"You and your clones."
"And you! Like every other advancement we've made over the years—the aerocar, the field harvester, the waste reclamator, the oxygen generator—you are to be held in safekeeping. The Twenty are prime specimens of vigor and fertility. You never should have been allowed to walk among the masses. It was never safe for you there!"
Granted, the man is a genius. But, apparently, he's also a sinister madman. "So instead, you want to imprison us here against our will?"
"Come." He steps out into the hallway, holding the door open for me. "I'll show you."
I pause, weighing my options for just a moment. Then I follow. Because there are no other options, not if I want to know what the hell is going on here.
"Why did you clone Chancellor Hawthorne?"
"I needed her clearance codes," he says simply. "I created her security force, but only she had access to their command framework. And it was a delightful challenge." He eyes me sidelong. "How soon did you realize she wasn't the real Persephone Hawthorne?"
I shrug. "She seemed a little off from the get-go."
He clenches his jaw, staring straight ahead as we make our way to a polished plasteel elevator. Leading the way inside, he punches the button for level ten at the very bottom of the subterranean tower. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.
The door slides shut, trapping us inside. For a few floors, neither of us say anything. What happened to that loquacious mad scientist from a minute ago? Now he's brooding with his arms folded, lost in his own headspace.
"Did you light the fuse?" I break the silence.
His eyes dart toward me as if he forgot I was there for a moment. Then he smiles. "You're much more than a mere curfew enforcer. If permitted to continue serving in Dome 1, I'm sure you would have been promoted to investigator."
I shake my head. "My commander never would have allowed it. Or the Chancellor. They had their own ideas on how to keep the Twenty safe. But back to you." His favorite topic, from what I've gathered. "Why today?"
"How much world history are you familiar with?"
I tap my temple. "More since I've been offline."
He nods. "We will need to get that fixed at some point. But for now, I would like you to think back to the early twentieth century, a time period of extreme nationalism. What spark set the world powers of that time on the path to bloodshed—the likes of which this planet had never seen before?"
I struggle in vain to remember. That was so long ago, and so irrelevant to what's going on right now. Unless…
"A single violent act," I guess. "But the stage had already been set."
"Precisely. As in Eurasia today. For years, discontent has flourished among workers in the outlying domes. They could not keep themselves from envying the lives of Dome 1 citizens. Chancellor Hawthorne and the Governors were perfectly content to ignore the lessons of the past by insisting that the past no longer mattered. 'Only now, moving forward'. Never bothering to look back. And in so doing, they ignored the warning signs."
You mean the resurgence of the patriots.
He nods. "Hawthorne and the Governors have paved the way for D-Day to occur all over again. For a new generation of terrorists to strike—but this time, at the very heart of Eurasia. Over the past twenty-four hours, government buildings across the Domes have been targeted with electromagnetic bursts. Terror has struck the populace, and they can't help being afraid of what will happen next."
"Law enforcement has everything under control."
He raises an eyebrow. "Perhaps for now. But there is no shortage of malcontents who have already claimed responsibility for the attacks, even though they had nothing to do with them. The ball is rolling, Enforcer Chen, and it will only gain momentum going forward. Downhill, of course."
"The idea of Eurasia imploding pleases you."
The elevator door opens onto the bottom floor, and he steps out into a dimly lit warehouse so expansive I can't see an end to the rows upon rows of shelving units. He leads the way down the center aisle with his hands clasped behind his back, his posture rigid.
"The idea of what comes after pleases me. The revelation, the unveiling. The true meaning of apocalypse, from the Greek." He shows me a well-organized lineup of cold storage units. In each one, embryos float in metallic canisters labeled bear, wolf, eagle, and dolphin among hundreds of other species.
"You have...animals?" I can't believe what I'm seeing here: every extinct creature that was wiped from the face of the earth. Many of them the most popular avatars in VR.
"We do."
"Why haven't you allowed them to live?"
"In Eurasia?" He shakes his head. "There was concern that we would not have enough resources. Food, water, air. Humankind has always been our priority. But in the future, once the Domes fall, we will terraform this planet. Then the animals will run wild across the land, soar through the sky, and swim the ocean depths again. It will be our Promised Land!"
I nod slowly. "That's what the Seventeen are seeing in VR." No wonder they were so blissed-out.
"They see what will be."
"Why wait? If you have the ability to change the world back to what it was—"
His laughter and upraised hand halt me right there.
"It will take decades, perhaps centuries, to develop the technology and equipment necessary to restore the earth to its former glory. But I have every confidence that we will." He leans toward me. "All two thousand of my clones, each endowed with an IQ very close to my own, are currently working on this project. We will find a solution. And when that day arrives, you will be there to see it!"
He points out another row of cryo-storage units, much larger but empty. Each one is labeled, but instead of
