The Institute Stories Set 02

"If I don't like the answers to my questions, I'll speed your journey to the one you do answer to," I replied. I jacked into the mother and ensured she would only speak truth.

"What hospital was Simon born in?" I asked her.

"A New Christian mid-wife helped delivered him," she answered. My link forced her to answer what she knew I was really asking even when my words were not exact.

"She couldn't have been Institute certified," I said. "At the time of Simon's birth, the Institute had a Healer. She would have known to bring him to us, in case we could have done something for him."

"She said you would kill him for being born like that," she said.

"How did you hide him from us?" I asked.

"I told everyone he was the son of a Positive, so the Institute had let him live," she replied.

"She spread that disgusting rumor about us with her story of our mercy," Sheila said stepping towards the woman.

"What about Positive testing?" I asked the woman. "It's administered by Institute techs."

"I didn't allow Simon to be tested," she answered.

"When you discovered he was Positive, why didn't you bring him to us?" I asked.

"The New Christian priests told me not to," she said. Everyone from the Institute took several steps away from me. I did not bother to ask; I jacked into the priests and ripped the answers out of them.

"Jason!" Lianne warned.

The bullet went through the priest I shot and hit someone behind him in the crowd. The people closest to him were assaulted by blood and brain matter.

Lianne took a step towards me as I pointed the gun at the other priest.

"The law is simple," I said. "The Institute has total jurisdiction over Positives. Making decisions for Simon and about his power means you do answer to us."

Whatever Lianne's religious ties were, it had been the law since the Director created the position of Operative. She walked through the crowd and got into her gravcar.

"Do you know why I killed him instead of you?" I asked the priest. His eyes had followed Lianne as if with her left his salvation.

"No," he answered looking back at me.

"He believed in his Creator as much as I believe in mine," I said. "He was happy to die in HIS service. He even thought he was doing his God's Will instead of serving the power-hunger of your Episcupus."

"How do you know about the Episcupus?"

"The only secrets are the ones the Institute lets people keep," I said. "I let you live because I need a messenger to tell the Epispucus, I'm coming for him. It will give you the opportunity to discover your faith before I kill you."

I wrote the instructions of what he was to say to the Epicupus into his mind and sent him running.

"Are you really going to kill a New Christian Episcupus?" Robert asked.

"Had they just been hiding Simon's power, I would have let them live because at some point it would have been his choice," I said. "They knew we could heal Simon though, and they kept him imprisoned in his body."

"But why?"

"Listen to them," I said gesturing at the gathered crowd.

He turned and took down the shields he had been trained to use to protect his mind from others.

"Is everyone like that?" he asked me.

"I jacked into every resident of Summertown County," I told him. "Everyone here believes the New Christian Church is the only way to save the human race."

"Lianne has the same opinion," he said erecting his shields.

"Can the Church control you?" I asked. He laughed in response.

"How about Sheila?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Maybe the young Healer," I suggested.

"Not even her, Jason," he replied, putting a hand through his hair.

"If they can't control Positives..." I shrugged and made my way through the crowd.

"Operative," someone said loudly. "The girl said Simon's dying?"

"He is," I said facing them.

"What's going to happen to us?" a female voice asked.

"Geddonist enclaves eventually die off," I replied.

"You can't abandon us without Simon," someone yelled.

"Institute policy is to have nothing to do with Geddonists," I said.

"The priests made us!" someone protested. "I'll drop my registration."

"Any one of you could have stopped this, you chose not to," I said. "You will live with the decision; everyone in Summertown County is Quarantined."

"Jason," Sheila said. "There are children here; some of them could be Positive."

I stared at her.

"We'll test every child over the testing age in a month," she announced to the crowd. "At the time of testing, any child willing to walk away from Summertown will have their Quarantine lifted."

"You can't take our children!" someone yelled.

"At every yearly testing, any child can make the same decision. If I were you, I would convince them leaving Summertown is the best thing for them," she said smiling viciously.

I turned only to have the Simon's mother put her hand on me.

"What about my son?" she asked desperately.

"You did this to him," I said. "Make his last days comfortable."

"How could you do this to us?" she asked in tears. I reached out and pushed a loose lock of her hair behind an ear. I jacked into her and stripped away anything that would let her ignore the truth of my words.

"You were given a gift beyond imagining," I whispered to her. "Simon is the most powerful Symbolic I've ever heard of. He's dying of Positive-Drain. The Institute killed Positives with PD early on, but none survived longer than five years. How long has your son been doing this?"

Her eyes widened, and she tried to hide from my words.

"Symbolics Heal, but Simon seems to do it at will," I told her. "It's been our hope to find someone like him! Each Symbolic sees symbols in a unique way so he couldn't have taught others how to do it but matched with a Healer equal to his power, like David..."

I put my hands on either side of her face and rested my forehead on hers.

"Together they could have healed every child in this country," I said. "Those children's babies would still be affected by the Event, but Simon and David would have been there for them. Your son could have bought us generations to focus on finding a solution rather than surviving."

I let her go and stared into her eyes.

"Your son was in a prison, and you left him there to rot," I said. "I used to be teased at the Institute because everyone knew I didn't have a mother. Trainees would get those wonderful care packages, daily calls, and visits. I used to feel..."

I sighed and shook my head.

