“I’ve never been to a theme park before. Mother was always too busy to take me.”
“Then it should be fun.”
Later that night Shelby and Scarlet went down to dine with Jordan Jeffries and his fellow guests in the main reception room on the third floor. At the entrance to the room was a magnificent thirty-foot statue of a green dragon that stood in their way. As they walked around the statue and into the main reception room, they began to appreciate the size of the reception room. It was a large three-storey high semi-circular room with a glass window surrounding the outside of the building giving a breath-taking view of the park.
When they arrived, Jordan Jeffries and Sirena greeted them and introduced them to Mitch Hathaway and Meg Rawlings, the two film stars, and to Doctor Friezel and Doctor Thexly from Sirena’s company, MediClone. Shelby and Scarlet chatted politely with the group over cocktails until dinner.
At dinner, Shelby sat between Sirena and Meg Rawlings while Scarlet sat between Jordan Jeffries and Mitch Hathaway.
“Welcome everyone,” said Jordan Jeffries. “I’m not going to make a speech, but I need to explain what will happen tomorrow when we start. You will be my guests in the park tomorrow.” He turned and pointed behind him to the panoramic view of the park through the huge semi-circular window.
“Isn’t it fantastic? There are four parks: Water World, Fantasy World, Space World and Celebrity World and in the middle is the famous Dragon Mountain. And there are only four of you: one guest for each park, which is more than enough for you to play out your wildest fantasies.”
“Do we choose our fantasies?” said Meg Rawlings.
“In a way you have done so already. The dream scan identified your hidden desires and in your case, Meg… your darker sexual secrets,” said Jordan Jeffries, chuckling to himself. “Only joking, Meg… Doctor Friezel, our resident psychologist with MediClone, will discuss your fantasies with each of you. Have no fear; she will put your mind at rest. You will enjoy your fantasy and she will help you prepare for it.”
“Is it safe?” said Scarlet.
“Absolutely. I need to explain. It won’t be you physically in the park. You’ll be in our laboratory with your mind linked to your android replicant and monitored at all times by our technicians. But you’ll feel everything your replicant feels. It will feel like the most lucid dream you have ever had. The droids are programmed to believe they are the characters they portray, and they will act within their character. That means some of them can be violent. Of course, if your replicant is hurt, you will not suffer any physical damage, but you will feel the same pain as your replicant feels. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t enjoy the adrenalin rush. So, while we’ve done everything we can do to protect you, you may experience pain as well as joy.”
“But what if the replicant is killed?” said Megan.
“There’s a failsafe: you’ll simply come out of your dream experience. It's called premature ejection.” He laughed at his own joke.
“But if it’s just a bunch of androids, how is it going to seem real,” said Mitch Hathaway. “Isn’t it like a movie — fake?”
“Ah, that’s a good point. Before you go into your deep REM sleep, we'll give you a drug that heightens your intuitive senses. We call it dream juice. I can’t explain how it works, but you’ll think everything is real and you’ll act in much the same way as you would act in a dream. Have you ever been in a dream, and thought ‘why am I doings this?’, but you do it anyway. It’s because in real life your logical brain interferes with your emotional responses. Dreams are like a rollercoaster of unrestricted desires and emotions. And that’s the response we want to simulate with the dream juice.”
“None of this is recorded?” said Meg.
“Oh yes, every second will be recorded. But only you will have the recording to play back for your own amusement.”
“What about the droids? Can we damage them?”
“Do what you want with them. You can be as depraved as you like if that is what your fantasy is about. You can’t hurt anyone, they’re all androids.”
“So anything goes,” said Meg. “Perhaps it will help me get into character for my new film.”
“I presume it’s another porn movie,” said Mitch.
“Now, now, no need to be bitchy,” said Sirena.
“Confessions of a Porn Star was a serious movie about the porn industry's contribution to modern culture and sexual liberation. It wasn’t a porn movie. At least when I do a nude scene, I don’t use silicone prosthetics,” said Meg.
“What do you mean?” said Sirena.
“Didn’t you know? He used a prosthetic in his last movie because his weeny was too small.”
“But it looked so real,” said Sirena.
“I remember the movie now,” said Scarlet. “The guy had an enormous…”
“Fake,” said Meg.
“Whoa, time out you two. Relax,” said Jordan Jeffries. “I see there’s some professional rivalry here. There’s no need. Everyone has their own fantasy dream to act out.”
Sirena leaned towards Shelby and whispered. “They have history together and I don’t mean on set.”
“So what is your interest here?” said Shelby to Sirena.
“AndroDigm appointed my company, MediClone Research, to be the sole provider of all medical services to their guests. Dr Friezel and Dr Thexly work for me. I have medical labs and research facilities here.”
“What type of services are you talking about?”
“Everything you need. You want a heart transplant — easy we can provide a heart to match your genes here. Want children, but not yet: you can deposit your sperm or eggs today for later use. Have hereditary genetic problems: no problem we can alter your genes. Want a baby with particular characteristics: no problem — blue eyes, 150 IQ, whatever you want. We have the biggest and best gene-sequencing computer in the world here. Under our contract with AndroDigm, we provide lifetime care to their customers. We’re not cheap. But neither is AndroDigm, who pay us.”
