The Embers Of My Heart, page 20
"So what's this twin thing?"
"It makes no sense whatsoever," she said. "So, say you're having a kid, and the kid's going to be talented. But early on, the embryo splits. Twin time. Normally, you'd think they both have the same genes, right?"
"Sure, that's how identical twins work, if I remember my high school biology."
"It's impossible for talented parents to have completely identical twins." Her tone was flat. "If you did a genetic comparison between me and Jess, there would be a series of significant differences, enough that you'd question if we were identical or fraternal."
I frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. You are identical, right?"
"Barely. Once genetic testing became feasible, everyone tested twins like crazy. One gets all the genes for talents. The other gets nothing. Jess is as normal as humanly possible. The comparison would show that we're sisters, definitely related, but there'd be too many differences to say we're definitely twins."
"So you got the rest."
"Sure did." She flexed with her free arm. "I got all the good shit."
I tried to remember more of my old high school biology. "Not to overly simplify things, but doesn't that mean that if we compared your genes with Jess's, we'd figure out where the genes that provide us with our talents are?"
She nodded. "Some of them. It's far more complex than the simple Punnett square they teach in high school. Some genes suppress psionics. Some genes prevent it entirely. Different combinations have different effects. To make it even worse, there are significant differences between a psion from China and one from England, for example. Even English and American psions have a notable genetic drift over close to three hundred years. Everyone's trying to analyze how it works, but no one's come up with a unifying theory yet."
"Do you think Todd knows? He was part of the Establishment for a while."
"Ask him," she said. "He doesn't tell me shit about those days. Maybe he'll tell you."
She slipped into the shower as soon as we made it back to her apartment. I sat on the couch and let my mind wander. I did want a normal life. I did want to marry and possibly have a family. I didn't know anyone with psionic powers who actually had a stable family. Star's family thought she was dead. I knew that Absynthe had had a fling with Shade, but nothing serious. Nikki never told me much about her family, which was telling enough. Serious relationships didn't seem to work out. What did that mean for Star and I?
I heard the bathroom door open and she walked out into the living room. "Just got a text from Todd while I was in the bathroom," she said as she dried her hair with a towel. The rest of her was air-drying. "He's grabbing some lunch on the way over. What are you making that face for? It's nothing you haven't seen before."
"It's been a while," I said as I carefully studied the floor.
"You're being weird," she said. "Fine, I'll be modest. You can look now." I looked up and she had wrapped the towel around herself. "Better?"
"As long as you get dressed before he actually arrives," I said.
"I get it, you don't want to share." She winked at me and let the towel slip as she walked into her bedroom. "Are you sure you don't want to help me get dressed?"
"I'm pretty sure helping you get dressed isn't what would happen."
She looked around the corner, stuck her tongue out at me, and then ducked back in. I rolled my eyes and settled back in on the couch. Nikki had almost never been so aggressive toward me. I almost never felt wanted with her. Star always made me feel wanted. Sometimes it was a bit too much. Sometimes she got on my nerves. I let out a deep breath and shook my head. It felt better to be wanted too much than not to be wanted at all.
Her door opened and she walked out, dressed in a sheer yellow tank top and white shorts. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and her feet were bare. I stood up and walked to her. "What?" she asked as she finished tying her hair back.
"You're beautiful," I told her.
Her eyes widened and she looked down. I lifted her chin to see her eyes tearing up. I kissed her. Her arms slid around me and tightened and she clung to me as if I was the air she needed to breathe. When our lips finally separated, her eyes were dry again. "So that's where you've been," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been distant," she said. Her hands slipped down along my arms until she was holding my hands. "You've been far away, ever since you got here. It's like you didn't remember your feelings."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. I know you've gone through hell in the past few weeks and I haven't been able to be there for you." She squeezed my hands. "Just...just be true to me, ok?"
The surprise on her face as she said that must have mirrored my own. I squeezed her hands back. "I will."
"You mean it?"
"Of course I mean it."
A knock at the door interrupted any further developments. We both jumped backwards, and then laughed. She brushed her hip against me as she walked to the door and threw it open. "You better have brought a ton of food or I'll kick you right out. I'm starving," she said.
"Kick me out?" My uncle walked into the apartment. Without my head breaking apart, I was able to get a better look at him. He was tall, unreasonably tall, well over six feet. His hairline was receding and he had a few lines on his face, but he definitely resembled my mom. His eyes were gray, not as dark as I had thought before, but his hair was the same shade as mine. He handed Star a bag, but his eyes didn't leave mine. "You're taking liberties when you talk to me like that, you know. I might be old, but I can still kick your ass." He stepped past her and stopped just out of arm's reach from me. "Hello, Kevin," he said quietly.
"Hello, Todd. Uncle Todd." He was broad across the chest, obviously the type who hit the gym a couple times a week. I stepped forward and offered him my hand. His grip was strong.
"So. You're Patsy's kid, all grown up. I haven't seen you since you were five or six." He grinned. "Hope you've got her appetite. I did pick up a lot of food."
"Good, I'm starving too," I said.
"Better not let her eat it all," he said, jerking a thumb toward Star. "She eats like a horse and I'm pretty sure she cheats, because she never gains any weight."
