Maddox was nodding, but Chaney wasn't certain if the colonel had heard what he said. It was to be expected; Chaney had seen the same look in 'Nam when a battalion of Viet Cong would have an isolated firebase surrounded, waiting only for darkness to fall so they could launch a merciless, scorching series of attacks that would continue until dawn. Once the battle began, Chaney had never had time or emotion for fear; he was too busy staying alive. But, in the long period when they would be waiting together for nightfall, they all had too much time to contemplate the oncoming horror and knew nothing but terror. Those were the times, Chaney often thought, that he had hated the most and remembered the most. He decided to try communicating with Maddox more forcefully.
"Colonel," he said, stepping up, "we need someone in the command center who can help us anticipate what this creature might do! I suggest we ask Hunter to come up here as an adviser!"
Maddox waved. "Oh, yes, of course. Uh, tell Mr. Hunter his presence is requested in the CP." He glanced nervously at the surrounding trees. "And do it quickly."
Maintaining severe emotional control, Hunter mentally pictured what he knew about the room — the locations of various equipment, doors, cables, terminals.
He didn't know what, exactly, he was going to do. But he had already decided that Hamilton was not leaving his side. He tried to delay what seemed inevitable and, as he spoke, realized that he truly wanted an answer.
"I suppose it was you all along?" he asked.
Hamilton laughed dismissively. "Of course not, Mr. Hunter. It was never 'only' I. In fact, the tentacles of this exercise reach deeply into a dozen, oh, how shall I say it…domains?" He paused. "Yes, domains. Seems a strange word. But many are involved. Men of unlimited wealth, some in government, some in the private sector, all wishing to inherit the benefits contained within this fantastic specimen of evolution. Strange how I never sought to classify those who have labored beside me, until now. I merely considered them part of a higher system, or the heart of the system, you might say."
"And what system would that be?"
Hunter actually wanted to know, now that he had come this far and was likely to pay a severe price for the knowledge he obtained. He added sullenly, "Sounds like a good crew, Hamilton. A system of rich sleazeballs that murdered a young woman to protect some apeman that died ten thousand years ago." He shook his head.
The scientist's entire body shook with an explosive laugh, and Hunter instantly checked his mercurial impulse to kill Hamilton with a single move. But even as the reaction seized him, Hunter had already shut it down. His hand never moved.
"Really, Mr. Hunter, I may have overestimated your worldliness," Hamilton responded. Although the smile failed to fully fade, he grew still, staring with that impenetrable arrogance. "Do you really presume that all…this…could be the work of a single man? Or even a single agency? No, Mr. Hunter, it was a coalition, you might say. People who forever remain in the shadows."
Hunter frowned, stoic.
"Really, Mr. Hunter, you disappointment me and surprise me simultaneously. First you deduced, and correctly I might add, that there was a hidden level to the institution. And other deductions you reached regarding my poor…"
Hunter interjected: "Luther? Your poor Luther?"
Hamilton's smile was benign. "Yes, Mr. Hunter — my poor Luther. Or the creature, as you now call it, who was once a respected colleague of mine. Yes, his name was Luther Friedkin." He shook his head in the mildest remorse. "Poor Luther, he did not know what manner of game he played. Always impetuous. Always rushing ahead of where science had conclusively led. And he was quite brilliant, you know. But — and I assume you have watched the video since it continues to replay the ghastly carnage of that night— Luther impractically moved ahead of safeguards and injected himself with the cloning serum which he himself had ionized from…" Hamilton lifted his hand with reverence. "From one who was like a god."
Hunter didn't look at the creature. "This man must have had a good reason to take a chance like that," he said. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
With the most minute shrug Hamilton said without emotion, "Well, in truth, who will ever know for certain? Luther's genius was, indeed, unparalleled. And perhaps he concluded, erroneously, that he had perfected the serum." He paused. "Earlier tests on his serum, which were conducted on baboons, were spectacularly positive and so Luther bypassed human testing and volunteered himself. Perhaps Luther was simply too impetuous to seize the power, the pure physical might and the immortality that man has sought since time began."
Hunter was dead-steady. "It's a fantasy, Hamilton. Nobody lives forever."
"Oh, on the contrary, Mr. Hunter, I believe that our species is capable of exceeding long life spans. We have simply not isolated the means of rejuvenating cellular structure as the body ages. An enigma since, scientifically, there is very little definition except the loss of cellular modules to explain why we age at all past maturity; an unexplainable phenomenon. And for many years now it has been my goal to uncover that mystery. You see, I am almost sixty years of age. Not old by any means. But I am haunted, more and more, by the specter of my mortality. It is an old story: a young man thinks not of death, the old think of nothing else. And you would represent yourself well if you did not consider me a monster, Mr. Hunter; a man who betrayed his oath and his profession to cheat death. Or, if not to cheat, then to delay interminably."
Hamilton hesitated, and some of his arrogance seemed to subside, as if the contemplation had made him more honest. Hunter allowed him to ponder in silence while he slightly bent his head, observing the exact location of the guards.
Still ranged in a tight semicircle, they held M-16's at port arms. Each of them wore black battle-dress uniforms with black balaclavas that hid everything but their eyes. For a surreal moment, Hunter wondered if it was their duty to keep intruders out or the research personnel inside.
Hamilton beheld him with eyes that seemed strangely more pale. "In truth, those of us who have crossed this ethical and scientific void to realize what has escaped man since Eden should be lauded for our courage, our vision, and our sacrifice. For not in a thousand years, since man accepted that he is not the center of the universe, has the world faced so great a revelation as we have unveiled. Yes, I know what you are thinking, Mr. Hunter. Quite probably, there is nothing you can say that has not already crossed my mind. You are thinking that the loss of that young woman, as well as the deaths at these installations, were too great a price for success."
Hunter was stone-faced. He revealed nothing in his expression as he unblinkingly held the older man's gaze.
"But I tell you that all of these people, to the last one, would have died within the next one hundred years." Hamilton held himself as if the incontrovertible statement would settle the dispute. "And the scientist that was dispatched at your institution because of security reasons…well, the loss of life is always tragic. But that situation was, in truth, beyond my control. Really, how long do you believe it would have been before that woman would have succumbed to the ravages of old age or some vampirish illness that leeched the strength from her soul? How long before she would have prayed for death to cease the multitude agonies? Ten years? Twenty? Fifty?" He shook his head. "You know the answer as well as I. But what if that same woman could have been given the elixir of eternal health and life? Would she have refused? No, Mr. Hunter, I sincerely doubt that. No, she would have gratefully accepted the gift of the gods; immortality, for all practical purposes, and eternal health. Of course, no one, not even with the elixir, truly lives forever. But a life span of a thousand years is incomparably better than a life span of a hundred."