“Actually, I would prefer it,” Dani laughed as she headed for the car.
The sheriff stepped in front of them. “Ah, just so you know, you will not be walking up to the door. The property is five acres. All surrounded by a ten-foot wall. The driveway is gated. You need to hit the intercom to announce yourself.”
“Did you try to get in?”
“Yes. No one answered the intercom.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Just before you got here.”
“Damn. He’s onto us,” Jake said.
“We have to get into that house.”
Willy and Katie turned the corner toward the house. The walk from the train station didn’t take long, since Willy was almost running and pulling Katie with him.
When he saw Dani, Jake, and Wilson he quickly pulled her back around the corner.
“Hey, what are you doing? I thought you wanted to get into the house.”
“I do, but they’re here already. We’ll have to go around the back.”
“Didn’t you tell me that when you were trying to escape he caught you because you got stuck at the ten-foot wall? There was no way to get over it, so he caught up to you?”
“Yes.” He continued to pull her around the block toward the wall.
“If you couldn’t get out, how are we going to get in?”
“I was trying to get out. Maybe there is something on the outside that will help us get in.” He stopped for a moment. “I don’t know. We’re smart, we’ll figure it out.”
“If you say so,” Katie whispered.
“Katie, maybe you should go to Dani and Jake. I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ll take care of it.”
She grabbed his hand. “No. You need backup. I want to help.”
Willy gave her a quick kiss. “Okay, but promise you’ll stay close to me.”
“I promise. Let’s go get your friends.”
“Let’s go see if he’s had enough time to work out a plan. Maybe he’ll answer now.”
They pulled up to the gate. Jake hit the button on the intercom.
They had doubts that he would answer, but were surprised when the intercom beeped back. “Can I help you?”
“Lieutenant Castello and Detective Santos to see Dr. Oberman.”
“Dr. Oberman is not receiving guests today.”
“Of course he’s not,” Jake comment before hitting the button again. “We are not guests. We’re here on official business. We only have a few questions for him. The faster you let us in, the faster we can ask our questions and be gone.”
“I’m sorry, sir, I’ve been instructed to turn all visitors away. You’ll have to call to make an appointment with Dr. Oberman. Have a good day.”
Dani and Jake both stared as the light on the intercom went out.
“Any other ideas?” Jake asked.
As Dani turned back to the car her eye caught two figures running across the grounds toward the house. “Son of a bitch. They got in,” she yelled as she headed back to the sheriff and Wilson.
“They got in. We’re going after them. Sheriff, find a way in. I don’t care if you have to drive through those gates. Call it in as a breaking and entering.”
The sheriff nodded as he pulled out his phone. “I’m on it.”
Willy and Katie shouldn’t have been in there. Them breaking in now gave them reason to enter. Even without the owner’s permission.
He could only hope they could get through the gates before anyone was hurt.
Dani started around the wall. Jake and Wilson right behind her. They were only about fifty yards around the wall when Dani stopped.
“This wall is covered with cameras. He knows they’re in there,” she said.
“Wilson, cup your hands,” Jake ordered as he put his hands on his shoulders.
Wilson cupped his hands for Jake to step in. Jake jumped as Wilson lifted, throwing Jake up the wall. He sat on the top and reached down. Wilson cupped his hands for Dani. Jake grabbed her and slowly lowered her to the ground. He turned around to catch Wilson as he jumped up the wall and grabbed Jake’s arm. In less then a minute they were over the wall and heading toward the house.
Oberman saw Willy and someone else come over the wall. At first he froze in place. Willy was supposed to be dead. He had given him more than enough drugs to get the job done. After taking a moment to rub his eyes and ensure what he was seeing, he reacted.
He quickly went to his safe to retrieve his gun, money, and passport. As he headed down to the lab in the basement, he knew he should be getting the hell out of there—only there was no way he was going to let Willy survive. Willy has been nothing but trouble since the day he grabbed him. He was clearly the smartest of them all, but his attitude had Keith wishing he were on the kill list instead of the research list.
He’d had four geniuses in his lab for the last month and they were no further along with the research than he and his father had been. He knew where the other three were, but hadn’t had the opportunity to grab them. Since these four weren’t getting the job done, he decided that he may have to make it a priority. That is, once he disposed of Willy and his friend. And, of course, finished getting the cops off his tail.
He’d found four of the seven clones of these kids, but had only had a chance to get rid of three of them. If he didn’t get rid of all seven clones, everything his father had worked for would be for nothing. If they somehow found out that they are clones and that they were not equal in intelligence as their counterparts, all his father’s research would be suspect. To be a successful clone, the two subjects must be exact in every way. These seven pairs were not, but his father was sure that within the next three years he would be successful.
The research must continue. Mary Angela must live again.
But first, he had to get rid of all those damn mistakes.
