by Utley, Todd
“Do you know the men that I dispatched for this assignment today?”
“I don’t know Sir, what were there names?”
“Their names?” Cyrus repeated. “Their names were 735 and 742, do you know them?”
“Well Sir, I do know Brian, I mean 742, I know him Sir.”
“Is he a good man, can he be trusted?”
“Oh, yes Sir . . .”
Before he could say another word Cyrus reached out and crushed his neck with one violent grasp that caused the veins to pop out even more in Cyrus’s forehead.
“You’re a liar!” Cyrus screamed as he released him and his dead body hit the floor like a sack of flour.
The other guard had heard the commotion and came to see what was the matter. Cyrus looked at him as he entered.
“Did you know this man?”
“Uh, well Sir, not very well.” He knew him plenty well but had overheard part of what had been said already and just hoped to get out of this alive.
“Good,” Cyrus said, “Let this be an example to you, sometimes a man is known by the company he keeps. Did you know 735 and 742?”
The guard looked at Glitch and he nodded his head very slightly in a “no” motion to the guard.
“Uh, no Sir,” I didn’t. He answered.
“Good, check the perimeter, see if you can find any clues as to where these idiots 735 and 742 are off to. When you get done with that you can dispose of 718 here.”
“Yes Sir,” he said as he ran from the room more out of fear than obedience.
Glitch stood there for a moment and looked at 718 lying there dead on the floor.
“Ya know Cyrus, I happen to know that 718 was one of your best and most loyal guards.”
“So what are you saying Glitch, that I was wrong for killing him?”
“Nooooo . . . , I wouldn’t say that” Glitch said as he opened the fridge.
“Wow,” he said, “This is stocked really well,” he turned his head around and looked at Cyrus.
“Want a sandwich?”
“Are you making it?”
“Um, sure I guess so,” replied Glitch. I was gonna make me one anyway.” He began recklessly tossing everything he wanted out of the fridge on to the island counter top behind him. Cyrus was yanking drawers clear out of the tracks onto the floor.
“Where did these idiots keep the bread?” He said. Glitch looked around.
“Try the little roll top thing by the flour can there, the one that says bread.” Cyrus ripped the front of it clear off.
“Yip, here it is.”
They were almost done throwing their sandwiches together when the guard came back in to report. He was surprised they were making food, it was out of character for these two. “Um, Sir, I have checked the perimeter and only found a few drops of blood just outside the garage door and some marks like something had been dragged a few feet across the garage floor. I can’t say for certain it was a person, might have been an object instead. I went one block in each direction and there is no sign of the van they were driving.”
“All right, well done, you want a big ole sandwich?”
“Um, okay,” he said. He started building one.
“Yeah, we might as well eat this 735 and 742 sure aren’t gonna be needing this stuff now,” joked Cyrus. Cyrus was chewing a big mouth full of sandwich as he pulled out a modified skyphone from his pocket.
“Let’s see, destruct sequence.” The keys were beeping as he entered a complex sequence. He paused and said, “and 735 dash 742, oh, whoops, don’t want that, that kills everyone from 735 to 742!”
They all started laughing and spitting bits of sandwich all over.
“Oh my god!” Said Glitch, “you almost killed seven guys.”
“Okay let’s see,” said Cyrus, “back space that out and enter 735 comma 742 and enter. Okay, they’re both dead. Those two idiots won’t be writing any more stupid notes.” They all three started laughing hysterically this time. The guard still had a mouth full of sandwich. He stopped chewing and talked out the corner of his mouth.
“Thank God you caught that I’m 739!” They all laughed even harder.
“Big difference between a dash and a comma, huh?” Said Glitch.
Chapter 31 Out at the farm Dodge was lying on a table. He was being neatly patched up by Caitlin. John had acquired a new laser stitch 3000, the latest in wound repair technology. It utilized body soluble mesh and a spray resin that transformed into a flexible patch when hit with the laser. The repaired area was stronger than skin and cured instantly. The mesh contained antibiotics which were absorbed into the skin as the mesh dissolved during the healing process. It was a fantastic alternative to the old methods that used messy awkward mesh patches and resins that had to be hand mixed and then quickly applied. The new methods left little or no scars and healed faster. He had two broken ribs that required sonic bonding and several other scratches and bruises but nothing life threatening.
The two dead guards were being observed by Alan and Jason. John predicted that when Cyrus discovered the note he would likely detonate the charges in their brains. Sure enough they heard something and saw their heads jump up off the table when they went off. They were already dead so it made no difference but it confirmed that Cyrus knew Dodge was missing.
The Captain of the Black Ops team radioed in to Dodge about the funny note one of his men wrote and left for Cyrus. He explained about the intentional poor grammar used and they all got a good laugh out it.
While Dodge was lying on the table getting patched up he was looking directly at his own clone, what a mind blowing experience, he was having a conversation with himself. Alan was pretty freaked out by the whole thing too. It was strange looking at a younger, stronger , faster, version of your son while the original was sitting right there. His clone was extremely muscular and in better shape than Dodge had ever been in himself.
