RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (37 page)

She saw a new scalpel lying on the table on the way in and fantasized for a second about jumping him from behind cutting him from ear to ear and watching him bleed to death on the floor, No, she couldn’t do it, it just was not in her to kill another person like that. 

She hated him with every fiber of her being, she knew that he had stolen her life and ruined her family by faking her death and destroying her husband and children with his evil self centered agenda.  She would have to wait; she would get him some other way.  She approached the table.
         “Sir?”
         “I’ll require your assistance with this clone Alice.  We’ll be loading him up in a few minutes and you’re the best I have.  Please check over the set up for me, I want to make sure everything is correct.”

  Alice spent a few minutes checking over everything and reported to Cyrus that everything was correct and the clone was ready for transference of a lifefile.  She couldn’t help but notice that this male clone was very young, only grown to the age of about thirteen or fourteen.
         “If you don’t mind me asking Sir, why are you loading up such a young one? He’s still just a boy.”

Slade turned to her abruptly and grabbed her arm in anger.
         “I do mind you asking!”  He growled before letting go.
         “But it’s a good question.” 

“What a freak!”
 

“I’m loading this clone young because I’m not interested in his physical strength, you see, I want what’s in his head!”  She realized right then that this clone would be awakened only to be abused into giving up knowledge and then probably killed when Cyrus got what he wanted.  She looked at the file tag and memorized the number. 

“That will be all for now.  Go prepare a tray of surgical instruments for me and bring them in to me as soon as your done.”
         “Yes Sir,” she replied. 

She felt herself getting a little ill, she
couldn’t believe that even Slade would do such a horrific thing, he must not have a heart at all!  She went to the adjacent lab and prepared an instrument tray with all the standard surgical instruments.  She shuddered at the thought of what Cyrus might do to the little boy, what could he be after? She wanted to know. 

She went to the computer in the back of the lab and pulled up the
LifeTech database.  She had watched Glitch log into it many times in the past and managed to memorize the pass code.  She logged in and went to the file look up screen and punched in the number from the ID tag on the clone.  She saw the name and recognized it; she heard it before but where? 

She opened a web browser window and entered the name.  There it was a story of an engineer that had been in the news recently, his name was Dodge Kerrington from ESS.  Cyrus was about to torture this man’s clone for information, unbelievable. 

She looked at his file access record, it was viewed earlier that night, it must have been Glitch hacking the system to get a copy.  Files were scanned every few hours for parity bit checks and overall integrity to make sure the files were in good condition.  Glitch found a way to exploit that attribute of the system and could siphon off a copy undetected if he did it at the precise moment of the file check.  No doubt Cyrus had an up to date copy and was going to have Alice load it up shortly. 

She realized too much time had passed and got up quickly to retrieve the tray of instruments and hurried back to the other lab with them.  Cyrus was standing by the loading console and looked up to glare at her.
         “I have been waiting here now for several minutes Alice, what is the hold up?” 

“Sorry Sir, I had to go to the restroom.”
         “Well if that happens again we’ll just do a little modification on you, fit you with the same plumbing that I have and then you won’t ever feel the urge to go relieve yourself!”
         “Sorry Sir, it won’t happen again” she choked out nervously. 

Everyone that worked with Cyrus knew that he was a real mess and wore bags for his digestive system, he didn’t need
bathroom breaks.
         “Get over here Alice and begin loading this clone, come on, load him up!”

“Yes Sir” Alice squeaked out nervously.  He handed her a modified microdrive, something that Glitch had concocted.  It was much larger capacity than a normal one and could hold an entire life file which was leaps and bounds ahead of the current technology on the market, only Glitch could make them. 

She started up the console and moved the needle probe close to the clone’s ear in preparation for the load.  She checked the straps to make sure the clone was properly secured.  She started the robotic arm and ran the insertion program.  The needle went in behind the ear and made docking contact with the Input port of the chip.  The screen indicated, “Ready for upload,” she selected the file from the drive and dragged it into the pre load buffer.  She ran a file scan and it came up 100% safe.  She held her finger over the button and paused for a second. Maybe she could still grab that scalpel and stab Cyrus right in the jugular.  Cyrus looked at her and barked.
         “Well damn it!  Launch it.  I haven’t got all night!” 

She hit the button and the file began to load, a few moments later it was complete.  She prepared an injection to wake up the clone and inserted the needle into the IV in its right arm.  The plunger went in, his eyes opened and he began looking around.     

“Where am I?  This doesn’t look like the hospital?  Where’s my family?  What’s going on?”  He looked at Cyrus. “Who are you?”  He asked.

Chapter 1
8
     Across town at the Kerrington house everyone was sleeping soundly, feeling more secure and safe.  They felt much better now knowing that their new security system was watching every aspect of their home.  Bobby, Matt, and Toby were having a great time the last two weeks.  The added personality of Toby was dynamic and they had become like the three amigos.  Bobby and Matt always had a great time together but Toby was a fresh face with new ideas of things to do and that really added to their fun. 

Toby seemed to be good with the girls and that was getting Bobby and Matt in better with the ladies.  Matt and his family were going to Connecticut for the weekend to be with one of Bills brothers and his wife.  His Aunt was in an accident on the subway
and was recently restored after her injuries had left her badly crippled and scarred. 

It was quite
routine, but Bill wanted the family to go to be with them.  From there they would be flying to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and several other attractions in the area for a two-week family vacation. 

With Matt gone Bobby took the opportunity to invite his new friend Toby for a sleep over.  They had a great time that evening, staying up the better part of the night and finally crashing around 3:00 a.m. 

