Terry Bisson - Macs

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MACS

by TERRY BISSON

Originally published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1999

What did I think? Same thing I think today. I thought it was slightly weird even if it was

legal. But I guess I agreed with the families that there had to be Closure. Look out that window

there. I can guarantee you, it's unusual to be so high in Oklahoma City. Ever since it happened,

this town has had a thing about tall buildings. It's almost like that son of a bitch leveled this

town.

Hell, we wanted Closure too, but they had a court order all the way from the Supreme Court. I

thought it was about politics at first, and I admit I was a little pissed. Don't use the word

pissed. What paper did you say you were with?

Never heard of it, but that's me. Anyway, I was miffed -- is that a word? miffed? -- until I

understood it was about Victims' Rights. So we cancelled the execution, and built the vats, and

you know the rest.

Well, if you want to know the details you should start with my assistant warden at the time,

who handled the details. He's now the warden. Tell him I sent you. Give him my regards.

-<*>-

I thought it opened a Pandora's box, and I said so at the time. It turns out of course that

there haven't been that many, and none on that scale. The ones that there are, we get them all.

We're sort of the Sloan-Ketterings of the thing. See that scum on the vats? You're looking at

eleven of the guy who abducted the little girls in Ohio, the genital mutilation thing, remember?

Even eleven's unusual. We usually build four, maybe five tops. And never anything on the scale of

the macs.

Build, grow, whatever. If you're interested in the technology, you'll have to talk with the

vat vet himself. That's what we call him, he's a good old boy. He came in from the ag school for

the macs and he's been here in Corrections ever since. He was an exchange student, but he met a

girl from MacAlester and never went home. Isn't it funny how that stuff works? She was my second

cousin, so now I have a Hindu second cousin-in-law. Of course he's not actually a Hindu.

-<*>-

A Unitarian, actually. There are several of us here in MacAlester, but I'm the only one from

the prison. I was fresh out of Ag and it was my first assignment. How would one describe such an

assignment? In my country, we had no such... well, you know. It was repellent and fascinating at

the same time.

Everyone has the cloning technology. It's the growth rate that gives difficulty. Animals grow

to maturity so much faster, and we had done significant work. Six-week cattle, ten-day ducks. Gene

tweaking. Enzyme accelerators. They wanted full grown macs in two and a half years; we gave them

168 thirty year old men in eleven months! I used to come down here and watch them grow. Don't tell

anyone, especially my wife, Jean, but I grew sort of fond of them.

Hard? It was hard, I suppose, but farming is hard too if you think about it. A farmer may

love his hogs but he ships them off, and we all know what for.

You should ask legal services about that. That wasn't part of my operation. We had already

grown 168 and I had to destroy one before he was even big enough to walk, just so they could

include the real one. Ask me if I appreciated that!

-<*>-

It was a second court order. It came through after the macs were in the vats. Somebody's

bright idea in Justice. I suppose they figured it would legitimize the whole operation to include

the real McCoy, so to speak, but then somebody has to decide who gets him. Justice didn't want any

part of that and neither did we, so we brought in one of those outfits that run lotteries, because

that's what it was, a lottery, but kind of a strange one, if you know what I mean.

Strange in that the winner wasn't supposed to know if he won or not. He or she. It's like the

firing squad, where nobody knows who has the live bullets. Nobody is supposed to know who gets the

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