The Clone Paradox (The Ark Project, Book I)

by J. W. Elliot

  “I expected more of you,” Rio said.

  “If you want to get into a discussion about job performance,” Flint said, “you won’t come out on top.”

  “We need to go,” Kaiden said.

  As much as he might like to hear Flint give Rio a dressing down, he saw the corpses scattered throughout the corridors. He smelled the death that lingered in every hallway. He had to stop this.

  “Just a minute,” Flint said. “Almost there.” A ping sounded. “Got it.”

  The holographic screens flashed on, and they gazed at the pandemonium in the corridors. TAP had become a war zone.

  “Where are our people?” Rio said.

  “I’m looking for them,” Flint said. “Those that are alive are congregating in the hangar on the third level.”

  “That would explain why we didn’t run into any terrorists on the lower levels,” Jade said.

  “They must be herding them there,” Birch said.

  “We have to do something,” Rio said.

  “Wait a minute,” Flint said.

  “I’m gonna beat you silly if you don’t stop saying that,” Rio snapped.

  “You touch anybody,” Jade said, “and my next bullet will punch a hole in that wooden lump that you call a brain.”

  “Besides,” Flint said, “we don’t want to race in there just to have our fellow clones kill us, now, do we? Give me a minute to get the message ready.”

  “What message?” Willow asked.

  “You’ll see. Now, be quiet and let me work.” Flint keyed something into the computer.

  A fifth detonation growled through the corridor, causing the holographic screens to blink and flicker.

  “Sounds like Oakley’s ordered them to blow up the compound,” Birch said.

  “He already blew up the Genesis Room,” Willow said, “with the first bomb.”

  Kaiden spun to face her as dread filled his chest. Birch and Jade didn’t look at Willow. They had already known. But Jade’s face paled, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

  “And the nursery?” Kaiden asked.

  “He killed them all,” Willow said, tears streaming down her face.

  A pit expanded in Kaiden’s stomach. All those innocent children. Even if they were clones, they didn’t deserve to die like that.

  “Now, who’s the monster?” Jade asked. Her face was grim, and Kaiden knew she had visited the Genesis Room just to see the babies.

  Rio’s gaze swiveled between them. “You led a man in here so he could murder the babies?”

  “No!” they all yelled at the same time.

  “He promised us there would be no killing,” Kaiden said. “We only brought in five, and they were neutralized.”

  “You believed a terrorist whose only goal in life is to kill clones?”

  “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Willow said.

  “It was a risk,” Kaiden said, “but we made contingency plans. We can still stop this.”

  “I have a nice surprise for them,” Flint said. “Internal Nano-Cellular Repair is going to come in handy today.” The computer pinged again. “There.” Flint snatched up his rifle, grabbed his portable computer, and headed for the door.

  The intercom crackled to life as they made their way down the hallway. Dead clones lay everywhere. Here and there, the body of a terrorist in his distinctive blue jeans and white T-shirt mingled with the rest. The smell of viscera, gunpowder, burnt plastic, and hot metal filled the corridors, making it unpleasant to breathe.

  “Attention TAP personnel,” the intercom said. “We have been invaded by the Sons of God terrorist organization.”

  “That’s a hopeful message,” Birch said.

  “Just listen,” Flint said.

  “Evacuation airships are preparing in the hangar on Level Three,” the voice continued. “Arm yourselves, if possible, and destroy any terrorist you see. Do not turn your weapons on each other. Commander Rio will be directing the evacuation with the TAP leadership team from the hangar on Level Three. All security personnel are to protect TAP workers and lead them to the hangar.”

  “That’s a nice touch,” Birch said.

  Rio grunted. “You fools have wasted decades of research and development. If we get out of here alive, I’m going to see that all of you are disciplined to within an inch of your lives.”

  “Good luck,” Jade said.

  Rio scowled at her.

  “You didn’t think we’d find a way to remove those stupid switches?” Birch said. “You can’t control us any longer.”

  “I’ll find a way,” Rio said.

  The message repeated. It echoed in the deserted corridors.

  “That didn’t seem like much of a surprise,” Birch said. “I thought you had something big up your sleeve.”

  “It’s coming,” Flint said. “It’s gonna be painful, but we’ll all recover quickly enough.”

  “I’m gonna thump on you,” Rio said, “if you don’t start talking straight.”

  A white gas drifted down over them from the air ventilation system.

  Flint grinned. “You might want to cover your mouth and nose,” he said. “That way, you won’t get such a high dose.”

  Shouting and screaming echoed down the corridor. Kaiden pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose. “Flint, you’re crazy,” he said from behind his shirt.

  “It won’t kill anyone,” Flint said.

  The burning began at the back of Kaiden’s throat, and soon his airway felt like it was on fire. Tears dripped from his eyes.

  “But I’m gonna kill you,” Birch choked at Flint.

  “Keep moving,” Flint said.

  They stumbled along, hampered by the growing crowd of wheezing, coughing TAP personnel. They shoved their way into the stairway and elbowed past staggering clones until they reached the third level. The sounds of scattered gunfire still erupted here and there. They came across a squad of terrorists bent over, gagging and vomiting. Two of them sprawled unconscious near the wall.

