Tethered Twins Saga: Complete Trilogy (Twins, Souls and Hearts)

by Mike Essex

  The doors opened up to reveal a large concrete room. By the entrance were smaller rooms that branched off and were sectioned off with temporary panelled walls. The walls were decorated with the symbols of a deck of cards – hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs were scattered across the walls. At the back of the room a walkway branched off to more living areas.

  Once inside a man ran up to meet her. “Chris!” Grace said and smiled.

  “Great to see the true Grace, I’ll miss the red hair,” replied Chris.

  “Can you believe it?” replied Grace. “The technology works! I’m sure we can use it on many more missions and I can’t wait to see Tobias and rub the smile off his face.”

  Before he could congratulate Grace on Skin 2.0 Chris pointed to a giant wall of computer monitors. “Grace I have something you need to see,” he played back the news report from last night, showing the team attacking innocent people and their identities being revealed.

  Grace could only stare at the events. “You shot an innocent man!?”

  “No, the footage is mostly fabricated. We were attacked and Tobias escaped,” said Chris.

  “But how?”

  “An orange eyed man. He couldn’t be killed and he set the guards free who attacked us.”

  “Wait, he couldn’t be killed?”

  “I shot him in the head. The medic confirmed him dead and we continued to shoot him when he came back to life. He survived everything,” said Chris. “When he attacked our helicopter we had to retreat to protect the civilians.”

  Where’s Gabe? I need to see him!”

  “Captured.”

  “NO!” shouted Grace. “At least tell me he wasn’t hurt?”

  Chris looked down at the floor, ashamed by what had happened. “He was shot in the shoulder. I gave him some medical aid but he will bleed out if not given proper care.”

  Grace punched a nearby wall in anger. She looked back at her knuckles to see they had reddened and the skin had broken on them. A tiny bit of blood leaked through one of the cuts. She was glad. The pain gave her a moment’s relief from reality.

  She went to throw her fist against the wall again, unsure how to cope and Chris quickly grabbed her hand and held it towards his chest. Grace refused to cry, it wasn’t in her nature but she wanted to more than anything.

  “So what on Earth do we do now?” she asked. “They showed your face. Nearly everyone’s faces? What can we do?”

  “You’ve already done the hard work for us Grace,” said Chris. “Do you have the Skin 2.0 test kit?”

  Grace realised she already had the perfect solution for hiding identities in her backpack. “But we only have this one unit. It’s not enough to help everyone.”

  “No but you’ve proved it worked. We can now make more disguises. Enough for everyone.”

  “Ok. But what should I do about Emmie? She’s determined to go to TethTech.”

  “Perfect. You have to take her to Tobias. She’s the best chance we have for answers.”

  “Are you insane? I agreed to take her there when I knew Tobias was gone, I don’t want her anywhere near that freak!” Grace knew Chris was right but she didn’t have to like it.

  “Boss’s orders,” he stated.

  “I see,” Grace knew the orders of the boss hadn’t been wrong before.

  “I know it sucks and how close you are to Emmie but she’s the best chance we have now. When we can mobilize the rest of the team we will support you. Until we can create fresh faces for everyone we are stuck here,” said Chris.

  “Ok,” she sensed there was no reasoning with him. She had her orders and would see them through.

  “Here are the passes you wanted. This will get Emmie and you to Tobias. Remember she can’t know who you really are. It will jeopardise everything.”

  “I know,” Grace had wanted to tell Emmie about The Deck many times before but knew it was forbidden. She’d have to keep pretending to be a make-up artist for a little longer. “I have to go; she will be looking for me soon.”

  “Good luck and don’t worry we will find Gabe,” said Chris.

  Grace left Chris and walked back outside.

  She saw Emmie standing next to the burger stand with two greasy cheeseburgers. The owner of the stand now had a brightly lit shack and seemed very happy.

  “All good?” asked Emmie.

  “Yep, let’s do this,” replied Grace.

