by J. W. Elliot
Oakley took two great strides toward Willow, and before Kaiden could so much as point his rifle, Oakley enfolded Willow in an embrace. Willow stiffened for a moment and then melted into his arms and cried.
Kaiden glanced around at the others to find the same shock and incomprehension he felt written on their faces.
Birch shrugged helplessly. “Old boyfriend?” she mouthed.
The awkward silence stretched out for several minutes until Willow started sniffling. She pulled away and gave them a guilty smile. She wiped at the tears, leaving muddy smudges on her cheeks.
Then, she gestured toward Oakley, who stood with an arm around her waist. Kaiden experienced a sudden pang of jealousy, which surprised him.
“This is what I was going to tell you,” Willow said. “Oakley is my little brother.”
Kaiden gazed up at the tall man.
“Little?” Birch said.
“Younger,” Willow corrected.
“And he’s a terrorist?” Kaiden said.
Willow glanced up at Oakley. “He’s their leader. That’s what I was trying to tell you.”
The statement hit Kaiden like a punch in the stomach. He dropped into the chair. Now, he understood why Willow had wanted to join the terrorists and why she hadn’t told him. She was gambling with their lives so she could reconnect with the life that had been stolen from her.
“You’re joking,” Flint said.
“All right,” Birch said, “let’s hear it.” She flopped into the chair, folding her legs under her. Jade and Flint sat down, as well.
“There’s not much to tell,” Willow said. She glanced up at Oakley. “Our father got himself killed in a coup in Africa. Our mother raised us.” Her lips trembled, and Oakley squeezed her against him. “The last time I saw Oakley, we were being chased by a hovercraft that crashed into us. I fell, and I never saw Oakley again.” She bit her lip. “I was dead. Harvested by TAP.”
“They tried to tell us that the hovercraft was just malfunctioning,” Oakley said, “but I knew better. I was there.”
“What are you saying?” Jade asked.
“She was targeted for harvesting,” Oakley said. “I figured it out and tried to get her out of there. But I failed.”
They stared at him in silence, waiting for him to explain.
Willow picked up the story when Oakley remained silent, the muscles working in his jaw.
“TAP has been harvesting the most gifted children for decades,” she said.
“Harvesting?” Birch asked.
“That’s what the leadership calls it,” Oakley said. “They harvest your DNA and your memories before they clone you.”
Flint scowled at them. “You mean they killed us so they could clone us?”
Willow and Oakley both nodded.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Flint said. “There’s no need to kill someone to take their DNA.”
“So what?” Jade cut in.
Willow glared at her. She didn’t like Jade. That was plain enough.
“So,” Willow said with measured calm, “they murdered us to steal our genetic and psychological identities so they could use us as lab rats in their search for the perfect clone.”
“I get that,” Jade said. “I don’t like their methods either, but cloning may be the only way to save humanity from this mess we live in.”
“I’m with Jade on this one,” Flint said. “Look at what natural humans have done to the planet and to each other. I’ve been in the megacities. Those natural humans are more like animals than humans.”
“Exactly,” Willow said. “So why not take all the money TAP wastes on clones and put it to better use?” Her face flushed pink. Instead of wasting money on all this research, why not try to clean up the planet and make it livable and equitable for the humans who inhabit it? Why not pay for birth control and medical facilities? Why not set up micro-ecosystems on earth where they could rejuvenate our world and feed our people instead of running to the stars where we know humans can’t live?”
“I don’t think we know that,” Jade said. “And you still haven’t answered my question. If we can help humanity by making genetically modified humans who will take better care of the earth and be able to thrive in space, don’t we have a moral obligation to do it? Isn’t the sacrifice of a few kids worth it?”
Oakley scowled, and the muscles in his jaw twitched.
“Sacrifice?” Willow snapped. She stepped toward Jade, but Jade wasn’t intimidated. “Let’s talk about the costs. Robbing people of their right to die with dignity. Trapping them in a perpetual existence as lab rats. Murdering promising children simply to rip their minds from them and then clone them—without permission—only to use them as a slave labor force and an armed militia to attack natural-born humans. Murdering a sentient human being that feels the drive to survive and that is conscious of being murdered just so they can run experiments on them.”
Willow wiped savagely at the tears spilling down her face, smearing mud everywhere. She glared at Jade. “Only a vicious amoral being could sanction such a program.”
“She has a point,” Flint said.
“Look,” Jade said, “I’m not saying it’s morally unambiguous, or even right, but we’re talking about the survival of our species here. Is it better to treat a handful of people as you describe, which I admit is horrible, or force billions of humans to a slow death on a dying planet? If science has found a way to save humanity when religion and politics haven’t, why not take it?”
“Because,” Birch said, “it’ll probably fail. Cloning makes identical copies of the DNA, which destroys genetic diversity. If something happened and only clones were left, we might not have the diversity necessary to permit long-term survival. Cloning could doom humanity if it became too widespread.”
Jade considered. “That’s a better argument than the one the terrorists use. But even that doesn’t work. Look at us. It’s clear TAP has been harvesting clones from every ethnic group.”
