by Mikael Aizen
"And not because I killed your son," Kyle looked from under his brows.
Andre raised narrow and shivering eyes to Kyle's. "No. Not because of that. That was an accident and I well know that. Callie told me what happened. You were virtually, random selection."
He was a liar. A big, fat, liar. "What about Del, and Tim? Did they know? Were they part of the experiment?"
"Only my family knew anything about the experiment," Andre answered.
It hurt like a fresh wound, like Mom had just died and Kyle was watching the News follow Tim away towards Murderer City. Kyle's eyes snapped to Callie. "You said that everything was the experiment." Mom and Tim had really loved him, and they were dead because of him, too. It wasn't fair. He'd doubted them and hurt them because he couldn't trust them. Because of what Callie had said.
"Callie did say that," Callie's father answered for her. Callie looked up and he could see that she'd been crying the whole time. Tears and tears, her whole face was wet. "And because of it, she almost ruined the whole experiment," Andre continued. "It was lucky that you interpreted what she told you incorrectly. We managed to use your paranoia to our advantage."
"You were a part of this from the start?" Kyle asked Jess.
She nodded. "I'm sorry, Kyle. You're a nice kid. It was hard to watch."
"Your injections? The stuff you told me and Mom, Mom's injections, Ryant dying?"
"Lies. We made that silly story up for Del's injections and it was easy to fake Ryant dying. We practiced." Jess shrugged as she answered.
"All of us were part of this from the beginning," Andre said. "But all of us had to sacrifice as well. There were many more steps than you could see or know before we were able to perfect our study parameters."
"I never wanted to hurt Kyle," Callie said. "Even if it helps people, doing things like this is wrong." She whispered and her eyes stared unfocused in front of her.
"Shut up, Callie," Ryant said. "You have to be cold and keep your emotions out of things to do a good study. You almost ruined everything. Mom and Jeff would be dead for nothing if you'd messed up any more."
"There has to be a better way," Callie said.
"There isn't," Andre said. "Not in the time we had. The better option was gone after they built Morir and started punishing people for crimes they didn't commit. Sometimes it takes drastic measures for drastic results." His smile returned. "Kyle. I meant it when I said welcome to the family. For everything you've sacrificed and done. You are one of us. The adoption is real, and we can be your real family."
"If I say yes, the experiment is over?" Kyle said.
Andre shook his head and the gleam in his eye returned. "That experiment is over no matter what. However, if you are willing, I'd be willing to delay the release of the results for a short time. There is another experiment I'd like to conduct with you."
"Father! No! You said this was it! This is supposed to be over!" Callie screamed, standing up. The horror in her eyes made Kyle realize how much she cared for him.
Kyle cared for her, too.
Andre ignored Callie. "I'd like to see if I can alter your DNA enough and create The Code in you. This could prove without a doubt that not only is The Code non-predeterministic, but that your DNA can change predictably, with time and proper experimentally controlled experiences in a well documented study of course. They failed in the past when they tried to blot out The Code through mutating and breeding out DNA, or suppressing the expression of The Code. But they never tried the possibility of harnessing the body's natural adaptive responses to the extent that the epigene would actually alter core DNA. We already saw something change in you, but to create The Code specifically. This second part to the experiment could give us information that could..." Andre gasped. "The change in the world...My GOD, just imagine it! And if we can create it, it means that we could remove it too! So if you are willing, Kyle? Only if you consent, mind you. This is your choice."
"No! Don't Kyle, DON'T!" Callie screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Leena? Would you take her away?" Callie's father said sweetly.
"Noooo!" Callie screamed again. Leena came for her and Callie fought with everything she had, kicking and screaming.
"Callie!" Kyle barked. He held her tear drowned eyes in his own.
She stopped.
He said it slowly. "Be like a duck."
Callie hiccupped and gasped and gulped. She didn't do anything for a long moment. But then she nodded. She went with Leena without another word.
Kyle waited a long time before speaking. "...I'll do it," Kyle said. He picked up his wine and drank the whole thing. It burned fiery pain on its way down and he loved the feeling.
Andre's lips became a big giant grin. "Great! I knew you would understand. Let me explain to you how this will work. Mark you, I've only hypothesized thus far."
