A nagging in the back of Daniel’s head finally came to the fore. “Wait a minute…this is the downside to society, to public disclosure, uncontrolled information. But Elise, you said there was a downside for the company. What is it?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” she asked him.
“I think I have part of it…it’s about the mental health, isn’t it? And conscience?”
“Exactly. The longer you have it, the more emotionally stable and also altruistic you seem to become.This version of the virus causes what we call the ‘virtue effect.’ Many people that get it will not be able to even contemplate making offensive war, or committing violent crimes. Even emotional violence or oppression will become harder and harder. It doesn’t inhibit abstract thinking, as far as we know. It just creates an overactive conscience. Probably too much of one.”
“And –” Daniel broke in excitedly, “– and with people’s fear of disease and violence removed, people who don’t have the Eden Plague will find it hard to oppress or bully people either. But the bigwigs won’t want to give up their status, their ability to oppress people or order them around. And a world full of Edens wouldn’t be intimidated or controllable. It would be the end of the power structure as we know it! Even if it was kept secret. In fact, it’s a ticking time bomb. Eventually it will come to light, if they keep it around. Someone will talk, or use it to cure someone they love, or take it for themselves…and anyone that does becomes the enemy of the power structure. Automatic excommunication.”
“Ahem…” Roger cleared his throat. “That is correct. I believe carriers will be treated with jealousy, suspicion, hatred and fear. They will be targets of oppression, quarantine, imprisonment and perhaps extermination. The four infected people here may be the only carriers left in the entire world. Perhaps there are others, hiding somewhere, in Russia or other parts of Asia. Or perhaps the Soviets wiped it out, all but those samples that someone probably stole during the chaos when their protocols and controls collapsed.”
“That will happen if only a small number of people have it. If millions have it…they can’t quarantine and oppress everyone!” said Elise passionately.
“They’ll try. It threatens the established order,” Roger answered dispassionately, then fell quiet.
They sat there in silence for a time, listening to the rushing of air and the humming of wheels on the highway. They were nine people in a moving convoy connected by radio and by the enormity of what they possessed. They might hold the salvation of humanity inside their bodies. Or perhaps its ruin.
Daniel realized he didn’t want that responsibility. He also realized that he didn’t have any alternative.
-15-
After a while Daniel asked. “You said four people? What about you two, Arthur and Roger? Why don’t you have the Eden Plague?”
“We didn’t infect ourselves because we didn’t want to be as restricted as Elise was. We also didn’t want to have everyone carrying it in case we had to do something ruthless. It is ironic. And there still might have been some unknown problem. What if some years from infection, it suddenly made a horrible left turn – aging, cancer, immune system breakdown. Who could know?”
“But that’s all just guesses. What’s wrong with it for sure? Why isn’t it perfected?” Larry asked. “And can I still…you know…with a woman?”
Elise laughed. “Haven’t you been listening? Yes, and you’re fertile, too, if you want kids.”
Daniel sat bolt upright, an expression of wonder on his face.
Elise looked at him curiously. Her hand had crept back into his, and now she gripped it hard, concerned.
Daniel squeezed back and broke out in a big smile. “Never mind…it’s all good.” He relaxed back in the seat. He wasn’t going to talk about personal plans in front of seven extra people, but the thought kept going around and around in his head. If it healed everything else…it should have healed that too. We could have kids. A son to carry on my name, and the tradition of service.
He couldn’t stop grinning.
“It’s not perfected because it’s not,” Arthur spoke up, sounding a bit cross. “Genetic engineering is complex and difficult. And I have to pee. Can we take a break?”
“Next truck stop,” answered Zeke.
Thirty minutes later everyone had had a break and a takeout meal and were back on the road. Daniel readied his next question, one he’d had from the start. “So Elise…why me, anyway?”
She laughed wryly. “Why anyone? It had to be someone. You had been in the special operations community. You still had your clearances. You had no family other than your father left alive. Only child, highly motivated, high moral index. And ruthless when the mission called for it, but you didn’t enjoy killing; you were a combat lifesaver. And I was their first human test subject, but I wasn’t any kind of soldier. They wanted someone tough that could follow orders, but that wouldn’t go rogue. They wanted someone driven and ruthless because they thought the conscience problem could be overcome. At least, they wanted to test its limits. And you lived nearby. You popped out of the database. That’s pretty much it.”
“What database? The Air Force Personnel database would only show my service record and my retirement. You said ‘high moral index’ at my house too…”
Then it came to him.
“Oh, that slimy bastard. My shrink, Benchman. He collaborated. Turned over my medical records – broke his oath and my confidentiality. I should never have trusted him, I should have done what everyone in the service that wants to avoid trouble does, stay away from the psychiatrists. And…you saw my psych record too, didn’t you?” He suddenly knew he was right – knew now why she seemed to know him back then.
She hung her head. “Yes, I saw your file. I’m sorry, it wasn’t like I could refuse their orders. I just know they picked you out of some kind of pool of candidates. Then Jenkins said he’d do the recruiting, claimed he had the perfect approach. He came and got me, twisted my arm, you know the rest.”
“That approach got him killed.” Daniel mulled that over, ran the checklist of open items in his mind. “Hmm…back to what you said earlier. How could they overcome the conscience ‘problem’?” He asked this with faint sarcasm.
Elise pulled her hand away and crossed her arms before answering. “Doctor Durgan had some ideas. He got drunk and bragged to me once. Electroshock. Brain surgery. Personality conditioning techniques, drugs…it might be possible. Eden Plague is subtle and gentle by comparison. It shapes you with a kind of aversion therapy. The more harmful you yourself believe what you are doing is, the harder it will be to do. It’s based on your own basic beliefs about right and wrong. So you can perform surgery if you believe you are helping someone, but you can’t make those same cuts if you believe you are killing them. Unless you think the killing is morally right. Sincerely righteous.”
He thought for a moment, then asked another question. “One of you said most people infected would act better with emotional and mental health improvement…what about the other fraction?”
He felt Elise tense up beside him, and he looked at her. She dropped her eyes. “There are genetic wild cards, unpredictable effects. The EP isn’t perfect, and…maybe even a perfected EP wouldn’t fix everyone. Human brains and minds are just too complex. Our models predict some people, maybe people who are already mentally ill, psychopaths or sociopaths, wouldn’t be cured. The ones with no sense of right and wrong at all. Very few, but if millions were infected…”
Daniel went cold as he digested that. “So…if you genuinely believe killing someone was good for everyone…even the target…you could do it? Like a jihadist who believes he’s doing God’s will?”