Unraveling Conspiracy (Forgotten Fodder Book 3)

by MJ Blehart

  “Something like that,” Jace said. “That’s why Jacobstad Affordable Space Transport was a cheap service. They probably pay their clones in food, clothing, and shelter—which is a lot cheaper than employing a non-clone pilot.”

  “Medics get a similar treatment,” Onima realized.

  “Yes,” Jace agreed. “And as such, they tend to live apart from the rest of us.”

  “And the rest of you are the majority,” said Kara.

  “Exactly.”

  Onima took a deep, exasperated breath.

  “As you know,” Jace continued, “while we can grow and learn, there are limits to our capabilities due to the motivational inhibitions we were given. We should check with Cee-six, but I would bet that there was no discernable pattern, initially, as to when a clone got sick, nor how many got sick at a time, which would have masked the connection to the warehouse.”

  “Which we made,” Onima finished, “because we have the whole picture.”

  “Exactly,” Jace agreed.

  Kara grunted. “You would think that the clones who did contract the virus would have known if they were injected with something.”

  “Why would you make it that obvious?” Jace gestured at Kara. “You have a tracking chip you can implant by touch. But more than likely, the virus was given to them via food and or water. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were sometimes offered ‘bonus’ pay in the form of a ration bar. If they don’t eat it for a few weeks or traded it to another clone, that would make the connection to the warehouse even less obvious.”

  “Damn,” Onima said. “From the inside, random clones suddenly getting sick and dying a few here, a few there, raises an alarm—but not much beyond that. And since there is nowhere for you to turn for help, all you can do is watch.”

  Jace added, “And since we know that part of clone programming includes motivational inhibition to prevent rebellion, we get upset and frustrated about it but also just accept it as what is.”

  “So this is a dead end,” Kara concluded.

  “It looks that way,” said Onima.

  “Maybe they just moved to a different warehouse,” Jace suggested. “And maybe the operation was not just here.”

  “We should check out the rest of the warehouses in this complex,” Onima said.

  “That’s a good plan,” agreed Kara.

  After a final sweep of the warehouse, Jace, Onima, and Kara made their way to the hovervan. They explored the other five warehouses of the complex. While all were abandoned as well, at least three of them seemed to have different purposes, given what remained. Kara hadn’t needed to break their lock codes, as Onima’s CBI master key code did its job.

  The last might have also been a lab, but it had obviously been abandoned for longer than the others.

  Jace felt that the day had been largely wasted. But it was better to know than not.

  They returned to the tenement and arrived just after the last shift’s workers returned.

  “Find anything useful?” asked Cee-six.

  “No,” Onima replied, offering nothing further.

  “Fortunately,” Cee-six said, “Hailey got what you wanted.”

  “That’s great news,” Jace said.

  “Why don’t you grab some food and join us?” Cee-six offered.

  Jace, Onima, and Kara joined the line to get food. This time, Jace decided to sample what the trio had prepared.

  Cee-six again sat with Jane and Hailey, but none of the others were there. Jace, Onima, and Kara joined them.

  “Careful,” Jane remarked to Kara and Onima, “you might develop a taste for enhanced rations.”

  Kara chuckled. “I have spent so much time in constant motion that I have practically lived off ration bars for weeks at a time. Enhanced, though, are a definite improvement.”

  “You are a curious pair,” Cee-six caid. “I have never encountered non-clones who showed anyone of our kind respect, let alone brought one along with them absent of any sort of indentured servitude.”

  “For the most part,” Onima began, “prior to meeting Jace, all my encounters with clones were indirect. Getting to know Jace, I have come to see him—and, by extension, the rest of you—as just as human as anyone else.”

  Jane tilted her head. “Is that so?”

  “I agree,” Kara said. “Even during the war, when I worked with clones as part of my service, we hardly interacted.”

  “Do you actually care what becomes of us?” asked Cee-six.

  “Yes,” Onima said without hesitation.

  “Look,” Jace began, “this started out as a murder investigation. That led to something much bigger, and that something involves our kind. If Onima and Kara didn’t care, they would have dropped it rather than be here and still investigating.”

  Jace had, of course, omitted that the conspiracy involved toppling the AECC, but that wasn’t important to this audience. He felt it was much more necessary that they gain the trust of Cee-six and the local clone community.

  Hailey slid five datacards across the table toward Onima and Kara. “This is it. All the data you wanted and more.”

  As the two CBI agents gathered the datacards, Onima said, “Would you like us to take the info off these and then return them? I know resources like this tend to be scarce.”

  Hailey made a dismissive gesture. “Not necessary. Turns out, most of the wellness center staff just discards these rather than reuse them. I think, to some degree, they know we tend to take them for ourselves—and I think they couldn’t care less.”

  Onima nodded, then asked, “Can you tell me what I’m going to find on here?”