An hour later something awakened Bobby, he sat up for a minute and didn’t see anything so he lay back down; then he remembered Toby was there, but when he looked Toby wasn’t in the room.  He looked at the bottom of the bathroom door just off his bedroom but didn’t see the light on. 

He got up quietly and crept out into the hallway and onto the balcony over the living room, no sign of Toby.  Then he saw Toby coming out of the kitchen.  “
He must have wanted a drink or something.”
He was just about to motion to him when he noticed something in Toby’s ear, it looked like a communications link.  Bobby got a little spooked and slipped back into the shadows.  Toby was moving more like someone being sneaky than a kid up in the middle of the night looking for a drink. 

He stepped back further out of sight on the balcony.  He could hear Toby starting up the stairs and he was whispering something. 
“He must be talking to someone.”
He decided not to confront him.  His father had told him if he saw anything strange to wait and come tell him about it first.  He slipped back into his room and laid down, pretending to be asleep.  He heard Toby come back into the room very quietly and get back into the other bed. 

Bobby laid there terrified. 
“What was going on?”
Toby was just a kid like him, what could he possibly be up to in the middle of the night creeping around their house talking to someone on a link?  He could feel his heart racing in his chest.  He was upset, confused, and scared. 

He waited until Toby fell asleep.  He listened to Toby’s breathing slowing down until he began to snore softly.  He was quite sure he was out.  He got up quietly and picked up Toby’s overnight bag.  He went to the bathroom just off the bedroom where he began looking through it in search of clues. 

Under a false bottom he found a small ear piece, which appeared to be the communications device and a handgun that looked like a 9-mil auto.  He couldn’t believe it, what was Toby doing with a gun?  He knew what he had to do. 

He picked up the bag and went out through the other door, into the hall, and down to his parent’s room.  He tapped on the door just as lightly as possible and then went on in.  His father was stirring slightly. Bobby began to whisper.

“Dad, Dad, hey Dad, wake up.”  He touched Dodge’s arm, his eyes popped open and he jumped.  That scared Bobby and he jumped and grabbed his chest.    

“Oh man! You scared me!
He said” still whispering. 

Dodge sat up and tapped the edge of the table to turn the night light on.
         “What is it Son?”
         “Sorry but I woke up and Toby was wandering around the house talking to someone on an ear link.  I didn’t let him know that I saw him.  I waited for him to go to sleep and I got his bag.  He has a gun in here.”          “What?” Dodge sat up further, “Hs it a toy?”
         “Heck no Dad.  This is a real gun just like the ones you have!  The ear link is in there too.” 

“Oh crap!” still whispering, Dodge turned the light up and shook Linsey slightly.     

“Linsey, wake up.”  She sat up.

“What’s going on?”

  They filled her in on the situation and they all agreed they had to do something.  This kid was obviously a spy but who was he working with and why and how do you recruit a youth like Toby to do such things? 

He could see maybe a competitor using his teen age son to snoop around a little by becoming friends with Bobby but giving the kid a gun?  It just seemed crazy. 

They decided they needed to immobilize him without hurting him, after all he was just a kid.  They only thing they had, that was non-lethal, was a pocket sized taser that Alan gave to Linsey for Christmas a few years ago.  He believed every woman should carry mace or a taser, or even a gun, something for personal protection. 

Linsey retrieved it from her purse.
         “I wonder if it still works,” she said.  She removed the protective cap off the end and pushed the little button.  Sparks flew across the two electrodes with a snapping sound.  It was considered an archaic weapon to some but they were small, easy for women to use, and still very effective. 

They went down the hallway and around the balcony to Bobby’s bedroom door.  Dodge took the taser and went in very quietly.  Just before he got to Toby he sat up.  Hey Mr. Kerrington where’s Bobby?  Then he saw Dodge coming toward him with the taser.  He knew he had been discovered and reached for a medallion that was around his neck but before he could get hold of it Dodge zapped him in the middle of his chest with the taser. 

Toby convulsed for a second and then fell back on the bed, knocked out by the jolt.  Bobby was right behind his Father.    

“Jeeze Dad, did you have to do that?”
         “Sorry Bobby, I didn’t want to, but he was going for this medallion around his neck.  I think it might be a panic button of some kind.  I got him before he could get to it.  Where did you say his Father works?” 

Bobby couldn’t remember, but he did remember that Toby said his Father was a technology guy of some kind.  Linsey and Dodge picked up Toby and put him in the desk chair by Bobby’s
PC.  He was solid and it was a bit of a struggle to get him into the chair.          “Bobby, go down to the garage and get me a roll of Duct tape.”
         “Okay, Dad.”  He came back quickly with the tape while Dodge and Linsey were checking Toby’s vitals. 

“Don’t worry Son, he’s just fine.  He’ll be waking up in a minute.”  Linsey held him back in the chair and Dodge was looking around bewildered.
         “I can’t tape him to this stupid chair.  It isn’t shaped right.  Bobby, run down to the kitchen and grab a table chair.”  Bobby ran down and got a chair and on the way back up ran into Sarah in the hall way. 

“What are you doing up at this hour making noise?
and what are you doing with that chair?”
         “Dad can’t tape Toby to my desk chair so I’m getting a better one.”
         “Huh? Are you sleep walking you little dweeb?” 
         “No, just come to my room stupid, and see for yourself.” 

She didn’t believe him and figured the boys were just playing some game but she followed him to his room anyway.  Much to
Sarah’s surprise, her parents were holding Bobby’s friend in the desk chair to keep him from falling out of it. 

“Why do I always get left out of all the best stuff that goes on around here?” 
Said Sarah in a rather dismayed tone. “Couldn’t someone have woken me up before we began abusing Bobby’s little friend here?”  Linsey smiled.