Unraveling Conspiracy (Forgotten Fodder Book 3)

by MJ Blehart

  There were only about six buildings that had been reinforced and made livable. Onima circled the area three times. Jace looked at each building multiple times before choosing which he thought would be the best candidate for the central clone home.

  As they drove up to the building and parked, nine clones cautiously approached the van, carrying various blunt weapons—bats, clubs, a staff or two. There were six men and three women.

  Jace didn’t know these clones, but he recognized them as the infantry clones the NECC had created.

  The clones tensed as Onima and Kara exited the van and walked in front of it. But when Jace joined them, the clones visibly relaxed.

  One of the nine gestured toward Jace with a club. “What’s your kind doing with their kind?”

  “Hi there,” Jace said casually, ignoring the question. “We’re not here to cause trouble, or for any untoward reasons. We’re looking for information, mostly. And possibly assistance.”

  “Assistance?” another clone like the first almost spat. “Who the hell are you?”

  Onima and Kara almost simultaneously presented their digital warrant cards.

  “Marshal Onima Gwok, CBI.” Jace gestured. “Deputy Marshal Kara Martinez, CBI. My name is Jace Rojas, and I am a special consultant to the Bureau, presently.”

  “That’s a new one,” one of the three female clones remarked.

  “We know you’re not used to visits from our kind,” Onima said, “but we’re in the middle of an investigation that involves clones and some unpleasant designs toward them.”

  Someone blew out their lips. “The CBI, investigating something regarding clones? Bullshit.”

  Jace chuckled. “I know how you feel. But believe me, this investigation involves clone-kind, and we really need your help.”

  The first clone who had addressed them turned back to the other eight. The group gathered for a conference a moment before splitting apart and turning to face Jace, Onima, and Kara once again.

  “Jace, is it?” the leader asked. “They got credentials. How do we really know you are a ‘special consultant’ for the Bureau? You got any proof?”

  Jace grinned and drew his pistol. A few exclaimed in surprise as he casually waved it around before returning it to its holster.

  “Good enough for me,” someone said.

  Jace felt Onima eyeing him. After their second encounter with one of the armor-shelled thugs from Gray and Chuang, Onima had let Jace remain armed. While none of the Bureau operatives aboard the Daedalus would find it shocking, Jace knew it was a violation of certain policies. A CBI marshal arming a civilian—especially a clone—being prime among them.

  Though few planets had laws against it, armed clones were an idea everyone rejected. They were, after all, ex-soldiers and proficient with weapons. Despite inherent motivational inhibitions instilled in the clones via their brain-scan programming, the idea of armed clones distressed most non-clones.

  Jace, Onima, and Kara were led into the lobby of the building. The leader took them to what was once a cafeteria and clearly still served that purpose.

  There were at least thirty clones there.

  “Welcome to Clone Tower One,” the leader of the group of nine said. He turned and offered Jace his hand. “Cee-six Tushabe.”

  Jace shook his hand. Cee-six turned to Onima with his hand extended, and his surprise when she took it was unmistakable. That look didn’t change when Kara also accepted his handshake.

  “Uh, nice to meet you,” Cee-six said. He introduced one of the other clones beside him, representing another template. “This is Jane Wang.”

  Once more, handshakes were given all around. The rest of the clones paid attention, just as shocked as the leader.

  Jace understood the reaction. He’d been surprised the first time a non-clone had showed him common courtesy, too.

  Cee-six gestured, and the CBI group took seats around a table. Jace noted three of the nine who had met them moved away and entered a lift.

  “What is it you are seeking?” asked Cee-six.

  “How familiar are you with Whole-Body Holistic and Medical Wellness, Ltd?” asked Onima.

  “Very,” replied Jane. “At least a dozen of us work there daily.”

  Jace gestured to the room around them. “Have you set up a collective?”

  “Yes,” replied Cee-six.

  Jace felt both Onima and Kara eyeing him.

  “At the end of the war,” Jace began, “some suggested that forming collectives would be the best way to ensure our survival. There were, really, two prevailing philosophies among my kind when we were discarded. Form collectives and work together to live—or find your own way and survive as best you can.”

  “Most opted for the latter,” Cee-six said.

  “At least, at first,” added Jane.

  Jace chuckled. “Yeah, I have never encountered a functioning collective. Almost every clone slum and tenement I’ve been to has been independent people struggling to survive.”

  “Yes,” Cee-six agreed. “A lot of us tried that, at first. But then we realized that our worries that the normal would think we were plotting against them amounted to nothing.”

  “That,” Jace told Onima and Kara, “was the main argument against forming collectives. We were a trained army of soldiers, and lots of us felt that once we were set aside, staying together would encourage pre-emptive retaliation so we’d not pose a threat.”

  Onima nodded. “I remember some of the early AECC legislature elections, and arguments for breaking up clones and preventing organization.”

