RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (46 page)

“Are you ready?” Asked Toby.
         “Yes, let’s go,” whispered Alice.  Toby just looked at her funny.      “Why are you whispering?” He asked.  She paused.
         “I don’t know,” she said.  She giggled before taking off running up the hall in sort of stealth mode trying not to make any noise with her steps at all.  Toby walked up the hall at a fast pace but he didn’t feel compelled to actually run.  When he got to the corner Alice was waiting just around it.  She jumped out at him and said “Ah!”  Somehow Toby expected that to happen based on her behavior thus far.  

“So, what are we going to do down in the ovens?”
Asked Alice, as they walked along.
         “Well, I brought some paper and a pencil so that I could jot down some notes about it, and maybe take some video with my phone for reviewing later.  I also thought we should pick out the best oven with the least amount of holes in it, probably one of the larger ones.” 

Alice smiled and said, “
boooring.”

“Okay, what did you have in mind?”
         “I brought playing cards and a pocket full of candy, much more fun than your plan.”  Toby agreed that they should play cards and eat candy, but not until he was done looking the ovens over real good. 

There were six large ovens ranging in size from big enough for two cars, to large enough for two school buses parked side by side.  The largest one was nice on the inside but it also had the most holes in it.  It had many places where equipment had been removed and nothing put in its place so it would require a lot of work to make it signal proof. 

They moved down to the second largest one that was big enough to park maybe six cars inside.  He looked it over  quickly and then they moved onto the next smaller and the next until they had done a quick look on each of the six.  The second largest one was different, a lot different, but he couldn’t put his finger on it, so they went back to spend more time looking at it. 

When they stepped inside for the second time, he realized what it was.  This oven, in its more recent life, had been converted into a paint booth.  There was a row of four light switches just inside the door.  Toby flipped them and lights came on along the walls and ceiling.  As he began investigating further, he realized that many of the holes that had been in it for use as an oven were now patched over with sheet metal and pop rivets in order to make the room much more air tight.
        
“This one looked promising.”
  He inspected the door opening carefully.  Someone had added a foam gasket around the two swinging doors to help keep air from coming in around the rather large door crack, great for air but it wouldn’t do any good with a high frequency radio signal; that would have to be addressed.

Just inside the two large doors there was a large hole in the floor with a metal grate over it that seemed to be an air inlet.  Toby got down on the floor and put his face close to the metal grate.  It smelled like very fresh air and it was coming into the room very gently.  It seemed to be outside air that was vented into the room from somewhere under the building, and this would have to be investigated also. 

While he was inspecting the vent, he noticed something he hadn’t previously, the floor was thick metal.  He had thought it to be some kind of heat resistant cement because it was so rough but instead it was just very thick metal that had become pitted and rusted from years of wear and intense heat.  He thought it was much better that the floor was also metal.  He was sure that this meant even less opportunity for radio waves to get in. 

There was a fairly good sized cabinet in the back right corner of the oven.  Upon investigating they discovered it was still filled with old paint, tape, spray guns, and a paint shaker.  The back wall of the oven was now an inner wall made of two-by-four lumber and plywood with a small entry door that you could step through that served as an access for maintenance of the filter system, most of this inner wall consisted
of  furnace filters that had become caked with a heavy layer of paint over spray. 

He carefully pulled one filter corner back and looked to see what was behind it.  Good news, he thought, the filters were supported nicely on the back side by
a very thick, perforated sheet steel with little holes all over it.  The wall behind the filter wall was the original oven wall, it was intact and was solid metal construction, and he was relieved to see that they hadn’t cut out the back wall when they converted it to a paint booth. 

They went outside and around back of the oven to discover that the outlet from the back wall narrowed down into an air collection unit connected to a huge pipe with an in line fan to exhaust the air out the roof through a large pipe that was at least 40 feet high.  Well-done conversion, he thought, it had good air flow design from front to back.  Toby made a few abbreviated notes and snapped a few
pics with his phone to show Dodge later. 

Alice was getting noticeably bored but did appreciate what Toby was trying to do.  They went back inside the oven where there was already a make shift table and
chairs  made out of some 5 gallon buckets and an old piece of plywood that once served as a paint mixing surface.  It had at least 20 different colors of paint on it.  They turned it over and it was just as bad on the other side, which made them a laugh.

