The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  “What’s the difference between successful cloning and just plain cloning?” I asked, not as amused as Nancy with his answer.

  “When I was working as a lab technician I read a report on the first attempt at human cloning,” Jason began. I sometimes had to remind myself that before Jason Keroff was the most famous reporter in the world, he was a lowly lab technician in my grandfather’s empire. He used to help develop toxic gases that Gramps would use to exterminate the populous making it look like they’d died from a natural disaster or whatever he’d make up. (That was how Turner murdered my mother and everyone else in my trailer park!)

  Jason continued, “But every time they cloned a test subject, they’d turn out… wrong.”

  “Wrong?” George inquired. George was a science nut himself. Mention any access to secret government experiments, he was all ears.

  “Even though everything down to the cell was identical, the clones wouldn’t be all there.” Jason tapped his head for emphasis.

  “They were crazy?” I asked.

  “Crazy, mute, comatose, spastic, you name it. None of them were matches to the original test subject. And none of them were normal. None of them were even coherent. Supposedly, all experimentation stopped two-hundred years ago.”

  Bill was incredulous. “And you’d really be surprised if Turner had kept the experiments going?”

  “Not at all, but I’d be very surprised if he was successful.” Jason seemed convinced of this.

  “Well, Roberta said clones, and how else can we explain why she was twenty-something?” I wondered aloud.

  Jason pushed the idea further. “Assuming it was real and not a dream, how is Roberta alive? If she’s just a clone, she’d have no memory of you. She’d be a lab baby. And lab babies only know what you teach them. It’s not like a clone is suddenly born with all the knowledge of their donors. They’d still be babies that grow up to adulthood. Just genetically and physically identical people to the person they’re cloned after.”

  “Anyway, it was just weird,” I mumbled through a particularly large bite of sugary goodness.

  “More importantly, your dream told you to watch out for Elisha’s spies.” Nancy brought the conversation back to the very thing that disturbed me the most about my nightmare.

  Bill answered quickly, “We can spot a seven-year-old a mile away, and if she’s gained your powers, it’s not like you won’t be able to see a dead person spying on you as well.” He had obviously been thinking this one through.

  Ryan interjected, “True, but maybe she’s using people from Havenville. People we’d never even know are working for her.”

  And I thought of Max.

  Max and Eva, they were new. Maybe they didn’t come from New York. Maybe they came from Havenville and were spying for Elisha.

  I told the others about Max trying to butt his way inside my head.

  Nancy was all over it. “You should let him in next time. I mean, Max could be trying to warn you. Or if he doesn’t know he’s doing it, you could search his brain or something, find out if he works for Elisha.”

  Bill interjected defensively, “Max, fine, but Eva has been through enough.”

  “Here we go.” Ryan rolled his eyes.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Bill made forced eye contact with Ryan.

  Bill was angry.

  What a shock.

  Ugh.

  “It just means you’ve moved on to the next wounded bird.” Ryan was obviously annoyed.

  “Ryan…” I wanted to stop this fight before it got out of hand.

  “Excuse me if I have compassion.” Bill crossed his arms.

  Ryan put down his spoon and stood up to face Bill. “I don’t mind you having compassion. I do mind you turning a blind eye when this Eva could be dangerous. You don’t want to even consider the possibility that she could be working with Elisha and that puts Chelsan in danger. So, yeah, I have a problem with your compassion.”

  “Eva is not working for Elisha!” Bill exclaimed defiantly. “I’d know.”

  Pin drop.

  “Are you dating her?” Nancy broke the silence.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.” Bill looked at me to gauge my reaction. When I obviously didn’t give him the expression that he’d hoped for, his face turned from defensive to angry.

  “Has she ever asked about Chelsan?” Jason asked, stepping in before the situation became too uncomfortable.

  “Not exactly.” Bill started to squirm.

  “Spill.” Nancy gestured with her hand for Bill to confess everything.

