The Eden Experiment Read online

  Table of Contents

  The Eden Experiment

  Copyright

  The Eden Experiment

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  Chapter 1 - Deposition

  Chapter 2 - Trade Secrets

  Chapter 3 - Leverage and Insurance

  Chapter 4 - A RealTime Call

  Chapter 5 - Life Goes On

  Chapter 6 - Because it Ends

  Chapter 7 - Intercepted

  Chapter 8 - The Same Mistakes

  Chapter 9 - Playing Murder

  Chapter 10 - Mustering Courage

  Chapter 11 - A Terrible Liar

  Chapter 12 - How You Are

  Chapter 13 - Answer the Question

  Chapter 14 - Borrow an Egg

  Chapter 15 - 114 Burkhouser

  Chapter 16 - Behind the Door

  Chapter 17 - Mercer Fox

  Chapter 18 - Allowed to Exist

  Chapter 19 - A Frivolous Quarter

  Chapter 20 - Deeper

  Chapter 21 - The Den

  Chapter 22 - A Steep Price

  Chapter 23 - A Matter of Convenience

  Chapter 24 - A Critical Stage

  Chapter 25 - The One Who Went Bad

  Chapter 26 - Case in Point

  Chapter 27 - Stranger Things

  Chapter 28 - Idling Outside

  Chapter 29 - Evangeline Walsh

  Chapter 30 - Too Weird

  Chapter 31 - Four of Them

  Chapter 32 - No Thank You

  Chapter 33 - Unexpected Guests

  Chapter 34 - DataCrate

  Chapter 35 - The Cherry on Top

  Chapter 36 - On the Monitor

  Chapter 37 - Pulling Back the Curtain

  Chapter 38 - Rising From the Ashes

  Chapter 39 - What Do I Know?

  Chapter 40 - One Heavy Stone

  Chapter 41 - Strange Ideation

  Chapter 42 - Travel Arrangements

  Chapter 43 - Professional Pride

  Chapter 44 - Flashes and Screams

  Chapter 45 - Violence is Power

  Chapter 46 - No Ashes

  Chapter 47 - The Present Clusterfuck

  Chapter 48 - Friend or Foe

  Chapter 49 - Home

  Chapter 50 - A Better Copy

  Chapter 51 - Almost Over

  Chapter 52 - Uncomfortably Familiar

  Chapter 53 - Like I Said

  Chapter 54 - The Humane Thing to do

  Chapter 55 - It's Okay to be Afraid

  Chapter 56 - The Truth

  Chapter 57 - A New World Order

  Want to Know What Happens Next?

  Shit From Brains

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  About the Authors

  THE EDEN EXPERIMENT

  by Sean Platt &

  Johnny B. Truant

  Copyright © 2017 by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited. The authors greatly appreciate you taking the time to read our work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or telling your friends about it, to help us spread the word.

  Thank you for supporting our work.

  Get books 1 and 2 in the bestselling series for FREE!

  The discovery of objects approaching from Jupiter orbit immediately sets humanity on edge. NASA doesn't even bother to deny the alien ships' existence. The popular Astral space app (broadcasting from the far side of the moon and accessible by anyone with internet) has already shown the populace what is coming. So the news has turned from evasion to triage, urging calm and offering the few facts they have: The objects are enormous, perfectly round spheres numbering in the dozens, maybe hundreds. They are on an approach vector for Earth. And they will arrive in six days.

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  THANK YOU FOR READING!

  Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant

  CHAPTER 1

  DEPOSITION

  The GEM enforcer ceased scribbling and looked up to meet Ephraim’s gaze.

  “I’d like to make sure I have this right,” he said, eyes ticking toward the watching assembly. “You’re saying that before the islands burned, Eden wasn’t actually an exclusive resort spa, as the Evermore Corporation claims. Instead, it was a facility designed to create …” He looked down at his tablet to quote the next bit directly, “… ‘illicit, brainwashed clones of celebrities to sell on the black market as slaves.’” He looked to the assembly and then back to clarify, “Or as you specified, ‘In most cases, sex slaves.’”

