Mahin, however, had been raised as a human. “Kitty’s right. Enemies of the United States would be lining up to give you all a new home base.”
“You tip the balance of power. You always have. But there’s more. If they’d succeeded in destroying the Science Center, we’d have lost, what, half of your people? And most of your women. Jeff, you’ve said this to me before—having a choice of interspecies marriage is one thing. Having no choice in the matter is another. So we’d be very open to options. And, you know, you, Serene, and Christopher are all okay, right? And Jamie and Patrick are advanced but not freaks, right?”
“I know where you’re going with this,” Jeff said. “You think we’d okay giving the new version of Surcenthumain to our people.”
“Well, you’d have to. Because regular humans would already be taking it, and that would mean they were catching up to the A-Cs. Junkies and criminals and experimental teenagers and casual drug users would all be super powered. Then, once they didn’t all drop dead, soldiers would be taking the drug.”
“Soldiers on all sides, by the way,” Tito said. “The drug replicates and continues to expand powers.”
“And it’s addictive,” Christopher added. “Very addictive. You want more because of how it makes you feel, and then you want more because of how it changes you.”
“I’m betting the new stuff is even more addictive. So self-defense and preservation would say that the A-Cs would need to bulk up in turn, so to speak.”
“You’re talking about an arms race but with drugs, versus weapons,” Chuckie said.
“I point to Exhibits A, B, and C.” I indicated Serene, Jeff, and Christopher. “What Christopher, in particular, could do after he shot up Surcenthumain for a while was nothing short of amazing. Imagine what we could do if everyone had the new strain running through their veins.”
The room was quiet for a few long moments. Amy broke the silence. “So, short of burning Gaultier to the ground, how do we expose what they’re doing?”
“I don’t think we can expose anything, Ames. Gaultier’s got too many ties to too many different yet important places. Same with YatesCorp. Hell, Titan was proven to be building freaking supersoldiers that they sent against the President of the United States and all of Congress, and yet there they are, back in business, and everyone’s acting like they just had a little run of bad management.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Naomi asked.
“We’re going to go very Old Testament on their butts.” This earned a lot of blank looks, though Mom put her head in her hand and Uncle Mort grinned.
“Mind explaining that?” Jeff asked.
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We’re going to find their drugs and destroy them, along with the formulas and all their data. Sorry, Ames, but we’re going to run your father’s company out of business.”
“Fine with me,” Amy said. “I can always rebuild it, this time without secret levels of evil and aligning with every maniac in the world.”
“What does YatesCorp gain out of all of this?” Mom asked. “Their connection isn’t clear, and you can’t convince me that Amos Tobin wants to add on anyone else to their Board, let alone a bunch of unknown Yates relatives.”
“He doesn’t, I’m very sure. There’s a possibility he’s willing to add on a whole bunch of yes-men and -women to gain a stronger power base. There’s also a possibility that he’s not involved and the Yates Gene Project is being driven by Gaultier or Titan or both, so that they can gain more control of YatesCorp. There are other possibilities, too.”
“Here’s one,” Tito said. “The Yates Gene is corrupted, because of his combining with the Mephistopheles parasite, meaning the only pure samples of his DNA come from Richard, Gladys, or Lucinda.”
“Assume they have a sample from Gladys. If they wanted it, they’d have gotten it from her using mind control.”
Tito nodded. “So, based on what we know they’ve created—androids and supersoldiers and copies of every male of influence in Centaurion Division—my bet for their next steps would be cloning. The bait given to the genetic samples may be to get a seat on the YatesCorp Board. But the goal of those behind the plan may be to clone another Ronald Yates.”
“Or another Mephistopheles,” Tim suggested.
“Tito Hernandez, put on your cape and join Team Megalomania and stand right there next to Megalomaniac Lad. Because those sound like winner ideas to me. So to speak. So, we pretty much need to ensure we wipe every piece of data Gaultier has, except possibly the information on their baby wipes.”
“I wouldn’t trust those, either,” Reader said.
“Kitty, that sounds like a great plan,” Stryker said. “But you’re forgetting one thing. Chernobog is working for the other side. That means they’ll have protections in place that, frankly, we probably can’t hack.”
Looked at Olga. “But we have the best leverage in the world. And I’m not afraid to play hardball. Olga, what’s the best way for us to contact Chernobog in a private manner she’ll respond to?”
“I can provide an old KGB code that will absolutely gain her attention.”
“Boo-yah, you rock. Mahin, what’s Russell’s power? Does he have any?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t see any example of talent or power from him. But everyone acted as though he was very important.”
“He is and was. He was the key to getting the world’s best hacker on their side.”
“What are you planning to do with him?” Jeff asked.
“Honestly? Something I’ll only discuss with Mom, Chuckie, Kevin, Malcolm, Olga, and Uncle Mort.”
Jeff stared at me. “And why is that?”
“Because you’ll be too busy with Tito, working to finalize the identification process of the Yates Gene.”
CHAPTER 77
“IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN A DAY, Kitty,” Tito said.
“I know. But you guys need to get started. And we need to prep for our commando raid, and the rest of you need to prep for the funeral. So, off you go.”
“I’m not letting you do whatever without me,” Jeff said firmly.
Mom rolled her eyes. “Let me make this easier for you, Jeff. I know exactly what to do with the prisoner we have, and I don’t need anyone other than Olga and Mort.”
“Works for me.” It did. I was sure that Mom wasn’t going to be against doing terrible things to Kozlow if it was needed, and after all that had happened, most of it due to Chernobog working with our enemies, I was more than happy to have her bring out the Zippo lighters and trained rats. However, Jeff was never pro this kind of thing. “You want to take some Poofs with you?” Hey, the Poofs were with me on the Tough Interrogation side of the house.
Mom snorted. “Thank you, but no. I’m good.”
“The best,” Kevin said loyally. Buchanan and Chuckie nodded. All the rest of the men in the room nodded and added in Mom-based atta girls as well.
Uncle Mort laughed. “You have your boys trained well, Angela.”
“I learned how to keep the troops in line from you, Mort.”
“The love in the room is awesome. Mom, can we scatter?”
“Everyone but you, kitten, yes. My team, I expect you back in ten.” Jeff opened his mouth, to protest, most likely, but Mom put up her hand. “I need my daughter for five minutes, Jeff. You can handle the separation.”
Jeff closed his mouth and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “I can’t feel anyone because Chuck brought those blockers. So promise me you’ll let me know before you run off again.”