The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects

Chapter Twenty

“Exterminate?”

“Watch, Terra. All you have to do is watch,” Keller said softly, just as the man released a high-pitched scream and jumped up, trying to claw his way out of the titanium door.

To the naked eye, he looked like a madman having an epileptic fit. The room was still. Nothing moved. Nothing was after him.

Yet he was hysterical.

“Please!” I screamed, shaking Keller. “Make it stop! Make it stop for him!”

“What did you say?” he barked at me, his calm features becoming a mask of anger and derision. He shook me hard, his hand still gripping mine in his. “Did you not hear what he is? Should I show you pictures of the girl after her brains had splattered all over the pavement? Is that what you want to see?” He pointed one long finger at the window. “He deserves to be punished! He deserves to die an unmerciful death!”

“You’re not God!”

A slow smile spread across his face. “That is what you don’t understand, Terra. I am!”

The man’s screams turned to piercing shrieks, and before I could blink, he had begun the task of bashing himself against the titanium door. The sickening thwack of bone connecting with metal reverberated in my head, like an incessant mosquito. The man’s face was bloodied now, but he wouldn’t give up. Glancing over his shoulder every few seconds, he seemed to become more resolute in his task of attempting to escape through a door that was never going to give way, not for all the money in the world.

“Just stop,” I breathed, tears clouding my vision. “It’s pointless. You can’t get out.”

I looked up at Keller, disgusted to see the sick smile of satisfaction pasted on his face. My head jerked in the man’s direction when the excruciating noise stopped.

I tasted bile and looked away, not wanting to gag, but the sight of his split head would haunt me for the rest of my life. Just like that, his battle with unseen demons was over. Was that what I looked like? Was that what I went through? Was I as disturbed as this rapist?

“I apologise if you have a sensitive stomach,” Keller was saying, “but it was necessary for you to see this. You wanted answers, after all.”

“This is illegal,” I said softly, my eyes travelling back to the corpse. The steel door was now open, and three men in scrubs bustled inside with a gurney.

“My dear, the only thing illegal was for that man to be walking free, looking for his next target.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “So what did I do wrong to deserve this… this punishment that you seem so intent on dishing out? Did I make a mess when I was a baby? Cry too loud and annoy my parents?”

“This is not a joke, Terra. Because of you, we are able to accomplish what we are doing now.” Keller’s breath suddenly tickled my ear. My eyes snapped open and I tried to retreat from him. “I’m not frightening, am I?”

“My parents… they knew about all of this,” I said, more to myself than to him. “And they didn’t care.”

“Quite the opposite, Terra, it’s because they care that they conscripted you.”

My head snapped to look at him. “Conscripted? Are you delusional? You don’t have an army! There’s no war!”

“My, my.” He shook his head at me. “Dr. Steinbeck told me that you were… complacent. He was clearly wrong.” He paused ominously. “Would you like to return to the bedroom, perhaps? Back to the sofas and things? They were only just making your acquaintance before you rudely tried to kill yourself…”

Transported back to the torture I had endured only days before, the dull pang in my gut seemed to beg to be acknowledged at that moment, aching slightly. The fact that he seemed to enjoy this power play sickened me to death, and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was mad.

“I shall take your silence as a No, Mr. Keller, anything but that,” he said after a moment had passed.

The door behind us was pushed open, and, as we both turned to see who it was, my insides shrivelled up into dust.

“Robert,” my father said roughly, his eyes trained on me, “I had no idea you had company.”

“I was enjoying your lovely daughter’s company,” Keller said pleasantly, as if we had been enjoying afternoon tea before my father came in. “I take it you witnessed Subject A’s extremely timely demise?”

Extremely timely demise…

“I trust you’re pleased with the result? Can I give the go-ahead on the others?” My father’s tone had a note of… of reverence, as though he were conversing with some kind of prophet. I had never heard him speak in that manner before, and it bothered me.

“Yes, and yes,” Keller told him, nodding his head for emphasis. “Just think, Mr. Martins, the world will be cleansed in a most effective way, and we have been given the opportunity to be a part of it.” He released my hand and favoured my shoulder, his bony fingers tightening on me. “We will be the Peace Corps, Mr. Martins. We will change the world, one monster at a time. Won’t we, Mr. Martins?”

“Under your leadership, we can accomplish anything,” was my father’s expressive response before he turned on his heel to leave.

“This is crazy!” I screamed after him, as Keller’s grip tightened on my shoulder blade.

“Are you with us, Terra, or against us?” His tone was menacing, cutting as deep as his fingernails were.

I shuddered, resisting the urge to cry again. “You can’t make people crazy,” I whispered, “and you can’t make them commit suicide. It’s cruel.”

“It’s too late, dear Terra. All the Subjects have been implanted with the notion that strange things are attacking them.” He let out a deep growl of laughter. “Results will be apparent within days. Terrorists will find themselves leaping off buildings to end their misery. Rapists will slit their own wrists. Murderers will point the gun at themselves. Psychopaths, serial killers, armed robbers, paedophiles – the lot of them will find themselves caught up in a self-destructive cloud of terror. The only result will be death. So you see, Terra, once my programme is spread worldwide, the human population will be pure and untainted by the sins of the human flesh.

I would have weeded out the diseases, and rid the world of it forever. Don’t you see? We will have a perfect race – a tranquil sphere! So I ask you once again, Terra Martins – will you join me?”