[ WP ] The Natural-Born-Killer gene was decisively phased out of the global gene pool as soon as it was discovered , launching humanity into a new era of peace . A century has passed since then , but troubling events have prompted a world-wide search for individuals possessing the elusive gene ...

They took her when she was six. 
 
 It was n't obvious to her why. It started when she bloodied Siggy out on the kindergarten playground. He had it coming, of course, but that did n't lessen the shock – the slack jaws, wide eyes and grown-ups crying. After all, Siggy hurt people, not like she'd done with him, but with words. 
 
 Little John had been swinging back and forth on the swing-set, by himself as usual, and Siggy had walked up to him and started saying mean things. 
 
 « You're stupid, Johnny. Why are you always alone? You smell bad. That's why. » 
 
 Katja had been by herself as well, nearby in the sandbox with the telek-digger, shifting sands and shaping little houses with little people to live in them. 
 
 And Siggy kept on talking. Johnny turned away from him and muttered something inaudible, but something in his voice cut her deep. Made her angry, angry like she'd been so many times before. But this time she felt like exploding. It was always the same with Siggy, always the mean words and always against Johnny – who smelled bad but always kept to himself and never said nothing wrong to anyone. Why could n't Siggy just leave him alone? 
 
 So she took the telek-digger and shaped a hard ball of sand. Her little fingers moved daftly on the display – if she gave it a hard enough push, maybe it would stay together after it left the box. 
 
 Her plan was so strange, like she'd just pieced together some novel truth about reality. Just like the ground would punish her when she tripped on her untied shoelaces and fell, so too would a hard ball of sand punish Siggy. It had never occurred to her that it was possible to punish someone else like that. 
 
 She wound her arm like a clock, hold-button squeezed hard on the telek-digger, then launched the hovering ball towards Siggy. Just before it left the box, she let go of the button and the ball kept on flying past the box's bounds, sand trailing behind it in a puffy line straight towards Siggy's head. 
 
 Smack. Siggy went down and did n't get up. Johnny looked at her with astonishment, then started crying. Blood pooled on the dirt beneath Siggy, a wide gash having split his skin from his ear to the top of his head. 
 The place was chaos after that – no one knew what to do at first. 
 
 After the Paramedics arrived and carried Siggy's limp body into the ambulance, Miss Johanson led Katja into her small office and made her sit there quietly. After a while, two government officials arrived to investigate – two pudgy men in suits from the health and safety department. They did n't believe it when they first heard it, but after having gone through the usual could-it-have-been-this-or-maybe-that scenarios, Miss Johansen eventually managed to convince them that the cause of Siggy's'accident' was the direct result of willful force applied to him by another child. 
 
 They called it violence. Katja did n't know the word. 
 
 Her parents came and picked her up. They said nothing on the drive home, but her mother cried all the way, muttering under her breath something about euthanasia, to which her father roared at her to shut up. 
 
 The next day a woman arrived at Katja's house. She too was a government official, but she did n't carry any department insignia like the others. Her voice was soft and soothing, and she was the only person who was even remotely calm. They sat down in the kitchen, the woman asking them not to jump to any conclusions and to remain calm - that they just needed to make a few tests before being certain of anything. 
 
 Her slender hand gripped Katja's shoulder reassuringly as the woman plucked a hair from her head. 
 « There, that was n't so hard » she said and winked at Katja, and then proceeded to put the strand of hair in a small kit, closing the lid and pushing a button. 
 
 « Now we wait, five minutes. » 
 
 The silence was heavy. Katja's father paced back and forth, arms folded. Her mother had a vacant look to her, eyes bloodshot from a sleepless night. 
 
 The beep startled her parents. Her mother took a sharp intake of breath while the woman donned a pair of glasses, reading the tiny display on the box. A grin spread across her face. 
 
 « What!? Does she have it or not? Tell us! » 
 
 The woman ignored them, still smiling. She turned to look at Katja. 
 
 « It seems you are little special, Katja... » 
 
 She smiled even wider. 
 
 « We have a use for you. »
