The Devil's Smile

Chapter 3

We did not go back to our homes for there was a chance of getting caught by our parents but rather we reached my gym. We both sneaked in the locker room and I changed my clothes and Puck attached all the things that were necessary with his laptop on the bench. It was 2425 A.D. and yet we were still here working with stuff which were fifty years old and had been salvaged and remade with pieces of junk.

“I think I have been able to find out what is the holdup Red,” said Puck in a grim voice while I pulled away the false extensions from my hair and dumped them in the bag.

“What is it Puck?” I asked as I failed to see that there was someone at the doorway.

“Oiii, you two, what is going on? What are you both doing here at this time?” asked my coach who came forward with his odd whirring noise. After he had lost his legs knee down and one arm Coach Mckinley had spent all his pension savings on getting new mechanical arms and legs which technically made him a cyborg.

“Coach!! I thought that the gym was going to be empty at this time,” I replied as he came ahead and peered into the screen.

“This is where I live sonny, why the hell am I going to go somewhere else and what is that you are exactly doing with that thing in my locker room?” he asked gruffly as Puck turned towards him and batted his eyelashes, grinning from one ear to the other.

“Nothing Coach, he has been able to decipher a lot of moves which I am not strong in and I was gonna practice them, for my leg-work you know,” I said hoping that he would believe my lies.

“I would have believed you sonny girl, but I think I taught you better than that!!! You want to explain what the hell you are doing with the logo of the Pentagon on the screen??” asked Coach and this time his voice was not the sweet gruff fatherly one. I thought I heard steel when he spoke.

“We would have but we do not know the full thing yet, and we needed a place where there would no surveillance while we find out what has been killing all the twenty-one year olds in the town since the last five years!!” said Puck before I could open my mouth and I glared at him. I was wishing if I could burn him down with laser rays from my eyes then I would have surely done that.

“When your brother passed away Red, I thought you needed some time off from your training and I did not want to be too harsh on you but now I think I may have been wrong in keeping you away from the ring. At the least your time, energy and focus would have been on something productive instead of going for federal crimes!!” said Coach as I cowered back at his temper.

“Fine!! We won’t hack into Pentagon’s Black Ops Program list but you have been here for more than fifty years Coach Mckinley and you know everything that has been happening here so why don’t you give us some insight? You owe this much to your star pupil who is the crowd puller of your little illegal fighting pit, isn’t it?” asked Puck who was looking at him with fire in his eyes.

“Puck don’t…” I started but my best friend silenced me with a look. Coach Mckinley looked at him and then looked at me and then said,” It seems that you are finally becoming the man that your father always wanted you to be. Yeah, don’t look at me like that, I knew him. For your question, fifty-nine years earlier there was this President of the United States who was extremely radical in his views and he was supported by the public as well but there were some steps he had taken which did not come out in front of the eyes of the public and the Defense Forces supported him in making this entire operation successful. One among them was that after our generation, the one who have been naturally born and conceived there could be no more natural conceptions in United States.”

“How the hell was that possible? What aare you saying? This means we all have been born in labs? But we have…” I said with my eyes coming out of my sockets and he nodded at my words making my worst fears come true. Everything in our lives was controlled by the state. This revelation was more than enough to bring me down to my knees.

“Okay, so why are the kids dying when they turn twenty-one? I mean they are the ones who are going to be the future not the older ones there needs to be a replacement right? Logically speaking,” said Puck, as he still was confused.

“I will tell you this kid, that you know much more than you should and you should not let anyone know about this or else there are worse fates than being captured by the drones,” said Coach as he referred to the air-borne robots who kept vigilance over us at all times of the day.

“Now go home and forget that this conversation ever happened,” said Coach as he left us reeling with the blow that we both had received.

Two days had passed since we both had come to know the lies about your existence. And everything seems bleak. I had immersed myself in my upcoming midterm tests and Puck had done the same probably. But I had forgot that his dogged persistence was much more than mine and this he had gotten from his mother inherently, in his words. A text message pinged on my chat box on my machine as I was recalling the Jefferson’s speech.

It said to come to the loft as soon as possible. I texted back that I was busy with history.

