Edict 42

Chapter 8- Ryan

Ryan had been waiting in the boardroom for more than two hours after showing up for work. He went to the washroom and rinsed his face with cold water to calm his nerves, his pale skin looked flushed. He brushed a few strands of his brown hair out of his face before returning to the boardroom. Were they actually coming to meet him now? Were they planning to fire him for his actions? Or was he going to hear more talk about Dr. Cox? Some people he had passed on his way here had seemed rather jittery. Making smaller talk than usual or avoiding him completely. Ryan noticed that they were many other secret police here some stood outside the meeting room.

He tapped his finger on the mahagony desk as he peered outside the window from the view he saw only more sky scrapers in the distance. A newspaper was seated in front of him. The headlines read ‘Wrongful Accused, Dr. Matters Freed What Now?’

The door was opened behind him and the board members entered taking their seats around him while the President sat at the top, Nikkolai Fawler. Ryan smiled as he remembered what his work collegaues called them, the suits. He had only met the man a handful of times since he was working here and usually whenever you meet him it was not for anything good.

“Good morning, Dr. Matters,” Nikkolai said, while pulling in his chair.

For his position he was a rather young man still in his early thirties but he displayed an aura of command. It could be the clothes or the way in which he carried himself. The last president before him was twice his age.

“Good morning,” Ryan replied. He couldn’t help but notice that the man’s face seemed a bit irritated.

“It seems you have been busy for the last few days. Trying to steal confidential information from your workplace while off duty. You spent some time in a police cell for three days and babbling nonsense to who ever would hear you.” Nikkolai paused and looked down at some files. “What are you trying to accomplish?”

The room was quiet as all eyes fell upon him.

How did he know about what happened with him in jail? Ryan wondered was this a test to see how he would respond. He needed to react rationally here, telling them the truth wouldn’t help with anything. More than likely it seemed that they had something they wanted to hide.

“I don’t know what came over me, I didn’t want Alina, I mean Dr. Cox to get the upper hand on me so I snuck into her office to see what information she had that I can use to my advantage. We were both at the top of one of the worlds most prestigious Lab. When I got arrested I panicked and mumbled things very incorehently.” Ryan looked around the room at each board member. “I would like to apologise for any problems that I may have caused the company due to my foolish and self centered mistakes. If I may be able to, I would ask that I be allowed to res---.”

“We haven’t brought you here because of that, Dr. Ryan. If we wanted to get rid of you. So much effort wouldn’t have gone into making sure that you came out of what would have been an interesting headline in the newspapers disappear into smoke.”

Ryan paused had he messed up? What should he say now?

Nikkolai rested his back into the chair his piercing blue eyes upon Ryan. “You know whats the main problem facing this world?”

“Food shortage?”

“Overpopulation, when Herbert Mathnor forty years ago started working on the ability to make humans live forever. He had a genius design, however, he didn’t take into consideration without death how many humans would be on earth without dying. On average, before all of this one hundred and fifty thousand people died per day with about fifty six million deaths in a year. Now none of that’s happening, people can live forever if they don’t get into any accidents or such. Last year in this city alone we only had one hundred deaths. Do you understand what that means?”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Ryan asked.

“In the short term its good but in the longterm its not. At the time when he created this farming was still a thing. What most of the food people eat now has been chemically made to taste like they did years ago. The soil for some reason around the same time since the birth of immortality has not been able to bare fruit. Is this a sign from God that we have been pushing passed our own expectations as humans. Further people still age regardless, its not like they are being kept young. They may not be plagued by diseases but there are certain limitations for immortality.” Nikkolai head turned to the older man seated next to him.

Papers rattled as the old bald man spoke, “The body still doesn’t produce the same level of collagen which means eventually people will look old. We may have a consistent red and white blood cell production but outside of the defences and survivability nothing else doesn’t seem to increase anything more than a surface level leaving it to a bare minmum. In essence while the life of a human being has been expanded and may now live pass the age of one hundred comfortably. The problem is the state that they may be in when they reached it. Instead of still being human most might be husk leeching of the already dwindling resources.”

“I don’t understand? What are you trying to say?”

Nikkolai placed his hand on the table and lap them over each other.“The government has ordered us to create a virus that can affect those that have Manere Parasitus. It’s not only our country that is doing this. It will be distributed to everyone all over the world. It’s a component in the CFG2. Of course we will have the CFG available but most people will switch over towards it. The goal would be to kill off some of the population. Most people are fully aware the effects the Manere Parasitus can have on their bodies. Being virtually impervious to all known diseases.”

