Immortality Project

Chapter 37

We ended up spending a long time eating and talking about life in the shelter. We were having our dessert after the heavy dinner we had. I asked about Mushka and Noelle, Queencie was a bit skeptical of their new line of work. 

Queencie never liked Noelle, but she was as civil as she could since Noelle had been a part of the team. "They've been in and out of the shelter going on missions the marked classified. I wasn't even allowed to access it." She grumbled as she told me. She was scooping a bite of her mais con yelo--sweetcorn with shaved ice and condensed milk perfect for hot summer nights. "Imagine me not getting access to their real tea."

Queencie had been promoted to a very high position into the shelter's governing body. She has access to everything but she found it hard to get a hold of Noelle's mission logs, which was really odd judging from her position. 

"Maybe they are just doing some dirty work for the military." I was chewing some sweet corn. "You know the drill." I wasn't part of the military but I know some of their secrets because of my former rank and my father. They can have those people who'll do their dirty work for them.

"But they are not as good as you in combat." She muttered, contemplating on the real reason behind their missions. True enough the two were not that specialized in combat. They were trained to infiltrate. 

Jim was just silently listening to our conversation. The three of us just moved to our house's small veranda outside the dining area. Mom just brought with her a small stool to sit on as the three of us had occupied the available chairs.

"They are trained to be spies." I was helping my mom to place a pillow on her stool for her comfort. I saw Queencie roll her eyes.

She pouted and ate a spoon full of her dessert. "Who are they spying on? The so-called High Emperor of the New World?" she huffed, "gimme a break, that dude can smell them for miles. Not to mention his mind raping skill. He would have them eating out of the palm of his hands in seconds!"

"What do you mean by that?" I suddenly got curious. "They can do mind control?"

"The high emperor can do mind control. He's the source of the infection. His blood created those vampires." She explained.

I got confused, "but he is a vampire too, right?"

"Nope!" She had a spoon in her mouth. "He's an immortal. Vampires are lesser than him. I read about the immortality gene in my gramp's notes. He was part of the few who made the experiment on the immortality project. I think that was about almost thirty years ago." She mumbled. "You're dad was part of it as well."

"How come they are lesser?" Jim finally asked. "Aren't they all blood suckers?"

"The one who possesses the immortal gene doesn't need to drink blood at all. He can consume it but I guess he doesn't need it as much as vampires." She placed her empty bowl on the center table. "According to gramps the immortal gene can live until the end of this world but they didn't know how they could activate it without actually killing the test subject." 

My thoughts were reeling with realization and more questions. But I was trying to stop myself from blurting out that I've been talking to Xedjedy all these time. That I was in constant contact with him with the mind fuse that he told me.

"Mom, did you know about this?" I asked my mom all of a sudden. If dad was involved perhaps she must have known something.

I saw all the colors draining on her face. She sighed before speaking, " your father wasn't the most innocent man I've known, but what he did wasn't all that twisted. The immortality project was created for them to make a cure for degenerative ailments. They wanted to make humans who could control their mind to the maximum of its abilities. But they failed to make a test subject who had an active immortal gene."

"Wait, human test subjects?" I clarified, "you mean, they genetically modified human DNA and grew babies?"

"They did," Queencie grimly stated. "But from what I've learned, only one baby was born alive. Most of the women suffered from miscarriages during their pregnancies or delivered still born babies."

The information made my heartbeat a little faster. 'Holy shit! They knew all along how to activate the gene but they sacked it because they couldn't kill him as a baby.' I covered my mouth deliberately with my fingers to stop myself from speaking. All I wanted to know then was the identity of the baby. "Did your gramp note the child's identity?" I asked a little bit nervous.

Queencie sighed and slumped back into her chair's backrest. "Well, when gramps did his disappearing act five years ago, he took half of his journal with him, including the one with the high emperor's identity. Heck, he might have left that one with the immortality project by accident I think. I guess I'll never know if he was truly an evil genius or just a dickhead for toying with people's lives like that!" 

I felt the frustration in Queencie's voice. She grew up with her grandfather. It broke her heart when he suddenly left without a trace five years ago. She had to fend for herself since she was an orphan already. But judging by the trustfund her parents left her and an amount being sent to her bank account on a weekly basis, she was well taken care of.

My mom placed a hand on Queencie's shoulder, "your grandfather is a good man, wherever he might be."

Queencie gave one of her cheeky smiles to my mom and said, "I know tita. The fact that he couldn't kill a single baby in exchange for immortality was proof enough for me." 

I bit my lower lip. 'Am I being controlled by Xed?' That thought echoed at the back of my head. It somehow made me uncomfortable to think that the person I love has amassed such great power in the world outside of the shelter. It made me feel so small.