The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

42

J AMIE TURNED TO his friends, then looked again at the bodies of two men whose obsession with Jamie got them killed. He tucked the phone against his chest.

“I think I have to take this,” he said before turning his back.

“What did I ever do to you?” He asked Agatha. “To any of you?”

“I believe you know the answer to that question,” Agatha said. “This is a tragedy for all. Unfortunately, James, you were …”

“Jamie. The name is Jamie. I hate James. I told you that in class.”

“And so you did. Jamie, you were destined for this end before you were conceived. I’m sure Walter and Benjamin have taken pains to provide you with sufficient back story. Yes?”

“They told me. Before they died.”

Agatha gasped. “Died? Walter is …?”

“I killed him myself. What do you think of that, Ms. Bidwell? Do I get to move to the front of the class now?”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Jamie,” Agatha started. “I do not respond well to sarcasm in children. In your case, I’ll make an exception.”

Jamie did not want to have a row with this woman.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Agatha, speaking from the back seat of the Camaro, turned to Arthur, who was running a program to calibrate the origin of the phone signal. Walt did not give her enough time on the earlier call to fix his location. Arthur motioned for her to keep talking.

“Jamie, I’m not sure how much your allies have told you about the civil conflict between Chancellors, or the moral implications behind your creation. At this point, I will not diverge into a history lesson nor a treatise on bioethics. But you need to understand our point of view regarding the rebirth of the Jewel within you.”

“Is this going to be for a grade?” Jamie knew how much she despised that question.

“Very clever,” she said. “To serious concerns. In my universe, humans have lived on forty worlds for a thousand years. We evolved as a new breed of humans to surpass the limitations of earlier homo sapiens. But not long ago we embarked on a scheme to become even greater than ourselves. To ensure permanence. Some have used the words immortality and godhood.”

“Sure. Those are the words I’d find in the dictionary next to your picture. Right, Queen Bee?”

Agatha motioned to Arthur to step outside with the laptop.

“My point, Jamie, was that when we arrived here, I had no particular use for this Earth’s people or cultures. I despised their superficiality and inherent desire for immediate gratification without consideration of expanding their intellect and insight into the human condition. I always …”

“Talk like an arrogant bitch who made everybody you ever met despise being in the room with you.” Jamie spat into the phone. “You treated us like maggots, and that’s how we left your class feeling.”

Agatha took a deep breath and sorted through her response.

“I am arrogant, capricious, and sadistic. It is my nature. However, contrary to what you and your friends may think, I am not without a heart.”

Jamie laughed. He lost track of why he was even listening to the woman who had been leading a brigade of former friends to kill him.

“A heart, maybe. But lady, you got no soul. None at all. Just let me go. Let my friends go home and live their lives. Can’t you be a human being for once and just walk away?”

“I wish I could. But time has endeared me to people in a way I never imagined. Jamie, I have sat in small conference rooms with the parents of my students. I have listened to them tell me of their hopes and their frustrations. I have seen mothers in tears because they wanted more for their children and feared for the worst. I have seen pure and unconditional love in their eyes. I have seen bonds between parent and child that defied the world in which I was raised. I have seen tenderness, compassion, and fealty.

“And I have come to realize that Chancellors, who lack these essential qualities, do not deserve to advance beyond our failed state. I cannot allow them to unleash an abomination like the Jewel upon those forty civilized worlds. Our desire for immortality will lead to the fall of all humans. It has to be destroyed, and I cannot do that without killing you.”

He dropped the phone to his side and stared past his friends in silence. Sammie started toward him, but he motioned her back.

“You can’t put this on me,” he barked into the phone. “It’s not my fault. I didn’t make this happen.”

“But you will. If you stay the course rather than surrender yourself to us, you will be responsible. The Chancellors will consolidate their power, use an army of hybrids to obliterate all opposition, and begin a systematic genocide of the insurgent colony worlds. Billions will die. Now that you know the truth, you must concede to the only morally acceptable outcome. Give yourself to us. I promise we will not harm anyone with you.”

Jamie looked across the way to Ben’s body and searched his thoughts on Ben’s ‘third option.’ He turned to Michael, whose safety meant more to Jamie than his own life. He wished he had one night alone with Sammie, one brief interlude of perfection.

“I need time,” he told Agatha. “I can’t think. It’s like I’m back in your goddamn class again. I can’t think.”

Agatha got the thumbs-up from Arthur. He zeroed in on the coordinates of Jamie’s phone. She pressed her phone against her chest as Arthur contacted Reginald Fortis and Lester Bowman. Then Agatha nodded to Christian: time for him to join the hunt.

“I understand your emotional confusion. However, I believe your parents would have encouraged you