In Death 21 - Origin in Death

cloning."
    "Quiet Birth." The first took over again. "There were so many dead, so many lost. So many in pain. So many children, orphaned, injured. He intended to save them. Was driven to."
    "By extraordinary means."
    "They, the father and Wilson, worked in secret. The children, after all, so many of the children would never have real lives. They'd give them better. They'd give them the future."
    "They used children they found in the wars?" Peabody demanded. "They took kids?"
    "This appalls you."
    "Shouldn't it?"
    "We were a child in the war. Dying. Our DNA was preserved, our cells taken. Should we have died then?"
    "Yes."
    They looked back at Eve. And each nodded. "Yes. It's the natural order. We should have been allowed to die, to stop being. But we weren't. There were failures. And the failures were destroyed, or used for further study. Again and again, day after day, year after year, until there were five who were viable."
    "There are two more of you?" Eve asked.
    "There were. We were born in April."
    "Back up a minute. Where did he get the women who were implanted?"
    "There weren't any. We weren't developed in a human womb. We weren't given even that gift. The wombs are artificial, a great achievement." Now her voice hardened, and the anger simmering under it flashed into her eyes. "Every moment of development can be monitored. Every developing cell can be engineered, adjusted, manipulated. We have no mother."
    "Where? Where is it done?"
    "We don't know. We don't remember the first years. It was eraser Drugs, treatments, hypnosis."
    "Then how do you know what you're telling me?"
    "Will. He shared some of this. He loved us, was proud of what we are. Was proud of his father and the achievements. Some we knew from Deena, and some we learned when we began to question."
    "Where are the other two?"
    "One died at six months. We were not able to sustain. The other.
    They paused, linked hands. "We learned the other lived for five years. We lived five years. But we weren't strong enough, and our intellect wasn't developing according to the required levels. He killed us. He injected us as you might a terminally ill pet. We went to sleep, and never woke. And so, we're three."
    "There's documentation of this?"
    "Yes. Deena obtained it. He made her very smart and resourceful. Maybe he miscalculated the range of her curiosity, her ... humanity. She learned she'd been two, but one hadn't been allowed to develop past the age of three. When she told us, we couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. She ran away, she wanted us to come, but..."
    "We loved Will. We loved the father. We didn't know how to be without them."
    "She contacted you again."
    "We were always in contact. We loved her, too. We kept her secret. We married Will. It was so important to make him happy, and we did. When we got pregnant, we asked only one thing of him and the father. One thing. Our child-any children we would have together-would never be re-created. They'd never be used this way. They gave their word."
    "One of us had a son."
    "Another a daughter."
    "And a third carries a daughter."
    "You're pregnant?"
    "The child was conceived three weeks ago. He didn't know. We didn't want him to know. He broke his word. The one sacred thing. Eleven months ago, he and the father took cells from the children. It has to be stopped. Our children must be protected. We've done-and will do-whatever it takes to stop it."
     
    EVE ROSE, WALKED TO THE BAR, PROGRAMMED
    coffee for herself and Peabody. They were speaking one at a time now, but with the same unity. One picking up the recitation where the other left off. "Want anything?" she
    asked them.
    "We'd like water. Thank you."
    "How'd you find out they'd broken their promise?"
    "We knew our husband, and knew something was wrong. While he was out of the house, we checked the logs in his private office, and found the records on the children. We wanted to take them, take our babies and run."
    "But it wouldn't protect the ones they'd create. Create, then alter and perfect. Test and evaluate."
    "They grew inside us, warm inside us, and they'd take that and make replicas in the cold lab. In his notes Will said it was a precaution only, in case something happened to the children. But they aren't things to be replaced. In all our years, it was the only thing we asked, and he couldn't honor his promise."
    "We told Deena, and we knew it had to be stopped. They'd never stop, as long as they lived. We'd never learn all we