The Clone Paradox (The Ark Project, Book I)

by J. W. Elliot

  “Then, we just have to stop her,” Birch said.

  “We have to figure out what that tree means,” Jade said.

  They all turned their attention to where Jade leaned against the doorway with her arms folded.

  “Why?” Willow said.

  “Because I just got an image from Colt,” she said.

  “What?” Kaiden couldn’t believe it. Colt had been killed, like Quill. He’d disappeared weeks ago before they escaped TAP the first time.

  Jade walked over to them and showed the tiny image of the tree that glowed brightly on her wrist terminal. It looked just like the one they had seen on Noah’s files.

  “How did you get this?” Birch asked.

  “I just received it.”

  Birch grabbed her arm to get a better look at the WT. “Did you reply?”

  “Yes, but he hasn’t responded,” Jade said.

  “Look in the background.” Willow pointed to the small screen.

  They all bent low over Jade’s wrist terminal to peer at the tiny image.

  “Is that a shelf?” Kaiden asked.

  “Looks like it,” Willow said. “He’s on an airship. He must have stowed away.”

  “He’s insane,” Birch said.

  “He’s a genius,” Kaiden said. “Why didn’t we recruit this guy for our team earlier?”

  Kaiden realized that he had left Birch piloting the ship after they had taken off from TAP. “Wait. Who’s flying the ship?”

  “Flint,” Birch said.

  “Has he qualified to fly an F-205?” Kaiden asked.

  “We haven’t crashed yet, have we?” Birch said.

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.” Kaiden rose and started toward the cockpit.

  The speaker above their heads crackled. “I heard that.” Flint’s voice boomed overhead.

  They all laughed.

  “Well,” Birch said, “where to now, fearless leader?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

  Kaiden shook his head. “I don’t know. Flint’s flying the ship.”

  “Ever been to Florida?” Flint asked.

  “Isn’t most of it under water?” Kaiden asked. “Why would we want to go there?”

  “Because that’s where the ship Noah took is headed,” Flint said. He paused. “Umm, we have company.”

  Willow lunged to her feet. “Is it TAP?”

  “Looks like a TAP airship,” Flint said.

  Kaiden rose. “How well can you fly?”

  “Hang on,” Flint said.

  The airship dropped into a dive.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Message From The Enemy

  Kaiden caught the arm on the bench he’d been sitting on as the bottom of the airship fell out from underneath them. Fortunately, the bench and table were bolted to the floor. Willow grabbed his leg, but the others careened into the wall.

  “You’re going to kill us!” Birch yelled.

  “I’m going to be sick,” Willow said.

  “Just a bit of fun,” Flint said over the intercom. “You might want to buckle up. This could get interesting.”

  The airship leveled off, and they all scrambled for a seat. Kaiden raced toward the cockpit. If they were going to have to fight, Flint would need all the help he could get. But when he stumbled into the cockpit, he found Flint listening to punk rock music and smiling.

  “Buckle up. They’re gaining again.” Flint called up an image of the airship, chasing them on a monitor as Kaiden dropped into the seat.

  “How many hours have you logged in an F-205,” Kaiden asked.

  Flint grinned. “Enough.”

  Kaiden raised his eyebrows at him.

  “It’s all math and engineering, my friend,” Flint said.

  Kaiden monitored the radar and the radio. “Do we have any guns or missiles on this thing?” he asked as he reached for the radio switch.

  “Nah,” Flint said. “This one’s too small. But, give me a sec, and I’ll have the cloaking software ready to go. I’m hacking into the smart chips already installed in the skin of the ship.”

  “Someone’s transmitting on another frequency,” Kaiden said as a red light flashed on the communications console. He flipped the switch to hear what was being said.

  “Dude,” a voice crackled over the speaker. “Stop trying to get away from me. I’m running out of fuel.”

  “Who’s that?” Flint asked.

  Kaiden shook his head. It wasn’t an official TAP communication. He had heard the male voice somewhere before.

