Chapter 1The laboratory
The laboratory had no windows.
That was the first thing Frederick Huegh had demanded when the building was constructed. No sunlight. No outside noise. No reminders that there was a world beyond the walls.
Only darkness.
The corridors were narrow and painted a dull grey, with flickering lights hanging from the ceiling. The air always carried the same strange mixture of disinfectant, metal and something sour that nobody could quite identify. Every breath felt cold in the back of the throat.
Frederick loved it.
He stood at the end of the main corridor, dressed neatly in his white coat, watching the people behind the glass.
They were his subjects.
And they were smiling.
Every single one.
Some had enormous, unnatural smiles fixed across their faces. Others wore permanent frowns, their lips pulled downward into expressions of misery. A few looked permanently furious, their eyebrows lowered and their eyes fixed forward.
None of them could change.
That was Frederick's achievement.
