One Spark of Hope

by Campbell, Jamie

  “More importantly,” Joseph continued. “We would have heard about it if it was a generally known fact. The clones replaced their Makers looking exactly like them. That means whoever is behind this started the plan many decades ago.”

  “They could have had technology that allowed them to rapidly age a clone,” a man, two seats down from me, said. I wasn’t sure what his name was, but people seemed intrigued by his comment. “If they had the guts to infiltrate parliament, they could be capable of anything. We don’t know what they get up to in those labs.”

  “That is a good point,” Joseph replied. His wise eyes closed for a few moments before he looked at us again. “The labs are our most likely perpetrators of this whole thing. Like Rory said, we don’t know what goes on in those labs. Reece, Wren, you were in Laboratory Delta for some time. Did you see anything that could help us?”

  I looked at Reece and he looked at me. I chewed on my lip as I shook my head. “I only remember the mothers,” I said. It was a lie, I also remembered the piles of dead bodies they had stacked in a room. The bodies of those dead clones would never leave me, I knew that for sure.

  Even if I lived to be a hundred years old, I would still remember.

  Reece had a bit more to say. “They had a lot of labs there, far too many just to make clones. Enough scientists to fill a subway train, too. We only walked around the main areas before we were caught, there were a lot of locked doors in the building.”

  “They have to be doing more than making clones, then,” Joseph agreed. “They probably made the switch with the Makers in order to control matters relating to their work. They would be able to get any legislation passed or overturned, especially ones relating to what they can and can’t do in their labs.”

  The people seated around the table nodded, mumbling agreements with Joseph’s theory. But something about it didn’t sit right with me. Why would the laboratories go to so much trouble when Stone gave them so much leeway in the first place?

  Everything I knew about the laboratories said they could pretty much do what they wanted to do anyway. It seemed extreme to go to all that trouble just to have the same result.

  However, if Stone was a clone too, then it explained how they could already do so much. Maybe the original Stone placed too many restrictions on them so she had to go. They replaced her and passed all the pending legislation.

  It was all too confusing and too much to take in. I didn’t want to believe Stone was a clone and get my hopes up. It would only mean I’d fall that much harder if it turned out to be wrong.

  I let the others debate it while I absorbed everything they said to process later. It was all just theories anyway, nobody had any real proof apart from the DNA test results.

  All I knew was that something was wrong in our city.

  And we weren’t going to rest until we fixed it.

  Chapter 10: Reece

  After the meeting I was exhausted. There was too much to think about and no answers were coming easily. I didn’t care if the entire parliament were clones, they needed to be taken down anyway.

  There was only a small window of opportunity for sleep so I took it immediately afterwards. My next mission started in the early hours of the morning, giving me only a few hours to rest.

  It felt like I’d only just got to bed when my alarm went off. I crept out of the sleeping bunks while everyone else snored. I stole an indulgent look at Wren as she slept in her bed. She was fast asleep, which didn’t surprise me. She’d worked hard in the training room and I pushed her further than I ever thought I would.

  Wren was a good fighter. She had a natural instinct that was so difficult to teach in those that weren’t born with it. Her body moved fluidly, ducking blows and giving them straight back again. I was proud of her.

  I hoped she would never need to use her fighting skills. Everything I was teaching her was only to make her feel more prepared. If the enemy were close enough for her to fight, then I was failing in my job of protecting her.

  There was no way I would let that happen.

  The rest of my mission comrades were huddled around the door, waiting for the last few stragglers – including me. We waited some more for the rest of the group and then headed out.

  It was still pitch black outside. The moonlight was illuminating the street, flooding the darkness with its silvery glory. Everything was still and quiet, barely a vehicle on the road and no people in sight.

  Our van seemed overly loud as it rumbled along. The Resistance wasn’t well funded which meant we accepted what we could. State of the art transport wasn’t in the budget.

  A small hole in the floor beside my foot showed nothing but the black asphalt spinning past in a blur. Only hope was keeping the van together.

  My legs needed to stretch but the cramped confines wouldn’t let me. The few hours of sleep I stole only made my muscles ache from the earlier workout. It had been a while since I did any real exercise.

  The hardest part of training with Wren was trying to keep my hands off her. Our bodies had been close for most of the session. It was torture having her in my arms and not being able to kiss her. Her hair smelled like strawberries and she had this cute expression when she was concentrating.

  I wanted her so badly.

  But the urge to protect her from being hurt had to take precedence. I would not put her in a situation that would cause Wren harm.

  I wouldn’t do it.

  Unfortunately my sore muscles only reminded me of every moment I spent with her. If it wasn’t for the mission, the thoughts of her would have overwhelmed me.

  The van came to a stop until all that infiltrated the quiet calm of the night were the thousands of crickets hidden away in the trees.

  Samson looked over his shoulder from the front seat. “Thompson, you’re up.”

  I climbed over the guys to get to the door before I opened it and jumped out. Finally, I could stretch out my legs and ease away the ache.

