Ducie by Chris Freeman

  Chapter 37. Lex’s will

  Adam was defeated in every sense. Exhausted past the point of being able to beg for answers any more and embarrassed by the fickleness of his own empty suicide threat. He was confused by the urgency Kate was insisting on that seemed to conflict the excruciatingly long-winded way she was drip feeding him information. As much as he wanted to walk away from it all, his inner detective couldn’t be suppressed in its quest for information and answers.

  - Maybe I should just sit here and wait it out. Doesn’t all that philosophy bullshit you read say that everything happens for a reason? Perhaps I’ll just hang around and see what happens. If I’m meant to die, then that’s the will of Jesus or whatever isn’t it?

  - If you’re referring to God’s will, then no, it isn’t. It’s Lex McGivern’s will.

  - The Prime Minister bloke?

  - Yep. Well, ultimately it’s his call. In reality though, he’s probably got a load of skivvies doing his liaising with Joe and Geoff.

  - What? Our Joe and Geoff?

  - Yep. Our Joe and Geoff. Institution Joe and Geoff. Zap you down with their taser guns Joe and Geoff.

  - They know the Prime Minister? Why? How?

  Adam felt a sudden rush of potential questions stampede through his head, threatening to split his brain into unfathomable pieces.

  - I knew it man! Government conspiracy….what did I say to you? And what’s with this Lionel chap? And Daniella? The kidnap! And how’s it anything to do with me? What did I do? Lionel and Daniella? Where are they now?

  - Ducie.

  The word felt smooth and satisfying, as it left Kate’s lips. Those two little syllables seeming to contain the answers to the problem, and perhaps to the entire universe. In a funny way, Ducie was all anyone need know about all this. That wouldn’t be enough to get Adam back to the Institution though.

  - Who the fuck’s Ducie?

  - Where is it, you mean… An island. South Pacific. Uninhabited.

  Kate abbreviated the description, excluding any word not crucial to comprehension.

  - Uninhabited?

  - Yeah, you know…. as in, nobody lives there.

  - I know what it means, Katey. But you said Ducie was where Lionel and Daniella were.

  - It is. I meant it was uninhabited. Before….

  Kate stumbled. Every word of every sentence seemed loaded with the potential to burst open a new can of worms for Adam to waste time flapping over.

  - Before they got there.

  - Got to Ducie?

  - Uh,hu.

  - What did they go there for?

  - They were taken there Adam.

  - What, just the two of them?

  - No…. 61 of them!

  Another bombshell that stopped Adam dead in his tracks at the ideal moment when the conversation had become a punchy interrogation-like exchange.

  Kate wasn’t sure whether Adam had made the link that 61 was remarkably similar to the number of Institution patients. He was pretty slow in the academic sense, but he did have a knack for hitting a lucky bull’s-eye every now and then.

  - Who are they all?

  - They call them counterparts…. Of the people in the Institution. I don’t know them all by name, but there’s one for each of us. Yours is Lionel. Mine is Daniella.

  - Like twins or something?

  - Not really. This is the thing…. It all goes back to the experiments.