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

by Mike Essex

  “Easily faked. Tobias is a conman,” I had a feeling I’d like Tom. Finally someone with a brain. The other winners were less impressed. Glenn walked back to the guard at the double doors and exclaimed “This man is not worthy,” pointing his finger directly at Tom. “He doesn’t deserve to enter this sanctuary.”

  “What is this, a house of God? Don’t be ridiculous,” exclaimed Tom. “Look, I like Tobias ok? But you have to admit we shouldn’t just believe everything he tells us on faith.”

  “How dare you!” shouted Glenn, clearly taking this far too seriously. He wasn’t the only one. Finn and Tina had joined in by this point. “Kick him out!” shouted Tina. “He doesn’t belong here,” said Finn.

  This was insane, how could people have such blind loyalty to Tobias? Looking at the winners they all appeared to be in their thirties, making them old enough to remember the events of the 20 Day Siege that had occurred twenty one years ago. For myself and fresh faced Tom, that day was nothing more than a lesson in a history book. Everyone else here had lived it and that showed.

  “Fine, I’m gone!” shouted Tom, as a security guard grabbed him by his arm and dragged him around to the back of the building and away from us. “Good riddance,” said Glenn and I realised I hadn’t said anything this entire time. “Yeah, he wasn’t worthy,” I said, aware that my true feelings would get me removed as well. A risk I couldn’t take.

  “Welcome winners!” a young looking scientist entered the room. He wore a white lab coat, with an orange surgical mask hanging down over his neck. “I’m March and I’ll be your guide on this tour of the factory.”

  I was immediately sceptical of March. If anything he was too good looking to be trusted. His strong jawline and youthful features made him seem more suitable to be a model than a man of Science.

  Besides anyone who was a loyal servant of Tobias was not a friend of mine.

  Not that it mattered for Glenn who let out a cheer. An actual cheer, at having the chance to look around a factory. I rolled my eyes but it went unnoticed by the group who looked at March like hungry dogs waiting for a treat.

  “Please follow me,” we followed March up a small staircase that opened out onto a grand open plan and brightly lit walkway. The room was pure white with coloured lines – oranges, pinks, blues, greens and reds – forming off to different doorways and paths. On the walls were photos which I assumed were of the TethTech team, that were arranged into circular patterns that intersected. Some of the photos’ contents included their homes, partners, pets, and children. They seemed so normal.

  I walked towards the wall and one photo stood out at me. It was a photo of me – the real me, with Will stood behind me. When no one was looking I grabbed the photo and shoved it into my pocket. They wouldn’t need it any more.

  Walking back to the group I looked down at the floor and saw an orange pencil sketch of hundreds of happy faces. Everywhere I looked the room was plastered in faces; the walls, the ceiling, the floor, thousands of faces all forming into concentric circles that started to move, intersecting and decreasing in size like a sound wave.

  In amongst the waves of faces I thought I saw a face I recognised and as I walked towards it my feet slipped on the floor and I began to fall forward.

  Before I could land on my face an arm had grabbed me from the side and pulled me upwards. As I steadied myself I saw the face of the man who helped. It was March.

  “Are you ok?” he asked. He seemed kind and genuinely helpful. This wasn’t at all what I’d expected the organisation to be like.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Excellent, I see you were admiring the floor. Amazing isn’t it? These are soldiers who fight for this country every day. They are a reminder of the people we want to protect with our new project,” he sounded sincere. TethTech seemed like a normal office of normal people. I had no clue why they’d want Will gone.

  “Sorry I didn’t get your name,” asked March.

  “It’s Jessica,” I replied.

  “Well Jessica, would you like to see something special?” His model-like good looks made him a hard person to ignore but he seemed unaware of this charm.

  “Sure, why not,” If it could give me answers then I would see anything.

  I followed March to the back of the room and our feet walked along a pink coloured pathway that ran across the floor. The line stopped by a pink rectangular panel located on the floor, which had a handrail. As we reached the panel I surveyed the room and saw that the other winners were no longer following us. They were talking to another technician, following a green line and didn’t seem to notice my absence.

  “Why isn’t everyone else coming?” I asked, worried that my cover had been blown.

  “Your entry form said you were a journalist for BBC News. So we wanted to show you an exclusive demonstration. A worldwide scoop,” he replied.

  Grace, what have you done?

  “Please hold the rail,” said March as the pink panel began to rise upwards through the tower.

  SEVENTEEN

  Mr King

  Mr King stared at the screen, the bright green numbers taunting him. “It can’t be,”. He looked at the numbers over and over and there was no denying it. TethTech was showing a 400% increase in share price, which showed no sign of stopping its improvement.

  This was the worst day of his life. When he’d seen the share price fall he had panicked and wiped out 10% of the entire net worth of his company to stop any more losses and now it seemed if he had stuck with the shares he would have increased them in value by 400%.

  He wondered how he would explain this to the board of directors. They were unaware he’d sold the shares and their emails were starting to arrive in one by one.

