by Gini Koch
“I loosened the restraints,” he said. “All five on the slabs can get free if no one notices.”
“You rock.” Put my gas mask on. I was unrecognizable with it on, unless you looked at my chest. So far, hadn’t seen any G-Company thugs who were easily spotted as girls.
“Hang on,” Siler said. He pulled his shirt off. Managed not to gape. Or stare at his chest. Much. Not that anyone could tell, in the gas mask. Had the realization again that I really worked with the hottest guys in the world. “Put this on, it’ll be loose and should hide, ah, that you’re a woman.”
Nodded, since there wasn’t a good way to whisper in the gas mask. Pulled on his shirt as suggested. Definitely baggy on me and therefore it was going to be good enough. Gave Wruck the “go” sign, which he got after the third time. Almost no one ever got my hand signals right off the bat for whatever reason. Had no time to be bitter, but made a mental note to put it onto my schedule.
Wruck and I headed down the stairs again. We weren’t going to have the element of surprise for long, but hopefully it would be long enough. Happily, Cliff was still monologuing, this time about how he could control the aliens.
“You see, I can alter how much or how little autonomy a clone has,” he said as we reached the bottom of the stairs. “The example clone had no autonomy, which was why it made the same ridiculous faces as Russell.” My music changed to “Summer Nights” from Grease. The one with the “tell me more, tell me more” chorus. Managed to control the Inner Hyena, but it took great effort.
“What about memories?” Adriana asked. “Does it share the same mind?”
“In a way,” Cliff said. “We lost the capability, thanks to all of you. However, while memory doesn’t go along with the package, ability does. Depending on the level of the clone, it can be as effective as the original. Or it can be a puppet. It depends on what we need.”
“Why do you even need DNA if you have that machine?” Christopher asked. Prayed Cliff wouldn’t share what he was doing. Or what he had been doing before Siler took care of the horrible business.
“Oh,” Cliff patted the Killer Octopus, “this is for fast work that doesn’t matter. To make really good clones, and to splice all of your DNA into those clones, we need a much slower and more effective process. But don’t feel left out—we’ll be taking more DNA from you, too.”
“Yeah,” LaRue said. “We lost what we had when you people destroyed our labs.”
Did my best not to consider the fact that the A-C genetics LaRue and the Reid clones had in them was Christopher’s. If we managed to pull this off, that DNA would never be replicated by anyone other than Christopher, ever again.
One of the Reids came running in from the other room. “They’re all dead!”
“What?” Cliff asked. “Who?”
“All the others! All of them!” He grabbed LaRue and dragged her into the other room.
She screamed like a banshee. Then they both ran back in. “Kill them all,” LaRue shrieked at Cliff. “Right now! They destroyed all the young ones, yours and mine!”
“Not all the good ones,” Cliff gasped, eyes bugging out.
“Every one, and all the clones of Casey you had hanging around, too,” the Reid clone confirmed, sounding angry and freaked out. “And the ones we were starting of him,” he sneered at Chuckie, who went pale. So much for the slim hope that no one else would know what Siler had had to do.
Cliff looked around and he looked furious. “Which one of you did this?” he snarled at the prisoners.
“Ah, we’re tied up or surrounded,” Jeff said. “Who in the hell do you think did whatever? One of your people, obviously.”
“Casey could have,” Tim said quickly. “I haven’t seen her around here.”
“She’s on a mission for me!” Cliff screamed, spraying spittle. “One of you must have slipped by us!”
“Or she’s betrayed you and gone for better employment,” White suggested.
“Could have been someone from G-Company,” Reader offered as an alternative. “I don’t know that their leader would like what you’re doing here.”
Nudged Wruck. “Take that as our cue and let’s roll.”
He nodded and stepped into the light. “What is going on here?” Wruck boomed out as we walked into the room. The voice didn’t sound like his. Hadn’t realized that he could alter his voice just as the troubadours could. “Clifford, I want answers and I want them now!”
