Someday they'll want us.

Tony Ellis · 24 Jun 2010, 14:08 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com (Tony Ellis)
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:08:47 +0100
Subject: (urth) Someday they'll want us.
Message-ID: <AANLkTiki3O75BT1ERifULsu-PUCu0JY-erPfzsyTGOvl at mail.gmail.com>

Gerry Quinn wrote:
> "Someday they'll want us" is the last line of _The Fifth Head of
> Cerberus_, written three years after the narrator's release from prison.
> The subject, clearly, is Phaedria and her child. Who are the "us" of the
> example?

The subject is humanity. 'Us' is the family - for want of a better
word - of which he is a part. Someday humanity will want us.

They haven't been experimenting on themselves for generations for the
fun of it. Maitre wants them to be at the very least rulers of the
planet.

The significance of this as a last line is that it confirms what we've
already begun to suspect - that Number 5, the narrator we've followed
all this time, no longer exists. He's become Maitre.

> Are we to infer that he has
> already created a 'Number 6' clone?

Absolutely. That's 'the child'.

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