  Ephraim looked around the soberly lit room. GEM, the Committee for the Oversight of Genetics and Evolvable Machines was supposedly a government entity. But to Ephraim, the deposition chamber looked like a room full of FBI agents. Or maybe that was only his paranoia rearing its head. Again.

  He leaned toward the microphone, rigged to broadcast both through the room’s speakers and directly into the audience’s MyLife implants.

  “That’s correct.”

  The enforcer looked down, then scrolled again. Ephraim’s official report had begun as no-bullshit black and white, but as he watched it flashing by now, it was a wash of yellow highlights, comments, and annotations.

  “Our report says you brought GEM information on how such ‘clones’ were created.” His eyes flicked up at Ephraim. The enforcer wore a middle-of-the-road charcoal suit and white shirt, no tie, jet black hair clipped short. He looked Italian or Hispanic. Maybe Greek.

  Ephraim glanced at the strange-looking man beside him, extremely tan with bright white hair — a contrast that made him seem all sharp lines and relief. He wore a brass plate over his suit pocket. It read KILIK.

  The two men traded indecipherable glances. The nameless enforcer might have been suggesting the kilik guy run back to verify Ephraim’s report. Or the two might be mocking him wordlessly.

  “I was never any good at science,” the agent continued. “You ever see the Logan’s Run remake?”

  Ephraim shook his head.

  “That movie is about the extent of my science knowledge. You think you could give me some idea how that might have worked — making ‘clones’ like in the movies?”

  Ephraim looked around the room. He swallowed. The enforcer kept putting verbal quotes around the word “clones,” and that didn’t spell great promise even though Ephraim was supposed to be the good guy here.

  “They …”

  But he stalled, feeling the weight of all those watching faces.

  This had all unfolded incorrectly. It was supposed to be cut and dried. He’d submitted the report to GEM with Fiona’s help, using all the proper jargon. Riverbed CEO Fiona Roberson had nearly as solid a reputation as Evermore’s beloved Wallace Connolly, so why did he feel such doubt?

  When Ephraim and Fiona ran through this deposition in practice, Fiona had agreed that the story was airtight. Ephraim’s firsthand report of Eden, plus the extensive video record from Clone-Jonathan’s MyLife should have sealed things well in advance of this interview.

  Ephraim was supposed to be a witness, not the accused. Evermore and its operation on Eden were the evildoers. And yet Ephraim couldn’t help feeling like he was a prisoner in stocks in front of all these dead gazes, dared to defend his ludicrous story.

  “The way I understand it,” Ephraim said, “Eden’s off-island spas harvested DNA from subjects when they came in to sign up for Tomorrow Gene treatment, before heading off to Eden. Evermore used that DNA to make the clones, starting right then. Cloning, in and of i
tself, isn’t exactly new.”

  “I understand,” said the enforcer. “That’s something even a science idiot like me remembers hearing about. But you take a cloned sheep and put it next to the original, and all I see is two sheep. That’s a far cry from making two …” He scrolled on the tablet. “… Altruance Browns or Sophie Norrises.”

  “There were a lot of Altruance Browns,” Ephraim said. “More than two.”

  “Mmm-hmm. And it says here that those Altruances chased you when you tried to leave, unlike your late friend — the original Altruance Brown. So, we’re not just talking about clones, are we? We’re talking about evil clones.”

  Beside the enforcer, the tan man with the white hair stifled a snicker.

  Ephraim looked around, trying to read the room. The remainder of the committee, seated, had their heads down, probably scanning the same report.

  “Jonathan …” But that was wrong; Ephraim cleared his throat to start again. “I mean the clone of my brother Jonathan? He said the clones could be programmed. I guess those Altruances were programmed to chase us.”

  “So, they’re robots?”

  “No, they're clones.”

