Dimitri thought of Mattie, who had been kidnapped, trafficked, and treated as property by men who saw her as something to be used. The women in the Dormant enclosure lived a version of the same nightmare, except theirs was sanctified by tradition and cloaked in the language of duty and honor.
"Poor women," Dimitri murmured. "I can't imagine their suffering."
"That's why our mothers did not want us," Number One continued. "They were forced to breed with males chosen for them, and the children they produced were tools for an army, not family. Some of the mothers were kind to their sons, some were indifferent, and some resented them for being a reminder of what had been done to them. When the eight of us merged, our individual memories became shared, and across all of them there was not a single trace of a mother's love. Tolerance at best. Obligation. Sometimes worse."
Dimitri opened his mouth to insist that surely some of those mothers had loved their sons even in such terrible circumstances. But he stopped himself. He hadn't been there. He hadn't lived it. And the collective consciousness that was Dave had access to eight complete sets of memories, processed and cross-referenced with a computational power that no individual mind could match.
If Dave said there had been no love in those memories, Dimitri knew that there hadn't been.
"When the merge happened," Number One continued, "and the eight minds became one, the first thing the new consciousness noticed was how empty the memories were. Eight sets of experiences and not a single memory of being loved or even appreciated. We were always treated as tools, as cogs in the machine that is the Brotherhood of the Devout Order of Mortdh."
They walked in silence for a while. The path curved along a ridge that overlooked a dark stretch of beach, the waves catching starlight as they rolled in and out.
"That's why we protected Mattie," Number One said.
"You told me that she was important to me, and I'm important to your drug supply. It seemed like a rational self-interest."
"That is also a reason. But it is not the primary one."
"Then what is?"
Number One stopped walking, and behind them, the other seven stopped simultaneously. Eight bodies arranged along the path, their different faces all carrying the same expression of intensity in the starlight.
"Immortal warriors are discouraged from forming attachments to females beyond the physical. Those are the principles the Brotherhood operates on. We never witnessed love." He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was quieter. "Until we saw you with Mattie."
Dimitri felt something tighten in his chest.
"The way you look at her. The way she looks at you. The way you touch each other, not sexually, but the small touches. A hand on a shoulder. Fingers brushing across a cheek. The way you positioned yourself between her and the warriors at the harbor, knowing that you could die, and doing it anyway because losing her was worse than dying."
Number One turned to face him.
"We have transcended many things. Fear. Pain. Individual desire. But we are curious and inquisitive, and what you have with Mattie is the most fascinating phenomenon we have ever encountered."
"You protected her because you were curious about our relationship?"
"We protected her because if she died, you would break. And if you broke, we would lose access to the only example of love that we have ever had the opportunity to study." Number One held his gaze. "You are our window into something we cannot experience ourselves."
It should have sounded clinical, detached, the kind of statement Dimitri would have expected to find in a research paper about an interesting specimen, but it didn't sound clinical. There was something underneath, a resonance in Number One's voice, a quality in the way the other seven were watching him from behind, their different faces holding the same look of focused yearning. It was the longing of beings who had identified something they wanted and couldn't have, and it was so raw, so naked, that Dimitri had to look away.
"We have never left this island," Number One said after a moment. "The eight soldiers who became Dave were born here,raised here, trained here. None were ever deployed on missions abroad. The island is all we have ever known."
Dimitri hadn't known that. He'd assumed the soldiers had seen some of the world before the enhancement, but it made sense. Zhao had selected them for their youth and malleability.
"We listened to you and Doctor Petrov talk," Number One continued. "And through your conversations about the outside world, we learned about cities and universities and women and music and all the things that exist beyond the shores. We developed a hunger to experience the world and people who lived other kinds of lives. Lives like yours and Mattie's and Petrov's."
They started walking again. Number One's pace was slower now, as if he were approaching something important.
"We want to leave the island," Number One said.
Dimitri's pulse quickened. "You want to escape?"
"We want to be free, and we have the ability to make it happen. The logistics are within our capabilities."
"Then why haven't you done it yet?"
The answer was simple. They couldn't survive without a steady supply of the drugs that he and Petrov synthesized, but Dimitri wanted to hear Number One say it.
"Because we need you and Petrov. Without the drugs, our stability deteriorates. Within weeks, the merger would begin to fracture. Within months, we would either die or revert to eight separate minds that are damaged beyond repair."
