by M. V. Kallai
After Bearden left, Lee stayed and ate his lunch alone. Having heard the exchange between the two men, Enira brought Bearden’s lunch already wrapped up. When Lee stood to leave, Enira walked over to escort him back to the entrance elevator. But instead of her usual pleasant goodbye, she nodded to the elevator attendant to get out and she got in with Lee.
Lee tensed up and pulled away from her as the doors shut, but Enira ignored him and clung to his arm. When they were alone behind the closed doors, she let go of him and the sweet smile dropped from her face.
“Lee, listen to me. The club is not safe for open conversation anymore. We are all being watched. I can’t go into detail, but I was forced to make a deal with a major at TRU. I would advise you not to bring the young sergeant here anymore. The last thing you need right now is the government connecting you with Camden’s troubles. Keep your usual schedule here, but do it discreetly. Do you understand?”
The elevator arrived at the main level and Lee bustled out. He looked at the distraught Enira standing anxiously, waiting for him to respond.
“I understand,” he said and walked out of the building.
Enira rode back up in the elevator, replacing her anxious expression with her relaxed and usual smile. It had been difficult to keep up appearances since Mace sent her home with a small surveillance team who had bugged her club. But as long as she complied, he would keep the secret of her affair with Camden from her husband, General Pike. She hated that her club was no longer the elite safe haven for her brilliant clientele, but her back was against a wall. Besides, it was Mace who had come up with the explanation for General Pike of why she was missing for two days. He could never find out that she was picked up on the suspicion of having knowledge of a government theft in her lover’s building. No, Mace’s story of her taking a spa retreat that she was sure she’d mentioned to him previously, was much better.
For the next couple days before and after work, Bearden stood in an alleyway, across from the address Lee gave him, watching for Ari’s wife to leave her building. He had seen her once in the morning and she was with her children. He could not bring himself to jump out at this woman and cut her. But on his fourth day of stalking, the day he would be working for Lee, he saw her again.
It’s now or never, he thought. Bearden pretended to stumble out of the alleyway as she passed by. He bumped into her and then…slice.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gene and Dawn
In the sub-basement of the weaponry unit, the robotic and computer engineers were putting two humanoid biomachines through a series of tests. Two of the scientists who worked with the structural development of the biomer were also present to observe the behavior of the units. In addition, five armed soldiers stood by to play out combat scenarios and to protect the scientists and engineers from weapon malfunction. So far, the biomachines, who had been named Gene and Dawn, were responsive to simulated battle. Their shooting was accurate ninety-eight percent of the time and they followed remote commands just as they were programmed to do. Things were going so well, that Phase One of the mass integration had been given the go ahead from General Pike that morning. The entire engineering team was busy activating and designating units. All of the biomachines were confined to individual stone pods, in case of a programming malfunction, until they could be taken for testing. An extra security measure put in place by Mace Magner, who was overseeing the process. In fact, he had become sort of a fixture in this part of the building since his last chat with Bearden. He wanted to learn just how instinctive these biomachines were. He visited the training sub-basement at least three times a day waiting for Gene and Dawn to show some sort of interaction again, but there was none. They acted like the puppets they were designed to be. But Mace still felt uneasy every time he went in there.
Mace left the mass integration mid afternoon to check on the Gene and Dawn’s combat training, but when the doors of the lift opened to the sub-basement, he heard screaming and gunfire. He drew his weapon and ran towards the commotion. The first thing he saw was Gene and Dawn standing shoulder to shoulder with their weapons lifted. Their movement was synchronized. Then, he saw a soldier lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The others were standing in a group behind the units. The soldiers were shouting orders at the handlers who were frantically punching commands into their system remotes. Taking a couple of seconds to process the scene, Mace realized he was charging at these biomachines with his gun drawn. He froze and dropped his weapon but it was too late. As programmed, Gene and Dawn responded, but with perfect synchronization. Their shoulders squared toward Mace and their weapon aim shifted. Mace ran sideways, jumped over a stone half-wall and hit the floor as projectiles followed his movement. Another second and he would have been toast. He lay quietly so he would not be recognized as a threat and a moment later, the firing stopped. He peeked through a hole in the wall, recently created, thanks to the biomachines, and saw the units separate from each other and lower their weapons. They were responding to their handlers again. Mace pulled his phone out and called for medical. The soldiers threw chains around the biomachines and hooked them to opposite sides of the room, then ran to see about their fallen comrade. He was dead, of course. The biomachines had accurately shot to kill. And now, they looked like harmless stone statues strapped to a wall.
Mace walked over to the head computer engineer, Luke, who he had spoken with at the integration ceremony, and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
“You’re coming with me to explain this to General Pike!” Mace said, half dragging the shocked programmer behind him. On his way back to the lift, he picked up his phone to reach Bearden.
“Hello, Sergeant Leitner here,” he answered.
“This is Major Magner. I need you to meet me outside of General Pike’s office immediately.”
