Odyssey_Double Helix

by R. Patricia Wayne

  When Amy nodded, Miriam returned to her room. She didn’t care what Miriam wanted to know. At this point, Miriam was the only person on the planet that was willing to help her. And that made her a real friend. And Amy was ready to share her entire life story with her, if she asked.

  Nearly ten minutes later, Miriam returned with two mugs of coffee. She handed one to Amy as she returned to her chair.

  “What did you want to know?” Amy said. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  Miriam sipped from her mug before saying anything. “You have any idea why the Department of Science assigned me to Guardian Securities?”

  “No,” Amy replied. “I didn’t even know you worked for the Department of Science until you told me earlier.”

  “I was the DoS’s analyst assigned to study the protectorate. We weren’t studying their weaponry, efficiency, and technological means, like the protectorate thought we were. I was there to learn how they operated so I could be a resource for Guardian Securities.”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “I’m telling you this for a couple of reasons. For one, I still have friends in the protectorate. And I know how they operate. More importantly, I’m at Guardian to interface with them. I’m the bridge between the government and them. Which means, I know all the secret government programs they’re working on.”

  “You mean, you know what Cord does at Guardian?”

  “Yes,” Miriam said, “but he doesn’t know what I do. Since everyone who lives in this subdivision works for Guardian, I’m sure he knows I work there. He may have even seen me from time to time. And he probably thinks he’s some hot shot because he works in a top secret research wing. But everything he does—everything he works on—everything gets compiled into reports and they all pass by my desk. I don’t know every tiny detail of everything he says and does, but I’m privy to his entire operation. And as soon as day breaks, I’m going to make some calls to Guardian to fill in the blanks.”

  “You’re going to get him fired?”

  “Not at all.” Miriam paused to sip from her steaming mug. “He’s actually very good at what he does. No, I’m going to prove a working theory I have. Amy, I think I know what’s going on here and I’d bet money he’s bringing his work home with him now.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “I know, Amy. I know. I’m purposefully beating around the bush. Let me ask you some questions, if you don’t mind. Before I start spilling government secrets, I need to be fairly certain this is what I think it is. Okay?”

  Amy nodded, then she sipped from her mug. She hadn’t noticed until just this second, Miriam had mixed some chocolate in with her coffee. She liked it.

  “Tell me,” Miriam began. “How many times has Cord taken at least three days off work? For any reason.”

  “Well,” Amy paused to think for a second. “We took vacations the first few years after we got married. He was off a week each time.”

  “I meant alone. Not with you. Has he ever taken three days off work and went somewhere by himself?”

  “Not for as long as I’ve known him.”

  “Right. I suspected as much. Tell me about your accident.”

  “I almost drowned in the pool.” Amy pointed to the swimming pool behind Cord’s house. “Right over there. Do you need to know how it happened?”

  “No.” Miriam shook her head. “When that accident happened, were you unconscious for any length of time?”

  “I was in a coma for a couple days. Or so they said.”

  “Hunh.” Miriam looked into the air for a moment, as if she were piecing something together. Based on Miriam’s last question, Amy sensed that something else happened when she was in the hospital. Something she didn’t remember.

  “I wasn’t in a coma, was I?”

  “Not so fast,” Miriam said. “Possibly. It’s just another piece to the puzzle. It seems to fit.”

  “Are you suggesting something happened when I was in the hospital? Something I can’t remember?”

  “Hold on.” Miriam waved off Amy’s question. “Tell me. Was going to Dr. Carson your idea or his?”

  “His.”

  “That makes sense, too. Now, answer me this. I’ve heard the way Cord talks to you, so I know he doesn’t have any respect for you. But what does he think about your smarts. He knows you read books, but does he think you’re intelligent?”

  “No. He thinks my books are childish. He says I’m stupid.”

  “Holy shit! This is all making perfect sense now.”

  Amy turned her lounge chair to face Miriam.

  Miriam rose from her seat and paced in front of Amy, tapping a pink fingernail against her cup as she walked.

  “Listen up,” Miriam finally said. “Forget everything you think you know about Cord for a few minutes. Regardless of what you think you know, your husband has had this day planned for quite some time. As far back as your accident, if not further.”

  “What planned? I’m not following.”

  “Does Cord ever mention me?” Miriam pointed at her own chest. “Does he ever talk about me at all?”

  “If he talks about you, it’s only to tell me to stay away from you. I think he hates the idea of me making friends, and that makes you a threat.”

  “And what does he think I do at Guardian?”

  “I don’t know.” Amy shrugged. “The way he talks about you, he’s not afraid of you. He doesn’t act like you’re important.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Miriam paced in silence for a long moment. “You know what cyborgs are?”

  “I guess so,” Amy said. “You mean robots, right?”

  “No, robots would be entirely mechanical. Cyborgs are like combining human and computers to simulate a human being. Organics and robotics, if you will. Amy, what I’m about to tell you is highly classified, so you can’t repeat any of it, okay?”

  Amy nodded.

