Clone Legacy: Book 3 in the Clone Crisis Trilogy

by Melissa Faye

  A little despot-in-training.

  Most of the crowd noticed the Chancellors and looked back and forth between them and the movie nervously. The tension grew. I sat up straighter, ready to move if I needed to. I clutched Zheng’s hand so I could pull her along with me.

  The group didn’t move. One of them pulled out a TekCast and the others read along on his screen. I watched the youngest clone try to look at the screen, but he couldn’t see from where he was standing.

  No. I realized he wasn’t trying to see. His eyes were staring in another direction. I followed his gaze towards a teenage girl in a light blue jumpsuit. She kept her eyes down as she swept the street nearby. She was small with short brown hair. The young Chancellor couldn’t take his eyes off her. I watched his face as he stared. It held a mixture of affection and confusion. The girl looked up briefly, saw him, then looked straight back down.

  She turned slightly towards me so I could see her face. She was familiar, but it took me a moment to remember who she was. I hadn’t seen her since the last time I was in Young Woods, though she looked much older than she should after who knew how long she had been working here. I last saw her when we planned for her to sneak into the Chancellor’s office and take incriminating photos we could use to bribe the Chancellor not to follow us when we escaped. We never saw or heard from her again. Until now.

  Yami’s mentee. The girl we never found. She was here at camp with me this entire time. Vonna.

  Chapter 9 – Yami

  Someone from HQ drove us most of the way to the nearest Gray Suit training facility, but Gianna and I traveled the rest of the way on foot. We had our plan practiced. We ripped the edges of our clothing and covered ourselves in dirt and scratches from the brambles. Gianna was a pro; she switched easily between a casual, friendly demeanor to all business. She helped me rip a hole in the knee of my pants and we ran in place until we were covered in a layer of grime and sweat.

  She looked us up and down. “Let’s go.”

  Walking towards the complex, I realized how little I knew about the noncomm, the area between established communities. Though I had traveled through it many times, I stuck to particular routes and saw no other buildings besides the ones I was headed to or coming from. I had never seen anything like this.

  The training facility was enormous, and I could tell right away that it was created a long time ago. The walls were made of gritty tan concrete with dirty windows and patches of ivy. It was an enormous building, even bigger than the Chancellor’s mansion. It must have been six stories tall. The grounds swept even further across the noncomm. I couldn’t see inside, though. The entire area was surrounded by a concrete wall, ten or so feet high, and an additional level of fencing above that. Gianna raised her eyebrows towards me and with a head nod, beckoned us forward.

  We headed towards the only door in the gate wall that we could see. It was made of a heavy, grimy metal. I didn’t understand how the people inside could see us until I noticed security cameras spread out across the walls.

  We arrived out of breath and looking like we’d just run ten miles. Of course, we hadn’t run ten miles, but jogging in place for a while and doing some jumping jacks for several minutes straight helped us play the victims. We had no supplies on us except our TekCasts and, hopefully unbeknownst to those running the training facility, small location trackers implanted into the insides of our forearms. Insertion was fast and easy, and although they’d never used the trackers for this purpose and at this distance before, the technician Anika assured us they would work.

  Other Yami gave me a fond farewell, squeezing me tightly and whispering encouragements into my ear. “I know we’ve had very different lives up until this point,” she said. “But I am so glad I know you now.”

  The words brought tears to my eyes, and I quickly rubbed them away. I couldn’t come up with anything nearly as thoughtful to say in response, but gave her another quick hug and my sincerest thanks. The thought of going undercover like this filled me with a tense, constant panic, but the idea that doing this work would make Other Yami proud boosted my confidence and drive.

  Now that we stood at the gate to the training facility, I felt surprisingly calm. Running in place got my endorphins going, and Gianna and I smiled at one another. We were doing something secretive right under the government’s watchful eye. They didn’t know what was coming.

  We banged on the facility gate, shouting until our voices were hoarse and crushing our fists on the metal. Of course, they were already hoarse from running and yelling a half mile back. Gianna was a natural actress, and cried in earnest as time went by and we didn’t hear anyone coming. As a minute passed with no response, we raised the volume, yelling and pulling at the gate with our fingernails until finally, the thick steel doors swung open. I hesitated in my yelling and walked slowly forward, Gianna at my side.

  We were immediately greeted by four guards with large guns pointed directly towards us. I felt myself get swept up in the situation and began to cry in earnest. We held our hands in the air, babbling incoherently about wanting to be part of the army and not knowing any better way to do it. We told a sob story about being attacked by some people in the town for worrying about testing, but we still wanted to help. We were too scared to say anything else and fled. The army seemed like the only solution, so we followed what we guessed was the path and hadn’t eaten in a few days. The guards seemed either disinterested or immune to our state. Either way, they ignored the theatrics.

  The guards had us get on our knees with our arms behind our heads. I cried more passionately now. The guns were overwhelming, and I was legitimately tired from the running. The combination of crying and looking down the barrels of the guns sent me into hysterics. Gianna looked at me curiously through her own tears; I suspected she didn’t understand how quickly this was becoming real to me.