  “Forgive my ignorance, Mr. Todd,” said the enforcer, leaning back and crossing his arms, “but my understanding is that clones are people. No different from twins.”

  “That’s right.”

  “So how do you program people?”

  “Psychological programming.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” said the agent. Another glance at the report. “You did say these illicit celebrity sex slaves were ‘brainwashed.’ How does that work, exactly? Is it like a cult? Like something Papa Friesh would do if he were here, and this were a Change temple instead of GEM?”

  “I don’t have the exact details of—”

  “But this is what confuses me, brainwashing and programming aside,” the agent interrupted. “From what my better-informed colleagues tell me, clones are developed from embryos. Which grow into babies, after being nurtured in their mother’s womb.”

  Ephraim looked for help — possibly for the “better-informed colleagues” hiding in the room. His ideal strategy would be to get those colleagues together with Fiona, who knew a hell of a lot more about genetic engineering and Eden’s technologies than he did, and let them hash it out directly. But it wouldn’t help; the enforcer surely knew a lot more than he was letting on. He was part of the department responsible for regulating genetics and evolvable machines, after all. You didn’t get that job without a biology class or two.

  If that was true, this deposition was a ruse; brainwashing GEM style. Good cop versus bad, with the “kilik” being the bad cop. Maybe.

  Either way, Ephraim was the subject. The man sitting on a white-hot grill.

  “Yes, but—” Ephraim stammered.

  “I can’t quite figure out how Mr. Brown and Ms. Norris went in for Tomorrow Gene treatment during their time on Eden, were cloned, and within a few days Eden had fully grown evil Altruances produced, ready and programmed to chase you down. It’s so fast, given the whole ‘babies in a womb’ thing. Do they have a big copier machine or something? Maybe an ancient mimeograph, where Wallace turns a crank and spits out new evil clones?”

  The man with the white hair tittered. The sound was deafening in the quiet room.

  “Eden used Precipitous Rise technology to mature their clones quickly. That’s why Wallace built Eden. He needed his place in international waters where he could use Precipitous Rise, and no government could stop him.”

  The agent scrolled, taking his time to find a page in the report.

  “And yet it says here that when you left Eden, you ran across a Mauritian boat that you sped away from despite your dire circumstances, all alone in the middle of the ocean.” He seemed to notice something else on the page. “Ah. I see. There were evil clones aboard that boat, too. That explains it.”

  The agent looked back at the watchers, then spoke to no one in particular.

  “Did nobody who wasn’t a clone want to work for this guy? Wallace couldn’t make friends, so he made friends; is that the idea?”

  Ephraim ignored the jab, thinking back to the patrol he and Sophie had run into when fleeing to Agaléga. At first, they’d been relieved at the sight of the boat — until they’d spied Eden’s most ubiquitous clones, the cheery Elle and Nolon, watching them from deck.

  The agent continued.

  “Okay. Eden collects DNA samples from their VIP guests on the sly when they first come in for consultations, then makes clones of them. But they make the clones younger than the original, right? We’re not just talking celebrities. We’re talking about celebrities back in their prime. Instead of retirement-age Altruance Brown, you get Altruances in their twenties. Instead of fiftyish Sophie Norrises, you get Sophies at their hottest. And then, what? Eden posts listings for the clones on an auction site? Or are they working on a Wal-Mart deal?”

  Ephraim met the agent’s eye. “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “Help me out anyway. If I’m in the market for an Altruance, what am I going to do with him? Have him as a butler? I could hire a real butler. A tall one so he can reach the stuff on the highest shelves in my pantry. It would be cheaper and easier than getting an Altruance.”

  “Not for sex,” Ephraim said.

  “A sexy butler, then.”

  “It’s not the same as Altruance Brown. Or Sophie Norris.” He realized the strangeness of his words and added lamely, “… if you’re into that sort of thing.”

  The agent waited a long beat before responding. Then he folded a cover over the tablet, set his palms atop his legs, and looked Ephraim full in the face.

