“Why? What does it matter to you?” Was Saret one of the Keiths? And if so, how had he managed to escape detection for so long?
“Why? Because I’ve always wanted to do something great.” Saret’s voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement. “All our contributions to society, all this –” he waved a hand toward the lab, “– pales in comparison with liberating billions of intelligent beings, with giving them a better life . . . a peaceful life free from terror. I don’t want to be remembered for coming up with yet another way to enhance memories, Mia. I want to be the one to bring peace to Earth.”
“Peace to Earth?” That sounded insane to her. “But we’re not at war with the Krinar –”
“Oh no, getting rid of the Krinar is just the beginning.” Saret laughed. “You see, Mia, I can also give your people a better life. I can make it so you don’t have to spend your few short decades fearing war, drive-by shootings, terrorist attacks . . . I can give you what humans have been dreaming about since the beginning of time: a life free of fear and violence. Wouldn’t you want that, Mia? Wouldn’t you like that for your people?”
“What are you talking about?” Was there such a thing as mental illness among the Ks? Was she stuck here with a madman?
“I know you don’t understand now, but you will – I promise you that.” Saret’s face was almost glowing with fervor. “When your murder rates drop to zero and war is a thing of the past, your world will know that a new era in human history has arrived – and they will thank me for it.”
Mia stared at him, unable to comprehend what he was saying for a minute. Then a horrifying and implausible idea occurred to her. “Saret,” she said slowly, looking at the K known to be one of the greatest mind experts, “are you talking about some kind of mind manipulation for humans?”
Please let him laugh and tell me it’s not true. Please don’t let it be true.
Saret gave her a pleased smile, his hand now caressing her arm, making her skin crawl. “Yes, Mia dear, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. I always knew you were bright for your species. You see, over the past few years, I developed and perfected a new technique, a way to monitor certain neural impulses while simultaneously stimulating the pain and pleasure centers of the brain –”
Mia sucked in her breath. “Are you saying –” Her voice broke for a second, and she had to start again. “Are you saying you developed some kind of mind control?”
Now Saret laughed, his brown eyes crinkling with amusement. “No, of course not. Hopefully you’ve learned enough by now to know that true mind control is impossible. No, my technique allows me to direct certain behaviors – to condition the brain, if you will. Every time someone has a violent thought, for instance, I can make them experience pain. Every time they obey me – pleasure. Imagine: an entire planet full of peaceful humans . . . Wouldn’t you want that, Mia?”
What Mia wanted was to throw up. “But how? How can you do something like that on a mass scale?”
Saret grinned, obviously enjoying her reaction. “Well,” he said, “that’s where Rafor and the rest of the Keiths come in. As you probably know, Rafor was nowhere near as good as your cheren at technological design, but he was decent enough to occupy a high position in his father’s company. After Korum put them out of business, poor Rafor was left at loose ends. You see, since he lost his standing, no one else would hire him as a designer, and he was forced to dabble in a variety of subjects that didn’t interest him nearly as much as his original chosen field. He even came to me a couple of years ago, asking if he could do an apprenticeship at the lab.
“I declined, of course. He was nowhere near qualified enough to be here. You weren’t either, being a human and all, but at least you had the passion for the subject. He didn’t even have that.” Saret let out a chuckle. “But, in any case, I did offer him a chance to help me out on a private project, to design the nanocytes I needed to implement the plan. He understood immediately what I was trying to do – it aligned well with his own sympathetic views toward humans – and he did an excellent job creating both the nano design and the dispersion mechanism.”
Mia listened to him intently, hardly daring to breathe. What he was telling her now was so incredible – and so terrifying – that she could barely process what she was hearing.
“Of course, Rafor failed miserably at the first part of the plan,” Saret continued. “He was supposed to get rid of Korum and the rest with the help of the Resistance, but he got caught instead.”
Mia swallowed to get rid of the dryness in her throat. “So you erased their memories,” she guessed, and Saret nodded, smiling.
