by Utley, Todd
He had several diseases that were eating away at him, and he was basically an experiment gone wrong from the beginning that should have been euthanized right away. But the good doctor let him live because he believed it to be in the name of science to continue experimenting with this badly disfigured and mentally deranged human being. It ended up costing the doctor and his wife their very lives and even the life of their other son that turned out for the most part normal, that being the Ron Simpson that worked with Dodge at ESS.
Cyrus was simply a deformed disaster with a demented soul and a very maniacal mind. Glitch was another story entirely. He had originally been a spy in the Queen’s service in Great Britain, a real 007 type. His real name was Gerald Litch, no middle name. He was a master mind with computers as a young soldier in the British Army. His uniforms always displayed G. Litch on the breast pocket and so the nickname Glitch stuck. He was a disciplined soldier and upon his completion of his duty in the armed services he was offered a job in the British Secret Service which he gladly accepted.
Several years later there was a clash that ensued between the CIA and some rogue British secret service over an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister. Glitch was a highly trained computer expert, and though well trained in combat as well, he wasn’t really cut out for front line action. He got caught in the middle of a fire fight and was shot up very badly on the Prime Ministers yacht. He went overboard and was presumed dead.
Slade was in the area working for
both sides” as an informant, a crooked double agent. No one knew too much about him other than he was a disfigured freak that they assumed had been blown up in some previous assignment and barely survived. He was in the process of escaping the mess when something got caught in the propeller of the small boat that he was using to flee the area, when he tried to free the prop he discovered it was Glitch that he had hit.
Cyrus dragged him up on board the little boat and took him back to his lab. He realized who he was and figured if he could save him he would become a very valuable asset that owed him his life. He managed to save Glitch but a good portion of his organs were destroyed and his heart was badly damaged. Cyrus kept him in a coma working on him off and on for three years. It was for selfish purposes, not human kindness, that Cyrus did this.
Cyrus knew Glitch had incredible computer and technical skills that would change his game plan entirely. Glitches’ modified body was a marvel really, and he was more machine than man. He had multiple nuclium cells that fueled his body through some sort of a function similar to photosynthesis. He had to plug in weekly to keep the cells in good working order. Eating was not necessary but he still could eat if he wanted to. The autopsy revealed only a light diet mostly consisting of liquids. His body also contained what they were now calling a biodrive. They were still studying it but had not yet gained a full understanding of how it worked. They believed Cyrus had figured out how to clone brain matter in such a way as to make it for pure data storage only, no emotion or any glandular control, just pure memory. The tissue was where one of his kidneys should have been and there was something similar to wires connecting it to the base of his brain, only the wires were more biological than mechanical, more like a nerve trunk, grown from something that they had not identified yet.
They were completely baffled by the extreme advanced tissue structures in Glitch’s body that Cyrus had no doubt developed. Cyrus as sick as he was had become a master physician and was a high level genius. The pentagon would continue to study and learn from their bodies for years to come. The hard drives and PC’s recovered from the compound were all at the Pentagon now where they were being studied and scrutinized, one file at a time. There was one part of the puzzle though that the pentagon still didn’t have and John was not about to tell them. It was the drive that Cyrus attempted to make off with that day, the one he had tethered to his wrist. It was in a nicely secured box so John gave it to one of men that chose to leave down on the foundry floor before the authorities arrived. John had studied his background and knew in advance that this man would not stick around to be questioned by the authorities. He was a Russian secret agent that was want by nearly every government in existence not to mention several private contract assassins. He was actually hiding out in the compound under the guise of working for Slade. He was using the situation to create a safe haven for himself. John slipped him a note when he emerged from the oven with the others. It included instructions that he gladly followed.
He instructed him to take the case to one particular bank and go to a particular teller that he described in detail.
Walk up to the counter and say “John Calhoun would like to make a deposit, your fee will be wired.” Give him the case and walk out. He will know what to do and you will be paid two million dollars for your trouble.” He received a standard advertisement skyphone message a few days later that read, “New collectibles at the pawn shop. Come see what we have on sale.” He knew this meant that his cousin received the case safely. Dodge and John both wanted to go see what was in it but they knew they were still being watched by authorities so it would have to wait. No doubt it contained some great dirt on Cyrus and probably others and lord only knew what else.
The other hanging detail was the funds that Cyrus had. No one had time to tally it before it was transferred to offshore bank accounts that John had set up but he knew it was in the trillions, it was still out there, undetected by the government, bouncing from one account to another. John covered his tracks very well and was excited about the idea of an anonymous donation that would soon wipe out the national debt.
