Clone Crisis: Book 1 in the Clone Crisis Trilogy

by Melissa Faye

  I needed someone else for this plan. Someone I could trust. It was someone I didn’t want to put in trouble, but someone who might be excused for her behavior because of her age.

  I arrived at Charlie’s place ten minutes later. Sitting at the kitchen table, as I requested, was Vonna.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Vonna’s eyes filled with tears when she saw me. I hugged her tightly, not wanting to let her go. I realized I had been terrified for her ever since I saw her with a can of spray paint running away from a bombing. I had shut her out of my life for fear of losing her. It was what I was best at. Now I knew that shutting her out only hurt more.

  “Vonna, I have a request for you, and it’s dangerous,” I said. “I need you to get caught.”

  “What?” Charlie said with a glare. “Yami, you can’t be serious. Vonna’s just a kid.”

  I looked at Vonna. “That’s why I think it has to be you. You could be forgiven instead of receiving the usual punishment. I don’t think they’d ever banish a student. And I’m not sure they’d put you through rehab either. But I do know, at the very least, that you’d have a one-on-one with Chancellor Lorenzo, like I did when I got back here. And it’ll be in his office.”

  Vonna looked at me with a puzzled expression. Charlie stood up and leaned against the wall behind me, grinding his teeth.

  “What would I need to do?” Vonna asked.

  “I think something with the Underground. Or something related to the Underground. Or you could admit to spray painting the F-Lab.”

  “That might be the best idea, actually,” said Charlie. “It was so long ago. Vonna could get a stern talking-to, but a smaller punishment.”

  “I can do it!” Vonna said with the enthusiasm I was so used to. “But – why do you want me to get in trouble?”

  “In the Chancellor’s office is a safe. I believe he has some dirt on the council members that helped him get elected. If even one piece of evidence is in that safe, and we find it, it could be enough to blackmail him not to chase after us when we escape with Etta and Breck.”

  “Vonna doesn’t know how to break into a safe, Yami,” said Charlie. “And how do you know she’ll have enough time to do it? And what if she doesn’t find anything?”

  I was convinced this would work. The Chancellor would want to keep evidence close by, in his office, in case one of the councilors pushed back. He wanted that evidence at his fingertips.

  “The Chancellor likes to make an entrance. He’ll make her wait. And while Vonna waits, she’ll find something,” I said. “I know it’s there. But we need to teach Vonna how to pick a lock. There’s a padlock as well as a space for a key in the safe. I’ve seen it. Vonna, before we go any further, are you sure you want to risk this?”

  She nodded. “I can do it. I want to help.”

  “Charlie, can you reach out to Omer? See who he knows who can pick a padlock and a keyhole?” Charlie shrugged.

  “I can do that. Vonna, I’ll let you know when I find someone.”

  I needed to get back to my room before someone realized I was breaking my curfew. “I’ll keep questioning councilors,” I said. “Thank you both. It’s all coming together, isn’t it?” Charlie winked at me.

  “Yes it is.”

  I MET WITH OMER AND Charlie on Wednesday evening as soon as my rehab session was over. My rehabilitation focus had moved directly to Chancellor Lorenzo. There was, what I presumed to be heavily-edited, a beautifully filmed video of his life story, starting with his humble start as a student invested in community service, completing hundreds more service hours than were expected of him. It outlined the work he did as a leadership intern, and then his election to his current role. It glossed over the voting process, of course. Apparently he created a fund where Gold citizens could donate some of their earnings to improve Bronze and Gray communities. I doubted that ever existed. Then it went on to talk about his work in growing our cloning lab, improving Young Woods’ recreational opportunities, and working with regional leaders to increase our budget and resources.

  Charlie and Omer were talking quickly with each other. They filled me in when I arrived. Omer had found a truck to get us from Young Woods to Matana’s camp. He had created a long list of sixty volunteers who would help on the evening of Breck and Etta’s escape, though they didn’t know exactly what they’d be doing. He had another group of people who may come as well. Omer had connected Vonna with a Gray mechanic who was teaching her to pick locks. We were hoping to have her trained and in the Chancellor’s office by the following week.

