The Children of the Company Part 26

And here were children running to and fro, in and out of the rooms, circling the furniture and yelling happily. Really, one expected Herr Drosselmeyer to make a swooping entrance with a nutcracker. But there was no Clara for him to woo here. All these children seemed to be little boys, six of them, all between the ages of five and eight. Not much to tell them apart: tousled hair, cheeks pink with exertion, bulky-knitted sweaters with patterns of reindeer or fir trees or snowflakes. A fair-haired boy, an ash-blond boy, a boy with hair red as mine, two brunettes who seemed to be twins ... well, he wouldn't be one of them. A boy with sable hair ... ?Yes. I spotted him standing still for a moment on the other side of the buffet table, beyond the bright candles, and his image s.h.i.+mmered through their flames.

I found I didn't care to look at his face.

I concentrated on the buffet instead. What a feast: smoked salmon, goose, turkey, baked goods in profusion, spiced apples, chocolates. Theobromos would help ...

"Nils?"

I managed to avoid starting guiltily as I turned from sampling a truffle. Labienus saw, of course, and his eyes glinted as he touched the shoulder of a mortal man with a stupid gentle face.

"Nils, may I present Dr. Geert Karremans?"

"Sir!" I ate the last of the truffle hastily, smiled and reached to shake his hand. "It's an honor to meet you."

"Very, very kind of you," the man replied with enthusiasm. He, like Anna, was just entering middle age but dressed boyishly. His bulky-knit sweater was patterned with little figures of skiers. "So-what do you think? Will it go over well?"

"I can't imagine a more wholesome scene," I told him, fairly truthfully.

"It'll go over well," decided Labienus, surveying the room. "Look at everyone! Happy, well-fed, full of sentimental memories of childhood. This was exactly the approach to take."

"And all your idea, too," Geert congratulated him.

"Not mine alone, Dr. Karremans. This is why Doss and Waters has retained its premiere position in public relations counseling for more than fifty years," Labienus replied. "I think you'll find you made the right choice in retaining our services."

"Oh, I'm sure we did," agreed Geert, stepping aside whilst two of the boys thundered past the table, shrieking as they chased each other with toy dinosaurs. One jostled a corner in his pa.s.sing, and a candlestick toppled over; I caught it rather more quickly than I ought to have, but Geert didn't notice. He was frowning after the boys.

"The children are getting restless. Do you suppose it's time to make the-?" He looked at Labienus with a combination of nerves and eagerness.

"Showtime," Labienus told him, smiling again. "Leave it to me."

He strode to the fireplace and stood with his back to the flames, calling for attention with his mere presence. He had dressed for the part, certainly: black trousers and a red s.h.i.+rt cut to give the impression of informal power. Labienus was an imposing-looking fellow in any case, tall, with elegant Roman features. As one after another of the guests stopped speaking and turned to stare at him, he put his hands up and said, in a pleasing voice that penetrated without effort to the far corners of the house: "Friends? Everybody! May I have your attention, please?"

He had it at once, naturally. Beside me a kameraman murmured appreciatively, "Check it out! He's not even miked."

"Thank you. Now, I'm going to tell you all a story, so I'd suggest you make yourselves comfortable. Yes, here-let's bring the children up to the front, this is their time of year, after all. Are you having a good time, boys? Wonderful. And the rest of you, you're all relaxed, you've all helped yourselves to the fine feast our hostess has set out? I haven't seen a holiday table like that since I was a child, have you? All settled now. Good!

"My name is Michel Labeck, of Doss and Waters Public Relations, and I've been retained by the Drs. Karremans for my professional expertise; but I'd like to add that I'm also a personal friend, as are most of you here." This wasn't quite true, as the party was fairly exclusively a press event, but he was unlikely to be contradicted.

"Now, you ladies and gentlemen of the press amongst us may have been suspecting that an announcement of some kind was going to be made-and, of course, you're correct. There will be an official press conference tomorrow, you see, but tonight we'll make the unofficial announcement to you favored ones we regard as personal friends. We wanted you to know first, to have a unique opportunity for an intimate look at what we're unveiling."

The little boys were bored by this, lined up as they were in a row at Labienus's feet. A velociraptor screamed silently and leapt at a stegosaur, which bashed it back.

"Oh-oh! Looks as though we've got a dinosaur conflict, ladies and gentlemen. I think I'd better cut to the chase, here. Are you ready for the story, boys?"

"Ye-es," chorused half a dozen little voices. There was of appreciative laughter from the adults.