  “Nothing. We just talked about past relationships and stuff. Your name came up. It was nothing.” Bill looked uncomfortable. He was embarrassed and I didn’t want to make it worse.

  “Why would Chelsan’s name come up in a ‘past relationship’ conversation? You two never dated.”

  Ryan.

  I could kill him.

  Bill’s stance grew rigid, like he was about to deck Ryan. “Of course Chelsan came up in a past relationship conversation: I was in love with her, she was in love with you, it sucked. End of story. Eva is cool, she’s not with Elisha. Can we drop it?”

  “It’s dropped.” Ryan put his hands up in surrender. I could tell that he felt bad. “Sorry,” he kind of half-mumbled under his breath.

  “What was that, Genius Boy?” Nancy couldn’t resist teasing Ryan.

  Ryan turned to Bill. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “I’m a dick.”

  “Duh,” Bill responded, but like the true sweetheart he was, he slowly smiled. “Just think before you talk next time.”

  Ryan saluted and that was that.

  I didn’t move for a good few seconds, waiting for the two of them to start up again.

  But both of them seemed totally over it.

  Boys.

  Until the next fight.

  “I’ll talk to Max and see what he has to say for himself.” I wanted to steer the subject away from Eva, but if Max was working for Elisha, then Eva most undoubtedly was, too. Still, I didn’t want to push Bill. He genuinely seemed happy about Eva. I didn’t want to ruin that for what might turn out to be no reason at all.

  Besides, if I was right and Jill was into Max, I didn’t want to ruin that, either.

  I never thought there’d be a day where I actually cared about Jill Forester’s feelings!

  “Let’s get to school,” Bill suggested.

  I could tell he wanted to get out of there.

  Before long we were all headed toward the front door and to Bill’s hover-car outside.

  The news was still playing on the holo-TV. I barely heard Carleton Gordan (anchorman extraordinaire and by extraordinaire I mean monotone boringness!) talking about the still-missing John Fortski as we left the house. It was kind of odd that the inventor of Age-pro was kidnapped three months ago and his family had still received no word from the kidnappers. I was starting to wonder if the guy hadn’t just left town on his own volition.

  Still. It always struck me as peculiar. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow I knew Fortski’s disappearance had something to do with either Turner or Elisha. I even asked Gramps about it a couple of months ago, but he never responded.

  I hated that my life consisted of every little thing being a possible threat. I felt like a paranoid freak sometimes.

  Better safe than sorry, I guess. I really didn’t want to be taken by surprise again. I’ve had enough surprises.

  Why would anyone want John Fortski? Sure he invented Age-pro, but the guy had pretty much stayed off the radar since then. According to Fortski, once he invented immortality he wanted to enjoy it.

  No one heard much from Fortski over the last three hundred years, until three months ago. Fortski’s holo-call to the police went viral within seconds of it happening. There was Fortski, wide-eyed and freaked, simply saying, “They’re coming for me.” Then fuzz. His home showed no signs of forced entry, but there was evidence of a struggle in his l
iving room where the holo-call was made. The investigation was still open, but I got the impression that everyone had pretty much given up on the guy.

  Except me.

  Something was off and I’d figure it out sooner or later.

  I’d only told Jason about my suspicions and he agreed to look into it. So far he was coming up blank as well. At some point I planned to interrogate my grandpa about the whole ordeal, but for now I let it go.

  We piled into Bill’s hover-car and in seconds it was up in the air, zooming towards school on hover-level five. There were seven hover lanes to keep traffic to a minimum. In an overpopulated world, traffic could be a real problem. Luckily, all hover vehicles ran on hydrogen fuel cells, so the only waste they excreted was purified water. There were water dumping stations all over the planet that used the water for pretty much everything from watering lawns to drinking water. It was a very recycled world, but it worked.

