by Doug Welch
Kitty bristled at the thought. “What? You’re saying we’re clones, human clones? I’m not sure I like that theory, Beth.” The murmurs of the gathered Family seemed to agree with her but Elizabeth’s voice overrode them.
“There’s ample evidence to support it,” she directed her comments to Alex. “Do you remember the shield that surrounds the farm house? The one that prevents Shadows from entering it?”
Alexandra nodded.
“Well,” Elizabeth continued, “according to Dan that shield is keyed to your family.
“Even though you’re half Shadow you can’t feel its effects but any Shadow that’s not related to you, your father, or your step-mother can’t go near it. Both Kitty and Audrey can enter the house without fainting or feeling unbearable pain, so they must be related. The Paris lookalike could enter it also, so you all must be related genetically.”
Wait a minute Beth,” Dan interjected, “we don’t know how that shield works yet. Yes, before he died, Alex’s father told me it was geared toward family members and it does seem to work that way, but we don’t know if there are exceptions.”
“As I said, it’s a theory,” Elizabeth responded, “but it fits the impossible fact that three almost identical people who we know and love are sitting at this table.” The rising protests from Family members died.
Elizabeth continued. “I suspected there was something unusual about Paris and Alex when I first met them, but after meeting Kitty, I did research on genetics and the literature surrounding genetic twins. I also drew blood from Paris, Alex, and Kitty along with saliva samples and sent them to a genetics lab for typing. The results were astounding. They’re so close in genetic type match that they must be clones or near clones.”
The murmurs began again. Kitty’s voice quieted them. “That can’t be right, Beth. I’m a natural blond and Alex has brown hair. I don’t know about Audrey, but our hair color sets us apart. Shouldn’t a clone be exactly the same?”
Elizabeth nodded. “That’s one of the holes in my theory, but there’s even more. The genetic mutations between all of you occurred in the same chromosomes, the ones responsible for hair color and sex.”
Dan’s voice raised an objection. “Assuming that Paris, Alex, Kitty and Audrey are clones, how is that possible? I mean, the first successful mammalian cloning experiment was in nineteen ninety-six and it was a sheep. Paris and Alex were born in the early eighties. Kitty, and now Audrey, were born later in the same decade. Was genetics that advanced then?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Not that I can find. There’s nothing in the literature that would support any idea that someone could have first, cloned a human embryo, and second, implanted it in a human woman’s womb. The effort required to make it viable and therefore result in the three women sitting at this table was beyond eighties technology. At least the technology we know about. As I said, my theory has some major holes in it. The problem is that something must explain the seeming impossible, and I believe my theory fits.”
Alex joined the conversation. “I’m not comfortable with being called a clone, Beth. It seems –I don’t know... somehow degrading.”
Elizabeth leaned toward Alex. “The stigma associated with cloning is more religious than scientific. There’s no reason to assume that a person created by cloning is any less human that one created by normal sexual copulation.
“You’re essentially cloning yourselves when you have sex and produce offspring, but normal genetics is a crap-shoot. Humans are created by random genetic recombination of the chromosomes and pairings of those chromosomes with those contributed by the father. The probability that an offspring could exhibit some of the same characteristics as their parents is slightly greater than the probability they would express little of their characteristics or the majority of them.
“In other words, you could wind up looking like your father or mother or you could resemble both of them. One thing is certain. You’ll never turn out exactly like one or the other.”
“I’ve wondered about that,” Kitty mused. “My father had blond hair and blue eyes. I’ve got blond hair, but light amber eyes like Alex, Paris and Audrey.”
“That’s the other hole in my theory,” Elizabeth responded. “If you’re clones, then why the dissimilarities? Also why the sex? If the woman was implanted with a fully developed embryo, then why did she need to have sex with your fathers?
