Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad - but it does not carry instructions on how to use it. - Richard Feynman.

She received no answer.

Instead, Jackson responded with frosty, unimpressed silence. He studied her until Delta-one returned with a set of clothing: underwear, cargo trousers, a charcoal shirt and tan combat boots. As soon as she did, Jackson stood up and addressed the men in the room; the two great hulks and Holden in the shadows.

"Gather the Paragons in Building 3. Delta-one will take her there once she's dressed. Two hours should more than suffice to debrief her. After lunch, the Omegas will both need to improve their appearance. Then Omega-one will guide her through the compound, and the rest of you will get back to work."

They left her alone in the room, but she kept her gown on as a covering as she pulled the clothing on, constantly aware of the mirrored window. She fidgeted awkwardly under the gown as she tried to pull her shirt on without revealing herself, until she realized that they'd probably all seen her naked by now. Still, she turned her back to finish dressing.

When she was done, Delta-one stepped back into the room and jerked her head impatiently. As Katia moved towards the door, Delta-one held out an elastic band.

"Get your hair out of your face."

Katia looked into Delta-one's lovely green eyes, more curious than offended by their hostility. Delta-one turned, and Katia followed her through the door.

As she'd suspected, the room behind it overlooked the cell she'd just exited. They passed through it and into a winding corridor. Along the length of it, double-doors were flung open to what resembled hospital rooms, each holding two curtained beds. They passed by six rooms, three on each side, until they reached a closed door on the far wall. Delta-one pushed it open, and they stepped into the day.

Katia blinked in the dim sunlight, pausing just beyond the threshold to orient herself. The ground at her feet was grey gravel; the sky above was grey cloud. The building from which she'd come was grey, too, a single-story concrete structure hung with the number 14 in black metal over the door. Katia followed Delta-one along the wide road as it tracked its way through the compound, passing by buildings of various size and material- wood, stucco, concrete- but similarly plain. Each one had a number hung over its door.

She glanced over and between the buildings, glimpsing bits of scenery as they walked. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, she saw that immediately south of the compound lay a vast grassy field, at least three times the size of the sports pitch behind Haidala High School. A dry trench had been dug into the far end of the field, and obstacle course set up in the western corner. A dozen men in khakis and pale gray t-shirts were lumbering through and over it, red-faced with exertion, as a tall, powerfully built man shouted orders at them. They all turned to stare at Delta-one as she walked past.

To the east lay a sandy pit two hundred meters wide, with targets lined up at one end of it. Shooting practice, Katia guessed. Beyond that, a long strip of road appeared to lead to nowhere. It was only when she looked again and saw the enormous brown hangar at the far end of it that she realized it wasn't a road at all, but a runway for airplanes.

They turned a corner, and a new vista was revealed. Facing west, she saw low hills and a strange forest, its low-lying canopy waxing a pale, dying green. Some of the leaves were yellow, and a few were red. Katia stared at the alien landscape with increasing bewilderment: if the hills were west, and the foliage decidedly deciduous, then-

"We don't have all day," Delta-one snapped.

"Where are we?" Katia asked.

Delta-one laughed. Rather, she scoffed - Katia got the impression that this wasn't a woman who laughed much at all. "West Virginia."

West Virginia. I've never been out of the country before. I've never been out of the province before.

"What day is it?"

Delta-one wrinkled her brow. "September twenty-ninth."

Only tomorrow, Katia thought with some relief. She hadn't lost days or years to oblivion. Yet it unnerved her to know that only twelve hours earlier, she'd been in Jack Creek, and her greatest burden was surviving teen angst set to a background of terrible music. It occurred to her that her parents would have no idea where she was, that Ethan might have gone in search of her when he realized she'd disappeared. Before the thought could seize her, she crushed it with empty facts. Understand, she commanded her raging, roiling mind.

I must have flown to this place. I've never been on a plane before.

West Virginia seceded from Virginia during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln allowed the state to join the Union on the premise that it would abolish slavery.

The hills must be the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Trail is approximately three thousand, five hundred kilometres in length, spanning from Georgia to Maine.

These were trivial, minding-numbing facts. This was the game she played; the dissociation of objective from subjective. She would focus on facts, on anything but the obvious. Katia would think of anything but home.

