Clone Crisis: Book 1 in the Clone Crisis Trilogy

by Melissa Faye

  “You seem very interested in causing trouble on a day when someone vandalized a building and viciously destroyed community property,” said the Chancellor. I looked at his cat-like face and realized he was not a mere housecat; he was a tiger out for the hunt. He looked me over. It was dangerous that I was a medical intern but was covered in the ash from the F-Lab bombing. I was his prey. “Where were you when the bomb went off this morning?”

  Was I somehow going to be blamed for the bombing? I had done everything I could to avoid the Underground’s stupid demonstrations, and now I had somehow implicated myself in their wrongdoings.

  “I was walking to work with a coworker, sir,” I said meekly. “We ran towards the building when we heard the explosion.” I hugged my knees closer to my chest.

  “I’m sure Yami had nothing to do with that,” said Pablo. “She is an exemplary intern. She wouldn’t do anything to put anyone in harm’s way.”

  “Yet you said she attacked a security guard, did you not?” I detected a hint of delight on the Chancellor’s face, his mouth just barely turning up at the corners into a small smile. “That sounds like the reckless behavior of a person who might also do damage and potential harm to community members and facilities. Does it not?”

  Now the Chief was nervous. “Y-yes, I suppose. But Yami has been worried about her friends upstairs. She doesn’t realize how important our research is right now, and had a moment of indiscretion.”

  “Was it only this one moment though?” The Chancellor stared at me hungrily. He was looking to blame someone for the bombing, and I was a good enough fit. “I looked at Yami’s personnel file. She has avoided social activities for years. Doctors in this very building have reported her being competent but surly. She is dismissive with her superiors and struggles to treat patients with an appropriate bedside manner. This incident – or these incidents, I should say – seems right in line with her personality.”

  “I had nothing to do with the bomb! And I overreacted because I was worried about Etta. I promise you, I’ve had nothing to do with –“

  “The problem, Yami, is that I don’t believe you. I think you know more than you should about this terrorist attack. I don’t think you’re telling us everything. And I don’t think you are fit to serve as a doctor in this community.” The Chancellor ended his little speech with a curt nod.

  “Are you sure, sir?” asked Pablo. “Yami is one of our most talented interns. I don’t want to lose her here.”

  “Pablo, would you mind giving me the room?” The Chief tensed up and concern marred his features. He didn’t look at me as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  “My career test said this was the best fit for me, sir,” I pleaded. “This is the best work I can do for the community.”

  “Yami, let me tell you something that not many people know.” The Chancellor sat on the corner of the Chief’s desk casually, as if we were just friends having a normal talk. “The career tests don’t matter. You could have filled it out randomly, and you would still have been assigned to medicine.”

  I didn’t understand. Why would the career tests be faked? Why would I automatically be assigned this job? How did the Chancellor know I was going to be good at medicine? And if I lost this job, where would I go?

  “You see, cloning creates exact duplicates of each person in the community,” the Chancellor continued. “Your ancestor worked in medicine. I don’t know the exact details of her work, but your job assignment was determined by your DNA. Just like mine was. My ancestor was a strong leader, as am I. Why would they let his clone end up in any other role? What any of us want doesn’t matter.

  “And I’m sure you would agree, the benefits of working in our jobs, Medicine and Leadership, are ample. Being Gold affords you with so many financial and interpersonal advantages. Why would we want our own clones to experience anything less?”

  I felt sick. The game was rigged. Every Yami out there was in Medicine; they all were Gold by the very nature of their genetic make-up. All of us had a right to be angry. Especially Bronzes and Grays.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I whispered. There was danger in the Chancellor’s tone. This information would only fuel the Underground further. Another case of information denied to the public. And in this case, the secret was helping the Chancellor keep his job “leading” the community. Who knows where his other slimy clones were, and what they were doing in their own countries to protect their bloodline.