“I wonder how many people have tried
that?”  Said Alice.

Toby said, “Probably everyone.” 

They played cards and ate the candy that Alice had brought along for a good long while.  They talked after that for a while about all kinds of things they had done in their prior lives.  Time got away from them and when they checked it was almost 2:00 a.m.  They decided they had better get back to the dorms.  When they returned to corridor “C” the guard was sound asleep.  As they made their way to Alice’s door they were about to say goodnight when the guard’s talky went off.
         “Station nine radio check.”  It was very loud.  The guard jolted from his sleep and started to fumble around with the radio trying to answer. 

Alice grabbed Toby by his arms and yanked him right into her room and into an awkward embrace as Toby kicked the door closed with his heel.  They were standing there still very close and looking each other right in the eye.  At that moment there was no fighting it, they kissed, and it wasn’t a sheepish one either.  It was a good one, a really good one, the kind that leads to many more things.  Neither of them had planned it, it was completely spontaneous.  She was a twenty-six-year-old married woman who hadn’t been touched in years.  Her husband believed her to be dead, and she could only assume that he had moved on.  He was a 68-year-old man that had lost his wife seven years earlier and hadn’t felt a woman’s touch since.  Now here he was, trapped in a 16-year-old body with raging hormones that he now found impossible to subdue in such a situation. 

They stood there holding each other feeling the other’s heart pounding like crazy.  She broke the silence with a whisper in his ear.

“I’ve always been attracted to older men.” 

He let out a single laugh.    

“I’ve always been attracted to older women.” 

She pushed out of their embrace to look at his face.     

“Well then it’s perfect, we’re both older than the other.” 

Toby thought for a second.     

“You
’re right we are.  How strange is that?” He said. 

She began walking backwards while leading him with both hands.  He was thinking. 
“I hope I can still remember how to do this.”
They started kissing again as they arrived at the edge of the bed where they tore off their clothes and fell onto it.  He soon found out that he did remember how to do this, in fact he remembered four or five times until it was nearly dawn.  Exhausted and satisfied, they both fell asleep in the tangle of sheets and each other on the bed.

Alice awakened to a loud knock on the door that gave her heart a start.  At that moment she realized that they had both fallen asleep there together but now Toby was gone.  A second loud knock came on the door.     

“Miss Covings, are you there?” 

“Crap, it was Glitch!
Oh boy, are we busted?
         “Miss Covings!”  Glitch’s voice sounded impatient now outside the door.  She glanced at the clock, it was only 6:30 a.m..     

“Yes Sir, I up, just a minute
please.” 

“Coming to the door will not be necessary Miss Covings, but I do need to see you in my office when you have prepared yourself via your standard morning rituals.”
        
“What a weird little dweeb.”
     

“Okay Glitch, I mean Sir, I’ll be there shortly.”
         “That’s all right Miss Covings.  You can take your standard time and then eat your breakfast.  I only ask that you do it without delay. Thank you.” 

She listened as Glitch’s heels clicked on down the corridor.
        
“Weird little man, with weird little shoes.”
  Just then she remembered last night.  She covered her mouth with one hand in her own little moment of personal embarrassment.     

“Oh my god, I had sex with a 68-year-old boy! Or was it a 16-year-old man?  She said aloud.  She covered her mouth again and laughed. 
“Oh boy!  What a weird night, but a good one, he’s a stud!”
She laughed aloud at herself again. 

She felt better than she had in
years, it was like being human again.  She had seen so many ugly and horrific things done to people at the hand of Cyrus that she didn’t really know if she had any feelings left inside of her for anything or anyone.  But now for the first time in years she felt alive, she felt like a woman again, and she felt loved.  Several feelings she hadn’t experienced in a very long time. 

What a class act Toby must have been in his previous life.
“His wife was a very lucky woman.”
  She got up and showered as quickly as she could and dressed.  She felt like putting makeup on for the first time in over a year but she didn’t. 
“If I do, people will notice and ask questions.”
It still made her feel good that she wanted to.