"Good." Labienus looked out into the room, making eye contact, drawing them all in. "Once upon a time, children, there was a man and there was a woman. They loved each other very much, and they were very happy together. In another age, long ago, he might have been a toymaker, she might have been a milkmaid; but they happened to be born into an age of science, and so scientists they were. They were good people. The woman worked to keep the children of the world safe from diseases. The man worked to make certain the children of the world would never go hungry. They did this with their research into DNA."

Murmurs from the crowd as heads turned to Geert and Anna, smiling selfconsciously by the buffet table with their arms about each other, flushed with the warmth of the candles.

Labienus cleared his throat. "Now, as I said, this couple were very happy together. There was only one sorrow in their lives: they had always longed to have a child of their own. But the years went by, and no little child came to them. Perhaps, they thought to themselves, it was for the best. After all, there were histories of certain kinds of illness in both their families, and maybe they oughtn't pa.s.s on their genetic inheritance. They tried to adopt, but so few babies were available in this country they'd have been awfully old by the time their names came to the top of the list to get one. It was very sad.

"And then, one day, the woman had a daring idea: they might combine their knowledge of DNA to make themselves a child."

A stunned silence in the room. The mortals looked at one another, wondering if Labienus was really going to say what they imagined he might say.

He nodded, acknowledging their excitement. "Yes! Now, this was a very unconventional idea, I need hardly tell you. After all, ignorant people find the thought of creating anything from recombinant DNA quite scary. They think of white-coated mad scientists from the movies creating terrible things, creating, oh, I don't know, tomatoes with claws and teeth. A ketchup monster! Or some strange hybrid like this-" He leaned down and took a toy dinosaur from one of the boys, and, grabbing an apple from the mantelpiece decorations, stuck it on the dinosaur's head and held it up for everyone to see. "Look! Applesauce monster."

The children squealed with laughter, and the adults laughed, too. Smiling, Labienus returned the dinosaur to its owner and continued: "Of course, that's not really what happens when you work with recombinant DNA at all, and scientists are not mad characters from the movies. But people in other countries made their governments forbid research into recombinant DNA, even though it might hold the key to eliminating disease and hunger throughout the whole world forever. It's sad when people are stupid.

"Ah, but this is Amsterdam! We have a tradition of tolerance and enlightenment going back to our very beginnings. We have never fallen into step with the bigots and the short-sighted. We have gone our own way, triumphantly and successfully, for centuries now. We have never pa.s.sed laws to forbid the pursuit of human knowledge, and as a result our scientific and technological discoveries have brightened the world, and made it a better place for children everywhere to be born into. We're not afraid"-he pulled an absurd face-"of applesauce monster, eh?"

Laughter throughout the room, and a pleasant sense of smug superiority. Labienus regarded us all, smiling. He put his hands in his pockets and went on: "Now, our friends, the two scientists, knew perfectly well how to make a child from recombinant DNA. We've known how for decades. But, probably because of worries over applesauce monsters, n.o.body had ever made one. Well, the man and the lady sat down and came up with a simple design. All they wanted, after all, was an ordinary, healthy little child.

"And then the lady remembered her poor brother, who had been in the Civil Guard before his life was cut short by the Sattes virus." Labienus's face grew very somber, and there were sighs as people remembered the death toll from that terrible interlude, when the virus had spread through the armies of the world.

"And the man remembered his own childhood, how clumsy he'd been, how hopeless at sports, and how mercilessly other children had teased him for it.

"This was why they decided to improve their simple design. What if it were possible to make a child with an immune system engineered to resist viral infections? What if it were possible to make a child with a brain engineered to better process information, to send signals more quickly and clearly to the body? What would they have then? Why, they'd have an ordinary little child who could catch a ball with ease, and more: a child who would be able to survive any plagues that might evolve. You see?

"No superman. No atomic genius. No applesauce monster. Only a healthy, well-coordinated child you wouldn't notice if you pa.s.sed in the street. This was all they wanted, ladies and gentlemen."

He paused to let them think about that.

"And the purpose of this party is to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that-with the help of dear friends, doctors, and other scientists-a healthy, average child is exactly what they got."

Quite a reaction at that, all manner of mortal emotions in that crowded room, and a chorus of clicks and curses as all the kameramen realized they ought to have been recording this. Kameramen aren't ordinarily caught flatfooted, but they tend to pay more attention in moments of horror and tragedy than at pleasant parties. Now the kameramen belatedly plugged themselves in and Saw Labienus. He nodded just perceptibly, and for their benefit he reiterated: "Yes. This man and this woman have produced the first human child using recombinant DNA, ladies and gentlemen. Will you be permitted to see the embryo? I'm afraid that's not possible, because, you see, this child was produced six years ago. He has already been with us for quite some time."

