The worth of something is often determined by how rare it is, or by how much money you need to pay for it to have it. As soon as something expensive becomes affordable for the lower classes, the upper class doesn’t consider it precious anymore. As a result, the price often drops even more.
It’s risky to assume that this process also applies to designer babies, but we will never know before we don’t try. So our plan is to break into one of the impregnation facilities and steal ten thousand embryos. Then, they’ll be redistributed among families with a very low income, thus giving primaries parents that are secondaries or even tertiaries themselves.
Basically, like a weird Robin Hood.
It would be impossible to bring the children back to the parents that paid for them. The genome of a primary is so different from their parent’s that they couldn’t prove it’s theirs. But nobody would be able to deny that the children are primaries, as they have an artificial genetic marker which labels them as such.
Therefore, these children would still have a right to all the government’s benefits typically granted to primaries. Ten thousand children would grow up with imperfect parents and still reach the top of our society.
I must confess, this plan was better than what we had done before. And likely a lot more effective.
We had picked a clinic that wanted to hire new janitors. Perfect jobs for Alexander and me, no primary would ever even think about applying. As soon as we got hired, we started mapping the whole building and created a schedule tracking the staff’s movements. With our key cards, we had access to every room.
Finally, the day of the heist arrived.
I watch the darkness creep through the corridors. The night shift is perfect for our plan, the number of security guards is about half of the one during the day. And nobody is really that vigilant. Why should they? Nobody ever tried to break into an impregnation facility.
Alexander stands next to me. His hands are firmly grasping a cart loaded with various cleaning supplies. A mountain of towels hides the steel briefcase in which we will transport our precious cargo.
I look at my wristwatch. It’s almost midnight, time for the new guards to arrive and the old ones to leave. They always just stand there and talk for a good 15 minutes which gives us enough time. Or so we hope.
Swiftly, we move towards the laboratory where the several days old embryos are kept before they’re implanted into their mothers. I swipe my key card through the reader and after a confirming beeping, the door unlocks and we enter the room.
”Alright, let’s do this”, Alexander says and opens a cabinet. Small, labeled glass cubes are lined up neatly. There are so many. Definitely, more than we are planning to take. Good thing is, we don’t have to count them, the briefcase holds exactly the ten thousand we want, we made sure of that.
Quickly but with precision and care, we start loading the cubes into the briefcase. Every few minutes, I glance at my watch. We’re still on time, but I’m anxious that we might be caught any moment. I can feel the cold sweat running down my back, an awful feeling.
”Done.” Alexander puts the final cube into the briefcase, closes it and hides it under the towels again.
”Now let’s get out of here.”
We head towards the door to leave when it suddenly opens by itself.
No, not itself. A guard steps in, followed by a young woman.
”See, honey, this is where they’d keep our baby. It is totally …”
He stops talking the moment he notices us.
”What are you two doing here? You’re not supposed to enter this room without supervision! What …” His eyes wander to the cabinet we had just removed the embryos from. My heart suddenly beats faster. Did we close it properly?
”Why is this cabinet open?” The guard hisses. We didn’t close it properly.
I look over to Alexander, whose eyes are wide with fear. He’s unable to think, it seems. Time for me to be a leader.
”Take the babies”, I whisper in his direction. Without confirming if he understood, I throw myself towards the guard with a loud battle cry. I’m not particularly strong or heavy, but the moment of surprise is on my side. The guard stumbles back, right into his supposed wife and they both fall over.
Alexander had grabbed the briefcase and jumps over us, running a few steps into the corridor before he stops and turns around for me.
”Run!” I scream. ”Don’t wait for me!” He hesitates. The guard manages to get up and I lunge forward to grab his leg. Finally, Alexander starts running again.
”Stop!” The guard calls out and tries to free himself from my grasp, but I don’t let him go, even as he starts kicking me in the face.
As my nose breaks, I can taste blood and my vision starts to blur, but I only clutch his leg stronger. Until everything starts turning black.
”Prison. I’m going to prison.” Is the only thought left in my mind as my consciousness finally fades away.
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