by Bob Blink
Greg and Ray went off and lifted one of the Cyborgs off the table where it rested. They chose one from the middle of the array, hoping to make its absence less noticeable. There was no way to move it without disconnecting the cable, which they did with a bit of trepidation, but nothing seemed to happen as the cable was removed. The small panel of indicator lights on the exposed display remained green, so hopefully this was standard. They lugged the heavy beast, which fortunately remained very rigid, forward to where Rao and Sam waited. In their absence, Sam had hooked up the shoebox sized unit where Rao had stored the memories they wanted inserted into the machine. Gently, they lowered the Cyborg onto the table where Sam now had the equipment powered and softly humming. He inserted a couple of cables where Ray had removed the wires from the neck.
"It's inactive," Sam said, reading something from a holo monitor. "We need to bring it on-line before we can load anything into it."
Ray was about to ask how they were expected to do that, when Greg, who had been studying the monitor plate in the center of the unit's chest, reached out and pressed a control point.
"It's like booting a computer," he said with a grin as the screen started to display a variety of information and the unit powered on. "I figured it had to be something simple."
Faster than one might expect, the initiation process finished, and Sam nodded that he had displays that were familiar to him.
"Looks just like one of the vacant clones," he said happily.
Whistling softly, his fingers flying, he jumped from screen to screen, flipping away unnecessary input screens, and selecting items here and there.
"I think we are ready," he said after a few minutes.
"This is most interesting," Rao said. He nervously glanced again at the massive device on the table, and wondered how his mind would react to being in a body of such immense size and oddity. He was both excited at the prospect, and worried that this might not work out as he hoped. He had no idea what was stored in the special memory file. Whatever encryption had been used on the file, it was totally unlike the normal memory files which he could edit easily. They were all risking a very great deal, and he feared it might not turn out as he'd led the others to believe.
"Let's see if this is going to work," Greg urged.
Sam nodded, and initiated the transfer. He watched intently as a variety of display screens flashed vast amounts of changing data.
"Proceeding normally," Sam said happily. "Whoever designed these things made them easy to program."
Ray stepped back and walked over to the ramp, listening for any sign of activity from above. All was dead quiet. When he walked back toward the table, Sam was disconnecting the cables.
"What's wrong?" Ray asked, concerned.
"All done," Sam said.
"That quick?"
Sam nodded.
"Now we need to get this thing up top and out of the building without someone noticing. I've put it in a low activity mode, so it won't wake or attempt to take any action until I change that."
"How can you do that later without this equipment?" Ray asked.
Greg pointed to the panel in the machine's chest. "You can change a whole host of things from there," he explained.
"Let's go then," Ray said.
He grabbed the legs as Greg took hold of the shoulders. He was a little unhappy that both he and Greg would have their hands full with the Cyborg, and they were the two that also had the only guns. He could have passed a weapon to Rao or Sam, but he doubted either had sufficient experience with a handgun to do more than waste their limited supply of ammunition. If the need arose, they'd just have to be nimble and put the Cyborg down quickly.
Sam powered down the equipment, and returned everything to how it had been when they arrived, but none of them believed their activity would go unnoticed. With a last look at the rows of resting Cyborgs, they started up the ramp.
Once in the lab, Sam slid the access to the lower level closed, another action that was most likely wasted effort, and they returned to the lobby area of Ho's suite. The doctor was still out. They'd leave her that way, and lock the door as they departed. She'd wake in a couple of hours, but by then they should be safely at their destination.
Sam checked ahead to verify the path was clear, then signaled the others to follow. Rao went first, followed by Ray and Greg lugging their heavy load. Ray had triggered the brief signal he'd arranged with Jessica to alert her they were headed toward the exit. She should be on her way there now, her return signal coming almost immediately.
Their escape proceeded without incident. The small staff was located at the other end of the building, and given the emergency, were all engaged in tasks that either Sam or Dr. Ho had assigned them. The unfortunate clone was being removed from the chamber and processed for testing prior to final disposal. They made it to the back door, and found Jessica waiting nervously for them. The Cyborg was placed awkwardly sideways in the confined space behind the driver's seat. Greg crawled into the passenger space, and they set off.
Rao was already sitting in the passenger space of Dr. Ho's vehicle. Sam took a long forlorn look at the Clinic, as though finally realizing his actions had pushed him irrevocably in a new direction, then crawled in beside Rao. Fortunately Dr. Ho had long ago made Sam an authorized user of the vehicle, so he had no trouble starting it. Ray nodded, then hoofed it off into the night. He wouldn't be going to the hideout tonight. In the morning, Walker would almost certainly call on him to be part of the search for the perpetrators of the break in, and he wanted to be found where expected. The others would have to deal with matters from this point forward.
Some time later, Jessica drove into the small cave of the rear access entrance where Ray had brought her some days earlier after her encounter with Luke. This was where they'd have to dispose of the vehicles, in one of the deep pits in back, and keep the Cyborg until it was functional, or not. It was too heavy to lug across the uneven ground almost a mile to the bunker. They'd already set up the equipment Sam had asked for, and would only need to modify an interface cable or two to allow the power units to keep the Cyborg fully charged, although Greg had discovered during his study of the units earlier in the evening that the Cyborgs had nearly a month's power life, so even that might not be necessary.