  “Come on,” the man said. “Just answer the stupid signal.”

  Flynn rolled to the left and dived. Kaiden’s stomach did a somersault.

  “Who’s flying that tin can?” the man said.

  Kaiden tried to swallow the sudden rush of nausea. He was used to flying, but not like this. “Maybe we should find out who it is before you make us all throw up.”

  Flint didn’t answer, so Kaiden spoke into the microphone. “Identify yourself,” he said.

  “Dang. It’s Colt, man. Set that stupid thing down before I crash.”

  Flint grinned. “I thought I recognized your dulcet tones.”

  Kaiden scowled at him. He knew Flint hadn’t recognized Colt’s voice any more than he had. Colt had been the one Jade sent to spy on the unregistered TAP shipments. They all thought he had been caught and killed.

  “How did you find us?” Kaiden demanded.

  “Dude, I am running out of fuel. I can answer your questions later. Just put that stupid thing down somewhere.”

  Flint winked at Kaiden. “Your call, boss man.”

  Kaiden smirked at him. “Set it down. Let’s see what this lunatic has found.”

  Jade grabbed Colt into a fierce hug before pushing him away and punching him in the arm.

  “Ouch,” Colt said. “What’s your problem?”

  “I thought I told you to keep your head down,” Jade demanded.

  Colt lounged in the doorway to the cockpit of the F-250, where they had all gathered after Flint lifted it off the ground and set it to autopilot. They abandoned the airship Colt had been flying because they didn’t have any fuel to spare. Colt massaged his shoulder and scowled at Jade.

  He was a short, stocky Japanese kid fresh out of cadet school. Kaiden guessed he couldn’t raise a beard if he’d wanted to. Colt wore the same black security uniform they all had, but he was covered in dirt and some type of phosphorous material that made him glow.

  “Easy girl,” Colt said to Jade. “How did I know you guys were gonna blow TAP to pieces?”

  “We didn’t do it,” Birch said.

  “That’s not the word on the street,” Colt replied. “I was heading toward TAP when I received Rio’s bulletin sent over all secure TAP channels that you are to be arrested on sight. Seems he’s got a full-scale rebellion on his hands.”

  Colt glanced at them. When none of them said anything, he gestured to them. “Care to explain?”

  Jade gave a quick summary without most of the details. But it was enough to cause Colt to stumble to a chair and collapse into it.

  “You people are crazy,” he said.

  “Don’t look at me,” Flint said. “I got all my peas in my pod.” He gestured to Kaiden, pointed a finger at his own ear, and made circular motions. “That one, I’m not so sure about.”

  “Well,” Colt said, “while you guys were ruining the lives for thousands of unlucky clones, I found out a few things you might want to know before you go blundering into another fight with Noah.”

  Kaiden flinched at the name and averted his gaze. The pain he had been trying to suppress rose up in his chest.

  Jade shoved her wrist terminal in front of Colt’s face. “What is this?”

  Colt pulled a face. “That’s not my pro
blem, sis. You all are the geniuses around here. I just gather intel.”

  Kaiden thought Jade might knock Colt’s block off for mouthing off to her, but she gave him an indulgent glare and said, “Spit it out, moron.”

  Colt grinned. “I saw my chance to hop on that secret transport, so I took it—all the way to Mexico City, where I jumped ship, stole that hunk of metal, and tried to get back to you. But you all left me hangin’ out to dry.”

  “You disappeared,” Jade said.

  “Like that’s an excuse,” Colt said. “I was maintaining radio silence, and Flint’s little cloaking device and disrupter in my WT helped me avoid TAP’s tracking software.”

  “Disrupter?” Kaiden.

  “It’s a prototype,” Flint said. “It’s like the one I used on the nano-imager so we could find your tracking device.”

  “Right,” Kaiden said. “We’re going to have to get that tracking chip out of Colt.”

  “I might have another way,” Flint said.

