New Title 1 (29 page)
Authors: Shaun Jeffrey
“Yes, remember.”
“The first sin,” he mumbled. “I committed the first sin.”
“Something about food?”
“The food. Yes. I ... I was working away ...”
Mat’s occupation as an electrician had often involved him working away from home. Chase had always missed him when he wasn’t there, but they telephoned each other every day. He had even sent her love letters, decorated with hearts, flowers and fairies. He was quite an artist and she had saved all of his letters in a box, taking them out and reading them whenever she missed him.
It was only now, after hearing him say he was working away, that she remembered before he disappeared, he had been working somewhere here in Staffordshire. She had not thought about it before and it could have been a coincidence, although now she doubted it.
“What about the food?” Chase asked.
“It’s tainted ... yes, tainted.”
“What’s he on about?” Mandy asked, frowning.
“I don’t really know.” Chase rubbed her forehead. “There’s something about the food here.”
“The food?” Mandy shook her head. “What’s wrong with it?”
Mat grinned like a lunatic. “Tainted.”
Chase bit her lip, thinking. “We’ve got to get out of here and get help. Mandy, do you know how we can get out of the village?”
Mandy shivered as though recalling a bad memory. “There’s no way out.”
“There’s got to be a way out. There’s got to be.”
“I’m afraid not, Miss Black.”
The voice scared Chase to the core and she spun around to see Moon standing in the doorway.
“Don’t you realise that it’s dangerous to go wandering about, Miss Black? If I didn’t make sure that someone kept an eye on you, anything could happen. Matthew. How nice to see you again.” Moon gave a toothy grin like a shark. “I wondered where you’d got to.”
Mat backed away and a white dressed figure appeared in the doorway behind him, pressing a gun into the small of his back.
Chase furiously turned on Moon, about to demand answers when Jane stumbled through the door behind him. She was still dressed in the same clothes Chase had last seen her in, but now they were ripped in places, the flimsy top torn across one breast. Chase didn’t know whether she could believe her eyes.
“My god. Jane, is it really you?”
Jane nodded. “It’s me, sugar.” Her face was bruised and one of her eyes was slightly swollen.
“Where ...” Before she could get her question out, Jane staggered further into the room, followed by Drake holding a pistol at her head.
“Don’t you just love reunions?” Drake grinned.
“What the hell is going on?” Chase demanded.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to be asking questions, Miss Black,” Moon sneered. “All you need to know is that we’re looking after your friend, as a sort of safety measure if you like.”
“Safety measure for what?” Chase spat.
“To ensure you don’t try anything foolish. Now that we know you’re pregnant, it’s imperative you come to term.”
“How did you find out ...?” Adam. It had to have been Adam. That bastard had sold her out. But why? Why the hell was it so important to them?
“We didn’t have any idea ...” Moon shook his head, wistfully. “You can’t imagine how glad I was to hear the news. It takes the experiment to the next stage ahead of time, but ...” He shrugged.
“What damn experiment? What the hell are you up to?” Chase snarled.
“Now we don’t want you getting all worked up. It’s not good for the baby. Now, I just want you to go home. Forget about all this and just enjoy your new house.”
“
Forget.
How the
hell
do you expect me to forget, you
fuckin
’ son-of-a-bitch?”
He pointed at Jane. “Because if you don’t, then ...”
Drake ran a finger across Jane’s throat and laughed.
Jane visibly shivered. “These people don’t mess around.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
“But people will be missing us by now,” Chase said.
“People don’t miss what isn’t lost,” Moon replied. “They mourn.”
The implication of what Moon said made Chase shiver. “And what about Mat and Mandy. Do they have to
forget
too?”
“They will forget, in time. Memory loss is an unfortunate side-effect of our experiment, but we’re working on it.”
“The first sin,” Mat mumbled.
“Take them outside and give them a sedative.” Moon pointed at Mat and Mandy. “And be
gentle
with them.” At Moon’s orders, three burly soldiers dressed in white uniforms with rifles slung over their shoulders entered the room
“No, don’t shoot,” Mandy wailed, stumbling away. “Dad, they’re shooting at us. Dad ...”
One of the soldiers carefully took hold of Mandy and led her out of the room. The other two soldiers took hold of Mat.
“Chase. I remember.” Mat’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s all my fault.” Before he could say anymore, the soldiers led him away.