Now they really gasped, the mortals, and Geert and Anna clung together more tightly. Labienus took his hands out of his pockets and held them out to the children sitting at his feet.

"Now, boys, I'd like to ask you to stand up and turn around for the cameras. You're all going to be on the Wire!"

Shyly, awkwardly they clambered to their feet and turned, six little boys in bright sweaters, clutching their toy dinosaurs, blinking at the kameramen. Labienus's voice rose on a note of command.

"Look at them, ladies and gentlemen! Our own children. Could you possibly tell that one of them was made from recombinant DNA? You couldn't, could you? Which boy do you think it is?"

A few people (though not his parents) pointed uncertainly at the blue-eyed blond child. Labienus grinned.

"No indeed. No, as it happens"-he put his hand on the shoulder of the black-haired boy-"it's little Hendrick. The rest of you children may sit down now."

Little Hendrick's eyes widened. He turned and stared up at Labienus in horror, turned back and stared at the kameramen recording his image avidly. He started forward through the seated crowd, desperate to get to Anna and Geert.

"Wait!" called Labienus, laughing. "Hendrick, people would like to speak with you!"

"I want to go to see my mommy now," Hendrick wailed, and reaching her at last he wrapped his arms around her legs and hid his face.

Well! Could anything have been more disarming? Anna lifted Hendrick in her arms and what a heartwarming picture they made, all three, the two proud parents and their shy little son. Technically I suppose he was no more their son than anyone else's, of course. A host mother had gestated him (she later sold her story to a journalist) and n.o.body was ever able to determine afterward just where Anna had obtained the source DNA they'd used.

The boy didn't look enough like Anna and Geert, or unlike them either, to be able to tell. I had to look at his face now and, I must admit, I'd never have known he was a Recombinant. After all, what was a Recombinant supposed to look like? n.o.body had any idea, then. This one was slender and dark, with wide dark eyes and very ordinary features. He clung with his arms around Anna's neck as she and Geert fielded questions from the press. Labienus had coached them carefully for this, knowing when to fade back and let them tell it in (very nearly) their own words.

Yes, it was all true; Hendrick Karremans was five years old. No, they hadn't raised him here in Amsterdam City. They'd been living out in the country until a couple of weeks ago. No, he hadn't attended preschool. Yes, he was going to enter an ordinary kindergarten when the 2093 session started, in two weeks. This was why they had felt they ought to go public with his story at last.

What was his IQ? They declined to state, but added that he was a reasonably bright boy. He liked to paint and listen to music. His favorite food was Apple Puffs. His favorite game was Super Soccer-Man. What did he want to be when he grew up? A fireman! Why hadn't they revealed his existence to the world before now? Because they had wanted him to have a normal childhood.

Until today, I thought to myself, watching the child's face as he peered at the kameramen. If he'd known the truth about himself, he certainly hadn't had any idea what the truth meant. He was beginning to know now; and how frightened he looked, little Hendrick Karremans.

Though he grew calmer as the room became less crowded. The parents of the human children took them home to bed, the journalists rushed home to their keyboards to get the story out. The kameramen lingered, intent on catching visuals of the child wandering around the emptying room, waving disconsolately at the other boys as they left, going to the buffet and helping himself to chocolates before Anna caught him at it, picking up his dinosaur and making it walk along the wall.

I had found an uncrowded corner and seated myself there. Eventually Geert came and settled beside me, as Labienus escorted the last of the kameramen out with some concluding remarks for print.

"Well! I don't see how it could have gone any more smoothly, can you?" Geert said happily. "I think we made quite a good impression."

"I think so, yes," I replied.

"You'll be staying over? I see you didn't bring a bag, but-"

"In the car," I a.s.sured him. "I'll get it before Michel leaves."

"Good. We have the guest bedroom ready for you. Michel gave you some idea of your duties?" Geert looked just slightly uneasy. He'd never been a celebrity before.

"Handling the press and your correspondence on a day-to-day basis," I recited. "Making any arrangements, security or otherwise, that become necessary." This included acting as the child's bodyguard, though I felt it tactless to say so in so many words.

Geert nodded. "We're very grateful to you, really. I didn't realize there were people who did this sort of thing! Of course, it'll be very important to make sure that our lives go on just the same as before, as far as that's possible. That's just the point of it all, you see? Hendrick is really no different from any other child. Nothing is going to change."

Fool, I thought. Even the child knew better.

He sidled up to us now, looking troubled.

"Daddy?" He wrung his hands. "I'm afraid we have rather a problem."

"And what's that, Hendrick?" Geert turned to him, smiling at his big words.

"Well-there's one of those bugs in here, it came out of the coat closet and now it's flying around-I don't know what they're called-"

"A fly?"

