Origin in Death (In Death 21)

She ate, she dressed. Then she picked up her badge and got to work.

She met with Feeney first. In her office, with the door shut. She filled him in on everything, excluding her meeting with Nadine. Should she get busted for that, she'd go down alone.

"Three of them. Doesn't even seem that weird anymore." Feeney munched nuts. "Plays right in with what we found at the schools. Got the records."

He tapped the discs he'd already dumped on Eve's desk. "They ran two systems. One neat and tidy for your audits and checks. Had it fronting the second. Every student given a code number, and the code labeling the testing, the adjustments-"

"Adjustments? Such as?"

"Surgeries. Sculpting. They did some of that crap on eight-year-olds. Sons of bitches. Your basic eye fixes, hearing checks, disease con­trol, that's all on the front, but you got the other on the coded. 'Enhanced intelligence training,' they called some of it. Subliminal in­struction, visual and audio. Students earmarked for LC status or what they called 'partnerships' got their advanced sex education. And here's a kicker."

He paused to slurp down coffee. "Deena isn't the only one who ran."

"There are others who got out, the ones who dropped off the data screens?"

"Yeah. Files on their rogues. Got more than a dozen who poofed, af­ter graduation, after 'placement' She's the only one who got out of the school, but she's not the only one they lost track of. They started im­planting the new ones, at birth, with an internal homer. That's after Deena slipped the knot. They've implanted all the current students, too. That was Samuels's brainstorm, and from her notes and records, it was an addition she didn't share with the Icoves."

"Why?"

"She figured they were too close-having one in the family, allow­ing her too much freedom. They'd lost their objective distance to the project, and to its mission statement. Which was to create a race of Superiors-their term-taking the next logical evolutionary leap through technology: eliminate imperfections and genetic flaws, and eventually mortality. Natural conception, with its inherent risks and questionable success rate, could, and should, be replaced by Quiet Birth."

"Just cut out the middleman, or -woman, so to speak. Then you do made-to-order in a lab. But to pull it off, you need more than technol­ogy, you need political punch. You'd have to get laws changed, bans overturned. You have to seed legislatures, state rooms."

"They're working on it. They've got some graduates in key govern­ment positions already. In the medical field, in research, in the media."

"That blond bitch on Straight Scoop'? I bet, I just bet she's one of them. She's got those teeth, you know what I'm saying? Those really big, really white teeth." She caught herself at Feeney's bland stare. "Anyway."

"The estimate was another fifteen years, outside, to have the bans rescinded internationally. Another century to implement others that would ban natural conception."

"They wanted to outlaw sex?"

"No, just conception outside 'controlled environments.' Natural conception means natural flaws. Quiet Birth, they never refer to it as artificial, or cloning-"

"Already got a spin started."

"You got that." He took another hit of coffee. "Quiet Birth ensures human perfection, eliminates defects. It also ensures those who are deemed acceptable parents-"

"Yeah, acceptable. Had to go there."

"Right. Acceptable parents are guaranteed the child will meet their specific requirements."

Eve pursed her lips. "How long does the warranty hold up? What's the return policy?"

He grinned despite himself. "That's a kicker, isn't it? Women will no longer be subjected to the indignities of gestation or child birth."

"Maybe they're on to something."

"Their projections indicate sterilization laws will be in place in an­other seventy-five years."

Enforced sterilization, Quiet Birth, humanity created and tuned in labs. It was like one of Roarke's science fiction vids. "They think ahead."

"Yeah, but you know, time isn't a real problem for them."

"I can see the hype." She scooped up some nuts. "Want a kid with­out the hassle? Pick from our designer selection. Meet a sudden and tragic death? Sign up now for our second chance program. We'll pre­serve your cells and get you going again. Long for a mate who'll fulfill your every fantasy? Have we got a girl for you-restricted to adults only."

"Why be one when you can be three?" Feeney added. "Watch your­self grow up, in triplicate. Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'You're just like your mother.'"

Eve let out a half-laugh. "But no line on the base?"