2156

by C M Dancha

  As they approached Rollie's office, Raul said, "Well, what do you think?"

  "I wish Callie worked here full time. She is very good. She's one of a kind. I mean, how many people do you know who can befriend a dictator and a great ape?”

  "I agree that she is special. But that's not what I meant."

  "I know, Raul. I'm in a total quandary now. On one hand, I know we should delay the human cloning until more time is spent with Maxine. But I've got only a couple days to get a human clone and save the members of the ReLife project from termination. I feel like a marionette being danced across a stage by forces beyond my control."

  "Go spend the night with Gretchen. That will take your mind off this mess." Raul smiled and winked at Rollie as he turned to walk away.

  Rollie smiled back and thought, "how does that SOB find out these things?"

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The Price of Cloning Escalates

  "Rollie, I'd like to thank you for putting another monkey wrench in the ReLife project. Why in God's name would you send out that monkey woman's report to everyone and their brother? The irritation in Klaus's voice belied the fact that he was aware of his pun.

  "I didn't know there was a limitation on who her report could be sent to." Rollie could barely keep looking at Klaus when he made such a dishonest statement. He expected Klaus to be upset when Callie's report was distributed without approval. Especially when it contained speculative assertions about the emotional health of the cloned ape. The implication that the same issue would occur in cloned humans sent Klaus into orbit.

  "Who else did her report go to besides Phoenvartis executives and the Board of Directors?"

  "Those are all the people I asked Ingrid to send the report to." Regardless of the limited distribution, Rollie was sure the report was unofficially passed on to hundreds of other people. Within a couple hours of release, he suspected that the World Council also had a copy and was studying it.

  "This is another stalling tactic, isn't it?"

  "Mr. Ekstrom, I admit that further observations should be made of Maxine before human clones are attempted. But I can assure you that a planned delay was not my intention. You and I know that Mr. Slice gave us a total of two weeks to do human clones. He made it empirically clear there would be no time extensions or acceptable excuses for changing that timetable. The bottom line is that we are scheduled for human cloning in approximately 40 hours."

  "Well, at least you haven't screwed that up. Make sure it happens. In fact, I want to be there. And I want that monkey woman out of here today."

  Rollie stood up, leaned forward and braced himself on Klaus's desk. "That's a mistake, Klaus. She is the only one who can determine once and for all if there is something wrong with the cloned ape. The damage has already been done by her report. Let her keep working and see if she can negate that damage. She might be able to establish a plausible explanation which will explain away her fears. What have we got to lose? Even if she conclusively determines there is a flaw in the primate clone, the human clone will be done beforehand. And that's exactly what Slice wants."

  "She has one week, Rollie. Then get her out of here. And by the way, here are the remains of who the World Council wants cloned." Klaus reached down behind his desk and retrieved a 10-inch square thermal box which he handed to Rollie.

  Rollie was taken by complete surprise. He had already decided to use host samples taken from the city morgue. If the World Council wanted these samples used, then they must have come from someone very important. Someone who had a great deal of influence in the past with the World Council.

  "Whose remains are these?"

  "I have no frigging idea; just use them and don't worry about who the host is. Now, get out of here."

  Rollie had been taken down a notch before by Klaus, but this was over the top. He was furious. One day he promised himself to get back at Klaus for the insults, backstabbing and sicko behavior of beating up women. This was the first time Rollie left Klaus's office without jesting with his assistant, Helga.

  As Rollie made his way to the cafeteria for an anti-anxiety drink, several people within and outside of Phoenvartis were busy planning, scheming and jockeying their futures in a post-cloning world.

  One of these was Claude, who had finished reading Callie's report for the second time. As he anticipated, there was a possible flaw in the cloned primate. Callie's report pounded that point home repeatedly and summarized her suspicion with a recommendation to delay human cloning. Claude brought up the protest letter he wrote before the primate cloning and made a few changes to it. The revised protest letter made it clear he was opposed to primate cloning from the first time he heard of it. Even though he could see Rollie's time at Phoenvartis was coming to an end, he debated whether to send out the letter. He put the letter back in his "to send" file and decided to wait until the human clones were done.

