by C M Dancha
In less than five minutes, Slice and his two military men were on the third floor heading to the cloning lab. Murphy, who had hidden behind a pole, saw them coming and ducked into the lab.
"Raul, Slice, and two uniforms headed our way."
"Krieger, hide behind the CR47. As soon as you hear me say, Mr. Slice, look at this, take out the two uniforms. Helmer, you and Murphy stand here with your backs to the doorway. Whatever you do, don't turn around. I want Slice to think we’re watching something important through the CR47's transparent cover. When Krieger pops up, you two hit the floor."
A minute later, Slice and his men entered the cloning lab with guns drawn. The first thing they saw was three men facing in the other direction. "Hakala, what the hell are you doing?"
Raul, Helmer, and Murphy didn't flinch, react or say a word. They pretended to be engrossed in whatever was happening inside the cloning machine.
Slice screamed, "Hakala, I said, what are you doing?"
This time, Hakala glanced casually over his shoulder and said, "Mr. Slice, come look at this”.
The cloning lab filled with a hail of energy bursts. The two men with Slice went down immediately. One of them was conscious enough to unload his gun in the general direction of where Krieger hid. Raul grabbed Slice around the neck and flung him to the ground. He kept him in a choke hold until the firefight stopped, and he was certain Slice didn't have a weapon.
"Murphy, throw me a restraint. This son of a bitch is strong."
Murphy crawled across to Raul leaving a smear of blood on the floor which oozed from his left leg and arm.
After fastening Slice's arms behind his back and putting a gag in his mouth, Raul helped Helmer tear Murphy's clothes away to get a good look at his wounds. Krieger hurried from behind the CR47 and made certain the soldiers were dead by slicing their carotid arteries. Raul couldn't help admiring Krieger's efficiency – he’d obviously had plenty of experience dealing with enemies.
An hour later, Krieger's clone was taking form, but was still unrecognizable. Murphy was bandaged and had been treated by Helmer with anti-infection and healing drugs and patches. Slice was sitting on the floor in a corner of the cloning room. He squirmed non-stop, trying to escape the restraints and remove the gag from his mouth. Raul and Helmer took turns checking on Slice and the area outside of the cloning lab. It was an unofficial lock-down of the immediate area, so curious employees couldn't wander in.
Approximately four hours after the cloning started, Claude Ekstrom crept through the hallways toward the cloning lab. The expression on his face belied the fact that he was scared to death of what he might find. He didn't know if he was walking into a viper's pit, or something worse.
"Claude, glad you made it."
Raul's sarcasm was lost to Claude’s surprise and fear at spotting Mr. Slice sitting in a corner of the room, bound and gagged.
"Raul, please tell me this is some kind of joke."
Raul took Claude by the arm and led him into the hallway.
"Claude, calm down. Everything is fine."
Raul handed a thermal pack to Claude and said, "Here, this is the World Council host samples which Rollie hid. Today or tomorrow, you can notify the World Council that you have them."
"Why wouldn't I give these to Slice?"
"Claude, wake up. Slice isn't going to be around. He already suspects you’re an accomplice. If I let him go now, he’d kill you before anyone else."
"That's great. So, what am I supposed to do?"
"You go about your business as the new leader of Phoenvartis and move up the pecking order in the eyes of the World Council. After today, Slice won't be in your way."
Claude's furrowed brow revealed he had no idea what Raul planned.
"Forget Slice for a moment. I've got some things to tell you. First, some of Claudette's remain were recovered. You can pick them up at the Medical Examiner's office. All you have to do is ask for a thermal pack addressed to you." Raul paused to let the good news sink in.
"Thanks, Raul. You don't know how much this means to me."
"Just remember your obligation to deposit the two thousand World Credits each month. Don't try to stab me in the back, Claude; you'll lose. Remember, I still have you on video killing Callie."
"I understand."