Bearden looked at his watch. He was on his way to Tripple Laboratories for his weekly afternoon shift.
“Sir, I am not on the premises this afternoon.”
“I need you to get yourself here now. Whatever you are doing can wait an hour.”
Bearden looked at his watch again and made a sour face. Lee was not going to be happy. Especially since he was expecting a piece of Ari’s wife from him today.
“Sergeant?”
“I’m on my way,” Bearden said.
Twenty minutes later, outside of General Pike’s office, Bearden met Major Magner and the computer engineer, Luke.
“Afternoon, Leitner,” Mace said.
“Major.” Bearden saluted. “What’s this all about, sir?”
“I need you to tell General Pike about the biomer…instincts.”
“Instincts?” Luke chimed in. “What instincts? No one said anything about…”
“Shut up, Luke,” Mace said. “You’re here as a witness and to explain why your controls stopped working on those things today.”
“What things?” Bearden asked.
“Aughh! Just shut up the both of you!” Mace ordered. “We’ll talk inside, after the General is finished with his current meeting.”
Bearden plopped down in a chair in the hall to wait, when the door opened to the general’s office and Sergeant Quinn came out.
“Quinn?” Bearden seemed surprised to see him.
“Uh, oh hey, Leitner. How’s it going?”
“Not sure. You?”
“Fine…Well, I’ll see ya,” Quinn said and scuffled off.
“That was weird,” Bearden said to himself.
“Major.” General Pike called from inside his office.
The three men walked in and saluted.
“At ease, Soldiers,” the general said. “What’s the emergency?”
Bearden stood in shock as Mace and Luke recounted the out of control weapon and the murdered soldier. The general didn’t seem to be too surprised. Mace then turned to Bearden.
“Tell the general about the instincts.”
“Well, the biomer is a living organism…” Bearden started.
�
��You don’t think I know all about this??” The General cut him off. “There’s always a certain risk in the weaponry unit and that soldier will be honored for his service. What happened down there today was just a glitch. It’s a programming error!” the general shouted. Luke squirmed at his words and said,
“I’m sorry to disagree sir, but the programming is foolproof. I’ve run all the tests.”
“I’ve read the reports,” the general answered back, “and I’m telling you there is an error in the programming and all I want to hear from you is that you and your team will fix it!”
“How can you be sure about that? We absolutely cannot lose control of these weapons,” Mace said.
The General seemed to drift into thought for a moment.
“Let’s take an extra precaution,” General Pike said in a subdued voice. “Have the biomachines tested individually. They can meet on the battlefield, where it won’t matter.”
“Yes, sir,” Mace replied. Luke and Bearden exchanged worried looks. They were thinking the same thing. What will stop them from turning on us if we can’t command them?
“So, Sergeant…Leitner is it? Congratulations. It seems that Major Magner has just promoted you to a new clearance level. I’ll have the paperwork drawn up for you to sign. Just wait in the hall.”
“Yes, sir,” Bearden said and saluted.
“Dismissed, Soldier. You too, Luke,” the general said. “Major, you stay. I’d like a word alone.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Pike said when he was alone with Mace, “Bringing those two in here like that. Now, I know I owe you for the personal favor you did me locating my wife when she went missing for those two days, but I will not be taken advantage of.”
“Yes, sir. I just need to be sure that these weapons are not going to turn against us because we can’t fight them. At least not without great casualty.”
“Don’t worry about that, Major. As soon as Phase One testing is complete, they will be dropped in Tyrine with their controllers. In two months.”
Mace’s mouth turned up into a nasty smile.
“That’s four months ahead of schedule.”
“Yes, it is,” General Pike replied. “So you take care of things down there and if testing goes smoothly, I’ll see to it that there is a promotion to Lt. Colonel in your near future. Now go and deal with the situation.”
“Yes, sir!” Mace said.
Outside the office, Bearden began to put the pieces together in his head of a bigger picture involving the biomer. It was his fault that soldier died today. If he hadn’t pushed so hard to find the catalyst...
“Leitner. Come in here,” General Pike called as Mace exited his office.
He set an electronic document on his desk for Bearden to read and fingerprint, accepting his new clearance and swearing him to secrecy.
Bearden set off to Tripple Laboratories and found exactly what he expected, a frazzled Lee and a self-righteous, disapproving Dana. He also found that half of the main lab had been blocked from his view by portable room dividers. This fueled his curiosity and he considered bargaining for information with a piece of his newly acquired intelligence, but decided against it. Once in Lee’s office, he pulled his collected sample out of his pocket and put it on the table.
“That is not enough!” Lee was extra edgy today, probably because of Bearden’s tardiness.
“I know, sir, but it was difficult enough to get this,” Bearden replied standing his ground.
“Well, this day is becoming more and more inconvenient,” Lee said examining the sample container that contained a small piece of skin from Ari’s widow.
“Is there even any blood on this sample?” Lee asked holding the sample up to the light.
“I figured you could at least get started with this,” Bearden said.
