SYSTEM RESET

An Interview with the Man

An alarm bell rang in Mike's mind. Quatermain was not entirely all there. The end is nigh was a mantra which he had heard many times in his childhood. He knew better than to believe it, or to believe in those who believed it. The realisation that Quatermain was flawed restored some of his own confidence.

"You think humanity is doomed? How?"

"There are many different options. Global warming is the current favourite. The Gaia climate tipping point is very close. Then there are asteroids. Gross overpopulation. Pollution. Nuclear war. Iran is gearing up to dominate the Middle East. It has nuclear weapons and it will not hesitate to use them against Israel and Israel will retaliate in kind. Armageddon will come at last to the Middle East, and it will serve them right because they have behaved like imbeciles for the last two thousand years. Always fighting, until fighting itself has become a genetic legacy. They are bred to kill. They have made a religion of hatred and death. Eventually they will take the rest of the world down with them. But this is nothing new. Humanity has been shooting itself in the head ever since it first came out of the trees. Sooner or later it will destroy itself. Then there's biogenetic warfare. A lethal race specific plague. That's probably why the CIA is interested in me. But I think that the real enemy of homo sapiens sapiens is Darwin. By defying Darwin and allowing the weak and feckless to survive at the expense of the intelligent and able, humanity is polluting its own gene pool and breeding itself into extinction. Good riddance to it."

"You believe in eugenics?" Mike was astounded by this fascist ranting, "the survival of the fittest?"

"I'm not concerned about the survival of fittest. I'm concerned about the survival of the least fit. The ones who would have been weeded out by nature. The runts in the human litter who now far outnumber the best. Look around you. Look at the feral creatures in the cities. The slack jawed imbeciles on reality tv. The cult of mindless celebrity. The universal adulation of mediocrity. It has always been exceptional people who have advanced humanity. Now it is a mortal sin to be exceptional."

"And you?" Mike had moved onto the offensive.

"I have other interests and other obligations," Quatermain said sharply, "I don't intend to let those I love die at the hands of men. Now, I have another question for you. Who kidnapped my daughter and my son in law?"

"How should I know?"

"Alright. Who knew that there would be a party at Hanover Terrace that night? Apart from those who were invited?"

"I don't know. Why should I know?"

"Because you report to Wavell Meredith and Wavell Meredith reports to the CIA. Did you send a report to Meredith stating that you were going to the party in London and giving the date and time?"

Mike sighed, and nodded. "Yes," he said regretfully.

"Then, technically, you are to blame for what happened to my daughter and her husband."

"I suppose so. No. No. I was doing my duty. I don't know who Wavell passed this information on to. You can't blame me."

"I don't blame you. You are just a pawn in a bigger conspiracy. In the end it's my fault. It was bound to happen, sooner or later. The problem is that my family, those I love most in all the world, are now at risk. We are all in shock. The only good to come out of this is that we now know that the kidnappers were acting on behalf of someone within the CIA. I would rather like to know who. And we have discovered something about ourselves which we did not previously know. And we have discovered you. And you are a priceless asset. If you choose to be."

"I'm sorry. I don't know. I don't know anything. And I don't understand. Did you rescue your daughter? What happened to her? And to her husband? Are they alright?"