“I did. I had no choice. It was the only way to protect myself and the rest of the plan. Plus, it did give the Keiths a chance at the trial.”
“So the Protector was right: you were the one all along –”
“He was partially right.” Saret’s smile was bright and happy. “He thought I erased their memories to help Korum, but nothing could be further from the truth. It hindered your cheren’s agenda quite a bit – a nice, if not entirely intentional, side effect of the whole thing.”
“Why do you hate him so much? He thinks of you as a friend –”
The dark-haired K laughed, throwing his head back. “Of course he does – I made sure of that. Only an idiot would want Korum for an enemy. I’ve seen him destroy those who stand in his way, and I’ve never made that mistake.”
“You’re making that mistake now,” Mia cautiously pointed out, glancing at where his fingers were still wrapped around her arm. If Korum were here, Saret would already be dead. If there was one thing she’d learned over the past few weeks, it was just how territorial Krinar males tended to be.
“Oh, because I’m touching his precious charl?” Saret said, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of excitement and some other unidentifiable emotion. “Don’t worry, Mia dear, you won’t be his for long. You’ll be free of him soon. Just as soon as he gets here . . .”
Mia’s blood turned to ice. “Are you –” She had to stop for a second because she couldn’t force the words past the constriction in her throat. “Are you planning to kill him?” she finally managed to say.
“Most likely.” Saret smiled at her again – that same friendly smile that made Mia want to scream. “It would probably be easiest. Of course, I could always try to capture him and put him through the same process as Saur. That would be the ultimate prize: having Korum himself in my control –”
“Saur? You mind-controlled Saur?” Mia stared at him in horrified disbelief. Had Saret actually made his former apprentice attack them in Ormond Beach?
“No.” Saret looked disappointed at her lack of understanding. “Not mind control. I told you that. Mind conditioning. My technique works very subtly. It doesn’t turn people into mindless zombies or whatever it is you’re imagining –”
“But you mind-conditioned Saur to want to kill Korum?”
“I did,” Saret admitted with a look of pride on his face. “It wasn’t easy, believe me. All Krinar have immune system shields that repel nanocytes; it’s something that was developed thousands of years ago after someone tried to use medical nanotechnology in warfare. I was only able to penetrate Saur’s defenses after dozens of physical injections – and even then, the mind-conditioning only worked because Saur was weaker than most. That’s why I wanted the Krinar to leave Earth: because I can’t control them effectively. With humans, it’s much easier. You’re completely unshielded; all I need to do is release the nanocytes into the air in the most populated areas and they’ll find their intended targets.”
Mia’s head was spinning. “So let me get this straight . . . You’re trying to get rid of your own kind so that you can mind-control – or, rather, mind-condition – all the humans on Earth?”
“When you say it that way, it does sound crazy, doesn’t it?” Saret smiled wryly. “But yes, that is indeed what I’m trying to do. I want to bring peace to your people, Mia. Is that such a bad thing? Think about it for a minute. Wouldn’t you want to live in a world where you can walk down the street at night without worrying about getting killed or raped? Where serial killers are the stuff of horror movies, instead of existing in real life? No more school shootings, no more terrorism or war . . . Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want?”
Mia stared at him. For a moment, the picture he painted did seem strangely appealing. “Of course,” she said. “But what you’re talking about is an invasion of our minds. You want to take away our free will –”
“Free will?” Saret raised his eyebrows. “How do you define free will? Your people will be free to live as they please, to be with whomever they want, to do whatever they want . . . They just won’t be able to kill or hurt others when the urge strikes them.”
“And they will worship you, right?” Mia said, her eyes narrowing. “That’s what you ultimately want, isn’t it? An entire planet full of puppets who will obey your every command?”
Saret laughed, shaking his head. “Put like that, it does sound awful, doesn’t it? But no, Mia dear, that’s not how I see it. Your people will worship me, true – but that’s because I will be their savior. I will be the one to bring an end to their suffering, to liberate their planet and bring them peace.”