  “Get on with it,” Birch insisted. “I hate it when people stop a story right in the middle.”

  “All right, all right,” Colt said. “Keep your skirt on.”

  Birch sighed in disgust and cocked her head toward Kaiden while pointing at Colt. “This is why we didn’t recruit him from the start.”

  Kaiden smiled. He liked Colt. He reminded him of Quill.

  “As I was saying before, these beautiful ladies so rudely interrupted me,” Colt continued, “that transport wasn’t carrying any DNA that I could find. All they had were piles of crates with that tree symbol all over them. And they were headed toward Bogotá and then on to Rio de Janeiro.”

  “So, what’s in the boxes?” Willow asked.

  Colt shrugged. “When I tried to take a peek, things got real scary, real fast. Alarms went off, and I had to hide in some nasty places until they landed in Mexico City.” He glanced down at his dirty clothes. “Did you know TAP personnel never clean that little tool locker in the engine room?”

  Jade gave a dramatic sigh. “So, you don’t know what was in the boxes?”

  “Did I say that?”

  “I’m gonna kill him,” Birch said.

  “I said it got scary,” Colt said. “I tried to snag one, but I didn’t have time. I snapped this, though.” He clicked his wrist terminal, and a fuzzy image appeared.

  “Tubes?” Jade said.

  “Are those metal cylinders?” Willow asked.

  “I just got a glimpse,” Colt said. “But the crates are filled with these tiny, little vials. They looked like colored glass to me.”

  “How tiny?” Flint said.

  “Geez, I don’t know. Teeny tiny.” He held up his forefinger and thumb about an eighth of an inch apart.

  Jade dropped into a chair. “That’s it? That’s all you got?”

  For the first time, Colt frowned. “Hey, sis. That’s not cool. I just about got killed finding out what’s on that ship for you.”

  Kaiden was distracted by the buzzing of his wrist terminal. He glanced at it. These were the terminals Willow had given them. But they were all here, and none of theirs were transmitting, nor were they buzzing.

  Willow’s brow creased. “Who’s that?” she asked, apparently thinking the same thing.

  “Someone is sending me a message,” Kaiden said. He hesitated. No one should have been able to hack Willow’s terminals. Flint had checked them himself. He glanced at Flint, who raised his eyebrows.

  “This one’s not on me, man,” Flint said.

  “Wait,” Kaiden said. He scowled at Colt. “How did you send that image to Jade? We switched wrist terminals.”

  Jade tossed her hair behind her back. “I sent a message to him after we got out of the tunnels. I was still trying to find him.”

  Kaiden glanced down at his wrist terminal and clicked it on. A short message scrolled across the screen. “Well done, son,” it read. “Watch your back. They’re coming for you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Misconceptions

  The F-205 transport settled onto a little rise covered with the charred skeletons of trees. Below them, the mouth of a cave yawned wide. Cement steps with metal handrails descended into the darkness. Flint cut the engines, and their dying whine shook the airship as it powered down. Kaiden peered out the window at the black mouth of the cave and the dark rock walls. The slanting shadows of evening stretched over the burned-out landscape.

  “I came here with my parents when I was nine or ten,” Willow said. She stood with one hand on the window. “It’s called Mammoth Cave, one of the largest cave systems in North America. Unless someone else has taken up residence, we should be able to stay here for a bit while we decide what to do.”

  “Someone like whom?” Colt asked.

  “Terrorists?” Birch said.

  “No heat signatures register on the monitors,” Flint said.

  “Like anything could live in this wasteland,” Birch said.

  “Actually,” Jade said, “this whole area used to be a lush forest.”

  Kaiden glanced at her. He hadn’t had time to talk to her alone since they went into TAP. He wished he knew what to say to her. The pain on her face still bothered him. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just have a normal relationship? The thought almost made him laugh. What was normal, anyway? It troubled him to see that she was still hurt and that he was the cause.

  “Yeah, I see the burned stumps,” Colt said.

