I blink. The pain in my leg is still crippling, and my breathing is ragged, but my mind is growing clear. I’m beginning to see what he’s talking about – what he was trying to show me through the horror of Sunnyvale. It’s the same thing I’ve seen so many times over the last two years, but I’ve never put it together until now. I close my eyes, shuddering as it falls into place.
The Lurkers. The hordes at Sunnyvale. The response to the virus’s scent.
They’re all the same instinct, like different notes in the same chord.
‘Instincts,’ I breathe. ‘That’s what you were doing with Cole. You were looking for where our instincts are coded in our DNA, and you found them.’
He smiles. ‘That’s right. I found them all through Cole and mapped them out painstakingly in our genome. We like to think we’re complex creatures, that our higher-order thinking is what controls us, but in reality we’re mostly driven by our instincts. You see their ugly face in every scandal. Every act of war. We try to keep our instincts reined in, but it’s like blocking out the sun. They bleed into our lives, into the very fabric of society. I mapped out those instincts, Catarina, but I found one I couldn’t ignore. One little gene, deeply hidden, held inside each of us. It’s the quintessence of the rage you saw in Sunnyvale.’
‘The Wrath,’ I whisper.
‘Yes, darling. The Wrath. So many of our violent behaviours can be traced back to that one little gene. The scent of the infected doesn’t change people’s minds, it just switches on a part of them that’s been there all along. An ancient part of our reptilian brain, left over from when we were savages. I didn’t create the horror you saw in Sunnyvale. I just brought it to the surface.’
I close my eyes, seeing the leaping fire and snarling hordes, seeing Sunnyvale’s streets erupting into bloodshed. But I’ve seen it for longer than that. I’ve felt it for years, heard its voice whispering to me, begging for release. The abyss. The darkness inside me that held the knife every time I killed a second-stager to survive. The beast. I can hear it now, lurking in my cells.
A tiny core of evil, boiled down to a single gene.
‘When I found it, I knew we were saved,’ Lachlan says. ‘Humanity could finally evolve into a superior race and leave our horrific past behind us. I tried to show Cartaxus, but they couldn’t see the bigger picture – that the virus wasn’t the real threat to our survival. It was the Wrath. It’s been controlling us since we were cavemen. We’ve had one war after another throughout our entire history, all because of this tiny, insignificant gene. We’re doomed if we keep going, whether we beat the virus or not. The only way to save humanity is to find a way to change.’
‘And that’s what you’re doing?’ I ask. ‘With the vaccine, you’re … changing people’s genes? You’re trying to recode the human race?’
‘When you pick up an apple with a rotten spot, do you eat the spoiled flesh? No, you cut it out. Humanity has a spot, Catarina. It’s tiny, but it’s powerful, and it’s holding us back, keeping us bound by the obsolete instincts of our ancestors. We needed it once to survive, but we don’t need it any more.’
‘Can you even hear yourself?’ I gasp. ‘It’s not up to you to choose!’
‘The choice is obvious!’ Lachlan’s eyes grow wide. ‘The human brain has barely evolved in fifty thousand years. It only takes a computer chip a decade to become obsolete, but we’re running on fifty-thousand-year-old hardware. Humanity needs to evolve or we will die.’
‘But you’re destroying people,’ I say, my voice trembling. ‘You weren’t helping the people at Sunnyvale – you were tearing them apart.’
Lachlan reaches out a hand to me, his skin blistered and weeping. ‘It was important that you saw just how dark we are inside. That’s why I had to do it. You had to see it up close, with your own eyes, or you wouldn’t understand what I’m trying to do. I need you to help me, Catarina, like you promised years ago. I isolated the instinct and used the vaccine to suppress it, but the effect is temporary. With your help, and with your gift, we can make it permanent.’
Permanent. I close my eyes, my head spinning. He wants to change the DNA of everyone on the planet the same way he changed mine. Recode their underlying genes. The idea is terrifying – but only because it’s coming from a man who wants to force it on the world. I’ve seen the Wrath, I’ve felt it, and I’ll always carry the shame of what it made me do. The immunity. The thrill I felt after taking it. If I had a choice, I would have done anything to stop myself from turning into that beast.
And I wouldn’t be the only one.
‘So why don’t you just tell people about this?’ I ask. ‘Nobody wants this inside them. Not after Hydra, and what it’s done to us. We could decide as a species to stop this, to cut it off with this generation. You already grew a line of plague children inside vats – why didn’t you come up with a way for people to choose this for their children?’
Lachlan closes his eyes, sighing. The sound is rough; his throat is burned. ‘Don’t you think I’ve tried, Catarina? I must have tried a thousand times. The human genome is a perfectly balanced equation with so many terms that we still don’t understand. You can’t simply pluck a gene from it and expect the result to remain stable. That’s why gentech can’t change your natural DNA. The core of what makes us human is constant and immutable. I tried growing specimens with the gene for the Wrath removed, but their brains never grew properly. One day future scientists will learn how to cleanly slice that part of us away, but for now we rely on you.’
Something inside me trembles. I brace myself against the wall, staring into Lachlan’s eyes. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘My research with Cole showed me the patterns of our instincts within our genes, and his gift gave me a method of activating or suppressing them. But you operate at a level beyond that. You are the code that writes itself. Your body can take in noise and turn it into a symphony. Your DNA rebalances the equation of humanity in a way I have yet to comprehend. If you join me, Catarina, if we work together on this, we can reproduce your gift and share it with the world.’
‘I know you want to change them,’ I whisper. ‘You want to rewrite their DNA like you rewrote mine. But I don’t understand – what does that have to do with instincts?’
He smiles. ‘You’re not seeing the true beauty of your talents, Catarina. When you accept a change to your DNA, it’s not just your body that recodes itself. Your mind opens like a flower, mimicking the personality of the person whose DNA you’re taking in. Your brain restructures itself with an ease it would have taken us centuries to develop. You can take on the personality, and the strengths, of anyone you choose.’
‘My … my brain?’ Ice settles inside me. ‘What do you mean?’
Lachlan chuckles. ‘You were always bright, darling, even when you were little. Solving puzzles faster than the others, always remembering what you were told. But the treatments started early. Much of your intelligence came from me. It’s not just my face you wear, Catarina. I gave you my mind, as well.’
CHAPTER 47