On the second morning of their stay in the Republic of New People, the same limo and chauffeur as well as the same Sergeant came to pick up John and his men. After about an hour’s drive, they arrived at the New Generation Factory. Colonel X was already waiting for them at the entrance of the main office building of the factory. He invited John to go upstairs with him to meet the General Manager of the factory, while Tom and Dick stayed in the lobby hall with Sergeant Y.
The door was open when they arrived at the General Manager’s office, but Colonel X still politely knocked the door and asked the man sitting behind the desk inside the room, “Can we come in?”
“Sure. Please come in.” The General Manager stood up from his chair. Then Colonel X invited John into the room.
When John entered the office of General Manager, he was surprised.
“Hi, Sam, Long time no see.”
“John? Oh my. They told me that someone from K Corp is coming to visit here. I didn’t expect that it was you.”
It was Sam, who was working for SEESALL and helped John to sell his first IB system to the Iron Prison more than20 years ago. Sam came out from the back of the desk and hugged John. They could sense the affinity between two old acquaintances in this remote foreign country.
“It seems that you are old friends,” Colonel X chimed in. “Then there is no need for me to introduce you to each other.”
“We were working together on a project many years ago,” Sam explained.
“22 years,” John laughed.
“Yeah, I think so,” Sam said.
“Then I guess Mr. GM could serve as the tour guide and I might just wait here,” Colonel X said.
“No,” Sam said. “Unfortunately, I will have a very important meeting this morning, which might drag for the whole day.”
Then he turned to John, “I am very sorry that I could not take you to tour the factory. I am really busy these days. If you could come back a couple days later, I could give you a thorough tour of the factory.”
“Mr. Potter has a meeting with General K this evening, so he needs to have a tour before the meeting,” Colonel X replied Sam for John.
“That’s okay,” John said. “If it’s possible, we might find some time to have lunch somewhere.”
“Of course,” Sam picked up his business card from the card box on his table and handed it to John. “You can find my number on this card.”
John also gave one of his own to Sam, “My mobile number is on this card.”
“Great. I will definitely talk to you soon.”
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam arranged two scooters to take Colonel X and John’s team to their factory area. On their way, John asked Colonel X, “Why do you hire a foreigner to be the general manager of this factory?”
“It’s a joint venture company, and one big boss of it is from your country. Our government only owns 51% of the share. You provide money and technology, and we provide the land and other resources,” Colonel X replied.
“Who is the big boss?” John asked.
“I am not very sure about that. I only know that the boss from your country is a group that is related to an organization called BMA,” Colonel X replied.
“No wonder.” John started to see the connection between some dots that had puzzled him since the moment that he landed on this country.
Very soon the scooters stopped in front of a factory workshop. They were led to a sanitation room where everyone was required to wash their hands, and then put on masks, hats, and raincoats. A workshop technician then led them to enter the first workshop.
John was shocked by what he saw!
Up to that point, no one had told him what he might expect to see in the factory. What appeared before him was something he had only seen from sci-fi movies. There were hundreds of transparent containers in the room, and within each of them was one human embryo or fetus soaking in colorless liquid.
John felt a wave of nausea clutched his stomach. His face turned ghastly pale. He whispered to Colonel X who happened to be beside him, “I need to go out to have a fresh air.”
“Are you okay?” Tom noticed John’s reaction to the scene and came to check out if he was okay.
“You guys please continue. I need to go out for some fresh air,” John replied.
Colonel X asked the technician to guide Dick and Tom through the tour, and he accompanied John to exit the workshop by the door from which they just entered.
They came to the anteroom of the workshop and then sat around a table. Colonel X asked a female clerk to bring two cups of coffee for John and himself.
John did not say a word until he had a sip of the coffee.
“What are those things?” John gazed at Colonel X and his face was painted with fear and disgust.
“Those are the lives of the future generation, as the name of this factory tells,” Colonel X replied with a wry smile and twitched his lips.
“You are manufacturing humans in this country?” John’s eyes opened wide in a daze.
“Thanks to your countrymen,” Colonel X sneered in a sarcastic tone.
“Sam?” John asked.
“He just works for his boss,” Colonel X remarked.
“Is that for real?” John still could not believe what he just saw.
“You had already seen and talked to the real product before coming to this factory,” Colonel X replied.
“What real product?”
“Sergeant Y is one of them,” Colonel X replied.
“No way! He is so real.” John felt another wave of nausea flooded over him, and he almost puked when the image of Sergeant Y appeared in his mind. He gulped a mouthful of coffee in order to suppress his urge to vomit. He did not notice how hot the coffee was until he was burnt so badly from his mouth to his stomach that he almost screamed.