Chapter 36
Sequoia facility
The call came just after 4 AM, much sooner than Ray had expected. He was also surprised that the caller was Luke Morales instead of Glenn Walker.
"The Director wants you at the Clinic ASAP," Morales instructed.
"Where?" Ray asked, doing his best to sound half asleep, a task that wasn't particularly difficult because that was what he'd been when the phone rang. He hadn't expected to be able to nod off, being so wound up after the action at the Clinic, but surprisingly he had.
"The Cloning Clinic," Morales repeated.
"Why there?" Ray asked. "What happened?"
"You'll be told what you need to know once you get here."
"Can someone send a car? I didn't have the duty last night and someone else from Security has it."
"Ours aren't currently available," Morales replied. "You'll have to walk or see if your office can send someone for you. I'd suggest you try the latter. The Director isn't in a waiting mood."
"The Director's car isn't available?" Ray asked, then added. "Never mind. I'll see what I can do. Let me call in, and I'll get dressed while they hopefully are sending someone by."
"Just get here quickly," Luke demanded, and hung up.
A few minutes later Ray hung up again, this time after calling dispatch at Security. They were sending Ernie with his car, and Ernie would simply quit early this morning and walk the three blocks to his apartment. Ray dressed, considerably differently than he had earlier in the evening, and headed downstairs to meet Ernie. He carried the M&P in the small of his back. Once he had the car and was away from prying eyes, he'd stash it in the vehicle. It wouldn't be wise to be carrying it inside the Clinic when he met
Walker and his thugs, but he wanted it nearby just in case things went sour. He couldn't help being slightly amused that Luke hadn't wanted to admit that two cars had been taken and the Director was currently afoot. He would have liked to see Walker's face when he came out and discovered his personal vehicle missing.
He was confident that Walker wasn't suspicious of him at the moment, but that could change depending how this all played out. To begin with, and probably most important, Dr. Ho and the Clinic's staff hadn't seen him while he was there. They had sedated the doctor without her realizing who was present. Furthermore, he hadn't needed to use the stunner, which would have been the one thing likely to start Walker wondering. Originally the stunners were only carried by members of Security, but over the years a few had fallen into the hands of others. And, while the doctor would know that Sam had been the traitor in their midst, he had no real link to the man, having only seen him twice. The majority of contact had been through Greg. Still, he couldn't help being nervous. He was playing a dangerous game with a man that had demonstrated he had no qualms about eliminating those who he saw as a problem.
When he arrived at the Clinic, he pulled into Dr. Ho's spot. She wouldn't be using it, and it was close to the entrance. He'd been told to hurry after all. He found Jake doing guard duty at the front door, the Clinic closed to normal visitors, although given the hour they couldn't have expected any. Ray had met Jake a couple of years earlier, and would have known him anyway from the descriptions Sam had provided them of all the key personnel at the center.
Jake also knew him, and was opening the door as he approached. Ray guessed he'd been given orders to wait for him.
"They are waiting in Dr. Ho's office," he said. "Go down that hall," Jake directed.
For the second time that night Ray walked down the highly polished floor of the Cloning Clinic toward the double doors that marked the doctor's office. This time they stood open. Luke must have spotted him coming, as the stout figure stepped out into the hallway and urged him on. Ray maintained his pace, and when he stepped into the lobby of the office suite he found that Mark Savage was there in addition to Director Walker and a very shaky appearing Dr. Susan Ho. Well, Jessica had warned that the stuff was supposed to have some not very subtle after effects.
Doing his best to play his part, he put on a look of confusion and asked, "What happened?"
"The Clinic was raided and Dr. Ho was drugged," Walker replied, watching Ray carefully.
Frowning, Ray asked. "Who would want to do that, and for what reason? What could be here that anyone in the caverns might want? It behooves everyone here that this place operate smoothly." He felt his acting was pretty good.
"There are several things that might be of interest to many," Walker replied, "but it appears they knew exactly what they wanted, and were successful in obtaining it. Perhaps they were not aware of some of the other items stored here. By the way, the culprits also made off with my vehicle, and that of the doctor."
"I don't think there has ever been a car theft in the history of the Facility," Ray replied, showing surprise. "It's not like they could hope for the theft to go unnoticed or that they could use the vehicles. Are these thefts and the attack here personal in nature?"
"There is probably an element of personal vengeance involved, but the real reason is more important. And, we know who several of the perpetrators have to be."
"That would be helpful," Ray said.
"Key to the raids is an employee of the Clinic. His name is Sam Duncan. Luke can provide you with his description and relevant information later. Also, Jessica Anderson who you already are seeking for her involvement in the murder of Joe Thomas and Pete Coleman. She is one of the few individuals my vehicle recognizes as legitimate drivers, and I've checked with all of the others. She has to have taken the vehicle. Given her involvement, and the nature of the crime, I'm certain that Subha Rao and Greg Harper were also participants. We cannot say if there might have been others."