Cliff, LaRue, and all the Reid clones gaped. It was kind of nice to see them all speechless for once. Didn’t expect it to last but, still, it was a small rarity and I enjoyed not hearing them.
“You!” Wruck pointed to Rahmi. “What are you doing here?” He strode through the clones and hostages—shoving the hostages away from the clones but in a manner that seemed random—and grabbed her arm, which, of course, looked like the Head Dude was grabbing the Insubordinate Lackey. Wruck dragged Rahmi over to me while the rest of our people who weren’t strapped down moved closer to the pile of guns. “We’ll deal with you later.”
“How did you get here?” Cliff managed to ask.
“You would question me?” Wruck snarled. “I own you.”
“You don’t talk to me that way,” Cliff snarled. “We’re equals.”
“You are my subordinate. At best. And I will teach you a lesson to ensure you never forget it.” Wruck strode toward Cliff.
And Cliff aimed the nozzle he was still holding at Wruck.
CHAPTER 89
BODY-SLAMMED WRUCK out of the way and made sure I was out of the way, too. Due to where we were when this happened, Wruck and I hit into some of the Reids and took them to the ground. My luck being what it was, lost my hold on my Glock and watched it skitter away from me.
The nozzle sprayed and the lights went out, only the backup ones didn’t come on. Had no idea if Siler or Mossy had helped make that happen, but it meant that I was in great shape because the gas mask was infrared.
Thankfully Rahmi leaped the other way, so what the ray ended up hitting was the elevator. Apparently the death ray portion was able to turn more than a person to dust. No one was going to be leaving via anything but the stairs now.
This also gave the rest of the room the impetus to take action. True to what Siler had told me, the five guys who were on the tables leaped off. Chuckie was nearest to Cliff and he kicked the nozzle out of Cliff’s hand, then tackled him, knocking the wheelchair over and Cliff out of it, and thereby leaving the Killer Octopus unmanned.
Wruck, meanwhile, shifted again and turned into himself. Or, rather, a version of himself. He was taller than I was used to, and looked a little less average and a little more unformed. Not unattractive but somehow beautiful in a way that was hard for a human to describe. Remembered how he’d told me that the Ancients looked like humanity, all of humanity. I could see it now. It was as if every feature and body type was there, even though he didn’t look like A Multiple Man. He looked like himself, only more so. And he glowed, just a bit. And, he had wings.
This was what the Anciannas race actually looked like—like our biblical descriptions of angels. Would have said, “Told you so,” to the room, but we were all a little busy.
He didn’t register for LaRue, not at first, not until he was right in front of her. But then her eyes opened wide and I saw the recognition hit. “You! You can’t be alive. There are no memories that say you are.”
Wruck grabbed her by her throat. “All my memories tell me you’re a traitor.”
Meanwhile, Jeff was trying to get into the fight and Christopher, White, Reader, and Tim were trying to keep him out of it, which was requiring all their strength. Meaning they were ignoring Francine.
Len and Kyle were not, however. They ran to her and started working to get her out of the shackles. Of course, a key would help with that. Had no idea where the key was, other than somewhere here.
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Rahmi shifted to her own form and produced her battlestaff. Then she went to town on the Reid clones. Buchanan and Adriana were back-to-back, near Rahmi, fighting Reid clones as well.
My music changed to “Cloning Technology” by Fear Factory. Took the hint and ran to the Killer Octopus. Sure enough, it had a power cord. Unplugged it. The lights came back on. Not what I was hoping for. Had to get this out of here and away from Cliff’s control. Tried to move it. It was hella heavy and didn’t budge.
Noted that Chuckie was pounding Cliff, snarling about a variety of things, not the least of which were about Cliff threatening me, threatening his friends, and being the reason Naomi was dead. Cliff was in that crazy state where the adrenaline’s going strong, though, and he was snarling right back about all of Chuckie’s perceived personal attacks against him, so it was something of an even fight at the moment.
