“That’s why we’re here, bro.” He paused. “Together we can accomplish great things,” he then said slowly.
That sounded rehearsed, or as if someone told him to repeat it. I wondered how much of the things they said were a direct feed from Medital. Stefan noticed this odd tone as well and cocked his head slightly.
“We understand that your receivers in your head transmit all sound back to the company who has hired you, correct?” asked Stefan while moving closer to our visitors.
“Sure does,” answered Red Cloud, tapping his head.
“So, does that company know where we are currently?”
“No. Why? At least, I don’t believe so; we’ve never said how to get here.” Red Cloud eyes shot downward for a split second.
I jumped in the conversation. “If they went through all the trouble to implant those devices, don’t you think they would put a tracker in as well? Isn’t that how you got to Talon and I so quickly?”
“I don’t know. Roxanne gives the orders.”
Without warning, Stefan grabbed Red Cloud’s collar, pulled him up off the stool he sat on and slammed him into the wall. “Tell us the truth! Or I kill you right here!” I stepped towards them but then thought better of it. While Red Cloud surely could’ve thrown Stefan down, his heart rate and a new sheen of sweat told me he was scared.
“OK, OK. Calm down, jeez! Medital has known about this place ever since Roxanne was here. We don’t have trackers in our implants, but… ” he hesitated. Stefan nearly snarled at him and moved him to the wall near the door, pinning him there. “We, I mean Roxanne and Talon, they uh, placed trackers in every vehicle they’re near, including many of yours.”
“Son of a…” Stefan raised his arm to strike Red Cloud, but I held it back. His fist shook in the air as if he struggled to keep it back.
“That’s how we roll, Stefan. No hard feelings.” Roxanne strolled into the room, Aedan in tow. She glared at Red Cloud, obviously peeved he’d spilled the beans. Aedan glanced at me, not with the smile I expected but with blood-shot eyes.
“You jeopardize our entire operation, and all you can say is no hard feelings?” He turned to me. “Coyle, this isn’t going to work.” He motioned toward Roxanne.
“Don’t worry my friends; we are only concerned with operations that involve our favorite company to hate. All of your other doings are meaningless,” said Roxanne.
Stefan continued to address me, “I don’t trust them, that’s the issue, whether or not our doings are meaningless to them.” He now turned to Roxanne. “Take off the trackers. Now!”
“I’ve got to agree with Stefan, Roxanne. We can’t have trackers on our vehicles. Our operations rely on secrecy and discretion.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment and stood still as if she was listening to something. “OK, we’ll take off the trackers.”
“You can’t stay here either,” said Stefan while glaring at Roxanne.
“Whoa, Stefan, I need them here for a few days, just to work out a plan,” I said.
“The men won’t take it well, Coyle.”
“They’ll stay in the guest house and we’ll keep them separate from the men.”
Stefan came close to me. He whispered, “Coyle, my instincts say this is a bad idea.”
“It’ll only be a few days. We’ll increase the security here, more men at the gate, in the tower and also on the road. If they do anything funny we kick them out.”
“Or take them out,” he hissed.
“You know I have supersonic ears as well, Stefan?” said Roxanne.
“Oh yeah, I know. I was counting on it.” He glared at Roxanne.
“We do mean it Roxanne, if we even sense the slightest funny business, you’re out.”
“Why so touchy?”
“It’s our safety, Roxanne. These are my friends, basically family.”
“You just gotta have a little faith, Coyle. Remember what side we are all on,” she said with her arms outstretched to the sides in an angelic pose.
“You’ve come to our house; you’ll play by our rules. Take your crew to the guesthouse, now,” Stefan said with force.
I changed my tone to more conciliatory, but still firm, “I’m sorry there isn’t much room, but it’s all we got. I’ll meet you there in twenty, after Stefan chaperones some of you in taking off every tracker.”
“Yes sir!” Roxanne saluted me and turned to leave. The gate bell rang out before she could go.