"These people certainly get around," Ray said. "You indicated they got what they came for. What would that be?"
"It might become public knowledge before long. I can't imagine why they would have taken the thing otherwise. Come, we need to show you something. What you are about to see must remain secret, and that means from your companions in Security as well. Even if the unit they took is revealed, the fewer people who know the extent of this for the moment, the better. With luck we can recover the device and people won't ever learn about it."
Ray followed Walker and Luke into the lab. Mark remained in the doctor's office with Ho. It wasn't difficult for Ray to maintain a look of surprise. It wasn't seeing the open ramp leading down in the back of the lab, but the fact that Walker was so openly revealing this stuff to him.
"Wow!" he said softly, when he was lead to the lip of the ramp. "Where does this go?"
"To a large storage level in the basement," Walker said. "Come on, you need to see what you are looking for."
The three of them walked over to the lift that Ray had seen when he'd been here before. Clearly Walker didn't want to walk all the way down, and led them into the waiting cage. Once they were all standing inside the circular elevator, he pushed a button and the lift silently descended, the ramp visible as they moved downward. At the bottom they stopped smoothly, and Walker led the way into the vast Cyborg chamber.
"What are those?" Ray asked, looking at the rows of silent Cyborgs.
"Robots," Walker said. "I'm told the more appropriate term is Cyborg, although they don't have any biological parts, so that seems odd to me. They are designed to accept a human memory kernel just as the clone bodies that Dr. Ho and her crew grow here."
"You put a human in one of those?" Ray asked.
Walker nodded.
"They are for emergency conditions, and for the initial days when we move back out onto the surface. They are strong, immune to toxins and adverse weather, and can make the initial assessment of conditions above. One of them is missing and indications are the equipment here was used."
"They put someone's kernel inside the unit they stole," Ray said, making the obvious jump that Walker wanted him to make. "Who?"
"That is a very good question," Walker said. "Unfortunately the equipment doesn't record the kernel that was used. Why would they need to do this? I think it is very important to find that out, not to mention retrieving the unit. There is no end to the mischief such a device could be used for."
"They hauled it away, or once the transfer is complete is it able to simply walk on its own?"
"We believe that is one reason they needed the cars," Luke said. "It takes a bit of time after the transfer before the units are functional."
"How long?" Ray asked, continuing to gather the kind of information Walker would expect. He already knew all of this from Sam.
"It won't be fully functional for at least a day," Walker said. "Possibly longer since we doubt they have the proper equipment to complete the processing."
"How hard is it to stop these things," Ray asked, running his hands over the frame of the closest unit. "They look to be very substantial."
"A proper weapon would be able to bring one down," Walker explained, "but those kinds of weapons aren't readily available here."
Ray noted he didn't say they didn't exist. He wondered if Walker was talking handguns or something else. He decided to risk a question.
"Would the handguns these people used on your men be adequate to the task?"
"Probably not," Walker responded. "I believe one of the Cyborgs could absorb several magazines from something that underpowered without being seriously damaged."
That verified for Ray that Walker had something else at his disposal.
"And this thing could be programmed for whatever tasks these people have in mind?" Ray asked. "Could it be used for killing?"
"You don't program it," Walker explained patiently. "It is effectively a person, with the goals and motivations of the person that was implanted inside."
"So it would have the same goals as the person chosen?"
"That's right."
"Do you think they might have put their friend Dale Nesbitt in it? He was killed, and they don't have a body to re-clone him," Ray pointed out. He didn't know why he made the suggestion, but he didn't want Walker guessing that the Cyborg was being used to make another Rao.
"I hadn't considered that," Walker admitted.
"What exactly do you want from me?" Ray asked.
"You and Mark will work together. Find this Cyborg, and disable it before it can become a problem. Also, continue your efforts, completely unsuccessful to date, to find these people. My men will also be looking separately. Do you understand?"
"Not entirely," Ray replied. "I don't understand the agenda these people have, but agree they must be stopped. Can we make a public announcement? I know you said you don't want the extent of this facility revealed, but it might prevent a panic if this thing starts showing up. We could also use more eyes looking for these people."
Walker was shaking his head. "We already have an alert out for Rao and Harper. Add Sam Duncan to the list, but nothing on the Cyborg for now."
"What about this Jessica Anderson?"
"Let me deal with her," Walker said, and Ray could sense the hate in the man. Jessica had been right about Walker and had better hope he never got his hands on her.
"Where do we start?" Ray asked, when he and Mark climbed into the Security vehicle a short time later. He glanced out into the open spaces where the Ring was located, but didn't suggest anything. Ray was surprised at how much time had passed while he'd been in the Clinic with Walker. It was time for most residents to be heading to work.
"Walker believes they are somewhere in the storage district," Mark said. "They need someplace to hide the cars and to keep the Cyborg until it recovers. There are lots of deserted facilities there, and they have a history in that place."