"Youthful metabolism," she said around a forkful of fried rice. "Bet you can't remember what that was like."
"One day, you'll realize you have to put effort in," he said. "Come on, Kev. Let's dig in before it vanishes."
We ate and made small talk around the table. Todd wanted to hear about the family. Star didn't say much, but I could tell she was listening intently. I told him about some of the highlights of the past few years, up until my first attempt at college. Once we reached that point, I fell silent and the conversation died out. After a moment, I looked up. "So. What is the Resistance?"
They exchanged looks. "Let's get more comfortable," Todd said. Star and I moved to the couch, where she promptly sat shoulder to shoulder with me. Todd sat on the edge of a chair across from us and managed to look exceedingly uncomfortable somehow. "Understand, Kevin, this isn't something we can tell you a lot about. We operate very secretively and keep things on a need-to-know basis. The fact that you're here and know about me is extremely irregular."
"You've proved you can keep secrets," Star pointed out. "But you're still not part of us."
"That's fine," I said. "But look at it from my perspective. I'm not diving in headfirst until I'm convinced this pool has water."
"Understandable," Todd said. "What do you know of the state of the world?"
"Crazy. Divided. Lots of factions with their own goals and methods," I said.
"Do you know where the Establishment fits in?"
"Not exactly," I said. "I mean, I've done the basic research on PSInet, but I take all of that with a grain of salt."
"What about the other groups you butt heads with?" Todd asked.
"The Bureau's part of the government," I said. "Doing their bit to further the aims of whoever actually runs the country. I suspect the government doesn't actually have a clue. I've encountered them quite a few times now. I haven't really run into other groups, aside from that one Kaze agent, and one of the small gangs in the New York City area. I do know that the Order of Chaos was planning something in Troy, but I was sent out to stop them."
Todd held his hand up. "Whoa. I appreciate the free intelligence, but you might want to think twice before telling us you did something. Sarah, can you confirm that?"
"Can't confirm or deny to my knowledge," she said.
"They were going to release some sort of bioweapon," I said. Todd started to say something, but I waved him off. "Consider this a trade for some of what you're going to tell me. We got a hold of their plans and concocted a counteragent."
"I'll look into it," Star said.
"Thanks. Well, you can tell him about the things he's missing," Todd said.
She nodded and pulled away from me. "The Bureau is the major force in North American psionic politics," she said, her tone all business. "As a quasi-governmental agency, they have forces throughout the entire country, enclaves in Canada and Mexico, and a few outposts across the world. Your Establishment is a strong regional power, strong enough to ensure that New York City maintains a certain level of neutrality, but not strong enough to make a serious play for power against the Bureau. There are other regional powers that you don't normally interact with since they're in the southern or western US, but simply because you're based near New York City, there's a lot of psionic traffic to deal with."
"So the Bureau is the big bad guy?"
"Yes," Star said.
At the same time, Todd said, "No." I looked back and forth between them. "The Bureau's got a host of problems and is slowly caving in under the weight of its own bureaucracy," he said. "This weakness has encouraged a splinter faction of the Kaze to make inroads on the Californian coast, as well as reducing their influence in the South American power vacuum."
"There's a potential civil war brewing," Star added.
"Which leads me to our problem," Todd said. "You want to know what the Resistance is, Kevin? What do you think we want to do with the Bureau?"
"Encourage them to split up and fight each other?"
He shook his head. "The Bureau, as far as it goes, is a relatively benign organization. The Resistance wants weak, benign factions. We want them as harmless as possible. The general purpose of the Resistance is to prevent psionic organizations from growing strong enough to seize control. Most factions see normal humans as simple resources, as a silent threat, or in some cases, they don't consider normal people to even be human. Normal humans are ninety-nine percent of the population. Less than one percent of us are psions. That's not an acceptable basis for ruling, leading, or anything of that nature."
"Humanity First?" I asked. Star snorted.
"Something like that," he said. "We're doing our best, but we're losing. All we can hope for is making sure the least harmful groups rise to power."
"So what do you think I can bring to the table?" I asked. "Star's been trying to recruit me from the hour she met me. I mean, I'm not able to offer much information on the Establishment, I'm just a trainee."
"Your strength," Todd said. "You inherited a lot of it. Your mother is at least as strong as I am, if not stronger."
"Mom? What? No way."
"She's high up in the Establishment," he said. I leaned back against the couch and couldn't find any words. She'd always been away on business when I was young. Establishment business, apparently. "We exchange Christmas cards every couple of years. Ran into her in San Diego a few years ago, actually. But yes, your mother and I are psions. Our mother and father were also extremely strong."
My head was spinning. "What about my dad?"
Todd leaned forward. "He's not even a latent, but he does have something very important. Are you familiar with the genetics behind all this?"
"We talked about it today, actually," I said.