  “Quick history. Many years ago, Guardian began a project to create robots, but their scientists could never get them to mimic humans well enough. They’d train them for ages then take them into the real world for testing. Guardian quickly discovered that the real world was more complex than a robotic mind could handle. They were clumsy. They’d talk in circles when they had no scripting to follow. They couldn’t use their own judgement to differentiate between historical facts and conspiracy theories, truth and lies, or between jokes and the real stories people tell. One simple unexpected variable while walking across the street, and they’d stop in the middle of traffic. They frequently had to have their databanks erased, and Guardian would start over with them. It was a real problem at the time, but not anymore.”

  “They fixed the problem?”

  “Oh yeah,” Miriam gave Amy a nod. “The way I heard the story, there was a chance meeting between Dr. Janis Webb and some brilliant person from outside the company. I don’t know who. He gave her a completely new way to simulate the way the human brain works. And this breakthrough in artificial intelligence has since solved all Guardian’s problems. Now, their cyborgs are very, very real. They can do anything humans can do. Anything. Cooking, conversation, sex, tell jokes. No one can tell they’re cybernetic constructions. Not anymore.” Miriam gestured toward Cord’s house. “Your husband is project lead for a government funded cybernetics project. It’s highly classified. The government is interested in Guardian mass-producing cyborgs so real they could take the place of the protectorate or the rangers, or do jobs too dangerous for humans. That’s what your husband works on all day long. I’ve heard they’re testing them in the real world, and from the reports I’ve seen, people haven’t even guessed the prototypes are machines. They are that good.”

  “Why does it matter what Cord’s working on? What do cyborgs... wait... are you saying...”

  “You’ve seen Cord’s work for yourself.” Miriam pointed into her house. “Earlier tonight. After dinner.”

  “That woman?”

  “Yes, that woman. She looks so mu
ch like you, she could be your twin. Didn’t you notice?”

  “No.” Amy looked at her old home. How would that even be possible? The woman couldn’t have been a machine.

  “Amy, you were staring right at her. Out the kitchen window. Remember?”

  “I just saw she was wearing my clothes and doing my chores. I guess she sort of resembles me.”

  “Either you have a twin or she was created in a lab. I know this seems impossible, but trust me, the technology your husband works on makes this very possible.”

  “I don’t understand. How could she look like me?”

  “Looking like you is the easy part. Replacing you, well, that’s the trick.”

  “But, how? She couldn’t be me.”

  “Yes, she can. She’d be exactly what you are. What I mean is, if she’s a cyborg who’s meant to replace you, then she’s already been programmed to think, act, and even dream just like you do. Everything that makes you who you are has been duplicated, or mimicked, and then transferred to her. And what makes them so fascinating is that when Guardian is done with a cyborg-this woman in particular-she’ll even believe she’s the real you. Everything is a perfect duplication; every dimension is precise; all the way down to your lady parts. Right now, somewhere in the back of her mind, I’m sure she wants a kitten.”

  With her heart racing, Amy protested. “She can’t possibly do all the same things I do, or remember all the things I remember. Like how Cord likes his shirts folded, his slacks pressed a certain way, or his coffee waiting for him by 7:00.”

  Miriam shook her head as she continued to pace. “You were hospitalized. What was it? Seven? Eight months ago?”

  “Eight.”

  “And your marriage was already in the toilet when your accident happened. Was it not?

  Amy nodded.

  “The only way this could work is to have you submit to the procedure. There are laws that must be followed, papers that need signatures, and once you give your approval everything becomes like an assembly line. But, I doubt those involved in the real world tests are getting the proper paperwork filed. It would sort of blow the whole secrecy angle, wouldn’t it?

  “Then how could he have done it?”

  “It’s not a quick process, and it requires a lot of specialized scanners, which you would have remembered. Instead, you had an accident that placed you in a coma for a while. And I’ll bet your husband capitalized on what must have appeared to be a lucky happenstance. You didn’t authorize it and he didn’t ask you. He used his position and your coma to create his perfect housewife. That’s when the procedure took place. And that also means, she won’t know anything that’s happened to you in the last eight months. She’s you, but with an eight month memory gap. And that’s your only advantage here. Shit, Cord’s an even bigger asshole than I thought he was.”

  “But...” Amy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was this all true? It was bad enough that she’d been replaced, but it was an even greater insult to think Cord hated her so much he created a machine to replace her. “But, Miriam, I get that she can know what I know, but you’ve seen that woman for yourself. She doesn’t act like a machine. She acts like a real person.”

  Miriam sat down next to Amy again. “And you don’t understand how advanced this technology already is. That’s precisely why it’s being kept a secret for now. Yes, it takes time to build a cyborg. And due to recent events, the time frame appears to be eight months. In any case, when Guardian is done, these things look and act exactly like real people now. They are a layer of flesh and blood over a mechanical chassis, then programmed by mapping the victim’s brain, which gives them the same personality. Then they implant all the real memories of the victim. This is exactly what happened to you while you were in your coma.”

  “I— I still think this is some kind of mistake. She’s real, Miriam. Cord’s had affairs before. I know.”

  Miriam stood and began pacing again. “Okay, Amy. Humor me for a minute. Let’s look at this logically. I happened to know Guardian is already field testing prototypes of their cyborgs, so this is a very real program. Now let’s run this up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes. Let’s start by assuming that it takes eight months to build a cyborg. You with me so far?”

