by Utley, Todd
“Hey you want a beer?” She yelled from the kitchen.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
They started watching the news and got disgusted with the stupidity of the stories. There were a lot of important things going on in the world but the local news insisted on reporting things like, petty crimes and violence, or someone stole some downtown street signs again.
Todd turned it off and started talking to Cheyenne in a very personable way.
“So, what’s the deal with your friend Alice and old man boy, they got something happening or what?” Todd was being unusually nice today so she figured this might be an inroad to connecting with him.
“I don’t have the full skinny but Alice made a comment that Toby said he was attracted to younger women and then Alice said she was attracted to older men so they made a good match.”
Todd snorted.
“Yeah right, that’s makes about no sense at all. He’s like barely seventeen if that and She’s what, maybe twenty-four or so?”
“No, no, silly, you see on the inside Toby is like a total of seventy some years old and since Alice is just twenty something it works, see?”
“Mmm, no not really.”
“He does have the body of a young man, which by the way doesn’t hurt, but that is not what she really wants. You see there is no way she would be interested in any boy that age, it would just be weird, but see Toby is just trapped in that body.”
Todd snorted again and almost shot beer out of his nose.
“Oh that’s rich darling, now let’s turn the tables. What if I was involved with a sixteen-year-old girl that was restored and I said, but no, no, it’s not like that, she’s actually a hundred years old, she’s just a sweet old lady trapped in this firm smoking hot body of this teen age girl, it’s totally okay right?”
“Ugh! Men are such pigs! You know, you guys are just pigs.” Todd was laughing. “Yeah, I know, that’s why Toby is thinking, Yes! I’m ancient and I’m gonna be having sex with these young women that are a fourth my age.” He got up and went into the kitchen to get them both another beer.
“Come on,” she said as he returned to the room, “Be serious, don’t you see anything sweet in this situation?”
“Well you know, I guess Tobe is kind of a special old dude. He does have something about him that makes him seem a lot more mature than any other sixteen-year-old guy that you’re gonna meet. This new age of clones is gonna turn the dating scene upside down, let me tell you. They’re going to have to change the laws too. You can’t go around locking people up for having relationships with under aged people unless they are actually under aged.”
“Wow,” said Cheyenne, “I didn’t know the Todd could have such a deep thought.”
“That is a pretty deep thought isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and you know, I’m glad we’re talking like this, I’ve discovered the man behind the digipaper. He has feelings and thoughts just like everyone else.”
“Hey, come on, I just keep to myself because I’m trying to do a good job and I don’t want to get distracted by relationships. My head not exploding kind of depends on it you know.”
“Well, I’ll be right back Mr. work ethics, I want to get out of these jeans and into my sweat pants.”
“All right I’ll meet you back here in five for more enlightening con-ver-say-she-own.”
Cheyenne returned in a long cotton night shirt, cut off sweats and ankle socks, Todd came back in the most faded stained holey sweat pants that she had ever seen.
“Wow, Todd, I think your sweats need Restoration” she said and laughed. “I think you need to rush them to the nearest life center while there is still time.”
“Okay, very funny, ha ha, ya know they’re super comfortable like an old pair of sneakers or jeans and they have good luck. You know, I watch ball games while wearing these and when I do my team is more likely to win.”
“Oh my god, that is so stupid!”
Todd laughed.
“Okay, look the truth is I just like them and I’m a cheap ass okay.
So shoot me I like saving my money that’s all.”
“Oh yeah what-cha savin for?”
“Well,” Todd got a serious look, then he took a big long drink of his beer. “I think I want a house of my own and I want to have a garage and in that garage I would like to spend my evenings restoring an old muscle car. Then when I get it all done, I’ll drive around town in it looking cool with some pretty girl riding shotgun. She has to be a smart girl that knows all about cars and we’ll talk about what might be wrong with it if it isn’t running right and maybe what we could do to it next.”
“Sounds good, maybe it’ll come true.”
“Nah, not likely, it’s more likely that I’ll make a mistake somewhere in all this mess and old Slade will pop my number and it will be game over.”
Cheyenne said “Hold that thought” and she jumped up and went into the kitchen to get some chips, she didn’t know that Todd was coming in behind her a moment later to get a snack.
Just as she came back out with a plate full of chips and dip there Todd was with six empty beer bottles between his fingers. They ran right into each other and the chips went flying and the beer bottles were coming out from between his fingers and they were doing everything they could to not end up in a pile on the floor. They didn’t go down but when the dancing stopped she had him pinned up against the wall in the little hallway with chip dip on his chest. Her feet were on the other side of the hall against the wall and the only thing keeping her from falling was the firm grip Todd had on both of her elbows. Both of their hearts were racing from the scare. There was broken glass all around her bare feet and even though her instincts told her to step forward, she couldn’t without stepping in the glass.
“Don’t move Todd said, I got ya” he had on his tennis shoes so he picked her up and headed for the sofa to set her down. She started laughing and so did he because it was such a mess. Todd’s whole front was covered in dip and now she had it all over her too. He got her to the sofa and was about to set her down.
“He was so big and strong. He whisked her right up into his arms like it was nothing.”
