Christ Clone

by McLeod, David

  As he ushered them out, one of the men whispered into the doctor's ear, 'It'll soon be time to give him to us, Doc.' He smirked as he said it.

  Viktor knew what that meant.

  The session the next day went a little deeper into the dream, and the Fab Four started to fire their questions at Aloysha one after another — the moment one of them stopped, the next one would begin. It was exhausting. Viktor knew what they were up to, and after the meeting he complained to the colonel.

  The colonel was flippant. 'They're the professionals at this game, not you.'

  The next day, Viktor could see that Aloysha looked drained even before they started. He recommended they give the boy a day to recover. The four of them rejected the request and set upon Aloysha, firing questions one after another. It was hard enough for Viktor to follow, let alone a frightened youngster.

  In a last-ditch attempt to give Aloysha some rest, Viktor begged another favour from Dr Poskov — either to join him in a meeting with the colonel or to go and meet with him himself. The doctor said the best he could do was to meet with the boy, and assess him to see if he was under any undue stress. All this actually achieved was to get the boy involved in another intense meeting — and put him under even more stress.

  24

  LOS ANGELES

  In essence, the project was very simple. In an attempt to bring more people through the door, the church decided to create posters and mailers to distribute around the neighbourhood. As part of this, they felt the need to upgrade their image and get more into the here and now. This was where Malone came in. He'd used his contacts to get the appointment, and after a bit of manipulation and persuasion, he landed the contract. As he left the meeting, he started to wonder why he'd bothered, it wasn't going to be a high-paying account, more of a donation of time and effort, but then again it was only Daniel's time and effort.

  Over the past few months, Daniel had picked up several lucrative accounts; he could afford to do a couple of cheapies. Malone figured it would be good for the boy's soul.

  Malone had passed on the information from the meeting and Daniel thought he had a fair grasp of what they wanted. Standing in front of the whiteboard with a marker in his hand, Daniel began to brainstorm the design. He decided to mutate holy relics and somehow make them modern. With his marker pen he started to bullet the ideas as they came to him. His first thoughts were of the cross and the crucifixion, so he immediately made a note of them on the board. The cross was an obvious one, but what did that have in common with South Central where the church was located? Because this was Los Angeles and angels were significant, he put this on the board. But then he decided that angels had no place in South Central, so he quickly erased it.

  But the notion of South Central stuck with him. South and to the centre on a cross would be Christ's nailed feet. What can I do with the nail? Nail went on the board. Christ's death has a meaning, a point. The nail has a point, and I like the connection. What else can I use? he wondered. More points, he thought. The thorny crown — that has lots of points. He laughed as he added it to his list. For some reason, the crown made him think of halos and this in turn led him back to thinking about angels: angels protect . . . they guard . . . ah, what about the Roman guards and their weapons? Swords and spears . . . Can I somehow get the spear and the nail joined to form an emblem? He lowered the marker and stood back from the board. Five things stood out: the cross, the crown, the nail, the sword and the spear. It's a good start, but I need more.

  He decided to use the internet to check out some other designs, and generally trawl for additional inspiration. What he uncovered was more than just inspiration.

  Malone arrived home late. He'd been at the Missing Person's Office all day and was depressed. The endless stream of calls from distressed people was starting to get him down. They ranged from the terse, almost aggressive calls from the parents of recently missing kids, to the dejected calls from people who shared Malone's long-term plight.

  The thing that had really depressed Malone that day, however, was the young couple who came in to help out. Their son had been abducted over eight years ago, and there was still no sign of his return. Malone spent some time with them over coffee, and they were an inspiration. They'd never given up hope, and they loved each other more than ever. He was desperate to learn more about their story, but as he questioned them their replies depressed him even further. How could they have kept it together so well? And in complete contrast, how could he have lost it so badly? That they had each other was the only thing he could come up with to console himself. He even decided to skip his weekly visit to the Salinas' house. He really couldn't face another loving couple today, and he definitely didn't want his theory confirmed.

  Spotting the light coming from under Daniel's office door, Malone went straight to the kitchen. He was impressed that Daniel was working so hard, and decided not to disturb him. He went to the refrigerator, pulled open the door, and leaned on it as he peered inside. The boxes of half-eaten Chinese food did nothing to whet his appetite so he pulled open the freezer door as well.

  'You're finally home!'

  Startled, Malone swung around to see Daniel in front of him, wide-eyed and clearly eager to share something. 'Wow. Sorry, you gave me quite a fright.' Malone said as he relaxed his clenched fists.

  'Don't worry about that. Quickly, come with me.' Daniel led him to the office and sat him down. 'Look, I don't want to open old wounds, but something's come up that I think you should see.' He described his thought process on the church motif design, and how he'd arrived at what he was about to unveil.

  'I was thinking about the South Central job, and came up with these core things to incorporate,' he said, pointing at the whiteboard. 'I wanted to see if there were any other designs that included these items, so I thought I'd have a quick scan on the Web.' He knew he was starting to lose Malone, but decided to carry on regardless, 'I typed the five items into a search engine and among the results these CNN news blogs came up.' Daniel had turned to the computer and he brought up the pages.

