RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy))

by Utley, Todd

  “Welcome to the team,” he said while he shook his hand vigorously.

  “Team?” Todd looked a little puzzled.

  “That’s right this thing is big, and now with you on board, it’s even bigger and better. See Cheyenne here has her friend on the inside, you know, Alice.

  “Really? Alice is in this?

  “She sure is. She works with Cyrus and Glitch on a daily basis, and of course there’s me and Cheyenne. Now with you in, that’s four of us on the inside plus everyone else.”

  Todd’s eyebrows went up.

  “Everyone else? Who’s . . .” Toby interrupted.

  “Hold on. Hey Cheyenne, why don’t you check around the place, you know, make sure no one else is in on this?”

  “Oh right, be right back,” Cheyenne said as she jumped up to retrieve the little scanner.

  “Really Dude? You’re making a chick check the perimeter? Isn’t that a man’s job?”

  “Well you know she’s just double checking I already checked earlier,” he said with a smile. Cheyenne came back with the little scanner and started walking around the room, she wasn’t getting anything at all.

  “Looks like it’s clean,” she said. As she started to set it down it let out one tiny beep. They all looked at each other and didn’t say a word. Todd had figured out exactly what she was doing now and felt a little stupid for assuming Toby had sent her outside to snap some guy’s neck in the bushes.

  She went back around the room and didn’t get a thing. She moved back to where it had let out the beep and it beeped again. She switched it to blink so that it would be silent. She was near the kitchen so she took the scanner in there. As soon as she did it began to blink slow and steady. There was something in the kitchen, she looked back at the guys and motioned for them to follow. They came into the kitchen with her and they moved around the room together. The light blinked faster and faster as she was nearing the door between the kitchen and the garage. Whatever it was must be in the garage.

  She swung the door open and walked out but the blinking slowed, when she turned around the only thing that was there was a rug with several pair of shoes. She scanned all the shoes and when she got to Todd’s boots the scanner light stayed on continuously. Without saying a word Todd picked up the boots and went over to the workbench where there was a large vise.

  He turned on the old LED work light over the bench that made a weird chirp sound before only half of the LEDs snapped on brightening the area. He began inspecting the boot diligently and found a place in the side of the tread near the toe that looked like it had been re-glued. He figured the bug must have been inserted there in the rubber sole.

  He opened up the vise and put the toe of the boot between the jaws and began cranking it down. Cheyenne had the scanner right by it and it was still lit solid. He continued cranking it down tighter until the toe of the boot was completely flat and the light was still on. He put everything he had into twisting the handle and they all heard a little pop come from the boot followed immediately by a tiny puff of smoke that smelled like burnt electronics and the light on the scanner went out. Then they all looked at each other and busted out laughing almost hysterically. Todd had smashed the boot so tightly that the little bug shorted out and stopped transmitting.

  “Wow” Todd said.

  “I had no idea that Cyrus was so into monitoring us.”

  “Thank God you didn’t have those boots on in the living room tonight” Toby said.

  “No kidding, we’re going to have to be more careful from now on” said Cheyenne.

  “We’ll have to scan the room anytime we want to have a meeting to discuss things.” Todd shook his head.

  “Unbelievable, we got so lucky. Let’s go back inside and you guys can finish filling me in on everything.”

  Cheyenne and Toby spent the next two hours telling Todd all the details of what they had been through already and what was planned next. He was astonished at how well they had all kept up this act and for so long too. He was glad to hear that Dodge and his family were the masterminds behind the plan to end Cyrus.

  He told Toby that he knew exactly where they could get the extra wide metal duct tape that he needed to signal proof the oven. He also remembered that there was some old metal window screen down in the basement of the house. Toby could put that in the bottom of his overnight bag and carry it in easily. Guards rarely inspected bags but if they did he could simply say that it was for his dorm window to keep the mosquitoes out. They had bars over the windows for security reasons but no window screens. If you wanted air then you got bugs with it. The tape would be easier because it was already at the compound and would only need to be moved from one location to another.

  “So Todd, are we going to the compound tomorrow?” Toby asked.

  “Yes, I got a call from Glitch earlier, I think he’s anxious to see the content of those files that you copied from Dodge’s office.”

  “He won’t like it, but it’ll keep him busy for a really long time. Dodge instructed me on exactly which ones to copy. He said early on in the development stages they used a program that automatically attempted to re-design a base design until it was as compact and efficient as possible. He said this crazy software spit out almost nine hundred different versions of their base design and they were all totally useless. They had to start over and make each design change manually. Glitch would have all eight hundred and eighty-seven of these design files to sift through.”

  They all got another good laugh out of that and began to lay bets on how many of them Glitch would go through with a fine tooth comb before he realized he was pissing up a rope.

  “By the way guys, Dodge told me the official name for what we’re involved in. They decided on Operation Black Ice.”

  Todd’s eyebrows went up.

  “Operation Black Ice? That’s tight. It even sounds cool when you say it. I feel like James Bond now, this is going to be epic. I think we might pull this off and now that there is hope I feel a lot better than I did just a few hours ago. We might all have a chance at having our own lives again.” They all agreed that it would be, and they went on talking until it got very late.