"The Establishment has put more research into this than any other group short of the Illuminati, and maybe even them. I led one of their research teams. We discovered something unique, something they won't reveal publicly. There are genetic markers that inhibit your ability, and they usually link with markers that enhance your ability. When there's enough of an imbalance between those markers, it makes someone a psion. The Establishment discovered certain genetic markers that inhibit the inhibitors. It took years for them to find someone with those genes, who didn't have any additional genetic baggage." Todd squeezed his hands together and looked down at the coffee table. "Your dad. Your mom and I were the third generation of an Establishment guided breeding program. You're the fourth generation."
I didn't know what to say. Had they forced my parents together somehow? "So I'm the result of sixty, eighty years of this?" I asked.
"Hundreds of years of past study and efforts," Todd said, his voice barely audible. "Everyone's tried to deliberately breed gifted children, all throughout history. It never worked. At some critical point, the inhibitors always locked the kids down. One generation would be strong, phenomenal, and then their children would be normal, latent at best. They tried so many things. The Establishment thought ahead, Kevin. They started multiple lines and had them produce different combinations of children. Psion to psion, psion to latent, latent to latent. The line that worked the best, that produced your mother and me, was the one that started with psion to latent, then psion to psion. We're both strong, but have a host of inhibitory markers. Your father suppresses most of those markers. They also decided Patsy would be the empirical test of the Only Child Theorem."
"I've not sure I've heard that before," I said. "I assume it's related to the Twin Theorem?"
He looked at Star, then back at me. "Yeah. It's unconscious genetic manipulation. When you have just one child, when you're absolutely certain you're one and done, it amplifies their power. If you do end up having more kids afterwards, they get all sorts of inhibitory mutations."
"But Mom always said she wanted to have another kid," I said.
"She lied," Todd said. "They sterilized her a week after you were born. I was there."
"So I'm the end point of this experiment?" I asked.
Todd's eyes tracked past me to look into the distance. "No. You're the penultimate point. The fifth generation is where everything comes together. We can splice genes now. Foolproof artificial insemination is available. We have a young man who has incredible potential and the genetic makeup to protect his children from inhibitory genes." He shook his head. "I was in charge of that program."
Star stared at me. "Are you saying he's been made to be breeding stock?"
"In a crude sense, yes," Todd said. "That's why I left the Establishment. The program started as a research study. Alistair Ripley wanted to use it to gain power. If you pass all of their tests, they'll begin the final phase, and in twenty more years or so, they'll have a host of young men and women with enormous power. They won't make the mistake of allowing them independence, not like you, Kevin. Alistair will see to that." He shook his head again. "You'd never meet them. You'd probably never be aware. In fact, I'm certain that they already have samples from you, just in case. They'll foster the children out. When they get to college, they'll all find their way to Ripley for training. Training and complete indoctrination. The best of them would be used to continue the program."
"I didn't know any of this," Star said quietly. "That's monstrous."
"Is it?" Todd lifted his head. "It's a way to a new stage of human evolution or advancement."
"But it's not natural."
"It doesn't matter if it's natural," I said. They both looked to me. "What matters is that it's possible. Why should we wait for it to naturally spread or die out on its own? I mean, we have the ability to direct our own evolution now. I don't think it's wrong to do that."
"Exactly," Todd said. "The Establishment originally meant to uplift humanity. Alistair tweaked that plan. He wants to lift humanity up under the control of a small elite. That's why we fight, not just to stop him and his type from ruling, but to give us time to bring everyone up to an equal footing."
"So now what?" I asked. I put my arm around Star. "I mean, what's the end game here? What's Alistair waiting for? I owe the Establishment, but I didn't know how deep this went."
"You owe the Establishment?" Todd laughed. "You don't know the worst of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Ripley University. It's a front, and you know it, right? The primary goal of the school is to train psionically talented students and gain their services for the Establishment. How'd you hear about it?"
"From Mom," I said. "Oh."
"It's not even a question of her getting you in the door," Todd said. "You were guided to go there."
"Even though I tried going elsewhere first?"
"Why do you think you dropped out of that and headed for Ripley?"
"Mom wouldn't!"
He shook his head. "She wouldn't, not personally, no. Patsy has scruples. But, think about this. She knew the goal as well as anyone else. Someone probably threw a few suggestions in your head. Maybe they influenced your surroundings as well. They manipulated your life so that you'd end up at Ripley. Your mother wouldn't stand in the way of that. It was the best for her and the best for you."
"That's a lot to think about."
"There's more." He stared me down. "Tell me, Kevin, how long ago was Ripley founded?"
I thought back. "Twenty years ago. Twenty-one, now. Wait." My head suddenly spun. "That's insane. That's not even possible. No way."
"What is it, Kevin?" Star asked.
I couldn't answer her. The answer was so patently ridiculous that I couldn't even begin to describe it. I buried my face in my hands and shook my head. I heard Todd get up and walk over to me, then felt the weight of his hand on my shoulder. I couldn't stop shaking. "Give him a moment, Sarah," he said. "He just realized that Ripley University was built for him."
Chapter Seventeen
I focused on the shifting array of translucent psionic barriers separating us. Each barrier had an individual weakness, drawn randomly from a long list, but their weaknesses shifted over time. I couldn't be sure when I should exploit them or when simple brute force was the answer. The barriers weren't the only difficulty I was facing. She was holding up her phone with a stopwatch ready to go.
