2156

by C M Dancha

  As Raul got up and started to leave, Klaus said, "Hey, I thought you said Slice looked like a leprechaun with a red beard and hair."

  Raul froze and turned back to Klaus. "Pardon?"

  "The guy I spoke to didn't have red hair or a beard. And he certainly didn't look like a leprechaun."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, the guy I talked to was almost bald with silver hair on the sides of a narrow face. Raul, you better go back and do more research on what a leprechaun looks like." Klaus laughed at his own witty remark and turned his halo screen back on.

  Klaus started shuffling through his halo messages as Raul left the office. Raul had a new mystery to analyze. Why was Klaus's description of Slice so much different than his own?

  After saying goodbye to Helga, he stood in the hallway looking outside to the street below. From five stories up, everything below looked miniature. As he stood there watching the people and hover vehicles move back and forth, the street lights came on. It was only 6 p.m., but there was a dark overcast blanketing the city. A broad smile crossed his face. He remembered the frail, elderly gentleman standing under the street lamp the night he and agent Murphy searched for Slice. Now he knew how Slice moved around without being recognized. Raul couldn't help admiring the ingenious little prick.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  I Think It’s Fixed, But…

  "Ms. Weeks, how nice to finally meet you. Was your trip here okay?" Rollie gave his guest a once over and instantly took a liking to her. His first impression was a tough old bird who gave straight answers to tough questions. She probably never tried to sugarcoat anything no matter how much it might hurt someone. The truth was more important to her than feelings.

  "Everything was fine. The trip was perfect and my accommodations here are more than satisfactory. Your assistant, Ingrid, has done a marvelous job taking care of me."

  "Great. I don't mean to be pushy, Callie, but we only have five days left to get the CR47 working and the first human clone completed. So, I'm going to get my assistants up here to meet you and then put together a time and action plan for you."

  "Ingrid, can you contact Claude and Helmer and ask them to come to my office; done." The voice recognition of his CPS station turned on when he said Ingrid and off when he said done.

  "As I was saying, we'll put together a T & A for you which should give us plenty of time to get a couple primate clones done. Then it's up to you to communicate with the clones and determine their similarities or differences from the host primates. Also, I need you to point out any other observations you make about the clones. I wish I could tell you what to look for but I'm going to leave that criteria to you. It could be something as minor as a nervous twitch to a major personality change in the clone which was nonexistent in the host. It's up to you to provide a complete evaluation of the clones. Don't hold back on anything you observe, feel or suspect about the clones. This is one of those times when more information is better than less."

  "Rollie, you do understand this could take a while? Talking with apes and monkeys isn't as easy as sitting down with your best friend and having a polite conversation."

  "I guessed that, Callie. I was hoping it would be easy for you, but common sense told me that attempting to communicate with any wild animal was difficult. Callie, do the best you can. That's all I can ask of you." In a way, Rollie regretted asking Callie to do her best. He was sure that she was the type of scientist who always gave 110% to any task she chose to take part in.

  "Rollie, do you mind if I smoke?"

  "Not at all, Callie. Be my guest."

  To Rollie's surprise, Callie took a pipe out of her safari jacket, filled its bowl and fired it.

  "I still enjoy a pipe full every so often even though it's a filthy habit. My former partner got me started smoking a pipe and I enjoyed it so much I never gave it up. My parents would roll over in their graves if they knew I smoked; especially a pipe." Callie paused to take another draw of smoke and blew it out before continuing.

  "What's surprising Rollie, is that my smoking drove the apes crazy. Believe it or not, they tried to get me to quit. My favorite ape, Maxine, would say things like, “that not good for you” and “I don't like smell.” It upset them so much I stopped smoking in front of them. They were like doting parents who hated to see their child do something harmful."

  "That's interesting, Callie. I would have never expected a primate to be so concerned with the welfare of a human."

  "Primates form intimate relationships and are very protective of family members. That's not to say they won't punish a member who does something detrimental to the troop. I've seen troop members ostracized and once I watched the patriarch of the troop kill a member who repeatedly broke the rules."