  ELEVEN

  Emmie Keyes

  Birmingham: Ten miles.

  Almost there, I thought.

  “Emmie,” I heard Grace’s voice over my headset “So what’s the plan?”

  Although I’d told Grace where we were going I hadn’t even explained why or what exactly I hoped to achieve.

  “Will worked at TethTech. They’re a military contractor and if he was a part of anything that could have gotten him killed it would be to do with them,” I explained.

  “What makes you think they’ll tell you anything?” asked Grace.

  “I have no idea but if I can understand what types of projects Will may have been working on then that may be my best chance for answers.”

  We approached the ringed gate around Birmingham. An electrified barbed wire fence ran around the edge of the city, enclosing its thousand square miles from outsiders. Behind the barbed wire was a concrete wall fifteen foot tall, which had more barbed wire on top of it. Security cameras ran along the perimeter. Apart from the thirteen gates that ran around the outer walls there was no other way into the city on foot.

  As I looked at the imposing structure I suddenly became very aware of the fake identity in my pocket. I repeated my new name over and over in my head “Jessica Young, Jessica Young, Jessica Young.”

  There were only six of us in the queue. It was rare for people to leave or enter the city. Once you were in there was little reason to leave. Despite this the queue moved slowly, with extensive checks required for each person visiting. A necessary requirement to protect the city.

  “Name please,” the guard faced me and it was my turn to be scrutinised.

  I paused for a split second to make sure I got it correct. “Jessica Young.”

  “ID Please,” he asked.

  I reached into my purse and spotted my real ID sitting right next to my fake ID. “God Emmie, did you even think this through?” Grabbing the fake ID and making a mental note to hide the real one later I handed it over.

  The guard looked at the holographic seal on my ID. “Surely that would be hard to fake? Especially for a movie prop designer,” My faith in Grace’s colleague started to wane.

  “Hold on one moment,” he showed the ID to his colleague and I placed my hand on my motorbike keys ready to escape if the ID didn’t work.

  His colleague looked at the ID from inside his security room. I couldn’t see what they were saying but it was an agonising minute and a half.

  The guard returned and asked “Are you her?”

  “Who?” I replied.

  “Your name; ‘Jessica Young’. Are you really her?” he asked.

  I wondered if this was it. The ID was worthless. I’d fallen at the first hurdle. Will would be so disappointed. Running wasn’t an option; they’d shoot me dead before I made it to my motorbike. I had no choice but to continue the lie. “Yes, I’m Jessica Young.”

  “Yeah but are you the Jessica Young?” he emphasised the ‘the’ as if there was something special about the name. Then it dawned on me. Jessica Young was also the name of a famous British athlete who had won gold in a running event a few years before. No wonder the name sounded familiar when I plucked it from the air.

  “If only, sadly I’m no athlete,” I replied.

  “Shame, my daughter would have loved your autograph. I mean her autograph,” he said.

  In a world filled with debt, we still had heroes and hope.

  I looked behind myself at Grace to signal that everything was ok. She released the grip from her motorbike, she too had been ready to escape at any sign of trouble and she
proceeded to be interviewed.

  The first guard waved me along and I walked through to the second guard inside the security box. This small box was just large enough for the two of us and a desk. There were metal bars above the doors that could come down at a moment’s notice. It seemed like a temporary prison.

  He had the exact same face as the previous guard. It felt like Déjà vu but was fairly common. Tethered twins who worked together stayed safe together.

  “So were you her?” he asked.

  “Nope, sorry,” this was the first truthful thing I’d said so far.

  “Ah, never mind,” he directed me towards a full body scanner. I sensed he was hoping to get to peek at an Olympians body but mine would have to do.

  As soon as I entered the scanner an alarm rang out. The guard jumped to his feet, holding his gun directly at me. I moved from the scanner and looked right at him in fear.

  “Ok maam, I will ask you this only once. Are you carrying a concealed weapon?” he asked.

