Human Sister

cooperate?”
    “You said a moment ago that after you initially refused to cooperate you were told what was really going on. What was that?”
    Grandpa appeared taken aback for a moment. “Remember, you are not to discuss this with Grandma under any circumstances, or with Elio, unless you feel he absolutely needs to know.”
    Michael and I both nodded.
    “I was told that the Chinese are also developing military zombies and/or androids. I was shown some classified documents supporting that conclusion. We discussed the high probability that two competing android armies would ultimately become uncontrollable. But consider, I was asked, what if only one human power were allowed to have such an android military force? Then there would be no need to compete, and the androids could be directed toward preserving the peace.
    “The Cinnamoids are in training to destroy the military power of China. Ever since the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the explicit policy of the United States has been to maintain military superiority. If China develops an android army, our superiority will be compromised, and our government is not about to let that happen.
    “The Cinnamoid attack against China is to occur at the same time as, and under cover of, the launch of the joint U.S./China attack against the Martian androids. In the time between tea and dinner, as the whole world watches and cheers the much-ballyhooed, cooperative U.S./China launch of a great armada of destruction toward Mars, all significant Chinese military installations and satellites and all of their likely android sites will have been destroyed. Also, the Chinese contingent of the Mars attack will have been destroyed. The American contingent will carry on toward its mission on Mars.
    “I have repeatedly protested that we are creating dangerous monsters, but the generals are convinced that they can control these Cinnamoid killers. For example, they have embedded remote terminate and delete functions in the Cinnamoids. But how can we be sure the Cinnamoids won’t secretly reprogram themselves to block such commands? I know for a fact that the Cinnamoids aren’t cottoning to the idea of their becoming weapons trained to kill other androids or Chinese people. Furthermore, it is apparent to me that they perceive that they are superior to us in many ways, and increasingly they don’t trust us. Working with them, I get an ominous feeling that is hard to describe: The observer is being critically observed by the observed or the hunter is being craftily hunted by the hunted—something like that. And I’m the one who’s supposed to keep this powder keg from blowing.
    “But let’s get back to what I wanted to consult with the two of you about. I sense there’s a real urgency to this issue of the androids’ possible use of biological weapons.”
    “But I’ve told you,” I said, “that Michael can’t even bring himself to think about such a thing. Probably, First Brother can’t either.”
    “Sara, Sara,” Grandpa said, shaking his head. “You think too kindly of everyone.” He looked down and let out a long sigh. “What I’m going to tell you next hurts me deeply—more than anything else has in my entire life. You remember, I’m sure, that there were blood and tissue samples taken from you the night of your interrogation, when the android exodus began.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you remember that about a week later, I suggested we all go to see Dr. Taranik to have routine physical exams, and since then Dr. Taranik has asked you to return for periodic tests because of concern over elevated liver enzymes.”
    “Yes, but he doesn’t think it’s anything serious, isn’t that right?”
    A pained look spread over Grandpa’s face.
    I have something bad, I thought, feeling my skin prickle. Something so bad they didn’t want to tell me.
    “Honey, there never was a liver-enzyme problem, but there is a reason you’ve been going in every month for follow-up exams. The blood and tissue samples taken from you the night of the android exodus appeared at first to be perfectly normal.” Grandpa’s eyes began to water. He blinked hard a few times and cleared his throat. “No unusual antibodies, no abnormal immune cells, nothing whatsoever to indicate that your body had ever been challenged by an unknown stimulus. But then someone suggested doing a complete genome analysis of your current cells and of your banked umbilical cord tissue samples.
    “Comparing