  "Wow, that's spooky the way they act like humans. They must have accepted you into their troop if they were concerned about the effects of smoking on your health."

  "It took several years before they accepted me as a friend and started to treat me like an honorary member of the troop. I was allowed to share their food and groom them but there were other things which were off limits, like holding the infants. They trusted me but only to a certain point."

  "That's fascinating, Callie. Maybe one day you can tell me more about the time you spent with the monkeys and apes."

  "It would be my pleasure. Oh, before I forget, what arrangements have been made to house the primates? And, how are you going to get the clones from the cloning machine to the secured rooms where they will be housed?"

  "Here's what we've done, Callie. After the clone is generated, a weak sedative gas will be introduced into the CR47 incubator. This will cause the clone to fall asleep long enough to transport him to the secured laboratory. Each clone will have its own house. There are also a couple of research rooms within the lab. They are large enough for you to conduct your experiments and accommodate your equipment. After our meeting with Helmer and Claude, I want you to go to the primate laboratory, check it out and let me know if you want any changes made."

  Over Callie's shoulder, Rollie spotted his two co-workers. "Speak of the devils." Rollie waved his assistants into the office. "Callie, let me introduce you to the two gentlemen who have been helping on the ReLife project. These guys know more about cloning than anyone else on the planet."

  "Callie, this is Claude Ekstrom, a very talented scientist who has been instrumental in the ReLife project. He also happens to be the CEO's nephew, but don't hold that against him." Callie and Helmer chuckled at Rollie's sarcasm. Claude gave it a forced, half smile.

  "And this guy is Helmer Stanke, a vice president here at Phoenvartis. He has been assigned temporarily to the ReLife project. He loves to kid around and play practical jokes, so keep a close eye on him."

  Claude and Helmer shook Callie's hand as Rollie explained why they were meeting this woman. "Gentlemen, Callie is the primate expert from Africa you have heard me talk about. She has brought a couple of DNA samples with her of deceased primates who she studied and lived with. In other words, she knew these primates as well as knowing a brother or sister. Our first human-like clones will be these primates."

  "Rollie, that's really interesting, but I still don't understand what we can learn from primate clones."

  "Claude, I left out one important fact about Callie and her study of monkeys and apes. Gentlemen, this woman can talk to primates. Maybe not as concise and free-flowing as the four of us are talking now, but damn close. The goal is for her to talk with the primate clones. This assumes, of course, that the clones remember the language Callie taught the hosts. If they remember the language, then Callie's job is to evaluate the clones psychologically compared to the hosts she knew before they died."

  "Oh, I get it." Rollie could tell by Claude's nervousness that he now understood the concept behind Callie's assignment. He was happy to see Claude's nervousness didn't lead to his embarrassing habit of clearing the phlegm from his sinuses by snorting like a wild boar.

  "So Callie will be
testing the primate clones for intelligence, memory recognition, personality deviation and things like that?"

  "Exactly right, Claude. I'm hoping Callie's research will give us at least a cursory understanding of what may happen psychologically with human clones."

  "Thank God one of us has been thinking about more than just the clone's body." Besides complimenting Rollie for thinking about all the ramifications of cloning, Helmer's remarks were more introspective than his normal sarcasm. "I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense to create a replicant who has no personality or has a sub-marginal intelligence or some other psychological flaw. Claude and I have been so wrapped up in getting the replicant body done correctly, we completely overlooked the person inside. Very smart, Rollie."

  One look at Claude told Rollie he hated being spoken for by Helmer. It wasn't that Helmer's comment was wrong, it just irritated the hell out of him that it came from someone he considered a pompous ass.

