Murder Genes (40 page)

"You're right."

"I don't think you're Jesus anymore.
 
You're more...Senator
 
G. Bush."

"Just give them guns and send them to Xiaos for training."

"Both of them?
 
Why don't we use them as suicide bombers instead?
 
At least the old man."

"Shut up, Bitch."

"Gotcha Boss."

Chapter 26

The order for sterilization has created a reaction that only further proves to society the nature of those with The Code.
 
They revolt against law, with their violence and aggression, and demand their rights as "citizens" and "humans."

But I ask you, where were my sister's rights when she was killed?
 
Where was your brother's rights when one of these monsters murdered him in cold blood.
 
Where was your father and mother's rights when you found them dead in their beds, brutally killed.

Where are your rights now?
 
To live without the fear of primitive and primal instincts.

Sterilization is not enough, not nearly enough.
 
Not for me.
 
Not for Justice.

I say, let them feast on their own fates, let them die to their own Natures.

Self-Genocide is the word.
 
Raise your arms and hold them high.
 
Let the carriers of The Code shiver in fear from their own kind.
 
This is and always has been their predestined fates.

-The Society for the Conservation of Humanity, Keynote Speaker, Ann Taylin, during the Annual Meeting of Scholarly Activists, 2022.

The News came.
 
Reports asked him questions.
 
About Mom, about murder.
 
Kyle was on TV and in the audiowaves and on every computer website that mattered after he'd been found carrying Mom's corpse.
 
Ten year old Kyle Alexander, Codeless, four homicides, more investigation to follow.
 
A mystery of genetics, a
monster
of genetics.
 
Kyle's birth father had The Code and had been taken to Morir a year and a half ago.
 
Kyle's paperwork said he didn't have The Code, yet he'd murdered several people.

But his records didn't match the DNA expression for his current age, so they were retesting The Code in him.
 
To be certain they had the right person.

That was when Tim showed up in Kyle's jail and told the policemen and News that Mom had lied about the paperwork and that Kyle was the killer.

And Kyle, when he met Tim's eyes he saw the real tears.
 
The anger and bitterness.
 
The rage he had for Kyle.
 
Tim screamed at him and blamed him and
hated
him.

It felt good to know that Tim wasn't part of the experiment, either.
 
He thanked Tim and even called him Dad before the police guards dragged Tim away, kicking and screaming from the jail.

The local News people became News people from all over the world.
 
They'd stand outside Kyle's cell and ask him questions with weird accents.
 
They made it seem like it was certain that he'd killed his mother.
 
They asked why he'd done it, if he could've helped himself, what he felt when killing her.
 
If he was scared to go to Murderer City.

They refused to believe him when he first said he hadn't killed Mom or the cowboy man.
 
Kyle'd left cowboy man for dead, but hadn't actually killed him.
 
They didn't believe him when he said he hadn't killed Ryant who's body they never found, Jess had done the actual deed.
 
When they asked him about El, he told them.
 
Yes, he'd killed El.

That got them quiet for some time.

He didn't tell them about the other kids he killed.
 
Or the sticky-notes.
 
Or the experiment because they wouldn't have believed him.
 
They didn't believe what he did say, anyway.

But when they searched Mom's house, they found a single blood sample hidden away.
 
It was marked 'Tim' and when they tested it, it showed that Tim had The Code.
 
They did the test on Tim again and re-took his blood and reconfirmed it.
 
Tim had The Code.
 
When Kyle's blood came back, his didn't.

Kyle didn't have The Code but Tim did.

Del had been protecting Tim from the start.
 
That was why she cared so much, and why she argued so hard.
 
She cared about Kyle, but she'd been protecting Kyle AND Tim.
 
Tim hadn't even known.
 
What Kyle didn't understand was why she kept Tim's blood around at all.

He'd probably never find out.

They let Kyle go, said that El had been an accident, and put Tim in Kyle's jail cell.
 
They began asking Tim the questions instead, the same kind of questions, questions about going to Murderer City.
 
Kyle told them that Tim didn't do it and that killing El hadn't been an accident.
 
No one seemed to care--like it wasn't even possible and that El's death had to be an accident.

And Tim, Tim still blamed Kyle.

The media said that Tim had killed Ryant, Del and cowboy man.
 
Even if it didn't make any sense.
 
Even though Kyle knew it was a lie.
 
Tim went to Murderer City, and Kyle couldn't do anything about it.

He got the message.

Someone was controlling the News.
 
It didn't matter what Kyle said.
 
Callie's father wanted him to know that he couldn't escape the experiment, and that whatever Callie's father wanted, he could make it happen.
 
Del and Tim were the consequence for trying to run and he had better not try to run anymore.

The world turned around and apologized to him for their 'mistake.'
 
On the News, in audiowaves, on the computers, and by important people who shook his hand.
 
They made it seem like Del and Tim had been horrible people and dangerous criminals.
 
They made it seem like Kyle had been a prisoner, like he'd been abused and threatened daily.
 
Kyle didn't tell them that Del had been a better mother than he could imagine and Tim had been OK as a father.
 
If he said anything, he might end up doing exactly what Callie's father wanted.
 
And Kyle didn't want to do anything that Callie's father wanted.
 
He wouldn't anymore.