  Malone was confused. 'What are you talking about Daniel?' Malone was tired and Daniel wasn't making any sense.

  'Just bear with me; look at this.'

  Malone moved towards the screen.

  'There are apparently a few things from the crucifixion two thousand years ago that are still around today.'

  Malone nodded. 'Myths, urban legends, and revenue-generating fakes,' he muttered.

  Daniel looked at him enquiringly, but continued. 'It seems that a nail, a spear, and a piece of the cross, to name a few, are dotted around the world. Anyway, according to this reporter, Alex Cornwell, about six months ago they all disappeared. As I said, the information is brief, unnamed sources, no comments from the Church, etc., certainly not enough to make headline news . . . But it's not just those things. Apparently the Turin shroud went missing too, but no one, not even this reporter, seems to know when that happened.' Daniel took a breath. 'Like I said though, most of them seem to have disappeared around the same time that Mary Salinas went missing.'

  Malone started to see where this was going.

  'I sort of got carried away and spread my search for missing Marys wider than just California or America. There have been thousands. So I narrowed it down to just a few weeks before Mary Salinas and a few weeks after. This brought it down to only a couple of hundred.'

  'Only a couple of hundred . . .' Malone muttered.

  Daniel ignored him and continued, 'One of the most interesting of these was a report of a bungled attempt to kidnap a Mary in Berlin, Germany. The article was in German so I had to use a website to translate it but it says she was abducted and taken to a deserted housing estate, but she managed to escape. Her story was in the papers again a few weeks later — because another girl named Mary Krieger went missing in the same city. The police investigated of course, and it seems there were quite a few similarities between the two crimes.'

  Malone's interest had been pique
d. 'What happened, did they link the two cases?'

  'I don't know yet. I haven't managed to find a follow-up story.'

  Malone looked cheated.

  'Do you have any idea how much work has gone into finding out this much?' Daniel was starting to look annoyed, but paused for a moment before saying, 'It could be a wild goose chase, but it all seems a bit too coincidental.'

  He took a deep breath and added, 'I think your daughter's abduction could have some kind of religious connotation.'

  Hesitantly, Malone considered the information. Hadn't they all gotten over this? All the leads had gone nowhere, and his life had moved on. He was happy now with the way things were. His daughter had gone, Mary Salinas had gone, and those — as harsh as they were to handle — were the facts. He'd come to terms with it, hadn't he? He turned from the screen and looked at Daniel.

  Daniel's face was bright and excited, and his eyes flashed between Malone and the screen.

  All of a sudden, Malone realized he'd started to become as pessimistic as Detective Logan. Have I really given up? he thought.

  Malone let the information sink in for a moment longer. What Daniel had uncovered had some merit, but certainly not enough to take it to the police, and probably not enough for him to do anything with either. Missing artefacts and some missing Marys — one of whom was in Germany . . .

  'Well this is a bolt out of the blue,' Malone said as he struggled with the information.

  Daniel looked apologetic. 'I know I should have just left it alone, but . . .'

  'It's okay Daniel, really it is. I'm just a little confused at the moment. You seem to have discovered something, and to be honest, right now I'm not sure what you've got. I think we need to explore this further if we don't want to look like idiots. See if you can come up with a follow-up story to the abductions, and I'll make a few calls to see if I can get any inside information on the stolen artefacts. I think you're right though — it does look like another wild goose chase, so don't waste too much time on it. Right now, I'm tired and hungry. Do you want anything?'

  Daniel was already back at the computer. 'No, I'm fine,' he said, his back to Malone.

  Malone watched him for a while. The boy's shoulders had dropped and he looked slightly deflated. The last thing Malone needed right now was a sulky friction between them, so he was happy not to take the conversation any further tonight. Returning to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich, he loaded some bread with ham, cheese, and tomato, picked up some hot mustard, and went to seek the sanctuary of his recliner chair and the TV. He flicked around the channels until he found an easy-to-follow sitcom, kicked off his shoes and started to graze.

  'Malone! Quick, come here!'

  Malone awoke with a start; he was disoriented and he squeezed his eyes closed in an attempt to reorganize his mind.

  'Malone, what are you doing? Come here!' Daniel was summoning him from the office, and Malone obeyed. As he went into the office he looked at the clock to check the time: 1.45 a.m. Malone guessed he must have been asleep for a couple of hours.

  Daniel seemed excited as he turned to Malone. 'Okay, following on from my thoughts about the religious connection, I started checking to see what else was going on out there. I found a follow-up news article in Germany, and it seems that since no other girl, or boy for that matter, had been abducted in the same manner, the police weren't looking for a serial attacker. So they decided these were isolated cases and would investigate them as such. Unfortunately, the second Mary has still not been found.'

  Malone nodded gently.

  'So I reverted to a basic search through Google.' Daniel was talking faster now.

  'What's that?' Malone asked.