"Good. Not that it matters a lot now, but Claudette was killed by a guy named Mr. Todd. He's a ‘for hire’ assassin and fixer of out-of-control situations. I'm reasonably certain Todd was hired by Slice. Unfortunately, Claudette was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She probably interrupted Todd setting his explosive devices in Sophia's apartment, and… well, let's just say that Todd doesn't leave witnesses."
"Why would Slice want to kill Sophia?"
"I don't know, Claude. Maybe he found out that she was working for a terrorist group which wanted to compromise the ReLife program. Or maybe she was sleeping with Phoenvartis executives to gain information and access to the CR47. There are probably a dozen more possible explanations for why he hired Todd. As I said, I'm only making a calculated guess at what happened. Besides, it doesn't matter now."
Claude and Raul reentered the lab as the CR47 finished. A gurney was placed next to the cloning machine and everyone pitched in to move the new replicant. Raul stared at the replicant's face and tried to remember where he’d seen this person. He seemed familiar, but Raul couldn't place him.
"Krieger, you're on your own now. I recommend that you dress the clone and take him out of the building. Helmer, you go with him. If anyone stops you, tell them that the clone is a sick employee being taken to the hospital."
"Murphy, do you want to leave Zurich with us?"
"Yeah. I’ve got nothing to keep me here. But you have to promise that I'll get more opportunities to get shot."
Both men laughed, but it was only Raul who knew the underlying truth to Murphy's tongue-in-cheek remark.
"Helmer, have you decided if you're going with us?"
"I still don't know, Raul."
"Okay. You have about two hours to decide. If you stay in Zurich, I'm sure we can use you here if you're willing."
"What do you mean, Raul?"
"I'll explain some other time. I'm sure we'll be in contact in the future regardless of if you leave with us today or not. By the way, how do you override the fault codes on the CR47 and continue the cloning process?"
"Open this compartment and push this red button. Why do you want to know about the override?"
Raul smirked but didn’t respond. Helmer guessed he was up to something but didn't care to know what it was.
"Okay. Everyone, but Murphy, get the hell out of here."
Claude and Helmer helped Krieger push the gurney. Krieger couldn't get out of the lab fast enough. Claude and Helmer seemed reluctant to leave. They still had doubts that leaving was a good thing to do. Things had happened too fast to process and decide if they were following the right or wrong path.
When Krieger, his group and the gurney were on the lift heading to the main floor, Raul walked over to Slice. "Sedgewick, get prepared for the adventure of your life."
Raul grabbed Slice by the neck and yanked him off the floor. Murphy would swear later that Slice was completely off the floor, choking like a man hung from a rope.
Raul walked Slice over to the CR47 and threw him into the machine. He closed and locked the transparent hood and began the initialization phase. Sweat poured from Slice's forehead and he frantically fought to free himself. He rubbed the gag out of his mouth and screamed in terror, though Murphy and Raul could barely hear him. He tried to kick the hood open with his feet. When that failed, he tried to pry the hood open by kneeling and pushing up with his back. Raul had to give him an ‘A’ for effort and creativity.
After ten minutes, the CR47 completed its initialization. The cabin of the CR47 flooded with an anesthesia gas which rendered Slice unconscious. Raul opened the sample drawer and put pieces of Maxine, the ape, into it. He pushed the Start button and stood back to watch.
As he expected the CR47 coughed up a fault code and shut down. Raul opened the compartment Helmer had shown him and pushed the red override button.
The CR47 started again. Raul and Murphy left the lab about twenty minutes later and locked the entrance door.
Both men wondered what type of monstrosity the CR47 would make combining the evil Sedgewick Slice with the gentle Maxine the ape.
21
GOODBYE ZURICH
"Raul told us to drive directly to the transport terminal and don't stop anywhere along the way. He was adamant about that."
"I know, Easton, but I can't leave without my Grandmother's antique box. It's almost four hundred years old and has been in my family ever since you and…" Rollie caught himself before saying that the box had been in the family since Easton and Sally Hemings were lovers in colonial America. "I have to get the box, Easton. I don't care what Raul said."