“It’s your friends,” said Stefan after pulling up the video on the console. Striker and Jarom stood at the gate in front of a dark green SUV.
“Let them in. Roxanne, please tell them what I’ve told you.”
She bowed toward me and then left hastily.
24 Planning Deceit
I hung out with Coyle’s dad for a few minutes, telling him everything except that the person who looks, talks, and probably even smells like his son is actually his copy. The Doña finally interrupted, pushing some food in front of Coyle’s dad. I gave him a slight squeeze around the shoulders as I stood up. Jamie smiled at me and slid next to Coyle’s dad on the bench.
Stefan supervised the removal of all the trackers Roxanne had placed. Twenty total devices the size of matchboxes had been placed on anything that moved. The Doña owned at least fifteen vehicles stored in a massive standalone garage on the side of the hacienda. Stefan brought the box of them to me in the kitchen.
“I say we destroy these,” Stefan said while sliding the box over to me.
“I agree, and I want to search the cars myself. When the men get back we’ll do a full sweep of the place.”
“You’ll need to make a statement when the men get here or they’ll perceive you as not one of them.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“A public display. Show them with actions that you can be trusted. Make the distinction between us and them.”
“All right, I’ll think about it.” I looked down at the box of trackers. “How do we destroy these?”
“I thought you’d never ask. Come with me.” We saw Aedan on the way out and motioned for him to follow.
Stefan led me to the field behind the hacienda. We walked about a hundred yards to a small mound of earth. Stefan brushed off dirt from the side close to me to reveal a metal hatch. He released a metal latch and motioned to the hatch, his eyes focused on me expectantly.
“What? You want me to open it?”
“We surely can’t.” He pointed to himself and then to Aedan.
I grabbed the hatch and, using my legs, hefted it open. It had to weigh at least a few hundred pounds and even my muscles revolted at the stress. It creaked loudly as I managed to flip it over. We all peered into the darkness below.
“What’s this?” asked Aedan.
“This is where we dispose of arms and explosives. We buried a skip bin and welded this top and hatch. When we’re ready, we place the explosive below, we cover it with sand, and detonate it. I think we should do the same with their trackers.”
“Ahh yeah,” said Aedan with an ear-to-ear smile.
“Do you have explosives?” I asked.
“A small block of C4 will do the trick.” He grinned and pulled one from his coat pocket.
“Whoa! Is it safe to carry that on your person?” said Aedan.
“Safe enough. I could light this block on fire and it wouldn’t explode.”
“Sweet! Let’s do this.” Aedan was flat out giddy.
Stefan nodded and placed the C4 into the box with the trackers, pressing them into the malleable explosive. He then attached two cords to the C4 and ran them out of the box. Aedan and I stepped back reflexively. “Don’t worry my friends. These wires are not attached to anything back there.” He pointed back towards then house and then hopped down into the skip without the box. “OK, hand it down to me.”
Aedan and I looked at each other. “You’re the one who can’t die. You move it,” said Aedan and stepped back even farther.
“C’mon boys. Get it down here,” Stefan said from the dark below.
I grasped the side of the box as if it were delicate china and carried it over to the hatch. Stefan stood up with arms extended toward me just below the level of the hatch. I lowered it down to him and then retreated to where Aedan stood. Stefan crawled out and followed the cord back to the patio.
“You leave the hatch open?” Aedan asked.
“Of course, otherwise the blast would shoot this hatch into the sky. It’d probably land on the hacienda.”
“Then why have a hatch?”
“Safety protocol. We wouldn’t want someone falling in there. If that hatch closed with any normal person in there, they’d never get out under their own power. It’d be a long slow death,” he said and then looked towards the mountains. “Anyway, I’ll get the tractor.”
Aedan and I sat down on the patio chairs while Stefan filled the skip with multiple loads of dirt. He then joined us, carrying a plastic box with a bunch of switches. “This is what we connect to our cord.” He connected the two cords to the box and handed it to Aedan. “Will you do the honors?”
