The Shox Gene Variant

by Bob Cooper

  “This is what’s wrong!”

  Aidan caught the device before it hit him. He looked at it and then at Acey.

  “What the hell is this? Are you stalking me?”

  “I was there having lunch with our daughter. What were you doing there?”

  “I was having lunch with my employee.”

  “Employee, my ass! Look at her. If that blouse was any lower her boobs would flop out. I don’t like her! Get rid of her!”

  “What has got into you? She’s proving to be a valuable member of the firm. She’s a hard worker and a smart lady.”

  “Aidan, she wants to get into your pants! Get rid of her, or I’ll leave!”

  Aidan fell back into a chair not believing what he had heard.”

  “Acey, I’m not doing anything with her. You have no right to accuse me of this.”

  “I mean it, Aidan. Get rid of her, or I’m leaving.”

  Aidan held his head thinking for a way to diffuse this situation. “Acey, I swear, nothing is going on. I can’t believe you think I’m capable of this.”

  “I saw you with her. You two have something going on. Now, are you going to get rid of her or not?”

  “No! I didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did she.”

  Aidan stormed out, slamming the door, leaving Acey in tears.

  ***

  Annie knew something was wrong when Aidan wasn’t at work when she arrived. He always arrived around seven. She came in around nine and stayed after he left. This was the routine they had settled into. Gretchen was working away in her office.

  Annie called her mother. No answer. She had decided to go to their home to find out what was going on, just as Aidan walked in. He had the same clothes on as yesterday, his hair was matted, and he had a two-day growth of beard. Gretchen and Joey watched him as he moved slowly to his office. Annie intercepted him and steered him into her office. Gretchen was straining to see what was happening as Annie closed the door.

  “Are you all right?”

  Aidan looked up at her. “Not really.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I need coffee first,” he said, starting to get up.

  “Stay here. I’ll get it.”

  Aidan took several large gulps before starting to talk.

  “Look, I probably shouldn’t involve you. This is personal between your mother and me.”

  “If it involves you and Mom, then it involves me.”

  Aidan squirmed, trying to find the right way to tell her. “Your Mom thinks I’m messing around with Gretchen. She wants me to fire her.”

  That took Annie’s breath away. She couldn’t speak until it came back.

  “Are you?”

  “No! Of course not! Why the hell would you think that?” he yelled.

  Annie was sure the whole office heard him.

  “Calm down. I believe you.”

  “Then why did you ask …”

  “Because I needed to hear it from you. You’ve never lied to me.”

  He sat down and stared into his coffee mug. “I don’t know what to do. I guess if I want my marriage to survive, I have to let her go. But that’s not right. She didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have to …”

  “Don’t do anything right now. Relax and wake up. I’m going to talk to Mom. I have two new clients coming in, one at ten and the other at noon. Can you meet with them?”

  “Yeah, I can do that.”

  Annie walked over to Joey. “I’m leaving for a few hours. Aidan will handle my appointments. Call me if you need anything.”

  He acknowledged, and she walked out of the office. Gretchen had heard the drama unfold. Picking up her com link, she called her father.

  Gretchen couldn’t help but snicker as Annie left.

  12

  Raina lay in bed staring at the ceiling most of the night. The sun was shining through the window, but she had no desire to get up. Reaching over to the nightstand, she checked her com link for messages. No messages. Pushing off the covers, she headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She let the hot water pour down on her for fifteen minutes trying to wake up. She grabbed the shampoo and rubbed a generous amount into her hair. It was the shampoo that Sue used. The fruity fragrance filled the shower, and she started to cry. After drying off, she noticed the blinking light on her com link. Tripping over the towel, she retrieved the message. It was from Sue.

  Please call so we can arrange for me to get my clothes and stuff.

  Raina’s heart was crushed, and she sobbed heavily. It took a while to calm down enough to call her. Sue answered on the first buzz.

  “Raina, I need to get my …”

  “Susan, please listen. I love you so much. I want to be with you forever. I know I screwed up. I’ll do anything,” she said, sobbing again.

  There was silence. Raina sunk to the floor.

  “Susan, please,” she pleaded.

  Raina heard crying on the other end. “Susan, can we meet and discuss? Please!”

  The com link went dead. Raina was devastated. Throwing on a set of sweats, she turned on the news. CNN was airing a holiday special showing the festivities in the D.C. area. The party at the Carrington’s came on. She looked closer. Seeing herself on national TV meeting the President of the United States made her smile. The com link buzzed. Raina flew across the room to get it.

  “Hello, Sue?”

  “Uh, no. This is Jim Weylman with the Washington Reporter. We want to interview you.”

  “About what?”

  “Well, we saw you on the news and …”

  That’s how the day went. Media companies were calling to get Raina for interviews, photo shoots, etc. Raina was at a loss to understand why she was getting all this attention from the media. It wasn’t until late that evening when Dorthea called that she found out.

  “Hello, Raina darling. This is Dorthea Carrington. I hope you don’t mind me calling you at home, but I want to talk to you.”

