by C M Dancha
"Why?”
"That's a good question, Jason. If I had to guess, I'd say that someone at Phoenvartis wants information and he thinks one of the dead people has that information."
Milkweed leaned back in his chair and thought about Raul's answers to his questions. For the first time since meeting him, he thought Raul was telling the truth.
"Raul, I'm going to tell you a couple of things which I usually keep to myself. The only reason I'm saying anything is that I need help solving these murders and I'm sure you know more than what you've said."
Milkweed gave Raul a few moments to respond. When nothing was forthcoming, he started talking. "First, Klaus didn't die from his injuries. He was murdered. I found evidence that someone tampered with the alarm warning systems on the equipment keeping him alive. Also, the DACS suit was found wide open. Mr. Ekstrom died a very painful death."
"I don't think many people, including myself, cared whether his death was painful or not. He wasn’t well-liked as I'm sure you know. What's interesting is that someone took the time to torture him. They either wanted to see him die a painful death or wanted information from him."
"I'm guessing the murderer thought Klaus had information and they could torture it out of him."
"That's probably a good guess, Jason."
"Let me continue, Raul. We're getting a lot of pressure from England to either solve these murders or close the investigations. My boss has been given one month to solve these murders. It seems to me that someone in England wants to sweep these investigations under the rug, so to speak. Unless I get some help, I’ll have to close these files and move on."
Raul lowered his head and considered what he’d heard. There was a part of him that wanted to point Milkweed in the right direction to solve the murders, but there was another part of him which was warning him that the timing wasn’t right yet.
"Jason, I might be able to help you, but it won't be for a while. Don't ask me how soon or for any details, because I won't tell you. The only thing I can say is that I don't think the same person killed all four victims. I have some suspicions, but I need time to pursue them without any interference. Okay?"
"I don't know that I have a choice, Raul. You're holding all the high cards. Do what you can and keep me updated, okay?"
"You have my word, Jason."
Raul got up from his chair and headed to the office door.
"Raul, you forgot something."
Raul turned and saw Milkweed holding the small thermal box in his hand. He went back to Milkweed's desk and retrieved it. The inflated box was sitting on top of another unused thermal box identified as one originating in the Medical Examiner's office.
"I thought you may need an extra thermal box in case the one you're supposed to transport gets damaged on the way back to Phoenvartis."
Milkweed smiled and went to work reviewing his latest communications. Raul left thinking Milkweed wasn't that bad of a guy – or girl – after all.
14
PREPARE, PLAN, AND HOPE
There wouldn’t be much time left by his return to Phoenvartis, so Raul called ahead and discussed his plan with Helmer.
"Helmer, I'm on my way back to the campus. Question for you. If you have two human body parts, is there a quick and accurate way to compare them to see if they’re from the same body?"
"Yes, we have a DNA diagnostics machine which can compare the samples in less than five minutes. Its accuracy rate is over ninety eight percent."
"Where's the machine?"
"It was in the primate lab the last time I saw it. Callie was using it to compare samples from the original Maxine and the clone."
"Meet me in the primate lab in five minutes. I need your help to get something done and it has to be done fast."
Both men disconnected and headed for the lab. Raul made a quick stop at his office to retrieve the samples he’d taken from Rollie's body the previous night.
"Mr. Hakala, Claude Ekstrom would like to see you."
"Contact his assistant and tell her that I'll be there in about fifteen minutes. I have to go to the men's room and throw up first."
Raul's assistant didn't know if he was joking or not. She decided to leave out the men's room part of the message.
When Raul got to the lab, Helmer was waiting outside the hallway door. As they passed through the interlocking vestibule, Raul explained their mission as swiftly as possible.
"Helmer, these are some samples I took from Rollie's body last night. In this box are some samples I picked up at the Medical Examiner's office an hour ago. I need you to compare the two and tell me if they are from the same body."
Both men were surprised to see Easton in the lab. In all the excitement surrounding Rollie's murder, they’d completely forgotten about him.
