REVERSE
Book Two of The Infusion Series

Steven Tandberg

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sincere thanks go to all those who helped with the editing process.

Spencer and Hillary Morgan

Victoria Chacon

Caroline Smailes of Bubblecow (www.bubblecow.com)

J. Scott Wilson of Piedmont Copy Desk (www.guru.com/freelancers/piedmont-copy-desk)

The characters, events, and many of the locations in this novel are fictitious. Any similarity is coincidental and not intended by the author

Copyright © 2014 Steven Tandberg

All rights reserved

ISBN-10: 0984700544

ISBN-13: 978-0-9847005-4-7

DEDICATION

To my dear brother and friend, Paul Tandberg.

Your absence pains my heart every day.

Prologue

Life is sure full of “I never thoughts.” I never thought I’d get cancer. I never thought my mom would die in a lab accident. I surely never thought my dad would break down as he has. I never thought curing my cancer would come with such a curse. That the company that seemingly cleansed my body of those rapidly dividing and spreading cells would improve me but also flat out copy me. I never thought my copy (I know it’s getting crazy now) would kill the person I trusted most, Dr. Strayer. Oh, and then kidnap my girlfriend. But hey! I never thought I’d have a girlfriend, especially someone like Jamie. I guess that’s a positive “I never thought” among a crap load of negatives. Here are some more. I never thought I’d need a highly skilled protection team led by Manuel. I thought his protection would be a positive, but that team just shot me up, so I think that falls into the negative category. But, I’m getting ahead of my bullet-ridden self. I never thought I’d be seduced by a fellow cancer “thriver” named Nevaeh. Just thinking about her makes me shudder. If she ever goes to her backward namesake, I’d rather go to the nether-regions just to avoid her. Oh, and don’t forget that because of me Jamie’s mom shot her dad while meaning to shoot me. Who knows if he even survived?

So yeah, my life has been a whirlwind of pain these past few years. Life is cruel. That’s what I’ve learned. Life is brutal and unforgiving. You may think you’re in control, that the “I never thought that would happen” won’t come to pass, but it will. Something crappy will happen that will change your entire life, your very being. The pastor would say that there is purpose in all of these experiences, whether positive or negative. But, I think that’s a bunch of bull. What purpose would there be in my mom dying, my trusted friend and doctor dying, my girlfriend being drugged, and likely raped, and now me bleeding out on the courtyard of the hacienda, huh?

Anyway, enjoy the next series of “I never” thoughts. It’s about to get brutal.

Part One

Purgatory

1  Death and Light

That warm, beckoning light I’d heard about from others’ so-called “near death experiences” didn’t materialize for me. My world went dim as if a gray filter flipped over my motionless eyes. The pain shooting through my legs and shoulder dissolved into the hard ground as my life slipped. I managed one last blink before a flash of light transported me somewhere. This somewhere seemed far away. My feet dangled high above the ground, at least what I sensed was the ground far below. I felt light as if something beneath me was urging me up.

Swirling murky clouds billowed up from below, encircling me as they rose. Faster and faster they revolved around me, inching closer with each spin. They made contact, and my vision went pitch black. A void formed around me, a void of all things physical. No air tickled my skin; no light illuminated my surroundings. I continued up, and as I rose, my mind felt lighter and lighter. Mists of my consciousness began to float about, threatening to leave me. I tried to reach for them, but I realized I had no physical arms. I had no body to move. Only my mind, or soul, could hold them close.

“Coyle?” a familiar voice echoed in the void.

“Yeah? Who’s there?” I didn’t need to ask, I knew who he was. I could feel him. His essence was my essence.

“Are we dead?” he asked.

“Maybe,” I said. Probably, really. The amount of blood I lost and the giant holes in my legs weren’t the most compatible with life.

“Where are we?”

“I don’t know where we are. Maybe heaven or hell, or somewhere in between?”

“Probably hell,” he said.

“Why do you say that?” I asked, already annoyed by my other self.

“Killing people normally doesn’t get you into the good graces of heaven,” he stated frankly. “You and I both know that.”

A pang of guilt stung my soul for a brief moment. “I had to. They’d tried to kill me, they… You, you kidnaped Jamie. They would have killed her. What was I supposed to do?”

“Killing is killing, man. You and I are the same in that way, and a few more ways for that matter.”

“We are not the same!” I tried to yell at him.

“If I could, I would show you,” he calmly replied. “We are the same. Same motivations, same personality, same killing ability, you just didn’t fully realize it. You were close. I heard what you did to the guards at Somatotech. Impressive, but I could have done better if you hadn’t screwed everything up.”

