“Sick fucks,” I mutter.
“Not practice,” Doc says. “Elimination hunts. The hunts on the island are where those kids start out. The hunts in Wyoming are where most of them end. Donovan was split as a very young boy. The two personalities existed simultaneously until they were about eight, then they put them back together.”
I scoff. “How’s that work?”
“It doesn’t. That’s why he’s like this. Donovan was an experiment. Can you split a mind, train each one separately, then merge them so they could be called upon at specific times for specific purposes? And if you could do it once, could you do it twice to the same child? A different kind of twin, so to speak. Only in multiples more than two.”
I groan. “Please tell me you are not insinuating that this man has been split into more than two personalities.”
“I’m not saying that. Donovan was the start of this set of experiments so their delusions of grandeur were small. Just two. But before that program was over they did split a few into four and six separate personalities. Two, then three sets of twins.”
“In the same fucking mind?” I’m… stunned.
“That’s right,” Doc confirms. “One mind, six people.”
“Wow,” I say. “That’s… diabolical.”
“That’s just the start, son.”
“But why would they do that?” Sasha asks. “For what purpose? Surely it is more productive to have six separate people who can be counted on than it is to have one person with six different personalities. There’s no way it can be predictable.”
“You’re right there,” Doc says. “It was very unpredictable. But in genetics, it’s all about lifespan. And in human personality genetics, it’s all about number of participants in the same trial. It takes way too long for humans to mature to do generational experiments on them. On top of that, humans are costly to keep alive. They have a lot of requirements. So if you’ve got one candidate that could be split six ways without compromising the controls, well.” He throws up his hands. “It solves a lot of problems.”
“Evil,” I say.
“Exactly,” Doc says. “But the Company lives for that sort of evil. They find the mind to be a fascinating place. The personalities were always completely different. Donovan isn’t a killer. He’s not actually a psychopath. Carter, on the other hand, is. He didn’t mind killing the children in the hunt. He didn’t have an existential crisis when he was told about the breeding programs.”
“How did they control who was… present?” I ask.
“They didn’t. Not with Donovan, at least. Carter was much stronger in that regard. But less controllable than Donovan.”
“So they merged them back?” I ask.
“Tried. It’s technically called fusing. And it worked. For a while.”
“OK,” Sasha says. “But then how did Donovan get in control of everyday life?”
“I don’t think he ever was in charge. I think Carter just hid.”
“But why?” I ask. “Why hide when you can just take control?”
“Because he had his own plans, Mr. Case.” Doc looks at Sasha. “I know what you did in Santa Barbara. And I know who helped you do it. Adam, right?” “Yes.”
“Well Donovan was the one who helped Adam.”
“It was Carter, then? Not Donovan?” I ask.
“I wouldn’t know. I can only assume.”
“Did Donovan know any of this?” Sasha says.
“At one time, he probably did,” Doc says. “When he was very young. But I doubt he had any idea, as an adult, exactly who and what he was. And I suspect that this forced amnesia that worked on Donovan did not work on Carter. That’s the only way it makes sense. How could this secret stay so well hidden if both the personalities were clueless? One of them had to know and I guess that’s Carter.”
“So…” Sasha pauses to think this through. “How can we ever know who is who?”
“How can we ever?” Doc asks back.
I look down at Donovan. Reevaluate him. This is gonna be a lot harder than I first thought. “I’m gonna need insight. Who knows him best?”
“Indie,” Doc says. “Indie knows him best. And I know what you’re thinking, but here’s the problem. Indie knows them both, and in her mind, they are one and the same.”
“Does Adam know this?” Sasha asks.
“Not all of it. Not the part about Indie. He and McKay, they’re way too close to this boy. They really think that Donovan can be saved, and if they can save Donovan, they can save Indie. But I’m here to tell you, he can’t be saved and neither can she.”
“Then why are we even bothering?” I ask.
Sasha grunts at me. “Merc!”
“What? It’s a real question.”
“We’re bothering because he’s a human being. They raped his mind as a child. And he’s not the only one, either. There are so many of them. The moment you give in to the idea that humans can be thrown out like trash, that’s the moment you find yourself on the side of evil. Do you want to be on the side of evil, Merc?”