-4-
Three days after Agent Callum Irving went AWOL, my colleague - whilst conducting a thorough search of his room - discovered a number of sensitive documents secreted beneath the floorboards.� We, of course, already knew he had accessed these files. Agent Christine Farmer, under our instruction, managed to implant a hypnotic suggestion in Agent Irving's mind, making him believe that his actions were his alone.�
You will be pleased to hear that everything has gone to plan.� We have in our custody Agent Irving and the Starsmore youth.� We are now less than five miles away from base.� Please ensure the holding cells are ready upon our arrival.
End transmission.
From the journal of Professor Alan Dysart.
September 18th 1975
We have our two subjects.
Brendan Crotty, 24 and Jane Lovecraft, 30.� The male was found in a high-security psychiatric ward, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who had tried to slash his wrists on a number of occasions.� Tests showed him to be a grade one telepath - quite 'off the scale'; possibly almost as high in ability as the American para-human, Jean Grey.� The female was incarcerated in Broadmoor prison.� She had murdered her parents using her own rather unique mutant powers:� manifesting ectoplasmic entities from the template-identities of the dead.� I call this Necromantic Channelling, although her psychiatrists call it Multiple Personality Disorder.� They are now in our custody whilst we await further instructions.
September 23rd 1975
Day one of Project Cassandra.� Professor Moore has started to collect genetic samples from the two subjects.� I must say, I do not like her;� her methods are rather suspect, to say the least.� Yesterday, I asked her how she had come by her research and she nearly punched me out.� In my psychiatric opinion, she shows signs of extreme bi-polar disorder.� I shall be keeping a very close eye on her over the next few months.
September 30th 1975
They have been communicating again.�
Moore has designed an inhibitor drug (again, where she has managed to find such information in so short a time is a mystery to me.� The only clue I have is the name 'Essex' - the person she was communicating with on the telephone).� I have questioned the wisdom of using any chemicals which may alter the genetic purity of the experiment but she has our superiors wrapped around her finger.� Sometimes, I think I'm superfluous to the project - am only there as a nod to my own extensive work into the nature of the X Factor.� Still, all the while I am kept on board, I shall endevour to protect both Crotty and Lovecraft from her less-than-tender mercy.
October 17th 1975
Crotty's birthday.� As a special present, they extracted hormonal secretions from his pituitary gland.� His screams will keep me awake for many nights to come.
October 21st 1975
Today, Moore nearly died.� She was trying to take a scraping of tissue from Lovecraft's uterus when she was suddenly attacked by two SS officers.� Obviously, her mysterious contact had mislead her on the longevity of the inhibitor serum.
I visited Lovecraft in the cells two hours ago.� I don't think there is any permanent physical damage to her person but it will take weeks before the contusions heal.� She was quite a pretty woman before today but now ... .� I hate Moore - hate the way she treats them.� Lab rats are afforded better care than these two young people.� She is unstable, megalomaniacal but noone will listen to me.� All they care about is the project's success.� If I thought I could, I'd resign.� Old, pathetic coward!� Put my own life above my professional integrity!� Was this how Doctor Menghler's associates felt - too afraid for themselves to object to his evil?
Or too desperate for fame and fortune and recognition to care how many lives it cost?
October 31st 1975
It's over.� Just like that.� They tried to escape and they shot them.� Dead.� Bleeding.� Screaming as the bullets cut them down.� I was there ... oh God, I was there and I watched them murder them in cold blood and I did nothing!� NOTHING!� Even after a bottle of Scotch, I can't look at myself in the mirror.� Too old, too impotent.
I'm sorry, Brendan, Jane.� I failed you and I failed myself.
December 30th 1975
Using sperm and ovum samples taken from the two subjects, Moore has managed to cultivate a foetus.� She's growing it in the dead girl's womb ... .
She's sick - far more so than I gave her credit for.� Crotty's decapitated head sits in a jar on her desk and she talks to it.� Tells it about the child neither of the parents will ever see.� Talks to it as she works on harvested tissue and tries to work out the genetic sequences that granted them their cursed powers.� She tells me that once she has isolated the X-Factor, she will mutate it in such a way as to induce different powers - powers she will splice into the developing foetus' make-up to create the Ultimate Being.
And they're letting her commit these obscenities.� All they care about is the Super-Soldier we know the Russians are developing.� If the people only knew what their government was doing ... .
I'm a fool.� What do the public care?� As long as they've got their TV and their three square meals a day, they couldn't give a toss.
Too old.� Too cynical.� Scotch is the only thing that keeps me going.
August 20th 1976
It's an abomination.
It burst from its necrotic womb in a spasmodic thrashing of limbs and teeth.� A homunculous: all grey, disfigured flesh and throbbing, pulsating veins.� It is the personification of its bastard Mother's madness - a sexless, seething demonspawn that studies you with insane, ancient eyes.� Like a bored cat might look at a mouse ... .
