2156

by C M Dancha

  "He belongs to a friend who went out of town for a couple of weeks. I got roped into dog-sitting."

  Sophia knew Rollie was lying. He would never take on such a demanding task no matter how close the friendship. Now, she was very curious about where this little pooch came from and why Rollie had it.

  "Well, he's a gem. Does he sleep with you?"

  "The first night he didn't but then he got lonesome and cried until I let him sleep in the bed with me."

  "Good, I'll have someone to snuggle with tonight."

  Rollie rolled his eyes. "Real funny. You already have something to grab in bed."

  Sophia put the puppy down and came over and gave Rollie a big hello kiss. "Can I get you something to drink?"

  "Sophia, you're the guest. Go sit down and I'll make myself a drink. There are some hors d'oeuvres over there by the couch. Oh, by the way, you look fabulous tonight. What's the occasion?"

  "Absolutely nothing other than being with you. You're the best reason I can think of to get dressed up for."

  It was the perfect answer. Rollie kissed her again before she went to the couch to get comfortable and he went to the bar to make himself a drink.

  Between nibbling on the finger-food, Sophia asked, "Was that Claude on the communicator? Don't you guys talk enough at work? You have to talk at ten in the evening, too?"

  Rollie walked to the couch debating whether to tell Sophia about Sedgewick Slice. "Yeah, that was Claude. I guess there's no reason not to tell you why we were talking. You're going to find out tomorrow anyhow." Rollie sat down, took a sip of his drink and announced, "Claude and I might be in trouble. A member of the World Council showed up today and spent nearly six hours touring the facility."

  "Well, what's that got to do with you and Claude?"

  "I'm pretty sure he's here to find out what's going on with the ReLife project. As a matter of fact, I'm expecting a real grilling tomorrow from this guy about the project."

  Sophia half listened to Rollie. Her thoughts immediately shifted to the Beobachter article which detailed the cloning project at Phoenvartis. Was it possible this article alone was the reason why the World Council decided to send a member to Zurich? Was it enough of an embarrassment to force the World Council into investigating what was going on with the ReLife project? If so, then her plan worked. By feeding information anonymously to the news agency, the cloning project was exposed and could no longer be kept under wraps. This exposure brought a tremendous amount of unwanted attention down onto Phoenvartis. The result was a firestorm of interest by everyone directly or remotely involved with the project. Most of these people wanted the ReLife project fast-tracked and given the highest priority. This was exactly what Sophia hoped would happen when she decided to feed information about ReLife to the Beobachter.

  "Do you think you'll get fired, Rollie?"

  "I don't know. All I know is what I was told. This guy from the World Council is super smart and sneaky. I guess the ball is in his court now. I'll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow."

  "What does the ball in his court mean, Rollie?"

  Rollie often forgot Sophia's eastern European upbringing. Her knowledge of sports jargon, especially from North America, was very limited.

  "It means that my destiny, Klaus's destiny, Claude's destiny and the future of the cloning project is in the hands of this guy from the World Council. There isn't much of anything we can do at this point. The only thing we can do is try to convince him that we are still the best people to perfect the cloning system."

  "Oh." Sophia thought for a moment about what Rollie said. "Sweetheart, you'll be fine. You and Claude are smart and know the ReLife project forward and backward. It would be stupid for them to put someone else in charge of the project."

  Rollie looked over at Sophia, smiled and said, "Thanks. I'm glad I have at least one fan."

  "Rollie, let me ask you a question. Are you and Claude going to get the CR47 machine working correctly or not?"

  This was the same question Rollie had been asking himself for weeks. He looked away for a moment wondering how to answer her question. Finally, he opted for the truth.

  "I don't know. I just don't know yet."

  Sophia could see in Rollie's eyes that he was desperately trying to hide the fear which the World Council member created by coming to Phoenvartis. The beads of sweat on his forehead and slight quiver in his voice were completely out of character for Rollie. He was usually calm and collected and very few things got him rattled. Losing his job shouldn't upset him this much. He wasn't acting like someone who may lose his job, but rather like someone who committed a crime and was worried sick about being caught.