  "Don't thank me yet, Helmer. It's a long way from theory to practical application. Anyhow, let's get going, guys. Callie, I'm going to have Ingrid take you to the primate lab, so you can check it out and start setting up your equipment. Like I said earlier, let me know if you need any physical changes made. When Claude, Helmer and I are done with our update meeting, I'll come to the primate lab and show you how to use the visual and audio recording system. I think it would be a good idea to record all your talks with the cloned primates. In fact, you should record every minute they are in the lab. Do you agree?"

  "Absolutely. I have a feeling I'll be replaying the recordings quite often."

  "Callie, we still need to put together a T & A for you. Let's do that this afternoon. I'll get it to Helmer and Claude, so they know what you are doing and when. Oh, I almost forgot. Tonight you and I are going to dinner with Raul Hakala, who is the Ddirector of security. We've never had wild animals the size of apes in this facility, so I want to make sure Raul is onboard with how we are housing these animals. If we had more time, I'd move the entire primate lab off campus, but we don't have that luxury."

  "Sounds like we have a lot to do today, Rollie, so I'll go with Ingrid and see you later. Gentlemen, I look forward to working with you and let's pray that God is in our corner."

  The original members of the ReLife team watched as Callie Weeks left the office and walked down the corridor with Ingrid to the primate lab. Each of them had a different opinion of Callie's comment about asking God for help. They kept their opinions buried. Now wasn't the time to debate the existence of a supreme spiritual being.

  "Guys, let's sit down at the conference table and see how close we are to doing a couple of primate clones for Callie."

  "Helmer, you go first. What has your research into Claude's mouse cloning and the AAC gauge revealed?"

  "Rollie, I took Claude's log and compared it to the CR47 data reports and came up with a big, fat zero. From what I can tell, the AAC was sending the same inaccurate reading to the data recording unit in the CR47 for every mouse clone. As a result, there is no difference in what the data reports show for the unsuccessful mouse clones versus the one good clone."

  "Damn. So what you're telling us is that the AAC gauge was so screwed up that any successful clone was just..."

  "It was luck, Rollie. Sheer, unadulterated, luck."

  "Did you bother to look at the video recordings of when Claude and I did a dozen different clones?"

  "I did, and you wouldn't believe what I saw. By chance, one of the recorders was focused on the AAC gauge. Each time you guys started the CR47 to do a clone, the AAC gauge started jumping all over the place. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was short-circuiting. Then, the gauge would stabilize and lock on the same reading throughout the entire cloning process. You and I know that this is damn near impossible. That gauge should have been moving slightly as the pressure in the room and incubator changed. To make sure I wasn't seeing things, I pulled the data reports and matched them to the visual recordings. As I suspected, there was no correlation between the gauge readings from the video recordings to the data reports."

  "Unbelievable! So if I understand you correctly, any successful clones Claude and I ended up with were, again, due to luck."

  "That's exactly what I'm saying. The pressure system defaulted to a setting which was close enough to the real pressure to allow the CR47 to create a successful clone."

  "That's frigging wonderful." Rollie closed his eyes and shook his head in disgust. He knew what was coming next but the thought of bringing it up made his stomach turn somersaults.

  Hoping against hope, he asked, "Do either of you have any good news?"

  "I do, Rollie." Claude's comment surprised both vice presidents.

  As Rollie and Helmer watched, Claude took a couple pieces of paper from his lab coat and spread them on the table. He looked them over and gave a couple of his famous sinus snorts while holding the bridge of his nose.

  "Helmer, I don't know if you know this, but you talk to yourself. Every time you hit a brick wall backtracking through old recordings and data sheets, you voiced your disgust to whoever was close by. I was usually around to hear your complaints, so I knew things weren't going very well."

  "How is that good news, Claude?"

  "It isn't, Rollie. What I'm trying to say is that Helmer's complaining convinced me to go ahead and do new clones using the new and old AAC gauges. I know you and I were supposed to do them together, but you get so depressed seeing deformed clones that I went ahead without you."

  Rollie wanted to lean over the table and kiss Claude but decided to keep himself in check until he heard the results of the new cloning. "Claude, I can't stand the suspense. What were the results?"

