Interlude- Brandon by Terry Schott Page B

a book off the shelf and looked at it. Then he placed it back on the shelf and looked at Thorn. His eyes were flat and cold as he spoke. “I don’t know you very well, Doc, but I like you. This is a line you don’t want to cross with me; not now, not ever. I won’t believe anything bad about the General, and there’s no room in my brain to stand by and listen to it. Us orphans get pretty fired up when you start talking trash about our father… so don’t bring it up again. We understand each other?”
    “How are there so many orphans these days?” Thorn asked.
    “Come again?”
    “The Centres are full of orphans. Tens of thousands of kids without parents all over the country. Do you have any idea how many there are?”
    “Times are tough, Thorn,” Cooper said. “People can’t afford to keep their kids. Lots of children have kids, and they just can’t give them a life. I doubt the volume of orphans has increased significantly, the General has simply put a system in place to save them.”
    “Inside this simulation we have access to every memory from your life.” Thorn said.
    “What? That could be dangerous for you, Doc. There’s knowledge in my brain that could get you killed.”
    “I’ve got maximum clearance,” Thorn assured him.
    “There’s no way in hell you have that kind of clearance.”
    “Some of your memories are blocked. I don’t know how, but they are. I’m guessing they taught you how to do that.”
    Cooper nodded.
    “I want to show you a memory that you’ve repressed. Let me show it to you. You do that, and I’ll never bring the General up again. Deal?”
    Cooper hesitated and Thorn held up his hand. “I promise it won’t be anything compromising from your career as part of the General’s Avatar. It goes back much farther.”
    Cooper nodded. “Fine. If that’s what it takes to shut you up.”
    Thorn nodded and pulled out his tablet. “This memory is an old one. You were less than two years old.”
    The white office shimmered and was replaced by another scene. The two men stood in front of a large mansion. The lawn was immaculate and there were four very expensive cars sitting in the large driveway. Thorn led Cooper into the house and walked upstairs to the hallway. He stopped outside a door; they could hear voices in the next room.
    “They won’t see us,” Thorn said. They walked into a children’s bedroom decorated in blue and white. The walls were decorated with cartoon animals and other happy scenes. A beautiful woman sat on the bed holding a small blonde boy tightly in her arms. He had his face buried in her shoulder. A good looking man stood over the two of them protectively, glaring at a man standing in front of them. Cooper and Thorn couldn’t see the face of the man who was facing the parents, but they could see that he had a gun pointed at them.
    “My parents?” Cooper asked.
    Thorn nodded. “Two loyal and wealthy citizens of the state who recently spoke out against a young man in public, challenging his ideas and criticizing his plans.”
    “The man holding the gun on them?”
    “Yes,” Thorn said. “An aggressive and newly appointed General Donovan.”
    “You didn’t need to come into our house and start waving around a gun, Donovan,” Cooper’s father said. He appeared relaxed despite the dangerous situation; Cooper could tell that his father had military training. “If our support is so important to you, then I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.”
    “That’s good to hear,” the General said. “But I don’t require your public support, Charles, although you can help me in another area. You and Genevieve are both remarkable people… mentally and physically superior specimens.”
    “What are you talking about?” Cooper’s father asked.
    “I can see that no matter how hard we try, the three of us will never be friends,” the General said. “There’s only one acceptable solution to this problem.”
    “You’re going to kill us in cold