  She stared into his eyes waiting to see if he would say anything else. When she realized his mind was somewhere other than in the room with her, she decided to change the subject to help him relax.

  "Rollie, where did you get that wood box? It's beautiful and looks very old. Is it an antique?"

  Sophia's question struck a chord and brought Rollie's thoughts back to the apartment and the lovely lady sitting next to him. "Yeah, it's an antique. My Grandma LeeLee sent it to me as a gift. She once told me it was around 400 years old."

  "That's an odd gift for a guy like you. I could see your grandmother giving it to one of her granddaughters as a jewelry box but giving it to you..."

  Rollie had to think fast. Sophia's observation and comment about the box being too feminine made a lot of sense. Frankly, he never thought anyone would question that aspect of the box.

  "I loved to play with the box when I was a child. There was something about it which held my interest for hours as I opened and closed it and hid things inside it." Rollie looked at Sophia out of the corner of his eye to see if she was buying this explanation.

  "Anyhow, I made her promise to give me the box when she..." Rollie caught himself before saying "died". He didn't want to think about the day when his favorite relative would be gone.

  "I understand Rollie. You want something to remember her by."

  Sophia slid next to him and cuddled under his arm as he nodded in agreement with her last remark.

  Sophia didn't believe Rollie's explanation about why he received the box. It sounded a little too artificial for a guy like Rollie. Through the years, she learned how to evaluate people in short order. Many times, her life depended on this talent to accurately appraise new people she met. Rollie's explanations for the puppy and the box didn't match his masculine personality. He had an affection side, but it was reserved for select people, not animals and inanimate objects.

  Sophia spent the rest of the evening trying to comfort Rollie. She did everything possible to take his mind off whatever consequences the man from the World Council might create in the coming days. By 11 p.m. they were in bed with the puppy. It was obvious Rollie wasn't in the mood to make love. He couldn't separate his physical desires from the problems at Phoenvartis.

  Sophia had looked forward to a wild night of sexual pleasure. After all, she had decided against using her dildo in the bubble bath in exchange for the real thing with Rollie. "Oh well," she thought. "Things could be much worse." At least Rollie was talking almost non-stop, jumping from topic to topic. With a little prodding here and there, she got the latest information on the CR47 project.

  Just before Rollie nodded off, Sophia asked, "Rollie, is the puppy a clone?"

  "Yeah." He rolled over and fell asleep not realizing what he said to her.

  Her suspicions were correct. There was another explanation for the puppy and this one made perfect sense. Sophia smiled to herself and rolled over to snuggle with the puppy.

  Four hours later, Sophia awoke to the smell of smoke. Rollie and the puppy were gone. She got out of bed, put on one of Rollie's robes and walked out into the living room. Rollie was sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a cigar and fiddling with the antique box. The dog was obediently laying at his feet, half awake and half asleep.

  From her view into the kitchen, she could bare
ly see that the top of the box was standing upright in an open position. It looked like there was another slim drawer sticking out from the front side of the box. Rollie held the box at each end in an odd way. As she was about to ask Rollie what he was doing, the dog's head snapped to attention. He looked directly at Sophia as the slim drawer closed. It happened so fast she wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks. The light in the kitchen was so dim that what she thought happened might have been an optical illusion. Then again, it might have been real.

  As the dog got up and moseyed over to Sophia, Rollie turned in his chair and smiled.

  "Did I wake you?"

  "No. I needed to go to the bathroom anyhow. I've never seen you smoke before. I would have never guessed you liked cigars."

  "You know, I don't enjoy them much. I have about one a year. It's another bad habit I inherited by growing up in an area where a lot of tobacco is grown. I think everyone in my family, including my grandmother, has a cigar every so often. The bad thing is that the drugs they lace cigars with soothe the nerves but also make you sick to your head."

  Sophia laughed as she sat down at the table. "Can I look at the box?"