Oakley shifted. “To those who believe in a god, cloning is sacrilegious.”
“That’s a lame argument,” Flint said. “It might work on your ignorant recruits, but it won’t work on us. Besides, Buddhists aren’t opposed to cloning. Neither are most Hindus. It’s only some monotheistic religions that oppose it.”
Oakley scowled at Flint. “You scoff at religion, but a person’s religious beliefs aren’t any less significant than your scientific ones. Cloning meddles with the balance of nature. It assumes that humans know everything there is to know about the generation of life. It’s a perversion of the natural world.”
“I’m not scoffing at religion,” Flint said. “But that doesn’t make any sense, either. Clones aren’t any more a perversion than a twin is. Twins are clones of each other.”
Willow gave Oakley a nervous glance as if she was anxious not to offend him. “Um,” she began, “Flint is right. Cloning is a form of asexual reproduction that is quite common in nature. Some fish, lizards, such as the Kimono Dragon, insects, like bees and aphids, and some frogs engage in parthenogenesis. Some call it virgin birth. But all it means is that the female egg develops into a fully formed individual without fertilization. The offspring is effectively a genetic clone.”
“You see?” Flint said.
Oakley didn’t respond immediately. A war seemed to be raging within him. Kaiden decided then and there that he didn’t like Oakley. He seemed duplicitous, scheming. He wasn’t putting up a good defense of his position.
“Even if God chose to allow some creatures to reproduce asexually,” Oakley said, “he clearly never intended that for humans. As all of you should be keenly aware, artificial cloning of social animals, like humans, can only cause intense personal suffering and emotional and psychological dislocation.” Oakley gazed directly at Willow. “We were created, or evolved, if you like, to be born into
families. We need to be tied to other human beings who share our genetic heritage.”
“He does have a point,” Birch said. “I mean, I’m all right, but the rest of you are really messed up.”
Flint chuckled, and Kaiden smiled despite himself. “What about orphans and adopted kids?” he said. “Are you saying they can’t have fulfilling lives unless they’re with their biological kin?”
“And what about marriage?” Flint said. “Married couples aren’t genetically related, and they can live happily together.”
Jade shifted in her seat. “I would think,” she said, “that after all of these years, you would have better arguments. Your entire position is hypocritical. Here you are accusing TAP of playing God by deciding who lives and who dies when you’re doing the same thing.” She pointed to the screen where the newsfeed continued to play. “Murdering clones, or people you suspect as being clones, isn’t any better. What do your recruits do when they figure out you’re a hypocrite?”
“We vet them carefully,” Oakley said. “You may not like our religious arguments, but you can’t deny that stopping an evil like TAP is a good thing. Spending billions of dollars to replace humanity with experimental clones is short-sighted and dangerous, especially when they may not be able to survive. Shouldn’t we save the genetic heritage evolution has left us?”
“Sure,” Jade said. “I agree with you on both points, but it isn’t like TAP is trying to replace natural humans. It’s just trying to make humans who are better adapted to living on other planets.”
“That’s the official line,” Oakley said. He reclined on one of the round, padded chairs. “We think they’re planning to replace natural humans with a genetically modified population they can control.”
“That’s a wild conspiracy theory,” Jade said. “And we are proof that TAP can’t control its clones.”
“You want to talk about the discipline?” Oakley asked.
“How do you know about that?” Flint demanded.
Oakley traced the length of his rifle with a finger. “We know a lot more than you might think, and I suspect a lot more than you know yourselves.”
“For worrying so much about money being ill-spent,” Jade said, “you seem to be pretty well-funded.”
“We have to fight an organization like TAP,” Oakley said. “Besides, there are people who value human life and who are willing to pay to protect it.”
“What do they get for their investment?” Flint said.
Oakley shifted.
“I see,” Birch said. “He’s selling the technology he steals from TAP.”
“So much for the moral high ground,” Flint said.
Oakley cracked his knuckles. “Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.”
“All right,” Kaiden said. “We’re not going to agree on this. To me, it’s about my right to choose who and what I am. That right was stolen from me. I don’t really care about the scientific or religious arguments. I care about not knowing who I am. I care about the family I can barely remember.”
“If TAP hadn’t uploaded your memories,” Jade said, “but had simply cloned you and let you grow up a different person entirely, would you have a problem with it?”
Kaiden considered. That thought had never occurred to him. He shook his head. “With cloning itself? No. But with creating a secret army populated by clones of people who had no choice in the matter and then sabotaging their identities by stealing their memories? Yes.”
“That’s what Willow and I have been trying to say,” Oakley said.
“Well,” Birch said, “as interesting as this little discussion has been, we still don’t have any idea what we’re going to do next.”
“TAP will be tracking us,” Jade said.
“Nah,” Flint said. “I disabled the discipline switch and tracking chip, and we have new WTs, so they can’t use those.”
Kaiden appraised Flint. “I was disciplined back in the elevator shaft,” he said, “after you say you disabled it.”
