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“No,” said Eden. “It should be used to save lives, to help people. What you’re doing is mass murder with a needle. Children like Adam or Prometheus are used as your science experiments when you should have used all that technology to make their lives better, not enslave them to technology!”
“Do you have any idea how many lives we have saved thanks to the research we do here?”
“And how about how many you’ve destroyed thanks to it? You can’t choose to be accountable only for your successes, Governor. Let me guess. How many of your precious citizens are aware of all your little experiments? Of all the children, adults, and creatures you’ve tortured in their name? I bet they don’t even realize how dirty of a business you’ve got going on...”
“They shall thank me for their survival! After all, aren’t you glad that your precious brother survived? How about the man standing next to you? Do you have any idea how many different bodies are allowing him to be alive, right now?!”
Eden’s heart sank.
“So it was all you. …I always wondered how the previous Tiger got that technology,” she muttered. “Now it all makes sense. …Where better to hide your horrors than in the giant dumpster where you banished everything else. It was you, all along. You used men like the previous Tiger to do your dirty work.”
“Yes,” he said. “I used rodents to get rid of vermin! And that man next to you is nothing but the result of another successful experiment! You should be thanking me, Eden! Without me, both he and your brother would be dead!”
Eden took a deep breath. She was growing more and more disgusted with this man at every word that came out of his mouth. It was all coming back, under a new light. Adam’s murder, the truth behind Dante’s very existence. The shadow of the previous Tiger. Her dad. All of it was a result of the Governor pulling strings behind the scenes.
“Your brother wouldn’t have lived a single minute in this world if it wasn’t for our technology!” exclaimed the Governor, annoyed.
“Yeah,” scoffed Eden. “So instead of saving a baby’s life, you decided that it would be so much better to use my father’s newborn as a fucking piece of technology. My father dedicated his whole life to making our world a better place for the next generations, and when he finally had his own children, you tried to use the both of us as fucking bargaining tools!”
“Your father was like any other self-absorbed man out there! As soon as he saw an opportunity to use that technology for his own greed, he used it! He tried to break our principles for–”
“He tried to save his only son, you selfish bastard!” Eden shouted back. “He did what any other decent human being capable of love would have done out there! He did exactly what all those machines should have ever been used for! To save lives!”
The Governor slowly shook his head, visibly annoyed. Their argument echoed throughout the whole room, and despite the distance between them, they didn’t need to shout. He sighed, massaging his temple as if he was dealing with a temperamental child that refused to listen.
“...Your father knew the final goal would be to enhance all forms of life, but also to merge humans and machines. Your brother isn’t the only miracle we have achieved between these walls! Do you understand how I can look so young at over eighty years old? We are on our way to unveiling the true immortality men have only dreamed of, all this time! We can preserve humans through machines! Look at yourself, child. Those legs of yours, don’t they allow you to walk and run faster than your real ones? …That man behind you is a prime example! The first human Chimeras are already spreading!”
“No,” hissed Eden. “What was done to him should never be done to anybody else!”
“Oh, it will be,” chuckled the Governor. “You should be grateful. In exchange for all of the ones he provided us, I allowed the Tiger to keep some of the defective ones... I shouldn’t have, now that I realize he made his own Chimera, a walking failure standing here in my office! He claimed he had always wanted a son, and our program allowed him to create the very best killer, by meshing together all the boys he had kept. That cunning bastard only got what he deserved.”
Eden’s blood was growing cold in disgust. So it was true. Dante was nothing but the blend of the boy she had known in the streets, Adam the orphan, and other boys... She remembered he had talked about training with other boys. Had his memories gotten mixed up from all the different memories of those boys? It was impressive he was even able to retain his own self, most would have gone crazy by now. Perhaps that also explained why he was so inexpressive. He didn’t just have no sense of pain, he also didn’t seem to carry many emotions. Unless that was the previous Tiger’s doing, in his hope to create the perfect killing machine... If so, his attachment to her was probably part of his imperfections. A part of Adam had remained, the part that was dedicated to protecting Eden.
While she got lost in her bitter thoughts, the Governor kept talking, shaking his head with an almost theatrically disappointed expression. She just felt utterly disgusted at this man, and at the previous Tiger Zodiac too. To think about how many orphans they had probably swiped from the Suburbs and murdered for their experiments was just revolting.