“Heck yeah, man. Where do I stand?”
“We all go behind the wall.”
We hunkered down behind the short brick wall at the edge of the patio. Aedan opened the switch and then looked expectantly at both of us. Stefan shook his head back and forth.
“Not yet. We make sure all is clear.” He stood up and scanned the area. “All clear? Detonating in 10,” he yelled out, scanning the area once more.
Aedan counted down rather quickly and after Stefan ducked down as he flipped the switch. BOOM. The ground shook and the sky filled with dirt with the explosion. Small rocks and debris showered down on us.
“Holy crap, that was awesome!” Aedan yelled while picking debris out of his hair.
“Can we do it again?” I said and held my hand up to Aedan. He slapped it and smiled widely.
“Ha ha. No, we leave it be for a day or so.”
“Well I guess we’d better get over to the guesthouse,” I said and pulled myself up. We started the couple hundred-yard walk down to the guesthouse. “So, Aedan, noticed you and Roxanne stayed behind for a bit when we were headed into the house. You two… you know?”
Aedan didn’t respond and kept walking.
“Dude, there’s something I forgot to tell you. When I caught up with Roxanne at one of the cell towers, she wanted me to tell you hi. She also wanted me to pass on a, uh, kiss.”
“What’re you talking about?” He took a few strides away from me.
“I’m not gonna kiss you, dude. But she sure seemed like the kiss was meant for you.”
“She kissed you?”
“Just on the cheek and while she did, she told me to tell you hi. It was meant for you, dude.”
“I should sock you right now, Murray.” He clenched a fist and shook it in front of my face.
“Hey, at that very moment I happened to be passing out because she had crushed my airway. I was in no shape to shake her off. She likes you, I guarantee it.”
He took a moment to think. We continued walking, Stefan a few clicks behind. The regular sound of our shoes crushing the dead grass underneath us kept the awkwardness down.
“I asked her if it was true.” He choked up, the last word squeaked out.
“What’d she say?” I knew he meant he’d asked her if I truly was a clone.
“Same thing you said.”
“I’m sorry, dude.”
“I still don’t believe it,” he said as we reached the guesthouse.
I waited for Stefan to catch up and we entered the guesthouse together. Stefan remained by the door. He wanted me to lead, to show them that I held the control.
“Blow something up?” asked Roxanne.
“Sure did, same explosives attached to this guest house.”
Roxanne chuckled and ignored my false threat, “So much tension here. I love it.” She eyed me and grinned. She knew I was lying. She read physiology just as I did.
“OK, so what’s your plan for taking down the beast?” I asked, giving up on the idle threat.
“I like the name, the beast. We have a mission to destroy it from the inside, quietly.”
“Quietly? Don’t we want this to be public?”
“Don’t you know what publicity brings? Do you want to be hunted, captured, and then exiled to some lab to be tested on? If we publically destroy Somatotech, the truth about us will come out. Do you think the government will just let us run around? We’re superhuman and particularly adept at killing. No way, Coyle, they’ll lock us up the moment they find out about us.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way. We can first gain public support, paint us as the victims. We’ll have public protection.”
“Ha! Coyle, you’re ignorant to current events, my clone friend. The public is most definitely not on your side.”
“What current events?”
“As of yesterday, you’re a domestic terrorist. Next time you’re online, check the FBI most wanted. You’re number one.”
“Why?”
“Somatotech released video of you shooting up those guards and killing Dr. Baldwin. Couple that with Jamie’s kidnapping and your beat down missions with Manuel and you are seen as a serious and very dangerous menace to society.”
“And how has Somatotech explained my other’s death in prison? They claimed he was me, or at least the real Coyle.” Stefan’s eyes widened and he cocked his head slightly. I hadn’t told him. I’d need to explain things later.
“That’s the best part. They said he was your twin. Ha! Clever, right? So, without any family to refute it, because your dad went along with anything they said, they can easily get away with it.”
