Certain territories, buffer zones, could be jointly inhabited as a means of lessening the chance of initiating a conflict in the future through border skirmishes, manufactured provocations, and unintended hostilities. Saldana had some ideas there too, but it was premature to think of them now.
Saldana never stopped to consider that the humans might not honor such a treaty. They would instead absorb the genocidal losses, synthesize a vaccine, then systematically exterminate the Gens.
Oops.
***
Liv Wilder stepped off the helicopter as it landed in a clearing near one of the Black Shirt training facilities. It wasn’t far from one of the tributaries of the Clearwater River, and consisted of large cleared areas under camouflage netting, partially retractable to allow helicopters to come in and out undetected. The only way in, as a practical matter, was by helicopter and supply runs back to civilization were kept to a minimum.
Game was bred, raised, and released to feed the hungry natural state warriors. Fish ponds were created and stocked, and other food resources brought in from the outside world and distributed slowly via improvised paths.
This camp contained large areas for military training in human form and areas simulating urban areas for combat training. Here the Gens in transformed state began experimenting with the new formula for suppressing transformation back to natural state after consumption of blood. Not only was it effective as a suppressant, but there was a useful side effect too. The Gens taking the new formula somehow retained the ability to communicate with Gens in natural state, something never before thought possible. This meant that a Gens commander in transformed state could effectively lead and direct the natural state Gens as would any field commander in the military. With the natural-state Gens now taking the formula for suppressing transformation to human state after ingesting human blood, the combination of the two serums meant that natural state Gens could kill humans indiscriminately and without reverting to human form. They could kill hundreds of humans at a time, rest and pick up where they left off. Operations killing humans in urban areas could go on day and night, relentlessly. The goal wasn’t to kill every human but demonstrate that they could.
The carnage would be immense and the death toll staggering.
The use of the E-5 virus might not ever be used at all, or it might be used in select countries, with select populations, and in specific geographic locations. Saldana hoped for this outcome; she had her own private reasons for not wanting to use the E-5 virus. More field testing was required before the E-5 could be deployed, side effects noted, efficacy rates determined, and more genetic testing undertaken.
The E-5 virus couldn’t be unleashed until all the intended and unintended consequence were determined. The scientists developing the virus and the vaccine were also worried about mutation rates and the ability to keep up with vaccines if the virus mutated faster than, say, the flu.
There were already certain drawbacks that would hold up deployment, although it affected only certain humans and certain Gens. Some humans and Gens were naturally immune to the virus, estimated at less than 3%. On the other hand, some were not immune, with or without the vaccine. This group amounted to around 5% of both species.
Black Shirt leadership took this into account, ordering more field testing and a stepped-up program of field study.
It was with this background that Liv Wilder stepped off that helicopter. She and her crew of scientists and technicians had come to this remote forest camp to accelerate the necessary testing and research. A whole modular Laboratory had been brought in piecemeal, along with all the scientific equipment that would be needed, together with multiple sources of electrical supply. More advance testing, and study would be accomplished off site in one of the Black Shirt Labs in Northern California.
Other buildings had been brought in to segregate test subjects; a remote corner of the Buckhorn Wilderness was chosen as the location for the E-5 testing facility, out of an abundance of caution. Some of her crew would be rotated in, and out of that facility under strict quarantine protocols, but Liv and her closest colleagues would remain where they landed.
As she deplaned, she looked around at the hustle and bustle of transformed Gens working under the netting that had been built to hide their presence from the outside world. All buildings, including sleeping quarters, mess halls and testing Labs, cooled the warmed air underground before venting it into the atmosphere.
As she walked away from the helicopter, the downward spray of air from the helicopter blades kicking up dirt, loose vegetation, and dust into her face, she spotted a tall uniformed man and three others walking toward her and her crew. Hats were off their heads and they each wore leather jackets with insignias. As they drew closer and closer, she recognized the tall man out front, his beat-up leather jacket and each insignia that his jacket displayed.
“Arnaud, how nice of you to come out and greet us. I was wondering who took command of this little operation.”
“Did you ask?”
“Why yes, I did. I was hoping it was you, but the Queen of the Black Shirts wouldn’t tell me. Now I know why.”
In his heavily accented French, he asked, “And, my darling Liv, why do you think that is?”
“She’s a jealous bitch who can’t stand seeing anybody else happy. And, she exhibits psychopathic, paranoiac and unstable behaviors that cannot form the core leadership foundations of our new civilization. Bad for the happiness of the many.”
“Some might call that kind of talk sedition or even treason by a mere scientist who ought to know better and be content with her place in the hierarchy.”
“What would you call it?”
“Fair warning to Saldana Ri. I assume she already knows what you just told me?”
Liv laughed, “That’s why I love you, Arnaud and always have. And yes, I told her the same thing to her face. I think she’s going to try to have me killed, of course, unless I get to her first.”
“Working on that, are we?”
“Nope. What I am working on is finding the closest building with nice clean cotton sheets on a very large and sturdy bed. Any thoughts?”