  Two guards surrounded each of us and dragged us towards a small building near the gate’s entrance. We were dumped into a room with a small metal table. Our wrists were handcuffed to a bar running along the tabletop. I tried to slow my breathing as we waited for someone else to come for us.

  We saw the security camera pointed at us from a corner of the near empty room, so we couldn’t talk or review the plan. One wall featured a large mirror. I could see myself for the first time since we left HQ – dirty, distressed, my face streaked with tears and bruises. The weight of our acting along with the actual fear gathering in my chest exhausted me, and I rested my head on my shoulder. With my arms pulled forward into handcuffs, it was as comfortable as I could get.

  A middle-aged woman finally came and introduced herself as the Captain. She even gave us a salute, like in old movies. Her grayish blonde hair was pulled into a tight, short ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her silver and black Gray Suit insignia shined under the harsh fluorescent lights. Her uniform was just like the ones I’d seen on other Gray Suits. Gray, of course, with such similar colors on top and on the bottom that it almost looked like one jumpsuit. The top buttoned up to her neck, and the slacks hung loosely around her legs. Instead of a TekCast, she wore a white band around her wrist that stood out against the dingy gray uniform material.

  “Please help us!” Gianna cried out as if she couldn’t hold back anymore. “The men came for us, they were attacking us, we had to escape –“

  “We ran here, we haven’t eaten –“ I added.

  The Captain cut us off. “I heard your story from the guards who greeted you. We’ve had other recruits join us from similar situations. We’ll just need to verify your identities, then we can enroll you into army training.”

  This was where I needed to trust Other Yami’s people. They claimed to have set us up with new identities showing that we were born in a local community where citizens were recently tested for fertility. Both of us worked in Gray jobs – sanitation and factory work – so we were perfect candidates for Gray Suit training. The technicians at HQ were positive that they had successfully replaced our identitie
s in the UCA system; I only believed them once a small prick of blood and the results from the Captain’s handheld device verified our stories.

  “Gianna, sanitation. Yami, factory.” The Captain read the notes on her device quickly. “You’ll be an asset to your country by enrolling in the army today.” She looked back up at us as if taking us into consideration. I sat up a little straighter. The torn clothes and deep bags under our eyes were a ploy, and I hoped they wouldn’t work against us now.

  “Enrolling in the army is a serious decision,” the Captain said. “I run a tight operation here. Training is challenging, and you will be expected to keep up with people in better shape with more experience behind them. We will get you fit and ready to fight, including weapon and hand-to-hand combat. No disrespect or insubordination is tolerated here. Is that understood?”

  I nodded. My eyes were wide. I finally felt like I was part of the Underground – here I was on a secret mission. So why did I feel truly nervous about disappointing the Captain?

  “We heard that if we join the army, we could maybe...become Silvers?” Gianna asked, keeping her eyes down on the table.

  “You’re correct, ensign,” the Captain said. “After a certain number of years of service to the UCA, you’ll be rewarded with a better job and better pay. And you will accrue a salary while you’re here that is 20% more than what you have received in the past.”

  I wondered if the Captain knew this was a lie. Maybe it was the original plan, but if the government found an actual fertility solution and all the focus was on Breeding camps, there was no way the country would return to the community structures that had existed for so long. I didn’t dare look at Gianna for fear of making a sarcastic face.

  Instead, I nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, please,” I said. “We needed to escape, and we want to become Silver. What do we need to do to join?”

  Not much, it turned out. We were released from our handcuffs and fitted with wristbands like the one the Captain wore. She called it a B-Band and explained how it worked – it would display our daily schedules and direct us to training sessions, meals, and our quarters. Without a staff of Grays and Bronzes, the government shipped in supplies on a daily basis, and trainees were expected to take on shifts to help maintain the facility.

  I swiped through the smaller, oval holoscreen that the B-Band emitted. Every minute of my day would be accounted for. And there was no messaging, no reference texts, and no mention of anything besides training.

  The Captain handed us off to a man who they referred to as Sarge. He was a younger man with a deep dark complexion and bright eyes. Sarge led us through intake, where we received uniforms, toiletries, and bedding, and were shown to our barracks. According to my wristband, we had another hour until dinner, after which we were assigned to a basic training session that other trainees had already begun.

  Sarge left us alone in the barracks. We were in a small room with four bunk beds. The others looked used. The beds were neatly made, but mementos from people’s former lives stood out from the dark gray bedspreads. A picture of a loved one. A flyer from a community event. A bottle of bubbling water – I suspected we wouldn’t have access to that sort of luxury here.

  Gianna met my eyes and nodded to the corner of the room. Just like everywhere else, we were being watched. We made small talk while we made our beds and changed into our uniforms. As I leaned over Gianna to pretend to take one of her extra pairs of socks, she whispered to me, barely breathing out the words.

  “The bands don’t come off,” she mumbled. I looked down at the band on my wrists. I pulled up the holoscreen again, and pretended to study our training schedule. With my opposite hand, I felt around the band. I couldn’t find a hinge or seam. Gianna was right; that band wasn’t going anywhere. Though neither were we. At least not for a while.