“You’ll be getting a sample of what we can do tomorrow,” said Dr Thexly. “You’ll receive the most intensive medical examination you’ve ever experienced. We are here to serve.”
“Psychological problems too,” said Doctor Friezel. “We learn a lot about you from your dreams and can help you to ensure you enjoy your life to the full.”
“And it’s lifetime cover. You need never think of medical costs again,” said Sirena.
The night dragged on. Shelby made polite conversation with Sirena and Meg to pass the time. But he was more interested in watching Scarlet flirt with Mitch Hathaway. Why shouldn’t she flirt? He was one of the best-known actors in Tinseltown and his movies grossed hundreds of millions of credits. But that didn’t stop Shelby feeling jealous. He was so focused on Scarlet he failed to notice the hand under the table stroking his inner thigh.
He turned towards Meg and she smiled at him. She leaned towards his ear and whispered, “Room 1003.” He smiled back. Then he wondered what he might have agreed to.
The dinner party broke up after midnight. Jordan said goodnight to everyone and left. Sirena had drunk too much and Doctor Friezel, who had been drinking juice for most of the evening, said she would take Sirena to her room. She helped Sirena to her feet and steered her towards the elevator.
Shelby noticed Sirena’s security badge on the floor. It must have fallen out of her bag. He picked it up and turned to speak to her, but the elevator door had already closed.
Meg left the table. She smiled at him and mouthed the numbers, “1-0-0-3,” before heading for the elevator.
Scarlet was still talking to Mitch, which left Shelby with Doctor Thexly. They had barely said a word to each other during the evening, but Doctor Thexly came up to him.
“Left on your own,” she said. “Would you like a nightcap? We could go to my room.”
Two proposals in less than a minute. Shelby didn’t know what to say, so he shook his head. It wasn’t as though he
found Doctor Thexly unattractive. She was young, fit and desirable. But she wasn’t Scarlet. He glanced over to Scarlet. She was still talking to Mitch. Shelby let out a sigh and headed to the elevator. As the doors opened, he turned around to look.
“Wait for me,” said Scarlet.
He held the elevator door for her until she got in. She was smiling — no doubt because she had consumed a generous amount of wine.
“The cheek of it,” she said, giggling. “He wanted me to help him out rehearsing for his new movie — the bedroom scene. The creep. He may be a movie star, but he’s not getting into my pants.”
“I’m pleased to hear it.”
“That is, if I was wearing any,” she said with a wicked smile on her face. “How was your night?”
“You know me. I’m not the best conversationalist in the world. I probably bored Meg and Sirena to tears.”
“I thought Meg was hitting on you.”
“You noticed?”
“It was hard not to. She has a reputation for going after older men.”
“Well, as it happens, she gave me her room number.”
“You’re not thinking of…”
“No. I already have a bed partner tonight.”
He was flirting with her and she responded with a mischievous smile. “Me too.”
Shelby noticed the elevator had a security card swipe. He stopped the elevator for a second and swiped Sirena’s card through the swipe. The elevator started to go down.
“What are you doing?” said Scarlet.
“Are you up for a bit of midnight exploration?”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Everyone is heading to bed. We might not get another chance to have a look around. This is Sirena’s card.”
The elevator kept on heading down until it reached level minus three. The doors opened.
* * *
Level minus three was a large dimly lit area. A couple of dozen glass tubular units were suspended from the ceiling in a line at regular intervals. Each glass unit had its own interior lighting. Most of the units were empty, but four of the units contained a naked body: two females and two males.
Scarlet took a deep intake of breath. “Are those bodies alive?”
They looked inside the nearest tubular unit. A range of tubes and wires and sensors were attached to the body and a display screen at the base of the unit showed the medical performance of the body.
“Look at the readouts — this is no morgue. They’re all young healthy teenagers. There’s no old bodies here at all. I think they’re clones,” said Shelby.
“Why do you say that?”
“This one bears an uncanny resemblance to Jordan Jeffries, or at least a fifteen-year-old version of him.”
“And this one looks like Sirena.”
Shelby sensed danger. They were in a hidden laboratory with four clones at midnight. Someone must be monitoring the clone bodies, if not from that room, from some other point.
Shelby looked around for cameras and other security features, but saw none.
“We need to be careful,” said Shelby. “Keep in the shadows if you can.”
He saw a tiny red light across the room moving in their direction. He guessed it was a droid.
He pulled Scarlet back into the shadows.
“Keep still,” he said.
The droid glided past them and down to the other end of the room before it returned to its storage cabinet.
“We need to get away now,” he whispered in her ear.
“Wait.”
Scarlet had seen something. She stared into the glass tube holding the body of a young girl.
Shelby moved alongside her and looked into the glass.
“It looks like Organa,” said Scarlet, her eyes were wide open.
“We need to go now,” said Shelby.
“What about the last one?”