  “Disarm them,” Kaiden ordered.

  Birch and the others confiscated their guns and then bunched them in a group. A TAP woman in a nursery jacket snatched up one of the guns beside Kaiden with a horrible shriek and started shooting into the group of terrorists. Red stains blossomed on their white shirts, and several of them fell before Rio wrestled the gun from her hands. Her face was distorted in rage and streaked with tears.

  “They murdered our babies!” she sobbed.

  “We know,” Rio said, “but we need them to talk.” He glanced at his pistol and then at Kaiden as if he considered using it on him.

  Jade grunted and gestured with her rifle for him to set it down. He smirked and handed the gun to a man in a security uniform that had just made his way out of the stairwell.

  “Guard them,” Kaiden said.

  “You’re all going to die anyway,” one of the terrorists croaked. “This place is going to burn and roast you all.” He spat on the floor.

  Kaiden suppressed the sudden burst of guilt. He had been one of the terrorists in his first life. He considered kicking the man in the teeth but decided against it and joined the rest of the group as they muscled their way down the crowded corridor toward the hangar.

  “What was Oakley planning?” Kaiden asked Willow.

  She glanced at him in annoyance. “I don’t have any idea,” she said. “He told me what he told you. But I don’t think he meant to destroy Ararat. He wanted to clone himself.”

  Kaiden stared at her. “Are you serious?”

  She nodded. “He told me before Birch and Jade shot him.”

  Kaiden sniffed in disgust. “Even I didn’t think he was that much of a hypocrite.”

  Gunfire sounded in the corridor behind them. Kaiden jerked around.

  “They execut
ed the terrorists,” Willow gasped in disbelief.

  “Doesn’t look like clones are any better than naturals,” Birch said.

  “They just witnessed babies and children being murdered,” Jade replied. “Any human would react the same way.”

  “We tried to be humane,” Rio said. “I guess they listened to Flint’s little message.”

  They found the level three hangar filled with people—desperate and panicking. Most seemed to have recovered quickly from the effects of the gas because of the INCR, and several groups of terrorists lay dead or tied up in little bunches. Bodies were strewn everywhere. Several airships had already taken off. Flint’s surprise was unorthodox, but he had effectively neutralized the terrorists.

  “Where are you going to send them?” Kaiden asked. His throat still burned, but the sensation was fading.

  “The nearest TAP facility is in northern Mexico,” Rio said.

  “Is that a good idea?” Jade asked.

  “You have a better option?”

  Jade shook her head.

  “I’m not going there,” Kaiden said.

  “Suit yourself,” Rio said. “But you’re not taking one of the large gunships. I need those.”

  “That one will do,” Birch said, pointing to a small F-205 Vulture transport.

  “Get out of here,” Rio said. “You’ve done enough damage for one day.” He raised a hand to squeeze his injured shoulder. “Next time I see you, you’re dead.”

  Kaiden hesitated and then sprinted toward the F-205 transport, the others following close behind. He clambered into the cockpit with Birch, who was running through the pre-flight checklist.

  “Better get this thing into the air,” he said. Jade and Willow crouched behind them as Birch fired up the engines.

  “Look!” Willow shouted and pointed out the window of the airship. “It’s Noah.”

  Kaiden glanced up. A tall, beautiful black woman dressed in a white lab coat strolled calmly toward another F-205 transport. A black child in a pink dress held her hand. The woman paused at the door to the airship and looked over her shoulder at Kaiden.

  “Rose?” Kaiden whispered. It wasn’t possible. His mother was leading Rose by the hand.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Pursuit

  Kaiden leaned forward with his head in his hands, listening to the quiet thrum of the engines as the airship hurtled through the night. He left Birch to pilot the craft while he tried to get control of himself. His head ached, and his elbow still throbbed. The INCR nano-particles would soon take the pain away.

  He still couldn’t believe what had occurred—his mother was Noah, he had pulled the trigger, Oakley had murdered the children. It all happened like a dream or a bad nightmare. The shock of it left him feeling numb, unable to cry anymore. How could he have stopped this?

  The sight of his mother falling onto the couch with his bullets in her chest haunted him. How had it come to this? He’d become the monster he feared. So many died—for nothing. TAP hadn’t been destroyed. He hadn’t stopped his mother, and little Rose was alive—or at least a clone of her was. She was almost the same age she had been when she died. What did his mother do? Keep recycling Rose’s clones to keep her perpetually ten or eleven the way she did his?

  Kaiden groaned as the realization hit him. Nineteen. He had died at the age of nineteen. His mother only kept her clones alive through the age of nineteen. When they turned twenty, she killed them. It was sick, deranged. His mother had loved him, after all, but in a selfish, perverse way. She had tried to resurrect the children she had loved to freeze them in time. Freeze their relationships in time.

