by Utley, Todd
That same day out at the farm the clones continued with their martial arts, gun training, and research on the compound. They were also introduced to another area of the farm they had not previously seen. Jason took them to a barn behind the main dairy building and unveiled several military vehicles that John’s uncle had purchased and stored. His uncle had kept them in good running order until his health began to fail a few years before he passed. His Uncle, like Grandpa Kerrington, didn’t like the idea of Restoration and it was still fairly new when he passed away, so unfortunately he was gone.
The vehicles had been in this barn now for about fifteen years without being started or cared for much other than a smart trickle charger on each battery. They were covered up and kept out of the elements so they were in good shape but would need to be started and tested out. Their minds were going crazy now thinking about how they could use these new tools in their assault on the compound, it was a good day.
While Alice was busy in the lab with Cyrus and Glitch all day, Toby and Todd had gone down to the oven and looked around a bit more. Todd was already proving to be a great asset, he knew many of the people and he had been there longer than most. He was friendly with most of the guards and knew where everything was in the compound. He even had several ideas on how they could seal the oven from the inside when the time came to do so.
Todd took Toby to three different areas in the compound where he knew there was left over building materials stored. They found two cases of metal duct tape left over from the installation of the heat, ac, and ventilation systems for the labs, kitchen, and computer labs. Now they just had to move it from there to the oven. It came in fifty foot rolls so they did some calculations and discovered they only needed about six rolls, this would be a very easy problem to solve. Todd wanted to contribute to the effort in his own way so he spent the next three hours milling around in the compound looking busy and visiting with a few of his buddies that were either guards or maintenance workers. He had conversations with several of them and found himself scrutinizing them now in a way he never had before. Now he was viewing them only as “in” or “out.” He was putting them in these categories in his mind of either being on his new side or his old side. He was imagining whether or not he could talk to them and get them to join their team at some point.
Throughout his day he also managed to drop off all six rolls of tape one at a time to the oven. He carried them one at a time out in the open in his hand. One of his guard buddies noticed him with three of the six rolls at different times. He laughed and said
“Jeeze Todd, you gonna carry that stupid roll of tape around all day!” He just thought it was the same roll and assumed that Todd was gonna tape up some old broken thing at the house. Todd said, yeah I know, I’ve been meaning to put it in the van but I keep getting side tracked. As he walked away, he thought, sometimes the best way to hide something is to just leave it right out in the open.
He was observant every time he approached the ovens to be sure the same people were not still in the area. He went in each time and put the tape in the paint storage cabinet in an old paint can and put a rag in on top of it. He was surprised that Cyrus didn’t have any cameras down in that area, but then again, there was nothing of any value down there and there were no computers or anything else that could be used to breach security.
The guards patrolled the area but only once or twice daily, and they were very sloppy about it. Everyone was so terrified of Cyrus that no one dared do anything wrong anyway. He had always terminated wrong doers in the past and now he had set a precedent that no one dared to test. It was very late now and he was exhausted, he went to his room and fell asleep reading a how to book about restoring antique gasoline powered hotrods.
The next morning Alice woke early knowing that she had to get up and face another long day. She knew Glitch and Cyrus would both be expecting results from the investigation into the dysfunctional clones. She would need to make some progress in order to keep Cyrus from killing several people, just to amuse himself.
As she tried to roll over she realized she was tangled in the sheets and Toby was laying on them. She gave it a hearty yank and got enough slack to get free, Toby let out a weird noise and went back to heavy breathing that was near to a snore. As she got up off the bed she nearly let out a little scream but managed to hold it in. She was painfully sore, the muscles in her legs and arms and the small of her back were all hurting. She giggled a little bit as she attempted to walk it off on the way to the shower. It had been years since she woke up after a wild night of sex with so many sore muscles, it must have been more physical than she realized while doing it. She took a hot shower to loosen up and was almost ready when Glitch’s voice came over her intercom.
“Miss Covings, are you up?” She went to the intercom and mashed the talk button.
“Yes Glitch, I am” she answered reluctantly into the thin vertical slits on the old brass plate.
“I’ll be there shortly,” she added.
“Yes,” Glitch’s voice crackled back, “see that you are, we have much to do.”
She figured that would happen. Glitch wouldn’t rest until he had answers about the clones not being so talkative while Cyrus was coercing them.
She finished getting ready and jumped on top of Toby and woke him up. She laid on top of him for a minute and then kissed his face all over. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her.
“Oh my god, that was some night huh?”
“It sure was,” she said, as she got up off of him and went to the mirror to fix her hair.
He got up and stretched and she saw him wince in the mirror.
“Ouch! oh man, my back, damn, what did we do?”
Alice spun around, grabbed him and kissed him passionately.
“I have to go stud, but I’ll see you at lunch if you’re down there.”
“Okay,” he said as he continued to stretch his back and make awful faces. She hurried out the door and went down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.
She got to the lab by 6:45 a.m., way too early as far as she was concerned. She was relieved to find only Glitch inside when she arrived, she had no desire to listen to that lunatic Cyrus ranting this early in the morning. Glitch was already leaning over one of the more powerful microscopes examining the chip he had removed from the brain of clone number one. He motioned Alice over to look at it.
