G is for Genome (A-Z of Horror Book 7) Page 3
Stacker folded his arms and grunted. “Edgar has always been somewhat detached.”
“The same cannot be said about the others,” Lester said. “They are upset. Some of them seem to blame us, and perhaps they are right to.”
“Nonsense,” Laramie said. “A person who kills themselves has only themselves to blame. Even if we had got her to a hospital she would not have pulled through. Her insides were ruined.”
“Do you even care?” Lester asked.
“Of course I do, but what is done is done.”
“I don’t think Adolf is going to see it that way. He is angry, it is clear to see.”
“Anger fades,” Stacker said.
“Not in a man like Hitler.”
“Adolf is not Hitler,” Laramie said. “He is not the same man.”
Lester exhaled loudly so that all heard his displeasure. “Are you that much a fool? Of course he is the same man, down to the very last strand of hair. He is Hitler incarnate. You people grew him from a dead dictator’s remains and now here he stands, angry and resolute.”
Dr Hannigan began to chortle. “Are you afraid we may have World War 3 on our hands, Dr Solberg?”
Solberg sneered. “He is dangerous. A woman I believe he cared deeply about has just died in our care. He had already been voicing discontent with the conditions here and this will strengthen his desire to leave.”
“The conditions are fine,” said Laramie. “The guests are treated extremely well.”
“They are prisoners,” Lester almost shouted, “and Adolf is under no illusion otherwise.”
Stacker cleared his throat and took the reins of the conversation. “What exactly are you trying to get at, Lester?”
“I think we need to go public with what we are doing here. We cannot in good conscience keep these men and women confined here until the day they die.”
Hannigan chortled again. “Since when did science have a conscience?”
“There is such a thing as too far,” Lester snapped at her. “We need to allow these people lives. Real lives.”
“They can never have real lives,” Laramie said. “You know that.”
Lester nodded. He was under no illusion that Adolf Hitler could work at a petrol station and raise a family, but the man could still have something. “They can have their freedom. That is the least that we owe them. We have enough data to be done with this experiment.”
“You’re right,” said Stacker. “We should release them from here before any dissent is allowed to grow.”
Lester sighed with relief. He unfolded his arms and placed his palms flat on the table. “I am so happy to hear you say that. Do we have a plan in place, on how we should proceed?”
“There’s always been a plan,” Stacker said. “The guests here will eventually be moved to Dubai.”
“Dubai?”
Despite being a similar age, Stacker looked at Lester as though he were a child. “Lester, are you really so naïve? This is a private institution, an investment. This entire experiment has been an investment. For thirty years we have studied and raised these great historical figures into adulthood. While it is true that men such as Albert Einstein may benefit mankind through the sciences, the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Napoleon, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, are not scientists. Their value is not in making great leaps forward. Their value is in who they are.”
Lester felt everyone’s eyes on him. He was ignorant of something that everybody else obviously understood. “I don’t know what you are saying, Dr Stacker. Please explain it to me.”
“Money,” Stacker said bluntly. “The men and women here are going to be attractions at a park in Dubai. Just imagine it, people will be able meet their idols in the flesh, talk to their heroes. A picture with Charlie Chaplin, an autograph from Dickens, the opportunities are endless. The descendants of Holocaust victims can look upon Adolf Hitler and finally get some closure. Once we go live we will be able to get almost anyone. Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria. We could bring back Amy Winehouse.”
Lester exploded. “You’re insane. You are monsters.”
“You are one of us,” Stacker said.
“No, no I am not a part of this. I quit. I am leaving this place.”
Stacker laced his fingers together on the table and shrugged. “Fine. You are not our prisoner. You can leave if you wish, but you will be sworn to secrecy. And if you are foolish enough to speak, our benefactors will surely silence you for good.”
Lester shook his fist, his heart beating fast. “The world will decry you for this. It will never be allowed to happen.”
Stacker rolled his eyes. “The UAE are already involved. They are prepared for the worldwide backlash, but once the tourist dollars start pouring in, it will quickly become worth their while. The entire world is run on greed. Money tops humanity every time. And science ignores both.”
Lester leapt up from the table, knocking over his chair. Then he stormed out of the room, feeling sick to his soul. He felt Hell beckoning to him, and felt that it was exactly where he deserved to go.
***
Before he gathered his things, Lester headed back to the common room. He couldn’t disappear without first facing the human beings he had failed so terribly. He had a duty of care to the men and women who had become his patients, and he wanted to be there for anyone who needed to talk about what had happened to Norma.
Adolf Hitler was at the forefront of his mind.
The room was empty, save for the orderlies who were wearily clearing up the mess Norma had left.
Lester asked one of the orderlies where everybody was and the man nodded towards one of the bedroom pods. It was Hitler’s.
While not spacious enough to accommodate everybody, Hitler’s bedroom had become packed with bodies, the overflow spilling out into the area immediately outside. As Lester approached he saw the Adolf standing on his bed and addressing everyone.
“It is time for us to take what is ours by right of being human. To be free is to be human. We are not cattle, to be penned in like animals. Norma was a kind woman with a heart and feelings. So much feeling that she was driven to take her own life because she felt that her life was not worth living. Are any of our lives worth living in this place? Edgar, I know you yearn to explore the nature of man. Will you be able to do so in here? Charles, you have dreams of visiting London. Will you ever get there? You will find no plutonium here, Albert.”
