CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Wadston was fuming at having been deterred at Surat. He wanted his plan to lead up to Mumbai. Tiny villages, small cities, big cities and then the biggest. They’d disrupted those plans and he was angry.
If only his brother had cooperated when he was alive, it would make all the difference in the world. They were partners, or at least he thought they were partners.
It had taken him a while to understand that Leo was distancing himself from him. When he found him and promised to tell the military all their little lies and secrets, Leo had no other option but to join him.
The one thing he’d been right about was the soldier who seemingly refused to die. Leo told him that these men were special but not in the way that he and Isaac were. There was no intermarriage happening with this team of men.
They were family but family in the way of the military. They desperately believed in the credo of leaving no man behind and always helping a brother, or sister. In many ways, Leo had admired that, even talked to Isaac about changing the direction of their work.
It was useless. Isacc knew what had to be done. The population needed to thin out. The strain on the environment, the ozone layer, the earth herself, was beyond anyone repairing at this point.
If his calculations were correct, he could wipe out approximately thirty-seven percent of the populations by simply using his serum for those related as fifth cousins or closer.
Now, of course, there was no data to suggest that at fifth cousins there was extreme likelihood of deformity or mental deficiency but why not be safe? This gave a wider swath of extermination and a greater likelihood of those who were guilty, changing their ways.
Leo had said it wouldn’t work. You couldn’t change millenniums of belief. He’d spoken about as it related to wars and skirmishes in regions between factions of tribes and people. It seemed to never end in the world. Why couldn’t he see that he was doing what was right for the planet? For mankind?
There was a stand-still on the road, traffic backed up for miles. People were out of their vehicles, talking to one another. Every ten or fifteen minutes, the cars would move a few feet.
“What’s happening?” he asked the driver in front of him. The man spoke no English and so he turned to another. “Do you know what’s happening?”
“Police check point. Something about a safety check. It’s always something,” said the middle-aged man.
“Yes. Yes, it is,” whispered Isaac. He got back in his car and lay on the horn, backing up and then pulling forward. When he was able to inch his way out from between the cars, he turned around heading in the opposite direction.
When the traffic was out of sight, he pulled to the side of the road and looked at the map on his phone. There were many roads into Mumbai but chances were highly likely that the main roadways would all be blocked.
“I have to find a way in,” he said mumbling to himself. Seeing a narrow dirt road ahead, he took it, hoping to skirt around north, then come back down south a few miles away.
But his plans were foiled when the car he was using suddenly began spewing steam, hissing like an angry snake at him.
“No. No, this cannot happen,” he frowned.
A young man and woman were coming toward him on a cart led by a donkey. They all appeared dirty, tired, and moving at a glacial pace.
“Can we help you?” asked the girl. Isaac immediately noticed the cleft palette on the young woman and stared at the man.
His hands were wrapped around the reins, holding the donkey, but it was clear that his fingers were disfigured as well.
They both covered their deformities with scarves and started to move around him.
“No! No, please don’t leave. I’m sorry. I was just taken aback by your generosity,” he said with a smile. “I’m a doctor. A doctor who may be able to help you.”
“We cannot afford doctors,” said the young man. “My sister is this way because it’s a family trait. Many children in our family are born with this problem.”
“And your hands?” asked Isaac.
“They were injured by a piece of farm equipment,” said the young man.
Isaac just knew they were lying to him. They were part of the problem. Most likely, they married one another and were fucking on a regular basis, creating more deformed children who would be a burden to society, their family, and the crumbling system.
“If you could be so kind as to let me ride with you for a ways, I would be happy to pay you.”
“It’s no problem,” slurred the young woman. “You will need to ride in the back of the cart.”
“Of course,” he said with a smile. As he jumped into the back and the cart began to move, he quickly withdrew one of the vials and filled two syringes. Thinking they’d been stung by something, the couple reached for their shoulders, turning to stare at Isaac.
“Everything will be alright now,” he smiled. “You just need to rest and let me drive.”