“I admit, that’s hole that’s hard to climb out of, but one possibility is that the male sperm determines the sex of the child. For my theory to work, something must have halted recombination during meiosis and the same something limited the paring of chromosomes. It’s possible that there was a limited exchange of genetic material that kick-started embryonic development, but I don’t know how. There’s nothing in the scientific literature to support it.”
“You’ve lost me Beth,” Kitty said. “I know nothing about genetics.”
Elizabeth sighed. “To put it as simply as I can, the normal sperm and egg reproductive process is the pairing of half the normal number of human chromosomes from the female and half from the male to create a normal human number of forty-six. They link up to become twenty-three paired chromosomes.
“The random factor is caused by the female chromosomes being modified by a recombining of the genes before they’re paired with the male sperm. This is different than normal cell division, it’s called meiosis and it occurs in the female egg. A female can only contribute female sex chromosomes, but the male sperm can contribute either female or male. If the male sperm has a female sex chromosome to pair up, then the offspring is a female. If it’s a male chromosome then the result is a male.
“I’m saying that the normal process of meiosis was modified in some fashion and certain stages were skipped altogether. The father supplied only some of the genetic material, notably the sex chromosome which incidentally has a lot of influence on hair and eye color.”
“That sounds awfully complicated Elizabeth,” Audrey said. “Maybe she did it to make our fathers think we were theirs. I know it worked with my father.”
“Yes it’s a possibility,” Elizabeth replied, “but why the repeated sex, sex that seems almost to be forced, like the men had no control over their libidos?”
Dan cleared his throat to get their attention. “This is interesting but it doesn’t get us any closer to deciding what we’re going to do about the imposter.”
“On the contrary, Dan, I think it has a great deal to do with the problem,” Elizabeth protested.
“I fail to see the connection, Beth,” he replied.
Elizabeth waved a hand toward Kitty. “You tell him, Kitty.”
At first confused by her request, Kitty connected the dots. Growing excited she said, “Paris asked me to do some research on biotechnology companies in Italy. I’ll bet that’s why he’s there. He’s probably trying to track down the connection between us and the Borgias. If we’re the result of a genetic experiment by that house the biotech industry is the logical place to start.”
“Well what did you tell him?” Dan asked.
“I just sent the data,” Kitty replied. “But I did look at it. It’s hard to not scan it when you’re searching for it, but the gist of it is that almost all the biotech companies in Italy are controlled by the Borgias.”
Dan seemed deep in thought for a moment. “What you’re implying is that Paris is still in Italy checking on biotechnology companies and –“
Alex interrupted him, completing his sentence. –And the Paris here in Kentucky is one of his clones! It makes sense. There are two more people who look like us still at large, twin boys. We haven’t made the search for any other of our supposed siblings a priority, but it’s possible that the man who fathered Audrey’s baby was a twin and the same or identical twin is posing as Paris.”
Cecil’s bass voice added to the conversation. “Elizabeth suspected it from the start. That must’ve spooked him.”
Dan held his hand up for attention. “For them t
o take that kind of chance, they must think Paris is still in Italy. If he is, he’s likely trapped there.”
June leaned forward to look at Dan. “I don’t think he’s trapped, because he’s actively building some kind of infrastructure. The expenditures support some kind of organization and it must be for the purpose of investigating the Borgias.”
Dan shook his head. “Well why hasn’t he contacted us? It’s been two weeks and we haven’t heard a word from him. He could be held prisoner by the Borgias. The only way we’ll find out is by finding the false Paris and grilling him to find out what he knows.”
“How?” Kitty asked “You said he vanished.”
“True.” Dan replied, “But I may have an idea of where he’s going.”
“And where’s that?” Kitty asked.
Dan shrugged. “There’s a big Shadow Council meeting scheduled in Toronto next week. It’s just a hunch, but if he was trying to do something to hurt us that’d be the logical place to accomplish it. In addition, he’d be able to leave the continent from Canada.”
Kitty let out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t travel to Canada. It takes at least a month to get all the paperwork through the Bureau. We don’t have that much time.”
