by M. V. Kallai
“Ahh, Professor Riles. What a pleasure. Come on in and I’ll take you right up,” he said.
“Thank you, Clarence, it’s good to see you, too,” Camden said and stepped inside.
“Dr. Tripple is already here. I’m sure he will be most pleased to see you, sir.”
Camden stepped off the lift to gaze at the beautiful and finely dressed Enira. She had her hands outstretched as soon as the doors opened. Camden took her delicate hands in his and leaned in to greet her with a kiss on the cheek, their customary public greeting. Enira was smiling from ear to ear, but Camden saw that she was fighting back tears.
“Professor, it is so great to see you back here.” She took his arm and squeezed in close to his side.
“It’s great to be back, Enira. I trust all is well with you, and the club.”
“As well as can be expected…under the circumstances,” Enira said looking into Camden’s face with such seriousness that he realized she was trying to tell him something. Camden glanced around the club and saw a few unfamiliar faces and realized her intention. He patted her arm with his free hand and nodded so she knew he understood. The club was no longer a place where matters of utmost privacy could be discussed. That was okay for tonight. What Camden wanted to discuss was no matter of secrecy.
Lee stood up from the table when he saw Camden. The men greeted each other with slight hesitation. Even though they were both happy to see one another, the last time they were face to face had been upsetting for them both. Camden had forgiven Lee for his blatant insensitivity in regards to Ari’s death and hoped it wouldn’t put a damper on the conversation this evening. A minute after Camden was seated, a glass of his favorite scotch was served to him along with a plate of freshly shelled nuts and cheese.
“It’s good to be back,” he said and raised his glass to Lee.
“Yes. I agree,” Lee said and sipped his tea. “But be careful, Cam, these walls have ears.”
“Oh good, you know about that.”
With Lee not being one for small talk and Camden just happy to be relaxing in a familiar atmosphere, they sat in comfortable silence for a while. After they ate a fine dinner, they began their conversation, jumping right into the topic that had been occupying Camden’s mind for over a week. He would not talk about Rhys or the space travel project here with spies lurking, but he could share an outlandish idea with his peer.
“Lee, I want to talk with you about the brain’s perception of time.”
“Oh? How do you mean?”
“Assuming time does not exist, but even so, we understand it as being linear, I’ve been considering that the events we perceive in life to be sequential, may not be at all,” Camden said.
“Interesting idea. So in that respect, this conversation could have already taken place, but our minds are only perceiving it here, in this present moment,” Lee replied.
“Exactly. And possibly, everything that has ever happened, or ever will happen, takes place in one instant, but its just too much information for our brains to take in, in that instant. Like a pebble dropping into a lake, the splash it makes represents every event and all things in a person’s life, but our brains need to absorb the splash by rippling outward. So the ripples moving out from the splash are giving us the information a little at a time. Our minds can then experience each event in a sequence. As we move away from the initial splash, the ripples expand, and each expansion represents our collected memories, our past.”
“Okay, so you are wondering why the brain prevents us from seeing the whole splash as opposed to trickling the information,” Lee replied.
“Well, I guess, but that’s just the thing. Maybe there are some who can see the whole splash, or can jump from ripple to ripple. So that things in the future are recognized to them, as memories; seeing life out of sequence.”
“So, it would seem, in your wild theory, that those using only a small part of their brain, which is considered normal, would perceive life in a sequential order. But if someone had the ability to use a larger portion, or even a different part of the brain, life in sequence could become life in chaos. Perhaps with insanity,” Lee said, and then sat quietly, staring at the wall thinking of how this odd idea could be tested in his lab.
While Lee was contemplating and mumbling to himself, Camden was impressed at how quickly Lee related his idea to clinically crazy and thought about Rhys and his scribbled pictures. They roughly resembled his own drawing of the space-bending machine he’d dreamed up. How Rhys had recognized it, recalling it from a dream, knowing Camden’s drawing was flawed. And the things he said haunted Camden, ‘the killer’ and ‘then the monsters come’. He had been to see Rhys everyday since Quinn swiped his drawings and his words were always the same. Even Terry had become fascinated with the consistency of his message to Camden.