  "Sure." Rollie slid the box over to her and watched as she opened and closed the top lid several times. She ran her hands slowly over the exotic maple wood and the carved letter "H" in the lid. She turned it over several times to make sure she didn't miss one feature of the box. As hard as she tried, she couldn't feel or see where another slim drawer was hidden. If there was a hidden drawer it blended perfectly with the rest of the box's exterior.

  "What does the "H" stand for?"

  "I don't know. My grandmother might have told me, but I don't remember what she said."

  Sophia could tell by the tone of his voice that he was telling the truth.

  "This is very beautiful, Rollie. What are you going to do with it?"

  "Not much, I guess. Maybe keep some personal stuff in it. Nothing expensive; just things which are important to me."

  "Good idea. Make sure you don't lose the box. I'm sure you realize it's irreplaceable. Hey, can I have a puff off your cigar?"

  Rollie looked at her with suspicion, not knowing if she was horsing around or not. Why would she want to suck on something that was stinky, wet and chewed on at the mouth end? Besides, it wasn't a good cigar from an area of the Caribbean which specialized in cigar tobacco and production.

  Rollie handed over the cigar and watched her take in a mouthful of smoke and hold it for a couple of seconds before exhaling. From the way she handled the cigar and smoked it, he could tell this wasn't the first time she puffed on a stogie.

  "Lousy cigar, Rollie."

  Her assessment of the cigar's quality was 100 % accurate. There was no doubt in Rollie's mind that she had been around cigars and the people who smoked them before this evening. He was slowly realizing that her personality was as complex as her sexual desires. She surprised him often with the things she knew. Things the normal mid-level, female employee at Phoenvartis would never know. Things only a very educated and worldly person would know. He wondered if one day she would open up and tell him her true identity and where she came from.

  "Let's go to bed, my dear." Rollie stood and led her by the hand to his bed.

  For the next hour, they enjoyed each other in passionate love-making. When they weren't in the heat of passion, they were trying to reassure the puppy that their moans and groans were due to pleasure and not from hurting each other. They couldn't help laughing at the pup who tried to come to their rescue each time one of them had an orgasm.

  Sophia fell back to sleep at about six in the morning. In another hour or so she would have to get up and prepare for work.

  Rollie stayed awake for the rest of the night. He still had several things to worry about concerning Sedgewick Slice's visit and the cloning project. He also added another minor detail to consider when he got the secret drawer in the box open.

  What was he supposed to do with the body parts he found in the hidden drawer?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Act Normal and Don’t Do Anything Stupid

  Klaus Ekstrom dragged himself into Phoenvartis Monday morning at 9 a.m. He felt terrible and didn't look much better. A thirty-minute shower and two pots of coffee weren't much of a remedy. What the hell had he done over the weekend? The last thing he remembered was the gal from Archives stopping by his apartment and making a pitcher of margaritas. He was blasted before she arrived but thought he was sober enough to have at least one drink and then play kissy face with her.

  God, he hoped she left before he passed out and soiled himself. It was the end of his career if she recorded his sorry-ass passed out like a skid-row drunk. He hoped the extra world credits he tossed her way for services rendered each week were also enough to keep her mouth shut. Maybe he would do something nice for her today providing he sobered up enough to figure out what she might like.

  He was about ready to have his identification scanned for entry into the building when one of Raul's agents walked up to him. "Mr. Ekstrom, could you come over here with me? This is very important."

  Klaus was in no mood to play games but the look in the agent's eyes told him this wasn't a request, it was a demand.

  They ducked into a small office off the main lobby. Once inside, the agent locked the door and then contacted his boss.

  "Mr. Hakala, I have Mr. Ekstrom in room 3Z."

  "Good, I'll be right down."

  Klaus was losing patience. "Is this some kind of joke? Do you know who I am? And what's with a room designated 3Z? What the hell does the Z stand for?"

  Klaus didn't let the agent answer any of his questions. He got up from the chair and started for the door which was an old, manually operated by key type. He turned the knob to open the door, but nothing happened.