  “If anyone in the community shares this information publicly, I will know you are guilty,” he said. “This all works out well. I get to reassign you to a new position with much less power and access, and you need to keep my secret or face the repercussions.”

  He was right, of course. I couldn’t share this with Omer, or Charlie, or Ben, or Vonna – assuming I ever spoke to Vonna again. I would follow what the Chancellor instructed me to do, and play the part of the dutiful citizen.

  “Where do you want me to work?” I asked.

  The Chancellor smiled. “I’ll put you in sanitation. That strong work ethic will serve you well in keeping the community clean. It’ll also keep you out of trouble.”

  I took deep breaths. I could handle a new job.

  The Chancellor took out his TekCast and sent a few messages while I waited, jiggling my foot. After a few minutes, he looked back at me.

  “Your supervisor, Ahara, is waiting for you to arrive at the maintenance building in the next half hour. Stop by the front desk and you’ll plug your TekCast in to erase all medical information. Ahara will have a uniform and work assignment for you, as well as your new insignia and TekCast border. If you don’t arrive on time, I will send a search party for you, and repercussions will be much more severe.”

  I looked at the clock. A half hour would be barely enough time to get my things and race over to the maintenance building. I stood up, pausing to see if I needed to be excused. The Chancellor seemed to enjoy my act of deference.

  “You may leave, Yami.” He smiled with just a flash of his teeth. “I do not wish to have this type of conversation with you again.”

  Charlie was waiting for me in the intern room when I came to collect my things.

  “What happened?” he hissed. “I heard you made a scene upstairs and were meeting with the Chief. Is everything ok.”

  “I was fired,” I said quickly as I picked up everything off my desk. There wasn’t much there worth taking. The pictures of me with Alexis and Etta. A paperweight with an anatomical heart inside a layer of glass – a birthday present from Etta. My coat. I turned to leave, and Charlie stepped in front of me.

  “Fired? Does that happen? What are you doing now?”

  “Charlie, I have to get to the maintenance building in the next twenty-five minutes. Get out of my way.”

  Charlie’s jaw dropped, but he didn’t move. I took advantage of his shock and hopped around him to the door. He called after me but I kept going.

  I ARRIVED AT THE MAINTENANCE building right on time, slightly out of breath from my brisk pace in the cold weather. Ahara met me in the front room, a dingy space with poor lighting and cement walls. There was no receptionist here, and no large screen advertising the services the building provided. There was one desk in the room with nothing on it, and a few mops that looked like someone had shoved into a corner in a hurry.

  Ahara was a middle-aged woman with a plump figure and dull, dirty blonde hair cut short. She was wearing the standard uniform for sanitation workers: a gray button-down shirt tucked into darker gray pants. Her face looked weathered. Her insignia and TekCast border blended into the gray of her shirt. The brightest part of her outfit was the bright, shiny white center of the TekCast hooked to her insignia. It looked out of place. I wondered what resources were even available on a sanitation worker’s TekCast.

  “I have these for you,” Ahara said. She lay out my new supplies on the unused metal desk. A uniform like her own – it was much too big for me, but I didn’t complai
n. A new insignia and TekCast border. I slowly pulled off my gold accessories. Ahara snapped the new border onto the TekCast and I saw it light up quickly. Probably going through my files to make sure I only had what I needed for my new life.

  I shut down my brain as best as I could while I went over my work assignment with Ahara. Sanitation and maintenance work overlapped so much that their interns worked together. I wasn’t ready for any of the repair work maintenance normally handled, so instead, I was handed a cleaning schedule.

  I walked out of the building in my new uniform with my new color and headed towards my work assignment. I was going to a nearby community building with a mop, rags, and scrub brushes. A man carrying a coffee cup was coming out while I walked in. It was Jacob, one of my classmates who had ended up with a Bronze career, retail. He was getting a drink while on break. He looked at me, processing who I was, and smirked. “Gold to Gray,” he said. “Never seen that before.”

  I was actually jealous of his Bronze designation.