  THE DINING HALL WAS full of Gray Suits in a variety of sizes and shapes. Some were cheerful, talking boisterously with their groups of friends. Others were withdrawn. Entire tables were full of people not even looking at one another. Gianna and I sat near a pair sitting by themselves. They smiled insincerely at us.

  “I’m Yami,” I said. I reached out to shake hands with the man sitting next to me, and after a moment, he shook it.

  “Gerald,” he said tentatively.

  “This is Gianna,” I said, gesturing. Gianna was pulling open a protein pack and smiled politely. The woman sitting next to her gave a small grimace.

  “Marsha,” she announced. “Did you just get here?”

  “Just got in today,” I said. “What about you?”

  “We’ve been here a week,” Gerald said. “The two of us came together. They tested everyone in our town, and when we found out we weren’t one of the lucky ones, we asked to join the army.”

  “Not the best idea,” Marsha said with a hint of anger. “But there aren’t a lot of others, are there?”

  “What would have happened if you didn’t join?” I asked. I sifted my food around on my tray with a fork. This was much more interesting than the food slopped onto my plate by a bored looking Gray Suit doing shift work.

  “No one knows for sure,” Marsha said. “Supposedly they put you to work.”

  “But we don’t know what that means,” Gerald said. “We figured, better a job we know about.”

  “How did you two get here?” Marsha said. I disliked her more every time she spoke. There was doubt in her voice, like she didn’t trust us. How could she not trust us after only just meeting us?

  “We were attacked by some people,” Gianna said. She cut across me when I tried to jump in. “We don’t really want to talk about it. We ran here.”

  Gianna was right. The less we said, the better.

  “Attacked by ‘some people,’” Marsha said under her breath. “That’s not too specific.”

  I poked at my food cautiously. It looked mass-produced, and most of the pieces were unidentifiable. I hesitantly took a bite. Mush. At least there was some flavor there. Something sort of like chicken and vegetables, but still mushier. I ate a few more bites before putting my fork down. The slop left my stomach feeling queasy.

  “Eat it all, Yami,” said Gerald. “You’re new? You’ll have basic training right after dinner. Don’t want to be too hungry. You need lots of energy here.”

  I looked around the room while we ate, trying to get the food down while getting a sense of who was there. The faces were unrecognizable. I couldn’t tell if anyone else was new because so many people were by themselves. Gianna noticed it too.

  “If people have been here longer, why aren’t they making friends? Or at least, I don’t know, fellow army workers?”

  Marsha lowered her eyes. “Not much to enjoy around here. No use making friends, is there?” She eyed us suspiciously again. “Maybe you think you’re lucky to be here. But most of us see it as a way station. We’re in the army until...”

  We waited. Marsha stared at us.

  “Until the next thing happens,” Gerald cut in. “If we’re not soldiers, we’re supposed to be Silvers. But I don’t think Silvers are gonna exist anymore once I’m done here. There’s a lot of lying going on by some people, I’ll tell you what.”

  So at least some Gray Suits understood what was happening. I met Gianna’s eyes briefly, then looked away. The only sounds were the far off laughs and yelling of the most outgoing Gray Suits and the immediate sounds of forks scraping against our own plates. We sat in silence for a long time.

  Gianna brought us around to why we were there. “If they don’t really plan on making us Silver, then why stay here?”

  “Don’t see much of an option, do you?” Marsha snapped. “Unless you two ran here, from that ‘attack’ like you said, and stopped by a resort on your way? We can make a run for it.” She snickered at her joke.

  “Maybe there’s more we can do,” I said slowly. I pulled back. “I don’t know. So far everyone is nice enough. But there are people out there trying to keep all of this from happening...”

&n
bsp; Gerald put his fork down and crossed his arms. “The Underground?” he asked. “Were you two ladies part of that nonsense then?”

  Gianna looked away wistfully. “We were never part of anything. But I don’t like what’s going on. If some people have a better idea, I’m all for hearing it. Whoever it is.”

  “See how much energy you have for your revolution once basic training begins,” said Marsha. She packed her plate and fork back onto her tray and took one last sip of water out of her cup. “You keep thinking about stuff like that and you won’t last long.” She pushed her chair back from the table, scraping it loudly across the tiled floors, and walked away.

  “Don’t mind her,” Gerald said, now smiling. “People talk. But nothing happens. It’s hard to keep a handle on what’s going on out there when we’re in here, running and shooting guns and training in combat. They’ll keep you too busy to think. You’ll see.” He packed up his tray and followed Marsha out of the cafeteria.

  My wrist buzzed. I poked around the band until a message popped up. Basic training in a half hour.

  Chapter 10 – Charlie

  The movie started, but I couldn’t watch the screen. I followed Vonna with my eyes, trying to track her as she weaved across the street. As she started sweeping closer to the refreshments table, I headed over to intersect her path.

  “Vonna,” I said. I knew better than to raise attention. I said it at a normal volume, and looked at her sideways out of the corner of my eyes.

  Vonna looked up when she heard her name, and looked down immediately when she saw a breeder was speaking.