The Birth of The Unity (sequel to Chronicle of Nautilus)

Chapter 19: The Liar

"Frankly, never thought it would be him," Jason said to Adam. They stood in front of the door to Grover's office a step further from the point at which it would open up automatically.

Adam replied, "Yeah. This will be awkward."

"If things go wrong, don't forget you have a gun. Do not hesitate to use it."

Adam nodded and stepped forward. The door opened up. Right in front of them, at the far end of the ward, Grover sat by a desk resting the chin on his long interlocked fingers. Contrary to the captain, the doc did not look nervous at all. He acted casually, avoiding the visitors' eyes until they came before him.

Adam said, "H-hey Grover."

"Hi, both of you."

Jason showed his palm and acknowledged the greeting. He asked, "Do you know why we're here?"

"From how nervous you look, I presume you came for something unusual."

Adam went straight to business, "Grover 113. Is it you?"

Jason put the right hand behind his back. There, he carried a holstered gun attached to the belt.

"No, but I know him." Grover turned around and lifted his hair. A nasty dark red contusion swelled on the back of the neck.

With his brows knit, Adam glanced at Jason, then returned his attention to Grover. He did not expect such an answer.

The doc put his hand on the wound. Massaging it with the long fingers, he looked back at Adam. "Our mutual friend had done this. Should have been more careful."

Jason said, "Should have told us about him in the first place."

"You're right. I have no excuses for not telling about him before. He is doctor's little secret, a dark mark of the past. Maybe, it's a shame that held my mouth shut. Perhaps, I was afraid to be mistaken for the men before me."

Jason said, "You are just like the men before you, aren't you? There can be no mistaking. Refraining from telling the information has no difference from lying. The men before you held secrets and lied. You did the same, your entire life."

Grover said nothing. He wanted to hear what else the two accusers had to say.

Adam said, "113 is quite the number. How did it get so far?"

"With the backup cloning tanks," Grover replied.

"Backup what? Never heard about it."

"It's in my labs. Should only be used if the main tanks failed." He lifted his hands and wiggled the long fingers. "See these? You can't get them in the normal fashion since the main tanks only make duplicates of clone zero. My machines make improved copies. They provide a possibility of evolution."

Jason lashed out, "So, this is a term you use to describe the way to create atrocities. Evolution?"

Grover replied, "The outcome was quite unexpected."

"Bullshit, I bet he is exactly what they expected."

"I'm not lying now."

"What did they, I mean you, wanted to create then?"

"A human strong enough to explore the parallel reality and learn it's secrets. They did it out of curiosity."

"Are you talking about that last wave of psychic movement before we left home, about those who said we should not leave but instead try to ascend to a higher level? They also said the parallel place was a void filled with an untapped power. The void, if I'm not mistaken is total emptiness. Why would anyone want to live in an empty place? Power in such a world is useless."