by M. V. Kallai
Dana leaned on Lee as he helped her into the building. Her knee had twisted, so she had trouble walking on her own. Her hands, face, and knees had deep scrapes as well as the entire right side of her body. Her clothes were torn and she was missing half a sleeve from her jacket. She had stopped crying and seemed to be going into shock. Lee sat her down in the lounge area, removed what was left of her jacket and handed her a blanket. She mindlessly wrapped herself up while Lee put on some tea and went to get bandages and a soapy cloth to clean and dress her cuts. He remained impersonal throughout the necessary procedure and said nothing to comfort her. When he was done, he sent her off to change clothes. Dana was still somewhat out of it when she returned, unable to process what had happened. She sipped some tea, but in her mind all she could see was that man…falling. That man she had killed. Lee opened Camden’s office just beside the lounge and told her to lie down on the couch and recuperate so they could talk later. She was useless in her current state. Lee picked up the black case and went to his office to look inside.
Back at the unit, Ari was being forced into an interrogation room with his hands bound. He was frightened for his family, who would have no idea where he had gone. There was a woman in the room who jumped to her feet, clearly startled, when they pushed him inside. Seeing her panic and being such a cordial fellow he said,
“Hello, don’t be afraid, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m a prisoner too, look.” Ari turned so Enira could see his hands were bound.
“Why are you in here? Were you having an affair with Camden too?” Enira asked.
“What? Affair? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m his driver, Ari. But you? With Camden? I can’t believe that old dog never mentioned it,” he grinned, and then cleared his throat. “I’m sure to respect your privacy, Ma’am.”
“I’m Enira and I’m sorry that you are here, Ari, because I don’t know if there is a way out.” She began to choke up and Ari went to sit beside her.
“You know, my wife saw you…the day you were picked up…on the elevator. We have been talking about you ever since. Wondering who you were.” Ari smiled at her. “Camden was ruined after his wife died. I thought he’d never find someone to share…be intimate with again and it’s a pleasure to meet you. I just wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Me, too,” she said. The door opened again and another guard came in and grabbed Ari and led him out.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked.
“Oh, you are going to have a private audience with the Major,” the guard chuckled when he said it.
“Stay strong Ari…for Camden’s sake,” Enira called behind them. But his loyalty to Camden was eclipsed by his loyalty to his family.
When he was locked in his own little room, Ari turned his thoughts to Camden and felt confident that he would expect him to put his family first. He felt bad thinking it, but Camden had less to lose than he did. His wife was gone and he had no children. His only family was a niece that he barely kept in contact with.
Ari’s captors left him alone in the room and he wondered if Camden was nearby in the building. If so, he doubted he would be allowed to see him. Not that it mattered; this was not a good situation to be in anyway he looked at it. Ari sat with his shoulders slumped and stared off in the corner. He envisioned his wife and children laughing and talking together. Then his mind flashed images of their last trip together to the northern coast and his mouth involuntarily curled into a smile, enjoying his own thoughts.
The door opened and in walked Mace. Ari was startled out of his daydreams and a terrified expression returned to his face.
“Hello, Ari. My name is Major Magner. I assume you know why you are here today.”
“Yes, sir, I believe I do and I am willing to cooperate with you. Just, please, first let me call my wife. She’ll be so worried.”
Mace gave him his snake-like smile.
“Sure you can. Just as soon as we are finished here and I am satisfied with the information you give me.”
“I hope I can help, then,” Ari said with a frown.
“Good. Let’s get started.” Mace pulled a recording device from his uniform pocket and placed it between them on the table as he sat down across from Ari.
“We’ll begin with an easy one. Did you give a young lady a black case in the elevator of your building earlier?”
“Yes.”
“Did that case belong to you or Professor Camden Riles?”
“It was Camden’s.”
“And you gave it to his niece?”
“No, it wasn’t his niece.”
“Really? Who was it then?”
“Just a girl. I don’t know her.” Ari hoped the poor girl had made it out okay. She probably didn’t sign up for this, either.
“Her name?” Mace asked through gritted teeth. Ari didn’t want to give her up, or Lee, but lying to this man didn’t seem like a healthy choice either.
“I am trying to remember. I only heard it once.”
“I see. Then maybe you can tell me what the hell was in the case.”
“Oh, that I definitely don’t know. It was heavy but I didn’t dare look inside. I haven’t kept my job for so many years by being a snoop.”
Mace was getting frustrated.
“Then where did you get the case? Did Riles give it to you to keep?”
“Not exactly, sir.”
“You know, for someone who wants to speak to his wife, you sure are leaving out lots of details in your answers. Now, I will ask you again! What was in the case? Where did you get it? And who did you give it to?”
Ari rubbed his trembling hands together.
“I honestly don’t know what was in that case, sir.”
Mace was losing patience and decided to start physical motivations.
“Not good enough, Ari!” The major got in his face and screamed. Then he took a step back and punched him in the eye. “Now answer the damned questions, you useless maggot!”