Enira broke the silence at their table. “Is everything alright, Gentlemen?” she asked softly, placing her hand on Camden’s shoulder. Camden put his hand on hers and looked up and smiled. Lee scowled at this gesture, wondering if this was their normal behavior and he had just never noticed it before.
“Everything is fine, Enira, and dinner was excellent,” Camden replied. “We were just having a moment of silent reflection, but I can see from your expression that it must be time for me to go. Did you get a call?”
“I did,” she replied. “This must be so hard for you, to not have your freedom…” She bit her tongue and quickly glanced around realizing she shouldn’t have said that. Camden laughed out loud, stood, and kissed her hand. He did not care if his situation was known, that was for Mace and the general to worry about. He turned to Lee who was looking quite rumpled.
“Always a pleasure, my friend,” Camden said to him, holding out his hand. Lee stood and shook it.
“And never a dull conversation,” Lee replied. “Until next week, then.”
Camden nodded and Enira walked arm in arm with him to the elevator.
Earlier that day, Ganesh sent a cryptic message to Maeve that only she would understand. After his wife went to bed that night, he sat alone in his dark kitchen waiting for her to arrive. He was going to ask for her help in finding out what Mace and General Pike were up to, and he also needed her to get into Tripple Laboratories. He had access codes from Camden to help her in. She would have to go there anyway, to get Camden’s payment from the lady at the desk. He would also confess to her that he was waging his own internal war against the Daxian government by working to disable their biomachines. This was risky since Maeve’s last assignment left Naja Pinure, an internal spy for Tyrine, dead. Not that Maeve cared about the politics, she was strictly for hire, but it was always a risk to admit to someone that you have turned into a traitor. Maeve approached Ganesh in the darkness, ready to make her own traitorous confession.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Possibility
The next afternoon, Ganesh called for Sergeant Bearden Leitner. Bearden assumed he had a message for him to pass on to Lee, which gave him a good excuse to spend another evening at Tripple Laboratories. Sergeant Quinn answered Ganesh’s office door, as usual, but Bearden was surprised to see Camden Riles sitting in the office too.
“Ahh, Sergeant Leitner, come in. How are you this afternoon?” Ganesh asked. He seemed to be in a particularly pleasant mood today.
“I’m fine, sir. Thanks for asking. Hello, Professor Riles,” he said. Bearden felt uncomfortable in this group because he was still unsure about his feelings toward Colonel Ganesh and he was afraid that his double dealings with Major Magner were written all over his face. Not to mention, Camden Riles made him nervous. The last time he saw him, at the press conference, he seemed a bit off his rocker. So, Bearden just stood there waiting for instruction. He noticed drawings spread out on Ganesh’s desk. They looked like they were done by a child but Camden was studying them with the deepest interest. Maybe he was completely cracked up.
“I’ve got a letter for you to deliver from our good friend Camden, here,” Ganesh said. Ca
mden looked up at Bearden and gave him a snide smile. Bearden walked over and took the letter from Ganesh.
“Put it in your pocket now,” he said, “Any chance you can make a special trip to see Lee before your next scheduled shift?”
“Actually, sir, I can go now. I’m finished here for the day and Dr. Tripple always has plenty that needs to be done,” Bearden replied. Camden looked at him for a moment with interest. He wondered what Lee was working on these days and felt a ping of jealousy that this young sergeant knew and he didn’t.
“Ok then. Great! That’s all, Sergeant,” Ganesh said. Bearden saluted and left, saying bye to Quinn on his way out.
Bearden went home first to change into civilian clothes and eat something before he went to Tripple Laboratories. When he took off his jacket he was shocked to see his name on the outside of the envelope Ganesh had given him. He thought it must surely be a mistake. The envelope was thicker than usual and there it was, clear as day, written on the outside.