  I cleaned without thinking, waiting for my shift to end. People came in and out of the building, and I kept my face low to avoid eye contact. I knew most of the faces around the community, even if I didn’t know everyone’s name, and they probably knew my face as well. Some of them likely recognized me as a Gold, and I could feel the hush as people put it together. The Chancellor wasn’t just punishing me financially. This was also a sort of social humiliation. I tried to pull the collar of my uniform up to hide behind, but it didn’t cover the insignia. Even if it had, I knew the mass of black curls would give me away to anyone I knew.

  Since I had arrived later into the day, Ahara had me work until 8 pm. By the time I left, my arms were beyond exhausted and I suspected my clothes would never stop smelling of cleaning fluids. If this was my life from now on, it would be a struggle. But I could live with it. As long as it wouldn’t get in the way of planning Breck and Etta’s escape.

  Chapter Twelve

  I was getting used to people waiting for me outside my apartment door, though I was surprised that this time it was both Charlie and Ben. Charlie had messaged Omer, who was set to arrive soon. They must have noticed my uniform and colors, but they didn’t say anything. I opened my door. The magnetic lock still worked, but I suspected the Chancellor would have me moved to the Gray commune as soon as possible.

  “We can’t wait any longer,” Ben said once we were inside. We stood at attention around my kitchen table. “Charlie told me what happened today. Since you made an attempt at getting into Etta and Breck’s rooms, they’re bound to ramp up security soon, if they haven’t already. We need to get them out now.”

  “How are we going to do it? And where will we go?” Charlie asked.

  “Charlie, you can’t come,” I said. I had been thinking about this since I spoke with Ben. “I need you to stay here and keep a lookout. Make sure we aren’t tracked. And...I’d like you to keep an eye on my mentee, Vonna. She’s a high classer, and she’s already getting too involved with the Underground.”

  “Are you sure?” Charlie asked. I clenched my jaw and turned to Ben.

  “You need to come with us,” I said. “You know more about the noncomm and how to travel under the government’s radar, right? We need you with us to lead the way.”

  “I’m in,” he said. “I’ve been reading up on this all day. I can get us far away from here.”

  “Good,” I said. There was a knock on the door, and Omer came in. I filled him in on what had happened that day. I decided that now wasn’t the time to argue with him about Vonna.

  “There’s something else,” I said. “The Chancellor told me not to tell anyone, or he would hold me responsible for the bombing. But everyone should know.” I felt panic grow in my chest as I loosened the walls I kept closed around me. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. “The career assignments are all fake. Clones are assigned to careers based on their ancestry. It means I didn’t get Gold because of how hard I worked in school. Omer, you’re not Bronze because of any lack of intelligence or capability. It’s a way for people in power to keep themselves, and their clones, in power.”

  Omer covered his mouth with a hand. I could see the grime under his fingernails. It wasn’t something I would see on a Silver or Gold. Omer was a man of action, though, and stayed calm. “You’re right. We need to get the message out there. If people I worked with knew about this...I see my friends spending most of their paychecks on food and rent, with nothing left over for the updated technology that Gold and Silvers have. We have shabby houses and longer work hours. If people knew...there could be a riot.”

  “Let’s be careful, then, about how we share this,” Charlie said. “We want people to know the truth so we can change it, not so there can be a violent uprising.”

  “First let’s focus on Etta and Breck,” I said. “If we can get them out of here and determine how Etta got pregnant in the first place, we’ll be that much closer to changing how the system works. Omer’s right – I messed up, and because of it, tonight is our only hope of getting them out of here.”

  “What’s the plan then?” Ben asked. I wondered what he thought about the new revelation about career assignments. Leadership and Records Golds were the most privileged community members. Ben stood to lose the most out of all of us if this news became public. His face was unreadable. I hoped he would still help us.

  “I connected with a few people who are interested in helping,” said Omer. “Several people. If we can create a distraction, you can get Breck and Etta out of there.”