  “The fires started a few years after I visited here,” Willow said. “They burned for months. That’s when people abandoned the area.”

  “I’m gonna have a look around,” Flint said.

  “If we had time,” Willow said, “we could go down into the caves. They’re really interesting.”

  Flint climbed out of the pilot’s seat, snagged a rifle, and headed for the exit.

  “Think I’ll tag along,” Colt said. “Can’t let the old man have all the fun.”

  “That one’s got serious issues,” Birch said as Colt followed Flint.

  “We’re going to need help,” Willow said. “We should try to establish contact with clones we can trust.”

  “Why?” Birch asked.

  “Because.” Willow stared out the window. “We need an army if we’re going to go after Noah again.”

  “A clone army?” Kaiden said. He didn’t try to keep the irony out of his voice.

  Willow stared at him. “If that’s what it takes.”

  “I don’t like the idea of us using clones to kill clones,” Jade said as she passed an oily rag over her rifle.

  “You have a better idea?” Willow snapped.

  Jade paused and glared at Willow.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Kaiden interrupted the debate before it could get started. “If Noah went to the base in Florida, we’re going to need help to get to her.”

  “Anyone been to the base in Florida?” Birch asked.

  Jade nodded and continued wiping her rifle. “Once, after we assassinated a police chief who was rounding up clones.”

  “You assassinated one?” Willow glared at her.

  “That’s what TAP ordered us to do,” Jade said. “Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly developed a conscience.”

  Willow glared and rose to her feet. “Any recommendations on who we should contact?”

  “Our message will have to be encrypted.” Kaiden turned his WT around his wrist thoughtfully. “And only for those we know we can trust.”

  “Dale and Twig in engineering can be trusted,” Birch volunteered. “I know for a fact they’ve been wanting to escape TAP for a while.”

  “Twig?” Jade said with a wry smile. “Somebody took this fad of using earth names a bit too far on that one.”

  “I know a couple of people in the lab,” Willow said.

&n
bsp; “There’s Fawn, from the nursery,” Jade said, “if she’s still alive.”

  “All right.” Kaiden leaned back against the seat and clasped his hands behind his head. “Check with Colt and Flint and then send it. But make sure it’s encrypted and tell them to only bring in people they have absolute confidence in. We don’t need any sleeping cells sneaking in.”

  “And you have to set a deadline,” Jade said. “We might be betrayed or tracked. We can’t sit around here for long.”

  “I’ll get on it,” Willow said and strode from the room.

  Birch’s gaze followed Willow. “What’s got her ponytail all in a bun?”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.” Kaiden shook his head. “Did you think that through before you said it?”

  Birch gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look and said, “What? She’s been grumpy ever since we shot her brother.”

  Kaiden sniffed and raised his hands in helplessness. He looked to Jade for help, but she refused with a noncommittal shake of the head. “Don’t ask me. I try to keep her straight.”

  “You can’t see why watching her brother get killed would upset her?” Kaiden asked.

  “He was going to kill her,” Birch insisted. She glanced at Jade, who nodded her agreement.

  “Anyway,” Birch continued, “you want to explain how you’re getting messages from your dear, dead mother?”

  A scowl darkened Kaiden’s face as he leaned forward to stare at the floor. “How would I know that?”

  “Who’s coming after you?” Birch persisted.

  Kaiden had considered that very question, and there was only one conclusion.

  “It’s one of her clones, obviously,” Kaiden said. “She’s trying to scare me.”

  “Well done, son?” Birch quoted the message. “Perhaps your clone mothers are schizophrenic. How many personalities can a clone have?”

  “One for each clone,” Jade said,.“Clones can’t be schizophrenic.”

  Birch dropped the clip from her rifle and refilled it. “Why not.”

  Jade laughed and tossed her the rag she’d been using to wipe down her own weapon. “Because they’re individuals,” she said. “Schizophrenia happens inside one person’s mind.”