  “I haven’t been able to develop a relationship with Lucas,” Charlie said. “The man has been uninterested in talking to me every time I try. He doesn’t have patience for interns, or even for other doctors. He eats alone at his desk and avoids any unnecessary conversation.”

  “What’s next, then?” Omer asked. “What about the other two keyholders?”

  “Actually, I found a solution,” Charlie said, giving us a mischevious grin. He was holding back. “Yami, it turns out that Soo Yen has been sympathetic to our cause all along.”

  “What?” I said a little too loudly, drawing the attention of two students studying at a table across the room. I leaned in and talked more quietly. “How do you know?”

  “She saw me trying to talk with Lucas,” Charlie said. “She talked to me about having Lucas there working on the Special Patients, which is what everyone calls Etta and Breck. She didn’t seem happy about the extra security, so I pushed a little harder. She was honest; she doesn’t like what’s going on up there on the top floor. I didn’t have to push anymore, though. She knows what’s going on.”

  “How does she know?” Omer asked. He looked between myself and Charlie, as if wondering which of us had been talking loudly about secret information. “Who told her?”

  “She saw Etta the first time she came to the hospital,” I said. “She saw that we’re friends. When she asked us about the data breach, she didn’t seem angry. More like, kind of disappointed and worried. Like she didn’t want either of us to get in trouble, and like she was upset about what was going on.”

  “Exactly,” Charlie said. “She’s the lowest ranking doctor working up there, and she told me she wants to help them get out. She’s worried about Etta’s safety, but also about what this means for fertility. She doesn’t want the Chancellor to have control. He’s come to visit a few times, and his attitude worries her.”

  “So is she going to unlock the doors for us?” I was annoyed with Charlie. He was deliberately holding out on telling us the full story for his own amusement. He grinned again.

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s set a date. We’ll do this on Wednesday night.” I felt a sense of finality. This was really happening.

  I RECEIVED A MESSAGE from Vonna on Friday morning. “Good to go” she said.

  Omer had coached her on how to turn herself in for the vandalism work in the fertility building. Vonna impressed us with her ability to cry on command. She would go to the Chancellor’s mansion and give herself up to one of the guards, crying out of shame. She would deny having any information about who was to blame for the bombing herself. She would claim that everyone’s faces were always covered, including her own.

  Vonna went to see the Chancellor on Sunday afternoon. We had reviewed the plan again and again with her until she was too annoyed and refused to continue. I watched her walk away, wondering if she would succeed and worried that the evidence I was sure was there wouldn’t be.

  We waited. And waited. We were in one of the public parks and I chewed on my cuticles. Omer sat back on a bench with his arm on the back of the seat, tapping his closed TekCast uselessly. I sat back down. I got back up. Omer tried to remind me that Vonna was very capable and well practiced. I didn’t feel any better.

  Finally, Omer received a message from Vonna. It was a set of pictures. We leaned over his TekCast to look them over and zoomed in to study them in detail.

  The first picture was o
f a woman holding a sign that read “WHERE IS MY CLONE?” She stood in a crowd of other sign-holders, but her face was the only one in focus. I wasn’t sure who she was. Vonna had taken a picture of the back of the photograph. It read “G’s wife.” The Chancellor had evidence that someone’s wife was a part of the Underground.

  “I know her,” Omer said. “She was part of the Underground several years ago, then quit on us. I figured she was frustrated with our lack of action. Or too nervous about getting caught.”

  “Now we know,” I said.

  The next picture was of a bank statement. Most community members lived comfortably off their work salaries, which varied little within color assignments. The bank statement was written out to someone named Viola. The account had more money than I could ever expect a community member to have at once, even in Gold. It was as much as I would make in my entire career, if I hadn’t lost my job. It was enough for someone to afford a multi-family house on their own, along with the fanciest, newest technological features. The Chancellor had evidence that someone had stolen money from the bank.