“Now, Miss Black, I hope I can rely on you not to cause any trouble.”
“What the hell’s going on? You won’t get away with this.”
“Have, can and will. I’m sorry to shatter any illusions you may have, but where
Paradise
is concerned, I am God.”
“People will find out what you’ve done. You can’t hide whatever the hell you’re doing here for ever.”
“Your naiveté amuses me.” Moon shook his head, smiling. “What do you know about The Tuskegee Syphilis study in
?
Chase shook her head. “What the hell are you on about?”
“Two hundred black men diagnosed with syphilis were never told so they could be used as guinea pigs to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease.”
“That’s sick,” Jane said from the doorway where Drake stood impassively with the gun against her head.
“It’s the advancement of science, my dear,” Moon said. “Project Paperclip in
?”
Chase shook her head.
“Paperclip, the recruitment of Nazi scientists by the
“
, project MKULTRA, where mind control drugs were used on unwitting human subjects. What about
when the U.S. Navy sprayed a cloud of bacteria from ships over
San Francisco
to test the extent of infection?
No, well what about nineteen seventy-eight. Adverts went out specifically asking for promiscuous homosexual men for an experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trial, conducted by the CDC in
New York
,
Los Angeles
and
San Francisco
. Nineteen eighty-one, the first case of aids was confirmed in gay men. Where? Go on have a guess. Yes,
New York
,
Los Angeles
and
San Francisco
. Coincidence?
“People get away with things all the time. You just don’t know it. Plausible deniability. At this very moment hospitals change the word experiments to investigations, or observations and no one bats an eyelid, but do you really know what they’re doing? Of course not, because powerful people don’t want you to know.”
Chase shook her head, appalled at the extent of human corruption in the name of science. “You’re mad. You can’t keep us here.”
Moon smiled like a proud parent. “Where Project Evolution is concerned, I can do what I like.”
“Project Evolution?” Chase frowned.
“Yes, the creation of a super food to combat illness and disease, leading to the prolonging of life, the alleviation of suffering and a healthy bank balance.”
“Well it hasn’t helped anyone so far. It’s more like
evil
ution
. People won’t let you get away with it.”
Moon stroked his chin. He had a wistful, faraway look in his eyes. “Do you know how much this is worth? We’re talking billions, perhaps trillions here. No one will stop me.”
“So really it’s all about money.”
Moon laughed. “It’s always about money. The key to what makes people tick was discovered through the Genome project. They had all the answers, but they didn’t know how to decipher them until I came along. After finding the genetic sequence for diseases, we set about creating enzymes to correct them.” He smiled smugly.
“So why am I here?”
“Well your boyfriend was right. It is his fault you’re here. He was one of several contractors foolishly brought in to set up the compound. I had insisted we use only reputable firms with the security clearance for such work, but our backers like to cut corners and save money where they can.” He gave a shake of his head. “Well your
friend
was working on the food stores. We didn’t realise any was missing until it was too late. The fool had eaten some of our early test batches – because he was hungry. Can you believe it?” Moon said, incredulously. “We had to take time out to find the idiot by doing medical tests on all the personnel; then we had to find out whom he’d had,” he licked his lips, “
intimate
contact with. He compromised our field tests because he was hungry.” Moon shook his head again in disbelief. “But fortunately we found him before any real damage could be done. And then we found you. We did hold Matthew, testing revolutionary food batches on him, but he got free.” He scowled at Drake. “We knew he was around here somewhere, but we didn’t know where until you led us to him.”
“Well if it’s such a super food, what’s the problem? Why did you have to bring Mat back here?”
Moon shrugged. “Because as with all experiments, it has had teething problems and we have to contain the test subjects for the moment in a secure environment.”
“Teething problems? You mean like the memory loss and the madness?”
“Among other things. It just needs tweaking, and then when we have sorted it out ...” He smiled.
“Tweaking! You’re mad,” Jane spat.
“Madness is a state of mind.” Moon grinned. “We will even cure that.”
Chase shook her head, appalled. “And what about people like Belinda and Patricia, are they just part of the teething problems?”
Moon frowned. “Unfortunately, yes. There seems to be a rogue regressive element to the food. Cognitive function is impaired, but we
will
sort it out. It just takes time.”
“And what if you
can’t
sort it out? What happens to the people in
Paradise
then? What happens to Jane, Mat and me?”