In Stone Vol. 1-6: The First Six Travis Eldritch Problems (A Travis Eldritch Problem)

by Jennifer Vandenberg

  Jet sat back at his desk. “Harry and two of him are being targeted by four of him.”

  “Jet, are you speaking Gregos? What does that mean, two of him, four of him? Do you mean his family?”

  “No. I mean his clones.”

  I let go of the chair to cover my eyes and slid to the floor. Jet stood up and looked down at me.

  “Don’t bother. I’m just going to lie here a while. Why don’t you explain the clone comment?”

  Travis. You are not dumb. You saw Henry, Harold, Harvey, and Hank yesterday. You saw Harry today. They are all the same.”

  “So clones, not brothers.”

  “He said so. He said there are eight of them.” Jet paused. “I am sorry. There are only seven now.”

  “Harriet was a clone.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do I need to explain that Harriet was a dame? How is she the same as the fabulous five?”

  “I do not know how cloning works. Do you? It would seem that whoever is creating these clones can make men and women.”

  “And then sell them.”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “It would appear that four of the clones don’t mind.”

  “Yes. The group has a variety of personality traits. Perhaps the cloning process is not perfect.”

  “And did I hear that Harry has no Problem?”

  Jet grinned. “That is what he said. Are you envious?”

  Since I was lying on the floor because I was too weak to stand up I would say yes. “So these clones are valuable because they have no Problem. Nothing makes them vulnerable.”

  “I think so.”

  I slowly sat up and felt my strength coming back. It reminded me of our current problem. “Jet, I feel for this guy, he’s in a bad situation. But we cannot guard him tomorrow. I never know when I’m going to be a statue and you do know when you are going to be twelve feet tall. In this case, it’s tomorrow.”

  “We have to help him. I thought we could find out if there was someplace safe where I could spend tomorrow. Maybe in one of the hotel rooms so I would be available if needed.”

  “You really like this guy.”

  “We could not save Harriet. I want to help Harry.”

  “If we knew who killed Harriet we would help Harry a lot more than being guard tailwaggers.”

  “One thing at a time.”

  ●●●

  I still thought Jet was crazy. We had a system that worked and now he wanted to dump it to help a clone. I wasn’t sure I believed Harry’s story, but Jet did, and he was smarter than me. So that night we rented the room next to Harry’s and Jet took the first watch. He sat in a chair in front of Harry’s room and had no problems. I wasn’t surprised. If I was going to attack someone I wouldn’t do it in a hotel room with limited escape routes.

  Just before sunrise we switched places. He went into our hotel room and prepared to become a giant. I’ve never seen him go through his transformation since that would be way too personal, but I am always amazed that a guy who stands maybe four-foot-six in his shoes could become a twelve-foot-tall mammoth. Luckily, his personality didn’t change or else buildings wouldn’t hold him.

  We usually closed the office when he turned, which was the same day every month. I hoped we didn’t regret not doing it this time.

  I was sitting outside of Harry’s door when it opened. Harry stuck his head out, smiled, frowned, and smiled when he saw me and then shut the door. I wondered if he planned to stay in there all day. I wondered how long we would have to guard him. I wondered how I was going to get anything to eat with Jet hiding out. And I wondered if it would matter if I turned into a statue since I’d be doing the same thing I was doing now, which was nothing but wondering.

  A couple hours passed and I was getting hungry. I thought about knocking on Harry’s door and seeing if he could order room service when a bellhop arrived with food. He knocked on Harry’s door and Harry didn’t open it. I thought that was odd so I stood up and went over to the man. He kept his face turned away from me so all I could see was short red hair under his cap. Since I was starving, and Harry wasn’t opening his door, I decided to see what was for breakfast.

  I lifted the tray’s heavy lid and hoped there was a slice of bacon I could snag. Instead there was a gun. I should have grabbed it but instead I looked up to see who the bellhop was. Before I could focus on his face, he had the gun in his hand. I held up the tray lid like a shield as he pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off the curved surface and smashed into Jet’s door. I wondered if Jet heard the commotion. Sometimes he slept a lot when in giant mode. Talk about a problem.

