Conception (Part I): Perfectible Animals, #1

By Thomas Norwood

THE NEXT STAGE IN HUMAN EVOLUTION IS ALMOST HERE...  

BUT WILL HOMO SAPIENS SURVIVE?

The year is 2065. Environmental and social chaos are destroying all life on earth. Food supplies have dwindled to almost nothing. The wealthiest live in gated cities; everyone else ekes out an existence in gang-ruled shanty towns.

Michael Khan, a geneticist struggling to save his wife from a deadly virus, is recruited by a secret organization to engineer the next stage in the evolution of Homo sapiens: highly immune to disease and extremely cooperative.

When the military learns of his research, they hire him to help create a bio-weapon to be used against invading forces. However, the military has its own agenda, and Michael soon learns that nobody, not even his own government, can be trusted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Norwood
• Release date: Jun 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498913164

Book preview

PERFECTIBLE ANIMALS: CONCEPTION (Part I)

Thomas Norwood

Copyright © 2014 Thomas Norwood

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 0992355214

ISBN-13: 978-0-9923552-1-0

To my parents, who made me who I am,

And Iliana, who has to put up with that.

BLURB:

IT'S 2065. Environmental and social chaos are destroying all life on earth. Food supplies have dwindled to almost nothing. The wealthiest live in highly-guarded gated cities and go about business as usual; everyone else ekes out an existence in gang-ruled shanty towns.

The human population is fast reaching a population bottleneck -- a moment in time when environmental factors reduce a species' numbers so far that a complete evolutionary leap is possible; or extinction imminent. 

Gendigm, a secret organization of rich and powerful entrepreneurs and scientists, is preparing for this exact moment. They believe that humans' innate greed and competitiveness were at the root of the collapse of many previous civilizations, and that now, with the power to destroy not only ourselves but the world we live in, the human race must evolve or will disappear entirely.    

Dr Michael Khan, a brilliant geneticist, is struggling to save his wife from a deadly virus and is on the verge of a significant breakthrough that will save millions of lives. But he has discovered an unexpected side effect. The bonobo genes that make his test monkeys more resistant to disease also make them far more cooperative. Michael takes the discovery to his board of directors, but he is told the side-effects are unmarketable and that he must find an alternative.

However, when his company starts going bankrupt, his project is about to be shelved, and he's almost given up hope for saving his wife, Michael receives an unusual phone call. 

Somebody is interested in his research after all...

CHAPTER ONE

MICHAEL’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE slows as it joins the line of traffic waiting to get through the gates to the regulated zone. He watches a group of poor people sitting around on the dusty ground in what used to be a park, waiting for someone from inside the fence to come out and offer them a job. It happens sometimes – someone might need a laborer or a cook, even the occasional accountant or teacher. Nobody is safe from unemployment these days.

There is a fire burning in a forty gallon drum and a man is spit-roasting the remains of an animal. People are lining up for it. A woman collects the money while the man cuts slices directly onto plastic plates. A couple of guys with sawn-off shot guns stand nearby in case of trouble, no doubt taking their cut of the profits. An animal must be a rare find these days – and the man and woman will probably live like royalty for a few days before returning to their pre-barbecue squalor.

A fight breaks out in the line between a man with a matted beard and a woman clutching her emaciated child. Michael considers getting out of the car and giving the woman a couple of hundred dollars so she can get a decent meal for a few days and feed her son, but the line of vehicles moves on and he’s up at the checkpoint having his retina scanned.

Returning home, sir? a guard holding a machine gun asks.

Yes.

Can you tell me where you’ve been?

Michael’s com profile, which the guard has access to, contains all the information he needs to know, so Michael isn’t sure why he’s asking him questions. He wipes sweaty palms off against his trousers.

I’m a scientist. My company has a facility in the medical exclusion zone. I’ve been working there.

He thinks back to the clinic in the desert, from where they’ve just evacuated over one hundred genetically modified children.

Company name?

Geneus.

Have you been through quarantine?

Yes.

Again, this information is all on Michael’s profile. Why is the guard stalling?

Just a moment. The guard walks back inside his cubicle and Michael sees him talking to another guard. He watches his clock. Two and a half minutes go by. He tries to read their expressions or gather information from their body language using an app on his visual overlay but it tells him nothing.

Finally, the guard comes out again. Go on through, sir.

As his car takes off he breathes out with relief.

His house is located in a gated community in what was once inner Melbourne, but is now a beachside suburb. Ten years ago, one particularly hot summer, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed and caused a global sea level rise of two-point-eight meters. Melbourne, along with all the other major coastal cities in Australia, was partly destroyed. Those who had enough money took over the dry houses, and those left without jobs were forced to move to shanty towns outside the city.

Michael’s car pulls up to the gate leading into his community and his window opens so he can identify himself to the retina scanner. He gives Henry a wave and drives on through as the gate opens.