  “Sure,” Hailey said. “Full blueprints of the wellness center, as well as the physical plant below. Communications logs for the last six months, patient manifests—though it lacks more than basics on everyone, as that system is secure. Also, there’s a listing of every type of procedure they offer.”

  “Does that include the more controversial and less legal ones?” asked Kara.

  “Oh yes,” Hailey said. “And there are quite a few more of those than any of us had ever considered. They offer several types of DNA recombination services, non-binary sex reassignment, DNA splicing, and at least a half a dozen cybernetic implant options that are sketchy as all get-out.”

  “What kind of clientele do they serve?” asked Kara. “Everyday people? Wealthy? Poor?”

  “Far as we could tell, mostly well-to-do,” Hailey replied. “At least, for these not necessarily legal procedures.”

  “Non-binary sex reassignment,” Onima mused aloud.

  Jace knew that some people had no gender identity. Male, female, non-binary – but that had no impact on Jace and his life. All the clones, as far as Jace knew, had come from either a male or a female. Whereas sex was biological, Jace understood that gender was not.

  He also knew that it was possible, via surgery, to switch sex from male to female and vice versa. But he couldn’t fathom what non-binary surgery might involve.

  “What is that?” he asked Onima.

  “Very controversial,” Onima replied. “Rather than a sex reassignment, it’s a genetic alteration to remove either sex. It’s technical, and complicated, and as far as I know, rather dangerous. And unlike sex reassignment, it’s irreversible. But I can’t say I understand it.”

  “But Teru would,” Jace said.

  Onima looked at him and grinned. “Yes. Yes, they would.”

  “You have a plan?” Kara asked Onima.

  “I do,” Onima said. “I need to send Yael back to the Daedalus. She’ll need to retrieve Teru and bring them down here. They are the key to the whole plan.”

  “You’re going to have to trust them with a lot,” Kara pointed out.

  “I think we can,” Jace said.

  “I think so too,” Onima said. “If everyone will excuse me a moment, I need to get on the comm and make some arrangements for tomorrow.”

  9

  After another night in the clone tenement, O
nima drove the hovervan with Kara and Jace back to the private spaceport.

  Once they reached the East Emerson Yacht Club, they found Teru at the terminal, waiting. They were dressed in a rather fancy outfit: non-descript but colorful robes. It looked rather pricey.

  Teru sat in the back with Jace. “Lovely to see you all again,” they said.

  Onima started driving to the wellness center.

  “You understand the plan?” asked Kara.

  “I’m no stranger to field work,” Teru replied. “Though it’s been a while since I have played this kind of role.”

  “How deeply do you get into it?” Jace asked.

  Teru chuckled. “If I hadn’t loved technology like I do, and the job I have with the Bureau, I could have been a great actor. I have credentials, a fake credit history, and some other bits and pieces I created last night to make Teru Smith from Mars look suitably impressive.”

  Onima chuckled.

  “Out of curiosity,” Kara said, “what are your thoughts on such a...procedure?”

  Teru shook their head. “Foolish. Sex is the genitals you were born with, while gender is a social construct. Why anyone would feel the need to remove their ‘sex’ is mindboggling, frankly. But I pass no judgment here. To each their own.”

  Onima had never given it much thought. She had always thought of herself as female, which was the sex she was born with. She didn’t have an opinion about how others identified their gender. It was a personal matter that, in her mind, didn’t matter.

  “Given the inhibitions created for clone-kind,” Teru went on, “I am rather surprised clones maintain gender identity.”

  Jace shrugged. “I think that’s just part of the clone templates. Rojas and Tushabe were male. Wang and Yeager were female. Removing gender identity while creating the inhibitions and other brain programming changes was probably an unnecessary complication. And yes, in answer to what I suspect might be your next question, I have always identified as a ‘he,’ and all the clones I know identify with their sex as their gender.”

  “You are quite the interesting study, Jace Rojas,” Teru remarked. They changed their tone, clearly doing an impersonation of some sort, and said, “Fascinating.”

  Onima had no idea what Teru was referencing.

  Teru sighed. “So many great ancient references lost on you Philistines.” They clucked their tongue. “Is it truly that rare for clones to speak to non-clones?”

  “Oh yes,” Jace replied. “Apart from being given instructions or questioned by law enforcement, clones don’t talk to anyone. Unlike the local collective, in my experience, we even hardly talk to one another. But then, we were created to fight a war, not to be communicators.”

  Teru clucked their tongue again. “Humans learn to make clones of themselves, but ignore the consequences when their creation no longer serves its function.”

  “We are an odd lot,” Kara said.

  “Teru,” Onima began, shifting to the mission at hand, “I presume you can keep an open comm with your implants, yes?”

