Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 (39 page)

“Shot? Who shot him?”

“We don’t know yet. He was transported to
Macon, and is in surgery as we speak. The wife was calling for help
when she heard the shot. When she got outside all she saw were tail
lights disappearing up the road.”

“The tail lights of a yellow Hummer, I’d
wager,” Eddie said grimly.

“Did they find anything in the truck?”
Talbot asked.

“There was a body inside. White male,
thirties, black hair, but no ID. No paperwork in the truck either.
Even the VIN numbers were missing. Oh, and no weapon. The locals
have a deputy there. When the homeowner wakes up—”

“We can’t let the local LEOs get too deep
into this,” Eddie said.

“I’ll get a handle on it,” Talbot assured
him. “Anything else, Airman?”

“Yes, sir. Mr. Bennett is on his way.”

“Finally!” Eddie said. “Maybe we can get
some answers.”

“Well sir, Mr. Bennett was rather adamant
that he'd be of no use here.”

If Eddie's expression could have hardened
more, it would have. “Really.”

“Yes, sir.” The airman shuffled his feet
under the special agent's stare. “He was quite adamant, sir.”

When Jimmy arrived in the generator room,
even the colonel couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. His left arm
was encased inside a pale blue cast, his thumb and fingers exposed.
His right arm was in a sling with a sprained wrist. His eyes were
black and blue, and his nose was broken, forcing him to breath
through his mouth. He was covered with bruises and minor
lacerations. Apparently, he had taken the brunt of the abuse when
the truck jack-knifed. But the person escorting him was someone
Eddie was actually happy to see.

“It's good to see you M,” Eddie managed a
weak smile.

“Wish I could say the same, boss.” He was
dressed in his trademark black suit, white shirt and black tie,
accentuated by his dark brown eyes, black closely cropped hair and
olive skin. “Any word?”

“Not yet.” Eddie studied the young man’s
dour expression. “Colonel Jim Talbot, meet Malik Ghazini, my
forensic scientist.”

Talbot nodded.

“We just call him M,” Eddie explained,
“because he dresses like one of the
Men in Black
characters.” He turned his attention to the Canadian. “You look
like crap, Bennett.”

“You should see the other guy," Jimmy
replied stoically. "Don's injuries weren't as bad as they thought.
They were able to perform laparoscopic surgery to fix his spleen.
He should be up and about in a day or two. What about our other
patient?” Jimmy asked, glancing at Talbot.

Eddie shrugged. “He’s still unconscious at
the local hospital. Mathers is keeping an eye on him. What's this I
hear about you not wanting to help us out?”

Jimmy gestured toward Ghazini with his
shoulder and immediately regretted it as a short series of sharp
pains assaulted him. He grunted, and then spoke. “I tried to tell
yer man here that I can't do anything from here—”

“We'll see.” Eddie cut him off, turning back
to Ghazini. “What did you find out, M?”

“Doctor Gentry completed the autopsies on
Jo, Airman Jabrani, and Captain Walsh,” he said
matter-of-factly.

“And?”

“You were right. He's almost certain that
Walsh was killed with Jo's gun. We'll be sure when ballistics come
back.”

Eddie found no satisfaction in the
confirmation. “What about Jo?”

“She died instantly in the crash,” Ghazini
answered succinctly, unwilling to dwell on the subject. “The airman
was double-tapped in the heart and shot once in the head with a
nine millimeter.”

Eddie took some solace in the fact that Jo
hadn't been murdered and, more importantly, that she hadn't
suffered. Still, he felt responsible. “What about the lab?”

“There isn't much. From what I was told,
whoever they were, they were professionals. There isn't a single
hard drive left. No prints other than those of the personnel, and
they policed their brass. Whoever they are, they're professionals.
But there are two doors that we haven't been able to open.”

“Those would be the ones to the cloning
chamber and my office,” Jimmy offered. “I wrote my own security
program. They were immediately sealed for forty-eight hours when
the power was disconnected. The storm troopers didn’t know about
it,” he added, looking at Talbot.

Ghazini gave Jimmy a strange look. “Cloning
chamber?”

“I'll explain later,” Eddie assured him.
“Why forty-eight hours, Jimmy?”

