“Monica, how much is that transport ship worth?”
“Approximately six thousand units.”
I said to him, “You can have that transport ship after we’re through.”
“Is it yours to give?”
“It is now. I’ll make sure you get it.”
He thought a moment. “What else?”
“That’s all I have.”
“And the ghost.”
“You want Monica?”
“There are only a handful of such models. Especially such … beautiful models. Because of the nature of the business I conduct, she is worth far more to me than to you.”
“Nephi, though I am yours to do with as you please, I would suggest not surrendering me to Mr. Finch. The planetary defense grid access alone is enough to ensure—”
“Relax, Monica, I’m not giving you away. Bring up Kooney and tell him that Tiberius is blackmailing us and that the operation is cancelled. Let him know I will apprehend Mr. Finch and bring him in for prosecution.”
“Prosecution? For what?”
“For the export and distribution of colmb root.”
He thought another moment. “I see you are well informed. Very well, twenty-five thousand and the transport it is.”
We went out front and waited until Tiberius and what looked like an assistant came out. Tiberius took one look at the Elites and Eight and said, “This will not do at all.”
“What’s wrong?”
“They are too conspicuous. Wait a moment.”
He went back into his store and came out with clothing of various types. “Please have them wear these.”
The Elites seemed uncomfortable, but they were technically under my command and so they placed the clothing on themselves. Their helmets, however, still easily identified them as Elites.
“Helmets too I’m afraid,” Tiberius said.
“You heard ’em boys.”
The Elites were hesitant, but they complied with the order.
My mouth nearly dropped open.
3
“Monica,” I said. “Tell me they’re triplets.”
“No, Nephi.”
Sitting in front of me were three men, tall and dark skinned with black curly hair. Identical. Their eyes had blank expressions as Tiberius placed hats on their heads, oblivious to what he was looking at. I turned back around as Eight was dressed up and Tiberius and his assistant climbed into the transport and we sped out of the underground city.
They were clones. Male clones. Kooney had lied to me. Elites numbered in the thousands and were the personal guards of high-ranking administrators. They had an entire army of them. Male clones … I looked back at them and they were staring forward, unblinkingly.
“How long have you known about this?” I whispered to Monica.
“The purpose and composition of the Elite squads were uploaded thirty-seven years, two months and—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You never asked.”
We raced along the edge of town, Tiberius giving directions to our driver. The ocean reflected the light of the suns so powerfully it was nearly blinding. The emerald waters would foam and crackle on the shore and then giant waves would rise farther out to sea and rush toward us, only to dissipate with time.
We went through jungles and small towns, beaches and canyons, and we spun around cliffs and jagged boulders that would have torn our transport to shreds. Speeding uphill, we came out to an opening revealing a small valley below. The transport stopped and Tiberius turned to us.
“That home nearest us, the large one close to the shore, that is the home of the man you seek. Prator.”
“Monica, enhance it please.”
An image projected into the air in front of us. It was a close-up view of the home. Several people, perhaps a dozen, were outside at a table eating and drinking. Two of them, a man and a woman, stood and walked away.
“Enhance those two.”
The image increased so that I could clearly see their faces. It was the clone and the man who had brought her here.
“It’s them,” I said. “I think we should … wait, what is that?”
Another transport came to a stop up from the house a bit. Two women got out, one blonde, one with jet-black hair wearing a tight black one-piece suit. She casually walked over to the group. The head of the table stood and I saw for the first time that he was my other target, Prator.
“They are all clones,” Monica said.
“What?”
“Initial scans indicate they are all clones.”
I glanced back to the screen and watched as the woman approached the group.
And then, hell broke loose.
LARSO
I’d never seen a planet that looked this lovely from up high. It reminded me of old vids of Earth I’d seen, before the Great Wars and the destruction of the biosphere. The oceans here were green and the giant landmass looked like a wound on the flawless jade expanse.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I said.
“Wait till you see the surface,” Ava said.
We landed and Ava couldn’t wait to get off. She was the first on the ramp and I followed her. We got off the flight deck with no problems and then went into a busy terminal. Normally, this wasn’t the type of place I would go anywhere near. It was filled with administrative authorities, men in synthfiber suits, and women who appeared like they would alert the authorities to anyone that looked out of place. I was glad when we went through the terminal and came out to the front of the spaceport.
“Who are we meeting with exactly?” I said.
“An old friend. Larso … you don’t need to be here. There’s no reason for you to be involved in all this.”
“I’m just here to see you off and make sure you’re okay. As soon as I know that, I’ll take off.”
Truth was I didn’t know why I was here. I had a mission that I could’ve completed with the click of a button, and instead I was chasing around my target like a schoolboy.
She was beautiful and alluring, no doubt about that, but so were dozens of women who would have gladly welcomed me on a hundred different planets. There was something else about her, something that told me I shouldn’t leave her side just yet.