She whispered, “Please don’t.” Todd halted half way down and then straightened back up.
“Please don’t what? I was going to put you down?”
“I know,” she whispered, “please don’t put me down.”
He looked into her eyes and he saw something in there that he hadn’t seen in a very long time, and then she kissed him. It was just a tiny kiss, not sloppy at all, just a gentle kiss on his bottom lip, but it was enough to make his IQ drop to a number somewhere between 10 and 20. He knew exactly what was going to happen next but he couldn’t stop it even if he had wanted to. He carried her to her bed.
The next morning when she awoke she rolled over and Todd was gone. She could hear him downstairs doing something. She thought about what they had done. Her first thought was that it felt so good to be in his arms, she saw a side of him that she had never seen. She thought Todd was just a dumb jock, a real knuckle dragger, a guy who would pretty much ignore a woman’s needs due to being the self-absorbed egomaniac type.
Boy was she wrong, he was a fantastic lover, totally open, a real listener. He knew everything she wanted to feel, and it took her by surprise. She never dreamed a guy like Todd could be so deep and so attentive. On the other hand she felt terrible guilt, like the adulteress who betrayed her husband’s trust. She decided two years ago, when she realized what had been done to her, that she would be faithful to her husband no matter what. Now she had failed Vince, she had slept with another man. She always hoped that if she ever got out of this mess that they could be reunited and now she didn’t know if he could ever forgive her. How could she even tell him something so horrific? Maybe it was knowing that he had found a new lover that made her weak. Most women would be angry over it and she was, but at Cyrus not Vince.
She knew that he believed her to be dead, it wasn’t his faul
t, he was just lonely. She cried for at least five minutes but didn’t really completely understand her own emotions. She concluded that it must be because she had held on for so long and now that she slept with Todd it was as if she finally accepted that her former life was gone.
She got up and went to the bathroom to wash her face and put her hair back in a pony. She headed downstairs to see what Todd was doing. When she entered the kitchen, Todd was taking a pan of scrambled eggs from the laserwave to the table. The table was set with plates and cups and he had poured two glasses of juice, cooked some bacon, and was about to come up to get her. He stopped moving when he saw her standing in the door.
“‘Good Morning, do you want coffee?” He asked rather quietly.
“Yes, thank you.” He started pouring her a cup.
“Look, Todd . . .”
“No don’t,” he interrupted, “don’t say anything yet, I have something I want to say first, please sit down.” They both sat down then he reached over and took her hand.
“Just let me say what I want and don’t say anything till I’m done, okay?” Cheyenne nodded in agreement.
“What happened last night was wonderful . . . , but I know you’re married to Vince and you still love him and probably always will, and ya know, I should have been more of a gentlemen and just put you in your bed and covered you up and got out of there, but, you . . . , you were just so beautiful in that moment, it just took my breath away and it’s been so long since I uh . . . , but I’m not making excuses, I know what I did wasn’t cool and anyway I just want you to know that I totally respect you and it won’t happen again, I promise.”
She looked at him and smiled while fighting back the tears in her eyes.
“I started it you know, and I’m just as responsible if not more. It takes two to tango and I was way too willing. Look, it just happened, let’s not beat ourselves up over it. Let’s just forget about it and not talk about it anymore. Just so you know, there are two kinds of gentlemen, there are those that put you to bed and cover you up and leave you all alone in spite of your needs, and there are those that take you to bed and selflessly tend to your every desire, before getting up to fix you a wonderful breakfast the next morning, all the while, vowing to never tell anyone, not a soul.”
He nodded in agreement then she squeezed his hand and they quietly ate their breakfast. As they sat in silence, now more than ever Cheyenne wondered about Todd’s past, where was he from? What brought him to this place and these circumstances? He knew so much about her but she knew almost nothing about him. He was so quiet about his past that no one really knew him. She saw something in him last night and again this morning, something good, something different. She wondered if in time she might get to know him more. “Maybe it would be nice if it happened again.”
At the compound Glitch was awakened by the intercom.
“Glitch, come to my office,” Cyrus’s voice had an urgency to it. Glitch had to peel his saggy face off the desk. He had fallen asleep while watching the camera feeds at the Kerrington’s. He got nothing at all from them, and they were the most typical boring family on the planet. Glitch was convinced that Dodge was just an average engineer and family man with nothing really to offer their organization. Why Cyrus was so hell bent on getting him there without killing him off in the free world, was really beyond him.
Toby was just hanging out there and as far as Glitch could tell, he wasn’t accomplishing much of anything by staying overnight there again to have fun with Bobby. What Glitch didn’t know was that Toby had obtained more information from Dodge’s PC. He didn’t know because he had slept right through it while drooling on his desk. Glitch went down to the kitchen to get a cup of hot coffee before returning to the upper floor and entering Cyrus’s office.
“You rang Sir?” Glitch was the only person who dared to ignore Cyrus long enough to get a cup of coffee. Cyrus would kill most people for such a lack of respect but Glitch didn’t seem to care or have any genuine fear of him. For some reason, Cyrus seemed to respect that.