“And what are you planning to do with the rest of the Krinar here?” Mia asked, the thought just occurring to her. “Korum foiled your plan with the Resistance, and all your people are still here. Don’t you think they would notice if all the humans suddenly became peaceful? If murder rates went to zero overnight?”
“It wouldn’t happen overnight,” Saret said. “Complete mind conditioning takes many days, if not weeks. But yes, they would ultimately notice, of course – which is why I’ll have to get rid of everyone in the Centers and make sure the protective field prevents anyone else from coming here any time soon.”
Mia took a deep breath, fighting the urge to throw up. Surely he didn’t mean – “Get rid of everyone how?”
He sighed. “By killing them, of course.”
All color faded from Mia’s face. “Killing all fifty thousand Krinar?” she whispered, unable to comprehend the evil required to do murder on that scale.
Saret shrugged. “The majority of them, yes. Some might survive, of course, but most will perish.”
“Perish how?” Mia could hear the hysterical edge in her own voice. “How can you possibly kill so many?”
“By utilizing that same nano weapon Rafor and the Resistance planned to use as a threat,” Saret explained, looking at her calmly. “The design Korum gave us through you was faulty, of course, but it had enough of the right elements that I’ve been able to hire someone to perfect it. It’s almost ready now; my designer is just putting the final touches on it.”
“So let me get this clear,” Mia said, staring at the psychopath sitting next to her, “you want to murder fifty thousand of your own kind in your quest to bring peace to Earth? And you don’t see anything wrong with that?”
“Of course I do.” Saret frowned. “Do you think I’ll enjoy that part of the plan? I would’ve gladly sent them back to Krina or tried to control them if I could. But I can’t. All I can do is try to make them disappear in as painless of a way as possible. I know it’s not exactly consistent with my pacifist agenda. But you see, Mia, the good of the many far outweighs the needs of the few. We should’ve never come to your planet; it was your cheren’s endless ambition that brought us here in the first place. Now we must atone for what we did; we must pay for our sins against your kind –”
“Are you going to kill me, too?” Mia felt her fear fading as a strange numbness started to set in. What he was intending was so horrific she simply couldn’t process it fully. “Or are you planning to make me into a puppet? That’s why you’re telling me this, isn’t it? Because you’re not worried that I’ll tell anyone?”
Saret grinned, releasing her arm and covering her hand with his palm instead. His touch felt scalding on her skin, making her realize how icy her hands had become. “The thought of you as a puppet is rather appealing, I must say,” he said, his eyes darkening again. “And maybe I’ll do that eventually . . . But I’d rather not tamper with your mind too much at first. I quite like you as you are right now.”
“So what are you going to do with me then?” Mia’s tone was almost disinterested. “If you’re not going to kill me, that is –”
“I won’t kill you,” Saret reassured her. “I’m simply going to make sure you don’t remember this conversation – or anything else that happened in the past few months. It’ll be for the best, you’ll see . . . I know you got attached to that monster, and you’d probably miss him if he was gone. But this way, you’ll be free from his influence forever. It will be as though he had never been in your life.”
Mia stared at him, acidic rage starting to burn in the pit of her stomach. “You’re going to kill Korum and erase my memory to make me forget him?”
“No, Mia dear,” Saret said, smiling. “I wouldn’t be that cruel to you. I will erase your memory first. That way, you won’t feel anything when he dies. I don’t want to put you through that kind of trauma, you see. Painful memories like that are the hardest to get rid of, and the last thing I’d want is to give you nightmares that linger in your subconscious –”
“You’re insane,” Mia said, her anger growing by the second. She welcomed the feeling because it helped clear the fog of terror from her brain. “You really think that’s a mercy, invading my brain like that? And why do you care about me, anyway? You’re about to murder fifty thousand Krinar without a second thought, and I’m just Korum’s charl –”