While I was contemplating this, a hovercar slammed to a stop in front of us. A young kid was driving.
“Get in, Ava.”
“Who are you?”
“Chance, the old man sent me. Get in.”
That seemed good enough for Ava and she climbed in to the front as I got into the back. The hovercar lifted and took off. The two of them were speaking up front as I stared out into the expanse. It was such an odd mix: forests on the beach, giant mountains that carved the blue sky to pieces farther in the distance, and right smack in the middle of it the wealthiest city I had ever seen.
The buildings weren’t skyscrapers by any means, but the quality of work that went into them was astounding. The doors had ornate carvings, the sidewalks were clean and unlittered steel. They shimmered in the light of the two suns as people went about their day, servants behind them holding umbrellas over their heads to keep the sun off.
We rode at top speed but the kid was good and I wasn’t worried. He was weaving in and out of traffic, between buildings and trees and over boulders, as we left town and sped along the ocean.
We came to another little town, much smaller and less grandiose, a village really. We stepped out of the hovercar and the kid lifted and took off, leaving us there.
“This is quite a change,” I said.
“The person we’re meeting doesn’t like ostentation.”
Ava stood in front of an OV scanner and the door clicked open. I followed her in. The home was decorated well, in a way that made me think of an archaeologist or historian’s home, someone who collected the past and stuck it in their house.
A man stepped around the corner. His hair was gray and his face dark and wrinkled from sun. He wore robes but even und
erneath those layers you could tell he was enormously muscular.
“I’ve missed you,” he said to Ava.
“I couldn’t stay away for too long.”
“I heard about the unfortunate Director Keynes. That was good work.”
“This is Larso. I couldn’t have escaped without him.”
He walked to me and so I did the same and we stood in the front room looking at each other. “Larso, my name is Prator. Thank you for taking care of my daughter and bringing her back to me.”
I looked from one to the other. “You’re her father?”
“Yes.”
I waited quietly for her to explain how this was possible. Perhaps, I thought, she meant father in the sense that Ava never had one and this man filled that role. But she didn’t explain. She saw some other women in the kitchen and she went to greet them.
“Thank you for helping my daughter,” Prator said.
“It was my pleasure.”
“Have you copulated with her yet?”
“Excuse me?”
“Intercourse, Larso. Have you had intercourse with my daughter yet?”
I was quiet a moment. “No.”
“Good. See that you don’t. While you are a guest in my home, you will follow my requests. She has a very special destiny and it’s not time to fulfill it with a child just yet.”
“She … I mean, I couldn’t—”
“What I believe you wish to say is that she’s a clone, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“And that a clone is genetically engineered to not have the ability to conceive with a … well, whatever you call yourselves. Pure human, I assume. Well, in general, you are correct. In general.”
I stared at him and he grinned and then turned and walked away. I was left in the front room by myself. I took in a deep breath. I’d had worse greetings, I told myself.
I decided to stay in the front room a bit and just walked around and looked at the decorations. A lot of weapons were up on the walls or held in displays. Some of them appeared so old that they’d crumble if I touched them. As I went around the room I looked out a window onto the massive backyard filled with grass and flowers and fruit trees. Ava was talking to some man. He was thickly muscled and covered in tattoos. A sword was in his hand and he was deftly spinning and thrusting while he spoke.
I walked through the kitchen and the women all glared at me. I smiled and said, “Hi,” and kept going. I came outside and walked over and heard the man say, “Who’s this?”
Ava introduced me and Vane and I stared at each other. He had a condescending look that told me if Ava wasn’t there he might just run me through with the sword. As he left, he bumped me.
Ava put her hand on me, as if she could sense my agitation.
“He seems friendly,” Larso said.
“He’s a little surprised to see me. It’ll wear off.”
“From what I can gather it seems everyone’s pretty surprised to see you.”
“Come and eat. This food is fresh and hasn’t been processed. You’ll love it.”
We ate and Vane was staring at me the entire time. Not subtly either, he wanted me to know he was staring at me and that there was nothing I could do about it.
“Can I help you, brother? I said.
“I ain’t your brother, squid.”
Ava said, “Larso, maybe we should set up our rooms.”
“Yeah.”
We left the table and hiked into the house. Walking through the front room to the set of stairs leading up, we waited until we were on the top floor before speaking.
“Ava, I should probably go. I don’t think I’m very welcome here.”
She looked out a window down at the table outside. “Larso, I’m going to trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone in my life. Are you worthy of that trust?”
“No,” I said, just trying to be honest.
“I’m going to anyway. You see those people outside? They’re all clones, Larso. Including Vane and my father. And they’re going to destroy your race.”
2
I stood there uncertain about what exactly I should say. Ava didn’t say anything and watched her family out the window.
“What do you mean?” I finally said.
“I’ll show you.”
