Popular Clone (22 page)

CHAPTER 22

A villain is just a hero with the guts to say that not everyone ought to be rescued from the stupid situations they put themselves in.

—Dr. X, Notes on Human Weakness

Once Fisher was hustled into the cell holding Two, he crumpled to the smooth metal floor. He had a few mere hours left to live. He would never see FP again. He would never get to say good-bye to his parents. And Veronica! He wondered whether Veronica would think about him when he was gone.

He felt his fate closing in around him like a blanket soaked in molasses.

“Brother!” Two jumped up in surprise, then knelt over Fisher. “Are you wounded?”

Fisher looked up into his clone's eyes. For the first time, Two looked scared. His cool smile was gone, his mouth a hard, straight line. Grim.

Fisher sat up slowly. “I'm sorry, Two. I tried.”

Two paused for a moment, as though processing what the word
sorry
meant. Then he straightened up and spoke. “I have to admit,” Two said, a steel determination in his voice, “I didn't have the highest opinion of you at first. It seemed like I was doing all the work. I doubted your courage and your resolve. But you just risked your life to save mine. You've proven yourself to be very brave. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“You really mean that?” Fisher said, looking up. “I did kind of … misuse you. I overstepped my bounds, I didn't trust you, I put you in dangerous situations. Like this one, for example.”

“This isn't your fault,” Two said seriously. “It's Dr. X's fault. Besides, like I said, you risked your life to rescue me. I have to admit, I used to think you were completely selfish. But you've proved me wrong.”

He helped Fisher to his feet. “Now let's get ourselves out of here.” A faint smile appeared on his face.

Fisher felt a flicker of hope.

“You really think we can?” Fisher asked.

“Of course we can,” Two replied. “And we've got nothing to lose, right? We're just waiting around until they decide to get rid of us. We should at least go down fighting.”

Fisher felt some of his resolve return.

“All right!” Fisher cleared his throat and dusted off his Spy Suit. “Let's have a look around this place.”

The cell was very small, about twelve feet square. The back three walls and ceiling were made of the same metal alloys as the rest of the complex. Instead of bars, one side of the cell was a wall of two-inch translucent plastic. The door was made of the same material.

“We'll need to examine it more closely,” whispered Two, nodding his head to indicate the cameras watching them. Fisher nodded. They looked at each other for a moment, and smiled when they realized they were having the same thought.

“This was all your idea!” shouted Two dramatically. “I would never have ended up here in the first place if it wasn't for you!” He fake-angrily slammed his hand against the back wall and listened to the sound it made, to see if there were any hollow areas.

“
My
idea?” said Fisher, purposefully too loud, pacing back and forth in front of the clear front wall and examining its surface for seams or weak spots. “It was your messing around at school that got you here!” He leaned against the wall, putting weight on it to test the material's strength.

“I can't
take
this!” said Two, punctuating the word
take
by stomping on the floor, testing for hollow space underneath it. “You've been slowing me down for long enough! We need to take bold action!”

“You've been too bold! If you hadn't been going so fast in the first place,” Fisher said, slumping down against a side wall, “I wouldn't have had to slow you down.” His hands groped the floor. When one hand felt a tiny depression, he raised his eyebrows at Two and nodded downward faintly.

“At least one of us actually tried to get something done,” the clone shouted, copying Fisher's position. After a few seconds, he nodded when he found the same dent in the floor that Fisher had.

The floor was fitted with small seams, invisible to the naked eye, which indicated removable panels. One was next to Fisher, the other on the opposite side of the small cell, next to Two.

“Forget it,” said Fisher. “Just leave me alone, okay?” He sank down to his side, as though curled up in defeat, positioning his body between the camera and his discovery. He pressed his ear to the floor. A very faint hum indicated wiring.

Two scooted toward him slowly. “Look,” he said, keeping his voice elevated, “maybe we can talk this out …” He trailed off as he got close to Fisher, and switched to a whisper. “Wires?”

“Wires,” whispered Fisher, without moving.

“Probably feeding electricity to the cell,” Two whispered back. “Think we can short 'em out?”

“They frisked me, but I think they missed my Angry Wire. It's in my right-side pocket. Take a strand.”

Two shook Fisher as if trying to rouse him. “Hey, don't give up now! Let's discuss this… .”

As Two pulled his hand away, there was a tiny filament of wire in his palm. Fisher heard him stand and pad away back to his side of the cell. He hoped Two would quickly figure out how the Angry Wire worked.

Fisher rolled over so that he faced Two, who had curled up as well. Fisher, motioning with his eyes for Two to imitate him, slipped the tiny wire into the unseen seam. His clone did the same.

Slowly, Fisher began to twirl the end of the wire between his fingers. Two did the same, at the other end of the panel. As the wire rotated back and forth, becoming more agitated, the other end began to heat up.