“Dana…her name was Dana Hanks,” Ari whimpered. His eye started to swell and turn red. He couldn’t see clearly out of it anymore, but could feel the tears spilling out.
“Why her? Who is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Ari didn’t see the second punch coming and it knocked him off his chair. This one was so hard that it cracked his cheekbone. He hit his head hard on the stone floor, knocking him out.
“Damn pantywaist!” Mace yelled kicking Ari in the stomach before he left.
“Call me when this waste of space wakes up, would ya? I’m not done with him yet.” Mace said to the guard outside Ari’s room, who nodded in reply.
Ari would not wake up, though. The major’s last punch had triggered an aneurism in Ari’s brain and within minutes, he was dead.
“Like I said before, no one knew about my relationship with Camden. I’ve never even been in his transport and I have never seen that man in my life before today!” Enira yelled at Mace who had returned to her room for more questions after leaving Ari. She was no longer afraid of him, relying on her husband’s status to keep her safe, even if she was being held against her will. Mace turned and stormed out of the room. He knew he couldn’t keep her there much longer. He was already writing his first fake report for General Pike about the search for her and couldn’t risk her being seen by anyone other than the two guards who regularly exchanged shifts in front of her room. They were already a liability.
Chapter Thirty
New Way of Life
One week later, Sergeant Bearden Leitner returned to Tripple Laboratories for his weekly assignment as liaison for Colonel Ganesh, Professor Camden Riles, and Doctor Lee Tripple…and spy for Major Mace Magner. When he got himself through the security protocol, he found Dana sitting behind a long lab table dropping a reddish liquid concoction into several test tubes and making notes. She looked up when she heard his footsteps.
“Sergeant Leitner, good afternoon.”
“Call me Bearden. Hey, what did you do to your hai
r?” As Bearden got closer he could see that her face was bruised and healing from some nasty cuts. Her hands and knee were bandaged too. “Oh my God! What the hell happened to you?” Bearden asked with genuine concern.
“Oh, these?” she smiled, a little embarrassed at her appearance. “It was nothing.”
“Well, it looks like something.”
“Sergeant Leit…Bearden, this is a hard job.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I shouldn’t. But do you think you could do me a favor?”
Bearden grinned.
“Well, look how the tables have turned.”
“Oh, forget it, then.” Dana looked back down at her work. She seemed different…a little broken.
“Oh, c’mon I was teasing. I guess you’re not in the joking mood today…or ever, if I recall.”
“Ha ha.”
“Well, what do you need from me?”
“It’s just a list of things…to make life more comfortable here for me. I wrote them down and I can give you money.”
“You want me to be your personal shopper? Are you kidding me?”
“You don’t understand. I can’t get them for myself…I can’t…leave. It’s not safe for me.” Dana looked as if she was about to cry, but she held it together. “I mean, Lee says that it is not safe for me to leave, and I trust him completely.” She held her head a little higher.
“Okay, okay. I won’t press it. Give me your list. I’ll go today. Oh, and I have a letter for Dr. Tripple from Colonel Ganesh. Where is he?”
“He’s in the back, Lab E, where he’s locked himself in all week. I barely see him, but I’ll go get him. Wait here.”
Dana got up and limped and hopped down the hall using the walls and tables for support.
A few minutes later Lee came down the hall looking downright flustered by the interruption.
He walked straight over to Bearden and held out his hand for the letter. He opened it and read the Colonel’s words.
Dr. Tripple,
Your friend Camden remains here at the unit and is safe for the time being. It seems that the government has found a use for him and ‘officially’, he will be a guest physicist in the space flight and habitat program. Unofficially, he would like nothing better than to go home and return to his normal routine. The orders for his incarceration came from the General who heads this unit so I could not let him go. I am doing my best to make him comfortable. For publicity reasons, he is allowed one visitor a month and he has demanded to see you; so I must ask you to accompany Sergeant Leitner back to the unit today where you will be able to sit down with Camden and maybe have a picture taken for the press. If you do this, I will try to arrange a few minutes for the two of you to talk alone. I must warn you though, there are bugs everywhere in the building that can pick up conversations at will.
It is my hope that the item in Camden’s possession has reached you. Please give me an update via Leitner.
Sincerely,
Ganesh
“I see,” Lee said after reading, “Bearden, I will return with you to TRU.”
Dana’s face looked panicked.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” She asked him.
“Yes, I have to. I will see Cam today. You stay here,” he replied to Dana then turned to Bearden.
“I need approximately two hours and thirty six minutes to, finish up in the back and compose a reply to this letter. And there is something I need to find. Then, we will go.”
“Yes, sir,” Bearden said, “I will make myself useful around here until then.”
“Fine, fine,” Lee said while he was walking back down the hall.
Bearden looked at Dana.
“I will go and get as much as I can on your list in the next two hours,” he said.
“Thank you, Bearden,” she said and handed him some money from her pocket.