  At the compound Alice still tossed and turned. She had gone to bed early in hopes of drifting off to good dreams of better times but instead she could only lay there awake, wondering about what would happen tomorrow with the clones, she counted sheep, sang to herself, and tried to remember how good she felt when she was with Toby. After what seemed like a very long time, she finally drifted off.

  At the Kerrington’s, Dodge, Linsey and the kids had been asleep for well over an hour. Dodge received a message on his phone after dinner from Tim informing him that his leave of absence had been approved. He still needed to go in tomorrow to brief his sub and his team on what he expected for them to accomplish in his absence. The good news was such a relief, now he could focus solely on putting an end to Cyrus and his plot to destroy their family, not to mention most of the free world. He longed for new days when he and his family could have a normal life again without worrying about Cyrus Slade wrecking havoc on them.

  Chapter 28 It was quite late now but John Calhoun was still up, working at his PC diligently, digging for information on each individual on the list. He was constructing a plan to eliminate as many of them as possible from the suspect list by utilizing his 3 degrees program. He had not yet received the good news about Todd, but soon he would learn of him joining them in their quest. He was happy to know they had Alice, Toby and Cheyenne. They had plenty of friends on the inside and could probably get a good number of them to join with them in the coming weeks. The more people they could save from Cyrus the easier it would be to take the compound when the moment came.

  John began nodding off at his PC, after six or seven near mishaps of head butting the keyboard, he finally accepted the fact that he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He made the long walk back to the house, it was time to get some shut eye. Tomorrow morning should bring some ve
ry interesting knowledge from his day at the farm with DC.

  Alan was having a great time with the clones at the farm. He saw that their combat skills were sharpening and their weapons handling was becoming second nature. When you spend a lot of time with one particular weapon it becomes almost like part of you and you don’t want to be without it. At first you’re concerned about shooting yourself but after it becomes an extension of you it no longer concerns you because that would be like a scorpion accidently stinging itself, it just doesn’t happen. He knew that very feeling himself from carrying his M16 during his tours of duty in Iraq, it literally became like a part of you.

  They had a vigorous workout and weight training session right after breakfast each day. It had a strange effect on Dodge and John back in Indy, they had both found themselves doing pushups, sit ups, and pull-ups every morning and evening. They both seemed to have the insatiable urge to work out and even run. John said it had to do with a chemical reaction in the brain that causes addiction to exercise. It’s a well-known fact that this can happen to people and because their clones were training so hard it was now affecting their brains also, the shared experiences were causing the same chemical reaction for all of them. Dodge even found himself down in the basement more each day with a desire to shoot his guns. He was getting the feeling back of being comfortable with a gun in his hand.

  Morning came way too soon for Alice. She had finally fallen asleep somewhere between two and three and now had to get up at six to be in the lab by seven. She got up and got ready as quickly as possible, putting her hair back in a pony and no makeup at all. Most of the women there didn’t use it anyway. No one cared to look that good for the strange men that were there, and besides she would be in the lab all day working so what was the point. She was a natural blonde with green eyes and had plenty of natural beauty that didn’t require much fixing up anyway. But like most women she still thought she needed it.

  She made it down to the kitchen in time to grab some toaster pastries, a hot cup of coffee, and a sport drink to take with her to the lab. She arrived at ten till seven and sat down at her desk to eat. It was 6:58 as she was finishing up and in came Cyrus and Glitch. They were looking especially smug this morning and Glitch even had what could have been mistaken for a smile but only for a fleeting moment.

  Glitch went straight to the back and began inspecting the suspension tanks, the clones, and all the hardware. He called for Alice who was just getting up and still wiping her mouth off from eating her breakfast so quickly. She went back to assist him in preparing the oldest clone for the file loading. Cyrus was fiddling with the uplink software, queuing the files and generally double checking everything. In just about one hour the first clone would awaken, or would it? And if it did what would it do, and what would it say if it could speak?

  She was getting very nervous about the potential of Cyrus having a complete melt down over yet another failure. She wished Toby could be there, she felt so afraid now. She knew that Toby was coming today but she didn’t know what time and even when he did get there he wouldn’t be allowed in the lab while Cyrus or Glitch were around. In spite of her feelings she went through all the normal procedures just like she was trained to do back in school. They had emergency training that taught them how to stay focused and level headed in bad situations and now it was paying off.

  Cyrus targeted her because she was one of the best in the field. It made her sick that her skills and many years of hard work and study were being wasted on this mad mans twisted endeavor to rule the world. She longed for research to cure disease and improve the cloning process for the free world to make the Restoration process as perfect and flawless as possible so that everyone could enjoy immortality. She had nothing in common with this mad man except work ethic. No one could say Cyrus was lazy but if they did he would surely kill them for suggesting it.

  “Sir,” Glitch said, “the clone is ready for the lifefile upload, would you like for us to proceed?”

  “Yes, load him up, I’ve got work to do,” growled Cyrus.

  “Alice, Prepare a tray of surgical instruments for me immediately!” He ordered sharply.

