The plans had been in place, the plans to keep the project secret even for years after this success, the plans to slowly bring it to the attention of the public.
By the time the campaign was completed and the world understood what he had done, the past would be barely remembered, the children who had died in those early years all but forgotten.
And no questions would have been asked in the face of his success.
But not yet!
It was still far too soon.
And the proof was right there on the screens above the twin tanks containing the brains of Adam Aldrich and Amy Carlson.
A fleeting thought crossed his mind.
Eve,
Amy’s name should have been Eve.
Then it would indeed have been perfect. Adam and Eve, the first two of a new breed of being, part human, part computer.
And Josh would have fit perfectly, too.
Josh, from Eden.
But now he had to destroy it.
Destroy it all, and dispose of it before any of it was discovered.
29
Pain slashed through Amy’s mind, a pain as real as if the jaws of one of the demons had closed on her right leg, its teeth slashing at her flesh, ripping it from the bones, then crushing the bones themselves.
For they’d come back, held at bay only for a second by her silent scream of terror before Adam attacked again, projecting the monstrous beings once more from his mind, hurling them at her like spears, each of them plunging deeper into her mind than the one before, twisting inside her, stimulating the pain centers deep within her brain, causing her mind to twist and writhe as she tried to overcome her agony.
She felt her mind weakening, felt the beginnings of cracks in the structured order that was her sanity. If it kept up, if she couldn’t find a way to fight back, her mind would collapse.
Her mind would collapse, but the nightmare would go on, for as long as Adam wanted to keep it up.
Run!
The idea burst into her mind. For a moment she didn’t understand it, but then it became clearer.
None of it is real!
Don’t fight what isn’t real!
Turn away!
Following her instincts, Amy began to withdraw from the nightmare that swirled around her, began to draw her mind back within itself, closing herself down so that she would no longer be aware of the terrors surrounding her.
She made an image for herself.
An image of a well, a deep, black shaft.
A shaft into which she could disappear, and into which Adam and his demons could not follow.
She felt herself begin to drop into that strange endless hole that existed only within her mind, begin to slide away into the welcome darkness.
The snarls of the beasts began to fade away, and then the beings themselves seemed to draw back, to become indistinct.
She willed herself downward, forced herself to confront her terrible fear of falling, to use it instead to save herself.
She let herself go, plummeting into the blackness of the shaft, falling into the empty silence below, welcoming it as the pain began to ease, and the fear of the creatures began to ebb away.
She gave herself to it completely, letting the darkness and silence absorb her.…
George Engersol watched as the chaos of color on the monitor above Amy’s tank slowly faded away until the screen was blank, then shifted his attention to the monitors next to her support system. The patterns of her brain waves had changed, and he was puzzled for a moment before he suddenly understood.
Catatonia.
Amy’s mind had finally collapsed under Adam’s attack, and she had sunk into a catatonic state, rejecting incoming stimuli and putting out none of her own.
How long would it last?
And how could he bring her out of it?
His mind began working quickly, examining the possibilities, savoring the opportunities for new research that the condition of Amy Carlson’s mind offered him.
The brief moment of excitement faded away, though, as he realized what he had to do, for he would never have the opportunity to work with Amy’s mind now, nor Adam’s, either.
It was time to shut them down, time to cut the support systems that gave them life.
Time to let their brains, like their bodies, die.
Should he tell Adam what was about to happen?
No.
There was no point to it, and possibly no time, either. He began tapping instructions into the computer, knowing that this time Amy wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Adam, he was equally certain, wouldn’t dare. Adam was too used to obeying instructions.
With Jeff Aldrich next to him, watching, Engersol finished typing in the commands, and entered them into the computer. Instantaneously, Adam’s image appeared on the monitor, his eyes cold and angry.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
Engersol froze. On the computer screen the commands that would end the lives of Adam and Amy had stopped scrolling up the screen almost as soon as they had appeared.
“Adam,” he said quietly, “we’re going to have to close down the project.”
On the monitor Adam’s expression darkened. “Close it down? I don’t—”
“It’s not a secret anymore, Adam. Josh MacCallum knows what we’re doing, and he’ll tell others. So we have to end the project, Adam. We have to be able to show them that Josh was wrong about what is happening here.”
“But—”
“You understand, don’t you, Adam?” Engersol went on, his voice taking on the same hypnotic tone that had convinced Adam to volunteer for the project last spring. “You always knew there was a certain risk. We talked about it.”
Adam’s eyes flashed from the image on the monitor above his tank. “You’re going to kill me.”
“I don’t want to, Adam,” Engersol told him. “I don’t want to at all. But I have no choice.” He was silent for a moment, then: “Would you like me to give you a drug? I can put you to sleep first You won’t feel anything, won’t even know anything is happening to you—”
“No!”
The word crackled from the speaker. Both Engetsol and Jeff stepped instinctively back, glancing at each other.
“I’m not going to let you do it,” Adam said, the image on his monitor reflecting all the pent-up fury inside him. “I won’t let you kill us!”
Josh stared wide-eyed at the monitor on the desk, and listened to Adam’s words with growing panic. He had to do something, had to stop what was happening in the laboratory beneath the basement. But how?
He tapped frantically at the keyboard, but there was no response. Turning away from the computer, he ran to the bookshelf from behind which he had heard Hildie’s muffled cries. He pulled at it frantically, trying to find a way to open it, but it held fast He began yanking the books off the shelves, scattering them over the floor, until finally, on the third shelf from the top, he found the button that would release the bookcase. It swung open, and he pushed the button that would summon the elevator.
Nothing happened.
His mind reeled, and once again panic welled up, reaching out to grasp him. He fought it off, his eyes scanning the room. There had to be something—
The telephone!
He ran to it, jerked the receiver off the hook and pressed three keys. On the second ring the 911 operator answered.
“Help!” Josh cried. “He’s going to kill them! He said so!”
The voice at the other end replied calmly, “Who is this? Tell me your name and where you are.”
Fighting back the panic that still threatened to overwhelm him, Josh tried to explain what was happening. “They’re still alive,” he said. “Adam Aldrich and Amy Carlson. They’re not dead at all!”