She'd been following Delta-one through the compound in a daze when they arrived at three distinctly more decorative buildings set in an open rectangle. They were built to look as if they'd been constructed from stone and wood, but the tacky artifice of laminate planks and glued-together stone trim gave them the appearance of multi-story mobile homes. Each had a raised veranda, with a narrow wooden bench offering a dreary view of the gravel lot and the opposing architectural monstrosities. The apical building was labelled 1, the western building 2, and the eastern 3.

Delta-one walked up into 3. Katia climbed the steps to follow, but before she could enter, a silver-eyed, black-haired man appeared in the doorway.

Something about his look was positively terrifying, and she tripped back down the steps in her haste to distance herself. Katia landed on her backside on the gravel, and before she could push herself up, he was standing over her, his shadow darkening her day.

He laughed, and held out a hand. "Katia?"

He spoke her name. Not a numbered symbol, but her name. His face became jovial, and she wondered if she'd imagined the previous wrathful glare.

His hand was still aloft in offering. "Only Holden will have that effect on you, I promise."

She stood up without his help, brushing off her backside. As she did, more inhuman humans filed out of the door behind him and onto the veranda: the sapphire-eyed, brown haired twins from the night before; the green-eyed beauties; the enormous golden-eyed Olympians, and finally, Holden.

The sight of them all was enough to make her take two more steps backwards. This time, she held her balance. They watched her warily, their faces giving no hint of emotion or opinion. They were all very beautiful, and all very terrifying.

Katia turned to the black-haired man. He'd given up pleasant expression, and now wore one of aggravated patience. She wondered if he practiced his faces in the mirror daily - he presented them too perfectly.

He smiled at her. "I'm Alpha-one, but you can call me Aldous."

She stared at him.

"Let's go for a walk," He suggested, gesturing for the others to follow.

He fell in beside her, and they walked back the way they had already come.

"They monitor everything we say inside Building 3," Aldous explained as they walked down the middle of the road, forcing a truck to pause as they passed by. "So be careful of your words- indoors and out. By the way, never use our given names in front of anyone but the Paragons."

There was that word again. Katia held her hands behind her back, wondering what he meant.

The blond man fell in beside her, so that he flanked her right side, and Aldous her left. There was something inexplicably comforting about the man at her right shoulder, tempering the uneasiness she attributed to the one on her left.

Finally, she spoke. "Paragons?"

"That's us," Aldous explained, gesturing to the formidable company that trailed them. "And you. Flawless."

The activity around the compound was picking up: men in the same standard uniforms of khakis and shirts were buzzing about, most headed into a low grey building labelled 10. From the greasy smell it emanated, she assumed that Building 10 was a cafeteria. Aldous stopped them near the shooting ranges, and the Paragons formed a circle around her.

Aldous exhaled slowly. "I suppose we should start with introductions."

"Delta-one you've met," Aldous took over, putting his arm around Delta-one.

She relaxed visibly, and a smile almost crept across her mouth. Her cheekbones became golden apples, and her green eyes sparked. "Iris," she introduced herself.

"Apollo, and don't ever call me Delta-two," The blond male winked as he re-stated his name. He suited his name, she thought: a Greek god of the sun. When he smiled, the sky seemed to brighten. "Although I know you don't think so, it's good to have you home, Katia."

Even when the enormous Epsilons stepped forward to introduce themselves, Katia found it difficult to tear her eyes away from Apollo. He was utterly familiar.

The bald Epsilon spoke first. "I'm Samson."

The flouncing-haired brute nodded at her. "And I'm Cassius."

She nodded politely at both of them.

"The Kappas - Frankie and Colton - you've seen before," Aldous waved towards the twins with brown hair and blue eyes that were a little too vivid, a little too bright.

"I'm Colton," one of them said.

"And I'm Frankie, the handsome one." The second one put a hand on his chest, grinning broadly. As he did, Katia noted that one of Frankie's canines was chipped. She could use that to differentiate.

She looked at each of them, with their two sets of names and their unnatural eyes and impressive physique. She could see from their bare forearms that like her, each one was marked with tattoos matching their names. Then she stared at the ink on her arm, still unable to fathom how she could be one of them.

"Holden is Omega-one, and you are Omega-two," Aldous declared. When she offered no reply, he tilted his head musingly. "People think your silence makes you stupid or strange, don't they?"