She went down to the kitchen to eat some breakfast
and  look for Toby but he wasn’t there, she hoped everything was all right.  She finished her breakfast and went straight to Glitch’s office as instructed.  On the way there she realized why she felt so great, it was the endorphins.  She was a well educated scientist and she knew that orgasms released endorphins into the cerebral spinal fluid.  These natural chemicals have a similar effect to that of morphine in the body.  She remembered that laughter has been proven to do the same thing so it was no wonder that she felt so good, she laughed a lot last night and after four or five rounds with Toby the stud, she probably didn’t have any endorphins left!  Sometimes knowing too much was a drag. 

She was nearly to Glitch’s office when she realized that she was smiling uncontrollably.  She stopped outside his office door to get a grip on her emotions and wipe the smile off her face before going in, that much happiness in this place would draw a few questions for sure. 

On the other side of town John Calhoun was just beginning to wake up.  As he did, he felt what should have seemed like an incredible and strange thing but it didn’t feel as strange as he imagined it would.  He had only a vague memory of waking up in the lab at the farm and only for a minute.  He remembered Jason’s voice asking him his name and his age and his birth date and that was it, nothing more.  Otherwise he felt normal this morning and it seemed everything had gone as planned. 

He got up and went downstairs to have some breakfast and await the call from the farm.  If all went well, he would be talking to himself over the phone very soon, what a mind job!

A few hours earlier John’s clone had been awakened for the second time.  Jason was standing over him in what looked like a makeshift operating room with plastic for a ceiling and bright lights above him.
         “John, can you hear me?”  Jason’s voice was so crisp like he had just been given brand-new ears. 

Just then Caitlin leaned in.     

“Hello Mr. Calhoun, I’m Caitlin, it’s so nice to meet you in person. Welcome to the farm.  He sat up and realized he was completely naked except for a small towel covering his groin.  He felt a little embarrassed with a young female in the room.  Caitlin smiled at him.

“Don’t be embarrassed John, I raised you from a baby.  I feel like a Mother now.” 

“Of course,” he thought, She and Jason had been taking care of him all this time and watched him develop into an adult right before their very eyes in just a matter of weeks.  He looked at his hands.  He lifted his head up further and looked at his body.  It was so strong and developed he couldn’t believe it. 

“Wow,” he said. 

Jason said, “I know right?  Isn’t it amazing?” 

John was in awe of what was happening.  He was in a different place in a different body yet he felt like himself.
         “What time is it?” He asked.
         “Its 5:00 a.m. John, we just couldn’t wait any longer, we were so excited.  We loaded you up at 2:00 a.m. and you woke up for just a minute but we had you sedated pretty well so you may not remember that for a day or two.  Then we put you back to sleep once we had run a few tests to make sure the load had worked.  We wanted to get the lifefile loaded.” 

“We waited until after 4:00 a.m. to be sure your Lifecorder back at your home was finished with your download for the night.  We ran the interlace program and then we woke you up.  How do you feel?”  He was standing up now and had put on some shorts they had laid out for him.
         “I feel fantastic, I mean really good!  I forgot what an eighteen year old body feels like.  I’m really hungry too.”
         “All right, well what would you like to eat?

“
Don’t I have to eat the pink stuff for a few days?” 

Caitlin shook her head and smiled.    

“No silly you’ve been eating that stuff for weeks through your feeding tube.  That’s why you’re so muscular and strong.  You can have solid foods now if you like.  In fact the last week I have been feeding you some blended foods to get your stomach acclimated to other substances besides the pink supplement.” 

“Really?”
         “Yes, really,” said Jason.
         “So what will it be?  We have a fully stocked kitchen and we know how to use it?”
         “Um, well I guess breakfast.  It’s morning right?”
         “Yes that’s right, let’s get you some breakfast,” said Jason. 

They gave John some clothes which fit him just about right and they all went to the kitchen to fix a nice breakfast.  They sat and talked while they ate and for almost an hour after that.

John brought everyone up to speed on what was going on back in Indy.  They were glad to get so many details as they had only been getting limited information for most of the time.  He told them several stories of cracking codes and building Trojan viruses to take down Cyrus and his band of hackers and thugs. 

It was very exciting for them to hear about what was going on back in Indy because of course they had been hold up there for so long they were getting cabin fever.  Jason looked at his watch.     

