by C M Dancha
Miguel knew Ramon was a smart young man who would see the underlying lessons of the BD demonstration. But there was one thing he didn't know. Could Ramon replace years of government indoctrination with the lessons learned that night? All he could do was hope for the best. And hope no one on the porch repeated to anyone outside the family what happened at the Santanez house. His family worked hard enough already. They couldn't survive should their allocation of world credits be reduced or eliminated.
Throughout the world, thousands of citizens were having the same thoughts and raising the same questions as Ramon and Poppy.
Chapter Nine
What Can Go Wrong Next?
"Mr. Sweats, I'm getting tired hearing why the ReLife Program isn't moving ahead. First, it was the mouse died. Then it was the CR47 incubation unit had to be re-calibrated. Then the incubator breaks down. Now, you're telling me the parts needed to repair the CR47 are out of stock and won't be available until the manufacturer comes back from holiday and begins manufacturing again. Exactly when will that be, Mr. Sweats?"
"Mr. Ekstrom, my understanding is that the manufacturer will be on holiday for another four weeks." There was a part of Rollie's personality which enjoyed giving Ekstrom bad news. He could see the CEO's face flushing with anger. He decided to pour a little more salt in the wound. "When they reopen after holiday it will take another three to four weeks to gear up and make the parts we need. As you know, the CR47 parts are all one-of-a-kind. So in total, we're looking at seven to eight weeks before we can move the project ahead."
Klaus got out of his desk chair and started to pace around the office. He was getting more annoyed by the minute and could feel a massive migraine coming on. He hated failure and didn't tolerate it among his staff.
"That's frigging wonderful. Another two months on top of the two months we've already wasted. What's next Mr. Sweats? Are you going to tell me there's a giant asteroid hurtling toward Earth and it's going to wipe us out before we perfect ReLife?"
Klaus didn't expect an answer from his subordinate and Rollie wasn't preparing one. In fact, Rollie was debating whether to tell Ekstrom the latest debacle with the ReLife project or wait a couple of weeks to surprise him. He noticed the streams of perspiration running down Ekstrom's red face. That was enough to delay the next bit of bad news. Rollie was having too much fun watching his boss unravel due to the news about the replacement parts. Plus, he didn't want Klaus to have a heart attack even though he despised the man.
Ekstrom's brain was in overdrive looking for alternative solutions to the ReLife predicament. He started talking to himself as he strutted around the office.
"I can't believe this. If I didn't know better, I'd say someone was intentionally sabotaging this project and wants me to fail..."
He stopped in mid-sentence when a possible solution appeared out of nowhere and raced through his head.
"Rollie, can we borrow a CR47 or the parts we need from another company?"
The relief and elation showing on Ekstrom's face was short-lived.
"That's not possible Mr. Ekstrom. We have the only CR47 in the world. We came up with the idea for the CR47 and had it built to our specs. There are pending orders, but they are dependent upon our results. Other companies are waiting to see our results before they commit to such a large capital expenditure."
Klaus Ekstrom fell into his desk chair, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his left hand. After a minute, he reached into the top drawer of his desk and removed a bottle of pain relievers. He popped two of them into his mouth and swallowed without drinking any liquid. He then reached across his desk and picked up a large piece of paper.
Holding it up so Rollie could see it, Klaus said in a voice weaker than his normal commanding tone, "Mr. Sweats, this is the T & A you gave me a few weeks ago. It's worthless now." With that, Klaus tore up the paper into several small pieces and threw them into the air.
Klaus refocused on Rollie who was sitting on the other side of his desk. "I don't have any more ideas how to kick start the ReLife project. Do you have any, Mr. Sweats, regardless of how off the wall they may be?"
Rollie gazed off into space doing his best to make Ekstrom believe he was thinking real hard to find a way to get the ReLife program up and running. He avoided looking at his dejected boss. He was afraid he would burst out laughing at a grown man acting like a spoiled brat.
"I can't think of anything we can do now other than wait, Mr. Ekstrom. I get sick every time I think about the delays. We are on the verge of making medical history and every time we turn around there's a delay. It's not fair, Mr. Ekstrom, not fair at all."
Rollie didn't know if Ekstrom bought his "I'm so upset I can hardly stand it" speech. Ekstrom's facial appearance didn't change one bit. He kept staring at Rollie with a hardened glare. Rollie never met any murderers but thought this might be the piercing gaze they gave their next victims.
"Okay, Mr. Sweats, we're done for now. Keep me appraised on any new developments about ReLife." Before Rollie could get out of his chair and start for the door, Klaus summoned his assistant to his office.
"Mrs. Brandt, would you get Claude on the communicator for me and then have Raul come to my office."
As Mrs. Brandt turned to leave, she asked, "Mr. Ekstrom, have you seen this morning's copy of the Beobachter?"
“No I haven't, Mrs. Brandt. I've been kind of busy if you didn't notice."
Ekstrom's sarcastic remark was typical when he was under a lot of stress. Until he found a solution to whatever new problem fell into his life, Klaus was the most miserable person she ever met. He was ill-tempered and treated everyone like dirt. During these episodes, he acted like he was the only person on Earth who faced difficult problems. But when a solution was found, his rotten personality subsided. It was replaced with his normal CEO personality. Not the friendliest or warmest corporate leader but rather a competent executive. He led by dictate rather than example. The staff was treated with respect only so long as they produced and lived up to his expectations.