  Yes, I thought to myself. I’d bought my gun along just in case but hadn’t anticipated that I’d be subjected to such tight security. I’d never been to one of the main cities before.

  “Yes,” this time I said it out loud.

  “Ok,” the guard did not put his gun away. “Please remove the weapon and place it on the table.”

  I reached down to my side and grabbed the gun. How am I supposed to do this? I thought. If I angled the gun the wrong way he might shoot me. I had no idea of the proper protocol and tried my best to keep the gun pointing away from the guard, whilst I placed it on the table.

  So bad was my movement that the guard flinched a couple of times but he didn’t fire at me which was a relief.

  “Please can you explain why you are carrying a weapon?” his accusation startled me into telling another truthful statement.

  “I’m a police officer,” I handed him my badge and then realised this was a huge mistake. First of all, for all intents and purposes my alias Jessica Young wasn’t on the police register. Secondly the badge I handed him was registered to my real name; Emmie Keyes. If he scanned the badge ID that could set off a red flag that I was alive. Not that it would matter if this guard shot me first for my other deceit.

  “Thank you. Please remain standing,” he took my badge and gun, and then dialled a number from the phone on his desk.

  A senior sounding man answered the phone on loudspeaker. “Lee? Is that you?”

  “Hi Wilfred, how are you doing?” asked Lee the guard.

  “Same old. Are you still up hitting a karaoke bar after work?”

  “Absolutely! Let’s go for some songs from the noughties era.”

  “Wilfred you know I hate retro music and which century are we even talking about?”

  “Honestly Lee you have no taste, the early years 2000’s were great for music, not like that rocker synth rubbish you used to listen too.”

  “Anyway Dad,” Lee looked away from the phone as his father continued to talk. He interrupted him. “Dad, Dad, Dad! Thank you. Could you run a trace for me?”

  “Sure, what have you got?”

  “Two things; a weapon for the serial number Alpha, Tango, 7-8-5-4-6-1-1-0 and a police badge 5-6, Mike, Golf, 5-5-1-4-9 Kilo.”

  Wilfred repeated the numbers back, which Lee confirmed. I looked out of the window for Grace but couldn’t see her. She must have gone into a separate booth for her own interrogation. If nothing else, I knew Grace would be safe. She had no weapon and a real ID.

  “Ok. The weapon is registered to an Emmie Keyes,” said Wilfred.

  “Crap!” in my mind, I knew the game was over before it had begun. How could I explain having someone else’s weapon?

  “Miss, can you please explain why you have someone else’s weapon?” asked Lee.

  I looked at him bluntly, unsure what to say. I could lie; sure but wasn’t exactly sure what would be a plausible explanation? “She was a fugitive? I killed her? I am her but in disguise wearing fake skin and I secretly want to interrogate one of the most powerful men in the world to get justice for my brother?” No, none of that would do. I’d so far managed an “Um,” and an “Err,” neither of which seemed likely to help.

  I was temporarily saved by Wilfred. “aaand, the police badge is registered to a, Jessica Young.”

  Now I was even more confused. That was impossible.

  Before Lee could dish out his own justice, I was once again saved by Wilfred. “It looks like both Emmie Keyes and Jessica Young are police officers at Smyth West and that Ms Young requested a transfer of Ms Keyes’ firearm about a week ago. The paperwork has been signed off so it all seems legit to me.” If Lee didn’t want to go for karaoke with Wilfred, I certainly did.

  “Thanks Dad, see you later.”

  “Bye Lee, say hi to your brother for me,” Wilfred hung up.

  “Ok Ms Young, you are free to go. You might want to get your weapon taken to a gun store so they can fully transfer it to you. It will make things easier in the future.”

  “Thank you, I’ll do that,” I replied.

  “Oh and sorry for pointing a gun at you. We can’t be too careful in protecting our capital,” I nodded, relieved that I didn’t find out what they did to real terrorists. “If you could hand me your keys I’ll get your bike put into storage for when you leave the city.”