For Sergeant Bearden Leitner Only
Unsure that it was truly for him, he shrugged his shoulders and figured if it wasn’t, and he read it, it would be an honest mistake. He opened the envelope to find a second envelope, along with a letter addressed to him.
Sergeant Leitner,
It is of utmost importance that you deliver the sealed envelope to the ‘lady at the desk’ at Tripple Laboratories. Do Not Read It. And do not tell Dr. Tripple about it. Tell the lady at the desk that it is from Camden Riles and that it is urgent. Then walk away.
Professor Riles deeply appreciates that you allow for him to maintain discreet correspondence with his colleagues.
Sincerely,
Colonel Samuel Ganesh
“Yeah right, Professor Riles appreciates it,” Bearden said. He stared at the second sealed envelope for a moment, his curiosity rising. “Nah, not worth it,” he said and finished getting dressed.
When Bearden arrived at Tripple Laboratories, he did exactly what was asked of him and the lady at the desk seemed relieved and nervous at the same time to get a letter from Camden. He passed through security and into the main lab to find it mostly quiet and dark. The embryos pulsed inside of their biomer wombs all around the tables and soft classical music was playing. He walked by and the faint orange glow from heat lamps placed on the floors around them, gave them an eerie appearance. They were getting so big.
He heard noise coming from the surgical section of the lab and walked in to find Dana sticking a needle in her arm.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Oh, hey, Bearden, I uh…wasn’t expecting you. Just pretend you didn’t see this,” she said.
“Well, too late for that. What’s going on here?” he asked, looking at three empty blood vials and a row of specimen containers lined up on the metal table in front of her.
“Well, if you must know, I’m supplying Lee with some new tissue and blood samples…for the project.”
“What if he ends up cloning you…with severely altered genes…are you alright with that?”
“It’s kind of in the job description, Bear. If you’d had a proper interview you would know that.”
“Maybe that was in your job description, but donating your own body to the lab…I think more people in the lobby that day would have looked freaked out, if that was mentioned as a requirement in their interviews.”
“You mean like you are looking at me now?” Dana asked.
“Yes…I mean, no…well, it is a little weird.”
“I am doing what needs to be done. That’s all. And if you were seriously committed to this lab, you would be rolling up your sleeve and drawing your own blood,” she said.
“I think I’ll wait till I’m asked,” Bearden said and Dana laughed.
Just then, Lee rushed in with his hair looking disheveled and fidgeting like he had ants in his pants. Dana pulled the needle out of her arm and stood up.
“Lee, what’s wrong?” she asked.
“Not wrong. I’ve found it. The weakness. I can destroy it with gene interference. If the memory capacity of the cells cannot function, it acts more elemental than biological,” Lee said.
“That’s incredible,” Bearden said assuming he was talking about the biomer.
“Yes. It is. If I can harness the memory gene, isolate it, and bond it with human tissue…”
“Then memory transfer of clones is possible! You won’t even be creating clones, you will be…creating immortality!” Dana said. A chill ran through her body, and not the good kind.
“Precisely. Let’s get started,” Lee said.
“What? Now? Just like that? Don’t you want to get a message started for Camden and Colonel Ganesh? Do you realize you may have just saved humanity from the horrible weapons that I am responsible for? I mean, just because you can maybe bring people back from the dead, doesn’t mean we should let people die,” Bearden said.
“But think of the test subjects,” Lee mumbled. “No, no. Of course that isn’t a rational idea.”
Dana crossed her arms and tried not to look disgusted.
“How will you disable the biomer? And what weapons?” she asked. Bearden answered first.
“There are humanoid weapons, hundreds of them, built out of biomer, catalyzed to grow and programmed to think,” he said. Dana’s mouth gaped open. “They are, unfortunately, flawed. When two or more are together, they recognize each other, we think, on a cellular level. When that happens, they ignore their programming and just start killing. Already, there have been two tragic accidents at the unit. Soldiers have died,” Bearden said.