“I have missed you so, Liv. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night, as the humans say. I was nervous and jittery awaiting your arrival. I’m a mess.”
“Too much coffee, Arnaud. But no matter, I have just the cure.”
“Then, my love, right this way. My quarters are deep into the forest.”
“You remembered?”
“I did. You may scream as loud as you want. We will disturb no one except the forest beasts.”
“Did I mention that I love you, Arnaud Lemieux. It’s the little things you remember that keeps me pair bonded to you.”
“Perhaps one day we might even marry. In the human tradition.”
“Perhaps. I do love some of their customs. But I love you even more than any ceremony.”
Liv threw her arms around Captain Arnaud Lemieux and gave him a long and satisfying wet kiss. Her staff was escorted elsewhere by Arnaud’s lieutenants and given the nickel tour of the grounds. Work would begin tomorrow if Liv Wilder showed up for work or the day after otherwise.
Chapter 37
Liv made it back to her science crew a few days later. Liv and Arnaud had been separated for close to a year, and they had much to catch up on away from prying eyes and wagging tongues. They were both senior members and early adopters of the Black Shirt Movement. They both appreciated what Saldana Ri had accomplished and were admirers of her plans for dealing with the Collective and with the human population. No one, certainly not them anyway, doubted her organizational skills or her creative use of personnel. She was, to them, the Master of master’s when it came to recruitment and propaganda.
But they had been around in the beginning and not everything Saldana Ri did had turned out golden. They knew about the squiggly creatures under the rocks and the skeletons in the closet from her recent as well as distant past.
Much of her current persona as the indefatigable and energetic, almost infallible leader of the Black Shirt Movement, was bogus.
A carefully crafted image for sure; clever, yes, but a Caesar-like throwback in an evening gown, no. That she was not. Her true genius lay not only in the talents she possessed, which were admirable, but also in the talent she assembled in the many areas where she was weak. Hers was a true meritocracy until one got too powerful or too charismatic, then one became something else: expendable. Saldana trimmed her leadership pool carefully, almost like carefully pruning an apple tree, aligning talents and angles to best serve her needs without challenging her authority.
With all that said, Arnaud and Liv agreed on one thing regarding Saldana. She was a great leader of the rebellion during wartime. But could she win the peace?
Liv Wilder and Arnaud Lemieux both knew she could not.
Both suspected, probably more accurately knew, that the New Gens Civilization under Saldana Ri would be as corrupt as the Gens Collective, as despotic as the Roman era she wanted to emulate, and a police state worthy of Josef Stalin. Neither Liv nor Arnaud wanted anything to do with that Brave New World. And if Saldana arrived at some détente with the humans, both knew it couldn’t possibly last nor would either or both of them be around to reap any of its benefits.
Arnaud knew either Saldana had to go, or Liv had to go. The Black Shirt Movement couldn’t progress with both women vying for power and dividing the faithful. But Saldana still needed Liv, and Liv still needed time to figure out how to send her adversary off to the Blue Sky of her ancestors. Arnaud placed all his chips on Liv. He would organize the military in support of Liv, and do his best to hold that coalition together, but it would not be easy. Spies were everywhere, and loyalties shifted with the sands.
Saldana had already sold much off in advance of her new world to purchase support for her primacy after the revolution was successful. Saldana would recycle those gifts back to her other cronies simply by eliminating those she had rewarded in the first place. Duplicity was her middle name and the name of her best-selling novel. That others failed to see what she was up to boggled the minds of the many and growing numbers who had also decided to side with Liv.
For now, Liv wanted to get to work on her formulas, being careful to keep results to herself. She had not dropped the bomb in announcing the other two formulas she developed by accident and would keep that to herself for the time being. Those formulas, human to Gens transformation and back again, and Gens and human sterilization as well as the clinical trials associated with them were locked away safe and would only be revealed to Arnaud if anything happened to her. But she revealed to Arnaud some interesting genetic research about the Gens; the Gens cannot transform back to natural state if they remain in human form too long. Either no one knew about this or this dirty little secret had long been suppressed by Collective’s leadership.
Only the newly revealed science of epigenetics had given the reason; adaptation of the species to environment was more powerful than geneticists had ever previously imagined. For now, Liv Wilder knew the truth, but she would share it with no one other than Arnaud unless she had too. So much of what the Gens, all Gens, thought about themselves was purely a combination of propaganda and mythology. The truth was far more destructive to these closely held beliefs than anything she could imagine or invent.
Finally, she revealed to Arnaud some interesting background information on Saldana that no one knew but had come to Liv’s attention via a very reliable source: Saldana was married to a human and has birthed three human children. Liv verified that the information was accurate but promised never to use it until it became necessary. Premature release of this bombshell would be fraught with peril and precipitate a civil war a just the wrong time. Most faithful wouldn’t believe it; they would assume it was just some insurgent group slandering their leader to gain power. Then the evidence would be eliminated, and those murders attributed to the insurgent group, making proof of her betrayal of the Movement almost impossible.