“Oh wow, it’s after nine, we had better put in a call to John, I mean the other John.  Wow this is going to get confusing.  Well anyway we need to contact YOU back in Indy to make sure that YOU are okay and then YOU can talk to YOURSELF, weird right?”  Yes, they all agreed that this was very weird.     

“Okay, here goes.” 

Jason pulled out his phone.

“Call John,” he said.  It rang and John answered it on the first ring.
         “Hey John, I’ve got you on speaker phone, how are you feeling this morning?”         “I feel just fine, perfectly normal.”
         “Well John, guess who’s here with me?”
         “Oh boy, me right?”
         “That’s right John, say hello to yourself.”

“Hello John”
         “Hi John” his clone answered.
         “Wow this is amazing!” Said the clone.  Jason spoke up.
         “Okay you guys, I have a suggestion.  How about we call John of Indy John and we call John of the farm JC, this would be a lot less confusing for everyone.”  They all agreed that this would help.
         “Hey John,” said JC, “When you wake up tomorrow you’re going to remember everything I am experiencing here and I have to tell you I am in the best shape of your life.” 

They all busted out laughing.

“Oh my god,” Johns voice came back, “Do I have washboard abs?”
         “Oh yeah buddy, your gals gonna want to swap if she ever sees the new you.”
         “Man that’s cool.  Well I guess tomorrow morning when I wake up I’ll remember everything from there and it will be really amazing.  I can’t wait to go to bed tonight.” 

“Hey John, do you remember anything at all this morning about last night when we woke you up?”
Asked Caitlin.
         “Yes I do.  When I woke up this morning it was as if I had dreamed it but yet I knew somehow that it wasn’t a dream.  I remember you asking me some questions like my name and some other stuff but it’s not perfectly clear.” 

“Yes that would be expected,” Said Jason, “We had you heavily sedated.”
         “Well okay guys, nice job.  How is Dodge’s clone?  Is it ready?”
         “Yes it is, when do you want us to load him up?”
         “Not yet, let’s wait at least another day to make sure that JC and I are in complete sync before we load Dodge.  Don’t want to take any chances.”

“Sounds like a good Idea John.  Don’t
worry, we’ll take care of everything here.”
         “Okay, guys, I’ll let you get back at it and I’ll talk to you tomorrow

morning
.”
         “Okay, bye.”  They ended the call and went to work, there was a great deal to do.

Back at the compound Alice was outside Glitch’s office as ordered gathering her composure.  Glitches’ assistant arrived and escorted her in.  

“Ah, yes Miss Covings, we have some questions for you.”
         “We?”  Alice looked around; there was no one else there.
         “Well, that is Cyrus and I have some questions that we would like for you to answer.”
         “Okay” Alice said, feeling a little worried that someone had seen her and Toby out past curfew. 

“It seems that someone accessed some high level files from one of the lab computers, do you know anything about that?”
         “No, Sir, I don’t” but she knew it was very likely her and that is was the night that Cyrus tortured the custodian he believed to be Dodge Kerrington. 

“Well, Miss Covings, who do
you think it might have been if you had to guess?”  Her mind was racing to come up with a quick answer.    

“Well, I think I may know what happened.  Do you remember the day that you were down in lab no. 2 working with me on some lifefiles?”

“Yes I remember.”
         “You logged in on the computer in the back there, remember?”  Glitch thought for a minute.

“Yes, well, I do now.”
         “Well Sir Cyrus called me down there much later, in the middle of the night.  When I got there, I noticed the computer was on and a log in screen was still up, the user name and password were filled in but you hadn’t logged in. 

I knew this was a security breach and as you know Sir the only way to get out of that screen is to hit enter and log in and then log out, there is no cancel.  I was autoclaving a tray of instruments that night for Cyrus because he was working on Dodge Kerrington down there.  Anyway I had hit
the submit in order to close out the screen and protect the system when the autoclave began beeping that it was done.  Cyrus heard it and got angry that it was taking me so long.  So I left the station without logging out to take Cyrus the tray. When I returned, it had finished logging in and returned to the last page you had viewed, I guess because you have your settings that way.  I saw that it was Kerrington’s file and I logged out immediately Sir. 

I intended to tell you about it but Cyrus kept me down there until almost lunch the next day and I was going on only a few hours sleep.  I’m sorry
Sir, it won’t happen again, I was only trying to protect the system.