"I understand," Kyle said. Kyle didn't ask Andre again about why Mom was killed because Kyle already knew. The way Andre had avoided the whole question and the way Andre had looked when he'd talked about Jeff.
Kyle knew.
And now Kyle knew how he'd get his revenge.
Chapter 27
Performing your original search, "behavioral genetics eugenics" in PubMed will retrieve 314 records:
1. Genetics, Eugenics and the Medicalization of Social Behavior: Lessons from the Past. Allen GE. Endeavour. 1999;23(1):10-9.
2. The Old Eugenics and the New Science. Barondess JA. Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 1998;109:174-80; discussion 180-2.
3. Essays on Science and Society. Is a New Eugenics Afoot? Allen GE. Science. 2001 Oct 5;294(5540):59-61.
4. Sterilized in the Name of Public Health: Race, Immigration, and Reproductive Control in Modern California. Stern AM. Am J Public Health. 2005 Jul;95(7):1128-38.
5. Eugenics and Compulsory Sterilization Laws: Providing Redress for Victims of a Shameful Era in United States History. Silver MG. George Washington Law Rev. 2004 Apr;72(4):862-92.
6. Regulating eugenics. [No authors listed]. Harv Law Rev. 2008 Apr;121(6):1578-99.
7. (Re)Defining Disability in the 'Genetic Age': Behavioral Genetics, 'New' Eugenics and the Future of Impairment. Rembis MA. Disability & Society, 24(5), 585-597.
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Xiaos Wayng's head was bowed. His fingers interlaced before him, elbows on knees, shoulders shaking, up and down, breathing.
Jay shut the door.
Xiaos' head came up, and there was a wild look in his eyes that lasted several seconds. Confusion stared at Jay.
Jay said his name. "Xiaos?"
Xiaos' shook his head. Blinked. "Jay," Xiaos sighed.
"Hey. Sorry to interrupt whatever you were doing, but I need to talk to you."
Xiaos led with a tired smile. "I was praying for my sons."
Jay paused. "Another time?" Offering but not meaning it. There wasn't time.
Xiaos shook his head. "I am at your service, as always."
Proper timing in Morir was never a luxury. He needed Xiaos right now at Xiaos' best, so he just said it. "You need to get over them."
Xiaos twitched like he'd been hit. "What?" he half-hissed.
Xiaos Wayng hissing was scary as hell. Jay took a deep breath. "You need to get over Evo and Ti. Move on. Deal with it. Quit your pity-party."
Scarier than hell was how fast Xiaos put Jay flat on his back and how close Jay came to having his windpipe crushed before even realizing it.
"Whhhoommmmaaaaaahhh," Jay gasped. He choked, trying to breathe.
Xiaos took his foot off Jay's throat and walked to the room's covered window. He grabbed and ripped the boards off the window and sunlight poured in, embracing him. Leaning back and lifting his arms like he was warding the light from the room, Xiaos looked fucking dumb. This was Morir and even Xiaos couldn't dodge a bullet.
"Get the...fuck away from the window," Jay managed.
Xiaos turned and faced him, dropping his arms. The light silhouetted his features and Ja
y couldn't read Xiaos' expression. "Deal with it?" Xiaos asked.
Jay climbed slowly to his feet. "Yeah. Esperanza was my fault," he said. "Before I came along and ruined everything, you had things working out fine. I know that. But right now I need your bad-ass self here. We don't have our fucking army and we need you to snap out of your 'I hate myself' or 'I hate Jay' complex and HELP US."
"I do not blame you," Xiaos said. Jay still couldn't see his face, it felt like he was talking to a giant statue, or maybe Satan. "I blame myself. You may have been the trigger, but another You, Karah, or Hunter would have come and penetrated my castle of fear sooner or later."
"Fuck your 'castle of fear'. Whatever it is, Esperanza or your sons, you need to snap out of it or we're dead."
"I'm capable in whatever is required me."
"No, you aren't." Jay moved as fast as he could and slugged Xiaos. His fist actually connected. Xiaos' head whipped around and then there was a shattering of glass and Jay was thrown backward against the wall. Jay blinked. Xiaos had his back up next to the window. A tiny bullet hole was in the opposite wall.
The man actually had dodged a bullet. Fuck.