“I have hit on the mother lode. Just come.”

I sighed and pulled over my jacket as I told mom that I was going over to Puck’s to help him with history. My mom said something unintelligible and I ran to the loft as hard as I could.

As I entered the loft I found that Puck was being grabbed by a drone and Dobby was busy swatting off three more. I kicked all of the drones down and their focus turned towards me while Puck sat down on his machine.

“I would prefer a little help here Puck!!” I shouted as I was slammed into the wall by two of them.

Then suddenly all the drones powered off. Puck had hacked into their servers and overpowered the drones making them defenseless.

“What have you exactly done?” I asked Puck as he sheepishly looked at me and then pointed at the screen. There were a lot of files on the screen popped up and I could not understand any single one of them. And Puck understanding my predicament started opening them one by one. There were these speeches from sixty years earlier about the growing population of the world and how our resources were falling short for the entire world. Then I saw the project named Unborn. It was started on an experimental basis at a small lab in our town PiMicron Technologies Limited and then it was taken over by the Pentagon which was applied to the entire nation rendering every male infertile. This was a private endeavor funded by the government. This was the sole reason that the genetic material of every single individual born in the last fifty years was under the control of the government.

“Why did Blue die Puck? What did my brother have to do with all these?” I asked as my hands had clenched into fists.

“Blue was not the only one. Apart from the controlling of genetic pool they also started inserting a gene in every single child which would activate one they turned twenty-one. It is a self-destructive strain Red, you have seen what it can do. No one crosses twenty-one, which was the motto of this new program initiated twenty-five years earlier. We all are going to die in a few years Red and we can do nothing to stop it,” said Puck as I controlled my urge to slam my fist in one of his screens.

“Lazarus is alive Puck. It means that this is not a general feature done for all, it is activated in the people of the lower and middle class sections so that the resource sharing would be minimized. We need to put an end to this,” I said as I looked at my best friend who looked at me as if I had lost my senses.

“We are two sixteen year olds Red in case you have not noticed, the last time I checked and we are going to live only five more years!!!” said Puck as Dobby came forward with the mop on his short shoulder.

“Master has missed out something Mistress Red,” said Dobby as I looked down at him.

“What is it Dobby?” I asked as Puck glared at Dobby saying something about boundaries and how Dobby needed to learn about them.

“There is a facility under the cemetery grounds where Dobby was employed before I was cast away and master and Mistress Red brought me home. I was one of the robots who manufactured the medicines to stop the activation of the self-destructive gene there. I was in function for only two years before I was dismantled and thrown away,” said Dobby as I picked him up and settled him on one of the tables to bring him at my eye-level.

“How did I not come to know about this before Dobby?” asked Puck, still glaring at him.

“Master said he did not want to be disturbed Mistress Red,” said the house-bot and I smiled at the duo.

“Can you give us the formula Dobby? For these pills?” I asked as Dobby’s expression changed into a gloomy one.

“My hard disk was destroyed and I was only able to retain this much in my memory before I got dismantled Mistress Red,” said Dobby in his robotic voice. And Puck had again started out typing on his keyboard and the clackety clack was horrible to hear.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I found the live feed of the Pentagon operations office come on the screen.

“I am trying to understand who is the one who would be responsible enough to know the truth and do something against this,” muttered Puck.

“You might want to talk to your Grandma about it Red. She is the one who might be able to do something about it,” came the voice of my father from the doorway and I almost fell back in shock understanding that he had heard everything we discussed.

“Dad, what are you doing here?” I asked as I found him in his work clothes and the squad car waiting outside.

“I was ordered for a clean and sweep in this place but seems that you guys have got it all under control. I need to leave Red, but you know that this needs to be over by tonight and the place needs to be burned down. I can send in the report tomorrow. You know the rules sweetie,” said my father as he kissed my forehead and left the room.

“What the…” started Puck but I stopped him mid-sentence.

“No time. We need the formula Puck and I need to meet with my Grandmother as soon as possible. Any ideas about how we can do that?” I asked as Dobby cleaned up the mess in the middle of the room and we both looked at him at the same time and nodded.