All Kyle really wanted was revenge for Mom, and to never think about the experiment again.

When the important people asked him if he wanted anything.
 
He told them he wanted to be left alone by everyone.

Those same important people made a special law to keep the News and public away from him so that if they bothered him, he could have them arrested.
 
They also promised to give him a loving home.
 
With new parents.

The woman who came to pick him up had long blond hair and soft skin with kind eyes and a timid smile.

Kyle didn't like her.

She introduced herself as Leena and told Kyle that he'd have two sisters and a brother and a father in his new home.
 
Like everyone else, she kept saying how horrible Kyle's experiences and life must've been living with Del and Tim.
 
Except that she said it in a way that made it seem like she took it personally.
 
Like Del and Tim had been hurting
her
and had been evil to
her
.

The way she said it made Kyle hate her.

The house they arrived at was a house on top of a mountain.
 
It had a hundred steps to an elevator that lifted them another thousand steps to the top where the house was.
 
The house looked like an old Japanese style home with gardens to one side and a stream running beside it.
 
He'd seen pictures of Japan when he'd used computers a lot, when Pa and him had been together and left alone by the world.
 
He'd had always wanted to go to Japan.

The home had a fresh, clean air and a serene silence around it because it was too high for the traffic of the city to be heard.

And it was familiar.
 
All of it.
 
Even though he'd been blindfolded at the time.

He knew the sound of the stream and he remembered how it felt when Jess had blindfolded him and took him out of the pretend forest, across the long stone walkway that smelled like flowers, through the place that smelled like clouds in the sky, on an elevator with a breeze like it'd had windows all around, down the stairs and into a car that took them to his home with Del.

Deep inside he knew, somewhere here was where he'd been forced to kill and fight other boys.

And it was too late for him to escape.

From the Japanese looking house walked out Callie's father.
 
Trailing not far behind was Jess.
 
Callie.
 
And...

Ryant.
 
Alive.

Callie's father wasn't wearing any sunglasses so that Kyle could see his small, gray-blue eyes.
 
He opened his arms and smiled big.
 
"Welcome home, Kyle."

"Sit down," Callie's father said.

Kyle looked at Jess, then Callie, then Ryant.
 
Jess had a cold smile on her face.
 
Cold and still.
 
Callie just dropped her head.
 
Ryant smirked like he was mocking Kyle.

Kyle didn't sit and he didn't move.

On a table where the floor was your seat was a bowl of soup whisping steamy air from its top.
 
Leena knelt beside the table and scooped the soup into smaller bowls.
 
She'd changed and was wearing an Asian looking outfit with a sash around her waist and flowers printed on it.

"Sit, Kyle.
 
We won't hurt you," Callie's father said again.

It was such an absurd thing to say that Kyle let out an involuntary hiccup.
 
Then he was laughing.
 
It'd been so long since he'd laughed.
 
He laughed until everyone else was sitting down, cross-legged.

No one else laughed.

"As you know, my name is Andre.
 
You also know my children.
 
Callie, Ryant, and Jess."

Ryant and Jess were siblings then.
 
Same with Callie.
 
And they had been working together from the beginning.
 
He knew this because Callie still wouldn't look at him because she was guilty with her head down.
 
Guilty because she'd betrayed him and tricked him and hadn't been honest from the beginning.
 
If she had been honest ever, she'd be looking at him and showing him she cared for him, not hiding like she was.
 
"Was everything a lie...Everything?" Kyle asked her in front of everybody.
 
He needed to know, he didn't care if it got her in trouble because if she cared, she'd let him know.
 
Right now.

Her head popped up and she shook her head before dropping it back down.

She'd shaken her head.

Relief washed over Kyle.
 
Maybe she did try to help him, maybe she did care.
 
"Who's she," Kyle pointed at Leena.
 
"And why are you doing this stuff to me?" Kyle asked.
 
It'd been the question he'd wanted to ask Callie's father before getting revenge, that and if Del had really loved Kyle.

"Leena is...nobody.
 
Our maid.
 
And I did this to you because I needed to help the world," Andre answered.
 
"I'm sorry we've had to do this to you, but it's for the betterment of all."

"How?
 
How is anything better by hurting me and making me hurt others?"
 
And by killing Mom?

Andre picked up the soup, and slurped at it, loudly.
 
He shook his head.
 
"I know it's hard for you to understand, but like you, I had no choice in what I've done."

You always have a choice.
 
That's what Mom would've said.
 
Maybe Mom was wrong because
 
the other adults kept saying different.

"In science, we have Scientific Laws.
 
Scientific Laws are rules about nature that can never be broken.
 
If they are broken, even once, then the stated Law
cannot
be true."
 
Andre put his bowl down and stared at it.
 
"Fifteen years ago the scientists transitioned Behavioral Genetics from predispositionistic to deterministic.
 
In other words, Kyle, they decided that the way you were born was the way you would stay.
 
They discarded the epigenetic model of DNA for this deterministic model, simplifying epigenes as mere expressions of your core DNA structure.
 
They used Natural Science as their flagship to prove Behavioral Genetics as deterministic time and time again.
 
It didn't take long for the public to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that your genes determined your behavior, your successes, and your future.
 
Four years ago, after worldwide propaganda, faking and changing News, using fear tactics, they started building Morir, the murderer city."