“I suppose I have no choice until you try again,” Lee mumbled.
“Dr. Tripple, I won’t be trying again. I don’t think assaulting that poor woman is right,” Bearden said, expecting Lee to banish him from his lab.
Instead, Lee sat down and scratched his head.
“Sounds like something Camden would say. Perhaps you are right, Sergeant, I can work with this. You did good work, boy,” Lee said.
This made Bearden laugh out loud a little maniacally.
“Do you have anything for Colonel Ganesh today?” Bearden asked.
“Not today. But I would like copies of all of your notes on the Myris material and your catalyst.”
Bearden was not even surprised that Lee knew about that. Of course, he thought, I was right about the biomer being the stolen material that Ganesh had risked everything to get here.
It all made perfect sense now and here he was helping these men conspire against their own government. But, Bearden’s ego was bigger than his conscience and a slight chill of excitement came over him because the one and only Lee Tripple, creepy as he was, wanted to reference his notes. Besides, what he had heard in the general’s office today disturbed him almost more than what he was doing for Lee.
“It will be difficult to take the notes out of the lab, because our communications are closely monitored, but I’ll think of something,” Bearden said.
“Follow me,” Lee said.
Down the hallway, near the lounge area, where Dana called home, was a storage room filled with electronic devices, computer chips, and medical supplies. Lee rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a memory chip.
“This one is special,” He said. “It is undetectable to a network and leaves no trace. It was acquired by Camden during one of his government contracts. He had always meant to reproduce and enhance the technology, but never got to it.”
“Wow. That is incredible,” Bearden said. “Is there anything the two of you can’t do?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Lee answered as though the question had not been rhetorical.
“Can I see your work with the biomer?” Bearden asked.
“Yes. It is only fair…as soon as I have your notes, that is.”
Lee realized a second later that he’d just made a mistake. Bearden wasn’t supposed to know about the biomer in his lab.
“Sergeant, how did you know about the biomer?” he asked and closed the door to the storeroom, locking the both of them in. Bearden’s eyes shifted uncomfortably around the room. Lee picked up an old instrument with a sharp edge.
“I just figured it out. I mean, why else would you want my notes? And it just explains everything…Camden Riles being locked up, Colonel Ganesh needing a liaison, Dana being hurt and voluntarily imprisoned. And I gotta say, after today, I get it. I know why the Colonel did what he did.” Bearden breathed out real hard and Lee considered what he had said.
“After today, you say?”
Bearden gulped.
“Dr. Tripple, I really want you to trust me, but I cannot breach my government clearance…just like I won’t breach yours.”
“Very well. Hold out your arm,” Lee said.
Bearden obeyed and Lee scraped the first few layers of skin off of the top of his arm. He turned the instrument side to side examining his sample with deep interest.
“See, now I will know your genetic weaknesses. If you do breach my clearance, I will do a lot worse than your military.”
“I believe that, sir,” Bearden said using his sleeve to stop the blood.
Lee opened the door and hurried down the hall, shutting himself in another room in the building. Processing Bearden’s cells no doubt.
Lee had surprised Bearden today. Not with his threats, that was expected, but with his new level of trust for him.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Truce
Bearden met Dana in the main lab to get her weekly shopping list and left feeling a little lighter than when he arrived. He returned an hour later and Dana followed him back to the lab’s kitchen on a pair of homemade crutches that she put together from bits and pieces of old furniture and metal that she found in the storage rooms.
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br /> “Still can’t walk on your own?” Bearden asked.
“Not yet, my knee twisted pretty badly and there was a crack in my kneecap. Did you know that Lee has a scanning machine and a surgical room?”
“Really? I guess you never know what you’re going to find when you open the locked doors in here.”
“If he wanted us to know then they wouldn’t be locked,” Dana said and Bearden made a face at her.
“Are you ever gonna tell me how you got hurt?”
“Don’t think so,” Dana said.
“You know, I think Lee is starting to trust me,” Bearden said as he unpacked some fruit.
“Well that seems foolish,” Dana said. “What makes you think that?”
“Oh, no. You’ll get no more information out of me, Little Miss Nosey.”
“We’ll see,” she grinned.
Dana unpacked a sack of groceries and pulled out a small box of brown hair dye.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Yeah, that. I know it’s not on your list, but I thought since you’re still pretty banged up from the thing that you won’t tell me about, and since I don’t believe that you willingly cut and dyed your hair blond, that you’d start to feel more like your old self if you could look like your old self.”
“You did?” Dana asked. She looked like she might cry for a second and Bearden smiled.
“Hey, wait a minute. Are you trying to get on my good side, so I’ll tell you things that are not your business?” she asked.
“What? No. I just thought it would cheer you up. It’s gotta be lonely in here.”
“But…you don’t even like me. And I don’t like you.”
Bearden grinned.
“That’s true, but we do work together and Lee has just asked me for my help on another project so chances are, I’ll be here more often. Maybe we should try to at least be civil.”