Cliff’s pet lizard had been kind of thrown when the wheelchair went over, but it waddled back, hissed, and attacked Chuckie.
Grabbed it to get it away from him. Now the beast was attacking me. Tried to get into its mind. Couldn’t. Knew there was a mind there, but it was a locked door to me. Held onto the lizard with both hands, keeping it at arm’s length, and contemplated a few things—I’d been able to connect with a freaking great white shark at a tenser time than this, the Turleens came here all the time and camouflaged themselves to look like tortoises and such, the Mykali had been here for ages and we’d decided they were sea slugs and not sentient, and Mossy had said that the tech in this machine wasn’t from Earth.
Held the lizard a little tighter. “You’re not just a pet, are you?”
It tried to grow, I could feel it. Fought against it, but it burst out of my hands. In its place was a very large lizard, one that made the Reptilians look extremely small and cuddly. One that looked very much like a larger version of the lizard it had been while, at the same time, being a smaller version of a T-Rex only with, sadly, slightly more useful arms.
It roared at me and grabbed at my face. It got the gas mask and ripped it off of me, but it wasn’t my head, so I counted that in the win column. I backed up. And hit the wall.
“It’s her!” Cliff screamed as he saw who I was. He looked at Francine, squinting madly, then back to me. “That’s the real one! Kill her! Kill her now.”
Might have happened. But I heard a different kind of roar.
The Poofs were large and in charge. This wasn’t a typical foe for them, though. There were six Poofs and one Alien Rex and the Poofs were having to really work at it. Would have helped them, but noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.
Spun to see Leventhal Reid aiming a gun at one of the Poofs.
Wasn’t sure if this was the “real” Reid or not and didn’t care. He was threatening my pets, my protectors, my Poofs. He was not going to be allowed to do that.
My rage spiked and I remembered what I’d told Jeff, Chuckie, and Reader not all that long ago—the only reason Reid could hurt me before was because I wasn’t enhanced. Those days were long gone. He might have A-C in there. So what? So did I. My music changed to Mötley Crüe’s “Goin’ Out Swingin’” and I waded in.
“I remember you,” Reid said as I kicked the gun out of his hand and the bullet fired into the ceiling. “You tried to kill me when I was younger.”
So, this was the Original Clone. The others couldn’t have that memory since they’d lost the ability to share those. And the original had been a well-made clone, literally Reid reborn. My stomach clenched and I froze.
Managed to talk. “Yeah and do you remember why?”
“I do. We’re going to have so much fun.” He smiled the Typical Reid Smile, and it was still chilling and terrifying. And I knew that was what he wanted—to terrorize and therefore control me. He was back, fully back—truly the only person who’d ever made me want to beg for mercy. And just like before, I had no weapon. Just like before, he could kill me before anyone else could save me. “You only made it last time because your man saved you. That won’t happen now. Everyone’s too busy. It’s just you and me.” He reached out and stroked my cheek.
He really shouldn’t have said or done either. As my music changed to “Never Again” by Discharge, I remembered something—victims needed rescuing. And that’s what Reid liked to do—make other people victims. That’s what Cliff and his Minions did. What all the bad guys did, really. Only I wasn’t his or anyone else’s victim. I’d never begged when he’d wanted me to the first time, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do so now. I was Code Name: First Lady and I did the saving. My rage went supernova. He was going down.
He tried to turn the caress into a slap, but I blocked it and batted his arm away. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
He lunged for me and I leaped back while throwing a front ball kick that, due to his position, hit his solar plexus. He hit the ground, but was up again by the time I’d landed. Dropped down and swept his legs, then did a backflip to get more space. Yeah, when I was this enraged, the skills worked at optimum.
He started fighting, boxing, really. Which was a good strategy against most women. However, I’d not only spent years being trained by Christopher, but I’d also had Tito, aka Mr. Mixed Martial Arts, advising me during fights for a long time.
