RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (35 page)

As the Kerrington’s emerged from the hotel at 10:00 a.m. the next morning they were running on way too little sleep.  They were surprised that they were surrounded immediately by a barrage of reporters with cameras and microphones.  Dodge looked at Linsey just before the reporters attacked them with questions.
         “Let’s just get to the limo!”  They made it to the limo quickly with only a few reporters trying to block them.  Dodge answered the barrage of questions with several “no comment” statements as they were making a run for it. 

When they got home, the install crew was carrying out the last of their bags and tools, and the vans were leaving one by one every few minutes.  John was out in the front yard drinking coffee and talking to Bob, the original supervisor that he had met the day before.  He stayed pretty late the night before and wanted to come back by to make sure everything got finished up correctly and to talk with John about any concerns. 

Dodge joined them and shook Bob’s hand as he thanked him for getting it all done in record time.  He asked him to thank the president of the company for putting their family up in the Presidential.  The remaining crew wrapped it up and left promptly.  John and Dodge went inside and sat around the table with the family to chat for a few minutes and they all had a good laugh about John’s prank on them. 

“Hope you don’t mind Dodge but I took the liberty of parking the 308 in your garage next to the Goat.”
         “Oh well I can’t blame you for wanting to get that beauty off the street overnight.”
         “Well anyway, the system is up and running and now you have your privacy back again.  I’m going home and get a much needed shower and some sleep.”
         “All right, I’ll walk you out.”

Dodge and John went out to the garage.     

“Hey you gonna tell the kids what’s going on?”  Asked John.
         “I don’t know, do you think I should?”
         “You might think about it.  In light of the recent events I think we could all be in danger, especially if this Cyrus guy is behind it all as we suspect.” 

“Yeah maybe you’re right.  I’ll run it by Linsey and see what she thinks.”
         “Okay man, I’ll talk to you just as soon as I get some shut eye.” 

He fired up the 308 and backed it out.  He took off fast down the drive.  The adrenaline rush would keep him awake behind the wheel. 

That night the Kerrington’s gathered around the TV for the six o’clock news, they prepared for the big moment with cokes and pop corn.  They knew it was their one moment of fame, they would be on the news for sure.  Just as expected, they were the second story of the night.   

In the foreground there were several reporters and in the background was the front entrance of the Presidential.  The reporter began.     

“Good evening, I’m Brian Wilcox with news 21 reporting live on the scene.  We’re in front of the Presidential Hotel here in downtown Indianapolis where Top Engineer, Dodge Kerrington, of ESS, and his family, were put up last night at no charge.  The stayed in the spacious penthouse at the top of this luxury hotel.  It seems that ESS, the company that has become famous for the MedicStar government contracts, is allegedly under some kind of cyber attack at the hands of their competitors. We’re waiting here for the Kerrington family to emerge, we’re hoping to get a comment on this development.” 

“Let’s go now to a clip from Angela who was at the Kerrington residence very early this morning taking a statement there from Mr. John Calhoun.”

         “Mr. Calhoun, the acclaimed security expert and former owner and CEO of RockTight systems, is now apparently working for Mr. Kerrington as a consultant.  Interestingly enough he’s also a former ESS employee.  Let’s take a look.” 

“Good evening, I’m Angela Berry with News 21 reporting live from the North side at the residence of Dodge Kerrington a top engineer at ESS.  ESS is well known for its groundbreaking work in the development of the MedicStar health care system. We’re here with Mr. John Calhoun security expert and good friend of Mr. Kerrington.  Hello John.”
         “Good morning Angela.”
         “What can you tell us about all this equipment here in the streets of this normally quiet neighborhood?  It’s the middle of the night, there are bright lights set up, we hear power tools running and there are a lot of workers inside and outside of this house, what’s going on?” 

“Well Angela, as you already know, Mr. Kerrington is a senior project engineer at ESS, and just two days ago the police were called out here to this residence on a fairly routine security system breach.  They thought that the attempted break in was just a normal burglary attempt, and that may still be the case.  However the
Kerringtons felt that the security system was outdated so shortly after the incident they called the High Voltage Security Company out here to do a security system evaluation.  As many of you may know from their commercials their basic system quote includes a free complete security sweep of the house.  Much to everyone’s surprise, they found multiple high tech listening devices, in the Kerrington’s home. 

This and further discovery led us to believe that the attempted break in may have had to do with those devices and fortunately it led to their discovery.  As a logical result ESS has heightened their security awareness.  This attack on the Kerrington family’s
privacy, is most likely a result of Mr. Kerrington’s employment in a high tech engineering firm working on government systems.  No doubt competitors would love to know what ESS is working on.”

“So what has been done here to prevent this invasion of privacy from happening again?”
         “Well Angela, I can’t go into specifics for obvious reasons, but let’s just say, this place is like Fort Knox now and we’re putting the people attempting to steal these trade secrets on notice.    The message is simple, ESS and their employees will all get system upgrades, and their homes will be checked out very well, any evidence collected at the various locations will likely culminate in charges once those behind this are identified by investigators.  ESS will simply not tolerate their employees being harassed and their privacy invaded.”

“Hold on Mr. Calhoun, I just received a note here.  Just one more question, is it true that you bought out your last employer for the sole purpose of firing your former boss?”

“Oh, that’s rich, come on now Angela who would do that? You can’t believe everything you read in those skyphone tabloids!  I did purchase RockTight systems because I saw tremendous potential in the company as an investment.  Once purchased I simply replaced the incompetent management with individuals that had goals in alignment with the success of the company.  With the right leadership in place the company became even more valuable and as a result I received a buyout offer for RockTight that I simply could not refuse.  I need to go now Angela, we have a lot of work to do here and I must get back to it, thank you.”