"You've made me glad I was born without a mother," I told her and turned to leave Summertown County to its fate.

-----

"Simon's dead, son," the Director said gliding up to where I stood in the Institute gardens.

"Entire nations have expired, and still they fear us," I said staring into the distance. "They'll jump into any hole that will justify hating us."

"Positives are their only hope, and the Institute the only chance we have of controlling Positives. There are good reasons to hate your only hope," he replied. "Chief among them is maybe the hope will decide not to save you."

I nodded; it was a warning he had been giving to Positive Trainees as long as I could remember.

"Plus I have been a cruel..."

"Savior," I finished for him.

"And a lot of them think I'm actually..."

"Satan," I said smiling. It was a game we had played since I heard someone call him both in the same sentence.

"At least, you didn't have to kill the Episcupus," he sighed.

"The Trainees tried to break my hold on Stephanie in part because of the Church's campaign to undermine our power," I said.

He leaned back in the gravchair and closed his eyes. He looked the most exhausted I had ever seen him.

"I made a lot of deals after I discovered what the Event had done to us," he said. "I made every deal that let me take one more step in the direction of what had to be done. I ducked away from or danced around paying my side of those bargains when the cost was too high. I outlived a lot of people that had papers on me; some I even forcibly outlived. The Church was very useful at the beginning; I might have failed without them."

"They've got hooks into most politicians," I said. "They want control of the Institute."

"It would be perfect," he said. "The first Church in history to have direct control of sex."

"It wouldn't be just sex they would control," I said.

"No," he agreed. "I've focused Positives on sex, but there's more to their power than that. Telepathics can make someone do anything."

"We have to deal with the Church soon, sir," I said.

"The question is how, son," he said. "I owe them a great debt. Humanity owes the Church a great debt. Its founders were men of faith trying to do what was right."

"They're dead," I said. "Converting would relieve the Institute and you of the connections to the Church."

"I have said we will not speak of this," he said infuriated.

"If anyone other than your son had founded the God Apart Cult, would this be an issue?" I asked. Behind us from her customary position near the Director, Stephanie gasped.

"It doesn't have to be the Cult," he said turning his face away from me.

"Joshua's teachings are advantageous to your cause," I said.

"God does not love everyone," Stephanie intoned. "God loves each individual one."

"Like that drivel?" the Director asked me.

"He taught bringing God into the world outside of ourselves is to poison our internal relationship with him," I said.

"More drivel," he said.

"Your son was brilliant," I said.

"And he wasted his time with religion instead of helping me here," he said loudly.

"The Prophet Joshua had nothing but the kindest words for you, sir," Stephanie said.

"The Prophet?" the Director asked looking at me.

"What else would they call the oldest son of the individual God sent to guide them from the damage man had done to himself?" I asked.

"What do you mean to himself?" he asked Stephanie.

"The Prophet taught that we caused the Event," she replied. The Director turned to meet my eyes.

"Joshua served," I told the Director.

"Aren't you the Trainee gravbed?" he asked Stephanie. "How does that sit with your religious views?"

I had never seen Stephanie blush before.

"The God Apart religion has certain advantages," I looked at Stephanie before continuing, "built into it to serve a world trying to survive the Event."

"Advantages?" the Director asked raising an eyebrow.

"Read the God Apart Texts, sir," I said. "Joshua served you well."

"But did he have to call them a Cult? How is a Cult supposed to be a viable alternative to a Church?"

"The Prophet taught that God's humor was boundless," Stephanie said.

"Do I have to call my own son the Prophet?" he asked me. "And how do I get a hold of one of their priests to discuss my imminent religious crisis?"

"They're called Leaders," I informed him.

"Cult Leaders?" he asked in disgust. "You overestimate Joshua's intelligence."

"Stephanie is one," I said. He turned his gravchair to study her.

"My daughter recommended you for this position," he said drumming his fingers on the chair.

"Jason's confrontation with the Church comes as no surprise to Cult members," Stephanie said. "It was prophesized."

"Prophecies?" the Director asked me in complete shock. "Joshua gave them prophecies!"

"Religious people like prophecies," I said. "Especially the ones that say everything is going to be okay."

"My daughter is a Cultist?" he asked.

"Joshua was her beloved older brother," I answered.

"She has many beloved older brothers and a younger one," he told me. He sighed and looked between Stephanie and me. "Converting to my son's religion does not mean you can go around killing any New Church Episcupus who is dumb enough to get in your way, son. We were lucky this one killed himself rather than face you."

"You mean the Church was lucky he died before I questioned him," I said.

"A lot of people would have been angry if what you found in the Episcupus's mind made you kill the New Christian Abbas. I doubt he was not involved in this considering it guaranteed a confrontation with them when we found out."

"The Abbas was probably looking to be a martyr to the advancement of the Church's agenda," I said.

"And you would have made him one," he said.

"For Simon, yes, I would have," I replied. "But more because I've heard some New Christian priests call you Satan."

"I might be," he said before spinning his chair around and shooing Stephanie ahead of him.

I stayed in the gardens to watch the sun set.

The Geddonists were right. The end of the world had come, and now it was time to bring about my God's Armageddon. Everyone would have to choose to die or walk on into His Promised Land.

The truth about my birth would be the catalyst.

THE END

To Be Continued in The Institute Stories Set III