  I dove into the bellhop figuring he couldn’t shoot me if I was on top of him. As I wrestled him for the gun I got a good look at his face and realized that I knew this killer. He was Hank, or Henry, or Harrison, or Harvey. I hit him dead center as hard as I could. Instead of disabling him as I had hoped he seemed to get stronger. He pointed the gun at me again and I grabbed his hands and pushed them up. The gun pointed at the ceiling, but as long as he had control no position was safe.

  The clone and I both wanted the gun, but he was clearly trained to fight, and I only had street experience. Truth be told, I tended to stay away from fights so my experience was minimal. It was all I could do to keep my hands on the gun and avoid his vicious kicks and bites.

  We were both standing again and seemed stuck together in some weird couple’s dance. I was still trying to get the gun and he was pushing us back toward Harry’s door. I circled him as he circled me and when we got to Harry’s door I pushed him past it. I’d had one clone die on me and I wasn’t going to allow another one to go. I was taller than this one, so I guess I was taller than all of them, but he was stronger and I couldn’t break his grip on the gun. All I could do was keep it pointed up at the ceiling. We continued waltzing down the hall and I wondered how we were going to finish this. I also wondered if his other clone buddies were around. They would be tough to stop as a group.

  We were in front of Jet’s door when my grip on the gun slipped. The clone must have sensed something because he stepped hard on my foot and I yelped. I also let go of the gun. Before the clone could use it on me the door opened, and an enormous hand reached out and grabbed the gun. The clone howled in fear and raced down the hallway. There was no way to chase him with my foot throbbing so I simply leaned against the wall.

  “Thanks, Jet.”

  “My pleasure.” The door shut and I laughed. Jet was so big he couldn’t get out of the room, but luckily he was smart enough that it didn’t matter. I massaged my foot and then went over to Harry’s door and knocked on it loudly. He opened it a crack and then wider when he saw me.

  “Yes?”

  “Didn’t you hear the ruckus out here?”

  Harry shook his head. “I was in the shower.”

  “Your room service arrived.”

  “I didn’t order room service.”

  “Well, your clone must have thought you wanted a lead breakfast.”

  Harry sagged on the door jam. “They know where I am.”

  “It would appear so.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  I shrugged. I was more of a “let’s see what happens” kind of person. Jet was the planner. I grinned. “Are you afraid of giants?”

  ●●●

  The next day Jet was back to normal and Harry was staying at my place. It wasn’t safer, but it wasn’t the first place someone would look. Very few people knew where I lived and even fewer would want to visit the docks where I made my home. I left him sleeping on my couch and came into the office. Jet was already there with fresh coffee and pastries. Smart man.

  “So, we can’t guard Harry forever. How do we stop these clones?” I plopped down at my desk, being careful with my slightly sore foot, and bit into a pastry.

  “We need to stop it at the source.”

  I swiveled and looked at Jet. “Why?”

  “Who knows how many Harry look-a-likes ar
e being made. We need to find the source and shut them down.”

  Jet was right, but I suddenly pictured hundreds of mad Harrys chasing us down. After encountering one of Harry’s kin I wasn’t enthused about meeting more.

  The door opened and a dead woman walked into the office. I blinked. True, she had her whole face, but the hair and the body was identical to the woman we saw in the alley. As reason came back into my scattered brain, I groaned. It was another clone. I decided they did have a Problem—they all looked alike. Who wanted to see themselves every time they walked down the street?

  “I’m looking for Harry.”

  “Friend or foe?”

  She walked up to the desk and I leaned back. This one wasn’t as timid as Harry. Was that good or bad?

  “Harry is not here,” Jet said.

  “That is obvious. But he is in danger. We all are. We need to get away if we are going to start over.”

