1. The Passing of Dr. Price

Alabaster's Legend: Premonition Children

Chapter One: The Passing of Dr. Price

‘He’s perfect, Dr. Price. How did you do it?’

Kneeling on the floor, surrounded by soldiers, Virgil tried to stay calm, tried to think. Around him, his research team lay dead and dying, staining the crisp white floors with a crimson sheen. Trapped in the examining room, Epsilon raged against the thick glass, desperate to smash through, desperate to avenge his creators, his family.

Alpha turned away from the young boy and placed his gun upon Virgil’s forehead. ‘I repeat the question, Dr. Price. The perfect clone; how did you do it?

‘The sample is that of human DNA, there was only one way it could have been done.’

Alpha cocked the gun. ‘Enlighten me.’

‘He was not created like the others. He was not spliced or hybridised. Cut and change too much and you lose all sense of the whole. Perfection can only be found by accepting imperfection.’

‘Speak sense, Doctor!’

‘He was born, Alpha, not grown.’

‘There’s a difference?’

‘He’s experienced what all humans cherish. Childhood. Family. Security.’

Alpha drew the gun back from Virgil’s forehead. ‘Love? That’s the secret?’

Virgil looked to his left, to the body of his most chief associate. ‘It’s a preoccupation I wouldn’t expect you to understand.’

Alpha laughed. It sounded unnatural from him. Maniacal. Virgil looked away from the body, quelling his grief, refocusing himself. He did not consider himself the bravest of men, his heart pounded as heavily as his creation’s fists pounded against the glass window separating them, but he was ready to die. He had been ready the moment the boy had taken his first breath. He could not explain how he knew – Bee had called it divine intervention – but the DNA was clear in its message. The boy had to be created. Destiny, life itself, demanded it.

‘You are a funny man, Dr. Price,’ Alpha snickered, turning round to face the boy once more, who had become frenetic in his containment. ‘Once we beat this softness out of him he shall make a true child of Premonition.’

Virgil stiffened. ‘He’s not a child of Premonition. He will not fight for you.’

Wheeling round, Alpha quickly circled in. ‘Then who will he fight for? Who paid you? The Greys?’

‘I know what you plan,’ Virgil growled. ‘I know what you found in the Repository.’

Alpha crouched before him. ‘I see. Then he is your champion, your queen against mine.’

‘He will not fight for you,’ Virgil repeated. ‘Not after what you’ve done, what you’re about to do.’

Alpha placed his gun back upon the doctor’s head. Helpless, the boy began to throw furniture against the glass.

‘I’d believe you, but you said it yourself, Doctor,’ Alpha whispered. ‘The sample is that of human DNA, and a human can be bought … at the right price.’

Virgil smiled, taking his eyes away from his imminent death and into the frenzied eyes of the boy.

‘Peace is its own reward.’