“When was this factory built?” John asked.
“About 10 years ago.”
“Then how could Sergeant Y be produced here?! He must be around 25 years old,” John exclaimed.
“When he first left the production line as a human, if you might call him so, he was almost 20 years old.” Colonel X explained.
“Do you really call them human?”
“We call them as Artificial Humans, or AH in short,” Colonel X replied.
“So you can control the age when they are produced?”
“Not our people…your technology…Yes, we can,” Colonel X replied.
“What else do you have a control over these new lives?”
“We might control their look…maybe you have noticed yesterday, those AHs all looked alike.” Colonel X said.
“Yeah…so they have to all look the same?”
“Not necessarily….but I like that type of look, so I selected those to serve as my underlings,” Colonel X replied.
“Their offspring would also look in that way?”
“They won’t have any offspring. They don’t have sex organs,” Colonel X replied.
“They don’t have penis?”
“They do…but it’s only for the purpose of urination.” Colonel X then added, “Of course, some of them could have sex activity, but they don’t have sperm.”
“Is that also by design?”
“Of course…Since we can mass-produce them, they don’t need to have offspring for individuals,” Colonel X replied in a cold tone.
“It seems that they don’t eat much either.” John recalled what Tom found at the party.
“They don’t have the same taste as ours. We have special food for them,” Colonel X replied.
“Do they have feelings?” John asked. “I mean love, hate, pain, excitement, and so on.”
“They do,” Colonel X said seriously. “They are actually more sensitive than us, and they could react swiftly to any changes in the environment.”
John was reminded of the action of Sergeant Y to catch his phone in the car. “Are they intelligent as well?”
“They are created smart,” Colonel X replied.
“Don’t you feel that dangerous?”
“Why should I?”
“If they are smart and quick, don’t you worry that they might rebel against us, or I should say against you?” John asked.
“They are more loyal than human soldiers.” Colonel X raised his voice a bit with confidence, “The fact that they are more sensitive makes them more loyal.”
“Can they be killed?” John asked curiously.
“Of course!” the face of Colonel X turned brighter. “That is important for us to control them. The best part is that they also know the fact that they could be killed. I can tell you for sure that they are scared of being killed as well.”
“Then how could they be brave on the battlefield when facing enemies?”
“They have to be, because they know if they are not, they will be punished by us. Besides, they don’t feel much pain when they are hurt in the fighting,” Colonel X said.
“Do they feel pain at all?”
“They do, but not like us. We know how to make them feel pain,” Colonel X grinned, complacent and confident.
“Incredible.” John still could not or didn’t want to believe what he saw and heard. He raised his voice, “I still don’t understand why you want to do this. Your population is so crowded that you need to put many of them into what you called the Inferior World, why do you need to produce more humans by an expressway? ”
Colonel X did not answer but stared at John with a surprised look, which reminded John of the look at Sam’s face when he showed his surprise at what SEESALL was doing during their first chat in the central monitoring room.
“Excuse me if my question was too rough.” John noticed that his voice was a bit too high when he was questioning Colonel X. He tried to be more polite since he knew the man he was talking with was a warlord, and also he was in a dictatorial country. He added gently, “I just don’t see how these AHs could help your country.”
“As you just mentioned,” Colonel X replied in a sarcastic tone, “they helped us to put those useless people to behind that wall.”
“My apology for saying that,” John responded. “I did not mean any offense to your country. I am just a bit shocked.”
“No, No offense at all. I mean it,” Colonel X shook his head. “They did help us to put those useless behind the wall because they replaced humans in many posts … and we often send those AH soldiers to arrest those useless people and send them behind the wall.”
John was further surprised by the response of Colonel X. He did not know what to say.
“Of course, the main reason that we are producing AHs is that your countrymen want us to help them to produce,” Colonel X added.
“That’s another thing I am confused about,” John said. “I don’t understand what this could help BMA to gain. Are you paying BMA for the products?”
“We don’t need to pay them a single penny. We just provide land, water, electricity, and so on. They actually pay us to accommodate them.” Colonel X then added, “They must be very rich.”
“I don’t have any doubt about that,” John said. “But I am confused why they would do this since it seems a waste of money for them.”
“I bet it would not be a waste of money for them. I don’t know what they are really up to for your country or anywhere else around the world, but I could see what it means to my country…” Colonel X’s words were cut off by the phone ringing.