  “I’m going to level with you, Mr. Todd. I find your story outlandish and, frankly, impossible to believe. All that’s stopping me from moving forward with certain ‘recommended actions’ you’re sure not to enjoy is a strange feeling that as ridiculous as your story is, you believe it.”

  “‘Believe’ … are you serious?”

  “Of course I’m serious. The question is, are you?”

  “But it’s true! You know it’s true! I—”

  “No, Mr. Todd, I don’t know it’s true. Because see, there’s a problem. Nobody has come forward to corroborate a thing that you’re saying. It’s just your crazy ass story versus a whole lot of destroyed property.”

  “Wait. Are you talking about Eden burning?”

  The agent nodded. “There are lawyers who’d like to talk to you about losses across the entire Eden archipelago, as well as an NDA the Evermore Corporation claims you violated — and which your presence here in front of me today plainly proves. Interpol has been in touch with us as well, though this matter is frankly none of Interpol’s fucking business. Nor mine, for that matter.”

  His expression hardened. The good cop mask was off, and the real cop beneath it — if GEM agents were, indeed, anything like cops — was on sudden display.

  “What is my business, is that for some reason you’ve decided to drag GEM into what should have been a personal grudge between you and Evermore. We have copies of the constant reports you’ve filed with police about your missing brother, all of which seem to accuse one of the most famous men in the world. You finally got to Eden. Fine. You decided to fuck it up? That’s fine, too. But then you screamed ‘clones,’ and suddenly we were required to step in. Suddenly my life and the lives of my colleagues got a lot more complicated because you needed to manufacture an excuse that we had to investigate. Why did you do that, Ephraim? If you wanted to do some espionage and piss all over Wallace Connolly, that’s your business. Why did you have to drag me into it? It’s my birthday tomorrow. I was supposed to take the day off and get drunk. Eat some carrot cake. Now it looks like I’ll have to be here again, at the office. Because you brought genetics into this.”

  Ephraim blinked around the room. “Wait. You think I’m lying?”

  “Not a single guest staying on Eden at the time you claim clones were runn
ing amok has substantiated your story.” The enforcer slipped a piece of white paper from beneath his tablet, showing a list of names. “Not Pierra Page. Not Titus Washington. Not Gus—”

  “They didn’t see anything. This all happened on the Pearl, the Denizen, and Islet 09. That means they can’t substantiate. All those guests were on the Retreat island.”

  “Not Gus Harmon,” the enforcer finished. “And our main man Altruance Brown, who you said ran from the clones with you, has been no help at all, because he’s dead.”

  Ephraim wasn’t so sure of that. Based on images he’d seen from Fiona’s hijacked satellite, a tall black man had escaped with Neven and ended up on an oil rig not far from Eden. Maybe the Altruance he’d been with had been a clone after all?

  Because as things turned out, Altruance’s sister’s name was Damaris — same as the sister Ephraim had believed he’d had. If Eden had inserted fake memories while Ephraim had been under the Tomorrow Gene’s spell to make him think he had a sister named Damaris, of all things, what did that say about Altruance — the man who’d known a real Damaris — and the side he’d been on all along?

  Or — and this had occurred to Ephraim more than once — maybe Fiona was the one who’d always been on the other side. Maybe she’d been playing him from the beginning, so that Ephraim could steal from Eden’s vault.

  You’re paranoid again, whispered a voice in Ephraim’s head.

  The GEM enforcer and his white-haired sidekick kept staring.

  “Sophie will tell you that I’m telling the truth. She escaped with me. She saw what Neven did, and heard what he said.”

  “Ms. Norris has declined our interviews.”

  “Call her in anyway. Make her testify.”

  “This isn’t a legal hearing, Mr. Todd. At the current time, GEM can’t make Ms. Norris do anything.”

  “Just me, then?”

  “Nobody’s forcing you to be here, either,” the agent said. “However, if you choose to decline our questions, as Ms. Norris has, that would be unwise.”