Mrs. Brandt tolerated her boss and tried to make the best of their relationship. But she looked forward in earnest to the day he was replaced or retired.
"You need to look, Mr. Ekstrom. I'll put it up for you."
Before leaving the office, she swiped a small screen marked “News” mounted on the wall. A large hologram of the first page of the Beobachter appeared and floated in midair. It hovered there waiting to be read by Klaus Ekstrom. Mrs. Brandt had no idea where these holograms came from. They appeared magically. She loved their multicolored text and vivid images. And, the way they could be read and viewed from any place in the office was a mystery, far beyond her technical comprehension.
"There you go, Mr. Ekstrom." Mrs. Brandt scampered out of his office and closed the door as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to like what the Beobachter reported and she didn't want to be within eye-sight when he read the article.
The door shutting drew his attention from a report he was reading on his desk screen. He looked up to see the hologram projection on the other side of the office. In big, bold letters across the front page was, "PHOENVARTIS MAKING HUMANS."
Klaus's eyes damn near popped out of his head. He read and reread the headlines at least a dozen times. He hoped and prayed that he was either reading it wrong, it was a misprint, or some type of practical joke. He read the entire article twice before sitting back and taking a breath.
Klaus grabbed one of his favorite cigars and lit it as Mrs. Brandt announced Claude was on the inter-office communicator. Besides having a luxurious, sweet taste, the cigars were loaded with stimulating drugs. The smoker was intoxicated with a euphoric "high" from the first to last puff. There was no faster way to deliver drugs into the human body than by inhaling smoke. With the stress of his job, Klaus needed to smoke two to three cigars each day. Otherwise, he was an irritable mess, unable to focus on his executive duties. After reading the Beobachter article, he thought this would be a four to five cigar da
y.
"Claude, Klaus here."
"Good morning, Mr. Ekstrom."
"Yeah, sure. Good morning to you too. Claude, have you seen the morning edition of the Beobachter?"
Claude looked at his boss Rollie who was standing close by and staring out one of the office windows. Rollie turned to face Claude and silently shook his head from side to side. Claude took the cue and lied to his uncle.
"No, Mr. Ekstrom, I haven't seen the Beobachter this morning. Is there something about Phoenvartis in it?"
Klaus wished he had summoned Claude to his office. Without seeing his face and body reactions to his questions he had no idea if Claude was telling the truth.
"Yes, there certainly is. Read this morning's article about us and if you have any thoughts on it, let me know."
"Sure thing, Klaus, I mean Mr. Ekstrom." At times, Claude forgot to address his uncle as Mr. Ekstrom and used his first name. The surprise question about the Beobachter article was enough to make him temporarily forget the CEO's one simple rule. He demanded all employees, even those with family ties to address him as Mr. Ekstrom. They were never to use only his first name. Claude knew he would catch hell for this slip-up. But for now, Klaus continued as though he didn't hear Claude's mistake.
"Claude, I just had a meeting with Mr. Sweats, and he tells me the parts needed to fix the CR47 are at least seven to eight weeks out. Do you agree with that assessment?"
Claude looked again at Rollie to get the correct answer.
"Yes, I agree, Mr. Ekstrom. At least seven weeks."
"Claude, we need to get the ReLife project going. Can you think of anyone who has replacement parts or can fix our CR47?"
Rollie shook his head from side to side and then mockingly rubbed his eyes as though he were crying. Claude understood his mimicry and held back the urge to laugh.
"Mr. Ekstrom, we have the only CR47 in existence. The only people who can fix the regeneration incubator are here at Phoenvartis and the company we subcontracted with. The problem is that defective parts must be replaced. None of the technicians can fix these parts. Only new parts can get the CR47 working again."
Claude saw Rollie raise a thumbs-up as he continued to lie and patronize his uncle. "I've been trying to think of a solution for days but can't come up with anything. The other night I got physically sick because I couldn't think of a way for us to move the project ahead. We have a golden opportunity to make Phoenvartis the leading tech company in all the zones. But two little parts are stopping us from accomplishing this goal. Mr. Ekstrom, you can count on me. I'm going to spend more time thinking about our problem and maybe..."
Claude chattered on and on until he looked down and realized the communicator signal had been disconnected by his uncle.
"Apparently, he didn't like what I had to say."
Rollie snickered at Claude's sarcastic remark as he made himself comfortable in one of the office guest chairs. He found more amusement in Klaus's follow-up call to Claude. Klaus was so predictable. He always verified vital information, especially the latest problems, with another employee. Anytime he met with Claude, Rollie could expect a call from Klaus. And, anytime he met with Rollie, Claude could expect a similar call verifying Rollie's information. Rollie often wondered why he continued to verify everything he heard from them. Their stories never varied one iota. Why did he waste his time? There was only one explanation which made sense. Other employees Klaus dealt with couldn't keep their stories straight and tripped up on a regular basis.
