Trifecta

by Pam Richter

  "You're not hurt," Eve said. "Ferd did an EEG. To test your brain waves."

  "How?"

  "Tiny electrodes were attached to the epidermis of your scalp. It doesn't damage you."

  "With needles?"

  "Yes. Tiny needles."

  Sabrina remembered her dream. Evidently she had been partially awake, or at least conscious enough for her mind to incorporate a frightening occurrence into a dream.

  When they went back into the living room, Mark had the pizza on the living room table and was watching a quiz show on television.

  As Eve took her first bite of pizza a look of total astonishment came over her face. She closed her eyes and held the pizza in her mouth for a long time. Sabrina heard her make a little noise from her throat, like she was supremely pleased. She smiled at the pure look of bliss on Eve's face.

  The extent of Eve's knowledge became apparent as they watched television. She gravely answered questions on marine mammals, geography, physiology, playwrights and politics. She was correct on every query except those dealing with modern language usage and the names of current rock groups.

  "We could put you on the game shows and make a mint," Mark commented.

  Or put her in a food eating contest, Sabrina thought, watching Eve daintily devour her seventh piece of pizza.

  "Can I have more?" Eve asked Sabrina.

  Sabrina nodded and Mark mentioned that he could order another. He had purchased a giant and it was rapidly disappearing. They exchanged quizzical looks.

  "I have a fast metabolism, identical to yours Sabrina, which requires lots of food. I also have other biochemical processes, such as the healing, that require an abundance of calories. In fact, Ferd said I might never grow up. I mean age. Get old. So he was looking for a copy specimen that would not be aging."

  Sabrina had never considered herself a specimen and thought she had aged quite a bit in the last few years, but maybe someone as old as Ferd would not have noticed. He had looked like he was in his early seventies. Sabrina was twenty-eight, although she usually appeared younger than her chronological age. And Eve, in Sabrina's opinion, looked even younger because she did not have the little wrinkles one acquires through life.

  "Either we have to pass you off as twins," Mark said, "or make you look as different as possible. Until the men who threatened to kill Sabrina have been dealt with."

  "Plastic surgery on Eve would be impossible. She would heal as quickly as they tried to change her."

  "Safer to change Sabrina," Eve said after as she swallowed a bite. "If they tried to kill her, they would really be killing me, and that's not so easy."

  "Maybe keeping us alike would be best," Sabrina said. "They would be afraid of terminating the wrong one."

  "No. Too dangerous. I would survive. You wouldn't, Sabrina. I don't know about bullets, though. If enough damage was done, the body might not recuperate fast enough to live. But that's not important."

  "Yes it is, Eve," Sabrina said.

  "What do you want to do, Eve?" Mark asked. He took the T.V. remote and turned off the sound.

  "I don't have wants."

  "What did Ferd tell you to do?" Sabrina asked.

  "Take care of the body. Obey him. Learn to act like a female human. Don't hurt any creature unless I am threatened."

  "Do you know if the things he told you were programmed into your brain?" Mark asked.

  "I don't know if that's possible," Eve said.

  "I don't understand about Ferd's connection to the men who wanted to kill me," Sabrina said.

  "He was angry at them for their intention to kill you. They helped Ferd by furnishing the raw material to make me."

  "Could you recognize them?" Mark asked.

  "Yes. By their voice prints. I see them in my mind. Like a pattern on a graph. Those two men came and saw me once, but I didn't look anything like Sabrina then. And I didn't bother to look at them."

  Mark was silent for a moment. "Well, we'll have to talk to Ferd right away. Make him promise to protect Sabrina."

  "I really liked Ferd," Sabrina commented. "I never would have conceived he would dope me up, and keep me all day to make Eve."

  "I'll go speak to him, right now," Mark said.

  Sabrina nodded and smiled at Mark, but she was thinking that her life would never be the same again. People already wanted to kill her. And even if the killers were neutralized somehow, Ferd would want to take her and Eve to scientific meetings all over the world. Probably want blood and tissue samples from each of them. They would be on constant scientific display.