"I'm capable in whatever is required me," Xiaos said again. "We should leave this place, now."
It was hard to argue with a man who'd just dodged a bullet, but Jay tried anyway. "Hell-no you aren't. Look what you just did, you put both of us at risk because of your damn capable-ness. Fuck you Xiaos, I could have died." But Jay could tell he wasn't getting through to Xiaos.
"You did not."
"But I sure as hell didn't need to see a bullet graze my head. Look, we have a plan, and I need to be able to trust you. That's all I'm asking."
"Then trust me," Xiaos answered. "We leave. Now."
Jay cursed, giving in. They snuck out from the building not a moment too soon. Suffice to say, it didn't take long for the DPRK to swarm the building.
Bitch met them somewhere on the journey back to Casa. "What the hell just happened? I thought they got you."
"No. We're set," Jay answered.
"So we're doing it?" Bitch asked. "We're stealing the missile?"
Jay glanced at Xiaos. "No, we're going to blow it up." The DPRK had gotten their hands on a missile. Piece by piece, they'd constructed it with the help of some anonymous power supplier. Probably the same supplier that had been getting them their explosives and guns. And exploding a hole in the wall was as simple as escape plans got.
"Soooo, we think that killing Immortal Leader and destroying their missile is gonna make the Korees kill each other like everyday Morir-folk?" Bitch shook his head. "Damn it. Why can't we just let our great country deal with the DPRK themselves?" Then he mumbled something lengthy with a lot of expletives.
"What?" Jay asked.
"I said," Bitch began, "that if you insist on fucking wasting the best escape plan we've ever had, at least shoot the missiles in the direction as the fucking Korees."
"Huh." Jay said. He liked it. It was as simple as 'kill everyone' plans got. "So how do we get them in the same place when we shoot them with their giant missile?"
The Redeemers--"The Fuckers" as Bitch and a few others continued to call themselves--sent the DPRK running. Beaters swept after Korean cock(another of Bitch's ideas that stuck) with guns blazing night like an epileptic god on steroids. Run round the corner. Fall into a pit. And die.
And die they did, all in a nice little pile. Right after them came The Redeemers like a bunch of zombies on steroids.
"Hey, this one has two!" One of the Beaters held up a penis sliced in half.
"It's like finding a fucking four-leaf clover! Cutting one in half doesn't count," another Beater called back, Paul. Paul held up a necklace with what looked like two complete penises that merged into a common scrotal-sack.
The original Beater shrugged. "Fuck you, Jackass. I don't care how real yours looks, Asian twin-dick don't exist."
There weren't many of them, but the Redeemers they had recruited were twisted sons-of-bitches.
"You want a closer look?" Paul fondled the scrotum like he was petting a cat.
"Queerass."
"Quit harvesting dick and get us some food," Jay ordered them. Most his men listened and began gathering supplies and rations from the bodies. This particular Beater began sawing at another crotch. He lifted the detached end and peered at the piece with a critical eye. "This one's missing a ball."
"Must've pulled up into his asshole from fear," Paul said.
"No, I mean..."
The man exploded.
"FUCK!" Paul screamed.
"Get the hell out of there!" Jay yelled, searching for where the shot had come from. The Beaters scrambled out as his three Eyes scattered. "Someone tell me where that came from!"
One of the Eyes gave the All Clear sign from above. Then he blew up too.
"I want everybody after that..." Jay stopped, realizing his error. Chasing blindly into a trap would only get them killed. "Bitch! Do your magic. I want to know who is sniping our men with a slagger!" Jay swung around. "Xiaos, just find a way out of here!"
Xiaos spirited away and Jay charged the hill where the last man had blown up. "Follow Xiaos!" Jay ordered to Paul as he crested the hill. He found the body of the Eye that had made the fatal error. The body was blown from mid-chest to mid-face on one side. Jay spotted a Tag's remains. "Shit," he whispered.
"Spread out!" he yelled over the hill, hoping they'd hear. Tags, little spiky balls, were shot onto equipment, stuck, and exploded after a timer or trigger was tripped in hopes of blowing out several enemies with one will placed shot. The Game had changed when the DPRK had arrived with new weapons.