It was John’s mobile phone.
He checked the display but could not recognize the number. “Hello, this is John Potter.”
“Hi John, it’s me, Sam.”
“Hi Sam, I thought you were busy in the meetings all the day.”
“Yeah, I thought so. But now I got a few hours of free cycle. I just wonder if you want to have lunch with me,” Sam asked.
“Sure.”
“Great. I will come to pick you up now, and we can go somewhere outside the factory.”
“But Tom and Dick are still at the tour. I don’t know how long it might take them to finish,” John said.
“That’s okay. Please give your phone to Colonel. Let me have a few words with him.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
John passed the phone to Colonel X, “It’s Sam. He wants to speak to you.”
Colonel X took the phone. “Hello, this is Colonel X.”
A few seconds later, Colonel X hung up the phone and gave it back to John. “Sam is coming to pick you up. Don’t worry about Dick and Tom, it would take another hour or so for them to finish the tour, and then we will arrange lunch for them.”
“Why it takes so long for the tour?” John asked.
“We have ten workshops. Each of them contains unfinished products at different stages of the fetus growth. Of course, some so-called fetus might be 20 years old already,” Colonel X explained. “You just saw one of the workshops. The technician would introduce the whole process to them, and they will also watch some videos about the production.”
“So you move the fetus around from workshop to workshop during their growth?” John asked.
“No. But every workshop contains fetus of the same age since we are mass-producing them instead of making them one by one.”
“I see,” John did not want to ask more about it even though he did not understand why they want to show his team in that many details.
They came out of the building and saw Sam coming by a scooter. John got in the vehicle when it stopped.
Sam asked Colonel X, “When would you guys leave here?”
“After lunch,” Colonel X answered. “I guess another couple of hours.”
“Where are you going next?” Sam asked.
“Back to their hotel first. Then I will take them to attend the private banquet held by General K in the Presidential Palace,” Colonel X answered.
“Cool.” Sam said to Colonel X, “Then you might leave without John, and I will manage the transportation for him back to the hotel.”
“That will be fine,” Colonel X responded.
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam and John got off the scooter and walked towards a golden two-seater convertible.
“A nice car. Is this yours?” John asked.
“Yeah,” Sam smiled. “But the company paid for it.”
“How long are you going to stay here?” John asked.
“Not sure. But if I leave here, I can either sell or ship this car. It’s mine, period.” Sam said.
After they got in the car, Sam said to John, “I am taking you to the International Town. You will like it.”
“Sure … from the name I can see it must be a place where you guys often go.”
“You’re right.” Sam started the car.
“Is your family here with you?” John asked when the car was getting onto the road.
“Yes,” Sam replied. “By the way, I was wondering how long you are going to stay in this country. I might bring you guys back to my house sometime.”
“The schedule might be tight this time. We are here only to learn what they want and then to sign the letter of intention with them. We will go back to make a design for them according to what they want. I guess they would send someone to K Corp to sign the contract with us, and then we will send a whole team to come with a shipment of whatever necessary for their needs,” John said.
“Would you come back with the team?”
“Most probably if I am not caught up with something else,” John replied.
“Excellent,” Sam said. “Then I will invite you to my house next time.”
“I appreciate it. By the way, are you hired by BMA to work here?”
“Kind of,” Sam replied.
“What do you mean?” John asked.
“BMA invested in this factory, but it is a joint venture with the government of this country. I am hired by this joint venture company,” Sam replied.
“You mean this factory is actually making money to pay your salary?” John sound very suspicious about the implication made by Sam that the New Generation Factory could be profitable.
Sam laughed slyly, “Well, we don’t only produce AHs. We have some other products. We manufacture a type of high protein sausages. The consumers in this country love it.”
“So the whole factory is under your control, right?” John asked.
“Kind of…but I would not do anything that BMA would not allow me to do.” Sam turned to John staring at his face, and then turned back to the driving direction. “If I do then I would no longer in control of the factory.”
“So it is controlled by BMA then,” John said. “But what is the benefit to BMA for doing all this?”
“That is a secret…and you have to promise not telling anyone else.” Sam turned to John and stared at his face again, and then turned back to drive.
“Sure, I won’t leak this out.” John promised.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t know if I need to give you a friendly reminder that nothing you saw or heard in that factory this morning could be leaked out to the world since the fabrication of human life is still strictly banned by the United Nation,” Sam said.
“Well, I can make a promise to you for myself, but I cannot promise for Tom and Dick,” John responded.
“Why did you bring them with you for this trip?” Sam asked.
