by Greg Krojac
Suddenly he was aware of being lifted up and thought that perhaps his soul was leaving his body. Perhaps he had died and his soul was seeking its next host. He looked around him and saw that not only were his wife and daughter looking at him, tears streaming down their faces, but they had been joined by a team of paramedics. It appears that he wasn’t dead after all, but he was being lifted and placed upon a medivac stretcher. A new thought struck him. He couldn’t afford to pay for private medical treatment. He didn’t want to die and leave his family with an unmanageable debt. He couldn’t die yet. He had to explain to his daughter that she was dating the most dangerous man on the planet.
One of the paramedics held Maurice’s mouth open and placed a few drops of medication under his tongue. Maurice had no idea what drug they had just given him but the effects were almost immediate. His panic diminished and he became more aware of his surroundings. The paramedic was still leaning over him, monitoring his immediate recovery. Maurice whispered to him.
“I can’t afford the treatment. Not enough money.”
The paramedic whispered back so that nobody else could hear.
“Don’t worry. It’s all been taken care of.”
Karen walked alongside the stretcher whilst Maurice was carried into the waiting ambulance. She held his hand as he was settled into position and hooked up to various medical monitoring devices.
“The paramedic says you’ll be fine in a few days, but you might need surgery. The doctors at the hospital will know more a bit later on when they’ve had a chance to check you over.”
“Wait, mum, I’m coming with you.”
Caitlin had said her rushed goodbyes to Marcus and was determined to go with her mother and father to the hospital. A few minutes later the ambulance was darting between the traffic, sirens blaring and lights flashing, and after only twenty minutes Maurice was in the hospital emergency room, receiving the best healthcare that money could buy. The best healthcare that the Businessman’s money could buy.
CHAPTER FOUR
11:23 Wednesday 25 September 2069
The next day Maurice was well enough to sit up and receive visitors. He had a tube inserted in his groin, alongside his testicles, and was embarrassed each time that the nurse came in to check on his condition. He knew that she was a professional and that she had probably seen all sizes and shapes of both male and female genitalia in her short working life but she had never seen his equipment before. She couldn’t be any older than Caitlin and he felt uncomfortable being so exposed. He looked up to see Karen, Caitlin and Michelle quietly entering the room.
“It’s OK. There’s no need to tiptoe. I feel much better now.”
Karen leaned over and gave her husband a kiss. She wanted to give him a hug too but was worried about dislodging some of the tubes and cables that were attached to his body, each one monitoring or dealing with some important bodily function.
“We thought we’d lost you.”
“I thought you’d lost me too. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Who called the paramedics?”
“I don’t know, honey. It must have been the restaurant staff, I suppose.”
“I guess so. Not good publicity to have a customer die on their premises.”
He started to laugh a little at his own attempt to lighten the atmosphere but was suddenly conscious that rhythmic laughter was causing discomfort to his groin, at the point where the tube entered his body.
“I must try not to laugh. I’ve got a bloody great tube sticking into me, right beside my balls.”
Karen lifted up the sheet a little and reported what she could see.
“It’s not that big, Maurice.”
Maurice couldn’t resist a witty response.
“I hope you’re talking about the tube and not my dick.”
Caitlin coughed loudly to remind her frisky parents that she and her sister were also in the room. Maurice became more serious.
“Apparently this hospital is secretly sponsored by the Businessman and he’s footing the bill.”
Caitlin interrupted. “Not much of a secret if you’re telling us, dad.”
Maurice continued.
“This room is completely secure – I’ve been assured of that – which is just as well, as I have something very important to tell you. It’s about Marcus, Caitlin.”
“What about Marcus? Did you like him? He’s quite a catch, isn’t he? I’m growing really fond of him. He takes me to all the best places and he’s so charming and attentive.”
Marcus took a deep breath, or at least as deep a breath as he could muster, given his condition.
“Caitlin, I’m sorry, but I have some bad news for you.”
“Bad news? What is he gay or something? Because I can assure you he’s not.”
That last sentence had confirmed something that Maurice had been fooling himself about. Like many a father, he wanted to pretend that his daughter was still his little girl, that she wasn’t sexually active, and that she was still an innocent. With that one simple sentence, Maurice was forced to again acknowledge that his daughter had become a woman.
“I wish it were so simple, Caitlin. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before but I only found out myself a couple of days ago. And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before, Karen. But the Businessman said it was imperative for us to go to that meal with Marcus. I shouldn’t really be telling you this now. I promised the Businessman that I’d wait a while before telling you but, if nothing else, this heart attack has taught me not to put off some things.”
Caitlin was becoming frustrated.
“The Businessman? What’s he got to do with it?”
“It’s the Businessman who told me Marcus’s true identity.”
“So, who is Marcus then – if, as you say, his name isn’t Marcus?”
Caitlin was clearly defensive about her lover.
“His name is Marcus. But he’s more than that. God, I don’t know how to tell you this.”