  No one had said much on the ride over. Bill and Ryan hardly fought anymore, they hardly spoke, but they had at least been civil. But the fight this morning must have caused more of a rift than was already there. Ryan had held my hand in the car, but he stared out the window the entire time, his mind on other things. At one point I thought they would be close, but when Bill had decided that Ryan was the enemy (and his one roadblock to me), it turned into a fistfight. Of course, Bill immediately regretted his actions towards Ryan when we realized that Ryan had been kidnapped by Elisha and hooked up to an I.Q. Farm computer like a comatose lab rat. But Ryan only saw Bill’s jealousy and I guess he felt defensive and insecure.

  In the distance I could see Geoffrey Turner High II. Dear Elisha had blown up the first school of the same name five months ago. The new one was temporary. Basically, the new building was an old abandoned elementary school from a hundred years ago, kind of dingy, but I didn’t mind. I grew up in a trailer park, I was used to dingy. But Geoffrey Turner High was made up of all the rich kids in the Los Angeles area and they complained daily at the conditions they had to endure by being forced into the “old cobweb-infested building.”

  The school looked like a giant rectangle from above. It was one level with over two hundred classrooms inside. Surrounded by a forest of California Oak, the building itself looked like an unwrapped present with green leafy wrapping strewn around it. Off to the side was a small clearing of dirt that served as the school’s hover-lot.

  Bill landed on the dirt floor and we all exited his car.

  “Over here!” Jill’s voice came from over at the door to the school.

  We all turned and started walking toward her.

  To say Jill Forester was beautiful was an understatement. She was one of those girls with the perfect figure, face and hair. From her giant green eyes to her long wavy black hair, she was pretty much Snow White in person.

  When we arrived at her side, she grabbed Nancy’s arm, “Joan says you aren’t going to bring Jason to the prom and that she is.”

  Nancy’s face went from neutral to furious in about a millisecond. “Is she an idiot?!”

  “That’s what I thought… at first.” Jill looked at Nancy meaningfully.

  Nancy swallowed in horror. “What do you mean at first?”

  “I started thinking about your boy and how he tends to do stupid things like agreeing to go to a dance for an interview with the daughter of Population Control’s new advisor per se?” Jill raised an eyebrow.

  “He wouldn’t.” Jill’s face had gone white.

  Jill was right. He would. It was just the kind of thing Jason would do. The boy was clueless when it came to women, and extra so when it came to Nancy. If he thought he could get an “exclusive” he’d do anything to get it. And Joan’s dad had just come into his new position at Population Control, so Jason would be chomping at the bit to interview him.

  Joan was the number one bully at Geoffrey Turner High, although before Jill and I were friends Joan was just Jill’s lackey. Jill was queen of all bullies back then, pretty much getting away with anything because her dad was Turner’s number two and that meant her family had a lot of power and sway. But after I kind of blew Jill’s dad up (literally), Jill became the lowest rung on the totem pole and took over my old role as school leper. That’s when Joan became the new Jill. She was horrible! But now that Jill was with me and everyone knew Turner was my grandpa, Joan was fast becoming the new outcast.

  I hated school politics. I left those completely up to Jill and tried to stay out of it as much as I possibly could. I just hoped Jill was wrong about Jason, not only for Nancy’s sake but for Jason’s sake as well.

  “I’ll kill him,” Nancy grumbled.

  “I’ll help,” Jill agreed. She linked her arm through Nancy’s and they led the way into the school building.

  I had to smile as the rest of us followed them inside, though I shook my head in disbelief. Jill was one of us now. I guess that’s what happens when you almost die with someone. It brings you closer together. I never thought I’d say it, but I knew that Jill Forester actually had my back and I had hers.

  Strange.

  The new/old school was the complete opposite of the previous Geoffrey Turner High. Whereas our last school looked like an 1800’s Ivy League College campus, this one looked like an over-sized trailer. The floors consisted of cream-colored linoleum squares that were stained and streaked with black dirt. There weren’t any lockers to speak of so everyone had to carry their things with them. (Not really that big of a deal since the only required item any student needed was an electronic reader.) Every door had a small rectangular window at eye-level and all seven hallways looked identical. It took me a while to adjust without becoming completely lost. I literally had to follow the numbers on the doors to find all my classes. But I didn’t mind, the school felt cozy.