  Claude scanned his notes again and then began. "Gentlemen, I did fifteen new clones. Twelve with the good AAC in place and three with the defective AAC hooked up to the CR47. When I used the defective AAC, I made sure the readings were intentionally off from what my hand-held monitor indicated. Every one of these replicants came out of the CR47 unit deformed."

  Rollie wanted to jump for joy but then remembered what the previous deformed replicants looked like.

  "What about the good AAC clones, Claude?" Helmer and Rollie were now on the edge of their seats waiting for Claude to answer this question.

  Claude loved seeing Helmer squirm with dire anticipation. He wished he could think of a way to prolong his answer for hours, so Helmer would agonize more.

  Claude gave a couple more sinus snorts which he knew pissed off Helmer and said, "All twelve good AAC clones were successful. Now, you know that fifteen experimental clones are not an adequate scientific test, so I recommend..."

  Claude and Rollie were no longer listening to Claude. They were too busy celebrating the good news from the nerdy member of the ReLife group. After smiling, laughing and congratulating each other with back-slapping, Rollie offered Helmer one of his rare and expensive stogies from the Caribbean. He then removed a bottle of very old Irish Whiskey from his desk, broke the seal and poured three small glasses of the scarce liquor. All the while, Claude was still rambling on about how more testing was needed to register confirmed accreditation per WCSM standards.

  "Claude, stop blathering and come over here." Claude sauntered to Rollie's desk like he was going to a beheading rather than a congratulatory mini-party.

  "Gentlemen, raise your drinks so I can make a toast. Gentlemen, here's to us, to Maxine and to an ambitious guy named Claude who may have saved our jobs." Rollie and Helmer slammed down their entire glass of whiskey. Claude sipped and made funny faces at the smell, taste and burning sensation on his lips and in his throat.

  "Rollie, who the hell is Maxine? Is she your girlfriend?"

  "You're going to meet her in a day or two, Claude. She's going to be a girlfriend to all of us."

  "What is that supposed to mean, Rollie?"

  "It means that tomorrow we are going to clone an ape; a female ape named Maxine."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

 
Secrets Unveiled

  Rollie left his office to meet with Callie in the primate lab. He was still overjoyed with Claude's surprise announcement that the CR47 performed perfectly in fifteen new clones. He understood Claude's reluctance to jump into a primate clone without further testing, but time was running out. If need be, Claude could continue his testing after the first and second primate clones. It was more important getting Callie talking to cloned primates than more verification and testing of the CR47.

  Helmer headed to the CR47 lab to double check all the systems for tomorrow's cloning and make sure the lab was on lock-down for the evening. The last thing the ReLife team needed was an intruder sabotaging the CR47.

  Claude went to his office to write an official protest to primate cloning before satisfactory testing was completed per WCSM standards. Rather than leave the addressee's block empty, he listed the recipients of his protest letter to be the World Council, Klaus Ekstrom, Phoenvartis Directors and To Whom It May Concern. He had no intention of sending the letter until after the primate clones were completed and Callie had a day or two to communicate with the replicants. If anything went wrong during this period, his I-Told-You-So protest letter would be sent immediately to the addressees.

  Upon entering the primate lab, Rollie was surprised by the number of shipping containers sitting around waiting to be unpacked.

  "Callie, it looks like you brought most of Africa with you."

  Callie jumped and turned around quickly to face Rollie. "Oh, my God, you scared me, Rollie. Don't do that again, you'll give me a heart attack. What did you say?"

  "I asked if you brought most of Africa in these shipping containers. I had no idea there was so much equipment needed to communicate with monkeys and apes."

  "I probably brought more than I need but I thought it best to be safe rather than sorry. If I forgot something, it would be impossible to get it here in short order. After all this stuff, I only had enough room to pack two shirts, another pair of jungle trousers and a toothbrush. So if you plan to go to a fancy restaurant tonight make sure it's dimly lit. Otherwise, I'll stick out like a sore thumb."