Probe

by Douglas E Roff

“That’s for slowpokes and people outside the family. We have important things to do.”

  Chapter 31

  They departed for the Loft immediately and visited Noki directly. Noki assured them she was OK, but she needed time alone to think. Not too alone, mind you. She asked cautiously if Adam would mind spending the night with her. No fooling around, she said, just company. Misti and Adam readily agreed; was Noki up for the visit to the Manor?

  “Of course, I am. I just didn’t think …”

  “Stop thinking in old ways,” said Adam. “If we’re not completely delusional, which we aren’t, you’re part of a big family now. Not a regular family, not a normal family, but a very big, insane, and crazy family. You’ll fit in just great. I think you know that already.”

  “But…”

  Adam said, “No ‘buts’. And I’ll be close by throughout everything from here on out. I’m not going to abandon you. Not now, not ever.”

  Noki looked up at him tentatively. “How close?”

  Misti said, “Adam can move in with you here at the Loft if you’d like. No one needs to know, if you’re worried about any of that. Even after we all move out to the Manor you can both figure out what you two need to be comfortable. We’re all in this together, Noki, and I think there will be a lot of stuff you need to hear from Adam, and Adam from you. Better if you’re close, don’t you think?”

  “Better, yes. And what about you Misti? What do you think about me carrying your husband’s baby? Doesn’t it bother you? At all?”

  “Nope. Unexpected, yes. And surprised, most definitely. Confused about the future, for sure. But this is all part of something larger and I now agree with Adam that we’re all connected. Somehow, we are. I just don’t know how.”

  “Or why,” said Adam.

  “The ‘why’ is your department Adam, not mine. I’m more interested in Noki’s health, the baby and what the connection between us is and what it means for our future. If there is a why, and I know you think there is, then you can reveal it to us when you learn the ‘who’ behind all this.”

  Noki said, “Huh?”

  Misti said, “If Adam is correct that there is a ‘why’, then there must be a ‘who’ driving the ‘why’. It makes sense logically if not linguistically. Right?”

  Noki asked, trying to understand what Misti believed differently from Adam, “Not to you though?”

  “No. Not to me.”

  “I see.” Noki was religious but not devoutly so. She was raised a Buddhist but converted to Catholicism as a teen and generally considered herself a believer. But the Church formed no central part of her daily life and some aspects of what she and Adam saw together scared her immensely. It wasn’t about the pregnancy, however. An unexpected pregnancy could happen to any young couple at any time. But the circumstances of the evening and the totality of what and how they witnessed it was almost too much for Noki to comprehend and digest in so short a time. She had been told things, things that weren’t to be shared with Adam. Adam had the same experience. He knew things Noki wasn’t to know.

  Between the two of them, however, there would be very few secrets; in fact, only these.

  What they each knew and experienced together was simply understood between them without need for further discussion. It was as if knowledge had been planted directly in their minds with no visuals or explanations; the knowledge hadn’t been there before, but now it was. Still, Noki wasn’t comfortable with and even less willing to talk about the experience. Not to anyone other than Adam, at least for the time being.

  Misti left and Adam and Noki had a moment to talk alone.

  “What are you going to say?” asked Noki, as soon as they were alone. “What have you said?”

  “Not much. Just the barest of facts. Just enough for them to understand that something happened but I’m not giving any detail. I’m not even sure what you saw, for that matter.”

  Noki said, “I saw what you saw, plus some more. I assume you did too.”

  “Yes.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  Adam said, “I’d rather think about it for now. Still trying to digest the whole experience. And ‘us’. Are you OK?”

  “I probably shouldn’t be but somehow I am. ‘Not sure’ or ‘unknown at present’ is likely the most honest answer. Somehow it seems to all make sense; it was all so very real. Except for the whole you, me and Misti thing. Seems like she should be a lot more upset, you know, really angry.”

  “You’re thinking of the wrong Misti. You’re thinking of a ‘normal girl’ named Misti. Instead you got ‘bat shit crazy’ Misti. Now bat shit crazy Misti truly is crazy, damaged, and extremely lethal. Just not in cases like this. ‘Bat shit crazy’ Misti thinks this is normal and A-OK. Now ‘normal girl’ Misti, she’d have probably fucked you up by now and would still be yelling at you for fucking and getting impregnated by her husband. ‘Bat shit crazy’ Misti thinks you’re great and is happy for you. Doesn’t even mind the idea of sharing her husband.”

  “So, no problem with you moving in then?”

  “None.”

  “And, you’re good with it?”

  “After last night, can’t wait. You?”

  “Me neither. Can we do a dry run for tonight?”

  “Of course. And don’t worry. She won’t mind that either.”

  ***

  Misti, Alana and Adam moved out of the residence and into the Loft. Adam moved in with Noki, while Alana and Misti occupied the second bedroom in the Residence. The group visited the Manor and began its plans for their new construction projects. The group would move out to the Manor as soon as the refurb and modernization of the existing Manor House edifice was complete, and everyone could be accommodated. Installing Adam’s technology would be their first project; the balance of the renovations would bring the Manor House to the most modern standards in every other respect.