  Ryan was still holding my hand, but he hadn’t said a word.

  Neither had Bill.

  Bill suddenly turned to us and waved briefly, “See you guys later,” and he was off. I glanced in the direction he was headed and quickly saw the auburn tresses of Eva over the sea of crowded heads. I was happy that Bill had finally found someone, I just didn’t want to celebrate too early in case Eva turned out to be a spy.

  And besides, there was something about that girl I didn’t like. She was cold or distant, or something I couldn’t quite describe. It was just a feeling. Maybe I was jealous. Not that I liked Bill like that, but having Bill love me for so long and then lose interest entirely… maybe it was a shock to my system. I don’t know. But since I knew I’d never feel anything but friendship for Bill, I figured I’d get over it. It would just take time.

  On the plus side, Jill appeared completely over Bill, which lightened my spirits a bit. Bill had been so flakey with her, I didn’t want her to get her heart broken. More importantly, I didn’t want to admit to myself that my friendship with Jill might be more fragile than I thought. Bill could have been detrimental to our budding bond if he had chosen to stay interested in me and not her.

  But from the look in Jill’s eyes when Max Grunter walked up to her, I could tell she was smitten. “Stalker much?” Jill turned her nose up.

  This was her way of saying that she liked him. (I know her social skills were still in bitch-mode.)

  Max didn’t even seem phased by her response. In fact, he didn’t seem to have any emotion at all. He kind of just stood there looking like a model, all intense and smoldering. “Lunch today?” he asked Jill as if they were old friends.

  Jill was so taken aback, she actually turned shy. It was pretty amusing. “Um, sure.”

  Max nodded once and walked away. As he passed me our eyes met.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  He was trying to get in my head again.

  I kept him out, but I took a step back in spite of myself.

  What did he want? I was a little freaked.

  “I need to go to the nurse,” Ryan’s voice jolted me out of my reverie.

  “Why? Are you okay?” Nancy beat me to the punch.<
br />
  Ryan massaged his head, “Yeah, just need something for this headache. I’ll see you in class.” Ryan kissed me and left without waiting for my response.

  Nancy and Jill both turned to me, concerned.

  “His headaches are getting worse. I have to call Turner,” I said in answer to their unasked question.

  Jill smiled encouragingly, “He’ll be all right.”

  “I hope so.” I watched Ryan disappear down the hall. Then I turned to Jill. “Max may be working for Elisha, so be careful.”

  “What?!” Jill’s eyes widened.

  I told her about my dream and Max’s strange attempts to jump into my head.

  Jill shook her head in annoyance. “Just my luck. I start to like someone again, and he’s probably a coalition freak working for Elisha.” She sighed deeply. “Let’s just get to Mr. Alaster’s class. I can already tell today is going to be jam-packed with craziness.”

  I had to agree with her. It certainly felt that way.

  Jill linked arms with Nancy and I and we plowed down the hallway. “Why do I get the feeling we’re headed for trouble, Drama Girl?”

  Nancy grumbled under her breath, “I’m seriously going to kill him.”

  Jill and I laughed. Nancy hadn’t heard a word anyone said since Jill told her about Joan’s claim on Jason. She seriously had a one-track mind when it came to that boy.

  “What? I am,” Nancy said defensively.

  “We know,” Jill cooed and winked at me.

  But Jill’s prediction for today still echoed in my head. I didn’t want to be Drama Girl, but inevitably I always ended up in that role.

  Oh well.

  Let’s see what Mr. Alaster’s history class had in store.

  Apparently, Mr. Alaster had nothing in store for us. He just told us to read chapters twenty through twenty-three for the whole class. As the bell rang end-of-period, my heart squeezed in worry: Ryan had never showed up in class.

  Screw it.

  As the class shuffled toward the door I pulled out my cell phone and dialed.

  It was Turner’s machine.

  Shocker.