Jay charged back over the hill. As soon as he crested it, he saw his men still there and Xiaos no where to be seen. The frightened looks on the faces of his men burned into Jay as his men, spread apart and everything, blew up. Only Paul had managed to remain whole, he laid crumpled on the ground, surrounded and covered in gore. Jay gagged and turned away.
His miniature army, hard recruited, gone in a second. Esperanza came back at Jay in a rush. Where was Xiaos?
Jay raised his arms. "All right!" Jay yelled to the air. "You've made your point. We're yours, you sadist!" He heard a swift thhhhthp and looked down. A yellow Tag blinked on his chest. Jay tracked where the bullet came from, and out walked Hunter with a happy grin on his face.
And there was Xiaos, poised like he'd been caught in mid-air, poised as if he'd been about to smash Hunter dead into the earth. What the hell Xiaos? What the HELL. I told you to find a way out, not attack the bastard.
Xiaos didn't look at Jay, his eyes fixated on Hunter with the most bestially enraged look on his face.
"I win," Hunter said. "Wasn't as much fun as I would've expected, I thought you'd fight a bit more. Since when did your men matter so much to you?"
"The DPRK is running Morir like their shithouse and you're coming after me?" Jay began walking toward Hunter until Hunter held up a finger and tapped at the little red button by his leg.
"Exactly," Hunter said. "I need your help."
Jay began walking again and ignored the motherfucker as Hunter tapped at the button again.
He kept walking.
Hunter's smile drooped to an unhappy frown and he pulled out a knife. Jay kept walking, pulled his own knife. He ran at the bastard. If you really need me, you can't kill me. Hunter frowned again, then shrugged and dropped his knife. He held his palms up in surrender.
"Detonator!" Jay yelled. He was getting close.
Hunter nodded and pulled the detonator out and tossed it at Jay. Jay caught in on his chest and into his elbow-pit. He stopped long enough to drop the detonator on the ground carefully with his single arm. He warily approached the Chief Enforcer.
"Well played, Jay," Hunter said.
"Your mistake," he replied. He glared at Xiaos, still frozen in place. "You told me you needed me," he said to Hunter. Jay pointed at the detonator to Xiaos. "Disarm it." Pull a Tag before disar
ming it? Kablooey.
Xiaos' eyes finally shifted off of Hunter. The tension in his poise let go, just a little. He bent to pick up the device.
Bitch appeared in the background and waved what looked to be another detonator before he disappeared again. "You thought you'd blackmail me into helping you?" Jay said.
"No, I thought I'd show you that I'll outsmart you every time," Hunter replied. He pulled out another fucking red button. "This blows up the detonators and triggers every Tag at the same time."
Xiaos froze, holding the detonator like he might squeeze it to pieces any second.
"You better snap out of it before you get us all killed, Xiaos," Jay murmured.
Xiaos didn't respond, but the hand holding the detonator dropped to his side.
"You might not care about yourself that much," Hunter said, "but you sure as hell care about Bitch and that Chinaman commando. Betcha Bitch has found the other detonator by now."
"It's war. Why don't you just let us fight the good fight?"
"The good Game?" Hunter nodded sagely. "It helps to treat this as a 'war', doesn't it? Makes you feel like you're worth something. It's the same though, game or war. You weigh lives based on value, you sacrifice and command based on numbers, you made the call to who lives and dies. If only," Hunter raised an eyebrow at Xiaos, "your men would listen to you."
"We're saving our home. You used to be a military man, you understand." The plan had been to harass and harry Immortal Leader until he showed his face. It'd been working and Immortal Leader HAD popped in once. It wouldn't have been long before Immortal Leader showed his face again and the next time he did, the Redeemers would have been ready to throw everything they had at the bastard. Today's raid had been a simple operation. They hadn't planned for Hunter. Big mistake.
Hunter snorted. "You mean you're killing as many yellow dick as possible. Get over yourself, Morir was never yours."
"We kill as many as necessary," Jay said, letting Hunter misunderstand.
"Bit racist, aren't you? Kinda turned yourself into Hitler himself."
Funny coming from mister blond hair blue eyes. "Sure, I'll go for that. Protecting the motherland and everything. They are the invaders," Jay replied. "But how much do you really think I care what you think of me? Just tell me what you want, Hunter."