Willy worked his way around the house with his back to the wall, his hand firmly held onto Katie’s to make sure she didn’t get away from him. He was looking for the window he had crawled through when he had broken out the other day.
“Here it is,” Willy said as he looked at the board covering the window. He was about to kick it in when Katie put her hand on his arm.
“Wait.” She pointed to the black box over the board. “I think that’s a camera. He probably knows we’re here.”
Willy looked at the box, Katie, and back to the box. “I don’t care if he knows. I have to get them out.”
He kicked in the board.
He stuck his head in to look around before sliding through the window. He grabbed Katie by the waist to help her down as she backed herself through the window.
“This is the boiler room.” He shook his head. “Can you believe it? The house still has a boiler room.”
He grabbed Katie’s hand as they moved around the water heater, toward the door. Putting his ear to the door to listen, he slowly turned the doorknob.
“Willy, are you sure you want to do this? He knows we’re here. He could try to kill you again…” She swallowed. “And me.”
“It will be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He pushed the door open. He tensed up when he heard the screech of the hinges. Putting his finger to his lips he motioned to Katie to follow him.
Katie was getting more and more nervous as they made their way to a door on the opposite end of the hallway.
“There are a million cameras here,” she whispered.
“I know. We have to step it up.” He tried the door, but it was locked. “Shit. It’s locked.”
“Is there another way in?”
“Yeah, but we’ll have to go through the house to get to it.”
He grabbed her hand, pulling her down another hall.
“They went in this way,” Jake said as he knelt down in front of the window.
“We’re going through the front door. Wilson, you stay here. Do not enter until I tell you or you hear something I pray you don’t hear.”
“Yes,
ma’am.”
The only other way into the lab from where they were was through the living room and kitchen. As they worked their way up the steps to the main level, Willy had no doubts they were going to run into Dr. Oberman. He stopped at every corner to scan each room before moving forward with Katie close behind. When he got to the spiral staircase behind the kitchen pantry he finally let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
After listening to what was happening in the lab, and for any possible chance that someone was sneaking up behind them, he headed down the steps.
Katie was in awe as she hit the bottom step. The lab was the size of the library at her college. There must have been over twenty desks around the room. Each desk had a computer with two monitors. There was a work desk next to each one and a surgical table next to each work desk. The equipment all looked state of the art. But most impressive was the far wall filled with textbooks from top to bottom. There must have been over ten thousand books on the shelves.
Melony, the youngest of the group at only fourteen, was the first to notice him. She jumped up from her microscope.
“Willy, you came back?” she yelled as she ran to him, almost knocking him down with her hug.
“I promised you I would.”
“I knew you would come back,” Kim said as she hugged him. “Are you okay?”
“Actually, I’m a little nauseous. We have to get out of here.” He scanned the room. “Where’s Leon?”
“We don’t know,” Kim answered. “Oberman pulled him out of the lab the day after you left. We haven’t seen him since.”
“Damn it.” He ran his fingers through his hair.
“It’s okay, Willy. We’ll find him.”
“Who are you?” Melony asked.
“This is Katie. Remember, I told you about her?”
“How can we forget? You never shut up about her,” Kim said with a smile.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Katie said. “But I think we need to get out of here.”
“Yeah, right. There is no time to look for Leon now. I’ll come back for him. Let’s get you out of here.”
“Well, well, well, the prodigal son returns,” Oberman said as he came through the door Willy and Katie originally tried.
Willy pushed the girls behind him, holding his arms out so they wouldn’t move around him. “I am not your son,” he said through clinched teeth.
“No, you’re not. But if it wasn’t for my father, you wouldn’t even exist.” He moved to the center of the room.
Willy took a few steps back pushing the girls up against the wall. “Where’s Leon!”
“He’s in the other lab working. Like all of you should be doing.”
“No, I should be in class now. We should be in class. But since you’re a sick son of a bitch, we are here. In the basement of a house doing research that you are too stupid to do.”
“You impossible little ingrate.” He took another step forward as he raised the gun.
The girls gasped and held onto Willy. “Willy, stop pissing him off. He has a gun,” Katie ordered.
Dani and Jake pounded on the front door until it was open.
“Where are they?” Jake yelled as he pushed the guy that opened the door back up against the wall.
“You can’t come in here. Dr. Oberman is not seeing anyone today.”
“He’s going to see us.” Dani walked past them with her gun raised as she checked the room to the left.
“Tell us where they are and get out of here.”
The man gasped. “I can’t just leave.”
“Trust me, you can and you will, or you will be arrested with your boss.”
With Jake’s hand pressed firmly to his chest he scanned the rooms around them. “In the basement,” he finally said. “Through the kitchen and down the steps.”
Jake removed his hand from the man’s chest and pushed him out the door. He caught up with Dani just as she started down the steps. While Dani continued around the spiral steps, Jake jumped over the railing after the first turn. He landed on his feet with his gun pointed at Dr. Oberman.