  "Would you get the hell over here and let me out? If you don't, I swear to god this will be your last day at Phoenvartis."

  "Sir, please sit back down. Mr. Hakala will be here in a minute. It's very important that he talks to you before you go upstairs."

  Klaus started to pound on the door hoping someone in the lobby would hear him and open the door.

  "Mr. Ekstrom, this room is soundproof. The walls and door are triple-layered with a soundproof material. You can set off a bomb in here and no one outside will hear, feel or smell it."

  "That's just wonderful. Get Hakala on the communicator for me. I want to fire him the same time I fire you."

  At that moment, the door opened, and Raul walked in carrying a medium-size, leather suitcase. He looked at Klaus from head to toe and said, "You look better than I expected."

  Ekstrom started to open his mouth to read Raul the riot act but only got as far as, "Mr. Hakala, who the hell..."

  "Mr. Ekstrom, the representative from the World Council is here. He came in a day early and already spent about six hours touring our facility. I believe he is one of the twelve high council members."

  Ekstrom fell back into the chair he got out of two minutes earlier. He wanted to process what Hakala said but his migraine headache stood in the way of any logical thoughts or deductive reasoning. He opted instead to ask questions but stopped when Raul held up a finger and said, "Let me finish."

  "This guy's name is Sedgewick Slice. I've checked him out as far as I can. He has the highest security clearance possible. In fact, when I entered his identification number for verification, the system did everything but say, "Warning, don't screw with this guy."

  "As I said, we spent about six hours together. This guy knows a lot about Phoenvartis. In fact, he is so well versed on Phoenvartis I would say he must have some clandestine agents here feeding the World Council information." Raul paused for a moment to catch his breath and then continued. "He was particularly interested in the ReLife cloning project. He and I spent over two hours in the lab. He visually tore the place apart. He looked at everything at least twice and asked hundreds of questions. Frankly, I don't know why he bothered. I don't kn
ow that much about the project and I'm sure he already knew the answers to his own questions.

  "Okay, I don't think we have much time, so listen-up, Mr. Ekstrom. This Slice character hasn't arrived yet. I'm sure he will be here today but for some reason, he hasn't shown yet. Everyone in the building knows about his visit. I'm sure my agents who intercepted him on his first visit spread the word. You need to get your act together and quick. You look like hell and still smell of booze. You need to get presentable."

  Klaus opened his mouth to say something but again Raul cut him off.

  "First, I want you to contact your assistant and tell her you'll be upstairs in fifteen minutes. Mr. Todd, standing over there, is going to take you into an adjacent room and put you through a cleansing station. He also has a pick-me-up rub for you. It will bring you back to Earth and make you feel damn good for the rest of the day. By the time you leave this room, you'll look, smell and act like your normal shitty self. Also, we have a fresh and clean suit and shirt in the suitcase for you. No time for questions now. You and I can discuss this entire situation after the day is over. Now, go with Mr. Todd and listen to what he tells you before leaving this room."

  Raul turned and left the room by the door he entered through. Mr. Todd grabbed Klaus by the arm and led him into the adjacent room. As Raul described, the room had everything in it to make Klaus feel and look better. Klaus started to take off his clothes but called his assistant first to tell her exactly what Raul instructed him to say. As he spoke to her, Mr. Todd opened a sealed packet and removed the drug-laced pad from it. He rubbed it across Klaus's exposed arm skin and then disposed of the used pad. The drug entered Klaus's system through hundreds of pores and immediately attacked the toxins in his body. By the time he finished the conversation with his assistant, his head was clear, and he felt energetic enough to run a marathon.

  Klaus appreciated what Raul was doing but he had a ton of questions for his security director. The first one would be what did he mean by "you look better than I expected?" The second question would be, who authorized this room and what the hell was it used for? With luck, he would still be the CEO at day's end and could ask Raul these questions. If Slice didn't like what he saw and heard at Phoenvartis, the building maintenance department might have a former CEO on its staff.