by M. V. Kallai
“You are such a crybaby, Luke. Just fix the damn thing.”
Luke automatically brought the major a cup of coffee. It was his habit to make two cups, since he’d been making Charisa’s coffee for years.
A little later, Camden met with Rhys again. This time, Ganesh and Quinn came into the room with him and stood by the door. Aldretti, as usual, waited in the hall after exchanging a shy smile with Rita. She told them that Rhys had been quiet so far today, but somewhat responsive. She encouraged Camden and seemed to have not given up on Rhys’s chances to get better. Terry, on the other hand, clearly saw himself as nothing more than a babysitter. He had been cordial to the daily visitors so far, but showed no interest in what they were trying to accomplish. Rhys was sitting at the table, staring blankly at the wall. When Camden walked toward him, Rhys’s eyes shifted to look at him. Sheets of paper with colored scribbles covered the tabletop and Camden, once again, examined them.
“Cam, show him your picture again,” Ganesh offered.
“It’s wrong. All wrong. It can’t work like this!” Rhys screamed at the drawing Camden held and snatched it out of his hand. He then grabbed a pencil and started scribbling over parts of the drawing.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Camden reached for his drawing. Rhys held it over his head and away from Camden.
“That doesn’t go there!” he yelled, pointing at his scribble. “Do it again! Make it look like mine. This is the one that works, only this one. See…thirty-seven degrees rotates over forty-two. It needs the fluctuation…for the warp.” He held up one of his own drawings that had looked like no more than scribbles moments ago. But now, Camden tilted his head and looked a little closer. He recognized a basic underlying structure to his art.
“You’re right, Rhys,” Camden said. “Do you mind if I take yours with me, so I can do mine over?”
Rhys looked at Camden and seemed to be considering giving him the paper. Then as sudden as two days before, he started yanking at his restraints and convulsing.
“Then the monsters come! You’re the killer! The killer. Get me out!”
Camden, again, backed away quickly and Quinn ducked in from out of nowhere and quickly grabbed the two drawings that Rhys had released. Rita and Terry ran over to calm Rhys who continued to scream at Camden.
“It’s okay,” Terry said to them. “Just go. We’ll get him calm.”
“If he says anything else, we’ll call,” Rita added.
Ganesh nodded to them as he closed the door. Camden was already comparing Rhys’s scribbles to his schematic as they walked to the elevators.
“That was quite the speedy recovery in there, Quinn,” Ganesh said.
“Oh, yeah. Didn’t I tell you that I’m a runner?” Quinn answered with a grin.
“Hmph,” Ganesh said.
“I’ve got to take a closer look at these,” Camden said when they exited the elevator. He was completely pre-occupied with the papers in his hands.
“Ganesh, I’ll be in my room,” he added and left the group. Aldretti had to put a skip in his step to catch up.
That night, Andreas knocked on Charisa’s door just after dark. She answered, still in her work clothes and looking a little tired. She smiled at her hero and reached out for his hand as he came in. He kissed her on the cheek and sat down at her kitchen table.
“So what did you find out?” she started.
“Something rather interesting,” he replied. “When I went in to the hospital today for my follow up, I inquired about our mysterious nurse. I told the administrator that I wanted to thank her in person for attending to me, but I didn’t know her name.”
“Uh huh.”
“So, she let me look through the directory and I couldn’t find her.”
“And you are sure you remember what she looked like?”
“Yes. Don’t you? Short black hair, blue eyes, tall, skinny.”
“Yes, I remember. She was quite lovely,” Charisa said with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Trust me, she is not in the directory.”
“That is interesting. And with Luke on the casualty list… What could it all mean?”
“I don’t know. I’m wondering that myself. Were you able to access Major Magner’s personal files?”
“Yes, most of them, but there was nothing that stuck out. If he is hiding something, he is keeping it somewhere else. But, I did find something today that I think you’ll find interesting.” Charisa said, opening a small portable computer. Andreas looked at the page full of programming language in front of him, and then looked back at Charisa.
“What am I looking at?” he asked.
“Here,” Charisa said pointing at a section of the work. “It’s a message. In programming language it means nothing, so I ran it through a pattern detection program, and it is an encrypted message…from Luke.”
“Whoa! Are you serious? What does it say?”
“It says. ‘Working. Top Secret. Magner. Sorry. Cannot Call’.”
“That’s amazing! So, you were right about him,” Andreas said and grabbed her hand in his. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before.”
“I forgive you. But now that we know what we know, what do we do about it?”
“Well, his message doesn’t sound like he is in any danger. Maybe we shouldn’t do anything,” Andreas said.
“The world thinks he’s dead. I doubt he volunteered for such a project. Luke enjoys his social life too much to choose that kind of position. I think he’s in trouble, even if he doesn’t know it.”
“So, what do you want to do?” Andreas asked.
“I don’t know. I guess we should just keep our eyes and ears open for anything out of the ordinary, for now. I bet he is somewhere in TRU, if Major Magner sees him everyday. I can hack the system for the building plans and see if we can narrow down the places he might be. You should keep looking for that nurse. I bet she knows something,” Charisa said. Andreas just smiled at her.