  “What kind of distraction?” I asked warily. I didn’t want a repeat of the bombing.

  “We don’t need to do anything drastic - we just need to make it look like we’re going to do something drastic.”

  I looked at Omer quizzically. He shook his head. “Nothing extreme. We can put on face masks, carry something that looks like spray paint, and run past the guards. It should draw them away long enough for you.”

  “That works,” said Ben. “Yami, I’m going to create a map of where we should go once we leave the community gate. I have a new community in mind – Glenwood Pines. It’s outside of our region but not so far that we’ll need to travel more than a few days.” People would be looking for us, and leaving the region would give us enough extra time to make a better long term plan.

  “I have a friend of a friend who works for the Underground there!” Omer said. He gestured to me to open up my TekCast and swiped over to a writing tablet app. He scribbled out a name. “I don’t know my contact’s name, but I heard he’s done a lot for the cause. If you go to that bar, you should be able to find more help.”

  I looked at the name of the restaurant. Wild Jack’s. There was a bar in Young Woods called Crazy Jake’s, and I hoped Wild Jack’s would be located in the same spot within the community at Glenwood Pines.

  We decided to go through with the plan at 1:00 am. Omer would cause a distraction with other members of the Underground, and Charlie and I would appear right after to get Etta and Breck out of sedation. Ben would wait with our supplies.

  Charlie and I reviewed the sedative the doctors were using. Once we shut down the Care Unit, unlocking the IV, it would take several minutes for our friends to wake up. It was important for Omer’s group to cause a big enough distraction to give us the time we needed. Ben showed us the plan for leaving the community. He pulled up a map on his TekCast.

  “Once we leave the gates, there are several roads that will take us west. If we use this one right here, it’ll lead us to the monorail. We should be able to get there within a day or two. And then it’s a bit of a walk to Glenwood Pines, but we’ll be out of the region at least.” The monorail system traced a path across the various regions of the UCA, and we could easily get to a number of communities within a few hours of travel. Glenwood Pines looked like a good compromise between wanting to be as far away as possible in as short a time as possible.

  Charlie looked over the map and consulted his TekCast. “Monorails requi
re TekCast identification,” he said. “I should be able to create hacks to disguise your digital identities, but it’ll take a while. I’ll keep you posted to make sure you don’t get on the monorail until the disguises are in place.”

  Ben sent me a copy of the map in case either of our TekCasts were lost. I didn’t want to think how that would impact monorail travel. Charlie offered to collect Breck and Etta’s belongings from their apartment while I packed my things and Ben collected his. We met back at my place at midnight.

  We waited. I wanted to limit messaging with Omer since messages could be tracked. I sent him an ambiguous message while we waited to check in with his progress: “I hope you’re doing well.” He responded, “Things are good over here. You?” I replied “Yes.”

  My heart beat faster as minutes ticked by. Ben would wait outside the building, one block away, with our stuff, and Charlie and I would get Etta and Breck awake and out of the building as quickly as possible. The timing window was short. We wanted to get into the hallway as soon as the guards left in order to maximize the time we had to wake them up.

  At 12:40, we left my place, and by 12:50, Ben was in his waiting spot and Charlie and I were heading for the building. The glass doors slid open: a benefit to living in such a safety-oriented town. We tiptoed up the stairs to the top floor, where we found Omer and three other people wearing masks. We nodded to each other and took turns peeking through the glass window in the door to check on the guards. At exactly 1 am, Omer and his team took off.

  They ran through the hallway carrying spray paint and a bag with wires coming out of it that hopefully looked like a bomb. They yelled as they ran, “Bring down Chancellor Lorenzo!” One of them ran into one of the guards then hurried away. The guards took one look at the group and started chasing after them. As soon as they entered the stairwell on the opposite side of the long hallway, Charlie and I snuck out. Once the sounds of the guards and Omer’s group died down, we broke into a run to get to Etta and Breck’s doors.