Easton fell silent, a hard look of concentration on his face. Something was going through his mind and it was revealed when he said, "Is that the box with the carved ‘H’ on the lid?"
Rollie was stunned and let the hover vehicle wander outside the lane markers. This was the first time Easton had verbalized any memories from his prior life as Thomas Jefferson. Before he could respond, Easton continued. "It has a trick compartment or drawer, doesn't it?"
"You're right Easton. How do you know that?"
"I don't know. It popped into my head." Easton stared at Rollie. "Do you know why I should know about that box?"
"Yes, but we’re almost at my apartment. As soon as we get the box, I'll answer your question. In fact, it's time to answer many of your questions."
The hover vehicle parked fifty yards past the entrance to the apartment building. The two men got out and walked towards Rollie's apartment.
It had been weeks since Rollie had been killed in the apartment. The entrance door was taped over and a ‘Do Not Enter’ warning sign from the Medical Examiner's office was posted on the adjacent wall. Surprisingly, the same entrance code worked so Rollie and Easton ducked under the tape and entered the apartment.
Rollie stood inside the door and stared as though he was unearthing an ancient pharaoh's tomb for the first time. Other than the mess created by investigators searching for evidence, not much had changed. Chairs and sofas were overturned, and kitchen cabinets emptied. Two dried blood pools caught Rollie's attention on the rug in the living area. Rollie reasoned that the larger one was his and the smaller one belonged to the puppy. Why anyone would kill such an innocent animal was beyond his comprehension.
He stepped over a few obstacles on the floor and went into the living area. Behind the overturned sofa, he found his grandmother's maple box. He picked it up and headed for the front door. He was experiencing a weird feeling about being in the room of his own murder and wanted to leave right away.
"Easton, let's get out of here."
Easton snatched up two bottles of wine from the kitchen counter and followed Rollie out of the apartment.
When they got back to the hover vehicle, Rollie switched from self-drive to auto-drive and spoke into the control panel. "Terminal number thirty-two at the transport complex.". The vehicle pulled into traffic to begin the twenty-minute trip to their destination and now that the vehicle was on auto-drive, Rollie could have a serious conversation with his great grandfather.
"Rollie, do you see that woman coming out of your apartment building? I think she's following us."
Rollie caught a glimpse of a thirty-something woman. She was fashionably dressed in clothing tailored for cool evenings in Zurich. Other than seeing her long hair, he didn't have a chance to get a good look at her face. She tried to disguise her observation of their vehicle as it passed by the front of the apartment building.
"When did you first see her?"
"She watched every move we made in the lobby and I'm sure I saw her walking in the hallway as we were leaving."
"There's not much we can do about it now. Let's see if she shows up at the transport complex."
Rollie and Easton conducted a detailed conversation during the rest of the trip and a couple of hours after they arrived at the transport complex. Rollie told Easton everything he knew about Sally Hemings, her relationship with Jefferson, where the maple box came from and what it contained. He described Jefferson as a politician and slave owner and went through the Sweats' family tree. He paid specific attention to his Grandmother LeeLee. The hardest part of the conversation was trying to convince Easton that he was a clone from almost four hundred years earlier. He ended that part of their discussion by admitting that he was a clone also.
By the time Rollie ran out of information and details, Easton was blurry eyed and speechless. He reached over and opened a bottle of wine, pressing the bottle to his lips and drinking almost half of it.
"Easton, give me that. I need a drink too."
While Rollie drank, Easton recapped their conversation. "Let me see if I have this right. I'm your great-grandfather from four hundred years ago. I used to be an influential politician in a land once known as America. Your grandmother LeeLee, who is my great, great granddaughter, was divinely inspired to bring me back to life as a clone. She didn't tell you why it was important for me to return to life, but you think she and her God had a good reason. Is that a fair summary?"
"Easton, I know how crazy this must sound, but it's the truth. It's hard for me to accept that I'm a clone so I can imagine what you're thinking."
