Killer Move

by T E Stouyer

  Carson’s gaze grew sharper. “You’re referring to WIAS?”

  A faint smile escaped Leicester. “Quick to catch on as always, I see. Good. Next time, make sure you follow protocol when dealing with the fugitives. Besides, Mr. Jenkins is in charge of this operation. Under normal circumstances, he would have been the one to lead the assault. Which, as you know, would have significantly improved your chances of success.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” said Carson. “Where is Patrick, anyway? I haven’t been able to reach him for some time.”

  “There was an incident in London. It seems that while everyone else was busy here in Paris, someone organized a little excursion to one of my offices. The guards reported seeing two men and a woman whose descriptions match Damien, Arianne, and Mr. Kincade. I asked Mr. Jenkins to look into the matter.”

  “Really? What were they doing there?”

  “The same thing we’re all doing, Mr. Carson. Searching for Adam’s data card. They broke into a storage room where we’ve been keeping some of the subject’s belongings. My people inventoried the items and informed me that a necklace is missing. It’s safe to assume this necklace is an important piece in the search for the hidden card. To think it’s been right under our noses from the beginning. It’s quite embarrassing, really.”

  “Does that mean those three are working together?”

  Leicester shook his head. “No. It’s actually the opposite. The report states that the intruders fought against one another. In fact, that’s how the guards became aware of their presence. This confirms what we’ve known since Lucielle’s abduction. The subjects have split up into two factions. One led by Damien, and the other by Arianne.”

  “Did the report mention anything else?” Carson asked.

  “Indeed. It would appear Arianne and Mr. Kincade left before Damien did. This would suggest that they acquired the necklace and then managed to get away from him. At this point, that’s the only silver lining.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Carson. “Why would it matter which one of them got the necklace? Isn’t the outcome the same for us, either way?”

  Leicester’s expression turned grave. “Mr. Carson, let there be absolutely no doubt in your mind that Damien poses the greatest threat to our interests. That’s why you were given a special directive in regards to him. The order stands: Neutralize on sight, by any means necessary.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “The same applies to Johann,” said Leicester. “The military has always shown a special interest in him, but they don’t realize they’ll never be able to control him. He’s too far gone.”

  At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

  One of the agents posted outside walked into the room. “Sorry to disturb you, sir. We’ve just been notified that the surgery was almost over. The doctor should be available within the next few minutes.”

  “Good,” said Leicester. “Send someone to fetch him as soon as he leaves the operating room.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Carson waited for the agent to leave and then turned to his employer. “What was that about, sir?”

  Leicester walked over to the desk and absent-mindedly began to flip through some documents. “There’s a reason I requested you and your men be brought to this hospital, Mr. Carson. It’s come to my attention that one of the patients here is someone who could prove useful to us.”

  “A patient?”

  “Yes. He was admitted under an alias, but it wasn’t hard to discover who he was.”

  “Who is he?” Carson asked. “And how can he help us?”

  “Patience, Mr. Carson. I intended to brief both you and Mr. Jenkins on this new development.” Leicester checked his watch. “In truth, I expected Mr. Jenkins to have returned from London by now. I wonder what’s keeping him,” he added with a pensive frown.

  “Sir, about Patrick …”

  Leicester raised an eyebrow at his associate. “Yes?”

  “I mean … it could be nothing …”

  Whatever Carson had in mind, he was obviously reluctant to talk about it. Which only piqued Leicester’s curiosity even more. “Well, what is it?” the Briton asked.

  “Something strange happened at that hotel,” Carson finally declared.

  Leicester was intrigued. “Strange how? Please, elaborate.”

  Chapter 15 – You Can’t Be Serious

  When Professor Fournier walked by the living room as he headed to the kitchen, he saw Lucielle and Marie seated together on the large sofa. The young girl was leaning back comfortably and aiming the remote control at the television as she flipped through the channels. She didn’t seem to notice that the detective was staring at her with a frozen look of disbelief on her face.

  “How are you two getting along?” Fournier asked, wondering what accounted for Marie’s strange expression.

  “We’re fine,” Lucielle replied, her eyes fixed on the screen. “Oh, and I told Marie about us,” she added nonchalantly.

  Fournier studied the detective briefly and said, “I see …”

  Marie stood up and approached him. “You see?” she whispered, making sure the young girl couldn’t hear her. “Do you have any idea what she said?”

  “Judging from the look on your face, I’m pretty sure she told you the truth,” the old man calmly replied.

  When she heard the professor’s remark, Lucielle turned her head. She rose from the sofa and walked over to the pair. “You thought I was lying?” she asked, peering up at the detective.

  “Of course not, sweetie,” Marie replied in a gentle voice. “I’m sure you believe everything you told me. It’s just … even for grown-ups, things can sometimes appear so complicated that it becomes easy to get confused. It’s true there’s a lot I still don’t understand, but … genetically enhanced people? … and clones? I’m sure there’s a more reasonable explanation.”