“Take a look at this Miss Covings and tell me what you see wrong with it.” She was a little concerned that their sabotage might be obvious now under the microscope. She peered into the stereo optics of the powerful scope. Much to her surprise she was looking at a chip that appeared to be perfect.
“I can’t see anything wrong with this Glitch, it looks perfect.”
“Precisely!” Glitch exclaimed, “it’s too perfect, so what went wrong?”
“I tested this chip this morning by putting it into the simulator and I discovered the Input output segments are’nt active, the synchronization circuit has no frequency stabilization characteristics, and it draws zero current when power is applied, it’s basically about as damaged as it can be.
“What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know yet but the tech docs suggest that the only possible reason for one of these chips to be this messed up is static damage. My report to Cyrus will state that the chips were faulty from the factory. Take my key to the lab cooler and pull out the other tray of chips that are in there. All five of these clones had chips implanted in them from that new lot. Run each of the remaining twenty five chips through the simulator and print out performance reports. Make sure the serial numbers are being presented by the chip to the simulator.”
“Okay, do you think the test will reveal the cause?”
“No but I want to track these back to the manufacturer’s data base to see if anyone else has had trouble with these. Of course these were stolen so I can’t exactly call up their toll free support hotline. I’ll hack their warranty database instead to see i
f there have been any other complaints or product returns from this production lot. I’ll be back in three hours. See that it’s complete with printed reports by then.”
As soon as Glitch left Alice got right to it. She was hoping now that some of the chips were still good and she really hoped that no other customers had any troubles with that batch. Cyrus would surely blame Glitch and if they were all lucky Cyrus would completely lose it and kill him. She hated to see anyone have to die, but without that minion Glitch Cyrus would be much more easily defeated.
Three hours to the minute, Glitch returned. Cyrus was right alongside him talking as they came in.
“Well Miss Covings,” Cyrus said as he entered, “what have you concluded?”
“Well Sir, Glitch actually got me going in the right direction. His theory was that the chips were so pristine in appearance that the malfunction must have been caused by static damage at some time prior to our installing them. Glitch was the only person to handle them and he’s very well versed in all the proper protocols. It’s very unlikely that he would damage them due to his experience with these items. It’s more probable that they were damaged in transport from the factory to our lab. The thieves who sold us the chips may have mishandled them.”
Cyrus turned to Glitch.
“Did you test these chips in the simulator prior to implanting them in these five clones?”
Glitch got that “oh shit” look on his face.
“Um, well Sir, they came in the factory sealed package and the seal had not ever been broken, they were guaranteed tested and in anti-static packaging.”
“So that’s a solid NO then?”
Cyrus was beginning to get agitated and it wasn’t looking good for Glitch.
“I apologize Sir, I only tested one. I should have conducted a random simulation on a few of them, but we were operating on a very truncated schedule at your request and . . .”
Cyrus spun around without warning and grabbed Glitch by the throat, lifting him off the ground with one hand while squeezing his neck so tight that Glitch could hardly speak. Alice started backing away for fear of what was about to happen when something did but not what she was expecting at all.
Electricity began shooting out of the center of Glitch’s chest and into Cyrus’s eyes and ears. His awful mess of hair raised up on his head and began to smoke. In a weird jerking motion he released Glitch and stepped back dropping to one knee. Glitch extended his hand towards Cyrus and continued to shoot electricity out of his chest that ran down his arm and off the tips of his fingers and all over Cyrus’s body. Cyrus was down on both knees now and was leaning into the flow as if though he were leaning into a stiff wind.
“Gliiiiitccchhhh!” He began screaming as if he might be in pain. “YOU, YOU! . . .” then Glitch gave a final thrust with his hand that picked Cyrus up off the floor and threw him back several feet crashing him violently into a cart knocking it over spilling the contents all over the lab floor. The flow stopped and Cyrus lay nearly motionless on the lab floor in a pile of broken glass and blood, his hair still smoking. Steam was coming out of the arm holes and pant legs of his air conditioned suite. Glitch pointed his finger at Cyrus.
“Don’t you EVER! raise your hand to me in anger again! You know what I’m capable of Slade! I’m not one of your little flunkies that you can push around, I’m your equal and you know it!”
Glitch turned and began to leave but Cyrus jumped up and flew across the room with cat like agility in a single leap landing between Glitch and the door. He pointed his finger at Glitch.
“You may have this power of high voltage that I cannot overcome, but be very careful little man, I can destroy you if I get angry enough!”
“That’s may be Cyrus, you probably could, but I promise it will take EVERYTHING you’ve got, ALL of it! You will DIE with me! If you choose that fate then you will never complete your mission to rule the world. Don’t forget Slade, this is your twisted dream not mine! When this is over we split the money then you and I are done!”
With that Glitch quickly walked around Cyrus and out of the room. Cyrus looked at Alice who was trembling so violently that she was nearly rattling.