  As Glitch began the file loading process, Alice went to the back and began loading up a complete tray as if they were going into the O.R. to save someone’s life. Even though she knew it would be just the opposite, still she did her job, exactly as she was trained. By the time she returned with the tray on a small cart the upload was nearly complete. Cyrus was so anxious he was wringing his hands with anticipation.

  The console screen flashed the “complete” message and Glitch retracted the load probe. The clone was beginning to stir, its eyes popped open and it sat straight up and looked around. Cyrus leaned in closer.

  “Hello Dodge Kerrington, do you know who I am?” The clone just stared at him and made a grunt noise but no audible words came out.

  “Cat got your tongue? That’s right. You’re in my house now. I’ll be taking your restoration technology and using it for my own purposes. You’ve probably noticed that you’re in a child’s body. That’s because I destroyed your other body. That’s right you’re dead to the world unless I restore you. You see, you’ve been in a little train accident, seems your car stalled on the tracks. You gonna stay dead unless you cooperate with me. If you give me what I want I’ll restore you back to your family. So what’s it gonna be, can we get this show on the road or do I have to resort to other means?”

  He gestured to Alice to bring the tray of surgical instruments. The clone was looking confused and hadn’t said a word. Cyrus grabbed one of the scalpels off the tray and with his free hand he yanked the strap on the clones arm down tight into the restraint of the chair causing substantial pain. He began moving the blade towards the clones hand and then in a quick movement he stuck it right through it and into the arm of the chair. The clone screamed in agony and lurched upward in an uncontrollable convulsion so violently that it head butted Cyrus right in the face.

  Cyrus was jolted by the blow so hard that he fell backward off his stool and landed flat on his back on the tile floor pulling the entire tray of surgical instruments down on top of him, blood was gushing from his nostrils and a nasty slice opened up over his left eye from one of the scalpels landing on him. He jumped up and grabbed the clone by the throat and began squeezing the life out of its little body. Alice had taken several steps back and by the way the clone was acting she knew that it had no real intelligence, it had no thought going on in its brain, it was behaving more like a caged animal than a human being.

  She was disgusted with Cyrus but at the same time very happy with the results of her and Toby’s night of sabotage. Apparently their plan of electrocuting the brains of the clones had worked. It had either cooked the chip inside the brain or the brain itself. Regardless the clone was simply not capable of speaking. As of right now Cyrus believed he had been physically attacked by an angry Dodge that was using pure will power to resist him. He didn’t understand that the clone was nearly a vegetable, incapable of speech. He was now in the process of killing the first clone, and would no doubt want to load the next one within the hour.

  “Glitch! Load up the next one, I’m going to break him!”

  Glitch motioned to Alice and she began helping him load the next clone. She only hoped that they all had the same condition, but on the other hand she feared what Cyrus might do if they all failed to speak. Cyrus was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back muttering the sequence of events to himself that had led to this moment. He paused only long enough to grab a lab towel from the drawer of a nearby workstation to wipe the blood from his face. He had nearly been knocked unconscious by the frightened clone. “if only he had been” Alice thought.

  Slade didn’t understand where he had gone wrong, his torture always worked, no normal human being would keep silence under such duress. How was Dodge able to withstand such horrible pain and never utter even that first word? He flew out of the lab flinging the door so hard that i
t hit the wall shattering the glass out of the door. She was glad he was gone. “Maybe he would cool off and not be so frightening when he returned.”

  A few minutes later Cyrus’s voice came over the lab intercom.

  “Glitch!” He said, with an impatient tone. Glitch hurried to the intercom.

  “Yes Sir?”

  “I want you to load all of the remaining clones up and when they are all awake call me in my office.”

  “Yes, Sir, will do.”

  Glitch returned to the clone they were working on.

  “I’ll finish this one, you go ahead and prep the next one and just keep going until they’re all done. I’ll follow you with the uploading and the vitals sweeps.”

  “Okay. What do you think Cyrus is going to do?” Asked Alice. Glitch wasn’t too talkative a fellow. He didn’t look up at her.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say he’ll torture each of these clones while the others watch. He’s hoping that by the time he gets to the last one, maybe it will talk. The key to these things working is convincing the clone that his surrogate is dead. If a clone in this situation believes that his surrogate is still alive then he will be much less likely to talk. We find this phenomena to be much like a mother laying down her life for that of her children.”

  “What about the soul?”

  “You mean P-Source?” Said Glitch.

  “Call it want you want, you know what it is.”

  “Yes, I’ve done extensive research. Source is transcendental. It doesn’t matter how far away a clone is loaded from the surrogate. Source arrives and attaches. Those who believe in God say it’s the soul. Us more scientific types believe it exists in a fourth dimension. It apparently splits in the womb when identical twins are formed. We have come to believe that Source views the awakening of a clone in the same way. It splits without losing any value, or intensity if you will. This sharing of source and like mindedness of the clones explains why they don’t have the insatiable desire to live in tandem when they first awaken. If allowed to live on a tangent time line from their surrogate they develop the same instinct for self preservation.