  Marie eyed the professor to observe his reaction. Now that he knew what he had so carelessly endorsed, she expected him to brush off Lucielle’s outrageous claims as nothing more than the wild musings of a child with an overactive imagination. The detective was convinced this was the young girl’s way of coping with a difficult and stressful situation.

  But when the professor responded with an approving nod, Marie’s jaw literally dropped to the floor. Yet again, she found herself questioning the old man’s sanity.

  “You can’t be serious!” she exclaimed. “Human clones?”

  “Yes,” Fournier vigorously nodded.

  Very slowly, Marie’s eyes rolled down towards Lucielle. “You’re a …”

  “I am,” Lucielle replied. “And so are my brothers and sisters.”

  The detective needed a moment. She sat on the sofa’s armrest because she no longer trusted her legs to hold her up.

  “I realize how awkward this must seem, at first,” said Fournier. “But don’t worry, in time, you’ll get used to the idea.”

  Marie tittered at his remark. “Get used to it? I don’t know, it sounds a lot like science fiction to me.”

  “Sure, I can understand that,” he said. “But when you think about it, science fiction is nothing more than science that hasn’t been discovered yet.”

  The detective seemed to concede that point, but there was still a lingering glimmer of doubt in her eyes. “So, you and Professor Karpov … you … what? cloned them?”

  “No, that was Lucielle’s father,” Fournier replied.

  Suddenly, Marie looked even more confused. “Father? But, you just said …”

  “Lucielle and her siblings were created by a man named Adam Cross,” the professor explained. “And he cloned them using his own DNA. Which, for all intents and purposes, makes them his children. Damien and Lucielle are exact replicas of Adam. That’s why they’ve inherited his last name: Cross. The others were the result of a more elaborate cloning method, but most of their DNA also comes from Adam.”

  During her time as a detective, Marie had occasionally c
ome across crime scenes which, on initial inspection, appeared to defy all logic and reason. But experience had taught her that, in the end, there was always a rational explanation waiting to be dug up from under every heap of the bizarre and the unexplained. And despite everything she had witnessed in the past couple of days, deep down, she still believed this time would be no different. She thought once the curtains were lifted, they would reveal a neat little trick to explain away all the illusions.

  She was wrong.

  Fournier gave the detective a long, probing look.

  She was still a little dazed from the incredible revelation, but all things considered, she was dealing with it well enough. He believed the events from earlier in the day had made it easier for her to accept this extraordinary new reality.

  Lucielle also had the same impression. She could see the barriers gradually crumble behind the detective’s eyes as more pieces of the puzzle came together in her mind.

  All of a sudden, Marie whipped her head around towards the professor. “Wait a minute! Is any of this even legal?”

  Fournier’s eyes shifted away. “Well … of course, from a legal perspective, we may have … cut a few corners here and there,” he said, struggling to answer her question.

  The detective squinted suspiciously. “Hmm, that doesn’t sound very convincing,” she said.

  “You make a valid point,” Lucielle interjected. “But I’m afraid in this case, it wouldn’t have made any difference.”

  Marie tilted her head at the young girl.

  “As I mentioned earlier,” Lucielle continued. “The research in question was instigated by informal branches of the governments of three West European countries, in partnership with the US Military. From their perspective, this wasn’t just another interesting venture, but rather a necessary one. Therefore, and taking into consideration the nature of the parties involved, it would be naïve to expect them to have desisted from this research purely out of ethical, or even legal, concerns.”

  For the third or fourth time that day, Marie stared at the strange young girl with a mix of surprise and confusion. Part of her stupefaction stemmed from having been called naïve by an eleven-year-old child. But mostly, she couldn’t believe how grave and mature that child had sounded. Even the tone of Lucielle’s voice had changed. In that instant, Marie could not find a trace of the innocent-looking girl who had been humming with insouciance as she brushed her doll’s hair.

  Mistakenly believing that Marie’s reaction was a result of her taking offense at Lucielle’s directness, Professor Fournier thought it best to take over.

  “You must keep in mind,” he said, “that once a discovery has been made, it cannot be undiscovered. The genie can’t be put back into the bottle, so to speak. Those who would abandon all research in a particular field, be it for legal or moral reasons, have but two options. One: trust that others will not continue that research in secret. Or two: run the risk of finding themselves at a disadvantage, should some other party achieve a major breakthrough. Having spent most of my life working for the kinds of people we’re talking about here, I can guarantee that you won’t find a more paranoid bunch anywhere. Trust, simply isn’t part of their world view.”

  Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

  Chapter 16 – Tension

  “Ah! They’re here,” said Fournier as he got up and went to answer the door.

  Having heard the doorbell as well, Doc showed up in the entrance hall, gun in hand, and joined the professor.

  “It’s all right,” the old man told him. “It’s just Arianne and your friend. She called me to let me know they were near-by. I was waiting for them.”

  Lucielle and Marie also moved closer as Fournier opened the door.

  As soon as Arianne walked in, her sister ran into her arms and asked, “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, Luce,” Arianne replied.

  “I was so worried when they told me Damien was there,” the young girl said.

  “That certainly made the trip more interesting,” Kincade remarked. “But then again, you guys had plenty of excitement too.”

