Terrorists. Mutants. Dangerous, non-human freaks. These are a sample of the inflammatory terms bandied about in what remains of the global media. The revelation of the convergers among us has resulted in terrible losses. Dispersing an experimental genetic activator, with a 30% mortality rate, is an unforgiveable atrocity. We cannot change what happened. All we can do is shape the future … and that future is bleak. Crop failures, food shortages, and extreme weather events that have baffled the world’s meteorological survey teams and devastated the planet. Every continent flooded with refugees. How does one deal with a crisis on such an epic scale?
Like many before me, I am in exile. It was the beginning of the end for Greek dominance when they banished their greats: Aristotle, Plato, Seneca. Our one hope is the voice of Hypatia. May it reach more hearts, help us join together and forge a new future, while we still can. A future based on trust, acceptance and communion with Earth. If we don’t, humans may survive, but humanity shall not.
Extract from The Last Bastion of the Anthropocene, Ester Akintola, the final UN Secretary General.
The gym was empty, thank goodness. Fang wasn’t in the mood for small talk. She jabbed the remote and the blind against a side window eased open to reveal the snowy forest beyond the crackling radio array. She dumped her drink bottle and towel on a weight bench and warmed up, feeling the tension start to dissipate.
Being alone might be her safest option, but Fang regretted this missed opportunity to be more open with her brother, Bohai, about her work when she had the chance. She had no idea where he was and what dangers he might also be facing. The last time she’d seen Bohai was when he was still working for their father’s tech firm. Although, he spent most of his time volunteering at a local orphanage, turning over a new leaf. Fang cringed. Who was she to judge? She had searched for his name in the lists of the dead and missing in the limited news reports. Not seeing his name did nothing to relieve her anxiety. If anything, it made it worse. Did her achievements, her sacrifices, count for anything if they didn’t benefit the ones she loved?
No. Fang increased the settings on the treadmill and hoped the punishing pace would help her outrun her growing sense of foreboding. She felt trapped by her ego and ambition. When Miranda died, Fang had tried to wrest control of the MRI, but she’d miscalculated, and now she was Vulcan’s pawn. The moment they’d touched down at HAARP, Weaving, Deckker and Vulcan held their own counsel, only parcelling out information to Fang on a need-to-know basis. The technicians deferred to her, but all Fang did was repeat Vulcan’s instructions and observe the military train with its new weapons. Weapons made possible by Vulcan’s genetically engineered convergence bond; a technology she had designed. Fang pushed herself harder, the treadmill whirring beneath her feet.
“Whoa, are you trying to break that thing?” Derek said, dumping his towel beside hers and jumping onto the neighbouring treadmill.
Fang slowed the machine and jogged. “Just a lot on my mind.”
She watched Derek push buttons then settle into an easy lope. The last few months had been hard on him too. Since they’d been at HAARP, he’d become leaner, his face thinner. They’d spent long hours in each other’s company. Early morning runs in the gym, shared breakfast in the staff cafeteria, then a run at night to ease the pressure of long days in the lab. An endless loop, on repeat. Fang didn’t trust him, but if proximity counted for anything, Derek was the closest thing to a friend she had in here. If she were being honest, she probably wouldn’t have lasted this long without Derek’s stoic presence. And Fang hated this dependence on him, especially after what she did to him in Bulgaria. What sort of person doses a friend with propofol and knocks him out in her bid to seize control of the MRI? Derek would never forgive her if he knew; thankfully, he’d never shown any sign he remembered. Now Derek was her only ally. She couldn’t afford to lose him. Fang grabbed her drink bottle and swigged, swallowing her fears.
Derek lifted a remote and the blind descended again, cutting off the pristine view of the snow-blanketed forest. A projector screen lowered from the ceiling and flickered to life. Curious, Fang bit back her protest and watched Derek navigate through a grid of video feeds. When he came to the feed from the convergers’ gym, he expanded the video to full screen view.
Hewn into the bedrock, the convergers’ gym was an enormous cavern strung with harsh lighting and industrial fans. At the press of another button, a cacophony erupted from the surround-sound speakers. Fang recognised some of the convergers from Bulgaria. Mikey and his lion, Daniel and the new bear he’d partnered with thanks to their induced convergence dose. The boys lifted weights, grunting with the effort, as their animals thudded their paws against the floor, keeping count of their repetitions.
“One hundred and fifty convergers, by last count,” Derek said. “Whatever Vulcan is planning, they’re ready.” He glanced at her.
Fang shook her head. “Don’t look at me.” She thought back to the command centre. “It’s military, but I have no idea what scheme he’s cooked up.”
Derek increased the volume. Grunts, yells and thuds echoed around them. He nodded at the security camera in the corner.
Fang kept facing forward, head lowered as if she was intent on her run rather than making sure no-one watching the feed from the gym could read her lips. “There are groups of induced animal-human pairs in training but where, I don’t know. Even the technicians in the command centre don’t know. They may as well be playing video games. They record the biomonitoring statistics, make reports … and now they’ve started practising simulated takeovers.”