But Flint was already shaking his head. “I was just running interference then,” he said. “But I got a better read on it from Oakley, and I think I have it disabled for now.”
That would explain why Kaiden hadn’t had any more disciplinary episodes. Flint was more talented than Kaiden had thought.
“But that doesn’t explain why I was disciplined, and none of the rest of you were.”
Willow clicked her tongue in annoyance. “You did just defy a direct order from Noah and then helped us escape.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” Oakley said. “I’ll help you remove your switches and the controls in return for your assistance.”
Kaiden glanced at Oakley while the others considered his words in silence. Was the man boasting? Could he really do something like that?
“You know how to do that?” Jade asked.
Oakley raised an eyebrow. “We haven’t done it yet, but we think we know how.”
“Wait a minute,” Flint said. “How have you been infiltrating TAP?”
“Raven,” Kaiden said.
Oakley gazed at him without expression.
“You sent Raven,” Kaiden said.
Oakley cast him a wicked grin. “We captured her while she was on a secret assignment, one not even you knew about,” he said. “We gave her a few new memories along with a mission to kill the clones.”
“She tried to kill us!” Kaiden shouted, lunging to his feet. “She slaughtered half my team.”
“I’m sorry about your friends,” Oakley said, “but we couldn’t leave anyone alive to give us away. Not if we could help it.” He glanced at Willow. “I didn’t know Willow would be on that mission.”
“Okay, man,” Birch said. “Your whole position is screwed up. You don’t mind slaughtering clones who had no choice in the matter, but you would make an exception for the clone of your sister?”
“Even terrorists have feelings,” Oakley said.
Kaiden blew out his air in disgust. Oakley’s position was more than hypocritical. It was self-serving in the worst possible way. Kaiden didn’t want to have anything to do with these terrorists, but if he was going to survive, he would need to have the discipline switch and tracking controls removed, and if they could write new memories, maybe they could help him recover his.
“What do you want in return for your help?” Kaiden asked.
“Kaiden,” Jade warned.
He raised his hand. “Just a minute. I want to hear what he has to say.”
Oakley smiled at Kaiden, making the age lines crinkle at the side of his eyes and mouth. “I want to infiltrate TAP and bring it down,” he said. “I want to destroy their operation.”
“That’s a tall order,” Birch said. “TAP is huge. There’s no way a terrorist organization is going to do it. You would need a massive army with an armada of airships that could assault every TAP installation simultaneously.”
“No,” Oakley smirked, “all I need to do is kill Noah and corrupt or delete their databases. The whole system will come crashing down.”
“Impossible,” Flint said.
Oakley considered them. “Not if I have your help.”
Chapter Nineteen
The Iris Wilts
Kaiden let the darkness wrap itself around him while one of Mozart’s string quartets filled the room with music. He settled into a corner with his back against the cool wall of his room in the terrorists’ base. The base was an old hospital in some abandoned city in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Hospital rooms had been haphazardly repurposed as sleeping quarters. The room had a single bed, a round side table with two chairs, a sink, and a bathroom with a shower off to one side. A single window overlooked an empty parking lot where camouflaged shelters had been erected to hide the terrorist airships. Kaiden had drawn the curtain so he could be alone in the dark.
&
nbsp; The journey to the base had occupied much of the day. The airship flew at low altitudes and made several detours to ensure they weren’t being tracked. Kaiden didn’t know where he was, and, right now, he didn’t care. Iris was still in critical condition, and Kaiden couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more going on with her and Greyson than met the eye.
Greyson and Iris had received orders to check on a body and then had appeared at the elevator. Why weren’t they still dealing with the body found in the Genesis Room? Greyson had said, “Yes, sir.” So Rio must have called them away and given them new orders. Maybe it was simple team loyalty, but Greyson had been chafing for months under Kaiden’s leadership. It was unlikely he would have agreed to help Kaiden unless he stood to gain something by it. Iris hadn’t awakened yet, and until she did, he wouldn’t be able to get any answers.
This and his uncertainty about Oakley and Willow and the nature of their rekindled relationship had kept him from giving Oakley a straight answer about the removal of the discipline switch and tracking device. Oakley and Willow had not told them everything. He suppressed the sudden surge of rage and a sense of betrayal. What was Willow playing at? Not only had Greyson betrayed him, but Willow had manipulated him and his team into coming to her brother—the terrorist leader. There were too many agendas even among his own group for him to have any confidence that they would all play the parts they had agreed to play. Every time he let himself relax, something went wrong.
Still, what choice did he have? There was nowhere he could hide from TAP with the tracking controls and the discipline switch embedded in his body. The image of his mother’s face flashed through his mind. A deep longing, like he had experienced in his dreams, filled him. It was maddening to have these feelings and this knowledge without being able to put it all into context—to fill in the holes. What had happened to her? Where was his father? Had he loved his father? Had his mother and father loved him? What would they think of what he had done, of what he had become? Unless he could recover the lost fragments of his pre-clone identity, it would torture him for the rest of his life.