Perfectible Animals: A Post Apocalyptic Technothriller (EidoGenesis Book 1) (3 page)

“I’m okay,” Annie said, although I detected hesitation in her voice.
 

“Why don’t you let us take you back?” Nick said.
 

Annie looked at me for a moment. I knew the ride had been difficult for her, and I felt guilty about having inflicted it on her. But I also knew that if she went off with these guys then she would be lost to me forever. They’d tell her what a geek I was, and win her over with their confidence in a way I never could. They’d probably kiss her, might even have sex with her.
 

“It’s okay,” I said. “Go on.”

“What about the bike?” She looked down at the bike I had given her.

“It won’t fit in the car,” Nick said.
 

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take it,” I said.
 

When they all left together, I sat down and stared at the lake for a long time.
 

As I’d suspected, Annie started hanging around with Nick’s gang after that. Then, a few months later, I heard she’d moved to a private school in Melbourne.
 

I didn’t see her for nearly four years after that. Then, one night, I was at a party, sitting down on the steps outside someone’s parent’s country house, staring at the star-speckled night, when a voice next to me said, “Michael?”
 

I turned to find Annie staring at me. Her dark eyes glowed out at me like two orbs in the night.
 

“Annie?” I said, my heart suddenly pounding. She was as gorgeous as ever.
 

“How have you been?” she said.
 

“Okay. How about you?”
 

“Pretty well. What are you doing here?”
 

“I’m friends with Dylan, who apparently knows the owner of this party, although with Dylan you never know. How about you?”

“I came with a friend as well. Can I sit down?”

“Of course.”

We chatted for a while about how horrible secondary school had been and what we’d been up to since then. She was studying medicine and I was studying science. I felt more comfortable with Annie than I had with anyone else in a long time. Even with Dylan I always felt like I was in some kind of a test of coolness or intelligence or superiority. Not necessarily superiority over Dylan himself, but superiority over other people in general. I could never feel completely at ease. With Annie it was different.
 

“Here you are!” A blonde girl in a short white tennis skirt with two pony tails came out onto the terrace.
 

“Michael, this is Jane. Jane, Michael,” Annie introduced us.
 

“Can I borrow her for a minute?” Jane said.
 

“Sure.” I remembered for a moment that deep feeling of loss I’d felt that day at the lake.

“Back in a minute.” Annie rested her hand on my forearm, gave me a conspiratorial smile, then stood up and went inside.

I sat there for a few minutes feeling sorry for myself, then I wandered back inside to the kitchen and glanced over at Annie and Jane who were talking excitedly to two boys.
 

I poured myself a glass of champagne, then saw Caroline, Dylan’s girlfriend, coming towards me.
 

“Can I have some of that?” Caroline held out her glass.

“Sure.”
 

“So who was that girl I saw you talking to?” Caroline said with mock jealousy.

“Annie. We went to high school together.”

“She’s hot,” Caroline said.
 

“Isn’t she?”
 

“So what happened?”

“Either her friend came and took her away from me, or she wanted her friend to come and rescue her from me, I’m not sure which.”

“What did she say to you?”

“When?”

“When her friend came?”

“She said she’d be back in a minute.”
 

“Nothing to worry about.”
 

“What do you mean?”
 

“If she’d wanted to escape she would have said “nice to meet you”.”

“What makes you think that?”

“That’s what women say. It would get you off her back. Give you the message that she didn’t want to continue talking to you. Men are pretty thick witted sometimes, so women have had to adapt fairly explicit signals. And besides, she looked like she was interested in you.”

“How could you tell?” I was secretly delighted that Caroline had been keeping an eye on me.
 

“A girl’s intuition. What did she say to you? Tell me everything.” She wrapped her hand around my upper arm. “Look. I think she’s looking your way. Go and take her a glass of champagne.”

I looked over and Annie was looking at me. Jane and the two boys were talking amongst themselves and Annie was looking lost.

“Go on, quick,” Caroline said, holding out her glass for me to take.

I walked over to Annie and held the glass out for her, hoping I could somehow sneak off with her without the other three noticing. Annie thanked me and huddled in close. Excitement made my body rush.
 

“Who was that girl you were just talking to? Is she your girlfriend?” Annie said.
 

“No, no, that’s Caroline. Dylan’s girlfriend. An old friend.” I felt thrilled that she thought Caroline could be my girlfriend.
 

“Do you want to go outside again?”
 

“Sure.”

“Those two were so boring,” she said, as we walked out into the cool air. “Thank you for saving me.”

I wondered if that meant she didn’t find
me
boring.

“Who were they?”
 

“I don’t know. Some guys Jane met. She always goes after those boring sporty types.”

“Well, you can rest assured that I’m totally incapable of playing any type of sport at all.”

Annie let out a husky laugh, which I took to mean that she liked me.
 

Three years later, sitting on the steps of the Natural History Museum in London, just under the statue of Darwin, I asked her to marry me.
 

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

THE NEXT MORNING, after a bowl of sloppy porridge, I am taken back to the interrogation room. I haven’t had a shower and I can smell my own stench.
 

Don is there, looking as clean and fresh as he did the day before. I imagine how he went home the night before to his loving wife and his naughty but adorable children, and how he got up this morning and picked out the gray suit he is wearing from among the many on his rack, and brushed his hair back with a comb and the blow dryer.
 

I wonder how to manipulate him. Praise won’t work, he’ll see through that too quickly. A challenge, maybe. Something to engage him and make him eager to prove himself.
 

“So, how are you feeling this morning?” Don says, as if he already knows the answer to the question. “Ready to tell us a little more?”
 

“I’ll do what I can.”