"No, Daddy, the ones that eat clothes, you know?" How anguished his dark eyes were.

"Moths," I said.

"Yes, thank you. And they like to get near candles-and we've got all these candles in here-and one of them could fly too close and catch fire and then fly all around the room and set it on fire, too."

Geert roared with laughter at that. Hendrick just looked at him, on the point of tears, I think.

"No, no," I a.s.sured him. "Because the wings would burn up instantly, so the moth wouldn't be able to fly. You see? It'd just fall harmlessly to the table."

"But then the table might burn," Hendrick pointed out.

"True," I acknowledged. "Let's see what we can do about preventing that, shall we?" I looked up into the room and acquired the moth. On its next pa.s.s through the air above our heads I lunged up and got it.

"Bravo!" Geert applauded. "What speed! But you missed, didn't you? It was way up there by the ceiling."

"Do you see it, sir?" I inquired.

"No, but-"

I opened my hand to reveal the moth's crushed body. Geert went off into gales of laughter again. I think he'd had more wine than perhaps had been quite wise. Hendrick smiled at me.

"And now the moth won't burn your house down," I told him.

"Thank you," he replied gravely. He considered me a long moment. "What's your name?"

"Nils Victor," I told him. "I'm here to help your mother and father."

"Oh. Are you going to live with us?"

"Yes, I am."

"That'll be nice," he said. Anna came in then.

"Hendrick, it's past your bedtime," she said severely. She was quite sober. "And we've still got the food to clear away, Geert."

"Allow me, please," I told her, and got to my feet. She started to protest, and then realized she had a servant now. How her face lit up.

"If you don't mind-it's too kind of you, really. Hendrick, say good night to dear Mr. Victor and we'll go upstairs." She held out her hand to him and he went dutifully, but not before pausing to say: "Good night, Mr. Victor." He knit his brows, and remarked: "You're different, too."

Interesting. I smiled and inclined from the waist in a bow. Neither of his parents seemed to notice the remark. Anna took the child's hand and led him upstairs, as Geert yawned hugely and got up to help me put away the remnants of the buffet. He had just proposed that we open another bottle of wine when there came a polite double knock at the door: Labienus, returning from the car with my bag. I excused myself and went to let him in.

"Good thing I didn't drive away with this," he said in a jolly voice, presenting me with the bag. He scanned briefly, to a.s.sure himself there were no mortals within earshot, and said in a lower voice: "You'll be all right here, of course."

"Certainly, sir," I replied. But what expression was this on his face? Sympathy?

"Look here ... this will be hard for you, I know. Regrettable that he's a delightful child. This is strictly against regulations, of course, but, to fortify you in your hour of need-you'll find a few bars of Theobromos in with your things." He took my hand in his and clenched it briefly.

I was speechless with shock. Labienus was the last man I should have thought capable of gestures of affection. I know from bitter experience how little compa.s.sion he feels for the mortals we purportedly serve. I still had a vivid memory of old San Francisco, when I'd seen him straining eagerly to hear the death screams of mortals trapped in the ruins of the earthquake.

"Thank you very much, sir," I said, finding my voice at last. He smiled again and stepped back out into the night.

"You're welcome. There are times, Victor, when one needs additional strength to endure what is necessary in order to obtain Company goals. But I'm sure you're far too experienced a field operative to need to be told that! I'll be in touch in the morning."

And he ran lightly down the steps and away, under the cold stars.

The official press conference the next day was much more difficult. Word had got out, as we'd intended, and the press knew what to expect, what pointed questions to ask. Fortunately Labienus had prepared answers to all of them, but Geert and Anna were still fl.u.s.tered. They really had not expected any negative reaction to what they'd done.

I was tempted to blame them, but it was easy to understand their ingenuousness. They'd lived cloistered with Hendrick night and day for five years. He seemed the most lovable and ordinary of children to them. How could anyone object to his existence?

The religious leaders of the world had various condemnatory answers for them, of course, including the Ephesian Church, which formally demanded to know why Anna had not created a daughter instead of a son. Fortunately Anna was a practicing Ephesian, and her pious answer-that she'd left the choice of the baby's gender up to the G.o.ddess-mollified them somewhat. We put out a certain amount of Ephesian-slanted publicity, too, depicting Anna as bravely defying the paternalist laws of the world to exercise her reproductive rights, which helped.

More difficult to deal with were all the tedious little laws Anna and Geert had so blithely disregarded. No, they hadn't registered Hendrick's birth with the proper civil authorities: how could they, when they'd meant to keep his existence a secret until the press conference? So of course he had no papers and no legal ident.i.ty, and that meant dealing with a hostile bureaucracy.