It was a young boy who must have been about five years old.
“I’ve seen him before,” said Scarlet. “I just can’t place him.”
“We’ve got to get out of here.”
Slowly they found their way back to the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. The doors closed. For now, they were safe. The elevator moved upwards, not stopping at any of the floors and Shelby and Scarlet left the elevator on the top floor.
Shelby took Scarlet to their room and let her in.
“They’ve cloned Sirena and Organa,” she said in a daze.
“Snap out of it,” he said. “We can’t let them know we’ve seen that place. I need to return, Sirena’s card.”
Scarlet shook her head. “Is what they are doing legal?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. Human cloning research and medical uses was legalised in 2050, but what constitutes ‘research’ and ‘medical use’? I don’t know.”
“You better take Sirena’s card back.”
He left the room, went to Sirena’s door, and squatted down. Resting the card on the marble floor, he flicked it with his nail under the door. On the smooth floor, it must have travelled a few feet inside her room. With luck, she will think she had dropped the card when getting undressed.
Shelby stood up, just as the door to 1003 opened. Standing in the doorway was Meg Rawlings wearing a see-through negligee that left nothing to his imagination.
“I don’t believe it. You chose Sirena over me…”
Shelby shrugged his shoulders. “She’s more mature and great in bed. What can I say? I can fit you in now if you like?” he said.
Meg Rawlings slammed her room door shut.
“Guess that’s a ‘no’ then,” said Shelby to himself.
He returned to his room. Scarlet was already in bed waiting for him.
“What kept you?” said Scarlet.
“Just a little misunderstanding.” He explained his encounter with Meg Rawlings.
Scarlet chuckled with laughter. “So you’re quite the stud. Two ladies after you and you’re in my bed now.”
“Well, you seemed to be getting on with Mitch. Weren’t you tempted?”
“Absolutely not. Film star or not he was just like all the other men I’ve known: just after one thing. Are all men like that?”
“Sometimes. But some of us grow up.”
“Weren’t you tempted, just a little by Meg?”
“No. I would rather be here, with you.”
“Now you’re teasing me,” she said laughing. “Don’t think for a moment, you’re going to get your wicked way with me tonight.”
He was enjoying flirting with her. “Which night then?”
She laughed again. “Goodnight Shelby,” she said, and turned away from him.
“Goodnight,” he replied. He had been teasing her, but he had also been truthful. There was no other place that night he would rather be but lying next to her. He didn’t know how it happened, but she had grown on him to a point where he wanted nothing else but to make her happy.
Lying awake, he wondered if he was anywhere closer to finding who was behind Diane Chambers’s murder.
He knew Sirena’s medical business provided genetically matched transplant body parts for patients. And he knew they had cloned Jordan Jeffries, Sirena, Organa and another male. All these people had one thing in common: they were wealthy and close friends of Diane Chambers.
Was it legal? Shelby wondered. From a medical perspective, it’s easier to clone a whole body than to clone individual cells for a particular body part, such as a heart. Morally, was storing a cloned body any different to storing your own blood, or sperm? The storage facility was just a means of storing human spare body parts.
But it takes time to grow a clone. Shelby had heard rumours that some of the bio corporations were experimenting with rapid growth cloning. But they were just rumours. There were still too many questions left unanswered.
Shelby turned towards Scarlet. She was asleep. He needed to get some sleep too. Tomorrow might bring its own challenges to face.
CHAPTER NIN
ETEEN
The following morning, Scarlet was up early. She wanted to take a closer look at her mother’s office in AndroDigm. Getting into the office wasn’t difficult: it was unlocked.
She powered up her mother’s computer and entered the password as before, and it let her in. Unlike the computer in her mother’s apartment, this was her mother’s master computer. It was the computer she had used for all Guardian ‘maintenance’ work and it was used to grant security access to other computers.
The first task she had was to look at the computer logs. She wanted to know who had been using her mother’s computer. The same name came up as before: Diane Logan. She had used the computer multiple times since her mother’s death. She looked at the log details of the programs accessed. It showed that Diane Logan had accessed Guardian four times. Why would a PA access highly confidential information, and what was she doing with it? She would have to meet this woman when she returned from her vacation.
She stared at the screen, wondering what to do. She looked at the log and attempted to delete the entries for Diane Logan. The computer accepted the deletion. She gasped. If it could delete her records then she could delete her own activities.
She called up Guardian, and selected the VIP list.
Then she typed the name ‘James Harrison’ into the find box and waited for the response. It could have only been a second or two, but it seemed more like a minute or two. His name appeared, and joy leapt into her chest. She had found him.
Her cursor hovered over the status showing ‘VIP’ and she changed it to ‘Norm’. She let out a sigh of relief.
She clicked on the menu option for ‘location’ and the address of a private rest home came on screen — Psychonomy.
She exited the program and deleted her activities from the log. She was pleased with herself. She had found the main suspect in Shelby’s case for him. But now she had to decide when she should tell him. She closed the computer down and left the office.
AndroDigm Park 2067 Page 14