Jimmy smiled slyly. “In case things weren’t
going in a direction that I wanted.”

Twenty minutes later they all stood in the
complex's security office. “There's nothing here,” Jimmy
complained.

“Like I said,” Ghazini said
unsympathetically.

“Well, can't you hot wire something
together? You
are
the computer whiz,” Eddie said
impatiently.

“No, you don't understand. There's nothing
here for me
to
hot wire. All of the hard drives are gone. I
tried to tell you guys that I could do more from the outside. But
no,
you were in such a big hurry to get me back down
here.”

“Jimmy,” Eddie started.

Talbot was shaking his head as his cell
phone began to ring. He stepped into the hallway to answer it.

Eddie, thankful for the distraction, closed
the door.

“So, what's this about a cloning chamber?”
Ghazini asked.

“It's a long story, but that's what was
happening down here.”

“Cloning?” Ghazini asked incredulously.

Jimmy piped up. “Oh, it's not diabolical or
anything. Don't get your panties in a bunch.”

Ghazini gave the Canadian a doubtful look.
“Obviously there was a concerted effort for full disclosure here.”
He turned back to Eddie. “Humans?”

Eddie shook his head. “Human. Singular.”

Ghazini nodded. “Even one would
still
be against the law.”

“Yeah, but we have bigger fish to fry. So I
need all of your head in this, okay?”

“You got it, boss.”

Eddie turned back to Jimmy. “How's our
boy?”

Jimmy used a foot to pick up an overturned
chair and plopped into it wincing as he did. “Greg says he's
positive the real Commander Tyler is in the hospital. He even
showed me where he stitched up a cut that Rob got a few days ago
before we scanned him. That's the good news.”

Eddie looked skeptical. “I'm not sure I'd
call that good news. If we have the real Tyler, then that means
Doctor Phillips is out there somewhere running around with the
clone, assuming she's still alive.” He was giving June the benefit
of the doubt. He didn’t want to believe that she was involved in
Benny’s death.

Jimmy continued. “The bad news is that he's
still in a coma and they haven't been able to figure out why. He
didn't have any bumps on the head or anything else. Nothing to
explain the coma.” Jimmy knew there might be another reason why the
commander hadn't awakened, but decided to keep it to himself.

The door opened and Talbot stepped back in.
“We found your missing agents.”

Eddie's eyes went wide, “Where are
they?”

“Are they alright?” Ghazini asked.

“They're fine. A little hungry, dehydrated,
and eaten up by mosquitoes. But fine. They were tied up in the
woods about two hundred yards behind the store next to a dirt road,
along with the rest of the missing personnel.”

Eddie started for the door but Talbot held
up a hand to stop him. “They're being transported to the hospital.
They're gonna need lots of Benadryl and a day or two of rest.”

Ghazini sighed and cracked a rare smile as
he slapped Eddie on the back. “Cal, maybe. But not Geri. They
probably had to tie her to a gurney to get her into the
ambulance.”

Eddie felt some sense of relief at the news,
but was still concerned. “What about Yeoum and Tiong?”

“They're all that we found.”

Eddie nodded.

“We also got the chemical analysis back from
the CDC,” Talbot continued.

“And?”

“Ever heard of something called
Kolokol-one?”

“Nope,” Eddie shook his head.

“I have,” Ghazini said. “It’s a synthetic
opioid used as an aerosol incapacitating agent. And it's
Russian.”

Eddie gave Talbot a doubtful look. “The
Russians?”

“During the Cold War,” the colonel
confirmed.

“What's an opioid?” Jimmy asked.

Ghazini ignored him, but still answered the
question. “Enough of it will knock you out anywhere from two to six
hours.”

“That explains how they got them out of here
without much trouble,” Eddie said. “What on God’s green earth is
going on here?”

Just for a moment there was silence before
Ghazini spoke again. “Where do we go from here?”

“Jimmy's lab,” Eddie replied, as the
colonel's phone chirped and he stepped out again.

“I'm telling you, without a computer I can't
do a thing down here for another”—Jimmy checked his watch—“eighteen
hours or so.” He looked at Eddie. “Even I can’t override my
security program. That was the whole point.”

Eddie glared at the Canadian.

“All I need is a computer with Internet
access. And somebody to actually listen to the words that are
comin' out of my mouth.”