When Lee and Bearden arrived at the TRU building, there were photographers and press lining the street ready to catch the buzz on the new project in which Camden Riles and Lee Tripple were involved. It usually meant some major technological or medical advancement when the dream team met in public like this. Bearden was smiling and proud to be walking into the building next to the famous and genius scientist. Lee looked straight ahead and scowled.
“Inconvenient,” he mumbled. A smiling Ganesh met Lee at the doors with his hand outstretched.
“It’s an honor to have you here, Dr. Tripple.” Lee shook his hand and reluctantly turned so the photographers at the gates could get a shot.
“Where’s Camden?”
“He’s waiting for you in a conference room. I’ll take you to him now, but you’ll only have a few minutes alone,” Ganesh whispered the last part.
“I understand,” said Lee, “I would like to see your labs and weaponry unit.”
“Humph! I don’t think I can arrange that. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to show you, but under the circumstances, I’m afraid that’s just downright impossible.”
“Then, I will send a formal request to the general,” Lee stated.
“Good luck with that,” Ganesh said, “Right in here and through that door. Don’t waste time catching up, get straight to it. Like I said, only a few minutes.”
Lee walked into a conference room and saw a frazzled, sleep-deprived Camden waiting for him. He pulled a small round device out of his pocket pressed a button in the center of it and held it out in his palm. Camden recognized it as a sound wave scrambler and as long as it was active, microphones would pick up any sound from this room as only white noise.
“Lee. You came. It’s so good to see you. Did you get the case?” Camden spoke in a soft voice.
“Yes, Cam, I’ve got it. And your notes. I’ve been working with it for a week straight and haven’t found the regenerative weakness that you were looking for yet.”
“Well, if anyone can do it, you can.” Camden put his head in his hands for a moment and breathed in deep.
“Are you all right, Camden?” Lee asked.
“Ari’s dead,” Camden said.
“He had three children?” Lee asked without missing a beat.
“Yes, I’m surprised you remember that,” Camden said.
“Collect a tissue sample. Preferably from his brain,” replied Lee.
“Impossible!”
“I’d settle for a finger….or his tongue.”
“You are a sick man, Lee.”
“His body may hold vital data for lucrative procreation! He had three children.”
“He was my friend!”
“Then get me that sample…he can be…again.”
Camden swallowed the hard lump that had risen in his throat.
“You know I don’t believe that,” he argued.
“You doubt my abilities?” Lee asked with a shock. “I had no idea.”
“I doubt that a baby with the same genetic make up as Ari will replace my friend. I know you cannot age him and implant memories, just as I knew you could not re-create my Rosa!”
“Cam… that may or may not be true, given the opportunity to try, I...”
Camden cut him off.
“I don’t want to talk about it! It cannot be done, the laws of physics do not allow...”
Lee interrupted right back.
“You are correct that I cannot force someone to age, but I believe I can make someone remember.”
“Leave the dead in peace, Lee!”
Camden turned his back to Lee and walked out the door, back into his unit accommodations. Lee scowled at his last comment, shut off the scrambler, grabbed his electronic notepad and stormed out of the room to the outer corridor.
Ganesh and Bearden looked surprised that he had come out so soon. Lee, uncharacteristically, made eye contact with Bearden and smiled. Bearden’s a scientist with arrogance and gumption, he thought, he won’t have a problem bringing me a finger, or some brain. I need to get to him fast, or Ari’s cells may be useless. He turned his eyes to Ganesh.
“Where’s Cam?” Ganesh asked.
“He left. When and where will Ari’s family pay their respects and visit his body?”
“What? Ari? I don’t know… Damn shame. First casualty of a war that hasn’t even begun.” Ganesh was shaking his head. “I can find out for you.”
“Okay. I will wait here. Send in the boy.”
Ganesh raised his eyebrows at Lee, unaccustomed to being addressed in such a manner, especially from a civilian. He doubted there would be any point in bringing up this lack of etiquette to Lee, as he wasn’t even sure there was a human element in Lee’s brain large enough to understand it.
“You know, Lee, we are waging a bit of a war here together against our own government. Now, I don’t like you much and I’m sure that you don’t regard me in your daily thoughts, but I think it’s time that we move past being acquaintances and open up with our communication when we get these rare moments of privacy. General Pike will arrive any second and we’ve accomplished nothing here,” Ganesh said.
Just then, Camden walked back in with distaste on his face for Ganesh and Lee, and said,
“Gentlemen, let’s talk.”
Lee chimed in right away unaffected by Ganesh’s speech.
“If I could study the normal life cycle of the biomer in it’s natural habitat, then maybe I could develop a way to program it’s death through mimicry and…”
“Great,” Camden interrupted with deep disparagement. “Now we just have to get you and your lab to outer space. Should be no problem, right, Ganesh?” Camden began a high pitch laugh and it appeared that he had lost his mind right then and there.
“Snap out of it, Cam!” Ganesh ordered, “I’m sure Lee will find another way.”
Both men turned and looked at Lee who was fidgeting with his fingers and mumbling calculations out loud.