  “You remember the plan?” Samson asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Good, van’s all yours. Good luck.”

  I was going to need it.

  He handed me a rucksack and I replaced him in the driver’s seat. Out of the bag I took a pair of glasses, a beanie, some fake teeth, and a prosthetic nose. I slipped them all on quickly and checked my appearance in the mirror.

  The guy everyone knew as Reece was gone. In his place was an uglier version, one that would hopefully not be recognized by any guards or troopers. I turned to face the guys. “What do you think?”

  “You look like a mug, mate.”

  “I can’t tell it’s you.”

  “Good enough to fool most people, seeing as though it’s dark and all.”

  The disguise was doing its job then.

  I turned my gaze back to the road and started the van. We carried on our journey through the streets of Aria until we reached Laboratory Echo.

  The razor wire fence glinted in the moonlight, a sharp and dangerous warning not to enter. We drove straight for them, turning into the first security checkpoint with the confidence of someone who had done this a million times before.

  “Name and business,” the guard behind the bulletproof window said with all the boredom of an eight-hour shift. He barely looked up at me as he spoke, his newspaper was more interesting.

  “Gilding, here to make a delivery of supplies,” I replied, aiming for the same level of boredom in my voice. I don’t think I quite achieved it. I could still hear the strangled vowels born from nerves.

  The guard’s eyes flicked up to meet mine. “What kind of supplies?” Now he was more interested, I’d failed my first test.

  Damn it.

  “Toilet paper, tissues, gloves, I don’t know. All the shit the scientists keep ordering. You wanna check? Be my guest.”

  I held his gaze, silently challenging him to get out of his comfortable chair and into the coolness of the night just to rifle through boxes of toilet paper.

  It was a b
luff, of course, but he didn’t know that. He didn’t know my palms were sweating and everything in my head was yelling at me to get the hell out of there.

  The seconds ticked by like hours as we stared at one another. It took all my concentration to make sure my face remained relaxed and belligerent. It was a façade I couldn’t afford to have him look through.

  The guard sighed. “Fine. Go on in.”

  I gave him a wave as he opened the boom gate and let me pass by. The second security guard would be harder, the first one could always rely on the second to stop a threat. The second one didn’t have the luxury of a backup.

  The guys in the back were so quiet I almost wanted to turn around just to check they were still there. But my eyes remained fixed ahead, giving the guards no chance to question my intentions.

  They didn’t know I had an arsenal of weapons in the back.

  They didn’t realize I was there to take them down.

  We were going to take them by surprise and we were walking in straight through the doors. That was the plan, anyway. We still had to make it through the insane parts.

  Most of the labs had the same layouts and that was what we were planning on with Echo. Lab Foxtrot taught us a lot about the layouts and we’d gone over them a hundred times in preparation for tonight.

  All we had to do was get through security and we would be able to complete our mission.

  Hopefully with complete success.

  The second guard was younger than the first, a few pimples still dotted across his smooth forehead. He looked at me in earnest, actually giving me his attention. I’d hoped for someone less keen on doing their job to any kind of satisfactory level.

  “Name and business,” he parroted, obviously their standard greeting line.

  “Gilding, here delivering supplies. Toilet paper goods and such.” I gestured to the back, aiming for an air of nonchalance.

  The guard checked his clipboard hanging on the wall. “I don’t see you on the schedule. We’re not supposed to have any deliveries until the morning.”

  “I’m delivering early, trying to knock off at a decent hour.”

  “Did you receive authorization?”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed purposefully. “I don’t know what my boss did and didn’t do. He told me to get my butt over to Echo or my life wasn’t going to be worth living. Okay? Can I please do my job now?”

  I’d frazzled him. The guard pursed his lips before relaxing them again, repeating the process while he thought about it.

  Pursed.

  Relaxed.

  Pursed.

  Relaxed.

  “Look, man, I’ll be out before you know it,” I said, intending to give him some level of confidence that he was doing the right thing by letting me in.

  Pursed.

  Relaxed.

  Frowned.

  “Okay, yeah, go in. Just be quick, okay? I shouldn’t really be doing this.”

  “Will do.” I gave him a salute and continued on. Poor kid, I almost felt sorry for him. After we did everything we planned on doing, he was going to get in serious trouble. I almost felt like telling him to run away now before his superiors got their hands on him.

  Joseph always said there couldn’t be a revolution without people getting hurt. It just really sucked that ordinary people simply doing their jobs got caught up in the melee.

  I didn’t have time to dwell on it. One thought of Wren and everything she had innocently gone through and I was angry enough to do anything.

  The van pulled up next to the doors and I got rid of my disguise. I looked like me again, right before I slid the balaclava over my face. All the guys wore the same black woolen covering, masking our identities and marking us as a team.

  Hiding who we really were was going to give us a bit more time to get away with our crimes. The second they recognized us, they would know exactly the kind of destruction we were capable of.

