The world went still for a moment, and then two, and all the while, Chris held his breath, waiting for it to restart. He had to have misheard. That was the only logical explanation. Or she misspoke, meant something else but got the words mixed up.
She's a lot smarter than she looks, Leon had said. No, warned. Don't underestimate her.
To Chris, it somehow made both more and less sense at the same time. That was not a likely mistake to make, but there was no way she meant...
He did not know how much time had passed, but no one had moved, no one had spoken. Taliah was still sitting across from them, hands folded on the table, staring them down. Waiting for a reaction.
The calmness in her face solidified it for Chris that she knew exactly what she said, and she meant what she said.
Which was still not possible.
"Did you—?" he began, but the Director held up a hand next to him, cutting him off.
"I am familiar," Korman said, slow, calculated, trying to cover the fact that he was as shaken by the question as Chris. "I'm much more interested in hearing what you think you know about it."
Chris recognized the deliberate word choice. It was a good tactic, goad her into revealing what she knows, which is probably nothing, calling her probable bluff, all while giving away nothing from their side.
But then her face changed, and Chris suspected she understood the tactic as well. She gave a small sigh, breaking eye contact in order to look down at the morgue photo. Unfolding her fingers, she began to fold the paper into deliberate segments.
"It was a eugenics experiment concocted by Oswell Spencer which involved kidnapping hundreds of children of notable genetics and culling them in the hopes of creating a utopia of superior humans."
Chris sat, listened, and fought against the urge to crawl directly out of his skin. She was screwing with them. She had to be. There was no way. It was actually impossible. For one, she was too young.
"What does this have to do with you?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it. It wanted this conversation to be done and over with. If it was a diversion attempt, then bravo to her.
Her eyes flicked up to him for a moment before she returned to her mindless origami. "Ever heard about the plans for Gen Two?"
Chris jolted. This joke had gone way too far. Any knowledge of Project W was classified, but what she was talking about now... there was no way she could know. There was absolutely no way.
"There was none," Korman said, a tightness to his voice that he could not hide.
Taliah's eyes rose to Korman, and after a beat, they slid over to Chris, where they stayed. Her hands continued folding, but her focus was on him.
She knew that he knew.
"The Gen Two plan," he began, his mouth dry and throat tight, "was to directly influence the genetic traits of the parents instead of waiting for... superior genes to develop naturally."
A hint of a smile crept onto Taliah's face.
"And decided the easiest way to secretly experiment on people who were more likely to reproduce was to target fertility clinics." She spoke softly, but confidently.
Chris shook his head. She cannot know that. That detail was never disclosed, never even added to any files. Hell, it was hearsay. The only way she could know about that...
"Gen Two never happened," he argued, begging himself to believe it. "It was deemed a failure. Hardly any of the alleged candidates ended up conceiving." It had been years since he even thought about it. There was no reason to. "And of those who did, none of the children survived."
YOU ARE READING
Catabolism - Part Two: Diplopia
Hayran Kurgu'What do you know about the Wesker Project?' Six months since Dr. Eric Elliott and his favorite test subject disappeared without a trace, there might finally be a lead. After the BSAA receive an anonymous tip regarding the wanted scientist's whereab...