  "Take me with you," Eve said as she finished the last piece of pizza. "I'll be able to hear if Ferd is alone from the street. Also, I can protect you. The gun men might try to hurt you to find Sabrina and me. I could physically render them incapable of violence. Beat them up."

  Sabrina and Mark glanced at each other and cracked up at Eve's obvious seriousness. She looked very fragile. The idea that Eve could hurt anyone seemed preposterous.

  Eve watched their laughter with interest. She was not blinking.

  Mark got himself under control first and looked at Eve, "You mentioned you watched a lot of television?"

  "I'm much stronger than I look. I need not hurt them badly. Put them out of commission for a while," Eve wiped her hands daintily on a napkin. "Then we would have time to figure out how to save Sabrina. I know Ferd wants Sabrina alive, to prove scientifically that I'm copied to her and have a computer. Since the other two men want her dead, they want me for another purpose. Possibly something illegal."

  Mark got up and gave Sabrina a hug. "Lock the door and bolt it, Sabrina. Don't let anyone in."

  Sabrina watched Mark and Eve walk to the elevators, staying behind the almost closed door, thinking, That's what Mark and I look like together. Pretty nice, even if I am taller. Mark's dark coloring, with his black curly hair and slightly hooked nose set off Eve's delicate blond looks in an interesting contrast. It set Sabrina's mind to thinking that they would have beautiful babies. She and Mark. Not Eve and Mark. She wondered if Eve could have children. She would ask. She didn't think anything could embarrass Eve.

  Sabrina sighed and closed the door, feeling wistful and a little lonesome. It was fun having someone around who looked like her and seemed to know what she was thinking. Almost like having a real relative. Ferd would probably want to take Eve back immediately.

  * * * * *

  Jack, the doorman, seeing Eve and Mark together as the elevator landed in the lobby said, "Hi, Sabrina. Mark. You two going out tonight?"

  "For a little while," Mark said smiling at Jack.

  Jack, who was in his early sixties, plump and bald, watched the couple walk to the garage elevators, slightly envious of their youth and good looks. He enjoyed seeing happy young couples and it saddened him to see them this way. Sabrina was not smiling and holding Mark's arm. She looked serious and different. They must have had a terrible fight. Jack watched them enter the elevator for the garage and clucked sadly to himself.

  Mark drove in uncomfortable silence. Every time he glanced at Eve, he saw her face immobile, no expression whatsoever, staring at him. She had forgotten to blink and he did not know why, but her concentrated attention was making him nervous. She watched every move he made and had no problem staring directly at his crotch.

  Mark kept reminding himself that this was actually happening, not a science fiction movie. The person next to him might have been an alien from another planet for all her similarity to Sabrina. She was just as beautiful, but inhuman and untouchable. He thought the whole experience was eerie.

  Eve pointed out Ferd's Tanning Salon and they parked directly across the street. Mark turned off the motor and they sat silently looking at the darkened building. Mark glanced around the street. It was very quiet. There were a couple of parked cars, but they looked unoccupied.

  "Do you hear anything?" Mark whispered.

  "No. But there's light in Ferd's living quarters above the tanning salon."
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br />   Mark gazed up at the second story and could see faint light haloing the closed black curtains. He had a nervous premonition that getting out of the car would be a bad mistake. "Take my arm and act like you're talking to me."

  Eve took Mark's arm, holding his bicep with her hand. He moved her arm so that it looped his in a more normal fashion and they walked to the corner and across the street. They began moving toward the dark recessed doorway. It was very cold and Mark shivered. It might be nice not to have to feel hot or cold. But maybe it would be lethal. Eve could stay outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, unaware she was freezing to death.

  Eve suddenly stopped dead, head cocked to one side. Mark tried to pull her along. Whatever she was made of, it was certainly heavier than Sabrina. Tugging Eve was like was like trying to move a large, firmly rooted tree.

  "Come on," Mark whispered.

  "They're up there."

  "Who?"

  "Ferd and the other two."

  "We'll come back another time."

  Eve took hold of the door knob and twisted it.

  As Mark asked, "Locked?" he heard a crunching noise. The doorknob broke off in Eve's hand. A shrill, excruciatingly loud alarm pierced his ears.

