Reverse

by Steven Tandberg

  I kept my eyes on the road.

  The awkward drive to the warehouse where they had seen Roxanne took about thirty minutes. Manuel and I kept our silence. Thoughts of what would happen to Roxanne if I caught her filled my mind. Tigre would probably kill her on the spot. Her blood would be on my hands as well. But if I didn’t capture her, Manuel’s patience would surely run out, putting my friends in danger. Would there be a way to capture her, but maintain her safety? The Cadillac jerked to the side as Manuel drove over a speed bump, tearing me out of my concentration.

  “We’re here.”

  I looked up and saw a sprawling white-walled warehouse filling up a few city blocks. It looked abandoned from the outside, but faint lights shone from the inside. Tigre and Juan had parked over by the large hatch and a group of seven men huddled around them. Another group of men stood near the far corner of the building, blocking an alley with their car. As we parked next to Tigre’s car, I heard another car pull into the parking lot and stop just inside the entrance. I had no doubt they blocked the rear entrance as well. Manuel and I stepped out of the car and approached the hatch.

  “Here is where Roxanne entered and never exited,” said Manuel, resting his foot on the door. “What do you think?”

  I grabbed the handles and tried to open the doors. They didn’t budge even a millimeter. Sealed. The men had swept away the dirt, revealing a massive concrete slab with the hatch in the middle.

  “We’re not getting through here unless you blow the whole thing up,” I said and backed up from the hatch.

  “If it comes to that, we’re prepared.” Manuel grinned and looked to the group of men. One of them carried a plastic box of what I assumed was dynamite or other explosive.

  “Wow, well before you blow this place, can someone show me the rest of the warehouse? Maybe there is an easier way in, rather than making such a ruckus?”

  “Tigre, Juan, Diego, take him in.”

  Tigre turned toward the building, grabbing my arm. Manuel grabbed Tigre’s arm. “Nunca lo pierdas de vista,” he said while pointing to his eyes. Thank you, Manuel, yet another Spanish phrase I now understood. ‘Don’t let him out of your sight.’ Manuel then pointed to the group of men who scattered over to the windows of the warehouse. Counting Tigre, Juan, and Diego there were fifteen men watching my every move.

  Tigre opened the side door, and the still-bruised Juan led us with a pistol in hand. I stepped forward to follow, but Tigre stopped me. “Espera,” he said and placed his arm in front of me. Yet another Spanish word in the registry.

  “Despejado,” Juan yelled a few moments later.

  Tigre led me into the dimly lit warehouse. We made our way through a few offices, and I scanned each one, looking for anything suspicious. I pulled up carpet, lifted desks, and moved bookcases but found nothing.

  “Despejado,” Juan called out from the voluminous main area, as we approached the stairs that led down from the office.

  The emergency lights shed light only around the perimeter, allowing a good view of the walls, but the center of the room remained dark. Light from Manuel’s lookout men flooded into the space from the windows. The beams created an ever-moving lattice of light, casting hundreds of shadows about the room. Tigre stuck close to me while the other two men searched ahead. Extending along the length of the room were conveyors covered in dust. Large rectangular metal boxes covered the conveyors in the middle of the room. A divider hung down from the ceiling, in the middle of the room, leaving the sides open. Tigre handed me a flashlight, and I began my search, scanning the corners and walls. I pressed on equipment looking for latches, doors, or any other way to connect with the underground structure leading from the hatch. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and frankly, nothing even looked like it had been touched for a long while. A thin layer of gray dust covered every surface.

  Tigre hovered around me as I searched; keeping an eye on what I had examined. An unfortunate consequence of having heightened senses is that people’s body odor is much more intense and extends much farther. Tigre’s was no different. It practically suffocated me.

  “Tigre! Ven para acá! Mira,” Juan yelled out.

  “What is it?” Tigre yelled back.

  “Sangre, mucho sangre.”

  “Blood,” Tigre repeated.

  Tigre began running toward the middle of the room, but I held back. He took a few steps toward Juan, then stopped and turned back to me when he noticed my hesitance.