  Cee-six stated, “I, for one, have never felt a need to take action against the normal. Hell, I’m only the de facto leader because it’s my turn this month.”

  “Are you aware,” Kara began, “that part of your programing created inhibitions against those sorts of ambitions?”

  “Not in so many words,” replied Cee-six. “But it makes sense.” He looked to Jace. “Is she for real?”

  Jace chuckled. “Yeah, this falls into why we are here.” He proceeded to give Cee-six and Jane a general overview of Palmer Cadoret’s execution, the major corporation that had likely ordered it, and the conspiracy intending to reactivate the abandoned controls put in all clones when they’d received their template’s brain scan.

  Jace would glance at Onima for any cue that he might be sharing sensitive information. But she never interrupted, nor gave any sign that he was oversharing. She occasionally nodded her approval, in fact.

  Both Cee-six and Jane were shaking their heads by the time Jace concluded, “We have three confirmed conspirators, but no admissible evidence—it’s all circumstantial. And that is what has led us here.”

  “And you think there’s a tie-in to Whole-Body Holistic and Medical Wellness, Ltd?” asked Jane.

  “Yes,” Kara replied. “For a couple of different reasons. But we know that one of the confirmed conspirators is there.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Cee-six.

  “We have our ways,” replied Onima.

  Cee-six and Jane exchanged a look. Then Cee-six said, “What do you think we can do for you?”

  “We know that the face Whole-Body Holistic and Medical Wellness, Ltd., wears is not the whole story,” Onima said. “We know they perform services that are experimental and not necessarily entirely legal.”

  Cee-six raised an eyebrow. “Really? What makes you suspect that?”

  “Unfortunately, I can’t get into the specifics,” Onima said. “But suffice it to say, the CBI wants to learn all we can.”

  “In the context of Marshal Gwok’s investigation,” Jace added, “we need to know all we can about what happens at the wellness center.”

  “We would also like a complete schematic of the place,” said Kara. “This may show some...shall we say...‘behind-the-scenes research’ that falls under our concerns.”

  Once more, Cee-six and Jane exchanged look.

  Jane said, “There’s nothing we can do today. The work
shift is already in place, and we can’t contact them. But perhaps tomorrow we can make sure whoever goes to the wellness center has marching orders, so to speak.”

  “But,” Cee-six added, “this is not without risk. The last thing we need is to lose our contract with the wellness center. That’s how we keep the lights on here.”

  “We understand that,” Onima said, “and will pay for your assistance.”

  Cee-six looked at Onima. “It’s not like clones can make use of large amounts of ESCA, Marshal Gwok. Not that we don’t like to get some ESCA around here from time to time, but Emerson City authorities get twitchy when clones have money.”

  “What does the collective need?” asked Jace.

  “We could use more in-house food processing machines,” said Jane.

  Cee-six gestured upwards and said, “All the solar panels were removed or destroyed, and the batteries were taken. More energy independence would be a welcome thing.”

  Jace caught Onima’s eye.

  She nodded minutely at him and said, “We’d be willing to arrange to get you solar panels and batteries. I think we could make arrangements to get you some food processing equipment too.”

  Cee-six and Jane looked at one another, then back to Onima.

  “If you’re serious,” Jane said, “we accept.”

  “I am.” Onima offered her hand, and she, Cee-six, and Jane shook on their arrangement.

  Kara checked her implant. “Assuming the standard work shift is daytime, it’s probably only a couple more hours until it ends. Should we head back to the ship?”

  Onima looked to Jace, and he had a feeling what she had in mind.

  “Cee-six, Jane,” Jace said, “is there any way we could stay here with you tonight?”

  7

  Onima contacted Yael. “We’re going to stay here for the night,” she said.

  “Do you want me to join you, or stay with the ship?” Yael asked.

  “Stay with the ship, please,” Onima said. “I doubt we will need a quick pickup, but I would rather be prepared. Besides, the Minotaur appears to have excellent accommodations.”

  “Yes, she does,” Yael agreed. “Let me know if you need me. Amber, out.”

  Onima looked around the room that would be hers for the night. Calling it spartan was generous.

  There was a cot. It wasn’t even a mattress—just a cot set up by one of the clones.

  Kara was in the next room of the same unit, and Jace in the third. No kitchen, no bathroom—those were down the hall, toward the center of the building.

  They were on the tenth floor, and though the tenement was sixteen stories tall, only two more floors above them were in use. The fourteenth through the sixteenth story were structurally questionable.

  The two stories above them also had no functional lavatory facilities. Since Jace pointed out that clones needed to relieve themselves far less often than non-clones, it wasn’t all that illogical.

  The clones had gotten two of six lifts functional. However, one only climbed as far as the eighth floor.