“Come on. Let’s go sit outside. It’s a beautiful night,” he said, not wanting to talk anymore about conspiracies that were probably nothing more than Charisa’s imagination. Maybe Luke did want to be involved with a top-secret project, even if he could not convince Charisa of that tonight, but he would stay with her again if she asked.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Collaboration
A week later, Tripple Laboratories had become a place of information sharing between Lee, Dana, and Bearden. Previously locked doors were opened and an honest dialogue between Dana and Bearden replaced their usual banter. They were both grappling with the morality of Lee’s future hopes for the genetically altered embryos. Especially since the biomer sheet wombs were allowing them to thrive and the next phase, which involved cloning with gene alterations, was likely to happen.
Bearden’s government notes were now also part of the shared knowledge in the lab and today, he was giving a demonstration to Dana of the work he had done with the catalyzing agent.
“How did you do that? Dana asked with an awe struck look on her face.
Bearden blushed a little and held up the combination of biomer and fungal agent, so they could both examine the phenomenon. The biomer began to wiggle and spread out over the fungus, absorbing it while making covalent, molecular bonds.
“Fascinating, isn’t it? And the really cool part is that once it is set into a final shape, it senesces, and is regenerative if damaged. Could you imagine if we could re-grow limbs that easy?”
“Well, it isn’t too difficult to imagine, animals do it all the time,” Dana said. “Do you know if the biomer will combine with human cells? I would love to test that.”
“Wow. I think someone has been spending too much time with Lee Tripple. You are starting to think like him,” Bearden replied.
“Or…maybe I was hired because I think like him.”
Bearden raised one eyebrow at her and set down the glass case holding the biomer.
“Well, I’ll admit, that scares me a lit
tle.”
Dana laughed out loud and Bearden grinned, feeling proud that he amused her. The clock on the wall caught his eye.
“Oh, it’s late! I have to go. There’s a weapons briefing with the general today…in a half an hour. He leaned across the bench and kissed her on her forehead, then hurried out, pausing at the door to glance back and give Dana one last smile. She was momentarily stunned by the gesture.
“Go,” she said, motioning him out of the room with her hands. “Don’t blow your cover.”
Bearden’s face flashed guilt and discomfort. He was still reluctant to admit to himself that he was a spy. Dana bit her lip as she watched him go, wishing she hadn’t joked about his predicament. He was a good soldier and a great scientist. She believed that Bearden would have never intentionally volunteered for what he was doing. He just had rotten luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Twenty-five minutes later, Bearden arrived at the TRU Building and hurried into the first floor conference room. Sitting around a large table were General Pike, Colonel Talper, Colonel Cline, Major Magner, some soldiers from the weaponry unit, Charisa the programmer and two of the lead biomachine handlers. Colonel Ganesh was also there without his secretary, Sergeant Quinn, who had become somewhat of a fixture at his side. Bearden was apparently the last at the meeting to arrive, because as soon as he sat down, the general spoke.
“I’ve called this meeting today to discuss the future of the weapons program involving the biomer. Now we all know that this last month has hit us with a couple of snags in the program. Lives have been lost and new safety precautions in our training procedures have put us behind schedule. But I still believe that this initiative can be a success.”
Bearden scanned the room as the general made his little speech. Charisa was wide eyed and looked frightened. Ganesh was like a stone. One of the handlers folded his arms and sighed while the other rolled his eyes, and Mace looked as evil and eager as ever.
“Now, in a few minutes,” the general continued, “we will conference in the heads of government, the director of the military, Alan Fitzhugh, and the regent of the civil government, Alister Gowen. But before we do, I want updates from everyone in this room on their progress with making the biomachines war-ready in under six weeks. And they had better be positive reports.”
It seemed no one in the room wanted to speak. Everyone traded glances with one another and a few whispers broke out. Mace, Ganesh, and Pike all seemed to be looking at Bearden, like he should have the magical answer. In a way, he did. He had been charged last week with identifying all the separate sources of raw biomer material in the botany genetics lab based on genetic similarity. Since Camden had shared with General Pike his theory about biomer recognition occurring only between units created from the same raw material, Bearden had naturally been placed in charge of grouping the remainder of raw material into ‘families’.
Finally, Bearden took the cue and stood up. He knew that whatever he said would be taken for fact and he had a feeling that Ganesh wished him to speak out against the success of the project.
“I have discovered in the lab, four separate sources of the biomer. If each biomachine can be categorized into one of these four ‘families’, then the likelihood of recognition between them is reduced…by how much, I cannot say,” Bearden said.
General Pike and Major Magner smiled at each other and Ganesh scrunched his eyebrows at him.
“But,” Bearden continued, “This diagnosis is based on the assumption that recognition only occurs in families. It could be something species based, in which case recognition will occur one hundred percent of the time.”
Ganesh smiled at this answer.
“You will test both of these scenarios in the coming weeks, Sergeant Leitner,” General Pike ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Bearden said and sat down.
Charisa was the next to stand and Mace gave her a threatening look.