  “We’re rich!” said one. “Just bought a new boat,” said another. None of them knew of Mr King’s deception and when they found out what he had done they would have the power to remove him from his own company.

  He sank back in his chair. Tobias had defeated him. The latest daily company accounts would be sent to the board in a few hours. Very soon they would then know the truth and Mr King would be out of a job and on the street. His personal wealth would be stripped away from him and he would have nothing.

  He picked up the phone and hit the ‘redial’ key.

  “Hello, Jarvis accounting,” said the assistant.

  “Barbara, how are you?” said Mr King, trying his best to sound calm and polite. Two characteristics that felt unusual to him.

  “I’m very well, thank you. May I ask who is calling?” she said.

  “It’s Mr King,” he replied.

  “Ah, sorry I didn’t recognise you,” she’d never heard Mr King speak this nicely to anyone. “I’ll just put you through.”

  Barbara called through to Leo who let out a large laugh. Leo had just made millions thanks to the shares he’d purchased from Mr King and he had no intention of helping him anymore. “Barbara, can you please tell Mr King that unfortunately we are dropping him as a client. His accounts will be sent to him within seven days for him to seek a new accountant.”

  Barbara laughed too. This was a victory for both of them. For too long Mr King had filled their lives with abuse. Today they were free. “Right away sir.”

  The words hit Mr King hard. He’d dropped hundreds of suppliers from his business before but had never been on the receiving end. He started to verbally throw swear word after swear word at them down the phone but they had hung up long ago.

  He was in a desperate situation. His career, money and life were all about to be destroyed. He had less than a day to save himself and he knew now the only man who could help him was Tobias Zen.

  --<><>--

  Emmie Keyes

  We stopped on the 27th floor and March asked me to step off the platform. This room was nothing like the one before. Gone was the open-plan format, replaced by a sequence of tight corridors that were framed with angular white metal structures that held large pink coloured pipes to the walls either si
de of us. I could feel the heat from the pipes as we walked through the hallway and March assured me it was perfectly safe.

  As we worked our way around the tight corners the heat started to make me feel dizzy and I wondered how anyone could work in these conditions. I started to feel sweat forming on my brow and I brushed it away for fear that it would ruin my disguise. I looked at the two pink lines that ran on the floor in front of us and told myself if I could just keep walking that I’d be safe.

  “We’re almost there,” said March. The heat didn’t seem to bother him but his face showed a concern for me that encouraged me to keep walking. We reached a steel door and finally the pipes around us veered to either side where they went off to destinations unknown. The door was marked ‘Broadcast room’ and a red panel was positioned above the door, which read ‘On Air’ and was currently turned off.

  March motioned for me to look away which I pretended to do, quickly turning around when his back was turned. I saw him retrieve a keycard from his pocket which he swiped on a grey panel next to the door. As the door opened I turned around again hoping he would have been unaware I was watching him.

  We entered the room and I saw a recognisable face; Colonel Kull. His slim face and ginger hair making him an easy man to identify; especially given he was still held in place with a harness like device. There was no denying this was the same man the world had just seen take over his brother’s dead body like a twisted marionette.

  An orange eyed man.

  Except now his eyes had returned to a neutral blue colour. He appeared completely normal as the scientists around him removed the various wires that were connected into him.

  As I looked around the room, which was now no longer covered in darkness but was basking in the glow of overhead fluorescent lighting, I tried to take in as many details as possible. What struck me instantly was how similar its design was to the room I had seen earlier on my DualCam. The pipes on the ceiling, the harness around the man’s chest and the wires that snaked around him, they were all the same, yet this was not the same room. The one I had seen appeared more primitive and rushed together. This room was pristine and every piece of technology looked brand new.

  The man was also different from the one I had seen recorded. There was no way he was the same man who had his jaw dislodged in the DualCam footage. Neither was he the same as the men who attacked Will.

  “Just how many people have orange eyes?” I wondered to myself and I hoped I hadn’t stumbled upon something much, much bigger than myself and Will.

  “Hi I’m Frazier,” said the man in the chair, jolting me back to reality.

  “I’m Jessica,” I said as I shook his hand. He continued to sit, despite now being free from the vice. I was unsure if he chose to sit or had been ordered to do so.

  “Jessica is a reporter for BBC News,” said March. “We wanted her to see the technology that allowed you to put on today’s demonstration and to meet you so she could tell the world that what it saw today was no trick.”

  “Oh, I can assure you it wasn’t,” said Frazier. “I controlled my brother and it felt amazing! For every other Tether moment of my life I have had to sit back and feel him experience something amazing but now I got to take control and it was unbelievable.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “It’s complicated,” he explained. “Everything my brother saw I could see too. I saw him get injected, I saw him die and then I saw his arms as I juggled and fired his gun. I felt everything he did, but I also had complete control. That’s why he could suddenly juggle; despite the fact in real life he’s awful!”

  “So it was as if you were him?”

  “In a way. I still had all of my own thoughts but I could move him with my mind. Those arm movements you saw when I aimed the gun they were just for show. Tobias sure does love a good piece of drama.”