“...That was one of our most ambitious projects, but of course, there were bound to be some mistakes! After the first successful Chimeras, we realized we would be able to do the same with humans. Synthesizing several bodies into one to create superhumans, something all countries had been dreaming of for a while! There was nothing we wouldn’t be able to do to raise them to perfection. Physically enhanced, smart as a man could be, and yet, less emotionally involved, less risk. The cognitive part was the hardest, of course, but it wasn’t like it had never been experimented on before... Truly, that was an over-a-century-old project of humanity. Of course, this was only the start of many other projects and an unlimited path to future achievements. Can you imagine, if instead of Parts, we managed to transfer whole body parts into living humans? We could replace every failing piece one by one, like any machine, and live forever! Our ancestors had found ways to transplant organs, but with our current capacities, we can replace absolutely everything! That was for the medicinal part, of course, but we needed to consider the military aspects as well. As I said, many were sold on the idea, but this one was much harder than merely replacing organs or limbs. If only we figured out how we could change a human’s deep nature, how to rewire and program the human brain, we could create nothing short of a killing machine! That goal made it all worth it. We could get as many orphan boys as we needed from the streets, and put them through the trials–”
“My God,” muttered Eden. “You’re just disgusting. Do you even realize what you’re talking about?! Kidnapping and murdering defenseless children for experiments! To turn them into absolute monsters too! You can’t use humans like freaking mindless robots! Like bloody weapons! You think you’re so good and know so much better? You’re just another self-entitled, old prick launching bombs and committing mass murder from his ivory tower!”
“This selfish prick is the reason that man is even standing next to you,” hissed the Governor, “and your dear brother Prometheus himself was a huge stepping stone in this next achievement. I am the change necessary for our people’s survival. Of course, some of our deeds weren’t the most commendable, but that was all for the sake of many more! Those children wouldn’t have survived the streets anyway!”
“You know nothing of that!” Eden shouted, furious.
“There was no stopping us,” continued the Governor, as if he couldn’t hear her. “Once we understood we could make a human brain into a machine... Ah, how much easier would it be, if we could control all of the population directly? No more half-access through the SINs; we could create our own army! …Look at him. Even for a failure, he’s quite impressive! You should be grateful, Eden, for this man is a survivor, just like you. But he will be the last walking failure. The next generation of his kind is already in the making! The first generation of superhumans, entirely devoted to this Core! No feelings, only their cognitive abilities, absolute loyalty, and of course, bodies that can endure anything without ever experiencing pain! …Isn’t it beautiful? We won’t have to sacrifice our own citizens or use stupid robots that could fail us at any time. We’re almost there, another age of unchallenged peace and power! It’s the beauty of progress! Imagine, if we gain full control of an army of soldiers? Not faulty ones like him. Those that would be rewired to be completely emotionless, painless! Entirely devoted to the Core, the perfect soldiers! Look at him! Isn’t it amazing! Even with his body full of bullets, he’s still standing, and alive! …Adam–no, Dante, is that his new name? He survived, but he’s imperfect, seeing how he seems to have feelings toward you.”
“...He’s dying.”
The words had left Eden’s lips before she could stop them, just like her tears.
“Adam already died, and now, Dante’s dying,” she repeated. “He’s dying, and... he can’t even feel it.”
She could feel Dante’s body, standing right behind her, still there, but she could also feel how he was not doing well. His hand, still holding hers, was getting colder and colder. His grip was getting weaker. Eden’s tears kept slowly falling, as she held onto him while glaring at the Governor who had made her lover like this.
“You’re creating nothing but ghosts of humans,” she continued. “You have no idea of the real value of life and death.”
“Death will be the least of our concerns once we find the path to immortality!” he shouted. “The best of our citizens deserve everything, even the power to live, for as long as they need! We can heal and replace everything!”
“You can’t numb everything that makes us humans!” Eden shouted even louder. “People like you have no fucking idea of the value of one’s life! You kill and cheat death as you please! How can you be fine with murdering newborns, and claim you’re giving yourself extra decades for the sake of humanity? You’re just another self-centered, selfish bastard! You’re murdering thousands of people, and the rest of the Chicago population doesn’t even know what it’s like to survive, every day, on a handful of credits, scraps, a mattress against the asphalt, and breathing nothing but polluted air!”