The government? Ryan thought they were trying to kill people. Is this how it started with the CFG2? When the outbreak had first occurred the government had taken serious actions too but then at the time it seemed justified.

“Why are you telling me all of this? Isnt this confidential information?” Ryan asked.

“There is only one reason I am telling you this it’s because we want you to spearhead this project. We were going to have you work on it. The Cain project its already under way started by Dr. Cox unfortunately she still hasn’t been found.”

The bald man interjected, “We couldn’t have you being caught for something like the end of the world when we are actually having to make a decision like this that would be the end for many.”

Ryan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Isnt the CFG2 enough?”

The baldman responded, “No that is just the beginning Dr. Matters, we need to ensure that the balance is reached throughout and those that need to live will be alive and those that aren’t needed to live will die for the greater cause.”

“Wouldn’t birth control and population restrictions work?”

There were a few quick whispers between the board before a solid voice came again.

Nikkolai spoke,“Dr. Matters, we have tried that for years by tracing people’s ID chips and you already know what people do. They give birth to children and don’t register them and then we have waves of people who are found nationless. Then on the other hand we have the next group of people fighting for liberty and pushing back against the policy of one child per family for those who can afford it. When have you seen that law passed in the senate? It keeps getting boycotted by the protestors standing outside. If we don’t act soon, in twenty years we will not have enough food for everyone. One way or another people will die either by war or slowly by food. A slow and easy death rather than a painful one.”

It suddenly dawned on Ryan that before the outbreak he had been tasked to take a component that could be used for warefare. Was he the one that started all of this?

“Don’t you think that we should at least try for a few more years before going to this extreme?”

“We don’t have a few more years?”

“What about choice? I thought this was a democratic country. You aren’t giving people the time to become aware or for others to come up with solutions.”

“Choice? Do you know what happens if we give people a choice? What would happen choosing between living and dying? Making them aware of how much of the resources to actually make food are dwindling? Telling them that we have no idea how to reverse the effects on the ground to make planting work? It was happening before it’s nothing new. With the bananas they had to be keep switching the grounds because the resources needed were no longer in the soil making it uninhabitable. Or do you forget Dr. Ryan, the Panama disease and the Black Sigatoka? What we have been faced with now scientists in this department and across the world cannot comprehend.”

Nikkolai interrupted, “All that would happen is chaos. That’s the nature of people, the city, the world would go on fire as people battle for what last remanats of food they can claim. There is no such thing as democracy Dr. Matters, all of that is merely an illusion of choice. The people don’t select their leaders, the leader is already preselected and a story plays out to make them feel like they had.”

“You don’t know what might end up being the long term side effects of these things. It might even come back and hit those you don’t want it to.”

“That’s where you come in Dr. Matters, not only to make it sustainable but also as a treatment if possible should the wrong people get affected. We only expect a certain set of people to buy the cheaper CFG2 and then we will be mointering those too.”

Ryan slam his hand on the table. “The people you expect to get them would be the working class?”

Nikolai responded, “Of course, they are the most numerous and with advances in robotics they are the most likely to become problematic. No job, no money and no way out for the future. Excessive need to reproduce and the burden they place on the government itself. We need to cull them a bit, its dirty work but it has to be done.”

The door opened as the secret police entered. They took up positions around Ryan and waited.

Had they come to kill him for knowing this information base on his response? Ryan swallowed his saliva as he weighed what he should probably do next. A voice, however, interrupted his thoughts.

“So, Dr. Matters what is your decision?” Nikkolai asked.

#

Ryan left the room and took the elevator. It stung that he had been forced into a corner and it hurt even worse to know what exactly he had been working on.

His brain couldn’t stop processing the fact that he had unknowingly taken part in something so heinous. There was a big change in circumstances last time Alina was also working on it with him.Where was she anyway? Had events changed because of him not going to the way things had originally occurred and was she okay? Would she even listen to him if he talked to her about what happened in the future. He could only hope as he felt the elevator going down. There was nothing much else that he could do at the moment.

The elevator stopped at the bottom floor and when Ryan looked up he saw detective Frank. The sudden sight of him made him jittery . He wanted to hide but there was no way except to walk forward. Their eyes met for a fraction of a moment and Ryan felt as if his soul had left him.

“Dr. Matters,” Frank said, “ Would you be able to spare us some time today to ask a few questions about Dr. Cox?”

“No, I am sorry, I can’t spare anytime today.”

The two men passed him and Ryan took his first breath when the elevator had closed.

What was Frank doing here?