  Cee-six had explained that there was enough space for all who needed a home, and unless they had to, they had no intention nor interest in doing anything apart from reinforcing and stabilizing what they already had.

  Onima had to admit she was curious how clones lived. Spending the night among them, while a bit disconcerting, would afford her that experience.

  There were another dozen clones living on the same floor. Cee-six was among them.

  “What do you think?” Kara asked Jace.

  “Not bad,” Jace admitted. “My room is about the size of the space I called my own on the transport in Copy Slum.”

  “You don’t consider a building like this better?” asked Kara.

  “Not particularly,” Jace said. “The residents have done a lot to make it livable, and that’s impressive. It’s not so different from the way my companions and I live on Raven, but collective living probably makes certain things easier.”

  “Such as?” asked Onima.

  “Having the collective means that they pool resources,” Jace said. “Food, clothing, jobs, paying for power to the buildings, that sort of thing. Zee, John, and I are fortunate that the transport has a still-functional fusion reactor, and we collect rainwater for our lav. It’s a different perspective and approach. Better? Six of one, half a dozen of the other.”

  Onima nodded. The office they’d given Jace, in addition to his cabin on the Daedalus, were luxuries by his standards. But then, overall, clones were content to simply exist, it seemed.

  “I presume dinner will be none too exciting?” asked Kara.

  Jace chuckled. “Rations, probably. The food processing machines they want will produce serviceable rations. For the most part, that’s all clones care about. It’s not that we lack the ability to taste; we just lack desire to eat for more than just sustenance. Though that’s not to say that applies to everyone. Some of my kind developed a taste for food, after the war. The closest I’ve come to that is my affinity for coffee.”

  Kara shook her head.

  “Let’s join our hosts, shall we?” Onima suggested.

  The trio headed for the lift and rode it to the lobby.

  Cee-six and Jane were at a table with four new clones, two Tushabes and two Wangs. Cee-six waved them over.

  As the trio reached them, Cee-six said, “Marshal Gwok, Deputy Marshal Martinez, Jace, please let me introduce Dee, Hailey”—the two Wangs—“Hamlet, and Ay-Nine.”

  The only reason Onima didn’t shake everyone’s hand was because they remained seated.

  “Food and drink is over there.” Cee-six gestured. “Grab some and join us, please.”

  “Thank you,” Onima said.

  The trio made their way to the counter. The commissary was busy, with at least fifty, maybe sixty clones coming and going, with various knots and groups in conversation. Overall, it was not so different from a gathering of non-clones.

  With the exception of slight variations, there were only four or five faces among them. It was disconcerting; Onima had never seen so many clones gathered in one place as this.

  The food was hot and smelled surprisingly good. A trio of Wang clones in aprons were preparing and serving it.

  There was a beverage dispenser with water, some kind of tea, and coffee. Onima had expected to find an electrolyte beverage, though that might have been the tea.

  The trio sat with the six clones. Jace had not taken a lot of food, but had coffee. Onima grinned at him, then sampled the meal. It was unexpectedly tasty.

  “Huh,” Kara remarked after taking a bite herself.

  “Not good?” asked Jane.

  “No—very tasty, actually.” Kara gestured toward Jace. “He was telling us that, for the most part, clones only care about sustenance.”

  “Largely true,” said the Wang named Dee, “but the trio love to experiment with flavor. Today is umami.”

  “They do all the cooking and prep?” Jace asked.

  “Kay, Key, and Kai most enjoy food prep,” said Cee-six.

  “Is it impolite to ask why their names are so similar?” asked Kara.

  Jane laughed. “Not as such. All three are Batch K8 and one number apart from each other. Thick as thieves during the year they were in the war, and inseparable since.”

  Jace looked at one of the Tushabe clones. “Why Hamlet?” he asked.

  Hamlet took a drink, then said, “I have insomnia. Which, as you can imagine, is rare. To keep my sanity, I downloaded a lot of literature, including the complete works of Shakespeare. Something about Hamlet resonated with me. Since I am an ‘H’ batch, it felt right.”

  Jace nodded but said nothing further.

  Clones could function on far less sleep than non-clones. Onima wondered what insomnia for a clone amounted to. She imagined it was unpleasant.

  Cee-six said, “Dee, Hailey, Hamlet, and Ay-Nine all worked at the wellness center today and tend to do so frequently.”

  “What h
ave you been told about our mission?” asked Onima.

  “Nothing apart from the CBI being here and needing our help,” said Dee.

  Onima proceeded to explain that they were involved in a murder investigation and that during their investigation, they’d uncovered a conspiracy, learning about the clone virus and Gray and Chuang’s manufacturing of it.

  She didn’t offer too many details—apart from the company’s name—about who the conspirators might be, nor the specifics of what the intent of the virus was. She wanted to save certain aspects of that information, partly for security and partly because she didn’t feel they had much need to know.