  Initial construction of the three additional buildings would begin at the same time as the renovations to the newly renamed “Manor”; all three new buildings were mostly completed within three months after the renovations to the Manor were complete. Final space design and all interior design were to follow when the rest of Barrows Bay crowd set a date to move to Britain permanently.

  Chapter 32

  “Did you see this report today, Enzo? From the infirmary?”

  “Nope. Not sure those cross my desk. Someone got the clap again?”

  “No, not this time. But what is odd is we have at least six employees that claim to have had a blackout of sorts while on the way home from shopping last couple nights.”

  “So? Bad catering?”

  “Not likely.”

  “What’s the problem then?”

  “We don’t faint.”

  “We don’t what?”

  “We don’t faint. Our bodies and brains don’t work that way. Different physiology and brain chemistry. Only human brains do. If six of our folks fainted, then either our brain chemistry and physiology are suddenly changing radically or something else is at work.”

  “He’s in your head now, isn’t he? Fucking with your noggin. You’re seeing the Human everywhere. You need to relax and let our people do their work.”

  “No, we need to have our doctors examine these folks ASAP and determine the cause of this odd malady. Until then, it’s an open question whether he’s involved. I’m going to send a memo around to see if we have any other fainters here in Princeton.”

  “You’re call, brother.”

  ***

  “I asked you never to call me on this number.” The woman was quite annoyed with the caller, someone she had just seen weeks earlier in the wilds of California. She wasn’t expecting any new communication with any of her other spies within the BioGen organization.

  “Lose the attitude Saldana. It really doesn’t suit you. I’ll call you anytime, anywhere I want if I need to speak with you about the projects I undertake for you. And at great per
sonal risk, while you remain carefully hidden in the shadows, just like your sister. You fucking act like you do everything on your own, instead of with the millions who support you. You’re arrogant like the Councils, or worse, just like the humans.”

  Saldana Ri was unimpressed with this arrogant young Gens scientist who liked to talk a big game but didn’t seem to grasp the fundamentals of what needed to be done. The young woman seemed to feel herself above the rules established by the Black Shirts to maintain secrecy in the face of Gens establishment spying and internal intelligence. Saldana was aware that the Fortizi clan was well-aware of her existence and knew her by name. But they had no idea who she really was nor the impact of what that information might be doing to influence the masses of the indifferent and somnambulant Gens Collective.

  When the time came, Saldana Ri would reveal her lineage and announce her plans for the future of the Collective. When that happened, she believed, disquiet among the populace would ripen into outright revolution. A revolution of the kind that had never taken place in the history of the Collective. It would be global, bloody, and decisive.

  This young woman worked for Saldana’s secret sister, Calista Gold, in Chicago on an obscure offshoot of the Serum Project. She was informed and vocal and independent in the tradition and manner of Gens women. Gens female warriors deferred to no one, neither men and nor women nor superiors of either gender. She had been given the virtually impossible task of developing a new serum that would accomplish a single task; no Gens would view it favorably, although it might have some utility in the upcoming war; more likely afterward. This discovery would never be for public disclosure to the Collective at large; leadership of the Black Shirts would have to consider how and when to use it, or even disclose its existence.

  Maybe it would be used and never disclosed. Sterilizing drug therapies would be considered too dangerous and socially, culturally, and morally unacceptable. The Collective didn’t procreate like humans; the human numbers were huge. The Gens, by contrast were not.

  So, the woman, Liv Wilder, kept those results to herself. While it was a top-secret Black Shirt project, it wasn’t her most visible project.

  “All right Liv, what did you wish to discuss today? I’m on the line and you have my full attention.”

  Liv Wilder ignored the obvious condescension and snarkiness in Saldana’s voice and proceeded to explain the purpose of her call. Liv also decided that the next time they met, whether transformed or not, Liv would deal with this ignorant posturing Black Shirt fool in the old way. One would walk away; the other would not.

  Coincidentally, Saldana Ri felt the very same way. Both were supremely confident in their own physical skills and had assessed the fighting skills of the other. Each thought herself superior to the other. One would be right. The other would be dead.

  “When I got the specimens of the South African Tree frogs from Dr. Gold, I was given the task of developing a new serum “blocker” based on the tadpole/frog transformation. Truthfully, I thought it was a dead-end project no one else wanted. And it very likely was intended as such, except that I found a way to synthesize a new serum formula based on the chemical and genetic triggers causing transformation. It turns out that blocking transformation is a lot easier than finding ways to cause transformation, if you follow me. I was then able to obtain the genetic research I needed from Princeton and India dealing with the Gens genome and the human genome. Then with a huge dollop of luck and an almost incalculable number of computer simulations, I came into my office one day and had one solitary interesting result. One of the simulations had yielded a positive result. At least on paper.

  “It took six more months to isolate the exact combination of organic chemicals, enzymes and genetic therapies which did what I wanted, reliably and repetitively. By then we had the breakthrough we were after.”

  “Which was?”