Karen gripped his hand tightly. She was irritated that he was about to tell a secret that she herself hadn’t been party to, but she knew that there were certain aspects of life with One Life that she wasn’t privy to. She didn’t like it, but there was nothing she could do about it. She squeezed Maurice’s hand.
“Just tell us, honey.”
Maurice took another deep breath, taking more care this time.
“Marcus is the head of the Illuminati.”
Caitlin looked at her mother, then back to her father. She started to laugh.
“This has got to be a wind-up.”
“I’m sorry Caitlin, it’s not a joke. It’s the truth.”
“I don’t believe it. How can he be? He’s a successful stockbroker. He’s not some kind of super-villain, like in those old movies you’re always watching, those James Bond films.”
Maurice was surprised that she had paid attention to the old films that he liked to watch.
“Look Caitlin. I didn’t want to believe it either. But Max confirmed it.”
“Max? What’s Max got to do with it?”
“You know Max has this ability to look directly into the eyes of a person and see who they were in their past reincarnations?”
“No.”
“Well, he does. And it’s real. All Recarns can do it, to varying degrees. And Max is really rather good at it. You do know that Max is a Recarn, don’t you?”
“I do now. I never really thought about it before”
“Well, the Businessman sent him to take a look at Marcus, to check him out.”
“So he’s been spying on me?”
“No. He was spying, if you want to call it that, on Marcus. Anyway, Max can see remnants of peoples’ previous lives, and he discovered that Marcus was a man called Thomas McCall in his previous life. We – One Life, that is – we already knew who Thomas McCall was. We already knew that Thomas McCall was the Pindar, the leader of the Illuminati. Then he suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth. We had no real idea what had h
appened to him. Now we know what happened. He’s Marcus Gallagher.”
“Hang on. This doesn’t make sense, When did this Thomas McCall disappear?”
“The end of April, two years ago.”
“2067?”
“Yes. 2067.”
“There you go, then. Marcus is much older than two years old. You’ve all seen him.”
Michelle chimed in.
“I haven’t.”
“OK, Michelle. You haven’t seen him, but mum and dad have. They know he’s a full grown and rather handsome man.”
Maurice had survived thus far, telling his daughter that the man she was dating, that perhaps she was falling for, was probably the most powerful and dangerous man on the planet. He wasn’t looking forward to telling her the second part of Marcus’s secret, but he had no choice. The cat wasn’t entirely out of the bag, but it had ripped a large hole in it.
“There’s a reason for that, Caitlin.”
“What now?”
“Marcus is a clone.”
“What do you mean, a clone?”
“He’s a human grown from a single cell sample.”
“I know what a clone is, dad. But he’d have to have been created around the year 2042. He’s twenty-seven years old, dad. Do the maths. If this Pindar guy disappeared two years ago, and Marcus is him, then how come he’s a grown man and not some toddler?”
“Clone technology has come on in leaps and bounds, Caitlin. Far more than we had anticipated. Thomas McCall had been overseeing a research project to transfer the human soul to clones and his scientists have perfected the process of transferring the human soul into a specific clone. Not only that, but they’ve been able to manipulate the aging process of the clones so that they can have a fully functioning clone ready for transfer at the age of twenty-five days. Not a twenty-five day old baby, but a twenty-five year old adult.”
“That’s absurd. Nobody has been able to clone a human successfully like that.”
Michelle entered the conversation.
“Trudi 002.”
Caitlin turned to her sister.
“Who’s Trudi 002 when she’s at home?”
“Eleven years ago, when I was eighteen, I was in charge of a group that was sent on a raid to extract a clone from one of the Illuminati research centres. The raid was successful, and we captured – or rescued, however you want to look at it – a clone, called Trudi 002. We expected it, her, to have the intellectual capacity of a two year-old. That’s what we were told to expect, anyway. But Trudi was fully able to communicate. She had the body and soul of a forty year old woman due to accelerated aging, even though she was officially forty days old. Trudi was a Recarn, and in her previous life had been a professor who was involved in these projects. Professor Ingram. Well, he was pretty pissed off at how he had been treated by Thomas or whoever he is now and gave us a lot of Intel on the projects. He said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Thomas McCall achieved his objective, the guided transference of a Recarn soul into an adult clone, within ten years. It looks like he was right.”
Although Caitlin didn’t like what she was hearing, she had never known her sister to lie to her. She had always admired Michelle and had wished for quite a while that she could have been more like her. Michelle was a swashbuckling heroine who had taken to weapons training, martial arts, and military strategy like a fish to water. It had been previously unheard of that an eighteen year-old should be put in charge of an assault team and Michelle had been the first, the only one, to do so. But Caitlin considered herself to be just an ordinary girl. She was proficient at most things she tried her hand at, but she didn’t stand out. She seemed to possess a certain aptitude for hacking computer systems, but – even when she did a good job – she wasn’t lauded and admired like her sister
“So, what you’re telling me is that I’ve not only been fucking the most dangerous man on the planet, but I’ve been fucking a clone?”