  On the other end of the building, Raul was sifting through files collecting anything he considered important. He needed information which could be used for protection and blackmail when he left Phoenvartis. Until he could find another security or paramilitary job, he needed a source of world credits or some other form of income. The easiest way to survive would be to sell confidential Phoenvartis information to whoever would pay for it.

  As a secondary measure, he planned to alter the building's entry and security systems, so he could come and go as he pleased after being fired. Plus, the communications system was already embedded with bugs, so he could listen in on any important conversations or meetings taking place within the building. He expected to have unfettered access to Phoenvartis for at least a month or two after departing. It would take them at least that long to find the eavesdropping devices.

  Raul had been in enough conflicts to know when the tide of battle was turning against him. It was a feeling of pending defeat before a shot was fired or a casualty was suffered. He had learned the hard way to turn tail, disappear and then regroup when this feeling came over him. Listening to this inner voice had saved many lives, including his own. He now had this same feeling about his employment at Phoenvartis. Besides, his informant, Mr. Todd, was dropping hints that major changes were about to happen at Phoenvartis. Few of the current staff would survive. The end of his career at Phoenvartis was near and he wanted to be completely prepared for it.

  In a better Zurich neighborhood, Sophia was sitting in her spacious living room looking at herself in a mirror. The facial swelling, blood in her left eye and scratches were almost unnoticeable. She was still walking with a limp but could hide it with enough pain-blocking drugs.

  An hour earlier she had spent ten frightful minutes speaking with Klaus Ekstrom. He begged and pleaded to come over to her apartment. He used every excuse he could think of to get her permission. At first, he had a get-well gift for her. Then, it was to offer an apology. His last reason was to discuss the lease on her apartment— the apartment he paid for. Sophia refused, which turned the conversation into a full-fledged argument. It ended with Sophia saying, "Klaus, I'll kill you if you come here."

  Two minutes after hanging up on Klaus, Krieger from the Black Cross called.

  Sophia didn't try to hide her rotten mood. "Yes, Mr. Sun. What do you want now?"

  "Well hello to you too, Catherine. I wanted to get an update on the cloning project. That's all."

  "I'll have news for you tomorrow or the day after. Are you ready at your end?"

  "Catherine, we have the host samples and can have them to you in 8 hours."

  "What else, Mr. Sun?"

  "We have the world credits ready to transfer to your account."

  "Good, I want a 25% deposit before I do your clone. No deposit, no clone."

  "Catherine, that wasn't part of the deal. It was 100% payment upon delivery of the clone."

  "I changed the terms, Mr. Sun. Frankly, I don't trust you."

  Krieger was furious. He hated being outwitted; especially by a bitch like Catherine. Fortunately, she was only asking
for 25%. He could live with that. "You drive a hard bargain, Catherine. The 25% will be in your account tonight."

  "Good. Again, no deposit, no clone. Understand?"

  "You should know I'm a quick study, Catherine. By the way, the hospital did a wonderful job of putting you back together." Krieger started laughing and Sophia, aka Catherine, broke the connection. After two disgusting conversations with pigs, she decided to reach out to Rollie the next morning.

  In the Phoenvartis cafeteria, Rollie was finishing his anti-anxiety drink. The drink acted exactly as advertised. He was starting to relax and let the positives of his life crowd out the negatives. He looked at the bottle he was drinking from and started to laugh to himself. The name of the drink was "Mellow Yellow," which perfectly described its color and effects. He was about ready to get up from the table and go to his office when his micromic came on.

  "Hello Callie, I was thinking about coming down and seeing you."

  "Oh, good. I wanted to see what feedback you've gotten on my report and tell you the latest about Maxine. I think I've figured out what made Maxine kill the frog."

  "It's 4 p.m. now. Can you wait until 5?"

  "Sure, no problem. Come down when you can. Maxine and I are playing now. It usually takes her about an hour to get tired or bored."