  Each image in the set painted another picture of the Chancellor’s evidence against council members. We pulled up a list of the current council members, and found five members who Lorenzo had evidence against. Vonna had done it.

  I couldn’t stop smiling. We had everything we needed to escape for good.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I waited to hear back from Vonna. We weren’t sure what would happen to her once she confessed. I imagined her being caught taking pictures of the contents of the Chancellor’s safe. We didn’t hear anything from her for the rest of the day. Charlie went with me to check her room, but it was empty. No one had seen her all day. I suspected as much; she would have messaged as soon as she got away.

  I couldn’t sleep. I was excited and terrified to go through with our plan in only a few days. And I didn’t know if and when I would see Vonna again. What she had done was immeasurably brave and incredibly dangerous; I couldn’t ease my guilt over putting her in the situation. I knew she was somewhere in the Chancellor’s Mansion, where I was sleeping, but had no way to get to her.

  Rehab went by slowly over the next few days. I checked my TekCast on every break. No word from Vonna. Charlie, Omer, and I had decided to limit messaging until Wednesday. The plan was ready and there was no reason to leave any more digital evidence on our TekCasts. Omer had someone print hard copies of the Chancellor’s pictures, and we deleted the digital copies. Charlie had gone through our TekCasts on Sunday to try to erase any traces of them.

  I heard nothing from Vonna on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. We were going to sneak into the Med that night, and I wished I had Vonna with us. I wanted to believe she could take care of herself, whether she was in rehab or banished. Charlie kept reassuring me. He had started holding my hand when I felt nervous or guilty, and every time he did it, my heart rate dropped.

  IN THE DARKNESS OF the night, I stood a half-block away from the Med as look-out. Omer was adamant that I not enter the building myself, given my history. The only light came from a few streetlights that shined over the empty streets. I crouched down in the shadow of a group of trees with fresh leaves that provided a perfect canopy.

  The silence was broken by footsteps. First a few, then many more, as people started walking towards the Med from every direction. I watched their faces glowing in the dark as they marched together. Omer had estimated that we’d have around sixty people, but this was more like a hundred.

  The first few people arrived at the Med and walked into the lobby. Two people stepped aside to hold the doors open for others. I tried to count them as they went inside, but lost track quickly.

  The noise swelled as footsteps scuffed against marble-floored entryway. When people saw how many others were there, they started talking to one another. There was cheering and yelling as if it was a parade.

  The plan was for the group to meet in the lobby, then climb the north stairwell until they arrived at the top, where Soo Yen would unlock the hallway door. I couldn’t tell where the crowd was anymore. The two doorholders were inside now, too, and I held my breath, hoping to hear the group. There was no way to tell where the swarm was in the building. I imagined how many of them were heading up the steps.

  In the returning silence, I heard one last pair of footsteps behind me. This person didn’t continue along the road, but walked straight towards me in the grass. He tapped me on the shoulder, and I swung around. It was Chancellor Lorenzo.

  “Are you sure this is what you should be doing, Yami?” he asked in that infuriatingly calm tone. “Is this the best for everyone?”

  “I have information on you,” I said quickly. The words spilled out incoherently at first until I could calm my breathing. “I have information about the people you blackmailed. We all know. There are digital copies and print outs. When we leave here, you won’t follow us.”

  The Chancellor laughed. “That does ease my regret at banishing your underage mentee. You put her up to all of this, correct? It’s a shame she’s out in the wilderness now, with no one helping her and no supplies. Do you think she’ll find somewhere to stay?”

  I swore under my breath. I had been certain he wouldn’t do this. I clenched my fists so tightly they shook.