It was a long day. Agent Hillgrave took them to their hotel and dropped them off for the night along with their security detail. The next morning he returned with a car and took them back to the Airport where a small jet was waiting for them on the Tarmac. Agent Hillgrave walked them to their plane and thanked them again for their outstanding service to their country and the world.
As they boarded, he said, “By the way gentlemen, don’t leave the country without contacting us first, okay?”
Dodge and John looked at each other, then Dodge turned to Hillgrave, “You got it chief, thanks for the lift.”
They boarded the plane and settled in for the flight home to Indianapolis. It was football season now and they both had season tickets for a game tomorrow with their families. The Indianapolis Colts were playing at home against their greatest rivals, the New England Patriots. Peyton Manning was back on the team and it was going to be epic for sure. It was expected to be a very good game and they couldn’t wait to see it. On the flight home they watched the nightly world news. The featured story was about a group of rich play boys. It seemed the new fad was death games. The idea was to find the most exhilarating way to die and go out and do it.
John sold the patent for his compact mobile Lifecorder to the company that bought the remnants of Xbox, the outdated gaming system company from the turn of the century, and now it had found a new lease on life by offering to monitor and log Lifefiles in real time via the tiny wearable Lifecorder device.
The top story was covering a group of extreme skiers. They were being dropped off out of a chopper onto an impassable area of Mount Kilimanjaro. They would ski just as long as they could and then plummet to their deaths if they had the guts. For those that couldn’t go through with it they could tap out by pulling the cord for a compact parachute that they were wearing. These wealthy thrill seekers had clones already waiting for them at exclusive private life centers paid for in advance. Their onboard personal mobile LifeCorders would record every memory to the very end.
The camera crew followed one young man to his death and then traveled to the life center for the wakening of his new clone. When his clone awoke, he sat straight up and said . . .
“Wow, what a rush! That was incredible!” Then he looked right into the camera and yelled, “Hello extreme sports fans! Let’s go do it again!”
John turned off the TV and looked at Dodge.
“No kidding, it’s not like you needed the extra money!”
“Man what a crazy world we’re living in.”
On another plane thousands of feet above Dodge and John traveling in the opposite direction was a wealthy oil man. He was watching the news out of Dallas Texas, his hometown. They just aired a short story about John’s invention of the miniature lifecorder device and the same daredevils using it for extreme sports.
“Good evening everyone, I’m Jack Stevens filling in for Bob Grover this evening, in an unrelated story we go now to Alisha Hughes just outside of Houston, Alisha?”
“Yes good evening Jack, and Good evening everyone, we’re on the scene at what local authorities are calling a baffling discovery here in this dessert area outside Houston this evening.”
“What you see behind me is a large trailer like the big rigs pull down the highway everyday full of goods going across the country to various stores and factories. This one is a little different because what authorities say they found inside this seemingly abandoned trailer earlier today were not your normal goods.”
“Some children were playing outside this recently closed café earlier today when they decided they would break into what appeared to be an abandoned eighteen wheeler trailer, but when they got inside what they discovered surprised them. It seemed to be the remains of a man lying in what looked like a very old barber’s chair or perhaps a dental office chair. The children said that the corpse appeared to be connected to some kind of life support machine with many tubes and bags attached to his now shriveled and decaying body. Directly in front of the corpse were a large computer console and monitor which were still functioning when the children entered the trailer. Let’s go now to a recorded interview of thirteen-year-old Chris Bevins, one of the youths that entered the trailer.
“Well we got inside and we saw the man and we thought he was still alive but then we thought he was dead.”
“What else did you see inside?
“Um, well there were lots of batteries and wires and tubes and stuff and there was something running like a generator or a motor. Oh, and there were lots of computer things in racks with blinking lights and cables, and lots of electronics like in a lab or something.”
“Can you describe the man?”
“Well he was kind of an old looking white guy with lots of scars or burns on him like he was in an accident or something. He had dark hair and he was really dried up kinda like a raisin you know. He was just lying there in this old metal chair thing in a long black leather coat, looked like he just fell asleep there.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, he had a big gold ring on his right hand, it had weird shapes on it and some letters, CS I think, but that is all I remember.”
“All right, well thank you Chris, we appreciate you talking with us.”
“Okay, you’re welcome.”
“Well everyone that was thirteen-year-old Chris Bevins a local resident here outside Houston. As you can see it’s dark here now and some officials have arrived and tented off the trailer so that we can’t see anything going on in there, seems like an awful lot of equipment rolling in here for one deceased person in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Here comes one of the officials from homeland security, let’s see if we can get a statement.
Sir, excuse me Sir, can you tell us anything at all about the man inside the trailer?”