Her source was also worried about the makeup of a post-revolutionary Black Shirt Movement. Like Liv, she wanted change, just not change for the worse. A Roman Imperial style Dictatorship with one charismatic leader at the top, culling the elites to maintain power, while at the same time bribing the masses with free food, and the promise of a better, richer lives wasn’t her conception of a New Gens Civilization. It wasn’t what they had all worked, and struggled for, and, no, it wasn’t what they had all sacrificed for. They didn’t want to wind up in the Black Shirt equivalent of a Gulag. Or worse, buried in one.
Unlike Liv, however, she wanted no part of politics. When this whole affair was over, she would go home. Or be dead.
***
“So, Arnaud, what is our general state of readiness and what is the state of our force loyalties? Care to elaborate?”
“I presume you are cryptically asking how many and how well trained our shock troops are and how many are loyal to me, and therefore, to you? Yes?”
“Yes, my sweet. That is exactly what I am asking, Mr. ‘I speak French and pretend to be confounded by you English speaking devils’. You know exactly what I’m asking. What’s the damage?”
“On the current state of readiness, we have about one hundred seventy-five thousand shock troops ready for urban warfare now. Most are loyal, at least here. Elsewhere, hard to say. We are training new recruits at a rate of five thousand troops a month, all of which are localized here in the Olympic Peninsula. Pretty spread out between the Wilderness and the National Park. Many seasoned troops are then sent off to Preserves or wilderness areas in the US or Canada to be ready for the signal to war.”
“And elsewhere?”
“About a million and a half, maybe two million depending.”
“Depending on what?”
“Are the troops being over reported or underreported.”
“Why do either?”
“Why indeed. Not sure, but I doubt the accuracy anyway. Recruiting may be down, so not meeting quotas, and you know how that goes at head office. Or there may be an overabundance of unqualified recruits skewing the results upward. Hard to say.”
“And your thoughts.”
“Besides knowing I adore you and love you madly, I just don’t know. Loyalty outside of North America is anyone’s guess. I know what I have here and that’s all we can be certain of for now. Once we’re six months out from launch, I’ll visit and inspect and assess for more more accurate estimates.”
“Could be dangerous.”
“It could, but so is being in love with you. If she comes for you, she’ll come for me. I plan not to give her the chance.”
“And the others in command?”
“All loyal to a paw. Any Saldana zealots are weeded out early and sent to other training facilities. Sometimes they disappear. The military is a dangerous occupation, you know.”
“I can see that now. I’m glad I’m on your side.”
“Me too. Easier to explain why we’re carrying on our affair.”
Arnaud looked at his lover, wondering what she was thinking. He wasn’t normally the revolutionary type and only supported overthrowing the Gens Collective. Substituting in the Black Shirt leadership could, in his opinion, only make matters worse, depending upon post war leadership. He wanted a democratically elected leadership, based on merit, and through free and fair elections. The humans may soon get what they so richly deserve through their own folly, but they have that ‘democracy’ bit correct.
Further he had no rabid hatred of humans but did think that homo sapiens were approaching insanity and the certain death of the planet via overpopulation, depletion of resources and destruction of the environment. Something had to be done, and soon. Too many humans too greedy to consume too much without regard for their fellow humans or for their fellow species. Including the Gens. Were they really that foolish? The evidence seemed to suggest that yes, they were.
There had
been a golden age in which the Gens hunted and ate a few humans and the humans, in return, hunted and barbequed a few Gens. There was balance and overpopulation meant moving a few miles down the road to some new, and uninhabited territory. Whether the Gens followed the humans, or vice versa has been lost to history. Who snacked on who didn’t matter.
As a child in France, he had heard the myths told by the Elders of his family, handed down from generation to generation, that there were sects of Gens and humans that lived together peacefully, symbiotically. Gens didn’t snack on humans, nor humans on Gens. They had long ago found a way to not only to coexist, but to thrive by working together. These Gens transformed in the usual way but then lived among the humans as equals. Some were even said to be able to mate with humans and held leadership roles in a human/Gens mixed society.
Arnaud had to admit he had never particularly enjoyed consuming human flesh. Nor did he have some crazed desire to go hunting humans for any reason. If he had a vote, which no Gens currently had anywhere, he’d have voted for coming out. He’d have done it slowly, methodically and through proper channels. He realized there was danger, but this lunacy was bound to get every Gens killed. And time was running out. The humans were going to find out; then what?
He had no answer.
He moved all his chips to the center and placed a huge bet on Liv Wilder. She was smart, she was rational, and she wanted peace. He had no idea how to achieve it. But she did.
And he loved her.
He was all in.
Chapter 38
The girls had gone to the Pub on a Friday night at the end of a long and tense week. The fallout from the Rome mishap still had Hannah on edge and even the calming influence of James and Vera had done little to dispel Hannah’s pervasive disquiet. Hannah felt no immediate fear about her own personal safety; just the eerie feeling that something wasn’t quite right in her world. Had she been better able to verbalize what she felt, perhaps she could’ve been talked out of her mood. As it was, she couldn’t.
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