I followed her as she went down the stairs to a door that was near the front entrance. Another OV scan and the door clicked open. It appeared to be made out of a light wood, but as it slid open I could tell it was thick steel.
Stairs led down below into the dark and I followed her. It seemed like we walked a long time before reaching the bottom, and then another door and another walk. Finally we got to a room lit blue from the flicker of holovids and viewscreens. Ava went to one of the consoles and pressed a few buttons and a three-dimensional image of what looked like a giant cigar came into view and hovered above us.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It’s an ionic bomb. And it’s headed for Earth.”
I was silent. “I thought these were all destroyed.”
“They were. My father, along with some of his engineers, were able to replicate one based on older models.”
I stepped closer to the image as it slowly rotated. Ionic bomb. A true planet killer. Before humanity discovered we were alone in the universe, the PR wanted as massive an arsenal as they could gather. They thought any encounter with an advanced species would result in violence. It’s easy to see why, as humanity itself had always reacted with enslavement and violence to any new culture it came across throughout the entirety of its history. The stance that aliens would do the same to us was a reflection of us, not them, as it was we who had made it. A bomb that could tear an entire planet in half.
“Do you know how they work?” she said.
“Vaguely.”
“They break the electromagnetic bonds that hold the electrons in orbit around the nucleus of atoms. They become free electrons releasing an enormous amount of ionic energy. On a small scale, that energy can be harnessed and used. On a large scale, like a planet, the energy is devastating. All life, even microbial, is extinguished in a microsecond. And then the planet itself is destroyed.”
“Where is this bomb?”
She didn’t answer right away. She looked at the floor and then crossed her arms and looked up to the hologram.
“Hidden in a freighter on Earth.”
I turned my eyes back to the image above me. “Why?”
“Keynes, the man I was sent to kill on Helron, was the final target in a plan that’s been in place since before my birth. We’ve been killing the most extreme cloners and suppressors, those who … in a war, would be the most likely to lead against an army of clones.”
I turned to her. “A war? What are you talking about?”
“There’s a war coming, Larso. Our movement is massive. We’ve been waiting patiently, tens of thousands of us. With the destruction of Earth and the High Politburo of the People’s Republic, there’ll be a leadership vacuum. It won’t last long, but it’ll be there. That’s when we’ll attack. Slaves will suddenly turn on their masters, ships will no longer transport, sections of the military will turn against their superiors … it will be total, brutal, war.”
I shook my head. “No. No, you can’t do this. There are twenty-five billion people on earth. Women and children—people that have nothing to do with leading the Republic or enslaving clones.”
She glanced away. She couldn’t look me in the eyes. “It’s already set in motion. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
I grabbed her and made her look at me. “You just told me my entire race is going to be vaporized and you don’t know what else to tell me? Tell me you can stop this. Tell me you’re not a mass murderer of billions of innocent people.”
“I….”
We heard a rumble that vibrated through our feet. We both looked to each other and then she sprinted for the stairs and I followed.
3
We got outside the house and
froze. Bodies lay on the grass. All of them except Prator. He was on his knees in front of a woman in a black, tight suit. She had a glowing sword in her hand and was saying something to him. He shook his head.
The woman thrust her sword into him. She lifted him with it into the air like he was a toy.
“No!”
Ava sprinted for her. I didn’t know who this woman was but anyone who had just taken out a dozen clones in a few minutes wasn’t anyone I wanted to get to know.
“Ava, wait! Ava!”
I tried to stop her but she was too fast. She sprinted right for the woman, who saw her now and slid the sword out of Prator and turned to us. She flicked her wrist and a bolt of purple energy shot out and hit Ava in the chest, sending her flying off her feet. Immediately I was at her side and lifted her, her chest sizzling from the blow.
The woman was casually walking toward us and then, without warning, flipped up into the air as high as the building and came speeding down with her sword held below her, ready to slice through me and Ava.
I pulled Ava out of the way as the blade hit the ground and caused it to vibrate, like a minor earthquake. I pulled out my pistol, aimed and fired. The woman moved out of the way of every single blast.
“Who are you?” I mumbled.
“Your life is too short to worry about it.”
As she came in for a blow, a shockwave knocked us both on our backs. I was dizzy and found myself staring up at the blue sky. My ears were ringing but it began to fade and I heard the unmistakable sound of men shouting.
The woman was up on her feet, her blade in front of her as three men surrounded her. They were wearing helmets so I couldn’t see them, but tearing away their clothing they revealed the armor of republic Elites underneath—though I knew that was impossible since they weren’t allowed on King’s Grace. It would be seen as an act of war.
I sat up, and saw Ava next to me. She was delirious; her chest and stomach were fried to a crisp. I hobbled over to her.
“Ava? Can you hear me? Stay with me. I’m getting you outta here.”
Clone Hunter (A Science-Fiction Thriller) Page 13