From outside they could hear Talbot's raised
voice. “Say again. You're breaking up.”

Eddie watched the colonel close the door.
“Well, Jimmy, I want you to try anyway.”

“Try what? I’m telling you I can’t get into
my office. Which one of those words do you not understand, Agent
Perez?”

“Maybe we should just get him a laptop,
boss.” Ghazini suggested. “Mine’s in the truck.”

Eddie’s controlled persona was beginning to
show some signs of desperation. He was convinced that Jimmy was
hiding something, and he wanted to know what it was. “No. It’ll
take us an hour to get back outside. We’re here now.”

Talbot opened the door again. “That's it for
now, folks. We've been ordered out of the complex.”

“Ordered out?” Eddie asked. “By who?”

“General Stillman.”

“Wait just a minute. This is an active crime
scene.
My
active crime scene,” Eddie protested.

Talbot looked genuinely empathetic. “The
order came down from the Secretary of the Air Force. My hands are
tied. We have to go,
now
.”

“Well did they even offer an explanation?”
Eddie demanded.

“I know it’s friggin' irregular, but I have
no choice. I received a direct order.”

“We have to try to get to Jimmy's computer,”
Eddie pleaded.

Talbot’s patience was running out. “Look,
Perez, I already ordered my people out.”

“I can get in from the outside in no time,”
Jimmy reiterated, knowing that no one was listening to him.

“We can start fresh in a few hours as soon
as we find out what this snafu is all about,” Talbot assured
Eddie.

“Ten minutes. That's all I want. Just give
me ten minutes.”

“What do you think you’re gonna accomplish
in ten minutes?”

“Give me ten minutes, and I'll show ya.”

Talbot shook his head. “Why am I doin’ this?
Okay ten minutes. Not one nanosecond more.”

* * * * *

COVINGTON AND RIGBY
spent a day
resting and tending to each other’s wounds, the most serious of
which was Covington’s shoulder. He had been correct that the bullet
had passed through the meat without striking bone, tendon, or
ligaments.

The following day, Toni arranged a vehicle
and new credentials for them to use in the next phase of the
disastrous operation that was becoming more and more
improvisational. The two would pose as Homeland Security health
services inspectors in order to gain entry onto Robins Air Force
Base. Dressed in business suits, they passed with ease through the
gates, obtaining a map and directions to the base's water treatment
facility from one of the guards.

When they walked through the door of the
main building, they found a man dressed in the blue jumpsuit of a
civilian employee napping at one of the desks. The drone of
machinery had masked their entrance, but the two weren't trying to
be stealthy.

Rigby cleared his voice loudly and the man
woke with a start.

“Good morning,” Covington said cheerfully.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, he produced a wallet containing
his identification and some papers.

They could see the name
Bill
embroidered on the man’s jumpsuit when he leapt to his feet and
faced the two suspiciously. “Who're you guys?”

Covington smiled and held up the open
wallet. “I'm Inspector Bentley and this is Inspector Harvey,” he
said as he motioned to his partner. “We're with Homeland Security.
We’re here to inspect one of your buildings.”

Bill snatched the ID from him and eyed it
like a liquor storeowner who had just gotten his license back after
losing it for selling to minors. He looked the men up and down, and
wrinkled the brow of his balding head in annoyance. “What's this
all about?”

“We need to have a look inside”—Covington
checked the papers—“building two nineteen.”

“Two nineteen? The only thing in two
nineteen is an old pump control board. They ain't used fer nothin'.
We prime 'em once a month, but that's it. There ain't nothin' in
two nineteen.”

Covington looked at his paperwork again.
“Are you sure? Because it says right here that we need to inspect
building two nineteen.”

Bill's expression showed that he wasn't
happy. “Look fellas, my supervisor ain't here so y'all are gonna
hafta come back later.”

Rigby spoke up. “Just take us to two
nineteen. We won't be five minutes.”

“C'mon man, do us a favor. We have six more
inspections to do today,” Covington added.

Bill eyed the two for several seconds and
then snorted as he picked up a ring of keys from his desk. “Don't
think my union rep ain't gonna hear about this.” He turned and
stomped toward the door. “Union rules say y'all can't do no
inspection without a member of management here.”