  I tossed him my keys and walked out through the gate and into the city. As I waited for Grace I started to have doubts about her. Getting a fake ID was one thing but falsifying police records?

  Something wasn’t right about Grace Wilkerson.

  --<><>--

  Tobias Zen

  “Home sweet home,” Tobias walked into a darkened room and flicked a switch. “It’s good to be back.”

  The room was suddenly bathed in light as two overhead lights flickered on. In the middle of the room sat a large chair, which was padded all around.

  “Come on then,” Tobias motioned over to two of his team who escorted a third man into the room. He wore a blindfold over his eyes.

  Tobias’ men sat him down into the chair and turned two large plates around so they covered his chest. They connected wires to the plates and placed electrodes onto his head.

  “How are you feeling?” asked Tobias as he removed the man’s blindfold.

  “Fantastic, let’s change the world,” replied the man.

  “That’s the spirit,” said Tobias. “Now let’s make you more than a man.”

  TWELVE

  Emmie Keyes

  I knew two things for certain. The first was that Grace was hiding something from me. The second was that I needed her as an ally and that whatever crimes she and her friend had broken to get me this far were worth the deceit.

  For now I needed Grace on my side and that meant hiding my suspicions. She clearly had friends in powerful places, that much was true and when we had finished in TethTech answers would need to be shared.

  “Everything ok Emzie?” asked Grace, after she finished her interrogation.

  “Yeah,” I hushed my voice so it couldn’t be overheard by the guard. “The documents worked like a charm.”

  “Excellent, for a second I thought I may have to go in guns-a-blazing!” Grace was far less quiet. Does she have a gun? I thought to myself. This was just a research mission and talk of firing guns didn’t appeal to me. I’d only bought my own gun with me to protect myself.

  “Well let’s get going,” Grace grabbed my hand and dragged me towards a huge sign that showed the different routes through Birmingham. “TethTech,” said Grace and the map zoomed into show their building on the map alongside the words “TethTech is located on Broad Street on the Pride line, Building B.”

  In front of us were five large buildings, each of them enormous warehouses with giant letters from A-E on the front of them. We headed towards the building with a giant letter ‘B’ that filled the entire front of the building. A ramp led up from the floor and we entered through the lower part of the B.

>   Inside the warehouse was a platform that filled the building from left to right. As I looked up I could see what looked like two or three more platforms that could be accessed through a sequence of stairs. A further set of stairs also descended downwards to what I assumed were more platforms.

  “We want the Overground Level 2, come on Emzie,” she continued to hold my arm and led me up a wide staircase towards the 2nd level. The station was buzzing with activity and everyone around us seemed to be in a rush. Heads down, legs running, no one in the entire station seemed to say a word to each other, even couples that were clearly together.

  We dashed through the crowd of people to our platform and saw the giant train sitting on the platform waiting. Coloured in a metallic grey and designed with a curved shape it gave the presence of a giant bullet. Inside the train there were two clear compartments, one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

  The haves would prefer to keep Birmingham all to themselves and at one time it had been that way. Prices had risen in the city to such an extent that it had become possible for only the wealthy to live there.

  But the have-nots fought back. They built small towns on the edge of the city to provide things that the wealthy could not. Food, clothing and shelter were still three basic human needs and there would always need to be people to provide the raw materials and put the work in. So the edge of the city had large blocks of farmland and factories that provided food, clothes and building supplies. The have-nots were also worked in the city power plants to do the jobs the rich felt like they were too good for.

  In return they didn’t receive a salary but were guaranteed a place to live, heating, electricity, clothes, and food for their family and a rail pass for their daily commute. They got the bare essentials, with clothes that were usually unwanted rags from the rich and food that was often the leftovers from city centre stores that would go off that day.

  If they wanted anything else they could only get it by keeping back some food and selling it. A trade that was seen as illegal. If the Government couldn’t make tax from something then they’d arrest you. Unlike the town I grew up in, bartering was strictly forbidden.