"Helmer, you run the comparison. I'm going to talk with Easton."
Helmer loaded the DNA diagnostics machine and began the comparison. Easton hadn't had a visitor for over a day, so he was in a talkative mood.
"Mr. Raul, good to see you again. Where has my friend Mr. Sweats been?"
"Easton, come over here and sit down." Rollie poured a glass of wine for himself and the clone. " I'm afraid I have some sad news. There's been an accident and Mr. Sweats was killed last night. I'm working on getting you out of this place, but I need you to do two things for me."
Easton appeared visibly shaken but regained his composure quick enough to take in Raul's instructions. "Tell me, Mr. Hakala. I'm at your disposal."
"First, you haven't seen me or Mr. Stanke today. In fact, if someone asks, you can't remember the last time you saw the two of us. Do you understand?"
"Yes. You want me to play the role of a liar."
Raul smiled and chuckled. "That's correct. The second thing is that you’ll see some things in the next day or two which you won't understand. No matter what you see or hear, act normal and trust that I know what I'm doing. Don't overreact to anything. Agree with whatever Mr. Stanke or I say. Do you understand?"
"Yes. You want me to play the role of a deaf, blind and weak-minded liar."
"That's a clever way of describing it, Easton. With luck, I'll get you out of here within a week so please follow my instructions to the letter."
"I will, Mr. Hakala. Mr. Sweats always spoke highly of you so I'm sure I can trust you."
As the two men ended their conversation, Helmer walked over. "I don't know if this is good or bad news, but the samples came from the same body."
"Great! Helmer, you better leave now. I'll contact you later and tell you what's going on. Are you going to be home tonight?"
"That's where I'll be. Why don't you come over around seven and I'll fix us something to eat?"
"That's a deal."
As soon as Helmer left, Raul went to work putting the samples he took from Rollie's body into the unused thermal box Milkweed gave him. Besides the hair samples, he included some of the skin samples. He left the tooth out in case Slice didn't request anything more than simple samples such as hair. Pulling a tooth didn't seem like something Slice would request, or the Medical Examiner would take the time to do.
Before leaving the lab, Raul went over to the lab cooler, opened the door and looked in. At the very back of the cooler was exactly what he’d expected to see; a thermal food clamshell with the Schwarzenbach tavern logo embossed on it.
"Easton, one last thing. Don't take out or dispose of anything in the cooler. It's okay to keep your wine in it, but make sure you leave the other things exactly where they’ve been."
Easton acknowledged Raul's instruction by waving a hand. "Mr. Hakala, please try to get me out of here soon. I'm losing my mind. The walls are closing in on me."
Raul hurried to Claude Ekstrom's office with pieces of Rollie Sweats in the thermal box he got from Milkweed.
"Hello, Mr. Hakala. Let me tell Mr. Ekstrom you’re here."
Fifteen minutes later, Raul was still sitting in the waiting area. Claude had yet to appear or ask his assistant to sh
ow Raul into his office. This was exactly the type of childish behavior Raul expected from the pathetic little nerd. He obviously knew of his new position starting Friday and making Raul wait was a preview of his management style. He wanted everyone to know the power he wielded and how he could determine the fate of every Phoenvartis employee. Claude hadn't learned a thing from Klaus, he was going to be a heavy-handed jerk like his departed uncle.
Raul got to his feet and was ready to tell Claude's assistant he was leaving but as he opened his mouth to speak, the assistant glanced at her UCN panel and announced, "You can go right in, Mr. Hakala."
"Raul, how nice to see you again. Have you been waiting long? I'm sorry I couldn't get you in sooner, but I've been so busy that… well, you know how it is."
Raul knew exactly how it was. The only thing on Claude's desk was a smoldering pipe. His UCN panel and two halo screens were turned off. Raul couldn't spot any evidence that Claude was doing anything other than learning how to smoke a pipe.
"I understand you have something for me."