  “Hi. That’s fine.”

  “Well, I’m quite sure you’ve had plenty of calls from the media today.

  “Yes, I have,” Raina said, confused about where the conversation was going.

  “I took the liberty to contact the better media outlets and told them about an up-and-coming star with the Independent Party. They’re very interested in profiling you. I’d like to meet you tomorrow for lunch and discuss your political future.”

  Raina was stunned. Why was this woman, who she had just met last night, be interested in her political future? Shouldn’t she be concerned about her husband’s political future?

  “Fine. I look forward to talking with you,” Raina said.

  “Great. Meet me at the Capitol Café at one and wear your best conservative suit. There might be a photographer or two there to take your picture.”

  ***

  The conversation yesterday with Acey didn’t go well. Annie tried to reason with her mother, but she couldn’t convince her that her father wasn’t cheating with Gretchen. It ended with Acey packing and leaving on her business trip early. Annie feared the demise of her parents’ marriage and spent Saturday morning with Aidan. He was devastated.

  “Maybe I should fire her if that’s what she wants.”

  “Is that what you want?” she asked.

  “No. Not really. She’s a good employee, and they’re hard to find.”

  “I agree.”

  Aidan shook his head. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Annie was at a loss for words. Not able to help either one of her parents made her depressed. Later that night, she headed for her favorite bar to meet some friends. It was early evening when she arrived and saw her closest friends chatting away. When she approached, they stopped talking.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she said.

  Nobody said anything but her girlfriend pointed to the bar. Annie looked in the dim light. It was Foster. They were all staring at her.

  “What?”

  “Go up there and talk to him,”
another friend said.

  Annie gave them a dirty look before she slowly approached Foster. She could hear them cheering. He sat at the bar with a vodka something-or-other in front of him. She almost chickened out, but then he turned and saw her.

  “Uh, Hi, Annie.” He turned back to his drink

  Is that all you have to say, you smug bastard, Annie thought.

  “Foster, I’m not leaving until I know what happened.”

  He slowly turned around, drink in hand, and motioned for her to sit next to him.

  Annie looked around. She didn’t want to have a private conversation in such a public setting. He noticed her angst. “Let’s sit in that booth over there,” he said.

  She followed him, and they sat opposite each other.

  “Do you want a drink?” he asked.

  “Not now.”

  He took a deep breath and began. “I’m sorry for how I …, I mean, I can’t …”

  “Foster, tell me. What’s wrong?”

  “You can’t tell anyone, you promise?”

  “Yes, Foster. Now please tell me.”

  He finished his drink and set the glass down. “Last week, at my annual physical, they told me I might have a rare type of cancer.”

  “Cancer? I thought that disease was ancient history?”

  “Not this type. There’s no cure for it. They ran a bunch of tests on me.”

  “And?”

  “I haven’t got the results back.”

  “So you don’t know for sure you have the disease.”

  “Annie, my father died from it. I know I have it.”

  Annie took his hand. “Foster, I’m so sorry. But I don’t see this as a reason for us to break up.”

  He started to cry. Annie watched until he gained composure. “Annie, I love you, but there’s no future with me. I’ll be discharged from the Guard, and I’ll be dead in …”

  “Bullshit! Don’t talk like that. Let’s wait for the results of the tests. We’ll deal with whatever happens at that time.

  They sat there crying and holding each other’s hand.

  ***

  Sunday morning, Gretchen waited at the spaceport for her father’s private transport to finish the final preparations. He was going to show her the ‘cloning facility’ as he called it. The complex was hidden away in plain sight on the moon. She didn’t know where, only the upper echelon of the cult knew, and now he was going to share it with her. He motioned to her, and she boarded the small shuttle.

  “It is time you see our operation firsthand. There are those who say you are not ready, but I convinced them otherwise.”

  The shuttle lifted off for the short trip to the moon. Space vehicles wove in all directions the closer they came to their designated landing site.

  “It wasn’t always like this. A few hundred years ago, it was mainly military and mining complexes that existed here unless you count the aliens and their sites. Earth had known about them ever since the 1950’s when President Dwight Eisenhower met with an alien delegation and agreed on a treaty to allow the United States to obtain alien technology and in return, the President permitted them to use humans and animals in experiments.”

  Gretchen looked at him in amazement. “We knew about aliens way back then.”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t until the Apollo Moon Missions that any contact with them took place on the moon. On the Apollo 11 mission, a situation occurred on the last day during the final approach to the moon surface. Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins spotted an alien complex complete with rows of parked vehicles and saucer-like objects. That was the last moon mission. All flights were stopped citing budget problems, but the United States, Russians, and Chinese continued secret flights and eventually established contact with the aliens. They were from the planet Zeta Reticuli which is a wide binary star system in the southern constellation of Reticulum. They were a race of aliens known as the Greys,” her father said.

  “Yes, I remember. We have treaties with them now, and they have furnished us with technology,” Gretchen responded.