  “We sure did,” said Doc.

  “I’m sorry,” Marie said in a timid voice. “Those men probably followed me to the professor’s home.”

  “You must be that German detective Doc told me about,” said Kincade. “Don’t worry about it. For all we know, they found that place on their own. Hi, my name’s Nate,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “Hi, I’m Marie. Nice to meet you,” she replied as they exchanged a cordial handshake.

  Arianne approached the detective but remained beyond arm’s reach. “Hello,” she said.

  At first, Marie couldn’t help but stare in silence—she was still a little numb from learning the truth about Lucielle and her siblings. But she eventually returned the greeting, “Hello.”

  “You told my friends that you knew Professor Karpov?” Arianne asked.

  “Yes, we met a couple of years ago. But we spent a lot of time together after that. He was a truly dear friend.”

  “May I ask why you’ve come to Paris?”

  Arianne’s tone was neutral, but her eyes projected a blend of kindness and sadness that reminded Marie of Professor Karpov. Normally, that familiar feeling would have put the detective more at ease. But oddly, what she felt was the complete opposite. Though she did not quite know why, Arianne’s gaze elicited a growing sense of unease within her.

  “I’m here because Professor Karpov was my friend,” said Marie. “I want to get justice for his murder.”

  “Don’t you mean revenge?” Arianne corrected.

  “No … maybe … I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t just sit around in Berlin and pretend that nothing happened.”

  Arianne paused and sighed. “By now, you must be aware of the rare dangers you’ll have to face if you choose to stay with us.”

  “I guess,” said the detective. “But it’s too late for me to turn back. Too many people know about me. I doubt I’ll be safe even if I return to Berlin now. I have no choice but to see this through.”

  Arianne’s scrutinizing gaze did not relent.

  Marie felt as though this woman, whom she had never met before, could somehow peer behind her pupils and shine a light inside the deepest recesses of her mind. It was an odd sensation. One she imagined was similar to being naked in front of a stranger.

  This feeling of discomfort caused the detective to avert her eyes, almost as a protective reflex. That’s when she noticed Lucielle and Professor Fournier staring at her with a strange anticipation. It was like they were waiting for something to happen.

  Kincade and Doc remained silent as well. They understood the reason for the other’s sudden stillness. They remembered that Arianne’s heightened empathic sense allowed her to detect all forms of deception. This talent had already been demonstrated to them when they had questioned Leicester’s assistant, Mark Stanwell.

  And now, it was Marie’s turn.

  After all, what did they really know about this detective from Berlin? She had shown up out of nowhere to Professor Fournier’s home, with Carson’s squad right on her heels. What if it had all been part of some elaborate plot? She could have been planted in their midst as a spy. A failsafe, in case Carson’s assault failed. Leicester could have briefed her on what to say.

  In view of their recent setbacks, neither Kincade’s team nor the fugitives could afford another misstep. Fortunately for them, Arianne would be able to tell whether or not the detective was telling the truth.

  Of course, Leicester would have been aware of that fact. But it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities that he would have taken the chance anyway.

  With all eyes intently fixed on her, Marie’s unease quickly turned into apprehension. She could tell something was going on, but what exactly? Her right hand instinctively inched closer to the gun holstered on her waist as she cast a nervous glance around her.

  But when the detective’s gaze landed back
on the woman in front of her, she noticed something had changed. The piercing intensity had faded from Arianne’s eyes.

  “I apologize if I’ve made you nervous,” Arianne said with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She extended her hand to the blond woman.

  Marie tentatively shook it and said, “Pleasure to meet you, too.”

  Just like that, the tension in the air was gone. The detective was bewildered to see that everyone had abruptly stopped paying attention to her. Doc and Kincade exchanged some words as they moved away, while Lucielle and the professor bombarded Arianne with questions. What just happened? Marie wondered.

  “I’ll tell you everything,” Arianne said as she pulled away from Lucielle and Fournier. “But first, I’d like to go check on Ash and Soran.”

  “I’ll go with you,” said the young girl as she followed her sister into the right-hand side corridor.

  “Would anyone like something to eat, or drink?” Fournier asked out of the blue.

  The mercenaries shook their heads. But Marie took him up on his offer. With everything that had been going on, she hadn’t had a chance to eat anything since early the morning.

  “I wouldn’t mind a bite,” she said.

  “In that case, follow me, young lady,” Fournier said as he led her into the kitchen. “There isn’t much, but I’m sure we can at least fix you a sandwich.”

  Left alone, the two mercenaries sat down in the living room.

  “It took you a while to get back from London,” Doc remarked.

  “Couldn’t be helped,” said Kincade. “We needed to be extra careful. Leicester’s men were searching for us all over the city.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Is Da Costa going to be OK?” Kincade asked, sounding worried.

  “I think so,” Doc replied. “Thankfully, we got him to a hospital fairly quickly.”

  Kincade breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear it. Still, we’ll have to get him out of there, soon. The longer he stays in that place, the greater the risk Leicester will find out about him.”