  The guys piled out of the van while Samson threw me my gun. The weight felt good in my hands, reassuring me that I could use it to further our cause. I wouldn’t take a life unless I had to but I would threaten anyone who got in my way.

  We charged into the labs quickly, knowing every second counted. Somewhere in the labs a guard was watching the security cameras and, if we hadn’t triggered one yet, it would only be a matter of time.

  There were twelve of us in total, not nearly enough to fight against the guards and any scientists who decided to use their fists instead of their brains. The only thing we had on our side was determination.

  With any luck, it would be enough.

  “Stop where you are!” The first guard at the door noticed us, giving a two second warning before he aimed his gun and put his finger on the trigger.

  Samson was faster.

  He sent off a round of bullets, knocking the gun from his hand as he went down. Samson continued to fire until we were inside and any guards that stood in our way decided either to hide or they succumbed to the bullets. Not exactly the way I wanted to play it but we had no choice.

  In the foyer, we parted. I pointed down to the corridor on the right. “Clone team that way.” Four of the men followed my direction. I pointed to the middle corridor. “Labs are down there.” Another six headed in that direction. “Controls are through here.”

  The remaining man, Trenton, was coming with me. I jumped over the guard’s desk and rifled around until I found a set of access cards. Hopefully they would take me everywhere I wanted to go.

  “Can you hear footsteps?” Trenton asked.

  I cocked my head to the side, straining to hear anything over the rush of blood pumping through my ears. “Let’s get out of here,” I said. Being on the move was vital in an attack like the one we were undertaking.

  The administration offices of the labs were always behind the main entrance, kept separate from the laboratories and cells. The people in charge of all the paperwork didn’t have a need to be behind the scenes with the blood and organs.

  I tried a dozen of the swipe cards before finding the one that opened the door, thanking the tech guys for the resounding click of the lock. Trenton and I hurried inside to find the whole place in darkness.

  Of course they wouldn’t be doing paperwork at three o’clock in the morning.

  “There have to be a dozen offices in here,” Trenton complained. “You take left and I’ll go right?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  We split up and hurried through the small offices that were little bigger than cubicles. They would have been better to make the whole thing open plan but I guess they weren’t looking for my design opinion.

  At the end of the row I hit the jackpot. It took another swipe card to get inside, but the moment I heard the click, I called out to Trenton to join me.

  He stood guard while I went inside.

  Old fashion filing cabinets took up an entire wall of the room. Actual paper records hadn’t been kept anywhere else in the city for decades. Everything was electronic these days, paper belonged well in the past.

  Luckily, they were unlocked.

  I rifled through the records, expecting them to be old but the paper was fresh and crisp in most of the files. If they didn’t trust the records to electronic storage, I could only begin to think what secrets they held.

  No wonder the Resistance tech guys kept complaining about not being able to find much information on their hacking missions. They were banking on everything being electronic. It wouldn’t even have occurred to them to look for actual paper copies of documents.

  At least there seemed to be some system to them, the files appeared to be in case number order. That didn’t help my search, I was looking for names of those in parliament – the ones that we knew had been cloned and used to replace their Makers.

  The first cabinet was a bust, but three quarters of the way through the second one, something caught my eye. I saw the name of Felicia DePeriere and grabbed for it.

  I shoved the whole thing under my shirt
, stealing was the least of my offences tonight. My fingers skimmed through the rest of the files, finding a few more of the cases we were after. All the files went under my shirt to be dealt with later.

  I’d just started on the last cabinet when Trenton called out. “Thompson! We have company.”

  My hands reflexively went to pull out my gun and my finger rested on the trigger.

  It was show time.

  I stepped out of the office and saw what had alerted Trenton. Two guards were rushing down the corridor toward us, their guns as ready as ours and their expressions set with angry determination.

  We didn’t have anywhere to run, they were blocking our only exit. The only way out was going to be to fight our way out. Two against two, our odds were fifty-fifty.

  Loud banging sounds started to register from somewhere else in the building. I pushed the sound away while I concentrated, praying our guys were on the winning end out there.

  Trenton fired off a shot, hitting the glass wall of one of the offices. It shattered into a million pieces, splintered pieces of glass flying in all directions. The guards ducked for only a moment before raising their guns and firing.

  Bullets hit the door behind me, the sound ringing in my ears. We all started firing then, all four of us shooting until there was only one victor.

  The first guard went down like a sack of potatoes, crumbling to the ground and staying there. I only had a second to revel in the win before Trenton cried out. Blood started pouring down his face from where a bullet nicked his forehead. In the few seconds I had to look, it didn’t seem life threatening.

  He’d have to fight through it.

  The remaining guard took it as a personal affront that we’d shot his partner. He sent a wall of bullets our way, firing his gun with his teeth clenched.

  But he was outnumbered now.

  Trenton fired the shot that took him out. He took it in the leg, not enough to kill him but enough to make sure he wouldn’t be chasing after us for a long time.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Trenton said, the pupils of his eyes as big as they could go.