RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (60 page)

“I had no idea that Cyrus was so into monitoring us.”
         “Thank God you didn’t have those boots on in the living room tonight” Toby said.
         “No kidding, we’re going to have to be more careful from now on” said Cheyenne.     

“We
’ll have to scan the room anytime we want to have a meeting to discuss things.”  Todd shook his head.     

“Unbelievable, we got so lucky.  Let’s go back inside and you guys can finish filling me in on everything.” 

Cheyenne and Toby spent the next two hours telling Todd all the details of what they had been through already and what was planned next.  He was astonished at how well they had all kept up this act and for so long too.  He was glad to hear that Dodge and his family were the masterminds behind the plan to end Cyrus. 

He told Toby that he knew exactly where they could get the extra wide metal duct tape that he needed to signal proof the oven.  He also remembered that there was some old metal window screen down in the basement of the house.  Toby could put that in the bottom of his overnight bag and carry it in easily.  Guards rarely inspected bags but if they did he could simply say that it was for his dorm window to keep the mosquitoes out.  They had bars over the windows for security reasons but no window screens.  If you wanted air then you got bugs with it.  The tape would be easier because it was already at the compound and would only need to be moved from one location to another. 

“So Todd, are we going to the compound tomorrow?” Toby asked.
         “Yes, I got a call from Glitch earlier, I think he’s anxious to see the content of those files that you copied from Dodge’s office.”
         “He won’t like it, but it’ll keep him busy for a really long time.  Dodge instructed me on exactly which ones to copy.  He said early on in the development stages they used a program that automatically attempted to re-design a base design until it was as compact and efficient as possible.  He said this crazy software spit out almost nine hundred different versions of their base design and they were all totally useless.  They had to start over and make each design change manually.  Glitch would have all eight hundred and eighty-seven of these design files to sift through.” 

They all got another good laugh out of that and began to lay bets on how many of them Glitch would go through with a fine tooth comb before he realized he was pissing up a rope. 

“By the way guys, Dodge told me the official name for what we’re involved in.  They decided on Operation Black Ice.” 

Todd’s eyebrows went up.     

“Operation Black Ice?  That’s tight.  It even sounds cool when you say it.  I feel like James Bond now, this is going to be epic.  I think we might pull this off and now that there is hope I feel a lot better than I did just a few hours ago. We might all have a chance at having our own lives again.”  They all agreed that it would be, and they went on talking until it got very late. 

At the compound Alice still tossed and turned. She had gone to bed early in hopes of drifting off to good dreams of better times but instead she could only lay there awake, wondering about what would happen tomorrow with the clones, she counted sheep, sang to herself, and tried to remember how good she felt when she was with Toby.  After what seemed like a very long time, she finally drifted off.

At the Kerrington’s, Dodge, Linsey and the kids had been asleep for well over an hour.  Dodge received a message on his phone after dinner from Tim informing him that his leave of absence had been approved.  He still needed to go in tomorrow to brief his sub and his team on what he expected for them to accomplish in his absence.  The good news was such a relief, now he could focus solely on putting an end to Cyrus and his plot to destroy their family, not to mention most of the free world.  He longed for new days when he and his family could have a normal life again without worrying about Cyrus Slade wrecking havoc on them.

Chapter 28
    
 
It was quite late now but John Calhoun was still up, working at his PC diligently, digging for information on each individual on the list.  He was constructing a plan to eliminate as many of them as possible from the suspect list by utilizing his 3 degrees program.  He had not yet received the good news about Todd, but soon he would learn of him joining them in their quest.  He was happy to know they had Alice, Toby and Cheyenne.  They had plenty of friends on the inside and could probably get a good number of them to join with them in the coming weeks.  The more people they could save from Cyrus the easier it would be to take the compound when the moment came. 

John began nodding off at his
PC, after six or seven near mishaps of head butting the keyboard, he finally accepted the fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer.  He made the long walk back to the house, it was time to get some shut eye.  Tomorrow morning should bring some very interesting knowledge from his day at the farm with DC. 

Alan was having a great time with the clones at the farm.  He saw that their combat skills were sharpening and their weapons handling was becoming second nature.  When you spend a lot of time with one particular weapon it becomes almost like part of you and you don’t want to be without it.  At first
you’re concerned about shooting yourself but after it becomes an extension of you it no longer concerns you because that would be like a scorpion accidently stinging itself, it just doesn’t happen.  He knew that very feeling himself from carrying his M16 during his tours of duty in Iraq, it literally became like a part of you.

They had a vigorous workout and weight training session right after breakfast each day.  It had a strange effect on Dodge and John back in
Indy, they had both found themselves doing pushups, sit ups, and pull-ups every morning and evening.  They both seemed to have the insatiable urge to work out and even run.  John said it had to do with a chemical reaction in the brain that causes addiction to exercise.  It’s a well-known fact that this can happen to people and because their clones were training so hard it was now affecting their brains also, the shared experiences were causing the same chemical reaction for all of them.  Dodge even found himself down in the basement more each day with a desire to shoot his guns.  He was getting the feeling back of being comfortable with a gun in his hand.

Morning came way too soon for Alice.  She had finally fallen asleep somewhere between two and three and now had to get up at six to be in the lab by seven.  She got up and got ready as quickly as possible, putting her hair back in a pony and no makeup at all.  Most of the women there didn’t use it anyway.  No one cared to look that good for the strange men that were there, and besides she would be in the lab all day working so what was the point.  She was a natural blonde with green eyes and had plenty of natural beauty that didn’t require much fixing up anyway.  But like most women she still thought she needed it. 

