RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (53 page)

They had a good laugh about it as they headed to the dock area.

“So is Tobe my new nick name now?”

“Yeah maybe, we’ll see if it sticks.” 

They got in the van to leave but Toby had forgotten all about the bag.  One of the guards was eyeing him.  “Oh yeah I forgot,” he said, as he grabbed it and put it over his head.   He heard the door go up and Todd started the van.  As soon as they got clear of the compound Todd said “dude, lose that bag would ya?  I trust you and don’t really give a crap about the rules anymore.”  Toby took the bag off and looked around.
         “Yip, I thought this was where we were at anyway, I could tell by the sounds of the afternoon commute trains and even the aroma from those hot dog vendors over there, smells like they have some peanuts roasting too.”
         “Yeah I figured you knew about where it was anyhow, but you know how they are about the rules.  Don’t worry man, just keep doing what you’re told and before long they’ll tell you to ditch that bag.  You will start getting bigger jobs to do and maybe even some errands here and there.  The best jobs to get are the outside watcher jobs, they actually get houses and cars and cash to spend.  All they have to do is follow people and keep an eye on them.” 

“Where does Cyrus find these people anyway?” Toby asked.
         “Well most of them are just like me.  He tries to find people that don’t really have too much to lose in life.  He takes them in off the street and gives them a place to stay for a while and then offers them a job, and even a new identity if they need one.  The trade off is real simple, you have to accept the head implant that can end your life and Cyrus promises you a big pile of cash and freedom after ten years of service.” 

“Why would anybody want to take that much risk?” Toby asked.
         “Well for example one guy I know about was in a prison on death row when a fire broke out and he managed to escape in the confusion.  He figured that eventually he would be caught or he would die an old man and have no means of being restored without a valid identity.  If he turned himself in, the authorities would either carry out the planned execution or they would simply let him die of old age with no Restoration available to death row inmates.  Cyrus offered him a ten and out deal, ten years of loyal service and he would be given his freedom and a new identity that would be complete with restoration rights.  As soon as they agree he sends them off to some secret clinic they have setup where they do cosmetic surgery and they create a complete new identity for them.” 

“Has anyone ever got out after their agreement?” Toby asked.
         “Well no, but that’s because this has only been going on now for about eight years.  There are a few people that say they only have two years to go and they are getting pretty anxious to get out.  Of course that’s providing Cyrus honors his agreement and that is a long shot.  There has already been one of the eight year veteran guys terminated for alleged insubordination.  He was deployed on a mission to another city and never returned.  Cyrus gathered everyone together and announced that he was terminated and he showed some news feed of his body being removed from some hotel room as a John Doe and then they showed a picture of his face asking the public to help identify the unknown man.  Cyrus announced this is what happens to you when you try to run from Cyrus Slade before your contractual obligations are fulfilled.  The maid at the hotel had found him dead in the bed with aluminum foil wrapped around his head and just holes for his eyes, ears, and mouth.  He thought the same thing you did Toby, he thought that if he covered himself up in the foil Cyrus couldn’t detonate the charge in his brain.”  Toby smiled.     

“Well at least we know what NOT to do right?”
         “Exactly, we had better just do what we’re told.”  After a long pause Toby said “You know I guess I don’t feel too sorry for people that have agreed to work with Cyrus but you know I didn’t agree to this. They nabbed me and faked my death because they wanted me for my computer skills.  And the girl you saw me with, she was a very successful geneticist with a husband and children before Cyrus had his men murder her in an alley.  They cloned her back up for their own use.”

“Oh yeah, I know” Todd said, “She’s Cheyenne’s friend.  She told me about how Alice’s life was basically hijacked by Cyrus.”
         “Exactly!”  Toby said, with a good bit of anger in his voice.  See that’s not fair man.  Cyrus does have some volunteers, but people like Alice didn’t volunteer.  She really had a great life and he just stole it from her.  Now her husband is out there, probably thinks she’s dead, and he’s probably moved on with his life.  No doubt involved with someone new, and meanwhile she’s stuck in this horrible place with Slade, that’s evil man, just pure evil.”

Todd looked at him. 

“Hey, I agree, I really do, but don’t try goin all hero on me because I still have several years to go to get my freedom.  If you drag me into something, I’ll go down with you, and I might not ever get out.” 
         “Yeah, well, don’t worry, I would never do that to you or anyone else for that matter, I’m just not like that.”
         “That’s good to know, I want to be able to trust you.” 

Toby was wondering what Todd’s story was but he hesitated to ask, he figured Todd would tell him when he was ready.

Chapter 24
   
 
They arrived at the house and pulled the van into the garage off the alley as usual.  Toby rode the entire trip without the bag and now he knew exactly where the compound was.  It didn’t really matter though because the Black Ops team already knew, but still he felt he had accomplished something by gaining Todd’s trust. 

When they went inside they found Cheyenne in the kitchen, she had fixed a nice breakfast and just put it out on the table.
         “Anybody hungry?” She asked, as they came walking in.  Toby went to her and hugged her.    

“Hey girl, good to see you, smells good,” he said.  They all sat down and ate and had some conversation with a second cup of coffee.  Todd began reading the digipaper, but would still inject a comment once in a while.  They were done with their second cup of coffee and were about to get up when Todd lowered the digipaper just enough to see Cheyenne.    

“Oh, by the way, ole Tobe here has eyes big time for your pal Alice.”  Toby glared at him but could only see the digipaper wiggling a little.  It was obvious that Todd was laughing silently while hiding behind it.

Cheyenne’s face lit up with a big smile and she put her hand on Toby’s.     

