by T E Stouyer
Myrvan looked up. “Hello, Professor.”
“Hello, my boy.”
The children then continued on their way out.
“Hey, you didn’t say hello,” Myrvan said to his sister.
“I already saw him earlier,” Arianne replied as they left the lab.
Once the children had gone, Fournier proceeded further inside the room. “She takes her role of older sister very seriously,” he said.
“Yes, she does,” Adam agreed. “It’s because of her heightened empathy. She senses how much the others miss having a mother. She’s trying to fill that role. At least for her younger brothers and sisters. But she’s still too young, herself. She hasn’t figured out the best way to do it, yet. Hopefully she will, in time.” Adam continued to stare at the closed door a while longer, and then finally turned to Fournier. “Did you want to see me about something, Professor?”
“Yes,” said Fournier. “I came to talk to you about Myrvan. I wanted to let you know that he’s been hiding his true potential. But it would appear I don’t need to, do I?”
Adam’s gaze sharpened.
“How long have you known?” The professor asked.
“From the beginning,” said Adam. “I’m the one who told him to hold back.”
“Why would you do that?” Fournier said, looking perplexed. He pointed at the equations on the whiteboard and added, “I don’t think even Damien would have been able to grasp this level of complexity when he was that age.”
Adam sighed. “You’re right, he wouldn’t have … and neither would I.”
Fournier’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “What are you saying?” he asked, almost whispering.
“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Adam replied. “But I’m starting to think that Myrvan might be more gifted than any of us. In more ways than one. If he continues to develop at this rate …”
Professor Fournier was trembling with excitement. “This is incredible.”
“Yes, it is,” said Adam. “But you can’t tell anyone. I’ll talk to Professor Karpov. I assume he knows, too.”
“Not tell anyone? Why not? This is a major development in the project. It could change everything.”
Adam waited a moment to allow Professor Fournier to regain his composure, but also to emphasize the importance of what he was about to say. “Do you remember how most people reacted to me when I was the same age? What was being whispered behind closed doors?”
“Erm … I know there was some apprehension,” said Fournier. “But that’s understandable. Frankly speaking, no one knew what to make of you.”
“It was more than just apprehension,” said Adam. “It was fear. Fortunately for me, there was also a great deal of curiosity.”
Fournier gave him a probing look. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying there were those who wanted to see me locked away for good … or worse. I was protected because there was no one else like me, because I was unique. My children cannot benefit from such a protection. If the truth about Myrvan ever came to light, I worry about what they might do to him. But most of all, I worry about what he might become if they push him too far.”
Chapter 19 – Escape
The living room had fallen completely silent.
Professor Fournier marked a long pause and glanced over his attentive audience.
“That conversation took place about seven months before Adam escaped from the Arc,” the old man declared.
“I still can’t believe he bailed on his kids like that,” Sonar commented.
“He didn’t have a choice,” Fournier said, looking at Arianne and Lucielle. “It was the only way to keep them safe.”
“We know, professor,” Arianne said as she took Lucielle’s hand.
“You told us he had found out about some secret organization?” Doc said. “WIAS, was it?”
“Yes,” the old man replied. “It goes without saying that Adam was kept under constant surveillance at the Arc facility. His every move inside the compound was closely monitored, his living quarters were bugged, and all contact with the outside world was carefully supervised. The only place he could find any privacy was inside his lab. How could he possibly have hoped to expose WIAS under those circumstances? How could he have safeguarded his children against their looming threat?”
“I guess it makes sense,” said Doc.
“I’m sure the decision to leave was a terribly difficult one for him to make,” said Fournier. “But not only did it give him the freedom to act, it also prompted an increase in security around his children. Adam knew it would keep them out of WIAS’s reach for some time.”
“And it worked, right?” Kincade asked.
“Yes, it did,” Fournier confirmed. “Unfortunately, not even Adam had predicted what was to happen next. The second week after his father’s disappearance, Myrvan escaped from the Arc.”
The professor’s statement was met with shocked gazes and raised eyebrows.
“And how exactly did he manage that?” Doc asked.
A hint of pride flashed across Fournier’s face as he replied. “He built a device capable of opening most electronic locks and used it to pass through the restricted areas.”
“It was the first prototype of the device we used to get inside the storage room in Leicester’s office,” Arianne told Kincade.
“What about the cameras?” Doc inquired.
“The day before,” Fournier said. “At around the same time he planned to escape, Myrvan intercepted and recorded the camera feeds along the route he intended to take. The following day, he accessed a control panel, hacked into the surveillance system, and replaced the live feeds with the recordings.”
“Hehe, not bad,” Rock chuckled.
“And the guards?” Kincade asked.
“He had memorized their positions and patrol patterns,” Fournier replied. “It wasn’t hard for him to avoid most of them. And the ones he couldn’t avoid, he simply knocked out. He made his way to an elevator shaft and climbed up the cables all the way to the third floor.”
“Why the third floor?” Sonar asked.
“He knew security inside the lobby would be much tighter,” the professor explained. “And a higher floor provided a better view of the surrounding area.”