She made it down to the kitchen in time to grab some toaster pastries, a hot cup of coffee, and a sport drink to take with her to the lab.  She arrived at ten till seven and sat down at her desk to eat.  It was 6:58 as she was finishing up and in came Cyrus and Glitch.  They were looking especially smug this morning and Glitch even had what could have been mistaken for a smile but only for a fleeting moment.

Glitch went straight to the back and began inspecting the suspension tanks, the clones, and all the hardware.  He called for Alice who was just getting up and still wiping her mouth off from eating her breakfast so quickly.  She went back to assist him in preparing the oldest clone for the file loading.  Cyrus was fiddling with the uplink software,
queuing the files and generally double checking everything.  In just about one hour the first clone would awaken, or would it?  And if it did what would it do, and what would it say if it could speak? 

She was getting very nervous about the potential of Cyrus having a complete melt down over yet another failure.  She wished Toby could be there, she felt so afraid now.  She knew that Toby was coming today but she didn’t know what time and even when he did get there he wouldn’t be allowed in the lab while Cyrus or Glitch were around.  In spite of her feelings she went through all the normal procedures just like she was trained to do back in school.  They had emergency training that taught them how to stay focused and level headed in bad situations and now it was paying off.  

Cyrus targeted her because she was one of the best in the field.  It made her sick that her skills and many years of hard work and study were being wasted on this mad mans twisted endeavor to rule the world.  She longed for research to cure disease and improve the cloning process for the free world to make the Restoration process as perfect and flawless as possible so that everyone could enjoy immortality.  She had nothing in common with this mad man except work ethic.  No one could say Cyrus was lazy but if they did he would surely kill them for suggesting it. 

“Sir,” Glitch said, “the clone is ready for the lifefile upload, would you like for us to proceed?”
         “Yes, load him up, I’ve got work to do,” growled Cyrus.
         “Alice, Prepare a tray of surgical instruments for me immediately!”  He ordered sharply. 

As Glitch began the file loading process, Alice went to the back and began loading up a complete tray as if they were going into the O.R. to save someone’s life.  Even though she knew it would be just the opposite, still she did her job, exactly as she was trained.  By the time she returned with the tray on a small cart the upload was nearly complete.  Cyrus was so anxious he was wringing his hands with anticipation.

The console screen flashed the “complete” message and Glitch  retracted the load probe.  The clone was beginning to stir, its eyes popped open and it sat straight up and looked around.  Cyrus leaned in closer.     

“Hello Dodge Kerrington, do you know who I am?”  The clone just stared at him and made a grunt noise but no audible words came out.
         “Cat got your tongue?  That’s right.  You’re in my house now.  I’ll be taking your restoration technology and using it for my own purposes.  You’ve probably noticed that you’re in a child’s body.  That’s because I destroyed your other body.  That’s right you’re dead to the world unless I restore you.  You see, you’ve been in a little train accident, seems your car stalled on the tracks.  You gonna stay dead unless you cooperate with me.  If you give me what I want I’ll restore you back to your family.  So what’s it gonna be, can we get this show on the road or do I have to resort to other means?”

He gestured to Alice to bring the tray of surgical instruments.  The clone was looking confused and hadn’t said a word.  Cyrus grabbed one of the scalpels off the tray and with his free hand he yanked the strap on the clones arm down tight into the restraint of the chair causing substantial pain.  He began moving the blade towards the clones hand and then in a quick movement he stuck it right through it and into the arm of the chair.  The clone screamed in agony and lurched upward in an uncontrollable convulsion so violently that it head butted Cyrus right in the face. 

Cyrus was jolted by the blow so hard that he fell backward off his stool and landed flat on his back on the tile floor pulling the entire tray of surgical instruments down on top of him, blood was gushing from his nostrils and a nasty slice opened up over his left eye from one of the scalpels landing on him.  He jumped up and grabbed the clone by the throat and began squeezing the life out of its little body.  Alice had taken several steps back and by the way the clone was acting she knew that it had no real intelligence, it had no thought going on in its brain, it was behaving more like a caged animal than a human being. 

She was disgusted with Cyrus but at the same time very happy with the results of her and Toby’s night of sabotage.  Apparently their plan of electrocuting the brains of the clones had worked.  It had either cooked the chip inside the brain or the brain itself.  Regardless the clone was simply not capable of speaking.  As of right now Cyrus believed he had been physically attacked by an angry Dodge that was using pure will power to resist him.  He didn’t understand that the clone was nearly a vegetable, incapable of speech.  He was now in the process of killing the first clone, and would no doubt want to load the next one within the hour.
         “Glitch!  Load up the next one, I’m going to break him!” 

Glitch motioned to Alice and she began helping him load the next clone.  She only hoped that they all had the same condition, but on the other hand she feared what Cyrus might do if they all failed to speak.  Cyrus was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back muttering the sequence of events to himself that had led to this moment.  He paused only long enough to grab a lab towel from the drawer of a nearby workstation to wipe the blood from his face.  He had nearly been knocked unconscious by the frightened clone.      “
if only he had been” Alice thought. 

Slade didn’t understand where he had gone wrong, his torture always worked, no normal human being would keep silence under such duress.  How was Dodge able to withstand such horrible pain and never utter even that first word?  He flew out of the lab flinging the door so hard that it hit the wall shattering the glass out of the door.  She was glad he was gone. 
“Maybe he would cool off and not be so frightening when he returned.” 

A few minutes later Cyrus’s voice came over the lab intercom.
         “Glitch!” He said, with an impatient tone.  Glitch hurried to the intercom.