Caitlin explained that it was the steroid like substances and supplements they were feeding him and the extreme workout routines they were doing daily, not to mention the ridiculous amount of food the man was eating. Just then JC walked in with an announcement.
“Hey everybody, I have great news, our friend Toby on the inside has succeeded in placing the server tap, we’re in!” A “hooray” came out of everyone in unison followed by a few fist pumps and one “Yes!”
“What exactly does that do for us?” Asked Caitlin.
“Well for starters it’s allowing me to run a very sophisticated Trojan horse program. This program is going to get into every aspect of their system and it’s completely untraceable, or at least no one has cracked my cloaking code yet.
“I see, so we are spying on them now?”
“Bingo, you got it girl,” said JC.” He went on.
It’ll use the open feed that Cyrus created to monitor Dodges home security system against him. Sort of a digital boomerang if you will. The hunter becomes the hunted but he doesn’t even know it.
“So when can we get a look?” asked Dodge.
“I’ve got to configure some camera feeds, and I have the ball point pen bugs that Toby placed around the compound to link in. Those will provide audio.
“How long?”
“Probably just a day or two.”
“Excellent, let us know just as soon as it’s working.”
“You got!” Said JC as he left the room.
Dodge sat up on the table and started elaborating on their plan to the group.
“The next step is going after Cyrus’s money. Even though Cyrus is not directly motivated by money he has amassed very large sums of it because he knows that with money he has the power to bribe people, obtain weapons, etc. If we take his money away, he will be nearly powerless. Once we have control of his funds we’ll wire it out of his accounts into one hundred accounts that John has already created off shore. He wrote an automatic program that moves the money continuously from account to account using ten of the accounts at a time, it will be nearly impossible to pul
l back the funds, even for Glitch.”
“Wow that’s pretty impressive,” said Jason, “How do you plan to take him down from there?”
“With those systems running we’ll launch the physical attack on the compound and in the process save and free as many people as we can. I believe we’re talking three or four days max and we’ll be ready to go.”
Everyone was shocked by the news that this whole thing could be over with in just a few short days. But at the same time they were relieved too, they had all spent weeks preparing and they were ready.
At the Kerrington’s Linsey was getting a few things out of the house. She checked her gun before getting out of the car, she chambered a round and set the safety, she was a little frightened now and didn’t want to take any chances, she felt her heart speeding up as she got out of the car.
The news crews were gone now and it was a real mess. Sarah was there with her now but Bobby wouldn’t be there until morning. She and Sarah would be picking him up at the airport. Everyone was pretty stressed out over what happened and Linsey was still unsure about Dodge, that is the Dodge she had loved for years, she wondered if he was really dead? She knew there was another Dodge and it was really the same man with a different body, but it still seemed weird. It was no different than Bobby being restored, he was still Bobby, but it seemed so strange to her now that it was her husband.
She and Sarah gathered some clothing and a few personal items and then packed their suitcases for the stay at Alan’s. The police posted a car there for the night to keep an eye on the house as the power was off and there was no security but they had left at daybreak. She knew the Black Ops team had eyes on them but it was still nerve racking because they were invisible, you just had to have faith that they were there. The kitchen windows were busted out from the firemen putting out the fire and there was still glass everywhere. Most of the damage was contained to the kitchen area and a little bit of smoke damage in the dining room, the smoke grenades produced tons of smoke but it was not staining like the smoke from the actual fire so the damage was minimal.
They were going to stay at Alan’s house because after all he was on a cruise in the Islands, or at least that’s what everyone thought. The Black Ops team would be watching over them the whole time as usual. As they were driving to Alan’s house, Linsey’s phone rang, it was a number she didn’t know but she answered it anyway.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hey Babe,” Dodge’s voice came through on the line.
“Oh hello dear are you all right?”
“Am I talking to Dodge’s clone?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry I gave you a scare but I’m okay, I got out of the fire with just some minor bruises and I only got shot once.”
“Maybe it’s not his clone?”
“What? Wait, is this Dodge? I mean, I know you’re Dodge
but . . . ?”
“Yes Babe this is the original, I’m alive, you still have two of me!”
“Oh thank God! I’m so glad, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
He went on to tell her the whole story and everything else that was going on. He reassured her that the whole thing would be over with soon. He told her to make arrangements for his funeral but to have the clone remains cremated and to tell the media that it was because the body was badly burned. She couldn’t believe she had to go to her husband’s funeral and drag her children through all that. Not only was he still alive, but there were two of him.
He made jokes with her about how much better his clone looked and that she might want to swap him out for a night or two when this was all over with, just to lighten the mood. Then he told her that he had checked out her clone in the lab and she was looking super hot. They got a good laugh out of the whole thing; he told her he loved her and not to worry she could call him anytime on the new number and that the phones were completely encrypted thanks to John.
That night Linsey slept great even though they were at Alan’s and didn’t get to sleep in their own beds, she didn’t care, her man Dodge was alive and well and that was all that really mattered.