Of course, she said nothing.

He smiled, but it was a smile of irritation, not humour. "I know that your mind is racing, weighing possibilities and outcomes, observing even the tiniest thing that no other human would notice. I know that you prefer to remain silent in the face of questioning, because you like to make them guess, even as you anticipate them."

He was mistaken. Katia simply didn't speak when she found it unnecessary. But there was no point in saying that.

Apollo cleared his throat. "Not that I would presume to speak for you, Katia, but I think she's just feeling a bit shy, Aldous. She's been introduced to rather a lot of people this morning - most of whom she's probably not fond of."

For the first time that day, Katia almost smiled.

Apollo continued, "Maybe it's best if we skip the psychoanalysis and start with a history lesson."

A flash of silver irritation crossed Aldous' eyes, but he nodded.

Apollo chewed on his cheek for a moment, considering a segue. He began with a question. "What do you know about the Human Genome Project?"

It wasn't a question she'd expected. Either the question- or the questioner- caught her off guard, and her tone slipped into one more nervous and informal. "A little. First to map the human genome, about eight years ago."

"So goes common knowledge," Aldous corrected, taking over from Apollo. "The human genome was mapped in the late seventies, by a private company."

She looked up at him dubiously. "Why didn't they tell anyone?"

"I'll get to that part. But for now, understand that the aim of the Human Genome Project was to better understand human bodies and, hopefully, to target therapy for genetic illness. The company, Mills, Black, and Branch, was looking to do something else."

She'd heard of Mills, Black and Branch. MBB was a private company with construction, engineering, and securities contracts. They did everything from building army bases, to maintaining helicopters and tanks, to providing security for wartime projects. Katia knew that security was another word for mercenaries, and she began to suspect those mercenaries were sub-contracted from Suspiral. However, she did not understand their interest in medical research.

The reason she knew about MBB was because she knew about Jadis, an oilfield service company that had bought out MBB some years ago. In turn, Katia knew about Jadis because Bruce Harper had been the CEO of Jadis for a decade. Due to the blaring conflict of interest, Harper had given up his position at Jadis when he became Secretary of State. Katia was beginning to grasp that he still held rather a lot of interest in Jadis.

While she mentally connected these pieces, Aldous continued to explain. "Even if a person is not born with a genetic disease, per se, no one is born with a perfect genome. Flaws are inherited, or they occur during pregnancy, that result in a less than perfect human specimen. MBB's goal was to create a specimen with a perfect genome, and with perfect conditions within the womb, so that no flaws were inherited or incurred."

"And did they?" Katia asked quietly.

"In 1980, Alpha-one was born to a gestational carrier. She wasn't his real mother, because his genome is a mixed bag of perfect genetic material. Real DNA, but essentially constructed, not made... naturally. The embryo was then implanted into an extremely healthy surrogate." Aldous glanced at Katia, gauging her reaction, but she was expressionless. She didn't need him to explain how real babies were made. Mostly, she was trying not to laugh at his third-person dialogue. "When he was born successfully, they made more Paragons-

Katia cut him off. "By surrogate, do you mean an actual woman was impregnated with these... these babies?"

Aldous nodded. "The embryos were constructed from male and female DNA, fertilized in a petri dish, but the best specimens resulted from human, rather than artificial wombs. The surrogates were young women chosen for their health and calm personality. MBB's studies showed that young, robust women living in stress-free environments would produce the best offspring."

Katia frowned. "Then what happened to the... not-best specimens?"

Aldous raised a challenging eye. "What happens when you don't achieve the result you want from an experiment? You observe and report your results so that you don't make the same mistake, then you throw it in the trash, and you start again."

Infanticide. The researchers had created full-term babies, and then killed them because they were less than perfect. She felt ill, but she steeled her face into cold acceptance, because Aldous was challenging her to react. "And the surrogates? What would happen to them?"

"They birthed us, breast-fed us for one year, and once we were weaned, they were released with adequate compensation."

Katia blinked. That wasn't unlike any surrogate in the present day and age, but she wondered if the women knew that the children they were carrying were experiments - not real children at all. She wondered if they cared, or if their pay was enough to assuage any guilt. She bit down on her cheek to freeze her frown. "I'm sorry for interrupting earlier. What happened after Alpha-one was born?"

