be explaining something that Hanson was unable to interpret at that distance.
Hanson looked around and didn't see no one else. He jumped the wall and walked slowly toward the mansion. As he was halfway he heard a noise, approached and saw two men talking. Why Klein's coworker at Genfly laboratories had told him that Klein was a shy and introverted person?... He should see him there, intimating with the guard, bottle in hand, smiling his jokes, following his conversation. He remembered the exchange of views with Kelly in a camp lost in the jungle, in which both concluded that natural environment did wonders among humans, taking out from them some skills that in normal conditions no one could have imagined.
Klein was no exception, a scientist who was always on his own, focusing on his work, which didn't miss the communication with others for the simple reason that he didn't need it, and surprisingly he had not only caught the sentry weakness but he had managed to empathize with him until the point of that his biggest problem would be getting rid of him once he had achieved his goal.
Hanson waited a few minutes hiding behind a tree and, as he noticed that the Klein bottle companion was so comfortable in his company that he hadn't any intention to return to his post, he made a sign to the scientist. The sentry would not stop talking, he should be very bored of his long and lonely guards. He still had to wait another five minutes, until Klein took advantage of a brief recess that did his companion with the sole purpose of tippling, to try to convince him with the argument that he should return to the laboratory, as he had much work to do and Clerigan could become angry. The reasoning seemed to be compelling enough because his face became livid and immediately turned, bottle in hand, to his post at the gate of the stockade. Hanson concluded that with just saying his name, Clerigan commanded respect among his men. Klein approached to Hanson, who, after shaking hands could not avoid to do an assessment.
- I guess the bottle was yours.
- I could not think of a better way to approach him - Klein confirmed, whispering - Anyway, it also have helped that Clerigan was entertained. - Nodded his head toward the place where he was with Kelly - I guess that girl is one of the people you referred yesterday.
- Right.
- I have good news - Klein flashed a knowing smile - my friend - he nodded toward the palisade - wanted to talk. Alcohol has done the rest.
- No need you tell me, I had already noticed it!
- Now I know where the prisoners are. I had always drawn attention to a kind of trapdoor that is in the basement but I never dared to inquire.
- A hatch? Do you have a latch or lock? We'll have to force it.
- It is not necessary.
- Do not tell me you've got the key! The sentry? ...
- Please, you're asking me too! Neither I had been able nor he had given me.
- What then?
- Two men of Clerigan usually go down all days at this hour. I imagine that they prick to prisoners as part of gene therapy to which they're subjected.
-Therapy? Perhaps are they all sick? Woe! Damn! - Hanson stared at Klein hoping that he would give him an explanation -
- It's just one more of the atrocities to which I referred yesterday. Clerigan needs human guinea pigs for his experiments - looked around - Don't you think we're at risk staying here?
- Right. Approach the front door, I will follow you to enough distance. Once inside, make sure no one prevents the passage, then discretly make me a sign.
Klein calmly approached the house, opened the door with his key and went inside, leaving the door slightly open. Hanson approached all he could hiding among the trees. After a few seconds he saw as Klein stuck his head. Hanson glanced to the sentry post. He was yet busy with his bottle and looking to the jungle, so he took the first occasion to cross the few yards that separated him from the porch and entered the house. Klein nodded to follow him. They had to go through a long corridor. A ladder could be guessed to the end, but before reaching their destination they heard voices coming from a door that opened into the corridor. Klein motioned with his hand and they took refuge in a small room. In appearance it was the bedroom of one of the mercenaries of Clerigan, ramshackled, a few possessions, the unmade bed and a straw hat on one chair. The voices took shape, belonged to a woman and a young girl.
- Let's see Pete. Sure it has something to calm the pains - said the woman -
- Every night, Aunt Sena. I can't sleep, it hurts a lot ...
As soon as their footsteps stopped, they went back to the corridor and headed to the stairs at the back, coming down to the basement. They went down very slowly and carefully the steps, ensuring that the noise of wood didn't reveal them. The darkness was absolute in the basement, but the first thing that caught the attention of Hanson wa
s the strong and unpleasant smell of damp and rotten wood. Klein pulled a small flashlight from the back pocket of his trousers. Hanson winked as expressing that he had read his thoughts. The flashlight helped to discover a large space, dirty, full of furniture in poor condition and utensils stacked atop one another. Klein focused light to a place almost opposite the site where they were, letting see a wooden hatch that was open, upright.
- Someone must have gone down - Hanson whispered to Klein - It's possible that they return soon. We should hide - he looked around for a site that offered security, looking at what must have been the remains of a large closet - there - noted by hand - They took refuge behind a makeshift barricade and stood a while, until they heard voices beneath the trapdoor.
- Well, that's enough for today. Only remains for us to give them dinner - one of the men said as he left the door with a torch in one hand and shaking the dust with the other -
- You're too much optimist, surely Sena hasn't it ready yet, as usual - his fellow pointed out -
The men of Clerigan left one of their torchs on a stand next to the wall and were out aided by the light of the other without bothering to close the hatch, probably thinking it wasn't worth it, since they would soon return.
Hanson took the torch introducing through the narrow hole dug in the floor, resting his feet on wooden planks that served as stairs, then Klein followed him. At twenty feet from the surface, the vertical down ended at the beginning of a gallery dug in the rock. A passageway, a little less narrow but no less distressing.
Along the way, Klein put Hanson in backgrounds. Briefly told everything he knew about Clerigan's investigations, which did not include the identities of the clones, the best kept secret that had not been disclosed to him, but yes the ability to create clones in a few years. He also confessed that he had found some papers in the laboratory of Owen, which showed that he had been involved so much in the project, that had not hesitated to apply gene therapy related to the aging gene on himself. Then the image of Sheridan, ie Owen came to Hanson's mind. It explained that the biological age of the man seemed much higher than the chronological, so in sight, he seemed about thirty years older than when he was gone.