  I looked her up and down. “You do know that you look alike. You may stick out.”

  “Sticking out means I am alive. That is better than being invisible and dead.”

  Invisibility. That is a Problem I could handle.

  “I don’t think it is a good idea for you and Harry to meet here. Those other guys who look like you have been here.” What did you call a bunch of clones? An experiment? A dish? A test tube?

  Her face went pale, which made her freckles stand out like cluckerpox. Unlike the guys, her hair wasn’t cut short. In fact with her orange-red curls flying in all directions she reminded me more of a clown than a clone. Her brown wraparound dress showed off her fine body, but no amount of make-up was going to improve her mannish face. I wondered if she had been cloned from a girl or a guy. If the original had been a girl than that was just an unfortunate choice. But, if this was what happened when you cloned women from men then I would give it up.

  “Do you know where the cloning facility is?” Jet asked.

  “Of course. I was born and raised there.”

  “If you don’t like what has happened to you why don’t you expose your maker? What they are doing can’t be legal,” I said.

  She shook her head and held up one hand. “I’d be as dead as Harriet. No way. Other people have tried, but the modified clones always win.”

  “Modified clones?”

  “The ones that they make more violent to sell to the Battleboys. The more dangerous they are the better the price.”

  “So they custom-make clones for customers.”

  “They try to. It’s not perfect. You may get Harrys and Hanks in the same batch.”

  “And who are you?”

  “I’m Henrietta.”

  “Is it true you have no Problem?”

  A tear escaped, but she nodded. “Yeah, I guess I’m not real.”

  I was surprised. “You want a Problem? They are nothing but problems.”

  “The gift of a Problem would mean I was born naturally, instead of being a constant reminder that I was born in a laboratory. People with a Problem have one part of their life that they can handle because they know what the problem is. I get caught off guard with problems and have no way of predicting them so dealing with them is very stressful.”

  Wow, she was as crazy as Jet. Problems were not gifts. They don’t hand out gifts. Turning into stone at random is not a gift. But she was crying harder so I didn’t argue. We needed to get her and Harry away from their evil playmates.

  I turned to Jet. “She’s not dead. What do you think?”

  Jet shrugged. “I do not sense any insincerity. I do not feel much of anything.”

  Good enough for me; Jet’s gift of reading women had never failed us before. “Come on, let’s go see Harry.”

  We arrived at my apartment and Henrietta seemed surprised at its location. She turned her nose up, literally, and I felt the need to defend my low-rent housing. “It may not look like much, but no one comes looking for me around here. The area keeps me safe.” I didn’t explain that I hadn’t bothered to move since my income had improved. I found that I didn’t need all the finery that I had before. Maybe I was maturing. No one would believe it. I’m not sure I believed it.

  I unlocked my door and called for Harry. He came out from the kitchen and cried out when he saw Henrietta. She ran to him and hugged him hard. I turned to Jet and told him to shut the door. That was when I saw that Jet had company.

  I may have explained that Jet was short. He was from Gregos, and I didn’t know if he was tall for a Gregoson, but I knew Ausdinian street kids who were taller than he was. So when one of the clones held him by the scruff of his shirt, his feet dangled and it was clear that he wouldn’t be fighting back. Three more clones entered and I backed up to protect Henrietta and Harry.

  “Henrietta, how could you?” Harry was cowering near a fake plant that came with the place and Henrietta was pointing a gun at me. The shock on my face must have been plain because she laughed.

  “Men are so predictable. Did you think we would let you escape, Harry? You should have gotten smarter protection than these losers.”

  I got mad at that. I used to be a loser, but things had been turning around. I turned to look at Jet who was still squirming like a worm on a hook. One of the other clones grabbed one of his arms and he was bookended by identical test tube killers.

  “I thought you said she was sincere.”

  “I said I felt nothing. Maybe clones do not radiate feelings like normal people.”