“Takeovers? You mean using the harvest implant chip? But I thought the retinal scanning software was nowhere near ready.”
“Vulcan clearly thinks it is. With the software, real-time control will be possible.”
Derek swore under his breath. “That changes everything. Now the convergers and their animals have the implant chips, the MRI will be in complete control. Not just electroshocks, but total neural control. This … this is a nightmare.”
Fang slowed her treadmill to warm-down mode. She’s back looking through the glass of the experimental chamber. Ariana’s spasming body, the electrical burns on her arms and legs, and the naked hatred in her eyes when she looked straight at Fang. “Ariana was only a test run. This is a whole new level of control.”
Derek stopped his machine and mopped his face with his towel. “There were military buyers in Bulgaria – government representatives, dictators, private militia. Do you remember? Before everything went to hell. The day that …” Derek trailed off with a frown.
Fang jumped off her treadmill, grabbing the bars to steady herself. “The day of the accident,” she finished for him. “Yes, I remember.”
Derek looked up at the screen. “Yeah. The accident.”
“The MRI needs funds to keep this place going, but Vulcan would never cede control to warlords and dictators.” Fang leaned against the bars of the treadmill and stretched her hamstrings, counting thirty seconds, switching legs. Then it hit her. “Shit!”
“The simulated takeovers,” Derek said, slinging the towel around his neck. “Vulcan’s sold the convergence technology to buyers around the world. They think they have bought an army, but those convergers are nothing more than Vulcan’s sleeper forces. One flick of the switch and Vulcan controls a global army.” Derek buried his face in his towel to stifle a scream. “Fuck. No wonder he’s pushed so hard for the retinal software.”
Fang slumped onto the weight bench, crushed by the enormity of what she, they, had done. “Vulcan sold our technology to the highest bidder, happy to let the world crumble as the solar storm approaches.”
Derek clenched and unclenched his fists, staring up at the screen filled with battling convergers. “It wasn’t enough to have his own private army, Vulcan wants to control the whole damn world.”
Fang hugged her knees to her chest. She opened her mouth but no words came out. A tremor rose through her core; she couldn’t stop shaking.
Derek knelt beside her and drew her to him. “Hey, Fang, we weren’t to know. Vulcan is to blame, not us.”
Fang leaned into his warmth, wishing she could bury herself in it and forget the cold truths and what she had done. “You and I are only alive as long as Vulcan considers us useful. Remember what he did to those convergers in the battle games.”
Derek’s eyes grew wide. Fang sat up. “He euthanised them.” Derek pointed the remote at the screen. The volume died and the screen disappeared with a mechanical squeal, plunging the gym into stillness. The blind lifted to reveal vision of the snowy forest outside once more. The view calmed her and helped tamp down her exhaustion and fear.
Derek grabbed his drink bottle and turned his back on the security camera. “Let’s talk in my room.”
When they reached his door, he palmed it open and the floor lights flickered on. They stepped inside and the door hissed shut behind them. His room was identical to hers: single bed, desk, closet, tiny bathroom. Derek grabbed his chair and motioned to the bed. Fang sank onto it, acutely aware she was invading Derek’s private space. This is where he slept, thought, dreamed. The only place he had any freedom. And he let me in here, she thought. Fang sensed Derek watching her. Blushing, she looked away and noticed a bottle of pills on the night stand.
“I don’t sleep well,” Derek said in a soft voice. “My brother needs constant care, medicine, and I’m not there for him.”
“I miss my brother too.” Fang kneaded her palm with her fist, anything to stop the frustration threatening to overwhelm her. “And my father. I’m scared for them. Everything I’ve done … I just wanted to find a way to help people. To make my father proud. Not this.”
They sat in silence, the absence of their loved ones filling the tiny room. Derek looked up first, his eyes finding Fang’s. Something raw and vulnerable passed unspoken between them.
“Trust me, there’s no point dwelling on the past.” With a sigh, Derek stood and ran his hands through his hair.
Fang watched him pacing the confines of the room like a caged tiger. How many regrets did Derek have? He’d betrayed Robyn after helping her with the induced convergence doses. Had done Vulcan’s bidding, blinded by the desire to get his PhD. Which made him what? Foolish? Selfish? But not unique. “It’s painful, isn’t it? I understand.”
Derek couldn’t look at her. Fang would never understand the shame he lived with every single day. Vulcan had finally approved his thesis. Derek was now Dr Smith. But the price of getting his heart’s desire was so much higher than he’d ever imagined. Terence dead, Catherine held prisoner in a cell, and Robyn? “I’ve hurt anyone I’ve ever cared about.”
Fang closed her eyes. The words could have been her own.
“You’re my only friend,” Derek murmured.
Don’t say that! she wanted to shout. She’d been alone for so long. Trapped by Vulcan, throwing herself into her work to survive. Trusting no-one because who would she trust? Tears pricked her eyes. She lifted her gaze to Derek. “Me too.”
Derek reached for her, enveloping her in a hug. She leaned into his shoulder as they held each other, an island of calm amidst so much uncertainty.