  March stepped forward and I sensed that Frazier had said something he shouldn’t. “Don’t write that in your article,” he said in a stern voice. “Although Frazier moved his arms during the demonstration this was purely to increase the sense of spectacle of the event,” March explained. “In truth, our technology allows someone to control their twin simply by the power of thought. We added the arms in, in order to confuse any of our competitors who wanted to mimic our technology.”

  I had to admit that was a pretty clever double bluff. Anyone who wanted to try and build the same thing would waste years trying to understand how the arm movements allowed them to control each other.

  “However,” he continued. “I must reiterate that you cannot write that in your article and that you sign this,” he walked me towards a document in the corner of the room called a ‘Non-Disclosure Agreement’. The wooden bench it sat on didn’t fit in with any of the other furnishings in the room. It seemed like the desk had been quickly added to the room in preparation for my visit.

  “By signing this, you agree that we can approve any content that you write about TethTech before it is published. It ensures that only the right aspects of today’s technology are revealed to the public,” he explained. “If we give away too much, then anyone will be able to copy us and we lose our competitive advantage.”

  I really didn’t care about the document and had no problem signing it. After all, it’s not like there was anywhere I could write about them and with a fake identity it would be hard to do so.

  As I finished signing my fake signature I realised I now had the upper hand for the first time today. A real chance for answers. I was excited at what else they may reveal to me now they trusted me fully.

  “Thank you Ms Young. Now you have signed the document I can allow you to meet with Tobias. He is waiting for you on the top floor of the building,” said March.

  Suddenly the upper hand didn’t feel like it was worth having.

  EIGHTEEN

  Rex T Jules

  Rex knew it was going to be a long day as he looked at the long list of tasks in front of him. As a maintenance man for Smyth West he spent his days fixing everything from plumbing problems to electrical issues and today looked like it had plenty of challenges in store.

  He looked down at his blue denim overalls that had been stained with so many DIY jobs. Oil, paint, grass and dirt covered his overalls like battle scars or medals and to Rex were the marks of jobs he had done well in the past.

  Not that he’d ever wanted to be a maintenance man but in Smyth West you just got given the job that needed doing and were thankful to be doing something to help. If there was one thing Rex liked doing it was helping people and over the years he’d found he was best suited to helping fix the hundred and one problems the town always seemed to have.

  “Ok. So I’ll fix the broken sink in Mrs Hull’s apartment and then it’s over to the Owen’s residence to see why their pipes are making a hissing sound…” His eyes scanned the list, hoping for something more interesting and his voice trailed off.

  He still felt tired from the unexpected Emmie encounter this morning. Emmie was another one of those people he always liked to help and as much as he loved seeing her, three hours of talking in the early hours of the morning did make work a lot harder.

  As he looked at the list he spotted that he wasn’t quite done with helping Emmie for the day. She had requested that someone fix her creaky floorboards and Rex had been putting the task off for a while. It wasn’t quite as urgent when you had flooded buildings and electrical fires on your list.

  Today seemed to lack any urgent issues and he felt like it would be a good idea to check on Emmie again. He regretted letting her leave last night without him being able to help and he hoped she would be a little more forthcoming on a second visit about exactly what was wrong.

  He packed up his equipment and left the shack that he called his office. It wasn’t much. Just an old garage with a few supplies but it was enough to get by and that’s all you could ask for as a have-not.

  As he made his way back to the apartment where Emmie lived he found him
self with a spring in his step. Seeing Emmie once in one day simply wasn’t enough and he hoped one day they’d be able to spend all of their days together.

  Not that she’d know it. Rex had kept his feelings for her locked away for a long time and was convinced Emmie would only ever see him as a big brother. So that’s the role he took on, always helping Emmie with a shoulder to cry on, in the hope one day she would notice him as more than a friend.

  So being the best friend that he could be he walked up the steps to her apartment, making a mental note to add ‘fix the lift’ to his ever growing list of tasks. He reached her door and raised his hand to knock it. Before he could, he saw that the door was slightly open.

  He wondered if she had forgotten to lock it and thought about how she wasn’t herself the night before.

  Then he remembered the warning and that Emmie had said she and her brother were in some sort of trouble and suddenly the open door seemed far more sinister.

  Without thinking for his own safety Rex gently pushed the door and walked into the room.

  He was unprepared for what he saw next.

  --<><>--

  Emmie Keyes

  I continued to speak with Frazier and March for a little while and was amazed by the technology that allowed TethTech to connect twins together. The implications were fascinating and although I didn’t understand how it all worked, it seemed like the technology really could save lives.

  Nothing they said made me believe they could be capable of Will’s murder. The only explanation I had was that he could have been killed because they wanted to take credit for his invention of the DualCam and even that didn’t make much sense. He worked for TethTech so they’d benefit from any product he created. There simply was no motive strong enough to justify his death.

  Yet there was no denying the fact Will had been killed by two men with orange eyes and that TethTech had the technology to make such a thing possible. All roads led back to TethTech so I wasn’t prepared to give up on my suspicions yet.