Genosimulation (A Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction): A Young Adult Science Fiction Thriller Read Free Page A

the beating of the
digital clock.
    Bobby whined. Strong, weak. And strong again.
    Two minutes and eighteen seconds before death, he fell
heavily to the ground of the cage, holding his chest and back in a very human
gesture. He began to grunt and utter strange sounds. His eyes were bulging,
mysteriously white.
    For a brief moment they met Lia's green eyes and then parted
again. Bobby could not have known that the end of his pain was just one shot
away, a shot his mother could have given to him. Luckily so, or else Lia would
be tempted to read his gaze as a plea for mercy, and would have destroyed the
experiment without giving it another thought. Bobby was more precious to her
than this experiment. Dear to her as a son.
    Then a stronger stream of pain flashed through his chest,
and his eyes lost any hint of love for Lia.
    The side monitors indicated the progression of a cardiac
arrest. Lia could almost envisage the collapsing heart muscle, ceasing to push
blood to the right places.
    Bobby's weary heart reached the end of his path, slowly and
surely. The people around were excited. Zomy was not that ecstatic, but he let
go a smile.
    He, too, felt a certain closeness to Bobby. Not like Lia, of
course. After all, to him Bobby was little more than a laboratory rat. True, he
enjoyed playing with (it) him from time to time, but that was all, more or
less. To him, Bobby was THE laboratory rat. The most important one that ever
lived. And now, the experiment, THE experiment, was over.
    Amazingly so.
    Simply amazingly so.
    A minute and forty seconds before death, Bobby died.
     
    *
     
    The laboratory was silent for a moment. The flat line on the
monitor was too sudden to be understood at first. Then a fairly senior person,
her commanding officer (and Zomy's, for that matter) approached Lia.
    "Can you confirm its death?" Saul asked, reminding
Lia of her role in this event.
    And she remembered. Her fingers let go of Zomy's, and she
stumbled towards Bobby's cage.
    There wasn't much to determine. A flat line is a flat line.
For one last moment she toyed with the thought of using the adrenaline syringe
lying (just in case!) in the pocket of her lab coat, but eventually she left it
there, and only used the stethoscope hanging on her chest.
    Dead. Officially.
    A single hand clap broke the silence of death, followed by
another, and then by a barrage of applause with various depths and rhythms.
After a few seconds one of the cellphones applauded too, and another
congratulated Saul and his staff for a work well done.
    Other cellphones reported the death to the three people who
had to be in Washington at that time. From somewhere a bottle of champagne
popped open, and the bubbling wine was poured into paper cups.
    A champagne cork, Zomy found out several hours later, landed
right next to Bobby's body.
     
    *
     
    In short, Bobby died two minutes before the clock reached
zero. It was close enough, though, so we started to clap hands and open bottles
of champagne. The entire room was on its feet, everyone applauding and clapping
hands and shouting and whistling.
    Only Lia stood outside, crying, and I felt like crap because
of this.
    It was the first time I thought I wanted to stop all this.
But this moment was over when all the chiefs tapped me on my shoulder and said,
"Well done," and, "Wow," and, "It's a great honor to
meet you," and all that shit. Today such words make me sick, but then I
took it in without thinking twice. We cracked the code - and it was the most
important thing that moment.
    If you have any questions, go to NANA
chat tomorrow at three o’clock.
    I went there, of course. Who would have behaved differently?
     

03/27/01 NANA Chat
    Chromosome: Did you wait long?
    Liron _annoyed: Yes! Where the fuck were you?!
    Chromosome: Sorry, I was detained in the lab.
    Liron_annoyed: What lab? What's all this BS?
    Chromosome: Got you curious, didn’t I?
    Liron_annoyed: Yeah, you did.
    Chromosome: Great. What would you like to