Free Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam Page A

explosion. We’ve been in contact with the Search and Rescue operation. They found no survivors, no wreckage, and when their search widened to include this area, we were able to tell them nothing. No one’s looking for you anymore. We’ve been waiting until we were sure of that, and if you hadn’t found your way to us, we’d have been coming to pick you up soon.”
    Have you ever been afraid you were lost? When you were little—at a fairground, or in a crowded shopping center maybe? Maybe you remember how at first you didn’t realize what was wrong. You were sure the next person you ran up to would be your mother, the next big man-shape you saw would be Daddy. But the strange faces look down at you, not Daddy, not Mummy; and you run away from them. You start running faster, as if by running you can catch up with the normal world that was all around you a few minutes ago; and be safe. In the end you’re running through the crowd of big people, tears pouring down your face, frightened to death.
    “We didn’t know how we were going to tackle the human trials,” he said, watching our faces. “But you are ideal. You are missing, believed dead. You don’t exist.”
    But things are even worse than you imagined, not just lost, lost
forever,
but . . .
    Cold tremors went through me. The monstrous truth was dawning on me, and I knew why Dr. Skinner had looked so afraid, so horrified, right from the first moment—
    “He’s not really going to experiment on
us
!” I gasped, in utter disbelief. “Not
really
!”
    “I’m afraid he is.”
    “What if we say no?” said Miranda at last. “Will he kill us?”
    “
Kill
you? Certainly not. What use would that be? Dr. Franklin is going to
change
you, the way the animals you’ve seen were changed. You are the next stage. You won’t ‘say no.’ You won’t be asked for your consent. Didn’t you hear me? You don’t exispt.”
    “You can’t let this happen,” said Miranda. “We’re innocent human beings.”
    He laughed, bitterly. “Is there such a thing as an innocent human being? I don’t think so.” He ran his hands through his thinning hair, and wiped the sweat that had gathered on his forehead, although it was cool in there. “I’ve tried to put it off,” he muttered, staring at us as if he hated us, “but it was bound to come to this. We’ve gone as far as we can, infusing human genetic material into dumb animals. Don’t you see? We can’t exactly advertise for teenage volunteers for this, can we? But
we have
to have human trials
. It’s the only next step.”
    “Then experiment on yourselves!” snapped Miranda.
    “I said
teenage.
Haven’t you been listening to a word you’ve been told? We are too old, Dr. Franklin and I. This is the way it has to be, and you can forget about appealing to my better nature. I have none.” He came closer to the bars, his voice rising hysterically. “He’s a genius. He’s crazy, but he is a genius. You’ll serve the cause of human progress. You will become more than human! Look on it as a great adventure.”
    “I don’t believe this,” said Miranda, flatly. “It’s not going to happen. You are not going to let it happen. You’ll keep us for a few days, you’ll talk Dr. Franklin out of his crazy idea, and you’ll see that he lets us go. Now can we have something to eat?”
    He shook his head. “No. Nothing to eat. An orderly will bring you some water. You’ll be having your premed early tomorrow morning. The initial bone marrow extraction will be done under general anesthetic.” He started to walk away, then he turned back. “Oh, by the way. Don’t try pleading with our orderlies. They don’t understand much English, and even if they did, they accept completely Dr. Franklin’s right to deal with trespassers. I told you, Miranda, they are very loyal, all of them. They know our work here is very secret, very sensitive. I think they have, ah, an idea that we are connected with the U.S. government. It