“Oh yeah? I heard a little something about that too, want to share?”  Toby’s face began to turn a little red, he wondered how much Cheyenne might already know.
         “Hey, I wasn’t going to ask, but if Todd knows, that’s just not fair,” said Cheyenne.  Todd lowered his paper and looked at Cheyenne.       “Are there some security issues we need to discuss?”
         “Noooo,” she said, as she patted Todd’s hand.     

“You know women have their own ways of communicating as she pointed to her head and said, brain power Todd, pure brain power.”
         “Yeah right, more like big mouth power, I know what goes on,

but
I’m telling you that if you get caught you’re on your own.”  Todd raised his paper back up and Cheyenne started making  stupid faces at him that made Toby laugh.  Todd lowered the paper and looked at Toby.  “She’s making faces isn’t she?” 

Cheyenne and Toby both started laughing.     

“Well maybe” said Toby.
         “God, you guys are like two peas in a pod, I’m going in to watch some TV and pretend I don’t know any of this just in case Cyrus tortures me later.”  After Todd left the room Cheyenne just sat there smiling and staring at Toby with both her hands under her chin.  She got up and poured them both a third cup of coffee.  She had her coffee cupped in both of her hands and one bare foot up on the corner of the table with paper towel stuffed between her toes.
         “So you’re gonna paint your nails huh?” She smiled.

“Yip, so tell me about you and Alice.”
         “Oh jeeze, it sounds like you already know, and besides you’re embarrassing me.”  He jumped up from the table and headed upstairs.  As he went, she pleaded.    

“No, come back, come on, I’ll leave it alone,” then she laughed.

“Todd was right, they were going to get in trouble for sure.      Women haven’t changed in eighty years.
 
But men haven’t either, we still can’t stay away from them, we’re just too weak.” 

He went up to his bedroom and called Bobby.  Bobby answered.

“Hey Toby how are you man?”
         “I’m pretty good, what are you doing tonight? You want to hang out?”
         “Sure, you want me to come over there? Or you come over to our house?”
         “Oh, I don’t know, my parents are a little grumpy tonight.  It might be better if I came over there.  I don’t want to invite myself over but I would be afraid to ask my  parents if you could stay over tonight.”
         “All right, I’ll call you back in a few,” said Bobby.
         “Okay, bye.” 

Bobby already knew that his Dad wanted Toby to come over as soon as possible so that they could get out in the car and talk.  They needed to exchange a lot of information but they still had to be very careful with the phones. 
Especially when Toby returned from the compound.  It would just be too easy for someone to tamper with Toby’s phone while he was sleeping or even swap it out all together. 

Security software that John had installed on Toby’s phone was only good if it was still the same phone.  Bobby ran downstairs only to find that his Dad was still upstairs showering, it seemed strange to Bobby that his Dad was running late, that was not normal for Dodge.  Dodge had taken longer than usual getting up and showering this morning.  When we woke up he was shocked at everything
he  had learned yesterday at the farm.  More details had been discovered about Cyrus’s plan, including intel verifying that Cyrus had some powerful people in Washington already in his pocket.  He had several congressmen, senators, and a few lobbyist working with him.  They were surprised at just how far it had gone.  There were even people in his organization that had influenced the stock values for ESS and several of their competitors.  Dodge felt somewhat diminished in his accomplishments at ESS because of this discovery.  He had worked so hard to build this system and believed he was protecting something he had built.  Now he finds out that he had some help along the way from Cyrus.

Cyrus
didn’t directly help either him or John and it was still their hard work and genius that made the Restoration process possible but Cyrus had very much wanted this technology to succeed.  So while they were doing their research and development to make the hardware and software come together Cyrus was busy manipulating the markets through his connections in Washington and within several large funds. 

ESS had landed several huge multimillion dollar government grants edging out their competitors.  Now they knew that Cyrus pulled strings and blackmailed people and did every underhanded thing he could to push those grant approvals through.  Without Cyrus this whole thing might have never come together.  This was very upsetting to him and John.  He talked to John first thing when he woke up, John was pissed, he was ready to move on the compound today,
he really wanted to see Cyrus either dead or in custody.  They both realized now that even when they did take down the compound there would still be so many loose ends out there in high and powerful places, and their work would not be complete for quite some time. 

They agreed that it still had to be done, they would take it down and then give all of their Intel to people that they believed they could trust.  Hopefully these high-ranking individuals were really the good guys they believed them to be and hopefully they would do the right thing, go after the corrupt officials, root them out and bring them to justice.

Dodge finished getting ready, and did his best to put on a happy face, after all, once he left the upstairs bathroom he would once again enjoy being observed continuously.  He went downstairs to find Bobby at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal while reading the box.
         “So what cha eatin sport?” He said, as he plopped down and grabbed the box from Bobby.     

“Hey!” I was reading that, and since when do you eat super
Captain crunch anyway?”
         “Well Son, I feel like being a kid today, so Captain crunch it is.”  He poured himself a nice big bowl, and handed the box back to Bobby.      “Well at least you’re reading something printed on a solid object for a change.”
         “Yeah, but did you see that new box of cereal we had last week, it has a screen on it like the digipaper, it’s called tasty bytes and bits.”
         “No kiddin? You telling me it has a power source and everything?”          “Yeah, it’s got a solar panel on the box so you just leave it in the light for a minute and then you can use the screen to read fun facts about computers and the history of how they were developed.  It even has sound and it will read it to you if you’re too lazy to read it yourself.”
         “Wow that’s actually kind of cool” Dodge said, technology had certainly changed a lot in his time, the boxes just had cheap plastic toys in them when he was a kid. 

“Hey Dad, can Toby come over today and maybe stay all night?”
         “Sure Son, I don’t see why not, but double check with your Mother, she might have something planned that I forgot about.”
         “Okay” he jumped up to go find his Mother.  Dodge knew Linsey would say yes because that was pretty much an agreed standing yes.  They needed Toby there every chance they could get without seeming over eager.