  'Don't worry, it's a search engine. I typed in 'religious' and then the missing artefacts. As I scrolled down, the name Mary obviously came up, but look at this page.' Daniel had been typing as he spoke, retracing his footsteps as it were, so that Malone could follow. A new page flashed up onto the screen. 'A conspiracy theorist thought someone was trying to clone Jesus.' Daniel tapped the screen. 'I thought it was a joke, but look at all the people who have added information to this site.'

  Daniel scrolled down. There were chat room headlines listed in chronological order, the most recent first.

  Malone registered the titles as they flew past:

  Aliens work among us

  The Apocalypse

  Missing artefacts

  Second Coming

  You're all Mad

  Missing Virgins

  . . . the list went on and on.

  'I've read through most of these, and believe me, there are some very strange people out there. Some of them have far too much time on their hands. But there are a few gems here.'

  'For instance?' Malone looked sceptical.

  'Most of it is very circumstantial, but there are only a few places in the world that would have the capacity to do this sort of cloning. Germany is one of them — Russia and China of course — and also there are a couple of places here in California. The science needed is way over my head, but apparently it's possible. I was on a chat room for over an hour and . . .

  'A chat what?'

  'A chat room. It's a place on some websites where . . . Don't worry about it. I was talking to a couple of guys and they think that, in places like Moscow, they're doing human cloning and they'd have the capacity to do this sort of thing. Most of the guys on this website have gone to the authorities at some point, but they just get put in the crazies file.'

  'Can't say as I blame them,' Malone muttered. 'You woke me up to tell me my daughter has been abducted for a cloning experiment in Russia? Surely you can't believe that even I . . .'

  It was Daniel's turn to interrupt. 'Just listen to me for one more minute. It seems there was a whisper among the group that someone was trying to set this all up, there was supposed to be a sort of spam e-mail that went around the industry. Most people considered it a hoax, thinking someone was trying to set them up, so they deleted it. But one of my new buddies — and I'm really pleased he's on the other side of the Atlantic — has managed to get me a copy of the e-mail letter. I've just read it and I think you should read it too.'

  Daniel opened the e-mail and, reluctantly, Malone read it.

  'So, I take it you've already been to the site.' Malone was still not convinced, but his negativity was starting to erode.

  'I sure have. Take a look at this.' Daniel double-clicked his mouse and a website appeared.

  Malone scanned the page with his mouth open. He clicked through to the different sub-pages, explored it as thoroughly as he could and then turned to Daniel. 'This is astounding. What type of sick bastard would want to do this sort of thing?'

  Daniel just nodded. 'There's one more thing. I've checked with the dot com registry; the page we're looking at is registered to a lawyer here in LA. I think you need to speak to him and find out what sort of sick bastard he really is.'

  25

  MOSCOW

  It had been a hell of a day and he needed to unwind. The clone had continued to relive some of his tales of Sunnyland, and piece by piece they were starting to build a picture of his early childhood. Dr Borgoff had continued to get in their way, saying the clone's health was at risk if they carried on interrogating him so vigorously. Because of this, the four of them had decided to exclude Borgoff from the sessions as soon as possible, and that looked likely to be in the next few days.

  Although they were all beeped simultaneously, he was the first of the interrogation team to receive the page and could just as easily have missed it. The best place he could find to relieve his tension this early in the week, and this late at night, was a sleazy strip bar in the heart of the city. The girls were slightly below average, the place needed to be cleaned or fumigated, and the vodka was diluted. But still, the music was loud, and the entertainment helped him lose himself for a while. It was lucky that he had added the vibration function to his pager.

  Across town, another team member was awake
. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looked over at the alarm clock — two a.m. Her pulse had started to slow after the beeper startled her from her slumber, and the sick feeling in her stomach had begun to ease. She felt sick after being awakened at such an early hour, and sick at the information delivered to her down the phone line. She flicked on her bedroom light, and dashed around her room finding clothes to throw on.

  A harsh dig in the ribs from his wife awakened the third member of the interrogation team. He'd slept through the alarm, but apparently she hadn't.

  The fourth member of the team was in his own study going over the day's notes again; the clone's stories were fascinating. A small handheld recorder lay on the desk and with only one of the headphones in his ear he played the conversation over and over. He was listening for changes in tone and subtle inaccuracies. He knew that what is said during an interrogation is usually less important than the subject's body language. That was where the truth normally lay. It was his job to find and note any inconsistencies.

  In front of him, the TV/DVD combo unit was in its pause state while the interrogator studied the clone's face. Is this truly the face of the Son of God? he wondered. In all his years with the KGB, and even in the years since, who the person was had always been irrelevant to him; it was what they knew that he had to focus on. But this case was significantly different. The implications of the clone being the Son of God — if that were the case — were too great, even for him, to simply ignore.

  The high-pitched beep shocked his mind out of its drift, and he picked up the black unit. He made a mental note to turn down the volume on his pager.

  What do they want now? he wondered when he saw his work number on the green screen. Tapping the number into the phone, he gave the back of his neck a squeeze, releasing some of the tension.

  'He's what?' he yelled. 'I'll be right there!'

  The team members arrived in the briefing room at almost the same time, and the colonel wondered if they'd been together somewhere. It didn't matter right now, but it was something he would look into at a later date.