“Screwed everything up? Somatotech screwed with my life,” I said to my unseen other.

“Dr. Tessel gave you life,” he said with force, jamming the message into my consciousness.

“Maybe so, but he also tried to control it, tried to force my hand,” I retorted.

“You confuse control with guidance. Why can’t I see you anyway?” he said, changing the subject.

I tried to peer through the void, to no avail. The darkness consumed me as if it was part of me. “Maybe we are dead,” I said. The word elicited no emotion. I felt slightly confused but not angry about dying. I knew it would come eventually, whether through my cancer returning or Somatotech’s revenge. I didn’t expect it from the very people who protected me.

“Why are we together?” he asked.

I didn’t know, but I had my theories. Maybe Aedan was right, maybe our souls, or rather my soul had been split. “You were a part of me. The same connection we had during life we must have now in death,” I explained.

“If we are dead,” he said with an air of incredulity.

“Right,” I said, “but if we are, I’m sorry your life was so short.” I actually meant it. Life is life. Maybe my clone could have seen the light and changed his ways. Maybe he could have made something of his clone life. Not likely, but possible.

“So short? At least I grew up and had a family. You were born in a test tube,” he responded.

“A test tube?” I nearly laughed. “What in the heck are you talking about?” My near laugh became a nervous chuckle. Then a sharp barb of doubt stung my non-physical heart. “You have it wrong.” He had to. “I grew up with Mom, Dad and Greg. I fell in love with Jamie. You were my clone, my freakin’ clone nemesis.”

“You can tell yourself that, alpha male one. Do you even know what that stands for? You were the first copy, the first clone.”

It’s not possible! My memories could be implanted sure, but my feelings? My love for Jamie isn’t some programmed implant in my brain. When I woke, after the treatment, I yearned for Jamie. Where would that come from if not from my heart?

Roxanne’s voice came to me, breaking my thought process, “They cured Coyle’s cancer.” His cancer, not mine. What if it is true? I fought the thought back into the recesses of my soul and focused on my other.

“You killed Dr. Strayer. If you were the real Coyle, you never would’ve done that. He cared for us, tried to cure us.”

“Dr. Strayer had it coming.”

“What do you mean? He tried to save us, er, I mean me.” The audacity of his statement hit me and anger summoned from deep inside.

“Wow, they need to work on this clone education thing. You know nothing, do you?”

“I know who you were: a murderer and a rapist.”

He chuckled, infuriating me further.

“Rapist? Not quite. I knew she wouldn’t put out, just wanted to test the waters again.”

“Don’t you dare talk about her!” Now the anger surged up and surrounded me. If only I could reach him to strangle him, to squeeze out the last bit of life we seemed to be holding on to.

“Jamie was mine before she was yours,” he said with an air of resentment, interrupting my murderous thought.

“No, that doesn’t make sense. I…”

Before I could finish the sentence light as bright as the sun enveloped me.  A rush of euphoria swept through my being and then left suddenly as quickly as it came. The sensation of lift vanished, and a sickening feeling of falling took its place. I fell and fell until I heard her voice like a faint wind chime in the distance.

“Coyle? You can wake up now.” Her voice became more clear and present. “Please, I need you here now. You can’t die on me.”

A single warm tear landed on my cheek then slid slowly down my face. My facial muscles flinched.

“Coyle! Are you there?” Another tear dripped on my face. “Dr. Bartnev, he moved! His face, it reacted to my tear. That’s a good sign, right?”

“Let me see.” I heard someone turn on a faucet and then a steady stream of water splash into a metal basin.

Without warning, a frigid blast of cold water splashed on my face soaking my hair and slipping into my ears. My eyelids shot open. Forms of people flashed before my eyes. Someone came close, a fuzzy profile in front of bright lights. My eyes refused to focus on anything but oblivion. She came closer and kissed me. Her lips, those soft lips! Jamie. Her soft hands cradled my face.

“Oh Coyle, I knew you wouldn’t leave me. Promise you’ll make it? Please?” Her lips made sweet contact with mine again.

I attempted to move my limbs to hug her, kiss her back, or even just hold her hand, but they didn’t budge.  She came close again, and I could smell her familiar sweet scent.

My fixed eyes began to dry. The irritation grew, spreading along the outer surface of my eyes. They began to feel as if they would crack open like boiled eggs. My madness grew with the torture. Apparently, the monitors hooked up all over me detected my irritation as well. The machines scattered about the room all beeped loudly.

