They went out of the hall, the curious eyes still on Addy as they went out.
Yes! The master was around and the project was coming to life.
“I would like to show you our little coffee and beer bar.” Mason said. “Come in.”
They went into a bar where some men were having drinks. Addy was amazed to find that the coffee makers and waiters were all drones. No single human was there except the customers.
“This is a test of what we have in stock for the world. The most foolish idea is to think what you see in movies is just fiction. Subliminal messages boy. Science is deeper than you think. Who knew drones existed years ago? We thought it was just a science fiction world of movies. We see what drones do today, they play table tennis, bricklaying, and lot’s more. The attendants were robots made in the form of men, dressed in waiters uniform.
“The waiters have sensors that tells them when someone new comes in. And when a drone goes to serve him, the other receives a signal that the person is being attended to. A drone came before them.
“Three cups of coffee, please.” Mason said.
The drone bowed but did not move. Mason smiled and removed some dollar bills and placed them on an opening. Immediately he did this, there was a display of the amount of money on a screen on the drone’s arm. It said, “thank you” and left.
Addy saw how the machines made the coffee and marveled. They were served coffee.
“This is no big deal.” Mason said. “This is not very new. Just a spot that gave us a better idea. We want more. Let us go to the next phase: The Evolution. That was gotten from Aadila, Addy’s mother. She made a synthetic organ which has the ability to allow water pass over its thin walls, dissolve the oxygen and moves into blood to the body cells.
What Addy saw almost made him scream.
He saw over twenty thousand jumbo incubators, connected to complicated machines. There was a supercomputer, about two hundred feet long, at a side. There were over two hundred men in there, doing one thing or the other. What was this?
Mason looked at it proudly.
“We have witnessed a lot transplants. Heart transplant, arm transplants, and now, head transplant is on its way. I do not have to tell you what the Bastions Evolution is all about. What matters is what we have. Come in... “
They walked in to the laboratory which was almost a half a kilometer long.
“The Evolution is all about an evolution of new species of man and robots. A bio-drone.”
Addy now felt sick. He could see what look like men, and women, naked inside the incubators.
“What you see are not dead men. They are undergoing a metabolic transformation which will give rise to more improved specie of man. They would have incredible intelligence. Their respiratory system is being worked on, to have a gill like structure so they can breathe under water like a fish does.
This enables breathing under water. The skin has up to seven layers of ectodermal layers. The epidermis and dermis are enhanced by certain chemicals to make it thicker, tougher to withstand certain harsh conditions. Something has been done about exhaustion. During vigorous exercise, the core body temperature increases and the circulatory system is unable to transport the heat away from the core at the same rate as its been generated.
There is a synthetic chemical induced that makes it possible to avoid this. They would be able to run for ten days without getting tired……” he kept on explaining the enhanced abilities of the evolutionary beings until he said, “then the big one: the brains. They have to be super intelligent. This is where you come in……
We have not been able to deduce the formula of an induced hormone to make the brains super active. But there is an option. Come with me…..”
Addy found this so spooky and bizarre. Were these men crazy? Playing with natural laws?
He was led to a dormitory with plenty children. They were playing, some were on computer games and they all looked happy. Their environment was beautiful. Addy saw over five hundred children.
“The result of a research by Dr Quinn shows that the children’s brain when crushed and passed through a chemical process, can give the result we want. Their brains will be like yours. Do not get me wrong. These children were not kidnapped. They are our products.
We pay men and women to have sex and give birth. Each child here cost about a million dollars. We have helped a lot of street urchins with this. Pick a slot, get her pregnant, she gives birth and get seven hundred thousand dollars and the guy gets three. And the men and women you see in the incubators are useless to the society. We pick them up from the street and now going to make them important to the world. We call it incubator because it is a new being that would emerge.”
“Why do we need them?”
“Many things are involved. We are sending a good number of them to space. We are working on Mars. They would be better than machines and they are made to withstand harsh conditions ordinary man cannot.
These men would be the new generation soldiers. They are not as vulnerable as the ordinary soldiers we have. These men would be bought by nations, but the source would remain a secret. Some would be programmed computer analyst, FBI agents. They are programmed so there will be no Edward Snowden, the American computer professional and CIA employee who copied and leaked classified information. These men of ours will be completely trustworthy.
With men like this, the world would witness a rapid technological transformation. This is a multi-billion dollars industry.”
“How do we extract it from the children?” Addy asked.
“The brains would be crushed.” He said with no scintilla of feeling. This was the most coldblooded man Addy had ever seen. “But that won’t be necessary if you can find the substitute.”
Addy nodded.
Justin had to come into this. These children must be saved. These men were crazy. Science freaks! Crazy! Just looking at the children broke his heart. They looked happy, playing around, unaware that there were all made to be killed. Oh no! Mason studied him. Hope he did not have Abba’s ideology in him. There was no space for compassion here.
“I think I can get it.” He said praying Justin could get in touch. He also began to think of a way of escape.
Thinking of this, Addy now saw how dangerous it was to have Lori pointing a gun at him now. He escaped miraculously from them but now, it seemed it was all in vain.
“So, your father sent you to me.” He asked.
“Yes, get out of the car with your hands in the air. I am watching you.”
Addy obeyed. She came out through the driver’s door still pointing the gun at him.
“I know what is going through your head, Addy.” She said. “Telling you I am Mason’s daughter must have made you aware of the danger of being with me. I am not a model. It was all a plan. My father sent me to you.
They have the policy of continuity and intermarriage. He wanted me to get married to you. He was going to use you as a stooge, being TCO. And I will be there to get all the information he wanted from the main body. But all that changed when the issue of the test came up. He was afraid you would be stripped off the position because you were not the real Justin.
He asked me to leave you. I obeyed him but my heart disobeyed him. I fell in love with you. When we came to the states, and I saw you heading for the test, I felt something in me. I ran to tell you not to go in…..he would abduct you.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I knew you were going to pass the test.”
“How. You knew I was not Justin.”
“I have bugged you, Addy. I know you were in touch with the real Justin. I know he planned to get to you through transmitter. He made you pass the test. But went in without listening to me. I was not surprised when you were taken away. He was going to show you his crazy ideas, believing you are Justin and Justin was Addy. And when he discovers that you are not Justin….he will kill you straight.
I had lost hope of seeing you again. I pointed a gun at you so I could explain. You may have been thinking otherwise, and maybe thinking of attacking me. I did not tell him the things I discovered. I know who the real Justin is and if he finds out…phew!” she said.
Addy was shocked.
“There is something else.” She said.
“What?”
Lori lowered the gun.
“Let us get a place to stay. I have a lot to tell you. We must get in touch with Justin. Those children must be saved and this madness stopped.”
“Okay. I want to know what is the ‘something else’”
She smiled.
“I saw the old man. He is alive.” She said.
“Which old man?”