Inside his house, he finds Annie in their bedroom packing their cases. Her dark eyes look up at him. He brushes her hair away from her pale face and they kiss. He holds onto her for a minute, inhaling her sweet smell.

How are you feeling? he says.

A little better, she says, brushing his chin and going back to her packing. Have you heard anything about the children?

No, not yet. Last I heard they’d left the compound but hadn’t boarded the planes. Dylan said they were having trouble getting clearance to land, and they might have to fly in to another airstrip.

Is our plane ready?

I hope so. Apparently it’s waiting for us at the airport.

Which shoes do you want to take? Annie says, squatting down in front of their closet where his shoes are neatly lined up. I don’t think we can fit all of them in.

Here, I’ll do it. He bends down to select his shoes. Are you all ready?

Almost. Do you really think leaving is the right thing, Michael?

I’m not sure. If anyone finds out about those children and what they’re capable of, though, we’ll be arrested.

Maybe you should turn them over to the government.

So they can turn them into soldiers? Create more bio-weapons?

Yes. You’re right. Can we take these photos? She holds up one of the framed photos they have on their dresser – the one of them on their honeymoon in Paris, smiling in front of the Eiffel tower.

Of course.

Annie puts the photo into her suitcase and zips it up. Michael takes his three favorite pairs of shoes – two pairs of sneakers and a pair of brown leather boots – and squeezes them into the side of one of his cases.

Half an hour later, everything is packed into the car and he and Annie take one final walk through their house together. There are still books on the shelves, paintings on the walls, rugs on the floors. Annie’s favorite cup is out on the kitchen bench. Memories of the last ten years of their life there are stored in every corner, in every room, and Michael takes Annie’s hand and squeezes it gently as they stare about for one last time.

They lock the front door on their way out. Annie has already contracted a real estate agent and the house will be put on the market next week, the money wired to them via bitcoin when it’s sold.

Well, this is it, she says.

Yes, it is.

They climb into their car and he asks it to take them to the airport.

As they are leaving their one-way street a black van pulls up in front of them. They wait for it to move but four men in dark suits climb out and surround their vehicle. A police badge flashes through Michael’s window and knuckles rap on the glass. A hand goes to the side of a jacket where Michael sees the bulge of what he assumes to be a pistol.

He considers switching the car into manual and flooring it in reverse, but that would involve running over the man in his rear-vision mirror and possibly getting shot at. Besides, there is no escape. It is a one-way street.

He lowers the window.

Michael Khan? the man says; a square-jawed, close-shaved, cropped-haired brute of a man. His gray eyes look in at him through flawless skin and he wonders if he’s one of the new androids the police force are using.

Yes? Michael tries to sound casual.

You’re going to have to come with us.

Where to?

Just step out of the vehicle, please.

Michael looks around him at the four solid men with guns and realizes he has no choice.

Michael, no! Annie puts her hand on his arm.

It’s okay, he says. It’s going to be okay.

He tells the engine to switch off and climbs slowly out of the car. Adrenaline floods him like cold water. Everything is happening in slow motion. He can hear the men’s feet on the concrete, their breathing, a siren wailing in the distance.

The first man takes out a pair of plastic handcuffs.

Can I ask what this all about? Michael keeps his back to the car as if there is still a chance he might be able to return to it.

You’ll find out soon enough. This way please. The officer grabs him by one arm and twists it around behind his back while another of the men, slightly older with thinning hair on top, comes around and grabs his other arm. Before Michael knows it they’ve got the handcuffs on him, digging into his skin.

Annie tries to open her door but one of the men leans against it and stops her.

Please remain in the vehicle, ma’am.

Let me out! What the hell is going on?

The three men holding Michael push him in the direction of the van. What will happen if he runs? Will he be shot down in the street? The one who spoke to him first has a bulky, animated, athlete’s body, and the other two, although shorter, look like they could easily outrun him too.

One of the men, a cold, blue-eyed, ambitious looking unit, forces him into the van and sits across from him. The man’s jacket is forced open by his weightlifter’s chest. Michael looks back to see Annie getting out of their vehicle but the man who was holding her back jumps into the back of the van with them and they take off on autopilot.

Are they really police officers? Or is he being kidnapped?

What is this about? he says.

Everything will be explained to you when we arrive, the man across from him says, no emotion in his voice.

He tries to access the net on his com, a nano-tech computer built into his brain, but they’ve somehow put a block on it. He has heavy-grade firewalls so, whoever they are, they’re very well equipped. As far as he knows only the government has the technology and the authority to do that.

Without the constant stream of data about the outside world on his visual overlay he feels blinded. He tries to guess where they are going by sight alone, but all the windows are blacked out except the windscreen and after a few blocks he loses track of their direction. He catches the occasional glimpse of an industrial shed or a truck with shipping containers. There is little traffic on the road. They must be down near the old port somewhere – this is not an area he’s ever spent any time in, and in the last few years, since the sea