Alan returned from a rather unsatisfying lunch to discover that the division supervisor had already arrived and was sitting in Bruce’s office. He knocked a couple of gentle taps and entered.
‘Good afternoon, sir.’
The supervisor, a tall, well-built man, wore a black suit; it matched his charcoal eyes – eyes impenetrable but highly penetrating. Don’t think the c-word, thought Alan. Too late. The supervisor stared hard at him and motioned that he should grab a chair from the open-plan office. Alan did as instructed and then placed it down in an open space in Bruce’s office.
‘Over here,’ said the supervisor, and Alan reluctantly complied by pushing his chair next to the supervisor. He then sat down and looked over to Bruce who was also watching him closely.
Alan couldn’t be sure of the origins of the supervisor, but he suspected vat-grown. Operators such as himself, the “low percentages” who did the grunt-work, were typically abducted several times throughout childhood and tampered with genetically. At some point in adolescence another operator, like this supervisor, would make contact and reveal much of the truth about how things really were in the world – how humans were all just sheep. A sobering and disturbing revelation for an adolescent but one that came with some reimbursement: as a human/Sponsor hybrid he’d occupy a privileged position in society. He’d know more, he’d have special abilities, and he could be supported by the system should he need it. He’d be able to call upon better medical and financial resources…
Alan listened as Bruce and the supervisor explained a complex web of transactions and their immediate consequences. These were due to take place during the forthcoming recession. But to what end? It was impossible to see how all this contributed to the bigger picture as everything discussed here was just a tiny part of it. What he did know, or could surmise, was that the recession was a simple device utilized with the underlying aim of causing much fear and panic – particularly amongst the people the Sponsors wanted to be fearful and panicked. Thus the ‘human system’ as it was sometimes known could be realigned more quickly. It was like taking a super tanker and lifting it bodily out of the water to point in a new direction. And what would be the point of that? Again, the whole operation would be but a small manoeuvre in the larger dance that was humanity’s artificial evolution. The fact that the Sponsors had been manipulating humans from behind the scenes since they were lowly hominids demonstrated the scale of their operation.
What was their ultimate long-term goal? It was unlikely that any being containing human DNA was privy to that secret.
Alan listened as attentively as he could as the two bores droned on.
***