Father nodded. ‘Very good, Albert. Yes, of course you have not. And that is exactly what he who built it intended. Now, as a result of this resolution, several things happened. The first, and most obvious, was that a new hierarchy was created within the City. At the very top was the family. Below them was everyone else, the general population, or citizenry, if you will. And, of course, to ensure the status quo was maintained, a state of constant emergency was to be imposed within the City. This would also help to prevent any possible outbreak of the Epidemic, as well as to preclude the possibility of future internal unrest that would destabilize the system. Again, since the duration of the quarantine could not be determined, in order to prevent any upsetting of the hierarchy that could compromise the primary resolution—the protection of the family—all functions including justice and enforcement would be AI-run, according to programmed guidelines, which would prevent any possibility of an internal coup or uprising that might affect the chain of command. To this end, pair-bonding—bonding of any sort between individuals—would be actively discouraged. Do you understand what I mean? The entire institution of family was to be dismantled. And, in order to safeguard both these objectives, a state of complete sanitization of information would exist at all times within the City, with only what was cleared being disseminated. Further, any and every outbreak of addiction would be immediately expunged.’

‘But—’

Father held up a hand.

‘As far as selecting the citizenry went, the criteria were clear. A limited, very limited, percentage of those chosen would be adults. None who refused to provide what was asked of them would be selected. And, in the end, most of those who obliged were left out anyway. I suspect that many of them knew it would happen, the fact that the children they could have had would be given life was all they would get in return for their … contribution.’

‘Contribution?’ He had a bad feeling about this—a very bad feeling. ‘What did they have to give up?’

‘DNA.’

‘DNA?’

‘Yes, Albert. DNA. DNA to be used to breed future generations of citizenry, the human database that was so essential to the success of the resolution, to researching and developing a cure to the Epidemic. The database without which there was no purpose to the lab.’

The warning bells were shrieking at Albert now, telling that he should stop, that he didn’t want to know anything else. But he couldn’t help himself. ‘You keep coming back to this super lab. But I’ve never heard of it, I’m sure nobody has! Where is it, then?’