Aldous seemed gratified by her apology. He relaxed and continued in a friendly, informal tone. "The researchers continued experimenting. It was God's playground; a biological engineer's dream-come-true. For as long as Jadis felt the program was profitable, they had unlimited resources and free reign to design whatever they wanted. They started giving the Paragons unique abilities."

Aldous gestured towards Iris and Apollo. "The Deltas have a greater range of vision. They can see on the infrared spectrum. The Eps - "

"Wait," Katia cut in. "Are you saying that they have night vision?"

Aldous nodded. "More than that. Humans can't see well in the dark, because we lack something called a tapetum lucidum. It's a layer of tissue that lies behind the retina of nocturnal animals that makes their eyes more sensitive to dim light."

"But if we had that, everything would be blurry during the day," Katia pointed out.

"Exactly. The Deltas don't work the same way as animals, though. Their eyes are like normal humans. But they have an implant - like a second set of eyelids - that detects the near-infrared spectrum via thermodetection. What that does though, is that it enables them to detect the physical reaction of human emotion. They can tell if someone's happy, sad, frightened, and more importantly, if they're lying or telling the truth, all based on minute changes in body temperature."

Katia stared at the Deltas in a new light, at a loss for any words. She understood now the frightening way their eyes had changed when they looked at her. They were testing her to see if she was lying. She stared at Aldous, waiting for more information.

"After the Deltas came the Epsilons, who are very strong, in various ways." She didn't need to look again at Samson and Cassius to believe him. "After them came the Kappas, who have an internal compass."

Katia looked up in interest. "Like birds?"

Aldous nodded. "Frankie and Colton can sense the magnetic forces of the earth, a bit like birds, but they can do more than that- they can sense the magnetic forces of objects. When they work together, they can find almost anyone or anything in the world."

Katia found that particular talent very impressive. They would be useful to have around when she was looking for her car keys every morning.

"The project finished with the Omegas."

He had come to the point in the story when it was no longer about strangers. This involved her. Katia found it difficult to find her voice. "What do the Omegas do?"

"We don't know yet," Aldous replied honestly. "No one really knows the extent of your abilities, because you disappeared before they could really be tested."

"What about the researcher who made us? Couldn't that person tell us?"

Aldous licked his lips. "That researcher was the one who stole you away. He's dead."

Katia thought about the explosion that ripped through her when she and Holden touched. They couldn't have been designed for that. "Do you think they screwed up?"

"No," Aldous replied, resolute. "It's not possible. They go through dozens, sometimes hundred of failed tests before they come up with a functional specimen. Holden wouldn't still be alive if you were a failure."

Aldous spoke of themselves as specimens, and she could only imagine what 'failed tests' were.

It was Holden who spoke next. "The researcher and your surrogate stole you ten months after you were born. But we spent those ten months together, and Dr. Clark said that was enough to know that they'd succeeded."

"Did he tell you how they knew?" Katia asked.

"No." Holden shook his head. "He doesn't know what Turner did to us."

Each piece of information was an earthquake that shook the foundations of all Katia believed to be true. Her reality had been shattered in a matter of minutes, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to accept the facts as they were and neglect the consequences they presented. She knew what was coming though, so she asked the question before it could be answered.

"And this program was run by MBB and Jadis, which makes the purpose of it..." She stopped, allowing someone else to fill in the answer.

"We're involved in the military operations of the company." Aldous answered.

Katia closed her eyes. It took a while to open them again.

Aldous motioned, and Iris stepped forward. "Take her to the mess hall. Holden will orient her through the compound after breakfast." Then he looked back at her. "Do you have any more questions, Katia?"

Katia became briefly fascinated by the pattern her interlaced fingers made on her lap, wishing herself into denial. But it would not come. There was no getting out of this any time soon. "Can I call home? Just to let them know I'm not dead?"

All traces of amusement at her expense evaporated into uncomfortable silence. Aldous answered, his voice grave. "We're not allowed to use the Internet, telephones, or email, unless under direct supervision. I can promise you that no one will allow you to contact your... family. You don't want to know the punishment for trying."

Katia had to be sure. She looked up at him, searching for a definitive answer. He offered one with the shake of his head and a patronizing sigh.

"You're better off forgetting them, Katia. You're home now."