Peter James: Perfect People

Sensing a thaw, Naomi said, ‘And we’re very proud of you both, enormously proud.’ Turning to John, she said, ‘Aren’t we, darling?’

‘Hugely!’ John said. ‘Look, I think you both understand that you are way smarter than other kids back home, but you’ve kept it concealed from us. Now that we know, we can help you realize your potential. There are some terrific specialist schools you can go to – we have a list-’

Phoebe, eyes raised, interrupted him. ‘This is what everyone here who’s descended from Parent People has to deal with.’

‘Your expectations of us may be high, Parents,’ Luke said. ‘But I’m not here to serve your expectations, nor is my sister.’

John and Naomi stared back, trying to absorb what they were saying.

Then Luke continued. ‘I’ve been assessing the world, and frankly, it doesn’t work very well. There need to be a lot of changes, totally new mindsets applied to the problems, and a new paradigm for the future worked out, otherwise there isn’t going to be any future.’

‘Any future?’ John echoed. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘You couldn’t even protect us from the Disciples – we had to ask for help externally.’

‘Can you explain that, darlings?’ Naomi said, her voice sounding brittle. ‘Can you tell us what happened?’

‘I think there are more important issues we should be discussing,’ Phoebe said, imperiously. ‘You need to understand the fundamentals of where we are coming from.’

Naomi glanced at John. They seemed to have matured years, mentally, in the past few days. She was finding it very hard to accept that her children were capable of talking in such a very adult way. To accept anything here. She felt she was in the middle of a bad dream.

‘Tell us what you believe those fundamentals are?’ John asked.

‘Well,’ Phoebe said, ‘to start with, we know you made genetic choices about us, because you wanted us to be better than other kids. You wanted us to become perfect people.’ She gave her parents a challenging stare.

‘Your mother and I-’ John started, but Naomi interrupted him.

‘Listen, you two,’ she said. ‘You need to understand our reasons. After we lost your brother, Halley, your father and I wanted to ensure nothing like that was ever going to happen to you. We wanted you to be as healthy and as free from the spectre of diseases as possible. Was that so wrong?’

‘No, quite reasonable,’ Luke said. ‘So what’s your problem?’

‘Our problem?’ Naomi said after some moments. ‘Our problem is that we want you to come home with us.’

‘Why exactly do you want us to come home with you?’ Phoebe asked.

‘Because-’ Naomi floundered for a second. ‘Because we love you.’

‘Although you have very advanced intellects,’ John interjected, ‘you are still small children. You need the love and guidance that parents can give you – that we – your mother and I – really want to give you.’

‘You know what you Parent People are?’ Luke said. ‘You’re just one more generation in an unbroken chain going back thousands of years, of humans who have made a muck of the world. Homo sapiens! ’ he sneered. ‘ Sapiens means wise. Your species isn’t wise, under your stewardship the world is out of control. You’ve created nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction that any no-brainer with a gripe can go and buy, somewhere in the world. Your scientists claimed to have proven that God does not exist, but you allow your planet to be ravaged by religious fanatics. You are destroying the ecosystem because you cannot agree on a united ecology plan. You print more information every week than any human being can read in a lifetime. And you want to give us guidance? I think that’s pretty damned breathtakingly arrogant.’

‘Other animals don’t cling on to their young,’ Phoebe said. ‘They let their offspring go as soon as they can fly, or swim, or hunt for food. Why are you so desperate to cling to us and hold us back? You’ve had a big chunk of your lives, but Luke and I have barely started. Unless we can make fast and dramatic changes, there is no future on this planet for anyone. Go home. Go back to your obsolete ways and leave us New People to sort out the future.’

John tried hard to keep calm, to show them they were capable of understanding. ‘And how do you plan to sort out the future? What exactly will you do?’

Phoebe’s tone suddenly became more pleasant. She smiled at her parents. ‘There really isn’t any point in trying to explain it to you. This is not something you or any Parent People could understand. I’m not trying to sound patronizing or anything like that. It’s just a fact.’

‘Kids,’ John said, ‘the people who were trying to kill you have all been arrested by the authorities. It’s safe to come home now. We can keep you safe. If you want to make a difference to the world, which you have clearly shown you are capable of doing, you should come out of isolation. We’ll give you all the support you need to achieve this.’

Phoebe replied, ‘Luke and I need to talk about this. Please leave us alone for a while.’

Dettore, who had quietly entered the room without them noticing, said, ‘John and Naomi, let’s go take a walk.’

Outside, in the blinding sunlight and searing midday heat, in air perfumed by hibiscus and bougainvillea, John and Naomi followed Dr Dettore along a green-painted path through the vast, silent campus. Dettore pointed out and named each of the buildings they passed, but they barely took anything in.

Both of them were traumatized from their meeting with Luke and Phoebe. John squinted at his surroundings, wishing he had his sunglasses and lighter clothes. He felt sticky, grungy and unwashed, and his growth of stubble itched. But right now none of this was important. Nothing mattered except answers to all the questions he and Naomi wanted to put to Dettore. Answers that until today they had both despaired of ever getting.

And, even more importantly, finding some way to reach into their children’s hearts and persuade them to come home. Which would involve putting Dettore’s word to the test, to see if he really would allow them to do this.

The silence was spooky. It was like being in a ghost city. Or being back on the cruise ship, he thought. ‘Why do you have all this camouflage on the buildings – and this green paint on the runway and the paths, Dr Dettore?’ he asked. ‘Why do you want to be invisible?’

‘What are you scared of, Dr Dettore?’ Naomi asked.

Dettore strode on, taking easy, confident strides, like a lion who knows he has no predator. The king of the jungle, king of this island, invincible. John loathed him more with every passing second. He loathed the man’s conceit, loathed him for the way he had deceived Naomi and himself, for destroying their lives, for taking their children. And yet despite all this, the scientist in John could not help being awed by aspects of the man.

Dettore stopped and opened his arms expansively at their surroundings. ‘Let me tell you the point. Do you remember the Inquisitions in France, Italy and Spain, which terrorized free-thinking people for five centuries in the Middle Ages? Do you remember an Italian scientist called Galileo – a professor of mathematics at Pisa? He improved the telescope to the point where he was the first human to see Jupiter? In 1632, he published a book backing up Copernicus’s theory that the earth rotated around the sun, rather than the reverse. The Inquisition made him recant this absurd theory – or be put to death.’

Neither John nor Naomi said anything.

‘Just like Hitler and Stalin, the Inquisition was indiscriminate. It put to death the intelligentsia along with the proletariat. Yet somehow, the Inquisition got away with it, because it was all done in the name of God. Religion gave it a cachet, and a legitimacy.’ Dettore paused, looking hard at John and Naomi for some moments. ‘You wonder why we need to be in hiding here – the reason is simple. Sooner or later a bunch of religious crazies with ideas that have not moved on since the dark ages would have hunted me down and killed me. If not the Disciples of the Third Millennium, then another group.’