“Wow, he really thought this through, didn’t he?” said the redhead.
“He did,” said Fournier. “But he couldn’t have known that the military had installed motion sensors in the yard following Adam’s escape. As soon as the boy landed on the ground, the alarm went off.”
“Landed?” Doc noted.
“Yes, he jumped from a window,” Fournier replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Oh,” Doc simply said.
Neither the mercenaries nor the detective had a problem accepting that part of Fournier’s account. They had all seen enough not to be bothered by this kind of statement anymore.
The professor carried on. “The cameras captured the boy as he ran across the field, moving at an incredible speed I might add. He had also taken the precaution of wearing high-voltage insulating gloves, which he used to rip open the electric fence before he disappeared inside the forest.”
“He actually made it out?” Kincade exclaimed in surprise.
“Oh, yes. But he ran into a military patrol car. They slowed him down long enough for the search party from the Arc to catch up. Myrvan was eventually subdued and brought back to the compound.” The old man marked another pause, seeming to hesitate. “I should mention … they died,” he finally said.
“Who died?” Sonar asked.
“The patrol team,” Fournier replied. “All four of them. It was a regrettable accident.”
“Accident?” Rock echoed, with clear skepticism in his voice.
“I don’t believe Myrvan meant for it to go that far,” Fournier argued. “But between the fear of getting caught, and the desperation to find his father … anyone would have found it difficult to exercise restraint in these conditi
ons, especially a child.”
Kincade cocked his head to the side. “A child? Wait, how old was he?”
“It was about a month shy of his twelfth birthday,” the professor replied.
A grave silence filled the room once again.
The mercenaries exchanged uneasy glances as they tried to imagine a child, not much older than Lucielle, planning and executing such an escape, and then killing four armed soldiers in the process. If nothing else, it gave them a clear illustration of the kind of threat they had allowed in their midst.
“After that night,” Fournier continued, not noticing the shift in his audience’s mood. “The children’s lives dramatically changed. With his near-escape, Myrvan had shown himself to be far more capable than anyone at the Arc realized. But also, far more dangerous. It was just as Adam had feared. Expectations quickly gave way to suspicions, and curiosity turned into concern. The children were no longer allowed to move freely around the facility’s sub-levels, their outside privileges were revoked, and everything they did was even more closely monitored. They truly became prisoners.”
The old man paused as he tried to recall the subsequent months in clear detail.
“Two weeks later,” he said. “A new team was brought in to perform a different kind of ‘study’ on the children. The team’s lead scientist, a man named Whitmore, was a particularly objectionable fellow. Their experiments were designed to measure things like pain tolerance levels, or performance under physical stress and sleep deprivation.”
“That sounds a bit extreme,” Doc remarked.
“It was barbaric!” Fournier exclaimed, still seething at the mere thought of those sessions. “And Myrvan suffered the worst of it. Now that his secret was out, the primary focus shifted away from Damien and onto him. They decided to isolate him and run a series of special tests in order to determine his true capabilities. But the boy refused to cooperate. Like Mitsuki, he too had always been very unresponsive. His new situation, coupled with the disappearance of Adam, only served to reinforced this behavior. The harder they pressed him, the more he retreated within himself. They weren’t getting anywhere. So, Whitmore and a couple of his colleagues advocated for even more drastic measures.”
“What measures?” Kincade asked.
Fournier lowered his eyes.
“They tortured him,” Arianne suddenly declared.
Everyone turned to her.
“They tortured a kid?” said Kincade.
Professor Fournier bowed his head in shame.
“For nearly two years, my brother was subjected to the unimaginable,” said Arianne. The anger and revulsion in her voice could be felt by everyone inside the room. She turned to Fournier and added, “It wasn’t your fault, Professor. If it hadn’t been for you and Professor Karpov, the rest of us would have received a similar treatment.”
The old man forced a smile as he gazed at her with teary eyes.
Arianne smiled back. But as she stared at the professor, she decided it was best to give him a little time to collect himself.
“On the rare occasions I was allowed to visit my brother,” she said. “I pleaded with him to put an end to it. What did it matter? We had spent our entire lives undergoing tests and running simulations for those same people. I just didn’t want him to suffer anymore.”
“Did you know about your brother’s secret prior to all of this?” Doc asked.
“Of course I did,” Arianne replied. “So did the others.”
“I see,” Doc said.
“What happened next?” Sonar asked.
“I reminded my brother that people were afraid of the unknown, of what they didn’t understand,” said Arianne. “And that showing himself to be so determined, so uncompromising, was only making him scarier in their eyes. He chose not to listen. He didn’t even try to explain it to me. In fact, Myrvan didn’t speak at all during those two years.”
Kincade closely observed Arianne as she recounted those harrowing events of her youth. He imagined that at times like these her heightened empathic sense must have felt more like a curse than a gift. “It must have been hard for you, too,” he said.
“It was unbearable,” she said, holding back her tears. “Many times, I contemplated rescuing my brother. Or at least trying.”
“Did you? Try, I mean.”