The next morning Toby and Alice had to say goodbye again as he and Todd were ordered to return to the house. Even though Toby hated to leave Alice he was glad to see the outside again. He was anxious to get back to the house and share everything that had happened with Cheyenne. He knew she must be dying to know what was going on all this time.
Toby couldn’t wait to see Bobby, he had so much to share with him and ultimately the whole team. If everything continued as planned they would be through with this mess in a week or so. He and Todd didn’t know about the sudden change of events that might accelerate the launching of the attack by several days. Less than a mile after leaving the compound Toby got out his scanner and checked the van, it was clean so it was safe to talk. He got out his phone.
“I’m gonna call John and find out what’s going on,” he said. Todd nodded in agreement with the idea, he was also anxious to know what they had missed the last two days.
John filled Toby in on all the events of the past two days and he congratulated him on the perfectly executed planting of the pens and more importantly the dummy server cable; this success was a crucial point for their operation.
When Toby got off of the phone, he filled Todd in on everything, they were both astonished at the brazen surprise attack that Cyrus had ordered on Dodge at the house. They too had the burning question in their minds.
“Why had Cyrus messed around with all the clones for so long? Why didn’t he just grab Dodge from the beginning?”
Only Cyrus Slade knew the answer to that question and it was not likely he would be sharing that information any time soon. It was quite simple to him really. He had wanted to grab Dodge from the beginning but he wasn’t really sure that Dodge was the true genius behind the LifeTech system. The real brains behind it might be Tim Stance, Dodge’s boss, or even another person kept completely secret. The only way he could be sure was to try cloning Dodge and asking questions.
Tim Stance’s file was very easily obtained. John Calhoun’s file was more difficult but still quite obtainable. When he attempted to obtain Dodge’s files he ran into difficulties at every turn. He got Glitch involved and only then was he able to get full access to Dodge’s files. He still thought that Dodge might be a double, someone that maybe Tim or John had created as a front man to hide behind as a layer of protection. After all, what better way to make someone think they have the right guy than to put him in a high tower protected on every side.
When he finally began to do the cloning and load him up he ran into one road block after another. That was his answer, now he knew for sure who to grab. Someone out there was protecting Dodge in real time, not just appearing to protect him, but actually doing it, and doing it well. That is how he knew that Dodge was the real deal, he had to be, and that is why so many people were interfering with his plan at every turn.
Cyrus was once again sitting at his desk at the compound trying to think of what to do next. His original plan that he believed flawless had now been adjusted several times, he underestimated his opponents considerably.
His opposition had entered into a Chess match with him and he was determined to win. There were some questions nagging at him though and he needed answers before he could make an intelligent move. Did these protectors know who he was? Or were they just staving off any and all attacks upon Dodge Kerrington? If they did know who Cyrus Slade was, were they making counter moves against him specifically at every turn? Or was he just having a run of bad luck? He pondered on these points for quite some time but couldn’t come to a solid conclusion for any of them.
He was disgusted with the current state of affairs for sure. His idiot guards had botched the abduction and killed the one person that he believed could give him the upper hand that he needed. Then in their stupidity and suicidal ignorance, they turned against him and ran off, but he would have killed them anyway so maybe they had some b
rains, not that it helped them, they were still dead.
He was watching the news feed now that Glitch had sent him late last night. It was a news story about a body found in a dumpster that had been set on fire at just about the right time the night before. The fire burned so hot that the body was reduced to nothing but ashes and bone fragments, it would be at least two days before authorities could positively identify the body if at all. Cyrus was reasonably convinced that the note left by the guards was a true statement. He had no reason to doubt that the idiots had in fact accidently killed Dodge. He was watching on camera when the whole thing went down in the kitchen at the Kerrington’s. He had seen with his own two eyes as Dodge dove behind the island in the kitchen as he fired at his men and they fired back. Then he saw Dodge’s feet protruding out and not moving for several minutes before his man moved him out from behind the island and started the fire. There was some blood and Dodge wasn’t moving so it was very believable that he died on the way to the safe house. The idiots panicked and so they put him in that dumpster and torched it, just like the note said.
His only option to get the information that he wanted was to go back to the lab and get a good clone loaded up. He would have to spend some money and bribe the right people to get an untainted master lifefile for Dodge. Of course Dodge’s PS2 was long gone so he would be a raving lunatic when he woke up and may not be manageable at all. He might prove impossible to question even with torture, but this was his only option regarding Dodge. If that didn’t work then he might have to go after John Calhoun and Tim Stance, one of those two had answers, he was sure of it.
He would have to act fast to get Dodge’s latest lifefile, now that he was deceased with no chance for Restoration his file would soon be permanently purged. He had to do something but what? He would meditate on it, maybe the stillness of the night would help him clear his head and by dawn he would know.
Back at the Farm JC was very busy, he was working like a dog on the details of the attack. John was very busy as well in Indy and also working on the finer points of their plan, they were communicating several times daily and attained single mindedness every night when they slept.