  "Okay, see you in a while."

  Rollie left the cafeteria and went to his office to review contacts and store the thermal box in his refrigerator. For the first time during his tenure at Phoenvartis, he locked the refrigerator. As much as he hated the thought of cloning anything from the World Council, he didn't want to be accused of intentionally losing or destroying their host samples.

  "That was quite a report you sent out, Rollie."

  Rollie looked up to see Helmer come into the office, sit down and light a cigar.

  "Has Klaus seen it?"

  "Yes, sir, my friend. He wasn't a happy boy. But I was able to talk him into another week here for Callie to work with Maxine."

  "I sure hope she can establish an explanation for Maxine's unusual behavior. I have been getting tons of contacts about this report. You and she sure stirred up a hornet's nest."

  "Yeah, I know. But there's nothing I can do about it now other than hope this odd behavior was an anomaly. Hey, you haven't seen Maxine since the incubation, have you? I'm going down to see Callie right now. Do you want to come along?"

  "Sure, let's do it." Helmer put out his cigar and the two executives headed to subterranean floor number four.

  Once they were in the transport lift, Helmer asked, "Rollie, are we still on for the human cloning?"

  "Yes. Not tomorrow morning but the next day at around 8 a.m."

  "Helmer, can you keep something to yourself? Never mind, that was a stupid thing to ask. Get this. Guess who the host is?" Rollie didn't wait for Helmer to venture a guess.

  "We're cloning someone associated with the World Council."

  Helmer's head snapped around to face Rollie. "What? Are you joking? How the hell did that happen?

  "All I know is Klaus gave me a thermal box containing remains which came from the World Council."

  "Holy shit. It's got to be someone important. And you have no idea who it is?"

  "I don't have a clue. But if I had to guess I'd say it's someone who Slice wants to resurrect."

  "That's probably a good guess. We'll just have to wait to see who it is."

  Both men approached the primate lab door and started the security procedures to get through the interlocking doors. When the second door opened and both men stepped into the lab, they froze and didn't take another step forward. About fifteen feet from them was Maxine sitting on the floor next to Callie's prone body. Maxine looked up with weepy eyes at the two men.

  Without moving an inch, Rollie spoke slightly above a whisper, "Callie, Callie, can you hear me?"

  Callie didn't move even when Maxine rubbed her hand across the woman's forehead.

  "Helmer, slowly back into the interlocking door vestibule." When both men were in the vestibule, Rollie closed the door and contacted Raul.

  "Raul, I hate to bother you, but we have a problem in the primate lab. I think Callie is dead."

  Rollie listened to what Raul said and then answered. "I don't know, Raul. It might have been Maxine, but who knows. Maxine is sitting right next to the body and we're going to need a tranquilizer gun. Have you got one?" After a momentary pause, Rollie ended the conversation. "Okay, I'll see you in a couple of minutes."

  Rollie looked at Helmer. "Raul is on his way. Let's wait in the hallway."

  "Jesus, Rollie, do you think Callie is dead? Is it possible that Maxine killed her?"

  "I hope Callie only passed out and Maxine is protecting and comforting her. But we're dealing with a wild animal. A wild animal that has already exhibited some unusual behavior compared to her host."

  "Isn't her enclosure secured? How did she get out?"

  "Helmer, I have no idea. For all we know, Callie may have let her out or forgot to secure the door when... Oh hell, I don't know. I'm not very good at being a Sherlock Holmes. Raul will figure out what happened. Right now, we need to focus on the human cloning."

  At the far end of the hall, the lift door opened, and Raul and a couple of his agents got off. Raul was carrying what appeared to be a tranquilizer gun. His agents had several pieces of equipment including a large net, rope, and sack of bananas. Rollie explained in detail what he and Helmer saw when they were in the lab.