Claude and Rollie were playing a dangerous game. There would be hell to pay if Klaus ever found out the two of them were cohorts in a plan to sabotage the ReLife project. With luck, Klaus wouldn't start wondering why Claude and Rollie were the only two employees in the entire corporation who always backed up each other perfectly.
Rollie was pleased that he made a detour to Claude's office after leaving the meeting with Klaus. Not only was he able to lead Claude through his uncle's questioning, but also learned something new. The Beobachter had written something which irritated Klaus.
"Claude, did you know about the Beobachter article?"
"No, I have no idea what my uncle is talking about. Let's look at it."
Claude brought up the same holographic article which Klaus read ten minutes earlier. He and Rollie were mesmerized and shocked by the contents of the article. It claimed that Phoenvartis had run trial tests on cloning human beings. The tests were successful and came from unnamed sources close to the project. There was information about when the project started and the results thus far. The article went on to make several speculative accusations relating to the ultimate goals of the human clone project. Some of the accusations were wild and without basis but the overall description of the project was accurate.
One of the wildest claims in the article was that the goal of human cloning was for military reasons. Specifically, the World Council wanted to know if the best military minds from the past could be brought back to life. Rollie didn't know whether to laugh at this or give it some serious thought. It wasn't anything he ever heard discussed since the ReLife project started at Phoenvartis. But it was such an off the wall assertion it might have some merit. Was it possible the World Council expected a major war which could threaten its grip on society? Did they fear the current leaders of the military were under-qualified? Were they capable of handling conflicts bigger than minor squabbles? Was the government's military prepared to fight a World War? He would have to give these possible scenarios more thought, but for now, he chose not to say anything about it to Claude.
"Claude, did you tell anyone at Beobachter about the ReLife project?
"Absolutely not. Did you?"
"No, of course not." Rollie furrowed his brow in deep thought for a few seconds before continuing.
"So if you and I didn't say anything, then who are the unnamed sources mentioned in this article? Where is this leaked information coming from?" Rollie went on, talking to himself to arrive at a plausible answer.
"I doubt it was Klaus. He seemed genuinely irritated by the Beobachter article. If he was the leak, then why would he waste time asking if you saw the article? No, it can't be him."
"How about someone on the executive committee?"
"Yeah, I thought about that. It's possible. The military part of the article sounds like something one of those guys would say but I still have my doubts."
"Why, Rollie? They would be my first choice."
"Claude, did you notice there wasn't one mention of the project name in the entire article? Every one of those guys on the executive committee knows the project name is ReLife. If any of them leaked information to Beobachter I'm sure they would tell the reporter the name of the project. I mean, if you were doing the story for Beobachter wouldn't you ask your source for the project name?"
"Well, I'm not a reporter but it does seem like a common-sense thing to do. Okay, if it's not me, you, Klaus or the executive committee, then who the hell is it?
"I have no damn idea, Claude. My experience in little mysteries like this has been that the culprit is always the most obvious person. So obvious, you don't think of them as a suspect. But for now, I can't see who that would be."
Both Claude and Rollie sat for a couple of minutes racking their brains trying to think of who the leaker might be. Finally, Rollie got up to leave Claude's office. "Claude, be careful with what you say and do. Someone around here has big ears and a big mouth, so be careful."
Rollie walked over to Claude, bent down and whispered in his ear. "I'm going to have a sweep done of our offices looking for electronic eavesdropping bugs. I'll see you tonight in the lab."
Even though Rollie's comment was the last thing he expected to hear, Claude nodded his head so Rollie knew he understood the whisper. Making a precautionary sweep of the offices looking for surveillance bugs never occurred to Claude. Thank goodness Rollie was a suspicious, big picture thinker who knew a good offense resulted from a great defense.
Claude locked
his office door, so he could get a few hours' sleep in preparation for another night in the CR47 lab. Spending fifty to sixty hours each week systematically analyzing every aspect of the ReLife project was physically and mentally draining. If he hadn't been able to sleep during the day, night sessions in the lab would have been impossible. Fortunately, Rollie limited Claude's other assignments so he could be productive at night.
In the last few weeks, their arduous work was starting to pay off. A step-by-step, comprehensive and scientific plan was created. It analyzed every facet of ReLife in preparation for more cloning experiments. If Klaus could be put off a little longer, they would know if ReLife was a viable technology for cloning animals and humans.
The field mouse cloning was a good start, but it still left hundreds of unanswered questions. First was the question of whether more complex life forms could be reproduced. And if this was possible, what limitations, if any, would the replicants have compared to their animal and human hosts?
Chapter Ten
When He Thought Things Couldn’t Get Worse
Klaus considered asking Rollie if he read the morning edition of Beobachter but decided it was a waste of his time. If his nephew, Claude, denied knowing anything about the news article so would Rollie. And as soon as Claude read the article, he would call Rollie and tell him about it.
It was amazing how those two were so in sync. Ever since the field mouse cloning, it seemed like they had the same thoughts and opinions on every topic. It was a dramatic change from the past when they butted heads on everything. Now they seemed to not only agree but appeared to have more than a working relationship. If Klaus didn't know better, he would have guessed they were friends.