“How well do you know Dylan Hume?”
 

“What’s Dylan got to do with this?”

“It’s specifically the work you’ve been doing with Mr Hume that we’re interested in,” Don says. “Mr Hume is also being questioned, and he’s started telling us some pretty interesting things.”

My heart starts pounding. So they’ve got Dylan as well? I wonder if that means they’ve got the children, too.
 

“What sort of things?” I wonder if Don is just bluffing me. Maybe they haven’t got Dylan at all.

“Maybe you’d like to tell me yourself?” Don says.

“If Dylan’s told you already…”

“That’s just the thing. We don’t know if what Dylan has told us is true or not.”
 

“Tell me what he’s told you, and I’ll tell you if it is.” I really can’t believe that they’ve managed to capture Dylan.
 

Don laughs, a brief bark that sets my nerves on edge, like someone grinding their knife too hard against their plate. “I’m afraid that’s not how this game is going to work, Michael. In here, it’s more about you telling us absolutely everything you know and us telling you how long we’re going to lock you away for. After a trial, of course.” Don crosses his arms and stares at me with pale eyes. He shows no trace of emotion at all. My com registers nothing. Nothing that I can latch onto and try to manipulate. I suddenly feel very cold, and very alone, as if I might never see the outside world again.
 

“Am I allowed to make a call? To tell my wife where I am?”
 

“I’m afraid not.”
 

“What is it you’d like to know?” I say.
 

“Everything.” Don sits down and clasps his hands on the table, staring at me attentively.
 

“Everything about what?”

“About what you and Mr Hume have been up to. Maybe start by telling us about Dylan’s involvement with the New Church.”

The New Church is one of the largest new-age religious movements in the country.

“Dylan’s one of the leaders, as you probably know.”

“What about your own involvement with the New Church?”
 

“It’s been very brief. I went to one of their gatherings once. Met the founder, Rowen. He died a few years ago, and Dylan took over.”
 

“So, are they as crazy as we’re told?”

“What do you mean?”
 

“I mean with the sex and everything?” He is referring to the orgies that the New Church gatherings are renowned for.
 

“Pretty much,” I nod, taking a deep breath, wondering if I am finally getting to the human side of Don. Everyone has to have a human side.
 

“What happened after that? After Rowen died?”

“Dylan took over.”

“And what are Dylan’s plans for the organization?”
 

“I think you’d better charge me, before I answer any more of your questions. I really would like to speak to a lawyer.”
 

“So, you like the look of this place, do you?” Don spreads his hands towards the empty room around him.
 

“Why’s that?”

“Do you know what the penalty is for terrorism?”
 

I shake my head.

“Life imprisonment. Probably solitary confinement for six out of every twelve months. I’d think about it if I were you.” Don makes his way towards the door.
 

“What is it exactly you think I’ve done?”
 

“As I’ve said, Michael, I think you already know the answer to that.”
 

I picture Dylan. He could have sat in this same chair just minutes ago. I try to detect his familiar scent in the air, but all I smell is disinfectant and Don’s aftershave. If he is here — is there any way for us to communicate? A note? A sign? A corrupt guard?
 

“I really don’t know what you’re referring to. What is it that Dylan has told you?”
 

“Uh uh,” Don shakes a finger at me. “We’re not going to get into that again, are we?”

“I don’t think he’s told you anything. I think if he had, you wouldn’t have me here.” I cross my arms. I’m frightened, but I’m not going to let this bully get the better of me. He’s like a shark. If I hold my ground, he’ll leave me alone. If I flee, he’ll come after me.
 

“Maybe he’s told us enough to convict you, but not enough to convict those you’re working with,” Don says, and my heart pounds. I look at Don to see if that was just a lucky bluff, but his face is inscrutable.
 

“How do you know I’m not working alone?”

“Tell us what you know about Gendigm.”

“Gendigm?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“Nothing.” I shake my head, forcing myself not to look away. I try to avoid any tells: brushing my nose or face, an unnatural delay between words and expression. “Just what everyone knows. They’re rumored to be trying to create a super-race, a new species of humans.”

“Isn’t that what you yourself are involved in?”
 

“I’m not trying to create a new species. I’m just making some changes to the current one.”

“According to your former colleague, Anthony, the project you were working on at Geneus also included some modifications to make humans more cooperative. Is that true?”

“There’s no secret there.”

“And the company who took over Geneus supported this research?”

“That’s no secret, either.”

“One has to wonder why, given that, according to Anthony, the research had almost no economic value.”

“I guess there are still some people in this world who don’t base all of their decisions on economic value,” I say.

“And thank God for that,” Don says, which makes me warm to him a little. “The part of your project that I’m really interested in, though, is the immune system research. Tell me about that.”

“What would you like to know that the government doesn’t already know? A lot of our work has been done for them.”

“It’s the work you’re doing now that interests me. I’m particularly worried about the possibility of your project creating a virus that might spread into the general population, whether by accident or on purpose.”

So they do know about the recent outbreak. I have been telling myself we did the right thing. But now that I am here, locked inside a prison with the full weight of society bearing down on me, I wonder if I shouldn’t be punished after all. For a moment I feel relief, as if responsibility has suddenly been taken away from me.
 

“We have protocols in place so that doesn’t happen,” I tell Don.
 

“If someone wanted to, though, couldn’t they use this for their own purposes?”
 

“Yes. If they wanted to. In fact, that was part of the work I was doing for the military. Have you spoken to the Prime Minister about this? Or General Savage? They were the ones we had the most to do with.”

“We have spoken to them, yes, which is partly why we’re so worried. We know what this technology is capable of.”