A Heaven for Toasters

CHAPTER 19: Eds

9:58 p.m.

I was about to take cover behind an innocent-looking bush when I remembered what had happened the last time. I glanced left and right, looking for a better hiding place, then gave up and kneeled on the grass.

"This is the police," I shouted. "You're under arrest. Hands in the air!"

I dove down, expecting a hail of bullets. To my utter astonishment, every single clone lifted their hands in the air and awaited my further instructions.

"Erm... That's good." I stood up again and took several careful steps in their direction. "Nobody move! Where's Doctor Morgan?"

One of them stepped forward. "Doctor Morgan and his guest left when the power was cut. We have no idea where they went."

The alarm was getting louder as I got closer, making my head throb. "Someone, turn off that alarm."

The clones exchanged awkward glances. "But you said we shouldn't move," the clone said.

What are they, idiots? "Fine, one of you can move to turn it off."

When no one moved, I pointed to the one who had spoken. "You. Go!"

With his hands still in the air, he hurried to a panel on the wall. "May I lower my hands?"

"Yes, of course you can lower your hands," I snapped. "Just stop that racket."

He keyed something in and the alarm finally stopped. The only noise came from the ringing in my ears.

With my gun, I motioned the clone to raise his hands again and walk over to the rest of them. He was quick to comply. "What's your name?" I asked.

"I'm ED-218."

"What's that, a nickname?"

He frowned like my question made no sense. "I'm ED-218," he repeated.

"You're an android?"

"I'm a Morgan clone. An improved one."

I lowered my gun. "Improved, how?"

"My intelligence is above average. I am an excellent analyst. Furthermore, I—"

"Why are you so compliant?" I interrupted him. Yes, his obedience suited me. But it was still annoying.

He beamed me a smile, as if happy that I had noticed. "That's also part of my improvements. I'm bred to obey, no questions asked. Since Doctor Morgan and his guest are not here, you are the closest person of authority."

"But you're conscious?"

A frown replaced the smile on his face. "I am self-aware. But I have no way of—or interest in—telling right from wrong. I only wish to serve."

So, that's what that wang ba Doctor has been doing. His way of circumventing the legal restrictions to develop his perfect clones. Or foot soldiers.

"I'll call you Ed," I said, not bothering to hide how uneasy he made me.

He gave me a polite nod in agreement. "I'm Ed."

Oh, for goodness' sake. "You said Doctor Morgan is missing. Where is he? Where is Xhristina?"

"We were in the lab when the power was cut, locking us inside. When the backup power let us escape, I saw Doctor Morgan's zoomer leave. He did not respond to any of our hails but I assume the two of them were on it."

Bastard's escaped. My head started spinning again. I leaned against the wall. I don't have much time. Instead of making me panic, the realization cleared my head. "Okay, Ed. I need your help. One of the plants in this garden has poisoned me. Can you help?"

"Of course," he said in a pleased voice.

I had no idea whether his mirth came from the fact that one of their plants was successful in poisoning me or from the fact he could help. "Do it. Fix me."

He led me into the Manor. I don't know what I expected. Probably a museum, of sorts, with expensive items on display. There were none. The walls and floors were spotless white and empty like the building had just been finished. Then it occurred to me. The whole point of displays was to impress others, and no one ever visited Doctor Morgan.

Ed showed me into an elevator. He pressed his palm against a glass panel. "Lab."

After a few seconds, the elevator doors slid open and we stepped into a long laboratory filled with unfamiliar instruments. It looked like a bio lab, with magnifications of cultures and rotating strands of DNA displayed on various screens on the walls. From what I could tell, these were not decorative but referred to actual experiments.

"What the hell are you making here, Ed?" I whispered.

"Our main lines of research are two," Ed said in his usual polite manner. "Creating improved Morgan clones and developing a bioweapon to target non-Morgan clones."

The room spun. I stumbled and grabbed his arm to steady myself. "Wait, a bioweapon? Against humans?"

With gentle hands, he sat me down on a chair. "Not just humans. Older Morgan clones will be affected, too."

"Affected, how?" My voice came out hoarse.

Ed pressed his hand on the desk before me. A collection of wires and tubes popped up. "They'll die." His voice had a matter-of-fact tone I found unfathomable.

"Die?" It took great effort to open my mouth.

"It's a variation of the toxin killing you. Only, the new version is airborne and highly contagious." He calmly hooked up a tube into my arm. "Interestingly enough, it only becomes airborne after it has entered the target's body. It has to be ingested first. It's also harder to cure. Much harder."

"How..." Words were hard to form in my head. "How hard?"

He frowned as the tube turned red with my blood. "Well, in your case it's a simple matter of dialysis. We take your blood, pump it out, treat it to remove the toxin, then return it to your body. The improved version, however, is different. Once it enters your body, it enters your organs and programs their destruction. However, it takes days for the symptoms to show. When they do, you only have an hour or so before your organs collapse simultaneously."

My eyes fluttered. It took me all I had to keep them open.

Ed beamed me a delighted smile, like the Cheshire cat burping out a single yellow feather. "The delay was my idea, actually. It gives a person more time to spread the virus. Anyone without the Morgan gene will catch it."

"Morgan... gene?"

"It's an artificial mutation used to create a special protein. It prevents the virus' replication, so we use it as a marker. Only my generation of clones has it. And Doctor Morgan, of course, as well as a select few."

Even through the fog in my head, the magnitude of the man's madness filled me with horror. "When... Deploy?"

Even though I no longer had the strength to ask a coherent question, Ed knew what I meant. "When will Doctor Morgan deploy it? I honestly don't know. We were days away from running a test on the island population. If successful, we should be ready for full deployment within a fortnight at most." He tapped his lips in thought. "Without holding me to it, I'd say two weeks. But please don't hold it against me if I'm off by a few days. You see, it's pretty hard to..."

He continued to talk, but darkness swallowed me,despite my best efforts to keep my eyes open. This is starting to become a habit, was my last conscious thought.