Glitch made his way over to one of the chairs to the side of Cyrus’s desk as Cyrus spun around in his chair and turned on a large monitor on the adjacent wall.
“Did you see what our boy Toby did last night?” “No Sir, I monitored him for about five or six hours after which I turned in.”
“Ah yes, I did notice the pattern from your keyboard still in your face there, sleep well?”
“Uh, yeah, I did fall asleep at my desk while watching and because I just woke up a moment ago I have not had an opportunity to review the recording to see what I might have missed.”
“Well if you’re finally awake, take a look at this.”
Cyrus was always annoyed with people for requiring sleep, he never slept because his distorted DNA rendered him incapable of sleep, so because he didn’t understand the need for it, he chalked it up as laziness.
Cyrus switched his PC feed to the large monitor.
“Looks like around 2:00 a.m., while the family was sleeping, AND YOU, our man Toby was hard at work in Dodge’s study. It appears that he managed to get most of the files from those Microdrives which our clever engineer had hidden in his desk. Our men missed these items years ago when they broke in and took Kerrington’s PC. Now we should have some interesting files that will help us identify the vulnerabilities of the LifeTech system. We must crack the higher security levels of the system to get complete control of our friends in Washington. As soon as Toby returns, I want you to get these files from him and begin going through them.”
“Absolutely Sir, that’s great news, I’ll get on it immediately.” As he got up to leave the office Cyrus added.
“Glitch, don’t let me down on this we’re on a strict schedule here and we’re running out of time with Dodge and John Calhoun too, we must obtain what they know very soon, understood?”
“Yes Sir, I’ll get you what you need.”
Glitch moved quickly down the hall, he was awake now for sure, nothing excited him more than hacking into someone’s personal files and finding some dirt, or some tidy little tech secret that was not meant for his eyes. It was like stealing a tasty little snack from a hungry child, and it really warmed his little blackened heart.
Chapter 26 At the Kerrington’s they were all up, had already finished breakfast, and were in full motion. Linsey and Sarah had plans to go to the mall to begin some early Christmas shopping and put a few things in lay away. Not so much because they needed to make payments on it, they had plenty of money to pay for it, but more because Bobby and Dodge were experts at finding their gifts prior to wrapping or guessing their gifts before they opened them, so it was better to keep them elsewhere for as long as possible.
It was a challenge for all of them to hide their gifts and successfully make it until Christmas Eve before the receiver could either find it, or correctly guess what it was that you had gotten for them. This would be the first year that they had enough money to get everyone what they really wanted, it was like an irresistible cornucopia of shopping, a girl’s dream come true.
Dodge, Bobby, and Toby were all heading to the club. They were going to have fun but there was certainly an ulterior motive. They knew that out there no one could easily monitor anything being said. They intended to exchange a good deal of information and strategy with Toby in an effort to increase their intelligence gathering within the compound.
They had also arranged to “accidently” run into John on the third hole and then stay with him to finish out an entire eighteen holes of golf. By the time they completed the round many questions would be answered and some good plans laid. The watchers just saw a normal family doing normal summer time activities, they were completely unaware of the incredible plot being formed against Cyrus, a plot that if executed correctly, would actually liberate the watchers from the very jobs that they were doing.
Linsey and Sarah were on their way to the mall. John was already at the golf course finishing off a bucket of balls, and Dodge and
the boy’s were gearing up to go to the course. They had all the golf clubs out in the driveway and they were loading balls and tees into their bags. Dodge got out his old clubs to lend to Toby who was now checking them over and practice swinging them just off to the side of the drive way. He told Dodge and Bobby in a low voice that he used to golf. They were watching him swing the club, he had a great swing, it would be interesting to see if he could still hit a ball all these years later.
They loaded everything in the Volvo and headed for the course. On the way to the club Bobby was telling Toby about how excited he was that Matt and his family would be home this Friday from their vacation, just one day before Bobby was scheduled to leave for Racing School. He couldn’t wait, it was going to be so much fun. They had a great Friday night bash planned and he wanted Toby to come too. They were going to Retro-cade, then a movie, and then back to Bobby’s house, where they would be staying up half the night, playing video games and stuffing their faces with junk food.
Bobby was anxious to see Matt but at the same time a little worried about not being able to tell him what was going on in their lives. They had been friends since kindergarten and had grown up together. They had a connection as strong as any brothers could ever have and he wished that he could tell him everything. They arrived at the club and piled out. They all got their bags out of the trunk and went up to get checked in. Meanwhile, John was stepping onto the first tee. It was a beautiful day and they were about to fine tune their plan, they were all anxious to get it done.
He hit a long one right down the left side and it wound up in a bunker, he shook his head and headed to his cart. Dodge and the boys were having a blast. The club wasn’t too busy for a nice day and there were only two singles ahead of them between their group and John. He waited on the second tee and let the golfer directly behind him play on through. He hit two balls off the second tee and then took his sweet time finding one of them and allowed the second single to catch up to him. He waved him on through and then took his time playing out the two balls. By the time he stepped up on the third tee Dodge and company had arrived at the 2nd green behind him. He made it obvious that he had noticed them by waving and then hit three balls off the third tee before driving back to talk to them.