“I cannot just come by myself. I need some technical people to come with me. Both of them have technical backgrounds,” John replied.
“I know that…what I was asking is why you selected those two guys particularly…are they the only technical people in your team?”
“We have quite a few technical people…much more than 22 years ago when we were working on the Iron Prison project. As a matter of fact, I might have someone else to come with me. Do you remember Mark?”
“Yes, surely I still remember that big guy,” Sam recalled.
“I was about to have him and another guy to come with me, but Steve recommended that I should have Tom and Dick to come with me,” John explained.
“That’s the point I was trying to lead to. If they were recommended by Steve, then you don’t need to worry about them,” Sam casted a look at John and then turned back to steer the car.
“So Steve knows about this all? Is that you are trying to tell me?” John did not feel comfortable with the implication that Sam just made.
“Think for yourself. If this factory is controlled by BMA, how could Steve not know anything about it?”
“I think you are making a point. As a high ranking executive of BMA, he must know something about this factory,” John agreed.
“I guess you will learn more about this later on,” Sam suggested. “But for now, the important thing to remember is: don’t leak it out.”
“I will not…but he could’ve told me this before I come,” John complained. “What if I do leak it out?”
“That will do a lot harm to yourself…but won’t hurt BMA or the factory a bit,” Sam answered in a cold tone.
“Why?”
“Because you could not prove it and BMA has enough means to make you sound ridiculous and thus shut you up,” Sam’s tone turned cruel.
“I am not saying I would do anything to harm BMA…but what if the outside world knows this and starts to investigate it?”
“We don’t worry about that.” Sam’s tone became relaxed. “The Republic of New People is quite closed to the outside world. It would not allow anyone to come in to investigate on this.”
“How could such a small country to resist the demand of investigation by big powers? ... I mean there might be financial sanction or even military invasion.”
“As long as this country is covered by BMA, what you just mentioned would never happen. That General K knows it clearly that he could not survive without us,” Sam said with a full confidence in his tone.
“I see,” John said.
“You know … we are not doing anything bad … we are changing human civilization, which means that the whole civilization on this globe would no longer be the same someday in the near future because of our cooperation with the Republic of New People,” Sam said with complacence.
“I have no doubt that your AH products would change human civilization. But the question is for good or for bad,” John responded.
“Of course for good,” Sam said. “I understand that it is too much for you to swallow all this right now, but you will see it more clearly once you get into this.”
“I hope so,” John said. “But still, even if the outside world would not be able to send a team to investigate your factory, how could you hide from the people within this country? It might have hundreds or even thousands of people at the same rank of Colonel X, and they can go abroad, so they can spread news.”
“I don’t worry a bit about that.” Sam said, “General K seems very good at controlling his people. They don’t have much freedom to go abroad. The ordinary people don’t even have the liberty to get connected to the outside world through telecommunication.”
Sam took an exit from the highway and then continued, “Even if someone spread the news out, as long as they could not provide proofs, it will serve nothing. How many people claimed that they have seen UFO’s, including some high ranking officers from those most advanced countries? But the majority of the population would still consider that they might just dream of it or be of hallucination.”
“You made a point,” John agreed. “The view of the general public is very easy to manipulate.”
The car then got into an urban area at the end of the ramp after exiting from the highway.
“Here we are. The International Town.” Sam asked John, “What do you want to eat?”
“I am okay with anything good to eat.”
“Cool. See that steakhouse? It is very good. The sashimi house next to it is also good. Or we might drive a little further.”
“Let’s get steaks.”
“Sure, you are the boss today.”
~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Why do you want to produce AH?” John asked after they ordered the meal in the steakhouse.
“The answer to that question would go back to the answer to another question: how could we make AH?” Sam said. “This is because only if you understand how we could make it, then you can see the reason why we want to do it.”
“I am listening.”
“Back to a few decades ago, scientists started to know how to create life, I mean eggs and sperms, through synthetic ways in labs,” Sam said.
“I heard of that,” John chipped in, “but that technology died off because of the strict ban by the United Nations, didn’t it?”
“Are you serious?” Sam gave John a funny look and grinned. “Of course, it is prohibited officially by all the major powers that are members of the relevant UN organization based on the ban issued by the UN.”
Sam’s talk was cut off by the waitress, who brought the food and beverage on the table.
“Cheers,” they gulped down mouthfuls of beer, and then started to enjoy the food. But none of them commented on the food, even though it was very tasty. Both of them were mindful of something important, and they needed to manage to get what they want before leaving the restaurant.