“Close his eyes,” said Dr. Bartnev. “They dry, are irritated, it’s very painful.”

Jamie gently lowered my eyelids, savoring each moment she could see my fixed eyes.

I wanted to yell out, “Open them again! I need to see you,” but I couldn’t speak. A tube was stuck deep within my trachea. Sound waves were all that connected me with the outside world now, nothing else.

“When will he come all the way back to us?” Jamie asked.

“You must understand, he still may die, very critical state. If he lives, his nerves must, how do you say, regenerate, and that could take long while.” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “But, considering his abilities, it may be sooner. His blood volume is rebounding nicely considering we could not give him blood,” said Dr. Bartnev as he handled some metallic objects. The clanking continued followed by a rush of water from the faucet.

“Will he be the same?” Jamie asked.

“What do you mean? Will the body be the same? It should if he lives.”

“I mean his personality, will it be the same? You know, his Coyleness.”

“Coyleness?” asked Dr. Bartnev with obvious puzzlement.

“You know, the way he does things, how he talks, his likes and dislikes, how he loves,” Her voice choked up.

“Are you asking will he love? That, I do not know. But, Любовь и яиц лучше всего, когда они свежие,” Dr. Bartnev broke out into his native tongue.

“What does that mean?” asked Jamie.

“Russian proverb. It says love and eggs are best when they are fresh. If Coyle survives, you have fresh start.”

That pushed Jamie over the emotional edge. She began to cry with soft sobs.

I’m going to make it. I love you, Jamie. I will make it for you, I thought

While my mind desired to live, my body had other intentions. The machines in the room started beeping vigorously again. My head felt light like I was going to float away. My heart began to race, beating hard against my chest. Then my vital organ erupted into erratic beats, paired beats here and a single beat there.

“I need to administer more anesthesia. His vitals jumping all over the place.” He shuffled about the room preparing instruments.

No! Don’t put me out again. I need to hear her voice!

One of the monitors let out a sustained beep. My heart had stopped cold. I urged it to beat, desperately trying to force it with my mind. It remained deathly still.

Help me! I’m dying. No, this can’t happen again!

I poured out all the mental faculties in my soon-to-be oxygen-deprived brain to force my body to action. Not a single cell in my body reacted, as if they had all already given up.

“Coyle!” Jamie yelled.

“Stand back,” said Dr. Bartnev, his voice tinged with anxiety.

The IV in my left arm moved and a cool sensation spread up my arm. My legs instantly felt light as if they were floating above the table. The sensation ascended my paralyzed body and finally arrived at my brain. Intense joy hypnotized my mind. I felt like laughing as if being repeatedly shot, dying, being paralyzed, and now dying again were the funniest things in the world. I couldn’t move a single muscle but inside I was smiling. Dr. Bartnev gives the good stuff, I thought. Am I dying? The thought barely registered in my aloof, doped-up mind.

My consciousness started slipping into that same dark void. Jamie started crying loudly, heaving deep sobs and spraying tears onto my face. She grabbed my hand and squeezed fiercely. I could feel pressure on my chest. Someone pressing, pressing hard, over and over…

2  Cold Metal

I awoke to darkness. Only the regular beat of my heart thumped in my ears. I lay face up, arms at my side. A thin plastic-lined fabric sheet covered my body, and a small tag hung delicately off my right great toe. The cool metal of the platform felt as if I lay on ice. I raised my hand and pulled the sheet off my face. Pitch black. I jolted up and slammed my head into a hard metal ceiling. Lights flashed before my eyes but did nothing to illuminate the room. I lay back letting the throbbing die down. I raised my hands and knocked against the tight walls and ceiling of my tomb. Metal surrounded me on all sides. My heart began to tick harder. Where am I? Have I been buried? How can I breathe?

I lifted my left foot and tapped the far end of the box. Metal as well. With my toe, I traced the outline of what seemed to be a door. Two bolts stuck out from one side. On examination of the end close to my head, I found no such bolts. I kicked and kicked at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Where was my strength?

Despite the chill in the air, sweat dripped off my body, making me slide every time I kicked. I kicked once more and the platform I lay on moved back ever so slightly. Reaching down on the side, I felt a track on which the table rested. I wiped my hands on the fabric side of the sheet and turned my hands out onto the walls. I pressed my toes to the sides as well and began to rock back and forth on the track. Something clicked, and the table slid easily. I pushed it back to the end and then flexed hard, ramming the platform into the door. The door flung open, and I continued to slide out at an alarming pace. The platform jolted to a stop at the end of the track, sending me to the cool tile floor below.  I landed flat on my backside. Pain shot up my tailbone, so I stayed there for a few moments, allowing the pain to recede.