Raul leaned forward and put the package on the edge of Claude's desk, intentionally out of his reach.
Rather than get mad or ask Raul to push the package toward him, Claude smiled and walked around his desk to retrieve it. Holding it in his hands, Claude sat on the front of the desk and quizzed Raul.
"What's in this, Raul?"
"I have no idea. Didn't the Grand Puba tell you?
"Do you mean Mr. Slice? No, he didn't. All he said was that it was crucial to clone these samples as quickly as possible." Claude took an electronic marker from his desk and wrote his name across the seal of the thermal package. "Today is Wednesday. Please start having these samples cloned at 8am, Friday morning. I've sent a communique to Helmer telling him the same thing. Put a guard on the CR47 and make sure the two of you do a diagnostic test on it before Friday morning. In the meantime, put this in your cooler, I understand it’s alarmed. I recommend that you don't lose this package the way Rollie lost the one he received from Klaus."
"Just out of curiosity, Claude, what are you going to do between now and Friday?"
"That's ‘Sir’ to you. Not that it's any of your business, but I will be supervising."
"Try not to overexert yourself."
"Don't worry about me, Raul. I've been working very hard for the past several years and that's why I got promoted. Mr. Slice appreciates the long hours I’ve devoted to ReLife, Phoenvartis and the central government. If you had been more of a team player, there would have been a promotion for you too."
Team player. Funny! Claude had obviously picked up the phrase from Slice. Couldn't he at least think of his own derogatory remarks and not mimic the weirdo from the World Council? Raul couldn't wait to get out of Claude's office. He stood up, took the thermal package and headed to the office door.
"By the way, did Milk Toast… I mean, Milkweed say anything about the murder of that girl? I think her name was Claudette."
Without turning around, Raul shouted a disrespectful "No", and left.
The farther he got from Claude's office the more tempted he was to go back and interrogate Claude regarding some of the things he’d said. He could always put a burst gun to the nerd's head and wait for him to explain why he’d asked about Claudette and mentioned the work he did for the government. What work? Was he talking in generalities or was he admitting that he passed along Phoenvartis information to Slice? Raul wouldn't be surprised if Claude was Slice's spy within Phoenvartis and his promotion to second in command was payment for ratting on everyone and everything.
He would let Claude have a few days of glory before he burst his bubble and brought him back to reality. Let him bathe in the anticipated pleasure of firing Helmer, several top executives and his Security Director. It was going to be a great deal of fun checkmating the dweeb and making him pay dearly for his stupid mistakes.
When he got back to his office, he found Gretchen sound asleep on the office sofa. From his combat experiences, he knew that trauma affected people in different ways. Rollie's death was so emotionally and physically draining, it had forced her into a deep sleep. It was the only way for her to regain some energy and deal with his death. Raul couldn't help but admire her beauty. Rollie had been a lucky man. He wondered if their relationship would rekindle after Rollie was cloned.
"Wake up, Gretchen." He gently shook her to get a response.
"Oh! Hi, Raul. I was dreaming about Rollie. It was weird. I saw him with an old black woman, and she was waving goodbye to him. It seemed so lifelike."
Raul couldn't take the time to analyze her dream, he had too many things to do before going to Helmer's for dinner and strategically planning the next forty-eight hours.
"Gretchen, you need to leave. I'm going to be very busy and I don't want someone coming in here and discovering you asleep on my sofa. Okay?"
"That's fine. I'm glad you woke me up, I need to be at the restaurant in about an hour. I hope I can get through my shift."
"Gretchen, it's better that you work than sit home thinking about Rollie. Besides, things are going to turn out okay. I give you my word."
Gretchen stared into Raul's eyes and could see his sincerity. She hugged Raul and said, "Rollie always said you're the sneakiest S.O.B. he ever met." A warm smile crossed her face. " I'm going to trust you to make things better, Raul."