  “Come now!” He waved with his hand holding his gun.

  As if on cue, all of the lights from outside now focused on the middle of the room. I took a few strides behind Tigre when the floor gave out from underneath me. A hatch had opened up, swallowing me whole. I fell for half a second then landed hard on a pad in a shady room. I looked up, and the hatch slammed shut above me.

  “Hello?” I yelled out, “Is there—“

  Someone grabbed me from behind, cupping my mouth. I swung back at my attacker but only hit a helmet. My hand crumpled on the hard surface, and I heard a few of my finger bones crack. My attacker swept my feet and came to the ground with me. As we crashed to the ground, he wrapped up my legs and pulled my arm behind me. He yanked as if he was playing the tug of war of his life, extending my arm back so far my tendons stretched tight like guitar strings.

  Right before my shoulder popped out of its socket, he whispered in my ear, “Coyle. I need to know you will not yell out if I release you.” I recognized that voice. It was Jonas, one of Roxanne’s friends who had helped me extract Jamie from the depths of Somatotech.

  I nodded my head up and down, and his grip released.

  “Jonas!” I whispered as I got to my knees.

  “Get up and follow me.” He grabbed my arm and jerked me up. “Sorry about the takedown. I guess I could have let up, you didn’t put up much of a fight.”

  BANG BANG BANG. Tigre and the other men were banging at the floor above where it had swallowed me. Jonas kept moving forward and led me toward a metal door at the far end of the room. It had opened before we reached it, and a shadow of a figure stood in the adjoining hallway. Roxanne.

  As the door shut behind me, Roxanne spoke up, “Welcome clone of Coyle. We must hurry.”

  Jonas pushed slightly on my back; I resisted, standing firm.

  “No, I can’t. If I’m gone too long, they will kill Jamie and Aedan.”

  “We won’t be gone long. Besides, we have a plan for all of that.” She walked into the shadows.

  “Who is we?” I said as I followed with cautious steps.

  Steve and three other guys stepped out of the shadows of the small room we’d entered. The dim light only illuminated their strong jaws and piercing eyes.

  “Clone of Coyle, I’m sorry we weren’t upfront with you before. I lead this gang of miscreants at the request of Medital. They hired us to bring down Somatotech, which I imagine is your goal as well. We didn’t expect to cross paths so soon, but I guess I underestimated you. You surprised the crap out of me at tower ten. It could be that the rumors are true,” said Roxanne.

  “Wait, you work for Medital? Was it you in my room?”

  “The one and only!” She patted my shoulder. “Too bad that witch nurse found the cameras.”

  “You wanted to spy on me, to see me naked? Is that it?”

  Everyone in the room laughed. “Ha! We’re quite familiar with your man parts, Coyle. We’ve followed you from your inception.”

  “Since my inception?”

  “Since the very moment Coyle’s cells were harvested to make you.”

  The same doubt as before began to flow into me. But, it couldn’t be possible! I grabbed onto my feelings for Jamie again, real, palpable feelings, feelings that couldn’t be implanted. “I am Coyle. You have it wrong.” I scanned around the room at the teenagers who all appeared around my age, looking for confirmation.

  “We don’t have it wrong. Somatotech never releases its originals, only the clones. It’s part of their plan because t
he therapy just doesn’t work. They can’t cure cancer in the patient, so they replace them. You are Coyle’s replacement.”

  “And who killed Dr. Strayer then? He was my clone.”

  “This is where Somatotech deviated from their normal operation. They made two clones of Coyle hence why you two were named Alpha Male one and Alpha Male two. We’re not sure why the change in course but there are theories. They could have been testing their capacitation program or maybe even weeding out the weaker one of you, or the rumors could be true.” She looked around the room. “And, well, you won because of your connection.”

  “So, are you a clone?”

  She smiled, as did everyone in the room. “We are all clones,” they said in unison. My nerves went on edge, and the room seemed to collapse on me.

  “And do you have the same connection I had?” I rubbed my temples as my head began to pound.