  Amy nodded.

  “If this is so, then it logically follows that your husband would know this fact. He is project lead, after all. Agreed?”

  She nodded again.

  “So, some more facts. Eight months ago, you had an accident. You go to the hospital. Cord gets called. He meets with the doctors and they tell him you’re in a coma. And we already know at the time Cord was unhappy at home. Even if he hadn’t thought about replacing you before, at that moment, he surely would have seen the perfect opportunity to replace you with one of his prototypes. So again, the man has motive, means, and opportunity.”

  Amy didn’t buy all of this yet, but she continued to entertain the theory. Miriam was like a detective in a novel, or a prosecutor in a jury trial. If Miriam wasn’t so fascinating to listen to, Amy would’ve probably been in tears by now. Instead, Amy sensed that perhaps Miriam had a solution to this problem, and was slowly getting to it.

  Miriam continued. “So, fast forward a few months. Assuming he’s working on replacing you, and since he’s the project lead, he’d know precisely when his clone will be ready. How? Because once it’s finished, he can store it away and then roll it out anytime he wants. He can just pick a day, any day. And that’s the day the fake Amy will be activated. And why is it important that he knows the precise day? Because he has to have an alibi for his plan to work.”

  “Alibi?”

  “That’s right. Once he’s picked out the date to replace you, he’d be forced to make another decision. How to replace you. How to dispose of you. And it’s obvious to me now, that this is what he did. He picked yesterday as the day. Only he knows how long ago he decided to do it, but in order to give himself an alibi, he took three days off work for a conference out of town. Convenient. And a good alibi, ‘cause all he has to do is been seen there a couple times over a period of three days.”

  “Oh.” Amy’s heart sank. How could he do this to her? What had she done to warrant murder? All she wanted was to make him happy.

  “But, that’s not all,” Miriam continued. “Then he set up how to get you out of the house for a while. You told me that it was his idea for you to start seeing a therapist, but that was all a charade. You did as he asked, but then he made a big deal out of it, saying he couldn’t take you, loud enough so I could hear it. Whether you went on your own, or I took you, he didn’t care. He needed you out of the house for a while. And he knew you’d go because he told you to do it.”

  “Why?”

  “For appearances sake. You couldn’t be there when he brought home his new Amy. He didn’t want anyone to see both of you at the same time when he came home. There’d be questions, especially if one of you turned up missing at a later date. So, Cord took off, picked up his fucktoy from Guardian, and brought her home while you were at your appointment. Then, for the final part of his plan, he had a surprise waiting for you when you returned home. I believe he had an ambush planned, and you were the intended victim. If I had to guess, he was going to toss your ass into the pool again.”

  “Cord would?”

  “Amy, he was going to kill you yesterday! Goddammit, he’s not going to get away with this!”

  “Wait,” Amy said. “He would never kill me. Or would he? I don’t know anymore. I’m too confused to make any sense out of this.”

  “Think about this for a moment.” Miriam sat down beside Amy again. “It was a complete accident that we even saw that cyborg yesterday. If she wouldn’t have got the mail, we wouldn’t have seen her. Did you notice she ran back and forth?”

  Amy nodded.

  “Exactly. She didn’t want to be seen. What if you would’ve went home without knowing she was there?”

  Amy shrugged. The woman running could have been
a coincidence. While it was true that Cord was very capable of beating the living shit out of Amy, she couldn’t imagine he’d resort to cold-blooded murder. Accidentally killing her during a beating, sure, just not premeditated murder.

  “Consider this,” Miriam continued. “For her to successfully replace you, there can’t be two of you. And Cord would know that. If she was meant to replace you, then she’d have to assume your identity, And there can’t be two Amy James’ in the world. He would have to erase one of them. You!”

  “Was he really going to kill me?”

  “I think so.”

  “No.”

  “Amy, Yes. You know he’s capable of it.”

  It took Amy a couple minutes to weigh what Miriam had said. She was forced to agree with her logic. She could think of nothing else that explained everything that had happened in the last few days. Or months.

  “Okay,” Amy finally said. “I believe you now. But, what do I do about it? If you’re right, then even if I don’t go home, he’ll have to hunt me down. And this is the first place he’ll look.”

  “I know,” Miriam replied. “So, since he doesn’t know that we’re already onto his plan, I think we should take advantage of this, while we still have the element of surprise.”

  Finally, the moment Amy had been patiently waiting for. Miriam did have a solution to her problem after all.

  “Please tell me,” Amy said. “I really do need your help.”

  “Answer me a question first. Even if you never get Cord back, do you want that cyborg to go away? Yes or no.”

  “Does that mean you’re not going to help me get Cord back?”

  “I can’t make him love you, Amy. Truthfully, I don’t want him to do anything but drop dead, but since he’s not inclined to do that, I can only help you deal with that woman. So, again, do you want that cyborg to go away? Yes or no.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, if you want my help, you need to understand how serious this is. We both could be in a lot of trouble if this goes badly. On the flip side, if it goes really well, no one will know but me and you. No one can ever know what we did. Not ever.”