  "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Helmer, you stay here. The rest of us are going into the interlocking vestibule. I'm going to peek into the lab and see where Maxine is. If she is still sitting next to Callie, I'm going to put a couple of darts in her and duck back into the vestibule. Zeggler, don't close the lab door. Keep it open so I can get back in fast. I'm guessing it will take about two minutes for Maxine to go under. When she does, we'll go in, put her in the net and slide her across the floor to the enclosure. Any questions?"

  Hearing nothing from his companions, Raul led the way into the interlocking vestibule. When he went through the second door Maxine was still sitting next to Callie holding her hand. Raul fired twice and ducked back into the vestibule making sure the door was locked. For a couple minutes, it sounded like a tornado was on the loose in the lab. Glass shattered. The vestibule door took a direct hit from something bouncing off it. Maxine was wreaking havoc in the lab turning over and throwing anything which wasn't tied down. As Raul predicted, the noise stopped about two to three minutes after it started.

  "Okay, I'm going in. Don't follow until I say it's okay."

  Raul and Zeggler had to force the vestibule door open. Directly on the other side was Maxine, out cold and lying face up. Her breathing was labored but otherwise, she looked like a healthy ape at sleep. Raul took out his real gun and hurried over to Callie. Her skin was lukewarm to the touch and Raul couldn't find a pulse.

  "Okay, you guys, come in."

  The first thing Raul and the two agents did was step around and move back from Maxine. Even in her semi-conscious state, she was imposing enough to be threatening.

  "Okay, let's get her over to the enclosure." Raul spread the net on the floor next to Maxine and instructed each guy on how to lift her. With less effort than when she was removed from the CR47, the four men lifted her into the net. Each man grabbed a side of the net and started to pull it toward the enclosure at the far end of the lab.

  As Raul opened the enclosure door, Maxine's eyes popped open and she grabbed an agent's leg. She growled and rolled over dragging the agent to the ground. When she put her hands around the agent's head and started to squeeze, Raul put a blast through Maxine's brain.

  Rollie stood at attention watching the ape spasmodically contort before death took her. He had no idea what to do, who to call or what to say. Raul made sure Maxine was dead and then he and Zeggler helped their fellow agent.

  Raul took a quick lap around the lab looking for clues and evidence. "Everyone out of the lab. D
on't touch anything on the way out. Zeggler, secure this room after we leave. No one other than the medical examiner is to enter this room. Until I tell you otherwise, I want someone posted in the hallway 24 hours a day. Don't tell anyone about what you saw here this evening." Raul knew this was a waste of his breath. He figured everyone at Phoenvartis would know about the two deaths within an hour. "Okay, everyone out."

  Raul stayed alone in the lab for about five minutes. When he exited, he walked over to Rollie.

  "Are you okay? You looked a little peaked."

  "I'm okay. Helmer took off. He was feeling sick."

  "Someone altered the lab recorders which tells me there is a good chance Callie was murdered. I highly doubt that Maxine had anything to do with Callie's death. I've got to call my friend at the medical examiner's office and get him down here. I'll talk to you later, Rollie. By the way, when you go home or back to your office make some notes on what happened here. The sooner you record your observations the more accurate they will be. The medical examiner is going to need a statement from everyone."

  Raul left to make his call and Rollie slid down the hallway wall to a sitting position on the floor. He was mentally exhausted. Seeing a dead body was one thing but watching the brains blown out of Maxine's head was indescribable and something he never wanted to see again. How could anyone, like Raul, spend years in combat seeing such horror?

  After calling the medical examiner's office, Raul rushed to his office to review the primate lab recordings. He had lied to Rollie about someone destroying the lab recordings during the time Callie was killed. He suspected she was murdered and with a little luck he would see or hear who was responsible.

  It took about ten minutes for Raul to piece together Callie's murder from the lab recordings. The murderer had left behind one important clue which identified him as the guilty party. After Raul stumbled onto the clue, he sat back in his chair, smiled and said to himself, "I never thought you were so resourceful. You little turd." He made a copy of the recording immediately preceding and during the murder and then deleted that segment from the archives. He disabled the lab recorders, so everyone would think the system failed for some reason before Callie was killed.