  Worst of all was the earth-shattering understanding that if multiple clones of his mother existed, then there was certainly another fully-formed clone of himself out there, living out an independent existence. This idea had never been a subject of contemplation for him because he had no reason to believe it possible. But if there was another clone of him out there with the same mental structures and memories, what did that mean for his own identity? Was he just a carbon copy with no independent self?

  The numb shock slowly gave way to burning rage. She had betrayed him. His own mother had cloned him despite his own feelings. How could a mother be so selfish?

  “You all right?” Willow sat beside him on the padded bench in the tiny common room at the center of the airship.

  Kaiden lifted his head and nodded.

  “Head hurting again?”

  “A bit,” Kaiden said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Kaiden turned to her. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  She looked away. “I guessed just before we left. But I wasn’t sure. I thought it might be your father.”

  “And you let me go there to kill my own mother anyway?” Kaiden yelled. The rage, frustration, and horror had built up so much he had to let it out. “After you knew how much I wanted my family?”

  “I’m sorry,” Willow said. “It was your idea to go after her. I did try to convince you to send someone else. Besides, I could have been wrong—then what would you have thought? Maybe you had to see for yourself. You never would have believed me otherwise, and if I killed her, or Jade or Birch had, you would just blame us.”

  “She was my mother,” Kaiden shouted.

  Willow lunged to her feet. Her face burned bright red as the anger flashed in her eyes. “You’re not the only one who’s suffering! My brother tried to kill me after he butchered innocent children.” A sob escaped her throat. “I had to watch him die. And I never lost my memories of him. I’ve been longing to be with him for forty years. You’ve missed your precious mother for only a few weeks.”

  Her outburst so startled Kaiden that he sat back against the wall of the airship and stared at her. She was right. She had tried to warn him, to convince him not to go himself.

  “So, I don’t want to hear any more crap about how much you’ve suffered,” Willow finished. “We’re all suffering.” She loomed over him in a blood-spattered lab coat with her fists clenched, daring him to contradict her.

  Kaiden bowed his head. He had directed his frustration at her, but he was really angry with himself.

  “You know,” Birch said as she stepped into the room. “You two have it all wrong.”

  Willow whirled to face her.

  “How’s that?” Kaiden asked.

  “First of all,” Birch dropped onto the cushioned seat and yanked Willow down beside her, “if your mother cloned herself, you aren’t technically related. Her clone didn’t give birth to you. Your own DNA did.”

  Kaiden scowled. He didn’t like what Birch was saying. “Like that hardly matters,” he mumbled.

  “And you,” Birch said to Willow, “you’re what, four generations removed from Oakley. He hasn’t been your brother for forty years.”

  “We still share DNA,” Willow said.

  Birch scoffed. “Those memories you two go on about are connected to bodies that no longer exist,” she said, “to lives that were snuffed out years ago. You’re both products of a test tube, and until you accept that fact, you’re going to run around like pigs with their heads cut off, trying to find some identity that doesn’t exist.”

  “It’s chickens,” Jade said from the doorway in a flat voice. “Not pigs.”

  “It still works,” Birch said with a wave of her hand.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Jade said. “Chickens flop around after their heads are cut off. Pigs don’t, at least not as much.”

  “How would you know?” Birch said.

  “I just do,” Jade said.

  Kaiden smiled to himself. Birch was crazy. He glanced at Willow. “Sorry,” he said.

  “I’m sorry too,” Willow said, “for keeping information from you.”

  “It’s about time you admitted it,” Kaiden said.

  Willow gave
him a sad smile. “Do you want me to reset your memories back to the Kaiden who I first met on the lunar transport?” she asked. “That way, you can forget that you ever knew…well, you can forget what happened.”

  Kaiden considered. Willow was serious. Her jaw was set, her expression grim. What did she mean? Before or after the attack on the lunar transport? After the way he’d acted with his restored memories, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to go back before their relationship had become so complicated. But he shook his head. “These memories are who I am.”

  “I think we’re making headway,” Birch said.

  “But this means,” Jade said, “that what Willow said about how TAP has us on a schedule to be replaced every six or seven years is wrong.”

  Kaiden glanced up at her. “How do you figure?”

  “If multiple clones of your mother are walking around all about the same age, then she must have dozens of them in production at any one time, which means she could have dozens of us in production.”

  “Maybe not dozens,” Willow said, “but certainly several copies.”

  “You mean, I’m not myself?” Birch asked.

  “What?” Jade said.

  “There is no self if I have five copies of me running around. There’s a…” she said, struggling to find the word, “…a plurality. I’m freaking out about this.”

  “There’s only one you,” Jade said with a smile. “Believe me.”

  Kaiden understood exactly what Birch meant. It was a shock to the foundation of individual consciousness. If there were multiple copies of a single individual coexisting, then what did self even mean?

  “Identity is a complex thing,” Jade said. “We all construct our sense of self from our personal experiences and our beliefs about the past and about morality. No two people—even clones—will have the same sense of self. It’s impossible.”

  Despair clutched at Kaiden’s chest. Maybe it would have been better to let TAP kill him. At least then he would be free of this pain.

  “My mother is still going to release The Flood,” he said, “and there won’t be any natural humans left if we don’t do something.”