Thirst No. 4 by Pike Christopher

Author:Pike, Christopher [Pike, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2011-08-09T05:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Two days later I sit in the center of the Lens, on the floor of a virtual dungeon, deep in the bowels of IIC’s main structure. I have never been to this floor before, so far underground, and yet there’s another level beneath us. Because my floor is a large circular one-way mirror, I’m able to see the two hundred kids of the Cradle gathering below. Brutran was right when she described how few members make up the Lens. Including myself, there are only twenty-five of us present. Like gods peering down at their loyal subjects, we sit directly above the others.

The material we relax on is not simple glass. It appears to be an extremely hard plastic, a composite the rest of the world hasn’t heard about. I’ve studied it with my fingers and know it’s virtually unbreakable. I’m not sure why the Lens likes to secretly view the rest of the Cradle, but I assume they have their reasons.

It is obvious to me that these kids know each other, that they have all been together before, which once again makes Cynthia Brutran a liar. Unless they are able to gather without her knowledge.

Yesterday, as the bulk of the kids arrived at the building, they were immediately infected with the virus. They quickly showed symptoms, but I prevented them from making any calls in case they tried to alert their partners about the virus. A few complained about the blisters, but as a whole the group settled down as soon as they got a shot of the weakened vaccine. Brutran did nothing to stop me from giving them the virus. She didn’t even try to protect her own daughter.

How to describe these children who might one day rule the world? Three quarters are young, five and under; the others are between fifteen and eighteen. The former were planned; they are the true products of Freddy’s astrological system. On the surface, they look normal, but they’re too quiet for kids their age. They don’t run and play.

Jolie falls into this group. She sits in the corner holding a stuffed toy she calls Mr. Topper. A clown with eyes and lips so red they look like they were stained with blood.

The older kids were discovered using the same astrological system. But they were already born before Brutran and her colleagues founded IIC. They are the products of an extensive worldwide search, and as a result, their nationalities all differ. But a high percentage of them are from Africa. Brutran has already explained how it was easier to search poor nations for raw material.

The leader of the Lens is an eighteen-year-old boy named Lark. He’s from Florida, and at first glance he appears to be the most balanced one in the group. Fortunately, Brutran has already warned me about him. On his tenth birthday, before he joined the Cradle, he murdered both his parents, using the same knife his mother had used to cut his birthday cake. When asked by a judge why he did it, he replied, “They told me to make a wish.

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