  As the shuttle prepared to land, Gretchen saw the spaceport surrounded by ore refining facilities – some of them were operational while a majority were abandoned and rotting on the moon’s surface. As they drew closer, they saw the remnants of huge behemoth machines that clawed up the ground, leaving gaping holes.

  “Is this New Moon City?” Gretchen asked.

  “No. The city is built underground. It truly is a modern miracle. With the help of the aliens and the mining companies, they constructed a city complete with tall buildings, parks, and an atmosphere. It became a novelty for earthlings to visit, but no one wanted to live there. So the city became populated by the adventurous, the notorious, and other riff-raff. They proclaimed their independence from Earth and now run the city.”

  The shuttle landed after airspace was assigned. A moon transport vehicle crawled to the shuttle attaching itself. They entered and were driven into the entrance of New Moon City, a city where an artificial atmosphere and gravity was in place. Tall buildings and residential areas rivaled any medium-sized city on Earth. They walked into one of the buildings and took the elevator to an office complex on the eighteenth floor which housed the corporate entities of many major mining and logistics companies. The sign over the office door they entered said Prime Medical Industries. There was a desk staffed by a young woman no more than Gretchen’s age. She recognized her father.

  “Welcome back, sir. It’s good to see you again.”

  “Thank you. This is my daughter, Gretchen. I trust the security protocols are in place for her visit.”

  “Yes, sir. You are only here for the day and will not need sleeping accommodations. Is that correct?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Then, please enter and again, welcome.”

  They entered through the scanners and into the office part of the complex. Gretchen watched as people scurried around as busy as any company on Earth.

  “We make medical products here that we sell locally to the citizens of New Moon City and the surrounding planets. But that’s not what we’re here to see,” her father said.

  A maintenance elevator took them down a half a mile under the surface. A new security protocol had to be completed before they could exit into a gleaming white lab facility. The light was so bright, it hurt Gretchen’s eyes and took her a few minutes to adjust. She saw rows of small honey-combed structures as far as the eye could see. She was speechless.

  “Impressive, isn’t it?” he said. These are where the embryos will be kept.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Tens of thousands. These will be the army that will allow us to carry out the mission of the Fourth Reich. But what I want to show you is in this room,” he said, pointing behind her.

  They walked into a room where a thick-plated one-way window took up one entire wall. Inside were three young men around eighteen years old. They were practicing hand-to-hand fighting skills. Gretchen studied them closely. Physically, they were identical. Their faces were very familiar. It finally hit her.

  “Are these the clones of the Nelson boy?”

  “They are. Once we have the Bayberry girl, we can finalize the transformation and move to the next phase.”

  Gretchen quietly accepted the diabolical scheme cooked up by her father. She continued watching the three pseudo-beings fighting before her. There was an announcement over the intercom for her father.

  “Wait here while I see what they want.”

  She returned to watching the three young men going through their drills. She heard a banging on the opposite wall. The noise got louder, accompanied by a blood-curdling scream. Gretchen walked outside and into the next room which had the same one-way window. This room contained a young boy being held down by two huge lab assistants and being injected with several large needles in his stomach. His body writhed as he continued to shriek. He fell unconscious, and the lab assistants connected him to restraints on the floo
r. Gretchen’s heart was beating almost out of her chest. She looked closely at the boy. It was Jonathan Nelson III. She peeked out of the door and went back into the other room. Shaking, she sat waiting for her father.

  13

  Raina hadn’t had any sleep since Sue left. She looked in the mirror and saw dark circles under her blood-shot eyes. After putting in the third round of eye drops and adding a touch more makeup, Raina left for the Capitol Café to meet Dorthea Carrington. It was cold and overcast, but she decided to walk, hoping the cold would make her more alert.

  Dorthea was sitting at a table in the middle of the café.

  “Thank you for coming. Sit down, my dear,” Dorthea said.

  “Thanks, it’s good to see you again.”

  Raina noticed everyone in the Café was staring at them. “I see that you have quite a few fans,” Raina said.

  “Oh no. They’re not here to see me. They're here to see you.”

  “Me?”

  Raina became agitated and nervous.

  “Okay, I’m only a junior senator. Why would you or anybody else be the least bit interested in me?”

  Dorthea laughed while hailing the waiter over to the table. “Two Mimosa’s please.” The smile left her face as she turned towards Raina.

  “Because you are the only Independent Party candidate who beat the more powerful candidates from the major parties. Because you did it without much financial backing and you ran a clean campaign. Because I believe the platform you ran on should be the future of our country.”

  Dorthea paused while the waiter delivered the drinks. She took a sip before continuing. “Raina, you’re exactly what the Independent Party needs, and you’re what this country needs. I’m here to see you get the notoriety you deserve.”

  Raina was stunned after listening to the glowing review, and her face turned a light shade of pink.

  “But what about your husband? He’s not an Independent.”

  “No, he’s not. Let’s say for now he has his political leanings and I have mine. We agreed not to interfere in each other’s affairs.”