“I…um…” she hesitated, distracted by Mace but then cleared her throat and looked straight at Colonel Ganesh. “I just wanted to report that I have developed a signal amplifier for the handlers. My hope is that the extra power will override the biomachines desire to ignore their programming.” Charisa held her breath and waited for a response. Mace Magner had given her a direct order not to focus on the amplifiers but she felt sure that someone in this room would stand by her decision.
“You were told to focus on the programming glitches and not work on amplifiers. How dare you stand there flaunting your disobedience!” Mace yelled.
“What amplifiers?” Colonel Cline asked, seemingly interested. “And why wasn’t this option brought to our attention?” He directed his second question to Mace who was fuming.
“Amplifiers are unnecessary and too costly. The biomachines are programmed to recognize and eliminate danger…handlers are guides, not battle strategists. Amplifying controls puts the human element back in the forefront and will make the biomachines less efficient at their job,” Mace said.
“Sounds like it may be more than that, Major, from your tone,” Colonel Cline said.
Mace grumbled to himself deciding how to respond. General Pike let him off the hook, even though he would have liked to know about the amplifiers earlier, too.
“Charisa, thank you for the update. We will take your development under advisement as a back up to the programming. How are those glitches, by the way?” Pike asked.
“Sir, there are no glitches. I have triple and even quadruple checked the work,” she replied.
“Well, maybe you are just missing it!” Mace said. “Sir, I suggest we let some other programmers look at the work.”
“I agree. Charisa, assign the top people on your team to look for errors,” the general said.
Charisa nodded and sat down, biting her lip so she wouldn’t start crying. Cline and Talper broke off into a private whispered conversation as Pike looked around the room waiting for anyone else to offer information. No one did. Ganesh had fixed his eyes on Charisa. The obvious restraint in her expression led him to think she might know more than she let on. He had received a letter from her two weeks ago requesting a meeting with him that he had purposely ignored, but now, seeing her in person, deeply conflicted, he began to reconsider. Ganesh decided he would have Maeve reach out to her. With her abilities, she could make quite the ally.
The phone in the center of the table rang, bringing everyone’s attention back to General Pike.
“Ahh, the director and the regent,” he said and hit a button so everyone could hear.
“Hello, General Pike, Gentleman, Ladies.” The voice of the director came booming through the speakers.
“Hello, Director Fitzhugh,” the group said in an uneven chorus.
“Director, Regent,” General Pike said, assuming command of the conversation. “I have some updates on the biomachine initiative that I think you will be most pleased with.”
“That is welcome news, however, a decision regarding the future of the program has already been made,” the regent said.
“Oh?” said General Pike. The whole room suddenly became very alert.
“We have moved your initiative to a ‘Plan B’ scenario,” the regent continued. “Ground troops from other units are being placed on call for combat.”
“You promised me more time!” Pike boomed.
“And you will still get it. Finish out your developments and if your program is solid and error proof in five weeks or less, we will change our plans again. For now, everyone should just keep doing what they are doing. We’ll be in touch.”
Pike picked up the phone so the room could no longer hear them.
“And if it isn’t perfected by the end of the time frame?” Pike asked in as low a voice as he could, after he turned his back to the group.
“If it isn’t, your unit will be shut down and the basements filled with cement. We’ve seen the security footage and we are not happy,” the director replied.
Pike ended the call and turned
back to the confused looking group.
“Well, you heard them. Let’s all get back to work. There is a lot at stake here,” Pike said, ending the meeting.
“Mace, you stay behind.”
Bearden and Ganesh, not meaning to, exchanged a look of worry, then exited the room going in separate directions.
“We have to move now with the test drop in Tyrine,” General Pike said when the room was clear.
“Okay. I’ll get Sergeant Leitner to identify unrelated biomachines, starting today.”
“How long will that take?”
“An hour…a day…I don’t know,” Mace said.
“Let’s start with the Phase two Units and when you find the ideal pair for the trial attack, get Charisa to put those amplifiers on the controls.”
“Are you sure about…”
“Yes. I’m sure. I don’t understand what your problem is with that girl but you need to get over it. Unless there is something you aren’t telling me.”
“I just don’t trust her, sir. Why were there no security cameras on her office during that disaster? And who was that nurse with them that Luke talked about?”
“Look, we’ve beefed up security down there as much as we can and I have good people looking for this ‘nurse’ of yours. But let’s let them handle it. I need you to make sure our test drop with the biomachines goes down exactly the way it’s supposed to. Our unit depends on it,” General Pike said. “So let go of your preoccupation with Charisa and do what you’re told.”
“Right…What do you mean, ‘our unit depends on it’? Are you saying that we are going to get shut down? Is that what they said to you privately on the phone a few minutes ago?” Mace asked.
“Just make sure those biomachines work as they were intended and let me worry about the director and the regent,” Pike answered.
“Yes, sir,” Mace said and left to find Sergeant Leitner.
The next night, Camden Riles was escorted to the supper club for his first weekly dinner with Lee Tripple. He could have gone the week before, but Lee was unable to leave his lab work at that particular time. Camden felt put off by it, but he was still eager to see his friend and discuss with him the strange meetings with Rhys Krell. And, it would be nice to see Enira. When he called for the elevator, his military escort stepped back. The doors opened and the attendant was surprised to see him there.