I’ll go,” Dan said. “I know Grieg Pearson but you need to set it up. I can’t just show up unannounced at a Council get-together. They won’t let me in. It’s only for Adepts and heads of Houses.”
I’m going,” Elizabeth’s voice sounded from the end of the table. “Paris is my husband and if this man knows anything, I want to be there.”
All the heads at the table snapped around to stare at her. Alex exploded. “Beth, you’re pregnant. What about the baby?”
“I know the risks and I’m willing to take them,” Elizabeth replied. “Paris promised to be there when our daughter is born and if this man knows anything that will make that happen, I want to hear it.”
“I might make things more complicated, Beth,” Dan protested. “If I’m worried about you, it’ll make it difficult to concentrate on stopping this guy.”
“Can you distinguish the imposter from the real Paris?” Elizabeth asked. Dan shook his head. “Well I can. I know my husband better than any person in this room. Cecil can go with me in case I need help.”
Kitty, who had watched the interchange between Elizabeth and the other Family members interrupted. “Apparently, according to Caesar, I’m in charge of this mob, so I’m gonna cut this conversation short and give some orders.”
She pointed at June. “June, charter a private jet to take Dan and Beth, with Cecil as escort, to Toronto. Make sure you include a stewardess who’s also a midwife and some medical supplies.”
Turning next to Tom Bradley, she said, “Tom I’m gonna need a way to communicate with the Family that ain’t on the FBI’s radar. Give me a clean cell phone or something that can’t be traced. Caesar, you’re second in command while I’m back at the Detroit Field Office, so use the Family’s resources to find out what’s happening in Italy –any questions?”
Taking the surprised silence around the table as agreement, she continued. “Alex, you, Beth and Audrey stick around. I want to talk to you. As for the rest of you, this meeting’s over.”
Waiting until all the others had filed from the dining room, Kitty moved down to the end of the table next to Alex, Audrey and Elizabeth. Pouring herself a fresh cup of coffee, she said, “So what do you girls think about what Beth said?”
“I don’t want to think about it,” Alex said. “I sure as hell don’t feel like a clone.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Kitty said, “Assuming Beth’s right, what happens long-term? I mean do we grow horns, bark at the moon, or develop long fangs?”
“Hold on a minute, Kitty,” Elizabeth interjected. “There’s no reason to think there might be any complications arising from the idea you might be clones. Cloning can occur for a number of reasons. Natural identical twins are clones. If you are clones, I don’t think it could have been done using the procedures currently in use, they’re too complicated and labor intensive. In addition, they have a high rate of failure. The technology to clone humans just wasn’t available in the eighties.
“So, if the technology wasn’t there, how could we have been cloned?” Alex asked.
“I should have qualified that,” Elizabeth replied. “The technology wasn’t available at least as far as we know. Legitimate scientists have always been reluctant to experiment on human embryos, but the Shadows have demonstrated a callous disregard for normal humans. I wouldn’t preclude the Borgia House from having experimented with cloning, particularly since their birthrate has declined. However if they did it, it was likely by non-technological means.”
“Come again?” Kitty said. “What do you mean by non-technological?”
“I’d suspect parthenogenesis or gynogenesis,” Elizabeth replied. “But the first produces nothing but non-viable females in mammals and the second is extremely rare and way down on the food chain. The only known examples of gynogenesis are in fish and salamanders.”
“What’s gynogenesis?” Audrey asked.
Elizabeth focused on her. “It’s where the egg cell starts to split and produces an embryo by the mere presence of a sperm cell. There’s another called hybridogenesis where the offspring has genetic material from both male and female. It’s the mating that produces animals such as mules but the offspring are normally sterile. Both methods might explain why sex was involved. Either the sperm was used to start gynogenesis or there was an exchange of genetic material during hybridogenesis. How it might have been accomplished, I don’t know, but you three are living proof that something like it happened.”