“So, this is your big ‘top secret’ stuff that you wouldn’t tell me before. Well, I’ll admit, it is terrifying. And of course you feel responsible for those deaths,” Dana said.
“Yes,” Bearden softly replied.
“Well, this explains a lot. You’ve been coming here to escape your guilt. Because you think that helping Lee will give you some sort of redemption,” she accused.
“Maybe,” he answered.
“So, how does it work, Lee?” Dana asked.
“I can infect the bonded biomer with a gene code that works like a virus, spreading to all the cells, finding the memory transfer passageway and blocking it, disabling it’s functionality,” Lee said, glad that Bearden and Dana had stopped their yammering to pay attention to his breakthrough.
“Genius!” Dana said.
“I know,” Lee replied.
“This will change everything at the unit. The biomachines can be controlled,” Bearden said. Dana rubbed his arm and he smiled at her.
“Um…that isn’t true,” Lee interrupted. “I have observed a second effect of the virus code. Of course, much more testing needs to be done and maybe the links between the genes can be broken…of course…that takes time and …”
“Lee!” Dana cut him off. “What are you saying?”
“The virus code breaks the bond to the fungus that acts as a promoter for the biomer growth.”
“But the growth has already taken place. Does it need the fungal material once it is in its final form?” Bearden asked.
“Apparently, yes. From what I’ve seen of it, the biomer is extremely adaptable, but when it bonds, it changes. It becomes reliant on what it has bonded to. Take away the bond and the biomer dies.”
“Like setting a caged animal loose in the wild. It can’t survive,” Dana said thoughtfully.
“Yes. Exactly. So, your ‘catalyst’ is not actually a catalyst at all. The fungus and the biomer develop a symbiotic relationship. The fact that growth is promoted by the bonding of the two organisms is just a coincidence, but after the initial bonding, neither the fungus or the biomer can survive without the other,” Lee added.
“Hey, Bear, are you okay?” Dana asked. Bearden was leaning against the table like he was using it to steady himself. He looked frightened.
“Yeah, I just need some water. I’ll be right back,” he said and left for the kitchen. Lee hadn’t noticed a
nything strange about Bearden’s reaction and continued explaining to Dana the details of the virus code. Dana listened, but wasn’t fully committed to concentrating on what he was saying. She was wondering what was going on in Bearden’s head and was tempted to follow him and find out.
Bearden sat at the table in the kitchen with a glass of cold water, thinking about how he would break this news to Major Magner. He was not going to be happy and Bearden would suffer for it. His weapons program would be shut down, one way or the other. After seeing those soldiers killed, he now wanted to grab the virus code and run out of here, to disable all the biomachines while they were still chained to their cement cells. But Major Magner would most certainly kill him for that. He’d have to move into the lab with Dana and hide for the rest of his life. But, Bearden still felt bound to his military duty and would continue to do exactly what he was asked, by both his superiors, Major Magner and Colonel Ganesh. Following orders was the only way he could keep his sanity in his multiple liaison roles. It allowed him to not have to take real responsibility for his actions. He sat alone with his thoughts for another ten minutes, then returned to the surgical area, where the conversation between Lee and Dana was still going on.
Meanwhile, Maeve Daire had entered the building fully disguised as a frumpy older woman with graying hair and wrinkles. She was speaking with the lady at the desk in a false voice. She pretended to be the head of a charitable organization, picking up an extremely large donation that Camden Riles had made…anonymously. The lady at the desk, having received word about this from Camden less than an hour ago, in the letter delivered to her by Sergeant Leitner, had already begun making arrangements for securing the funds. They were to come from a personal account Camden had opened years ago at the urging of his wife Rosa, when they began to gain extraordinary wealth. Rosa wanted to provide scholarship money to young scientists for their research endeavors and Camden was happy to oblige her. When she died, the account sat useless, until he struck up a friendship with Lee Tripple, who was then probably the most famous scientist alive.