15
TOTAL GLOBALIZATION
Raul reported to Phoenvartis bright and early on Friday morning. Before going to the CR47 lab to assist in the cloning of Rollie Sweats, he turned on the halovision to get the latest news from around the globe. He knew the stories and reports were tainted and slanted to benefit the World Council. Getting unbiased information wasn't possible in a world controlled by a socialistic government.
He was close to switching off the halovision and start reading his communiques when he felt his micromic activate.
"Hakala here."
"Good morning, Mr. Hakala. This is Mr. Sun. I was surprised to see you reporting to work so early this morning. I'm following up on our previous conversations. Have you given any more thought to my proposal to use the CR47?"
Raul didn't respond immediately. Sun's statement that he was watching Raul was disturbing. He considered breaking off their negotiations but decided to let it go and pretend he didn't hear what Sun said. If Sun really had Raul under surveillance, he would be easier to find and take out, if necessary.
"Mr. Sun, I might be able to accommodate you. I'll know better in a couple of days. In the meantime, I want you to establish a top secret, crypto account number and send it to me. If I decide to fulfill your request, I will send you several underground account numbers. Establish a link to each of these accounts. I will then tell you which of these accounts should be used for your down payment. The payment balance will be sent to another of these account numbers. Do you understand what you need to do?"
"Yes. But I don't usually pay for something until I get it. Sending you a down payment is out of the—"
That's as far as Sun got before the contact was ended by Raul. Sun realized he was talking to air and debated whether he should contact Hakala again. He didn't want to lose another down payment but what choice did he have? He slammed his hand on the table and placed a recontact.
"Mr. Sun, my terms are not negotiable. You either play by my rules or we don't play at all. Understand?"
"I understand. What else do I need to know?"
"Right now, nothing."
"How much is the use of the CR47 going to cost me?"
"I haven't decided yet. But it will be somewhere between forty and sixty thousand."
Sun dropped his head to the table with a thud. The price Hakala was quoting was high; exceptionally high. He didn't know if the people funding the Black Cross would go for such an outrageous expenditure.
Raul smiled. He could envision this Mr. Sun character choking on his own bile when he heard Raul's price.
"Are we done, Mr. Sun?"
"I believe so. But I do have one small question. Are you going to be around Phoenvartis long enough to take care of my request?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You need to turn on your halovision and see the report coming across it now."
Raul broke the contact with Sun and turned on his unit by voice.
Flashing across the bottom of the screen was ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in big, bold letters. The commentator was midway through his report, so Raul used playback to hear the entire story.
"I have just been handed a special press release from the World Council in Ickleford, England. It reads as follows.
‘Your World Council is pleased to announce that one of our Zone organizations has perfected human cloning technology. The inventor and lead scientist on this project is Claude Ekstrom, a fifteen-year associate of Phoenvartis in Zurich. Mr. Ekstrom's diligent pursuit and dedication were instrumental in bringing the ReLife cloning project to a successful completion. In recognition of Mr. Ekstrom's efforts, he has been promoted to the Lead Associate position at Phoenvartis. He will also receive the World Council's Distinguished Citizen Award.
Your World Council has actively supported the development of human cloning. The goal of this project is to extend the life cycle of each citizen by proactively dealing with disease and injury. We consider the ReLife cloning system to be a major technological and scientific breakthrough. It has been given the highest priority and funding for its successful development and implementation. To ensure the future success of ReLife, the Phoenvartis organization has been globalized. It now is under the direct control of your World Council. Mr. Ekstrom will report directly to Mr. Sedgewick Slice of the World Council.
Further updates on the ReLife program will be provided periodically. We encourage you to join your fellow citizens in the admiration and praise of the World Council.’
Holy crap! Was this a joke? Claude is given total credit for the ReLife project? Not one mention of Rollie, Helmer or anyone else at Phoenvartis. And everyone is expected to join together to praise the World Council? This statement was so ludicrous Raul almost burst out laughing. He’d expected total world domination by the central government, but he didn't think it would happen so soon or be done so flagrantly. No, this wasn't a joke, it was insanity.