“Yes, if you must put it in those terms, you’ve been having sex with a clone”
“Oh. My. Fucking. God!”
Karen traded Maurice’s hand for Caitlin’s. Maurice looked, soulfully at his daughter.
“The Businessman didn’t want me to tell you yet, but I couldn’t keep something like this from you.”
“Too fucking right you couldn’t, dad.”
Caitlin’s swearing tore away another strip of innocence that Maurice’s mind had wrapped around his youngest daughter. He had assumed that Michelle was sexually active. He had known in his heart that she was. She risked her life every day on missions for One Life, missions that she might one day not return from. He’d accepted that, and he had also accepted that she would be having sex now and again, and probably swearing – especially when under fire. But Caitlin was the baby of the family. It seemed strange to hear her talk about her sex life and to hear her swear. Caitlin needed a drink, something stronger than water, which was all that was on offer in the hospital room.
“Shit. Fuck. Bollocks. I feel sick. I’ve been fucking a clone. I’ve had a clone’s dick inside of me!”
Karen put her arm around her daughter, trying to simultaneously console her and calm her down. She didn’t like the way that Caitlin was swearing, but she could understand her reaction. Caitlin pulled away from her mother.
“That’s it! I never want to see him again. He’s dead to me. The fucking, slimy, shitty bastard. He used me.”
Maurice was really nervous about what he was going to say next. She was already cussing like the proverbial trooper. How would she react to what he was going to ask her to do next?
“Caitlin, I’m sorry I have to ask you this.”
“Ask me what? Was I using contraceptives when we fucked? Of course, I fucking was – I’m not stupid. Though maybe I didn’t need to. I mean, can clones produce sperm?”
Now it was Karen’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief. Maurice continued, all the while thinking that this scenario and how it was playing out couldn’t be good for his heart.
“The Businessman wants you to keep seeing Marcus. For a while, at least.”
“Keep seeing him? After what you’ve just told me? Are you joking? Why the fuck would I want to keep seeing him?”
“It wouldn’t be for long. Just to see if you could get us anymore information.”
“Like a spy?”
“Yes. I suppose like a spy.”
Caitlin’s mood changed slightly.
“So I’d be doing dangerous stuff like Michelle?”
“Hopefully it wouldn’t be too dangerous. I don’t want you to be in any danger. To be honest, I want you to say no. But I have to ask.”
“And I don’t have to fuck him?”
“God no. I don’t want you to have sex with him again.”
“It can only be for a few days. And if I continue seeing him and we don’t have sex, he’s going to become suspicious,”
“A week at most.”
“OK. I’ll do it. But no more than a week.”
“I promise.”
Caitlin didn’t want to admit it to her parents, but sex with Marcus was incredible. He had a certain way about him that was both tender and animalistic. She’d allow herself one more session with him, maybe two. Perhaps three – more as a goodbye present to herself than anything else.
CHAPTER FIVE
08:02 Friday 27 September 2069
Caitlin awoke to find a tray on the bedside cabinet, upon which was a cup of coffee and two croissants. In a vase next to the breakfast plate was a single rose. She would have thought it a charming romantic gesture that could well have melted her heart if she were still unaware of who Marcus really was.
Yes, they had had sex the previous night. Wonderful sex. Passionate sex. Sex that had left Marcus with scratches all down his back. It had been the best sex ever. It had also been the last sex that she would ever have with Marcus. That she was certain of.
Marcus ambled out of the ensuite bathroom dressed only in a white towel wrapped around his w
aist.
“Am I an Adonis, or what?”
“I have to admit that you look delicious, darling.”
“Good enough to eat?”
“Normally, yes. But you’ve organized this lovely breakfast for me. And I don’t want the coffee to go cold. There’s plenty of time for me to feast on you later.”
“OK. I’ll have to accept a rain check, I suppose. What do you want to do today?”
“I don’t know.”
An idea sprung into her mind.
“Oh, hang on. I’m intrigued to see where you work. How about you show me around your offices?”
“That’s not very exciting, Caitlin. I was thinking more of popping over to Paris or Rome for lunch.”
Caitlin fluttered her eyes at him, pleadingly.
“I’d really like to see where you spend your time when you’re not with me.”
Marcus knew that she was teasing him but gave in.
“OK. Eat your breakfast and then we’ll go. I do have something that I need to deal with at the office anyway.”
***
An hour later, the couple entered the lobby of NWO Stockbrokers Plc. It was an enormous building and lavishly decorated. The security guard saluted Marcus – an action that Caitlin thought a little archaic and over the top – and the two of them entered the pale blue security beam that scanned them to confirm their identities and that they weren’t concealing any weapons. Caitlin was relieved that they’d passed the security unscathed and that the toughened glass revolver that she had secreted inside her long leather boot had remained undiscovered. Marcus showed Caitlin the main administration room, explained a few processes to her and then guided her back to the lifts. In the elevator, he placed his two thumbs on two optical readers and offered up his iris to be scanned by another security reader.