“No. I was too worried about the consequences for the others. Even if I had succeeded, what would have happened to them? I realized if we were to escape, we would have to do it together. All of us. But it wasn’t possible, then. Not while Lucielle was still a baby.” Arianne exhaled deeply. “I was desperate to find a way to help my brother. We all were. But, in the end, we didn’t need to.”
She glanced at the professor, signaling that he should take over from there.
“One day,” said Fournier. “During a routine check-up, I asked Myrvan how he felt. I had gotten into the habit of asking him that question, even though I had long stopped expecting a reply. But that time, he did reply. Not only that, he replied with a sarcastic comment. I was flabbergasted.”
“I don’t see why that’s a big deal,” said Rock.
“I understand it may seem trivial to you,” the professor said. “But that’s because you don’t know what Myrvan was like. He was very quiet, and mostly kept to himself. But most of all, he was always dreadfully serious. He almost never smiled. And not once had I seen him even try to be funny. Sarcasm? No, that wasn’t at all like him. But at the time, I was so relieved to hear him speak again that I didn’t pay enough attention to this change in behavior. And I was even more relieved when he said he’d agree to cooperate. I remember Whitmore and his acolytes being quite pleased with themselves. The project would finally benefit from the participation of its most promising subject.”
The old man paused briefly.
“In retrospect,” he said. “I should have known right away that there was more to it. But it was only when Arianne was allowed to visit her brother again that it all became clear.” Professor Fournier turned to the young woman. “It was an odd scene. She walked into the room and stopped immediately. Neither of them had said a word, yet. She scrutinized her brother for … five to ten seconds, and then asked, ‘What’s your name?’ to which he replied, ‘Soran’.”
The old man broke out in laughter.
“Can you imagine the looks on our faces?” he said. “Alek and I immediately understood what had happened. But believe me, the same could not be said of our colleagues. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look so baffled.”
He laughed again with renewed exuberance.
“If he didn’t speak, how could you tell he was different?” Doc asked Arianne.
“I don’t know,” she said. “He just … he didn’t feel like the person I knew.”
“And that’s exactly what she told us,” the old man continued. “Of course, the other scientists refused to believe it. Especially Whitmore. He dismissed the idea offhand. He was convinced it was a ploy. He even accused Arianne of being the instigator. Bloody fool,” Fournier concluded, demonstrating it was possible to sum up one’s opinion of another person in no more than two words.
“What happened after that?” Kincade asked.
“The boy cooperated,” said Fournier. “The only problem was that all his test results remained more or less within their previous range.”
“I’m guessing they accused him of faking it?” said Kincade.
“You guessed correctly,” the old man replied. “And to prove it, they ran every test imaginable. But the results were irrefutable. He wasn’t ‘faking it’, as you put it. And the biggest surprise was, by far, his brain scan.”
Sonar gave a strange look and said, “You scanned his brain?”
“Of course!” Fournier exclaimed. “Among the litany of tests the children had undergone since birth, brain scans were of paramount importance. We were looking for any clues to help us understand the reason for their superior intelligence. Anyway, the point is, Soran’s brain scan was nothi
ng like the ones taken from Myrvan. This was a truly shocking observation. They even brought back the psychiatrists who had examined him when he was younger. Their findings were conclusive, and unanimous: He was not the same person. In the face of this mounting evidence, even Whitmore was forced to accept the facts. And since his team’s services were no longer required. Alek and I recommended they be expelled from the facility.”
“And your recommendation was followed?” Doc asked, surprised.
“Without hesitation,” said Fournier. “Whitmore wasn’t well-liked by the other Arc scientists, either. And the higher-ups blamed him and his colleagues for the boy’s DID—Dissociative Identity Disorder—resulting in the loss of potentially their most valuable asset.”
“Were they right?” Doc asked. “Was Soran’s condition the result of everything he had endured during those two years?”
The old man gave a coy smile. “That’s what Arianne, Alek, and I let them think, because it ensured Whitmore’s dismissal. But no, that wasn’t the real cause. As I mentioned earlier, each child suffered from some type of psychological disorder. Myrvan was no exception. No doubt his ordeal served as a catalyst which precipitated his personality split. But it would have happened regardless. I think that’s what Adam was trying to tell me, that day … inside his lab.”
As he recalled the rest of his conversation with Adam, Professor Fournier began to slowly drift away, absorbed in his memories.
“Professor?” Doc said.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry. Where was I? Erm … Yes. The children were never psychologically stable to begin with. Though, some of them did improve considerably with age. But in Myrvan’s case … his disdain for people, his rejection of them, was so pronounced that we always feared it would ultimately lead to a radical change. The emergence of a new personality was actually a best-case scenario.”
Sonar squinted at the professor and said, “I think you and I have very different ideas about what a best-case scenario is supposed to look like.”
“Oh, it could have been much worse,” said Fournier. “You see, despite Myrvan’s calm exterior, from a very young age, he had been struggling to contain what Adam described as surges of violent impulses. It was his relationship with Adam, and also Arianne, that enabled the boy to maintain control, and to keep those urges in check. Both of them acted as tethers, that prevented him from getting swept away by this torrent of violence.”