Chapter One: The Boy With No Name
On Mara Harrison's sixth birthday she expected to get a bike.
She already had one picked out in her mind. It would be pink with long blue tassels and have large white tires. There would be only two tires since she had no need for training wheels since she learned to ride without them a year ago. It would be her prized possession, something that she would cherish for the rest of her childhood life. Mara knew she would keep the bike in mint condition so she would be able to one day pass it down to her sister Abby, who would be so envious of the bike that she would leap for joy when she received it.
The morning of her sixth birthday Mara woke earlier than she normally did. She threw her covers off herself and hurried down the stairs of their Phoenix suburb house. As Mara skidded into the kitchen she was faced with her mother who was sitting at the island with her head in her hands. Her father, the famed Dr. John Harrison, was standing behind the island leaning his hands against the garnet counter top. He was wearing his work clothes and the wrinkle he had between his eyebrows whenever he was under stress was there. His powder blue shirt was rolled up to his elbows and he was saying something to Mara's mother that Mara couldn't hear.
Mara stood there for a moment waiting to hear what her parents were talking about. Mara wanted to move closer but she didn't want them to know that she was there. For a moment Mara contemplated hiding beside the kitchen door but when she heard someone yawn from the couch she turned her head.
Mara expected it to be Abby. Abby was only three and many nights she would sneak into their parents bed. Abby would use her big brown eyes to guilt their mother into letting her sleep with them. As the youngest child, it was something Abby had the luxury of doing. Mara's days of getting away with sneaking into her parents bed were long gone. Since she became a big sister Mara's duty was to set an example for Abby.
Often, Mara had trouble doing so.
As Mara crept into the living room she wondered to herself why the TV wasn't on. Normally their mother would turn on the TV in the morning so the girls could watch it for an hour before the day began. Mara tip toed around the couch and froze when she saw someone that wasn't Abby sitting there.
There was a boy sitting on her couch. Mara knew that this boy wasn't one of the neighborhood kids since she knew them all. This boy was strange. He was very pale with a head of dark brown almost black hair and chilling blue eyes. His clothes were two sizes too big for him and they were white. Printed on his tee shirt was a series of numbers in ugly black paint. He was sitting ridged with his eyes facing forward and his back perfectly straight. He looked to be a few years younger than Mara. If he knew Mara was there, the boy made no attempt to show it.
Mara knitted her eyebrows together and asked, "Who are you?"
The boy didn't move from his stoic stare. He moved his arm and pointed to the numbers that were printed onto his shirt. Mara titled her head to the side in confusion, "That's not a name silly, those are numbers. No one's name is numbers."
The boy's eyes moved for a moment. He glanced at the little girl standing beside the arm of the couch. Her hair was a mess and she was dressed in a pink night gown. He hesitated as he licked his lips and tried to remember the words that he heard the doctors speak before. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. Ashamed, he looked away from the girl.
Mara saw the boy's fear and sat down beside him. She reached forward without fear and took his overly warm hand in hers and smiled, "It's alright. You can talk to me."
The boy glanced back at the girl and managed to say, "I don't have a name."
This time Mara didn't question his lack of a name. She knew that everyone had names, their parents gave them names when they were born. She had a name, it was Margate but everyone called her Mara. Abby's name was Abigail, and Mara knew her parents had their own names. She wondered why the boy didn't have a name.
"Well," Mara said, "What would you like your name to be?"
The boy thought about it for a moment. He never was asked this question because he thought that he and the other children were never going to be given the opportunity to have their own names. They had numbers and that was it. That was the most personal thing he and the other children received. The boy was grateful enough to have his own number, there were a set of twin boys that he remembered who had to share a number.
He didn't hear many names. Occasionally he would overhear the doctors speaking amongst themselves. The boy remembered a kind doctor who came from Pakistan. The Doctor had a son back in Pakistan who the boy liked to hear stories about. The boy's name as Khan, it was supposed to mean strong.
Carefully the boy licked his lips once more. Talking was strange since back with the other children he rarely did it. They were tested on their intelligence and physical strength, not how well they could speak.
"Khan," he said in a hesitant voice, "I would like to be called Khan."
"Khan," Mara tested the name out, "I've never heard a name like that but I like it. My name is Margret but I only like people to call me Mara. Sometimes my dad calls me-"
"Maggie what are you doing?" John Harrison was horrified to see his daughter talking to his creation.
The boy was never meant to be here.
Since the beginning of the project the boy was always the strongest of the group. He was the first successful genetically enhanced being, an Augmented Human, as John and his team called them. He was the smartest out of the group and the strongest. During group interactions the other flocked to him. John never thought that they would take him away from the rest of them.
But the general in charge of the project thought it would be best. If the boy grew up with the other children he would see them as family and not as soldiers. The military didn't spend billions of dollars on this project to have the Augments leader be soft on his soldiers because they were his childhood friends. So the general decided to have the boy removed from the rest of the group. He would be reintroduced to the others when the need arose.
John had approved the plan but he never thought he would be the one to take the boy. He was part of a triumbrant that spearheaded the project but John thought because he had two small girls at home he would be immune to taking the boy. He thought wrong.
Dr. Noonien and Dr. Singh dodged a bullet with this one.
But when John found his eldest daughter sitting on the couch making conversation with the boy he felt fear thick in his throat. His wife, Rebecca, hovered behind John listening. She was just as nervous, this boy wasn't breed to be a child he was bred to be a killer.
"Daddy," Mara said with a cheerful voice, "This is Khan, is he staying with us?"
It was at that moment that Mara Harrison sealed the fate of her whole family.