  “Well, we now have a synthetic formula which blocks the transformation of a Gens in natural state to human form after the consumption of human blood. Might not be the exact thing we were looking for in the Serum Project, but this will be useful in terms of war planning. We can treat a Gens warrior prior to a human encounter and prevent the warrior from becoming one of them. In an urban fight, we need this advantage.”

  “How does it work? How long does it last?”

  “A single injection will last about 48 hours and could, in theory, be self-administered. Of course, that might not be possible for a natural state Gens warrior, so pairing up some number of Gens warriors in natural state with a human form Gens will likely be required. Sort of like pairing a field medic with an infantry platoon.”

  Liv Wilder paused.

  “As far as how it works, the formula or the research, I think I’ll keep those nuggets to myself for the time being. Happy to provide you with serum but giving you the formula might encourage you and your friends to doubt the necessity of keeping me around.”

  Saldana Ri paused, assessing her young adversary, confirmation that Liv wasn’t far off the path of Saldana’s thinking. Both clearly knew what was in the mind of Saldana Ri.

  “What about the other direction? Blocking transformation from human state to natural state. Are we there yet on that?”

  “Getting there, of course. Seems to me if we have a breakthrough there, we don’t need the Serum Project anymore, at least not the way we looked at it previously. This is a slightly lengthier and somewhat more convoluted process, but it’s eminently workable.”

  “Are we ready for field testing?”

  “We are. We’ve done some limited Lab testing with our volunteer test subjects and the formula works effectively about 95% of the time, so we still have some fine tuning to do. Or maybe that’s the best result we can hope for. No matter, we now know for certain that we have a workable formula.”

  Saldana said, “OK what’re our next steps, in your mind I mean, Liv?” Her tone was now far friendlier and more conciliatory.

  “We immediately begin simulations at our facility in northern California with trusted Black Shirts to see if we can accomplish what we need to accomplish. We need to run field simulations on the effectiveness of transformation suppression over long periods of time, then see what the effect is when the final suppression serum wears off. Plus, side effects are largely unknown.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning we don’t know what happens to a Gens warrior after prolonged usage. Maybe something, maybe nothing.”

  “Range of probabilities?”

  “Permanent transformation from overuse or even eventual death. All acceptable outcomes if suppression can be accomplished for a reasonable amount of time. Our soldiers will need to be fully informed of the risks.”

  “Likelihood of adverse outcome?”

  “Unknown. I’m reporting to you on raw outcomes, not final clinical testing with fully fleshed out ramifications. We can do what I’m reporting, we just cannot be sure of all the consequences. Yet.”

  “Recommendation?”

  “Give me the Depot in northern California for the next six months along with two hundred volunteers. I’ll have firmer answers for you then.”

  “I’ll activate the Depot and get the personnel and funding required. When can you start?”

  “Today. How quickly can you resource me?”

  “A week. So off you go. I’ll send Calista down with you.”

  “No chance. Send your teams of volunteer test subjects. I’ll do the rest with my people. Then report to you.”

  “As you wish.”

  ***

  Saldana Ri was overjoyed at the news if it was indeed true. She had no qualms about using up test subjects. Those would be the young and stupid Black Shirt wannabees who were dumb enough to willingly commit their lives to a cause they didn’t truly understand, and to a leader who didn’t really care about preserving their small and insignificant existence. This was truly just an old-fashioned contest of Gens domination, a power play, plain
and simple. The old guard had to make way for a simpler version of life on planet Earth. Coexistence with humanity had always been factored in by Saldana and her closest associates and confidants; coexistence was a necessity that the Black Shirt leadership had long understood. That it wasn’t part of their pitch to the Gens Collective about the “human cull” or “Great Cull” or the romanticised revolutionary nonsense of fighting humans in the streets. That was an unfortunate deception. Humans would still be around, and in large numbers. Just in smaller numbers than today.

  The truth would not have sold. To anyone. It wasn’t grandiose enough, nor did it fit the scale of the revolution. The Movement had to deal with the humans and the Collective; anything less than that was tinkering.

  Saldana Ri had no intention of dying or giving up human sex. But she did want a place at the grown ups table and knew the time had come for qualified revelation. The nonsense she spewed for recruiting purposes was pure political propaganda. It brought converts to their side, but it was total fantasy. There was no way to eradicate over seven billion humans and growing.

  She believed a new and different world order was coming. A major player alongside humans and all their wonderful toys and delights. She didn’t want to displace them; she wanted a principal role in the new world order for herself first and her kind second.

  A big role. A huge role.

  Saldana Ri would speak to her sister about this development and ask for a recommendation on how to deal with this Liv Wilder woman.

  Liv Wilder had to go and go soon. Liv, she believed, was just too radical a Gens for her own good.

  Chapter 33

  Adam received a cryptic email from Paulo Fortizi a few days after the London meeting at the Loft concluded. It read:

  Our last conversation concluded rather more abruptly than perhaps either of us intended. I admit to believing in the moment that any further conversation that day would not have had any substantial merit. Perhaps I was hasty in that assessment and further dialogue could be of some value to both of us. If you receive this email, and are of a like mind, please respond. I have a few matters I would like to discuss with you.