  “Yes,” Teru replied. “And yes, I’ve got a scrambler that will keep the frequency untraceable, so nobody will know I’m being monitored. And if they have a scrambler in place, it won’t faze my implants.”

  “You hope,” Kara said.

  “Feroz has a few, limited implants,” Teru said. “But that’s why he wore glasses and carried various infodrives on him.”

  “I’ve always thought it was impolite to ask people about implants,” Kara said.

  “Strange social conventions,” Teru said. “But in my position, it’s important that I know. Three of the cryptanalysts under you, Marshal Gwok, have implants. But they’re minimal compared to what Deputy Martinez and I have.”

  “Datacard embeds?” asked Jace. “Comm embeds, that sort of thing?”

  “Exactly,” Teru agreed.

  Onima checked the digital map. “We’re almost there. Teru, I’m dropping you off like the VIP you are at the front door.”

  “I thank you, madam,” said Teru with an heir of pomp and self-importance.

  Onima glanced back as Jace tossed himself over the seat in the back. She appreciated that he wanted to remain well hidden.

  They reached a private roadway marked by an attractive sign for Whole-Body Holistic and Medical Wellness, Ltd. Onima drove the hovervan down the roadway, noting the large facility ahead. To the right and left were parking, and the roadway curved into a patient/client drop-off.

  Onima stopped, and Teru disembarked. As they entered the facility, Onima started moving again.

  She tuned into Teru’s comm, allowing it to play over the van’s speakers.

  “May I help you?” someone asked Teru.

  “Yes—I have an appointment. Teru Smith?”

  “One moment,” the receptionist said. “Ah, yes, Mx. Smith. Please sign-in here, and I will buzz you into the waiting area. Dr. Gerber and Ms. Nazari will be with you shortly.”

  “Thank you,” Teru said.

  Onima switched off the speakers, saying needlessly, “They’re in.”

  “Now it’s our turn,” Kara said.

  Driving in the opposite direction from which they had come, Onima circled around toward the back of the facility.

  As the clones had told her, there was a loading dock at the back and a roadway in. But there was a fence blocking the way. Onima found a spot to park the hovervan, and she, Jace, and Kara climbed out.

  They made their way to the gate. Onima withdrew her monocle wearable and wrapped it over her ear. Kara input the code the clones had provided, and the forcefield dropped. The trio went through as Kara restored it.

  “So far, so good,” Jace said.

  At the loading dock just ahead, a clone was waving to them. It was, Onima recognized, Hailey Wang.

  The trio reached her.

  “Good timing,” she told them and passed them each a badge. “These are guest badges. Look sufficiently confused, and anyone you come across will point you in the right direction if you get caught.”

  “Thank you,” said Onima.

  “We’ll keep an eye out for you if you get into trouble,” Hailey went on. “But there’s not a lot we can do, mind you.”

  “Thanks again,” Jace said.

  Hailey nodded, then keyed open a door.

  Onima led the trio inside. She activated her monocle wearable, which brought up the map of the wellness center. She noted where they were, and where Ms. Nazari’s office was in relation.

  Onima turned on her comm, listening to where Teru was and to determine if they had Ms. Nazari’s attention. Glancing at her chrono, the appointment should have just begun.

  There was background noise of conversations, but Teru was not saying anything or being spoken to.

  “Teru,” Onima said subvocally, “are you still waiting?”

  “Mmhmm,” Teru replied. Even the wealthy, it seemed, still waited for doctors.

  Onima turned to Jace and Kara. “Teru is still waiting to be seen. Let’s move—but stay sharp.” She again checked the map, carefully moving down the hall.

  She also looked up to see if there were obvious surveillance devices in the ceiling. Apart from her wearing the monocle, none of the three looked all that remarkable. Except, of course, for Jace, being a clone in an area where there weren’t other clones.

  As they made their way through the halls, Onima heard across the comm, “Mx. Smith?”

  “Yes,” Teru replied.

  “I am Diane Nazari, and this is Dr. Pat Gerber.”

  “A pleasure to meet you both,” Teru replied.

  “Please, follow us to my office,” Dr. Gerber said.

  “Thank you.”

  Onima turned the comm down. She glanced over her shoulder and said, “Teru is in. Let’s move.”

  With more purpose, Onima led them to Ms. Nazari’s office. It was locked.

  Onima could have had Kara use her implants to get them in, but she was already holding her datacard. Onima hoped the n
ew lock hacks that Teru had provided were equal to or better than those from Feroz.

  It was only a few seconds before the door opened.

  Onima led Kara and Jace into Ms. Nazari’s office. It was a rather large space, with three desks and a small lounge area featuring a couch and some comfortable-looking chairs.

  Wordlessly, the trio spread out. Onima went to the main desk, Jace to the one behind. Kara rifled through the drawers and cabinets of the third.