“So what do we do about it?” Alex asked.
Elizabeth spread her hands. “Short answer? Nothing. You’re all three healthy human females and Alex and Audrey are proof that you’re fertile. I don’t anticipate any issues to arise that might be caused by your genes.
“But the Borgia House has taken an extreme interest in your genetics and I think we need to find out why.”
Chapter 18
Canada
The business jet descended lower, providing a panoramic view of the Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario on the approach to the Toronto Pearson International Airport. Having never seen Niagara before, Elizabeth’s nose was pressed to the plane’s window as the jet flew over it.
Turning to Cecil she said, “That’s Niagara Falls down there.”
Cecil settled back in the comfortable seat and closed his eyes. “I’ll take your word for it Beth. Don’t much like heights myself.”
“Sorry, I forgot you hate to fly,” Elizabeth said.
Cecil smiled but kept his eyes closed. “It’s okay if I got somthin’ to do to take my mind off it. It’s the take-off and landing I hate.”
Elizabeth returned her gaze to the wide expanse of Lake Ontario and the shoreline visible to the north. The shore grew closer and a cluster of high-rise buildings appeared to the right of the plane. Looking over at the stewardess sitting across the isle she pointed at the scene outside the window “Is that Toronto?”
The stewardess nodded and rose to her feet. “We’ll be landing shortly. You’ll need to fasten your seat belt and I need to help you.”
Cecil rose from his seat to give the woman some room and she carefully fastened the seat belt below Elizabeth’s protruding abdomen and around her hips.
Cecil resumed his seat and fastened his own seat belt. He leaned back and closed his eyes again, taking a tight grip of the armrests.
As the shoreline grew closer, Elizabeth pointed to an airfield visible near the group of high rises. Catching Dan’s attention she asked, “Is that the airport we’re landing at?”
Dan shook his head. “No, that’s Billy Bishop. It’s the Toronto City airport but it’s not cleared for jets. We’re landing at the International Airport.” Seeing her confusion he continued, “The Canadians are very careful about what they’ll allow close to a city and jet-tr
affic isn’t part of it. You’ll find that people up here are different. Officials listen to the public and consider themselves servants of the people. Toronto’s also very clean and the people are friendly.”
The plane descended lower and soon a large complex of long landing strips appeared ahead of the plane. Elizabeth watched as the jet touched down on a runway and taxied away from the huge commercial airline terminal to the business passenger’s terminals.
A limousine drove up and Cecil and Dan unbuckled themselves and stood in the isle way. The stewardess assisted Elizabeth in removing her seatbelt and Cecil helped her to her feet. A worried look creased his brow. “Are you sure you’re gonna be able to do this, Beth?”
Elizabeth nodded and patted his arm. “I’ll be fine, Cecil, once we get to the hotel.”
As they filed to the rear door, Elizabeth addressed Dan. “I forgot to ask. Where are we staying?”
“The Fairmont Royal York,” Dan replied. It’s the site of the Council meeting. It’s located in downtown Toronto.”
The stewardess opened the plane’s passenger door turning the door into a stairway. Cecil helped her navigate the jet’s narrow boarding stairs and she stepped onto the Canadian tarmac.
For a few minutes Elizabeth suffered the brilliant sunlight and the high summer heat and humidity until she entered the air-conditioned interior of the limo and settled back in the soft leather. The driver loaded their luggage and assumed his place behind the wheel. He started the limo, drove away from the airport, and entered a freeway, heading toward the morning sun.
Sitting in the wide back seat, Elizabeth watched the country flow by. Having never visited Canada before, she had expected to greet an unfamiliar landscape, but there was no sensation of foreignness. She could have been traveling in any place in the U.S. They passed suburbs with neat houses and tree lined streets, huge apartment buildings, shopping malls, fast food restaurants, gasoline stations and automobile sales lots. The only exceptions were in some of the names of businesses.