“Drop the gun!”
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Dani stepped in front of Willy, Katie and the girls. She pointed her gun at the doctor. “Drop your gun, now!”
Dr. Oberman looked from one to the other and raised his gun higher. “Get out of here now. They have work to do and they can’t be disturbed.”
Great. Just great, Dani thought. It seems Dr. Oberman has stepped over the edge.
She spoke to the kids over her shoulder. “Everyone get down. Stay together and don’t move.”
She took a step closer to Dr. Oberman. Which was still a considerable distance away considering the size of the room.
“Sir, you need to put the gun down,” she said.
“No, no.” He shook his head. “They have to work. They won’t work unless I make them.”
Jake tried to calm him down. “What are they working on, sir?”
“That’s highly classified. You do not have clearance. Now you have to leave. They have to get back to work.”
Dani took another step closer. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Wilson and the sheriff coming in through a back door. Jake moved a little closer and off to the left. They now had the doctor surrounded, but there was still about twenty feet between them all.
“Doctor, I’m going to need you to put your gun down. Once that’s done we’ll help you get them back to work.”
This guy is over the edge. There is no way he has any idea of how much trouble he is in. Or does he? Does someone really snap that quickly?
He looked around the room. When he saw Wilson, he flinched. It was obvious he hadn’t heard him come in.
“Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Wilson took a step forward and answered. “Though that door, sir. I’m looking for my friend, Katie.”
“Katie? Who the hell is Katie?”
“She’s my friend. She came into this house through the back window. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
“There is no Katie here. There’s a Melony and a Kim. Leon is in the other lab. And the troublemaker Willy, but no Katie.”
“Maybe I can talk to them. They might know where Katie is. If you could just put that gun down, I’ll talk to them and be out of here in a few minutes.”
“Nobody talks to them but me. They are working. I will not have them disturbed.”
“Working on what?” Jake asked. It would be great if they could get a confession out of him now with all these witnesses around to hear it.
Dr. Oberman waved his gun around as he wiped the sweat from his eyes with his other hand. “Look, if I tell you, will you leave so they can get back to work?”
“Yes, sir. I promise,” Jake answered.
“Fine.” He waved his gun again. “They are working on cloning. It has been my father’s life’s work since he lost his first child. A daughter named Mary Angela. She died when she was five years old. He loved her so much he was heartbroken. He decided he would make another Mary Angela. So he’s been working on cloning. He almost had the answer or he thought he did before he died.”
He waved his gun at the kids huddled under the steps.
“They are all part of his research. My dad helped their parents conceive them. He made a clone of each of them. He’s been watching them since their creation. He was so close to getting it right, but then he died. They are going to get it right. They are going to give my dad what he wanted most in this world, Mary Angela.”
Dani asked the next question. “Sir, how is scaring them with a gun going to get them to finish your research for you?”
“I wouldn’t have to scare them if they would just do as I say.” He pointed his gun at Willy. “That one. That troublemaker keeps interrupting them. He keeps stopping them from working. He’s been a pain in my ass since I grabbed him. I thought I killed him, but he came back to life.”
So he
admitted to attempted murder. Let’s see what else we can get him to admit to.
“What happens when they figure it out? What happens when they actually clone someone?”
“Well then, they can go, I guess. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Are these kids the only kids in your father’s experiment?”
“These are the good half. These four, and there are three more I haven’t had a chance to bring here yet. They’re the ones that my father helped create. Believe it or not, they are all geniuses. My father was very selective with the parents he took samples from. The parents are all in the top three percent in their field. All have high IQs and all are physically appealing to the eye.”
“What about the clones he created from their samples?”
“Those are the bad ones.”
“The bad ones?”
“It seems dad wasn’t as close as he thought. Everything was going great for about ten years or so. Then the doubles started to change. They started aging faster then their original. When the original was fourteen or fifteen, their clone was looking nineteen or twenty. The clones weren’t nearly as smart as the originals. Not dumb or mentally challenged, just normal. That’s not right. They have to be exactly the same. Mary Angela was very smart. My dad said she was reading at a fifth grade level at three years old.”
He smiled as he scanned the room again.
“Where are the clones? Shouldn’t they be here so you can run test on them?”
“I ran the test on them myself. All my findings are in my journal. There was no reason to keep them around after the test.”
Willy jumped up. “What do you mean no reason to keep them around? What did you do to them?”
Dani stepped in front of the gun as Katie pulled Willy back down. Looking around Dani, Dr. Oberman took a step closer to Willy. “I killed them. Well, three of them so far. I know where the others are, but I haven’t been able to get rid of them yet. But I will kill them. Just like I’m going to kill you, again.”
Waving the gun, he said, “Get out of my way, before I shoot you, too,” he ordered Dani.
Fatally Linked Page 34