  "Oh, no," Mark moaned, but no one could have heard him.

  Eve walked into the darkened tanning salon, and was heading behind the front counter to a stairway beyond.

  CHAPTER 3

  Eve turned around at the top of the stairs, gesturing for Mark to stay back. The door in front of her opened. A triangle of light ran down the stairs and Mark jumped out of the way as the light slid toward him. The alarm was still shrieking. Mark saw a head peek out of the doorway, looking around tentatively, with a frightened expression. The door opened wider silhouetting an old man with white hair like a cloudy halo around his bald domed head. The head looked enormous on the fragile, thin body.

  Who's there?" The man shouted. He looked around myopically until Eve moved directly in front of him. A smile lit his face. "My computer!"

  The old guy was Ferd, Mark thought. The man who had made Eve.

  As Mark stood in the darkness at the bottom of the stairs he saw Ferd jerked out of the doorway. Another man stood in front of Eve. He was tall and stocky as a bear with dark, slick, wavy hair. He had an enormous walrus-like mustache. He grabbed Eve's shoulder, pulled her into the room, and slammed the door. Mark thought she must have let him do it, or else the guy was strong as an ox.

  Mark walked uneasily up the stairs and knocked tentatively. Nothing happened. They couldn't hear him over the wailing alarm. Mark knocked harder and pushed on the door, leaning against it. It flew open unexpectedly and he almost fell into the room, windmilling his arms and legs forward to keep his balance. He was halfway across a small living room before he could stop.

  Mark turned around and saw Ferd in the middle of two enormous dark men. Both were frowning at him and appeared menacing and dangerous. Especially as one of the men held what looked like a real gun. Mark thought the two must be brothers. They were burly and dark, with wide receding foreheads and beaked noses. One had a walrus mustache and was a little taller. The other had grey streaking his black hair and appeared a few years older than Walrus Mustache. They made Ferd, standing between them, look like a dwarf.

  No one could talk because the alarm was so piercing, so Mark tried to smile ingratiatingly, feeling utterly stupid. They probably thought he had broken in. No one would believe someone as fragile looking as Eve could have done it. Now the gun was pointed directly at him, a unique and terrifying experience.

  The man with gray hair wiggled the barrel of the gun toward the sofa. Mark obediently went and sat down. He watched as Ferd and Walrus Mustache left the room to turn off the alarm. Eve was standing still as a rock by the doorway, her eyes moving back and forth from the man with the gun to Mark. Except for her eyes she could have been part of the furniture.

  Mark gazed around the small, sparsely furnished living room. There was a high-backed couch and two comfortable flowered wing-back chairs on either side of a round coffee table. Thousands of books lined all the walls on bookshelves from floor to ceiling. The smell of old paper made Mark feel like sneezing and produced a dark claustrophobic aura.

  Abruptly, the sound of silence was almost deafening. Mark's ears were ringing, trying to fill the sudden void. The alarm had been turned off. Mark started to stand up to explain what had happened to the gray haired man. As he did so, he saw Eve moving with amazing swiftness. The gray haired man had quickly pointed the gun at Mark, when he got up. Eve's movement across the room was so fast that she blurred. She viciously kicked Gray Hair on his left shin.

  Mark heard a crunching noise, very much like the sound when Eve had twisted off the doorknob downstairs. He almost wished the siren was on again when the large man screamed in agony. Eve calmly kicked his other leg. The man shrieked, 'Help' and collapsed.

  She broke both of his legs, Mark thought, stunned. Better than karate. Then Eve kicked the hand that still held the gun and it flew across the nubby carpet and slid under the couch. The other two would be back very soon, but he thought Eve could handle Walrus Mustache. Still, it would be better if he got the gun in case there was some misunderstanding about the break-in.

  The man Eve had kicked was writhing in agony in the fetal position, his arms protectively around his broken shin bones. Mark felt sorry for him, he sounded so pathetic. He was numb with shock at Eve's ferocious behavior.

  Mark heard Ferd and Gray Hair enter the room just as he knelt by the couch to get the gun. He looked around. Ferd was shaking his head in what looked like profound sorrow. He turned to Eve, "I told you never to hurt anyone." He sounded like he was admonishing a child.