  No wonder the Battleboys wanted these people. They would be impervious to most police interrogation tactics.

  “So what’s the plan, guys? Kill us here? Dump us in the river?” I hoped they didn’t notice that my living room window looked out over the dank water of the warehouse district.

  “All that would be very pleasant, but no, we have our instructions. You are to come with us.” I was beginning to wish the clones wore different colored shirts. Then I could tell them apart. Then again, maybe I wasn’t supposed to.

  “And by the way,” a different clone intoned. “The check’s in the mail.” I didn’t even respond to that, even when the others chuckled. These clones really were clowns. I sighed. I was getting bored and Jet was getting squished.

  “Well, by all means, let’s get on with it. Come on, Harry, that plant won’t protect you.”

  Henrietta laughed. At least I could identify her. “Harry is not coming. I have other plans for him.”

  “Harriet kind of plans?”

  “Actually, yes. A sliced up body in this neighborhood won’t be noticed. My work is so good no one will know he looked anything like she did.”

  “Yeah, we wouldn’t have identified Harriet at all if she hadn’t been ID’d.”

  Henrietta frowned. “Yes. I had no idea she had done that.” She grinned at Harry. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

  I thought one had to be truly heartless to destroy a face that looked identical to their own, but what did I know? Clones were playing on a different board from the rest of us.

  “I assume you want us to come along peacefully?”

  One of the clones tugged on Jet. I hoped they didn’t start using him for a pull-a-part game; I was just getting him broken in. “We assume you’ll come, peacefully or not.”

  “Well, yeah, but peaceful is always easier. So we’ll go with you, but Harry has to come, too.” I turned to Henrietta. “You can mutilate him later.”

  She looked at the four by the door. One of them nodded and she hauled Harry up. “All right. Let’s go peacefully.”

  We all left my apartment, Jet being led by two of the clones, Harriet dragging a whimpering Harry, and me in the middle. The two other clones seemed to be checking our route. A van with the words Mac’s Laundry on the side sat outside my building. We were pushed into the back, and Harriet and two of the clones got in with us. The other two clones climbed in front and we were off.

  I sat on a pile of sheets and tried to see out the front window. It was difficult to see because of the steel g
rate behind the front seats, but it appeared we were headed downtown. After a short time, we stopped in front of a newer-looking factory. I had probably driven past it a dozen times and never wondered what was made there.

  “Out.” Henrietta’s voice was hard and we hopped out. I was looking for any means of escape, but I couldn’t leave without Jet and Harry so I bided my time.

  Once we were inside I was shocked. The non-descript building held a state-of-the-art laboratory. I wished I had my sunglasses to cut the glare of the lights on the glossy white walls. A voice boomed out at us.

  “Take them to my office and tie them up.”

  Henrietta dragged Harry down a hallway, and Jet and I were ushered along by the other clones. We were led through a door at the end of the hall and placed in three chairs in the middle of the room. There were five of them and three of us so it wasn’t difficult for them to tie our legs and arms to the chairs. I glanced at Jet and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Like I said, crazy. I had no urge to be cut like Harriet had been and Harry was supposed to be. It was time to discover a way out.

  The five clones stood together along one wall. It was odd looking at that many duplicates of a person—they weren’t like twins. My cousins are twins and if that sounds nice you should know that their Problem is that they are allergic to each other. Tough. These people were like a photocopy of each other. Even Henrietta looked like one of the guys in drag, just with poofier hair. I pictured them working for the Battleboys. One of them could commit a crime and another could be dancing at a club creating the perfect alibi. And with no detectable feelings and no Problems the police would have a hard time telling them apart. I realized that I no longer wanted to escape—I wanted to stop them. As I looked around for something to help with that, Jet started talking.

  “So there are eight of you?”

  “Less now, “Henrietta said.

  “Yes. But originally eight.”

  They nodded.

  “Are you the only clones?”

  “We told you there were eight of us.”

  “But were other people cloned? Are there other sets?”