Within an hour of its birth, the creature killed one of the lab technicians.� He went to measure its bloated, over-sized cranium and, as his fingers brushed the latex-like scalp, his skin started to melt.� Spontaneous Human Combustion:� one second he was a man, the next a living inferno.� We tried to extinguish the flames but it was too late.� Nothing remained of the man but a globule of foul-smelling blue-black flesh.
We turned the extinguishers on the grinning gargoyle - managed to hold it long enough for Moore to inject it with a hefty dose of the inhibitor drug.� Perhaps suspecting the truly malevolant nature of her child, she had created a stasis-cell within which to incarcerate it.
I have recommended that the monstrosity be put to sleep as soon as possible.� I know, however, that they will over-rule me.
November 6th 1976
It is the size of a four year old child.� Even though it is kept inside the stasis field, it continues to grow.� I am certain the injections she administers daily contain a growth hormone.
The guards assigned to the prison area cannot stay longer than three hours at a time.� They report feelings of nausea and fatigue (almost symptomatic of radiation sickness) and of general unease.� One man remained on duty for five hours and had a total nervous breakdown.� I am at a loss to explain this phenomenon.
January 12th 1977
She lovingly refers to her 'creation' as Grendel - talks about it as if it were a normal, healthy child.� Moore says she has found a way to enhance mutagenic properties in an unborn child without creating a monster.� They listen to her, as always.� Why I am still attached to this project, I don't know.
March 1st 1978
It was a long process but we've finally found our six couples.� It was a difficult, arduous process;� Moore's guidelines for compatability were as intricate and as complicated as herself.� Each of the women had to possess the dormant X Factor gene;� as she explained it, mutancy would be passed on to the child much like natural immunity to disease - through the blood-links in the womb.� This would result in more diversity of powers.
Six infertile couples, all desperate for the child Mother Nature could not provide them with.� Lies from the start.� What did Moore call them?� Brood-mares.� Unsuspecting brood-mares.
Today, Irving, Wilde, Farmer, Starsmore, Sterling and Smith booked in to the clinic for treatment.� Each received the doctored embryos of the Crotty/Lovecraft gametes.� For the next nine months, they will receive injections of what they believe to be folic acid;� in reality, the mutant-enhancing serum Moore and the mysterious 'Essex' have developed.� How successful this stage of the project will be, only time will tell.
December 10th 1978
The last child - the Sterling child - was born today.� Still-born.� The other five appear healthy;� no physical or psychological abnormalities detected.� Moore is continuing to administer the 'folic acid' injections.
December 5th 1988
We have taken Callum Irving, Christine Farmer and William Smith into custody.� The Wilde child died last year in an unrelated incident (she contracted meningitis and, although Moore maintains this wasn't as a result of the serum, I'm not so sure).� The Starsmore boy has disappeared, despite our agency's best attempts to locate him.� Moore has decided to 'give up' on the child for now, certain that, when he reaches puberty, his powers will easily allow us to find him.
All three remaining subjects have been removed from society with the minimum of fuss.� WHO, it seems, were able to fake their deaths efficiently enough to ensure their respective parents truly believe the bodies they buried belonged to their children.� Now, we can finally begin the last phase of this damned Project.� Perhaps then I can go to my grave with a clear conscience;� if I have, in some way, managed to protect my country from the coming mutant armies of Mother Russia, then all the deaths would be justified.
July 10th 1995
Farmer - or Peyote as they are now calling her - has the most unusual talent.� She can bend a mind to her will by use of hallucinations and can plant hypnotic suggestions that can be activated weeks later.� Of the three subjects, she alone relishes her role as Protector of the Realm.
Irving - Hex - is a different kettle of fish altogether.� Reserved, painfully shy but extremely independent, he is loathe to use his phenomenal powers.� He has pre-cognitive abilities but appears to be developing a more potent talent - the power to induce psycho-somatic reactions in a person's mind.� Yesterday, I saw him will a test subject's nose to bleed with the slightest of thoughts.
Smith - code-named Tiamet - can level the ground with waves of radioactive energy.� His power has probably led to his leukaemia;� Doctor MacDonald has given the boy less than three months to live.� Another death - more blood on my hands.
Still, I cannot help but wonder about the Starsmore boy.� Has he manifested his own mutant powers now?� And if so, what form might they have taken?� WHO operatives have scoured Britain for him but, as there is no sign of him or his family, we can only assume he has left the country.
April 1st 1996
I fear this may be my last entry.� Today, we received word that WHO is to be disbanded.� All departments are to be taken over by Black Air.� Even Moore is terrified by this news which makes me wonder how bad they really are.� I have heard rumours - rumours of inter-species breeding experiments, of extra-terrestrial entities and bizarre gene and bacterial weapons.
The winds of change are blowing and they are as black as night.