  "He pointed the gun at Mark."

  I don't believe it, Mark thought, scrabbling around for the gun. She thought the gray haired man was going to shoot me and broke both of his legs. It was unbelievable. His fingertips finally touched cold hard metal.

  Danger made Mark's brain pessimistically active. The alarm would have alerted the police and they would probably be arriving shortly. That would be a disaster. Breaking and entering, for one thing. Then assault. Breaking two legs would definitely be considered an attack. He decided they should leave as quickly as possible. Luckily, no shots had been fired, but you could count the kicks that Eve had made as an assault with a deadly weapon, even though she had misguidedly been trying to keep him from being shot.

  "We'll be leaving now," Mark said to Ferd, as he got up, guardedly holding the gun pointed down at the floor. "We didn't want to cause trouble. We want your help in protecting the girl you cloned this computer to. We'll keep the computer, until you can prove that my friend will be safe."

  Ferd did not respond, he was looking at the man with the broken legs sadly, shaking his head.

  "You can come with us, Ferd," Mark said. "These men might hurt you. They wanted to kill my friend to keep the computer a secret."

  Mark started walking to the door, pointing the gun at Walrus Mustache, who was barring the way out. They were separated only by the body of the man with broken legs, who was still lying on the floor and groaning.

  "Move out of the way." Mark motioned with the gun.

  "You can't take the computer."

  Mark kept inching slowly toward the door, around the man lying on the floor. He was surprised that Eve went along with him. In a way, he had hoped he could leave her here.

  "No bullets in that thing."

  Mark involuntarily looked at the gun, knowing even as he did so that he was making a serious mistake. Walrus jumped toward Mark, chopping at the arm holding the gun. Ferd was yelling, No, No, No, and waving his arms in agitation.

  Mark didn't even think of firing the gun, but it was apparent that Walrus was going to attack him, so he tried to protect himself by swinging the gun. The man ducked sideways. Mark tried to stop the arc and velocity of the heavy metal when he saw what was going to be happen. It was impossible to avoid hitting Ferd, who was st
anding behind Walrus. He heard a sickening crunch as the gun hit Ferd's head. Ferd crumpled to the floor.

  "Oh, God." Mark looked down at the old guy. "I am so sorry."

  The Walrus was now upon Mark and seemed to go berserk, punching Mark in the face and neck. Luckily, the man was so blinded with fury that he was pretty ineffective, because he outweighed Mark by at least twenty pounds. Mark stood there, unable to defend himself because of the horrible realization that he had accidentally pistol-whipped an old man.

  Eve ended it all by walking over and composedly kicking Walrus in the shin. She had no expression on her face and showed no effort when she broke his leg.

  Now there were three bodies on the floor.

  "Should I break the other one?" Eve asked Mark.

  "No! Lets get out of here." Mark hurried to the door and pulled it open.

  "Wait," Eve said. "Ferd's dying."

  The old man gasped, choked horribly, and then stopped breathing. He was lying totally motionless. Ferd's face turned an unhealthy shade of grey and seemed to ooze perspiration. Mark watched as Eve knelt beside Ferd and started mouth to mouth resuscitation. Both of the men lying on the floor stopped groaning and watched Eve alertly.

  "Dad?" Walrus Mustache said.

  Mark crouched down beside Eve and took hold of Ferd's wrist to feel for a pulse. Dad? Was Ferd the father of these two thugs? Mark held the fragile wrist and felt carefully, but he couldn't discern a flutter of movement.

  Eve continued to work on Ferd. She blew in his mouth for a couple of minutes and then started thumping on his chest. Mark was afraid for the old guy when Eve started the thumping. Now he knew how strong she was. He remembered laughing when Eve said she would put the thugs out of commission.

  "I haven't done this before, Mark," Eve said. "But I read about it."

  Great, Mark thought. This whole incident was a total fiasco. He should have stayed in the car. They would probably be in jail soon.

  "You're going to kill him," Walrus Mustache said angrily.

  "I'm being very careful." Eve started blowing in Ferd's mouth again.