“Banning from the UN could actually make things even more attractive to those who see the benefits and would like to take the risk,” Sam said.
“You mean…those like BMA, which is powerful enough to actually manage to avoid any monitoring or escape from any punishment in case it is caught by the UN, right?”
“You got it. But that is still not the most important point,” Sam replied.
“What is the most important point?”
“The most important point is that the technology works and it can benefit human species,” Sam said artfully.
“It sounds to me that you mentioned two points instead of one.”
“You are right.” Sam laughed dryly.
John sensed the awkwardness in the sound of Sam’s laugh, so he tried to relax the atmosphere, “I have witnessed the technological point this morning but I could not see the point of benefit yet.”
“The main benefit is that we might overcome many unpleasant weaknesses of our own species with the help of the technology,” Sam said.
“How could that be?”
“It’s actually very simple.” Sam explained, “When life is created in the lab by some kind of scientific formula, it becomes possible for scientists work on the nature of life by playing around with the formula of life. Or in other words, what we consider as various attributes of the so-called human nature become alterable parameters of scientific operations in the lab for those AHs.”
John was reminded of what Colonel X told him, and commented sarcastically, “I guess the first attribute of human nature that has been altered is the nature of parenthood.”
“You are actually very correct.” Sam said, “The direct logical entailment of being artificially manufactured is that they don’t need any human parent. Therefore, the natural ability of reproduction becomes unnecessary.”
“That seems to be true.” John could not argue against that logic.
“But on the other hand, the requirement of sexual mating for reproduction actually comes with a big overhead,” Sam said.
“We all love it, right? That’s why we call the activity as making love,” John jested.
Sam raised his glass to clink glasses. Two glasses hit each other.
“Well, that love itself is actually the overhead,” Sam said after imbibing a mouthful of beer. “Don’t you see how many dirty things happened during human history simply because of that love of sex?... Jealousy, adultery, cheating, violence, as well as little things like masturbation ...”
“Well, I mean…” John tried to say something but did not find a proper sentence.
Sam continued his own talk, “So it would make sense to remove the reproduction capacity from the formula of AH. Accordingly, they don’t need to have sexual desire, and thus won’t suffer all the negative symptoms caused by sexual desires as we humans have been suffered.”
“Are you really suffering from your sex life?” John winked.
“I do enjoy it since I am created in that way,” Sam laughed wryly. “But since we are the makers of AHs, we could do better for them.”
Sam had a bite of the steak. Both were quiet for a few seconds when they were chewing the food.
“Actually, it’s not just good for them but also for the whole society, including us,” Sam said. “It could help the society avoid a lot of desire-driven sex crimes.”
“I don’t have any objection to that since they are not human anyway,” John said, but then he sensed some logical problem in what Sam just said and his own response, but could not figure out the problem right away. His thinking capacity was slightly affected by the alcohol.
“Are there other benefits?” he asked.
“How about the missing infant and youth times?” Sam asked back.
“That’s a pity, isn’t it?” John asked.
“A pity for them, maybe… but a cost effective benefit for us. Don’t you agree?”
“I guess I have to agree with you.” John said reluctantly and then asked, “Would those AHs think as logically as us humans?”
“Oh, no!...They are much smarter than most humans.” Sam lowered his voice and put his index finger to his lips.
John looked around to see if anyone else was listening to them. “Is it safe to discuss that matter in this place?”
“It’s okay. BMA owns this restaurant,” Sam replied.
“Are you kidding?”
“No kidding,” Sam said. “Most people in this town relate to us in this or that way. Occasionally, some outsiders like yourself might come to this town, but they would be easily identified.”
“How could those AHs be smarter than us humans?” John asked.
“I guess one important reason is that they are less distracted by matters such as sexual imaginations and so on,” Sam replied.
“Would you hire them to work for you?” John asked.
“Sure. I have AHs working in the factory. Some of them are even as scientists or engineers,”Sam replied.
“You mean they are involved in the research or design of creating their own fellows?” John raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah.”
John looked at Sam seriously and lowered his voice. “Don’t you worry about what was shown in the sci-fi movies that those AHs would replace human beings someday?”
“I don’t worry about that.” Sam did not show any worry as John expected.
“Why?”
“For a couple reasons … First, the human world is not simply a physical world, not even a primitive jungle world. The human world is a highly structured world. We as the makers of AHs are sitting at the top of that structure and thus they would serve us, not the reverse.
Second, although AHs are not bothered by sexual desires, but it does not mean that they don’t have other weaknesses. We know how to control them.”