“Thank you Mr. Calhoun.  Well there you have it folks, ESS is taking extreme measures to protect their secrets and their employees, back to you in the studio
Alise.”

The Kerrington’s were all munching on snacks and laughing at the whole thing, John was so entertaining and the look on his face when asked about firing old fish lips just about caused Dodge to choke to death on a mouth full of
poPCorn. 

Once again, John had woven a tapestry of words that only a master could comprise, especially when facing such an unexpected question from the media.  Across town, John was watching the same broadcast and was also getting some enjoyment out of the whole thing.  The video feed returned back to the anchor.
         “All right, thank you Brian.  We also have another recorded clip from the Presidential where Brian was earlier, let’s take a look.”

“Good morning, Brian Wilcox reporting from the Presidential where we’re still waiting for the Kerrington family to emerge in hopes of getting a statement from Mr. Kerrington on the security situation.  Oh, here they come now let’s see what they have to say.”

“Mr. Kerrington, what can you tell us about the break in at your house?”
         “No comment, let’s just get to the limo!”
         “Mr. Kerrington do you believe the break in has any connection to the listening devices found in your home?”
         “No comment, please just let us through here folks, we would like to get to our car.”
         “Mr. Kerrington, does this invasion of your home have anything to do with your work at ESS?”          “No comment! Excuse us, coming through, get out of the way people, we have no comment.” 

“Well that’s it, as you can see they didn’t have much to say, and they have made their way to the car that was waiting to whisk them away, back to you in the studio
Alise.” 

Seeing themselves on TV was enlightening, the whole family was laughing.

“Oh my god, my hair looked awful! I’m so embarrassed, and I’m going to get teased at school for sure!”  Said Sarah.
         “Are you kidding me!  We’re famous, look we’re on TV getting into a Limo.” Added Bobby.
         “I agree with Sarah,” said Linsey, “I just looked like crap on camera, no wonder actors get work done!”
         “Work done?  Shoot, they all just get restored nowadays, who needs work!  The plastic surgeons are all going bankrupt,”  said Dodge. 

They had a great time watching themselves on TV in their five minutes of fame.

Across town in the compound, Cyrus Slade watched the same news broadcast as the rest of them but his outlook on the situation was entirely different.  He was still unaware that Dodge Kerrington and John Calhoun were on to him and his hackers.  The way he saw it he had lost access to the home of his prime person of interest but he still remained undetected, a real victory in his book. 

The loss of audio access was a minor setback.  Soon he would have Kerrington and Calhoun under his control, soon he would have the answers he needed regarding the vulnerabilities of the system that only the creators could know.  Once he had that, he could destroy them both and no one could stop him.

The following week was a great one for John, Dodge, and Linsey.  Amanda was still out of town on false pretenses for her own protection.  John had his cars checked out for bugs daily as did the Kerrington’s.  They had their privacy back and it was all under the guise of increased security due to Dodges Job.  Under
this umbrella they could do regular sweeps leaving Cyrus to believe that it was all to do with ESS and nothing to do with him. 

Slade now had to rely solely on the watchers with no means of ease dropping except for a few directional microphones from time to time that caught bits and pieces of conversations.  John and Dodge were aware of these capabilities so they didn’t talk about these things in open areas where there was risk of being overheard. 

Back at the farm Jason Bluffton was working diligently.  He was only sleeping two hours at a time in order to keep constant monitoring of the clones that were now rapidly growing in the suspension tanks.  He had made his own pods by ordering plastic tanks designed for farm sprayers and then cutting them in half lengthwise with a laboratory laser.  It worked perfectly and didn’t raise any suspicion when being delivered.  After all, there was still a tractor outside and it still looked very much like a farm. 

He was exhausted but he continued to work.  His only communication with the outside
world, was occasional messages exchanged with John to update him on the progress, and a small television that he found in storage there at the farm.  He had seeded the tiny clone blanks with the DNA samples from the Kerrington’s.  He had four tanks going now, and was adding a fifth tank to start Bobby’s clone.  Dodges’ was first and was about two days ahead of John’s, then Linsey, Sarah, and Bobby in that order.  Dodges’ clone was beginning to accelerate more rapidly now as it was day 15 of its progression, the body was now developed to that of a two year old child. 

Acceleration could now be increased more rapidly up to the pubescent stage then it would have to be slowed down as science had not yet devised a method to regulate the massive hormone level swings in the body during puberty.  As a result this stage required a reduction in acceleration by 50% for eight days, then after that the speed could be increased again. 

He had worked tirelessly for days before the DNA samples arrived so that he could have everything ready.  The process required nearly sterile conditions to work properly.

First he had to set up an area in the building where he could control temperature, humidity, and light fairly well.  The place was a real mess, everything was dusty and there were cob webs hanging down everywhere.  They had a spider infestation in one area that had to be exterminated.  He had to clean, vacuum, and
wipe down the whole place with disinfectant solution.  It took him five days to get this area in decent enough shape to make it all work.  He had asked for an assistant but they had not found one yet. 

They had to very careful about whom they brought in.  John had been so busy with everything going on at the Kerrington’s that his screening process for Jason’s assistant had been set back.  Now that the clones were all started and seemingly doing fine he had caught up on his sleep in short segments.  Even though he still had to do it in two hour intervals he was getting used to that schedule and felt pretty good. 

He had a little bit of spare time today so he decided to do some digging.  He contacted John and got some hacked clearances from him to log into government sites related to healthcare and cloning so that he could find some things out.  He wanted to know the exact ingredients in the pink goop.  The stuff that everybody hated so much but had to have so that they could get strong and healthy fast and go home very quickly after Restoration.