  “We don’t know, but we may. All the information we’ve acquired indicates we are the only clones of our originals, it could be that we haven’t had the chance because there isn’t anyone to connect with.”

  The gravity of these revelations hit me. My legs gave out, and I slumped to the ground. The ground beneath me seemed to give way and the sensation of falling returned.

  “Help him out guys, he’s got the ‘Oh crap, I’m really a clone’ shock,” said Roxanne. The other guys helped me to my feet and then practically dragged me to a rickety chair.

  “It can’t be.” Tears began to spill out from my eyes. “Who am I?” I screamed.

  Roxanne crouched down next to me. “You are a human being who happens to be a copy of another person. He lives on through you.”

  “You mean he’s dead?”

  “We’ve not determined that yet though most patients do die within a couple months of ‘treatment,’” she said while motioning with her fingers. “Alpha male two has died; we can confirm that.”

  “Did he stay dead?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I died, remember? Am I still dead? If I can come back, why can’t he?”

  “Good point, you are quite the freak,” she said with a smirk.

  “Look who’s talking,” I said. Her smirk disappeared, replaced with a glare. All eyes focused on me. “Ahh yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean that, you know considering your, uh, problem.”

  “My problem?” Roxanne came close, her hot breath on my face. She pulled off the wrap from her face. Her skin glowed a pale hue in the dim light. Smooth without blemish. Absolutely stunning.

  I turned from her glare and also from her beauty. “I’m sorry, Roxanne,” I whispered.

  Silence. Only the banging from above echoed in the room.

  “Coyle, we decided to bring you in because I know you have a good heart and extraordinary courage. So, I will forget what you just said. Somatotech has affected each of us in different ways. We are all different now, different from regular people, but I don’t see our changes as limitations. We adapt and are stronger for it.”

  I ignored the fact that she had just called me a freak. But, she was right, not only about Somatotech affecting me but man oh man I needed to control better my tongue.

  “Anyway, let me introduce you to the team. You have already met Talon and Striker.”

  Jonas and Steve stepped forward. They looked exactly the same as the day I met them.

  “Talon and Striker? I thought you were Jonas and Steve?”

  “Jonas and Steve were our originators’ names; we use them while in public. But Medital wants us to have our own identities, so they had us choose names,” Talon explained, eyeing me.

  “So you chose Talon?”

  “You got a problem with it?” He stepped toward me but Striker held him back. “It’s harder than you think to come up with a cool name, jerk.” Talon snapped at me. Why such antagonism? We’d worked well together when we broke into Somatotech. Now his glaring eyes never broke contact with me.

  “So what is your name then?” I turned to Roxanne.

  “I chose to retain my originator’s name.” Everyone remained silent. “I couldn’t find a name that better suited me.” Silence again. Roxanne’s eyelid twitched slightly. Something lurked behind her eyes, deep in her emotions. She held it back, but we all could sense it. She turned to the group. “This is Jarom and Red Cloud.” The three guys stepped forward. Red Cloud was built like a tank; I couldn’t discern his neck from his head. Tattooed deep red flames extended up the back of Red Cloud’s head and wrapped down to his eyebrows. Jarom, while certainly fit, had longer legs and arms and stood a good five or six inches above the rest. His height made his muscles look more natural though still menacing.

  “Good to meet you, Coyle,” Jarom spoke up and approached me with a hand extended. “We’ve heard a lot about you. Your operation at Somatotech has become a legend, well at least among us.” I shook his hand heartily. Red Cloud stayed back, eyeing me.

  “Uh, thanks. Doesn’t Somatotech watch you all?”

  “They did, mainly just checking in on us and following our online activity. But the cat’s kinda out of the bag now. They know we’re organized against them, so we went underground,” said Roxanne.

  A screech echoed from above, and a single ray of light extended down to the floor of the room I had fallen into. A crowbar had been jammed along the side bending the metal hatch.

  “Here’s the plan. Talon will go with you back to the compound. He will aid you with your escape. We want you to look the hero.”