“You just mentioned that you could change all attributes of human nature in the labs for AHs. Why don’t you get rid of their weaknesses?”
“Come on, science has its own limitation. Besides, we don’t want to do it since we don’t want to worry about what you have seen from those Sci-fi movies,” Sam grinned, and then stared at John, “As a matter of fact, they are made more loyal to their human bosses than we humans.”
“But if they could do the jobs as scientists in your factory, then they might change the formula someday by themselves,” John reminded Sam of the risk.
“They are under intense monitor in the labs just like most human beings are monitored around the world for various reasons. Only very few human scientists could touch the most sensitive parts of the formula,” Sam replied with confidence.
“Cheers” They cheered with each other again.
“But after you told me so much about the AHs, I still don’t see the benefit for BMA to invest in AHs if they are not allowed to be produced outside The Republic of New People. Do you plan to smuggle AHs out of this country?” John asked.
“Yes. They will definitely not stay in this country only. The question is where they would be sent to.”
“Are you going to send them back to our country?” John asked.
“We could do that if needed,” Sam said.
“You mean you will let them to spread among us?” John’s voice was a bit quavering.
“That’s not in the plan yet,” Sam looked at John and smiled slyly. “There are two main areas that we are planning to send AHs.”
“What are they?”
“First, we want to use them to form an army for our own country,” Sam said.
“How could you get the congress to approve this?”
“We don’t need their approval,” Sam said. “The AHs would be hired as mercenaries to fight for us abroad and no one would know that they are AHs.”
“Don’t you worry that they might turn their guns back to our own country?”
“That will never happen. We know how to control them since we produced them,” Sam twitched his lips. “Besides, all the officers will be humans.”
“So BMA will profit from the defense budget, right?” John asked.
“We actually help to save the defense budget, since it will cost much less to hire an AH than to support one human soldier. Besides, AHs are much braver than human soldiers.”
“Huh,” John made a sarcastic sound. “I guess what really matters to you is that you don’t really care about the life of AHs.”
“Well,” Sam asked in a rhetorical tone, “if that could save the lives of our young men, don’t you think it a good thing?”
“If you think that is so good, why don’t you bring it to the congress and get them to approve it?”John asked.
“That’s another issue,” Sam replied. “We don’t want to scare them too much right now. But someday they will learn this and agree with us.”
“So you are producing AHs only as soldiers to defend our own country?”
“That is a very important reason,” Sam looked at John seriously. “AHs could also serve to defend our country in a broader sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you heard from the news that all three countries that have set campuses on Mars are facing severe challenges there and are considering getting their men and women back to Earth?” Sam asked.
“I heard of it before I came here,” John replied.
“As another top secret that you should not leak to outside, we are researching a way to produce one type of AHs that will survive in the severe environment of Mars.” Sam leaned towards John and lowered his voice, “With them we could completely defeat those two countries that have set campuses on Mars as our rivals, and we could have a complete control of Mars for our country.”
John’s eyes were opened wide and felt very hard to question BMA’s motivation of making AHs after Sam provided such strong patriotic reasons for producing the AHs.
“Have you made any progress on this?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Sam replied and leaned back to the chair.
“Is that hopeful?”
“Well, it’s possible,” Sam twitched his mouth and had a raise of his eyebrows. “At least, if some AHs cease living on Mars or anywhere else, people won’t care as much as they might for humans.”
It was the typical cold tone of Sam that John had been familiar with.
John did not respond because he did not know what to say. He definitely did not like AHs, but he was not comfortable with the cruelty in Sam’s tone either. So he kept eating and drinking.
A few seconds later, Sam said while leering at John, “Personally you should feel happier about the fact that we are making the AHs.”
“For what reason?” John asked.
“For your own business of selling IB system,” Sam replied.
“Why?”
“You will know the answer this evening when you see that General K.”
“Could you give me some heads up now?”
“I’d better leave that to General K,” Sam smiled slyly.
Then they talked about some other things. The lunch lasted about two hours. They left the restaurant in the middle of the afternoon. Sam called a taxi on the street. He asked the driver to lower the window and said to him, “Please send this gentleman to the Palace Hotel. The fare is charged to the New Generation Factory.”
“No problem,” The driver replied.
Then Sam hugged John. “It’s great to see you again in this country.”
“Me too.”
“You have my number. Don’t forget to call me before you leave.”
“Sure thing.”
After the taxi left, Sam took out his phone and opened the message interface. He typed “Not sure!” in the reply to a text from his boss, Harry King.