“My twin? There are so many people who can refute it. Coyle’s entire high school knew my family after he got cancer.”
“No one has come forth. They have a birth certificate, Social Security number, and supposedly the DNA to prove it.” Roxanne sat down on the couch, pushing Red Cloud and Jarom out of the way.
“Of course, we have the same DNA, we’re freakin’ clones,” I said.
She nodded and grinned simultaneously. “So, terrorist, what do you do now?”
Swaying public opinion of me was going to be more difficult than I expected. But revealing Somatotech’s secrets didn’t have to come from me. I didn’t have to be the poster child. I had too much blood on my hands anyway.
“Someone else needs to break the news.”
“And what news is that?” she asked.
“Um, that Somatotech takes desperate cancer patients, clones them, lets them die, and releases their clones?”
Roxanne didn’t respond at first. Her crew caught each other’s eyes. “I’m not sure the world is ready for all of that,” she finally spoke.
“OK, what do you have in mind?”
“We focus on the ineffectiveness of the therapy, the giant lie of a cure. We then hold that over them, and threaten to make it public.”
“But, Roxanne, that’s not the whole picture. How can you separate the two? The treatment and the cloning go hand in hand. How could they explain their patients dying if they didn’t have someone to replace them?”
“Again, clone of Coyle, if we reveal who we are to the masses, our way of life ends. We have a plan to extract one of their patients. We will then appeal to Somatotech with real evidence.”
I looked to Stefan who grimaced slightly. “Sounds dangerous. Couldn’t we hack their system and get all their records? We’ve got the hacker to do it,” I said.
“We’ve tried. Ever since our little extraction at Somatotech headquarters, they’ve locked down their security. We suspect they’ve moved all records offline somewhere anyway.”
“So, when are you grabbing this cancer patient?”
“Next week. We’d like your assistance if you can get up to operational fitness.” She smirked at Red Cloud.
“I’ll have to confer with my grou
p.”
“Oh, so you have a group now?” She grinned.
“I have people who depend on me, yeah. People who wouldn’t want me to go recklessly on a mission into the heart of the beast.”
“You underestimate my group and our backing. You would be in a supportive role; we’d only use you if we needed you. And again, only if you are up to snuff.”
“And how are you going to get this patient?”
“They dispose of the patients at a facility in Longmont. We’re going to intercept the transport.”
“Dispose of? Wait, you’re capturing a dead patient?” My stomach turned just thinking about stealing a body.
“Yeah, isn’t that the best evidence?”
“Yes, but what about the clone? I thought you didn’t want to expose them that way. The clone will be out there. Unless you—”
“We’ll get her as well,” she interrupted me.
“And what do you plan on doing to her?” That familiar ominous feeling came rushing back, the same I felt with Manuel’s missions.
“We hope she’ll join us, see the light like we all have.” She raised her arms up as if she was embracing the sun. “But, actually I hate the light.” Her crew chuckled.
“And if she doesn’t?”
“We’ll convince her. We haven’t had a single clone turn us down. Somatotech uses us, abuses us. Once we know it, a deep resentment comes forth and that motivates our combined goal.”
“Fancy words, but you’d better not kill her.”
“So, are you in?” She ignored my statement.
“I’ll get back to you. Make yourselves comfortable here.” I looked around at the small quarters. “My men come back tomorrow so please don’t do anything to provoke them.” I raised my eyebrows at Roxanne and she bowed with that same conniving smirk.
25 Unconscious Return
We left the guesthouse, walking back to the hacienda. I hated the feeling Roxanne had brought down on me. I sensed the “end justifies the means” kinda crazy murderous attitude I’d grown to loathe.
“Are you going to participate?” asked Stefan.
“I may. I’d like to meet the clone,” I said, knowing I may witness that clone’s death at the hands of Roxanne’s group. “Maybe I could protect her? We could use her to expose Somatotech.”
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