  “Uh, you know they’ll flat out torture him, right?”

  “Counting on it. That diversion should give you time to break out,” Talon spoke and cocked his head, “Don’t worry, I’m a big boy.”

  “They may kill you,” I said, knowing how unstable, and power hungry Tigre and Manuel were.

  “C’mon Coyle, you know better, or at least I thought you would. Killing me would defeat the whole purpose of having a hostage with information. They’ll beat and beat until I talk. And I’ll talk, just not the helpful kind.” He smirked.

  “We will be in communication with Talon the entire time.”

  “Uh, they will strip you down when you get there. No freakin’ way are you slipping in a wire or cellphone.”

  “Coyle, the people we work for are the second leading healthcare tech company in the world. Just as Somatotech has implants, Medital does as well. We all have cellular devices in our skin behind our ears.” Talon turned and pulled his ear forward. Sure enough, a small bump protruded just behind his ear. “A wire extends to our auditory nerve as well as to a device on our ear drum. Everyone can hear everyone and everything.”

  My mouth dropped open. Roxanne and her men grinned.

  “Can you shut it off?” I asked with a whisper already sensing that others were listening.

  “Nope. It takes a bit to get used to, you know, hearing for eight people rather than just yourself, but your brain adapts,” she said, tapping on her head above her ear.

  Sorting through what other people hear seemed impossible, how would you know which was your own? “So, you have no privacy? Does Medital monitor and record everything? And you trust them?”

  “They sure do. We trust them because we share a common enemy.” She paused. “Medital is different, I promise,” said Roxanne.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the guys moving his hands in the direction of another guy. Sign language. Nice. Trust only goes so far. I chose not to say anything as that would give away their secret.

  “Talon will be our ears and can be your mouth to communicate with us.”

  The banging continued above, and another loud screech rang out, followed by more rays of light.

  “They are going to blow that hatch open soon,” I said.

  “All right, time to roll,” said Roxanne, looking up at the hatch.

  “Wait, I need you to do one thing,” I said, coming closer to Roxanne. “Knock the crap out of me. I need to get back to Dr. Bartnev.”

  “Why?” she a
sked, shocked.

  “He has something I need. Manuel doesn’t let me to him unless I’m in real bad shape.”

  “Hmmm, could you use Talon to help you get what you want?”

  I rotated my sore shoulder. “He could be useful.”

  “Hmmph,” Talon let out and glared at me.

  “Hmm, so we stage it as a battle to the near end for both of you. They find you both unconscious and take you to the Russian doctor. There you can work together to get whatever you’re looking for.” She pulled back her hair and grinned. “I like it.”

  “And how do you all get outta here?” I asked, searching the room.

  “That won’t be a problem. Once they have you two, we’ll skedaddle through a passageway they’ll never find.”

  “So where do we go?” I motioned to Talon and me.

  Red Cloud opened a metal hatch at one end of the room.

  “This will lead to the building next door. Yell for your friends when you get out. They will run over, and we will slip out.”

  “Uh, when are you going to beat me down?”

  “Fight club next door baby! Just you and Talon. Good luck.” She winked. “Head on over.”

  Talon and I entered the hatch and crawled for a couple hundred feet in a 4 x 4 foot metal shaft. A slight breeze wafted through with a sweet fruity smell that seemed to linger in my nostrils. “What’s that smell?” I asked Talon ahead of me.

  “C’mon dude, think! This used to be a massive meth factory. The smell is the residual ether.” He continued forward without looking back. “The cooks would make the meth in the chemical factory we are headed to and then transport it to this one for shipping. The trucks would park over that hatch outside and while they received legitimate contents, a compartment fastened to the frame would be loaded with drugs. This kept the two operations completely separate. Neither side knew the other. A simple knock at the hatch would let either side know the drugs were ready for shipment. Worked like a charm for a while.”

  “What happened?”

  “One day a curious worker opened the hatch and came face-to-face with the other side. With the anonymity gone, they closed down the operation. We, well Medital, found it, and we have been using it ever since.”