Masterminds

The book’s final segment is action-driven since the entire focus is on the test subjects’ attempt to escape together. They need to carefully plan out their moves and exhibit resourcefulness in a way they never have before. As a result, the novel’s primary focus shifts to the theme of Personal Autonomy and the sense of rebellion that it engenders in the test subjects. Amber’s voice emerges more distinctly in this segment than in previous chapters, and she projects a different attitude here as well. Previously, she was a model junior citizen of Serenity. Malik noted this fact while watching her during a dance recital, in which she was coached by his ballet teacher mother:

The main reason it drives me nuts that Mom is Laska’s number one fan is that the ‘lovely girl’ is just about the polar opposite of me in this place. She takes ballet and piano and volunteers for everything under the sun. For me, it’s a point of personal pride to work as little as humanly possible (249).

While it might be easy to see the hidden felon in Malik’s behavior, it’s much harder to make a clone connection to Amber’s donor based on her inoffensive behavior. However, once she realizes that her entire life is predicated on lies, she reacts just as angrily as Malik himself does:

They lied to me, all the while claiming that nothing is more important than honesty. I’ve been pumped up with so many lies that when you take them away, there’s nothing left and I’m an empty shell. I’ll never forgive them for that (269).

Eli takes on the role of mastermind for the group in planning their escape and knocking out the transmitter that keeps them imprisoned in town. His own bitterness at being held captive mirrors that of the others. His final comments on the subject draw yet another parallel to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. Thinking of Hammerstrom, he notes, “He thought he could hide the idea of rebellion from us, and in the end, he got more rebellion than he knew what to do with” (305). Each of these comments suggests that personal autonomy rather than nature or nurture is driving the actions of the clones.

Despite behavior that is clearly individualistic and understandably human, the teens continue to obsess about how much of their behavior is the consequence of their genes. This angst relates to the theme of Clone Identities. The test subjects all become especially rattled when Eli finds a newspaper article discussing one of the clone donors: “Bartholomew Glen isn’t harmless. He’s a psychotic killer with nine innocent people on his conscience. And one of us is an exact copy of him, right down to the last cell” (311).

Despite their fear that biology might be destiny, they each act in ways that run contrary both to their Serenity conditioning and their genes. Malik, who clearly demonstrates the greatest tendencies toward criminal behavior, exhibits deep remorse about the loss of Hector. “If I didn’t cheat on tests and gorge myself on cookies and cupcakes and get myself classified ‘toxic’; if I wasn’t such a big jerk, would Hector still be alive? That’s a lot more weight to carry than one skinny kid” (297). Such a comment could be made only by someone with a conscience, not a sociopathic master criminal. Clearly, another factor is at play in shaping the values and characters of the Osiris subjects.

After the friends succeed in asserting their right to personal autonomy by escaping, their problems in the real world are only beginning. This relates to the Nature Versus Nurture theme in an unexpected way. Hammerstrom was so intent on limiting any negative stimuli from the outside world that might influence his test subjects that he unintentionally created people who are unfit to live in the real world. Eli is the first to realize the danger that such an upbringing causes after the group’s altercation in the railroad yard in Colorado:

We’ve only been in this town a few minutes and already we’ve been caught, chased, and almost run over. Has our Serenity upbringing left us so clueless that we’re doomed to blunder from near miss to near miss? How long before one of those close calls turns into a real disaster? Right now, the odds of us making it in the outside world seem like a million to one (316).

Eli’s questions remain unanswered at the book’s conclusion. However, the trilogy later tackles the issue of the defining factor in shaping character. Ultimately, the fate of the clones may depend on their adaptability to circumstances.