“They will not allow it,” Albert spat.
Lester hurried over and waved his arms, trying to break the thrall that Hitler had the crowd in. “Everyone, please, calm down. What happened to Marilyn was an accident, a tragedy, but we must not turn on each other.”
Hitler turned his gaze to Lester, his dark eyes like lumps of coal. “Who is Marilyn?”
Lester went to speak and found himself confused. “I…I meant to say Norma.”
Hitler growled. “These ‘doctors’ do not even know our names. We die and we are nothing to them, but if we fight we are human. It is time to take what will not be given freely. We must snatch our freedom and take charge of our destinies. We will be free or we will be nothing. Those who want to live must fight.”
The doors to the common room swung open and in strode Dr Stacker and all of the other staff members. With them was the orderly who had directed Lester. He must have run for help when it was clear things were turning bad.
“What is going on here?” Stacker demanded.
Lester felt like a little boy reporting to his father, but he was desperate for support. “I warned you about this. They are not content to be confined. Hitler is inciting violence.”
“I incite nothing. Allow my people to leave and no blood will be shed.”
Stacker shook his head with a look of disbelief. He strode up to the crowd and stared up at Hitler who was still standing on his bed. “Your people? I have raised you all from birth, kept you all safe and well looked after. No one is leaving here unless I allow it. For thirty years I have been your g
uardian, your carer, your father.”
Hitler sneered. “The only father of mankind is struggle, and ours begins today. I beseech you all to fight, or forever be the victims of circumstance.”
Lester saw Edgar Allan Poe out of the corner of his eye. The ghoulish man did not come for Lester but for Stacker. He leapt at the heavyset doctor and rammed his thumbs into his eyes, not letting up until Stacker was screaming animalistically and bleeding from both sockets.
The sight of blood was what finally tipped the mob towards violence. Hitler’s speech had led them up the hill, but it was Stacker’s screams that had pushed them over the edge.
Dr Laramie was the next one to bleed. Marie Curie attacked him from behind, clamping her teeth down on his neck and savagely tearing loose his jugular. He fell to the ground in a spray of blood while the Nobel Prize winning physicist stood over him like a snarling beast.
Dr Hannigan grabbed Lester and screamed in his face. “Do something. You have to do something.”
Lester shook his head wearily. “I’m just an old man.”
Napoleon lifted Hannigan into the air and tackled her to the ground. He broke her nose first with a meaty punch, before wrapping his small hands around her neck and squeezing the life out of her.
Lester stumbled around in a daze as fights broke out all around him. One orderly was able to hold his own with a mop handle, but all the other staff members fell quickly, heavily outnumbered. Eventually even the orderly with the mop handle saw that it was hopeless. His arms tired and his swings grew slower. Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein double-teamed him to the ground and began stamping on his skull.
Yet Lester still stood unaccosted. The mob moving around him, rather than through him. Eventually the fighting calmed down when there was no one left to oppose Hitler and his people.
The mob surrounded Lester who did nothing to resist them. What could he do but beg their mercy?
Hitler came to meet Lester in the middle of the group. “Dr Solberg, I am sorry that it has come to this.”
“As am I.”
“I do not understand the nature of this place, but I am not so ignorant as to think we are ordinary people. Tell me why we are here, who we are?”
Lester looked at Hitler and tried to speak. How did you tell a man he was one of the world’s worst mass murderers reborn? It was a cruelty.
Hitler growled. “Tell me or I will kill you. Who are we? Who am I?”
Lester tried to answer but still he could not. It was wrong to condemn a man for actions he had not taken. Adolf was in this place because of evil men. That did not make him evil. Perhaps, this Adolf was destined to lead his people to freedom and become a hero. There was a chance he could become something other than what he had been in the past. Maybe Adolf was mankind’s purest chance at redemption.
Lester sighed. “I wish you all luck, truly. Answers, though, I will not give you.”
Hitler blinked slowly, appeared sad. “Then you leave me no choice, my friend. I had hoped to spare you, for mercy is a strength all of its own.”
Hitler pulled a stainless steel fountain pen from his pocket and drove it into Lester’s neck, caught him as his body went limp and eased him to the ground tenderly.
As Lester felt his life slip away, he gazed up at Hitler who continued to hold him. “Enjoy your freedom,” he uttered. “You tried to take it from us all once.”
Hitler’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “I would rather die than take a person’s freedom as has been done to me. I wish only to see my family free to live as they choose, as should be the right of any man or woman. I am not a monster.”
“No,” said Lester, “Not for certain.”
He smiled and closed his eyes.
END.
About The Author
Iain Rob Wright is one of the UK's most successful horror and suspense writers, with novels including the critically acclaimed, THE FINAL WINTER; the disturbing bestseller, ASBO; and the wicked screamfest, THE HOUSEMATES.
His work is currently being adapted for graphic novels, audio books, and foreign audiences. He is an active member of the Horror Writer Association and a massive animal lover.
Check out Iain's official website or add him on Facebook where he would love to meet you.
www.iainrobwright.com
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G is for Genome copyright 2015 by Iain Rob Wright
www.IAINROBWRIGHT.com
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About The Author
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