24. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Uncle
“Iknow you,” I say, which seems an oddly understated response, given the memories flooding back.
This man guided me during my early years, honing my fitness, combat skills and intellectual development.
He also helped to evolve my psychological abilities, which included teaching me about male intimacy and how a young boy can recognise signals of attraction and capitalise on an adult’s illicit desires, which render the target open and vulnerable.
He also taught me to perfect innocence and ignorance while listening carefully, memorising any discussions, anything spoken in the company of others and any little secret that could lead to a mark’s undoing.
“You should do. We spent eleven fine years together, perfecting your upbringing. You cannot even begin to fathom how perplexed I was when reports of your demise came to my attention. My star pupil. On whom I lavished my complete focus and attention.”
Even if his appearance has changed with age, the familiarity of his voice is unmistakable.
“Okay, sir,” comes a voice behind me. “I did what you asked. I brought him to you. What do you want me to do now?”
“Go outside and wait for me by the water tower.”
“Do you need my gun?” he asks.
“There’s no need. I will be fine,” he says, his voice warm and familiar. “We’re old friends. He will do exactly as I ask.”
After a brief hesitation, I hear the echo of the guard’s footsteps as he leaves the hut. The old man watches on, too. I could use this moment to neutralise him, but he is old and weak and poses no apparent threat. Moreover, I have an innate sense that he should be protected rather than harmed.
As soon as we are alone, he shuffles forward and reaches out two fingers to prod my cheek. The action is like somebody checking the freshness of fruit. I do not move, do not even flinch. The gesture comes back to me, one of affection for what he called his children.
Everyone else called him M2 back then. We called him Uncle.
He guided us through optimal development drills alongside other instructors.
Running dusk-until-dawn marathons in the winter rain or snow, or swimming the loch, instructors monitoring us from rowing boats and batting our hands away with oars if we tried to cling to the side, only fishing us out when exhaustion threatened to drown us.
These endurance drills were designed to push us to our limits and beyond.
Having lived among ordinary people, I see now how brutal and sadistic they were.
“You look well, Five,” he says, his hand clamping onto my shoulder.
“Gabriel. My name is Gabriel.”
He scoffs at my words and drops his hand.
“You have no need of a name. You are above such mediocrity. Forged from only the finest human anisogamous organisms. We guided your growth through parturition into childhood to produce the powerful weapon that you are today.”
“I am a man, not a weapon.”
“You are much more than either. And don’t allow anybody to tell you otherwise.
You are the future, Five. Whether this world is ready or not.
A genetically perfect living organism farmed in a laboratory rather than born of a womb.
Carefully cultivated with any potential genetic flaws eliminated.
Imagine a whole legion of Knights, biologically superior and detached from weak emotions.
Free from any bonds with inferior progenitors and their petty needs. You would be unstoppable, untouchable—”
“Disposable.”
My interruption pulls his old eyes to mine, and he sighs sadly.
“All soldiers conscripted to defend their countries are, in essence, disposable, are they not? I forgot you went to see Leblanc. Were you impressed? I would tell you to pay no heed to the whimpering of a vain, weak-willed old man, but you must make up your own mind. It did not take me long to grasp that Leblanc is more concerned about his reputation than he is in making history.”
I am unsure if he wants me to reply, so I say nothing.
“The reality is the Knight programme succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.
At six years old, one of your peers could hold her breath underwater for almost half an hour, over five minutes more than the longest on record.
Another could run faster than any human who had ever lived.
Not a single one of you fell ill during the time you were here.
Major conflicts, terror attacks and other threats to the free world were averted because of your deployment and intervention.
Sadly, success often breeds complacency. ”
He turns and hobbles a few paces to the right, using his cane to tap at a broken tile.
“One of the generals referred to you as the new master race, an expression that stuck. Unfortunately, those kinds of labels frighten people. What also did not help was when I voiced my secondary concept, to use Britain as a future testing ground once the ectogenesis process had been perfected. A step too far, they told me. But eventually, someone will step up to the challenge. Because if you remove the ability for humans to procreate naturally and populate by design instead of random choice, at the same time controlling quality and numbers using birthing centres, most of the world’s problems of overcrowding, crime and conflict could eventually be resolved. ”
He stops speaking, and I wonder if he wants my verdict. I know Albert would be appalled by his words. Life would be reduced to a production line with babies as the commodity. Moreover, whoever controlled the process would hold absolute power. These are the dreams of madmen and megalomaniacs.
“What do you want with me?” I ask instead.
He moves farther away until he reaches one of the overturned filing cabinets. Lifting his cane, he strikes the side with the metal end and stills as the tinny crack reverberates throughout the building.
“Look at this place. This is what happens when followers lose the faith. If I were to ask, would you be willing to come with me?”
“Where?”
“To start again. To perfect what we started in a place that has fewer restrictions.”
“No.”
Backing farther still, he reaches the far wall, swings the cane and smashes one of the windows. For a moment, he stares outside, lost in thought, before turning back to me.
“As I thought. But I felt it only fair to give you the opportunity. I am sure you can tell that I do not have much time remaining. And I need to tie up loose ends before I depart this earth. I’m afraid that does include you, Five.
Your time is also coming to an end. Because I cannot trust that you will not disclose what you are beginning to remember. ”
Breaking a window has let in exterior sounds, and I am sure I can hear the whine of helicopter blades somewhere in the distance.
But the noise is quickly drowned out by heavy boots on concrete as a team of ten black-clad, black-helmeted and armed soldiers appears from rooms within the building.
Once in position, they form a semi-circle around me and aim their assault rifles at my chest.
“I am doing what I must to protect my legacy,” he says, the warmth gone and his voice carrying an edge of steel.
“Because I do not want to be vilified posthumously. They could never begin to grasp the pioneering research of my life’s work, the inherent risks and sacrifices I have had to make.
I am also doing this because I believe I have found someone visionary—from a country with less overbearing governance—who will carry on my crusade, a man who has already done pioneering work in the field of human cloning.
Before we were closed down, I collected samples from all of my Knights.
All except one. But now here you are, and my collection is complete.
Step forward, Knight Five, and roll up your sleeve. ”
One of the guards lowers his weapon and approaches the man.
A cuboid compartment of black nylon is secured to the person’s front.
The man—I think it is a man—rips open a Velcro flap to reveal a small steel chest and other items contained neatly inside.
The old man plucks out a hypodermic needle.
I am distantly horrified when I look down and find I am not only standing in front of him but have rolled up my sleeve as instructed.
I watch without flinching as he pulls on surgical gloves, then holds my arm and draws blood.
“Finally. Now take three steps back, Knight Five,” he says, holding the small tube of scarlet liquid up to the light.
“Nine samples, all eight Knights and my own. The surrogates will need guidance and leadership. Written and video-recorded notes will educate my successor once I am no longer able to do so. I think that might be his people now.”
As he has been speaking, with the soldiers standing silently by, the pulse and the unusual thrum of a helicopter have grown louder, and I notice a couple of heads jerk to the hole in the roof.
On a nod from one of their number, two march across the floor to check.
As they move, I look about me to judge my options, when I notice smoking cans roll silently in from another corridor at the end of the hut.