After a couple of minutes and numerous swigs from the wine bottle, Easton said, "Rollie, I believe you. I look around and see so many things which I don't understand. Your story isn’t any stranger or bizarre than what I see and hear. Besides, I don't think you're smart enough to make up such a far-fetched story like the one you've told me." Easton started laughing and then playfully slapped Rollie on the shoulder. "That's a joke, great, great, great grandson."
Rollie shook this head and laughed along with his ancestor.
Fifty yards away, a young woman sat in her hover vehicle, surveilling the vehicle which contained the two men who had gone through Rollie Sweats' apartment. She thought one of them looked like the image of Sweats she’d been given by Mr. Todd. But she was sure that Todd said Sweats was dead. She needed to contact Todd to determine if her eyesight and memory were accurate, or already failing at the ripe old age of thirty-seven.
What the woman spying on Rollie and Easton didn't know was that she was under surveillance from another vehicle. The man watching her was using a high-powered sniper scope with video and audio interface. From this distance, he could discern the faintest details on her face and overhear anything she said.
For the next five minutes, he listened in to her audio contact with someone named Mr. Todd. This Todd character wasn't pleased by her interruption of whatever he was doing, but he did answer her questions by explaining that the deceased Rollie Sweats had been cloned back to life. When she mentioned where she and the surveillance subjects were, Todd's attitude changed. "Where did you say you are?"
"I'm at the transport terminal in Zurich."
"Are you sure it's Rollie Sweats you have under surveillance?"
"It sure looks like him. He looks like the image you gave me, and he and his accomplice went through Sweats' apartment. He knew the entrance code."
"Stay right there. Don't go anywhere. I'll get back to you in a couple of minutes."
Todd broke contact and put in a call to Sedgewick Slice. The last he’d heard was that Slice had Sweats in an interrogation room somewhere in Zurich. Now Sweats was at the transport terminal. What the hell was going on? He meant to find out and maybe pick up a few thousand extra World Credits by selling Rollie's location.
"Rollie, that woman we saw at the apartment building is walking our way."
Without looking through the back window, Rollie said, "Are you sure it's her?"
Easton watched the approaching investigator out of the corner of his eye. "It sure looks like her."
&nb
sp; "Okay, when she gets close enough, I'm going to get out and ask who the hell she is."
The investigator closed in on Rollie's hover vehicle, hoping to get close enough to take a video slide and send it to Todd. After messing up the Krieger surveillance, she needed to score points with her boss, Mr. Todd, and his customer, Sedgewick Slice.
She had almost reached the back of Rollie's hover vehicle when Rollie and Easton jumped out and came at her at an accelerating pace. Her hand was on the image maker but their quick exit from the vehicle startled her into instinctively reaching for an energy burst gun. She had no intention of firing it, all she wanted to do was get them to stop so she could gracefully back out of the situation.
Rollie and Easton froze on seeing the gun, but ducked at the sound of a firing gun. A hole appeared in the woman's chest and she slumped to the pavement. Out of the shadows, a large figure appeared holding an energy burst gun.
"Milkweed. What are you doing here?" Rollie hurried across to the body and checked for a pulse.
"Did you shoot her, Milkweed?"
"Hello, Rollie. I've been hearing rumors that you were back from the hereafter. Milkweed didn't bother answering Rollie's question about shooting the woman. It was all too apparent where the fatal burst came from.
Milkweed searched the body for personal possessions and identification. Finding nothing, he was about to stand up when her micromic sounded.
In a perfect rendition of a female voice, Milkweed answered. "Hello."
"Agent Maus, this is Mr. Todd. I want you to keep following Rollie Sweats and report in every hour. I want to know where he goes and who he meets. Understand?"
"Yes, Mr. Todd."
Todd broke contact and sat back in his chair. He hadn't been able to reach Slice or his Lieutenant. A call to Helga, Slice's secretary, and Claude Ekstrom's office produced nothing. All he could do was keep Maus on surveillance until Slice surfaced. As he prepared to cut open his dinner, he thought about the last communication with Maus. For some reason, there was something about her voice or tone that didn't sound right.