“Yes, well at first we were concerned about this because we thought that this man might be a known cyber criminal that had escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico two months ago and so we were worried about national security. As it turns out that was not the case at all but instead this man has been on the FBI missing persons list for quite some time. We won’t be releasing his name to the public right now because his family has requested their privacy and they’ll be releasing a statement sometime later. It turns out that this very wealthy man was terminally ill and was highly involved in lifelike virtual reality games. He had a very rare cellular disorder that prevented him from being restored so he was facing total death. He disappeared about six months ago and apparently had come out here to spend his final days in solitude with his elaborate gaming system, that’s about it.”
“Thank you Mr. Sweeter.”
“Thank you Alisha.”
“Okay, that was Bob Sweeter with homeland security, he has now released the first statement here tonight regarding this strange discovery in this desert area just outside of Houston. Well there you have it folks, it’s a bizarre one, this is Alisha Hughes for channel 9 news Houston, back to you in the studio Jack . . .”
“Okay, thank you Alisha, wow that is a bizarre one, thanks for watching us here at channel 9 news at 11, that’s all for us today, we’re on again at 6:00 a.m. with Randy and Kelly for Daybreak Addition featuring rush hour traffic coverage and your local weather, good night.”
It was an interesting story but no matter because the man had missed the end of it, he was sound asleep with his hands folded across his stomach and his black cowboy hat down over his eyes.
Two weeks later the Kerrington’s celebrated Christmas. It was by far the best one they had ever had. They had a great time trying to guess their gifts before they opened them and they were all able to get each other exactly what they wanted. But that wasn’t really what made it so good, instead it was their new found appreciation for each other and all the things they had taken for granted in the past. Alan came over on Christmas Eve for a little get together that they always had and he read the Christmas story from the Bible which was a tradition in their family. When he finished, he handed the Bible to Dodge.
“This is my last year for this Son, I’m passing it on to you, next year your reading it.” Dodge of course agreed to carry it on.
Two months later Dodge and Linsey received an invitation to a very special wedding ceremony. It was a double wedding. Toby and Alice would be joining Todd and Cheyenne in a dual wedding celebration. What wonderful news they thought, two great couples born out of such a bad situation. Both Alice and Cheyenne had been reacquainted with their former husbands and their children several weeks after Operation Black Ice and now they were once again involved in the lives of their children. Both of their mates had moved on but it was okay, they had new loved ones of their own now. It was a major news event with a lot of media surrounding it just as human interest stories usually are. John Calhoun and his gal Amanda were also planning a spring wedding and they were even planning to have a child together. Dodge and Linsey were so excited because they had already been asked to be the God parents for the baby.
When Dodge asked John why he decided to be a father at such an old age he just shrugged.
“With restoration I can get restored after the baby is born and be a young father, besides we want what you and Linsey have, a great family.”
Later that night as Dodge was lying in bed reflecting on everything that they had been through, he said a prayer. He thanked God for his family, his friends, his country, his success and for watching over all of them during their struggles with Cyrus Slade.
The next morning a truck arrived at the Kerrington’s. It was a spotlessly clean truck pulling an equally pristine enclosed trailer. The driver walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Dodge opened the door and greeted the man.
“Good Morning, you’re right on time.” Then he realized the man was Ben, the young man they had met at the hospital when Bobby was restored.
“Well, hello Ben, long time,” said Dodge. “How is everything going for you?”
“Very good Mr. Kerrington, thanks to you I applied for that internship and I got it, now I’m working part time for this delivery service while I complete my schooling. I’m on track to be an Electronics Engineer in just two more years.”
“That’s fantastic Ben, Congratulations!”
“Thank you Sir.”
I’ll tell Bobby you were here and I’m sure he’d love to see you again, maybe go out for that burger.”
“That would be great, he can call me anytime, here’s a digicard with my new info. I was so excited when I saw your name and address on my delivery schedule today. I just can’t wait to see your face when I unload it.”
They walked out together and Dodge watched as Ben unloaded the contents of the trailer very carefully at the end of the drive way. Dodge signed the digipad and Ben sent a copy of it to his skyphone.
“Enjoy it Sir, there’s not another like it. It was good seeing you again.”
“Thanks, It’s good seeing you too young man.”
He watched as Ben drove away, then he turned and ran his hand down the side of his fully restored GTO.
“Welcome home Baby.”
Thank you for reading Restoration. If you enjoyed it then please do post a review for this book on Amazon.
The feedback from my readers is very helpful and the number of reviews received is also very important.
I hope you enjoyed the first book in this Trilogy.
Watch for: Restoration 2, Revenge
Watch for: Restoration 3, Genesis
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Author Todd D. Utley
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Restoration
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