  “Really, Yami, I thought you knew better than all of this,” the Chancellor continued. “The research we’re doing on your pregnant friend is critical to the community. The world, even. The doctors are trying to determine how exactly she became pregnant. Was it her, or her boyfriend who enabled it to happen? These are things we need to find out.”

  “At the expense of their lives?” I said, glaring at that face. “If my friend dies, or the baby dies, do you even care?”

  “What’s one life compared to the future of humanity?” the Chancellor said. I sneered. “I would hate, of course, for your friend or her child to be hurt. But we cannot wait any longer to solve this crisis. Not with your other friends killing innocent community members in the name of...what is it? Free will? As if any of us are lacking in free will.”

  “Of course we are!” I yelled. “I didn’t elect you! I never would have chosen for us to end fertility research. What you’re doing is wrong, and you need to be stopped.”

  “Or you could look at it a different way,” the Chancellor said. “I could reinstate you in medicine. Guarantee you a few promotions. Eventually you’d be chief. And every clone that comes after you would continue the same way. You’d be guaranteeing yourself immortal prestige and wealth.”

  I snorted. “My clones aren’t me. And none of them would look kindly on extortion. No, I’m taking my friends and leaving.”

  “Do you expect any of this to stop me?” The Chancellor waved his hands out in front of him. “Is stealing away your friend going to stop me from the work that I do? You may have me...shall we say, trapped. For now. But once I sort out the information you may or may not have, I will be coming for you.”

  I didn’t speak. I listened for footsteps. Hopefully the team had gotten and Etta and Breck out by now.

  “I want access to that child, Yami. You can give it to me. You could put an end to all of this nonsense. Leave Etta and Breck and their child with me, and you can go free. Go wherever you want. But stay out of my work looking after the wellbeing of innocent citizens.”

  “I would never do that,” I said. “Really, I thought you were smarter than this. I thought you would always be three steps ahead of us. But now you’re begging me to give you what you want. It’s not happening.”

  The Chancellor stepped forward, closing the space between us. I eyed his every move, his every twitch. He was a cat about to pounce, and I would be ready. There was a silence between us as the Chancellor’s eyes swept across my face. I breathed a sigh of relief as he inched backwards again.

  “Very well,” he said. “You and your friends can leave here. But this isn’t the last time we see each other, Yami. I will get what I want.”

 
“You do that,” I said. I turned away, looking back at the building. I saw a few people milling about; it was probably too crowded for all of them to have gotten to the top floor. When I turned back to Lorenzo, he was gone, blended back into the dark night.

  MY ONLY OTHER JOB WHILE I was waiting was to continue reaching out to Matana. She had only responded with curt, noncommittal responses so far, but I continued updating her on our progress. I apologized again and again, but no response. I had to think she would let us join the camp again once we arrived. Omer said we could even keep the truck. It would be a peace offering.

  “Getting them out right now,” I messaged.

  “Please forgive us,” I messaged.

  “I’m so sorry. We need you,” I messaged.

  “I know,” came the only reply.

  I waited some more. I had no idea how long this would take. Omer had assured me that no one would be hurt, but with so many people and a dozen unknown variables, anything could happen. I tried messaging Vonna again. No response. Maybe the Chancellor had taken her TekCast. Maybe she couldn’t find water and after three days...I squeezed my eyes shut and blocked that thought.

  A surge of noise broke the silence, and I watched the mass of people exiting the building. I stood on my tiptoes, looking for anyone I knew. The group was animated; they were hand shakes and high fives. There was safety in numbers, like Omer had pointed out. It would be hard to banish a hundred volunteers for going into a building. Many wore baseball caps or masks, and faces I could see were grinning ear to ear. I finally understood what Omer and Breck had tried to tell me. The people wanted change.

  Finally, I saw them. Charlie waved at me. He was holding up Breck, like last time, although he looked to be in much better shape already. Gianna was holding Etta’s hand. I hadn’t seen her in over a month and gaped at her belly. She was eight months pregnant now.