Reid was bigger than me, but kung fu wasn’t a martial art that depended on size and strength. And in MMA, if you weren’t a striker, you did your best to take your opponent to the ground.
Dodged and blocked Reid’s punches, then saw my opening. Tackled him at the waist and took him down. I was on top and he didn’t appear to have heard the rule that you shouldn’t let your opponent get you in mount. I was sitting on his abs, had my knees locked against his ribs, and my legs clamped against his sides. Then I started doing ground and pound, which meant I was hitting his face with my fists while he tried to get me off of him and block my punches at the same time.
He was not effective at either. And I was hitting him at the fastest hyperspeed I’d ever managed, so that his head was a double-end bag—the little boxing training bag you always saw boxers hitting repeatedly at head height in every training montage done in every boxing movie ever made—only his head had no place to swing to except the floor.
“You will not ever hurt any woman ever again.” Each word punctuated with two punches. “Especially not me or any of my friends. Your evil leaves this world forever tonight or today or whatever time it is.”
He was never able to reply, and very soon, he wasn’t fighting me anymore. And soon after that, there wasn’t much head or face left.
Part of me wanted to keep on pounding him until he was a liquid. But the other part reminded me that my friends and family weren’t safe, particularly when Trik Turner’s “Friends and Family” came on. Leaped up and looked around. More than half of the Reid clones were down. Jeff had apparently gotten the others to see reason, had broken free, or else they’d all decided that they wanted to hit something. He, Christopher, White, Reader, and Tim were all finishing off whatever Reid clones the others weren’t handling.
Any time a Reid clone went down, the moment their opponent moved away, a bullet went into the head and then body. Siler was living by the Double-Tap Code. Which made sense that he was doing it this way because there were too many bodies in motion for him to be sure he wouldn’t hit one of the team.
Wruck was literally rending LaRue limb from limb. The Poofs appeared to be holding their own with Long Armed Rexie, and someone was sending bullets into the Rexie, too. Figured this was Mossy, since bullets were hitting downed opponents at the same time.
Rahmi had used her battlestaff to free Francine, who was fighting a Reid clone along with Len and Kyle. All the clones appeared to have A-C in them, which was why it was taking the good guys longer to win.
And Chuckie was still fighting Cliff. Well, he was a human and while Cliff wasn’t looking all that healthy, he’
d been trained at fighting. And, realistically, Chuckie had a lot of rage to work out. Maybe he was taking his time and enjoying his work.
Saw my gun, which was getting kicked all over the room. Ran and managed to retrieve it without getting kicked too much, then ran back to Reid and shot him twice in the heart because the double-tap was not to be ignored, ever.
Then headed over to Chuckie.
Cliff was about dead, which was nice. He looked at me. “You’ve doomed yourselves,” he gasped out. “I could have saved everyone.”
“But you never intended to save anyone.” Nudged Chuckie and handed him my gun. “Why hurt your knuckles any longer?”
Chuckie took the gun and stood up. “The queen always saves the king. She saves the other pieces, too, when she has to. And this is, once and for all, checkmate.”
Cliff laughed the Dying Villain Laugh. “You think you’ve won? You have no idea. I always have more than one plan in place.”
“Yeah? About that. We’ve ensured that your plans can’t happen, or didn’t you realize that our team destroyed all your strongholds and neutralized all your doomsday plans?” The Long Armed Rexie gave a death cry and toppled over. The Poofs didn’t eat it, however, though Mossy and Siler sent a lot of bullets into it, just in case. “And your last ally just went down.”
He smiled. “You can’t stop the Close Encounter. Enjoy your pyrrhic victory—you all, like this planet, only have a few hours left to live.”
“Then we’ll spend them happily together, burning your bodies,” Chuckie said. “Oh, and by the way? I’ve always been better than you, without trying. Because I always had the right person on my side.”
He put his arm around my shoulders and I put mine around his waist. Then he shot Cliff in the groin once, the heart twice, and the head three times. Because Chuckie also believed in the double-tap.
CHAPTER 90
