even monkeys. I wouldn’t let myself know the truth.” He tried to smile, but produced nothing more than a twisted grimace. “I think I’d have made a good Nazi, George, and I think you would have too.”
His jaw clenched with fury, Hamlin glowered at Randolph. “I’m a scientist, Paid,” he rasped. “There’s no room in my world for sentimentality.”
“Is that what you call it? Sentimentality?” He shook his head in disbelief. “My God, George, how many children have you killed over the last ten years?”
Hamlin rose, his fury no longer containable, his eyes glowing with unconcealed hatred for the man to whom he had always been forced to answer. “None,” he shouted. “God damn it, you fool, it’s you who doesn’t understand. You’ve never understood, and you probably never will. These aren’t children here, and the women who produced them aren’t mothers. They’re exactly what I call them in my reports. Laboratory animais. Granted, they look human, and they act human, but genetically, I can’t tell you what they are. It will be up to the courts and the legislatures to decide what they are, but only after I’ve made them functional. But as long as they keep dying, they’re nothing more than failed experiments. But they won’t keep dying. God damn it, they won’t! I’m on the verge of success, Randolph. I won’t be stopped now.” Suddenly his rage disappeared, and his eyes took on the look of a hunted animal. “Don’t try to stop it, Paul. If you do, I’ll bring the Institute down myself. Stay with me, and you can share the glory. Abandon me, and believe me, I’ll take you down right along with the project.”
And so, at last, it was out in the open. As he watched Hamlin, Randolph realized that he had known it for years: At some point this moment would come. And he had even, deep inside of himself, known what the outcome would be. Hamlin was right. The project was far too extensive and far too close to completion to be abandoned now, unless Hamlin himself agreed to it. And barring the possibility of immediate exposure, and the inevitable end of the project that would follow, nothing would make George Hamlin agree to suspend the project.
So now it was Hamlin who was in control, and as Randolph began trying to adjust himself to his new circumstances, he suddenly remembered the name Hamlin had suggested for the experiments so many years ago.
The God Project.
Now, as it neared completion, Randolph realized that Hamlin himself was playing God.
Chapter 19
RANDY CORLISS GLARED at the instruction book, his face screwed into an expression that combined concentration with disgust. “It’s wrong,” he said, his eyes moving from the picture to the Lego construction that he and Eric Carter had been working on since lunchtime. The pieces—blue, red, and yellow—were strewn across the floor of Randy’s room. “I don’t see how they expect us to figure out what’s underneath the battle deck.”
Eric rocked back, balancing himself on the balls of his feet, and stared at the model. “So what if it’s wrong? It doesn’t have to be just like the picture. We can make it any way we want to.”
“But it should be right,” Randy insisted. He pointed to a bright blue plastic gun mount “That should be farther back, and there’s supposed to be something else in front of it Only I can’t figure out what it’s supposed to be.”
“Lemme see.” Eric picked up the book, stared at it for a moment, then made a face. “I can’t even figure out what step we’re on.”
“Fourteen. Right here, after the bridge and the flight deck go on.” While Eric studied the diagram, Randy wandered over to the open window and gazed out at the lawn below. The day had warmed up, and there was a dank humidity to the air that made it hard to breathe. Unconsciously, Randy’s right hand moved to the bars over the window. “Did you ever feel like running away?” he suddenly asked.
“I did last year,” Eric replied.
“I mean from here. Do you ever want to run away from here?”
“Why should I?”
“I don’t know. Just to see if you could, I guess.”
“Naa.” Eric went back to the diagram, comparing it carefully to the half-finished model on the floor. “I got it!” he exclaimed. “Look!”
Randy glanced once more out the window, then returned to the model. Eric was busy pulling the superstructure apart. When he was finished, he began counting the tiles from the bow