Fisher and Two spun their Angry Wire filaments faster, hoping the cameras weren't picking up the small movement. The Angry Wire converted the kinetic energy into heat at its other end, its temperature slowly building. The heat had no quick way to escape from the tiny, sealed space.

Fisher signaled with his eyes and started shaking the wire forcefully, one last boost. Two did the same, and after a few seconds, they heard the whine of overheating electronics. Just a little bit more work with the wires, and then …
zzzzrp.
The heat melted the wiring under the panels and both sets underwent massive short circuits.

Fisher and Two leapt up as the lights flickered, and the tiny, red light on the camera blinked out. They would only have seconds to take advantage of the electrical short before guards were all over them.

Simultaneous kicks from boy and clone knocked the now-unlocked cell door open right as the alarms started. Fisher swiveled. To the right was the door back into the main chamber. Dr. X's guards were probably rushing toward it already. Ahead of them was another door, this one tiny and not much taller than Fisher himself, set a foot up the wall.

“Follow me!” Two cried out, already dashing for the small door. Two and Fisher dove through the door side by side.

Through—and down, down, down, down, dooooown.

Not a door after all: a chute. They plummeted fast, the slick metal sides of the steep tunnel doing little to slow them. Fisher scrabbled with his hands, trying to slow his fall, to no avail.

Fisher prayed that whatever was at the end of the chute was soft, because they were going to hurtle headlong into it.

“Oomf! Arghhhh!”

Fisher heard a muffled crash as Two careened out of the chute first, and he wrapped his arms around his head as he felt the tunnel disappear. Half a second of empty air rushed by him, and then he hit the pad. It was like a mattress, almost, and it cushioned his fall like a baseball glove.

Luckily, Two had been able to scramble out of the way— otherwise, it would have been a double-Fisher sandwich.

“Are you okay?” Two asked as Fisher picked himself up.

“Been better,” Fisher panted as he felt his body for bruises or broken bones. Thankfully, everything appeared to be in working order.

They were in a small service corridor with plain cement walls and low lighting. Two was reading a small instruction sheet posted above the pad they'd landed on.

“Interesting,” Two said as Fisher brushed himself off. “That chute was
meant
for people to throw themselves down. These instructions are ‘in the event of emergency

“That's a little too convenient,” said Fisher, looking around for traps.

The sign instructed workers to leave the area immediately via the underground tunnels. The last sentence of the sign was printed in a large, brightly colored font:
TECHX ENTERPRISES THANKS YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR VENTURES. REMEMBER, ALL KNOWLEDGE OF TECHX PROJECTS IS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, AND ANY BREACH OF SECRECY MAY RESULT IN A SIGNIFICANT FINE, FOLLOWED BY BRAIN VAPORIZATION. HAVE A NICE DAY
!

Fisher stared at the instructions for a moment. “What would make it necessary to evacuate that quickly?” he asked.

“I don't know.” Two furrowed his brow.

Then, in the quiet pause, the soft background noise of the power generator reached their ears. Two and Fisher looked at each other.

“We must be near the central power grid,” Fisher said.

“Come on,” said Two. “The guards will be here any moment. Let's see if we can figure out how to take the place down.”

“Wait!” Fisher said as he followed his clone down a cramped, dark corridor. “FP came along with me. He was in disguise as a toolbox, and a robot picked him up and carried him to the maintenance room.”

“And we have to rescue him, so he can get back to finding new and exciting ways to chew on my limbs?” said Two, turning around to look at Fisher. But Fisher saw he was half smiling. Fisher let himself smile a little bit for the first time since his friend had been clone-napped.

“Exactly,” he said. As Two darted ahead of him, Fisher noticed a small, bald spot near the nape of Two's neck. “Hey—what happened to your hair? It looks like a blind folded barber came after you.”

“Dr. X took a full range of DNA samples. Hair, saliva, blood, skin cells. Don't know why.”

Fisher shuddered a little bit. Now that Granger knew Two was a clone, he'd be looking at those samples a lot closer. There might be enough AGH in Two's cells to help him develop his own working formula, even if his mom
didn't
give up the sample.

“Well then, let's make sure he doesn't get the chance to do anything with them,” Fisher said with resolve. “How are we going to rescue FP?”

“If I had to guess,” Two said, “I would think maintenance would be close to the central power supply.”

“Are we going the right way?” Fisher asked.

“I think so.” Two cupped a hand over his ear. “The sound is definitely getting louder… .” His voice trailed off, and he stopped in the doorway as the corridor opened abruptly into a large room.

“Are you sure about tha—” The
t
got stuck in Fisher's throat as he walked up next to Two.

The corridor opened onto a narrow catwalk. Fisher took a step out on it and looked at the vast chamber that stretched in front, above, and below them, for hundreds of yards. It was a huge, open space crisscrossed by dozens of walkways and cables.