“Miss Covings, do calm down now, I’m not going to harm you. I’ll expect you to clean up this little mess that Glitch and I made. Don’t mind him, he’s just a deranged little man with a unique ability to control the electricity from his life support cell. If you really piss him off it comes out of him with a good bit of force, as you just witnessed. I have no doubt that in his haste he mishandled those chips and zapped them with his damned static!”
“Okay,” said Alice, at a loss for any other words.
“From now on Alice you will be in charge of any implants that are to be done. Dispose of the remaining chips that he has handled, I have no doubt they are ruined as well. I don’t have time for any more setbacks so Glitch gets to live for now. Besides, hackers with his level of talent are hard to find.”
He started to leave but then turned and said . . . “And one more thing. You keep what you saw here today to yourself Miss Covings. Not a word to anyone, understood?”
“Yes Sir Mr. Slade, not a word.”
With that, Cyrus turned and rushed out of the lab in an angry huff down the hallway, banging the door against the wall again on his way out causing a few more small pieces of remaining glass to find their way onto the floor.
She began picking up the items off the floor from the tray they had knocked over. “Things were really coming apart in this place.”
Who would have guessed that Glitch had any kind of power that could even come close to challenging Cyrus? She couldn’t wait to tell the others about the craziness she had just seen. Screw keeping it to herself, this was good stuff! Besides, maybe John and Dodge could find a way to use some type of electricity against Cyrus when they hit the compound.
Out at the farm the morning had started off in the usual way with a good breakfast, and a meeting of sorts while still around the table. Their day was going to be different from usual and everyone was pretty stoked about their plan. Today they would be working on the three military vehicles that they had in their private arsenal out in the barn.
They would begin with an assessment of the engine and transmission components on each one and they would see if they could get them started up. Then they would inspect the tires, tracks, electrical, brakes, and anything else they deemed necessary. If they could use them with little repair then they would, otherwise John would acquire some newer vehicles as quickly as possible.
They would also be looking at their weapons options that they could add to these vehicles. They had two HMMWVs (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) with gun turrets and up armor, but no guns. These vehicles were made by A.M. General corporation. They also had an M-923 5 ton straight cargo truck. Great for driving right through gates or even walls.
The trucks were all more than fifty years old but they had been restored fifteen years ago to good working condition before being stored. John’s uncle would start them once in a while and drive them around just to keep everything lubricated. He was a veteran himself and had a lot of appreciation for these old machines.
Now they planned to put them to good use and finally reap the fruits of his efforts. He would have never dreamed his toys would see action again. All the trucks had trickle chargers on the batteries and they had been plugged in most of the time except for a few months when John’s aunt forgot to pay the separate electric bill and the power got shut off to the old dairy building.
They spent the morning draining and refilling the diesel tanks to get the moisture out and then they gave them a try. All three trucks ran and all three were drivable. The humvees would both need new tires though; they were dry rotted badly but for some reason the tires on the 5 ton were in great shape. They took one of the humvees out behind the farm and drove it through a small creek bed and a wooded area. It was an incredible machine. It would go over logs and large rocks with ease. They even dro
ve over several small trees that were about three inches in diameter, knocking them down and snapping them off at the ground.
They all agreed that these vehicles would be better than anything they could get now as they were much heavier duty than the small military trucks available currently. The 5 ton was perfect for loading the entire Black Ops team into it for the drive into the compound. It had a canvas cover over the entire bed and would easily conceal the men and their weapons during the trip to Indy.
They spent the rest of the day selecting new weapons from a black market online military surplus site that John found. It had a front as a hardware website but if you knew the right key code and typed it into the parts search box you would be taken to the real site where you could buy almost anything with a simple wire transfer.
John went to the bank and made a deposit and soon his cousin at the pawn shop made some purchases for them. They got an old-fashioned 50 cal that Alan just had to have and they got a twin beam laser canon that had just come out about five years earlier. This one was supped up with some mods to the crystal tunnel gates and it could fire 200 pulses a second and penetrate steel up to one inch in thickness on full power.
The problem with these laser weapons still was the battery packs. Even with nuclium cells the batteries weighed over 200 pounds so it was not yet a foot soldier weapon. No problem for the humvee though, it would carry the weight just fine so they planned to mount it on the turret of one of the humvees. They wanted to get these items delivered as soon as possible and get them installed on the trucks. It was their goal to move on the compound in the next week.
While Alice was busy in the lab with the dueling misfits, Toby and Todd were busy smuggling items into the oven on a random basis while also making their rounds talking to all Todd’s buddies. They were making a list all morning and now they had returned to Todd’s room to go over it. As they went over the names and recalled everything, they could about each one they kept coming back to one major problem. If they recruited some of these people and they turned on them it could ruin everything. It would be a lot better if they waited until only a few hours before the attack on the compound, that way, if any of the people turned on them, maybe it wouldn’t make much difference. Those that wanted to be saved could meet Toby and Todd somewhere down on the foundry floor and then they could herd them all into the oven to safety during the attack. If Cyrus transmitted his master destruct signal, it would have no effect on those inside the safety of the metal oven.