The muscles from my head down struggled to wake, and my joints popped as I lifted myself and then leaned on the platform before sitting on it. I dangled my legs off the side for a moment, letting the blood circulate through my seemingly frozen toes. I stood up and pain like needles shot up my feet causing me to grab the platform to stabilize myself. After a few tentative steps, I regained feeling and could walk like a normal person again. That’s when I noticed my current state of dress or lack thereof. I was naked, as in completely naked. I looked down at my bare legs. They were pristine, not a sign of injury. I wound my arm up as if to throw a pitch. My shoulder felt a little stiff but didn’t have the slightest hint of pain.

Goosebumps formed on my skin as I looked around. The deathly chill in the room seemed to creep along the lifeless autopsy instruments hanging on the walls. The only light illuminating the dark room shone in through a small window in the door leading to a hallway. I knew this place; I’d been here with Drs. Strayer and Bartnev when they tried to extract the device in my neck. It was the mortuary next to Salsitas.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” I yelled out.

No response. Silence. Not even the gentle sound of breathing or regular lub-dub of a heart made it to my supersonic ears. Nobody home.

The room had only one door leading out to the hallway. It was locked from the outside. I tried to pull the door off its hinges, but my atypical strength failed me. A white coat hung near the door, so I grabbed it and covered up my naked body. Scanning the tools hanging on the far wall my eye caught sight of a hammer and a set of chisels. I chose a thin, short one and pulled it down. Taking the tools, I popped out the pins from the door hinges. Then, after grabbing the largest chisel, I wedged the door out. It crashed to the floor with a sound to wake the dead. No one awoke or came.

I walked down the dimly lit hallway to the mortuary office. I pulled on the door, locked. I yanked on it harder. This one gave up less resistance and opened with a jerk, breaking through the wooden frame. I felt a release on the back of my neck, followed by the sensation of warm fluid trickling down my back. I tentatively touched the area with my hand. A small break in my skin gaped open; I could feel the frayed edges of my skin and the broken sutures. I moved over to a mirror and strained to see my neck. Sure enough, a small incision in the area of the bump splayed open, oozing a trickling stream of blood. I prodded again, searching in the wound for the tracker with my fingers, but found nothing. Was I free? Had Dr. Bartnev removed it? I pressed on the wound until the bleeding stopped and wiped my fingers on the white coat.

The office had two matching desks on either side of the room. I grabbed the phone on the closer one. I dialed the phone Dr. Strayer had given me. It had ringed five times before someone picked up.

“Hola. ¿Quien es?”

“It’s me, Coyle.”

“Aye Dios mio!” I heard a clack and knew he had dropped the phone. The sound of him running away echoed into the earpiece.

“Hello? Anyone there?” I yelled into the phone. The line stayed live, and I could hear voices in the background. Footsteps approached the phone.

“Who is this?”

I recognized Manuel’s deep scratchy voice.

“Manuel, it’s me, Coyle. What’s going on?”

“Prove it,” he curtly replied.

“Prove what?” I threw up my hand not holding the phone.

“Prove you are who you say you are. Now! Or, I hang up and destroy this phone.”

“Solitude. The very word that stopped your men from freakin’ killing me is solitude.”

“They did kill you, Coyle. You died yesterday.”

So I did die. How is this possible? What am I?

“How am I alive then?” I asked the question Manuel obviously couldn’t answer.

“That is the key question, señor Fénix. I am sending Tigre to come get you. Hang tight. Do not go outside. Do not turn on any lights. Do not use the phone again and stay away from the windows.”

“Hey, Manuel?” I looked down at the lab coat covering my naked body.

“Yes?”

“Can you bring me some clothes?”

Tigre arrived in just under twenty minutes. Coasting into the back alley, I heard his car pull up even though he cut the engine a few hundred feet away. He cautiously unlocked the back door and opened it just enough to slip inside. As he approached, he slowed, scanning me up and down with his eyes. After a few steps, he stopped abruptly with the table in between us.

“Are you the devil?” Tigre asked, still eyeing me.

“What do you mean?” I said.

He didn’t respond, just crossed himself and then gruffly tossed me the clothes.

I caught them with ease and responded, “I don’t know what I am.” Tigre, never much for words, left it there. He motioned for me to go back into the office to change. The clothes fit perfectly, although I had never seen them before. Did Jamie pick these out? Will she be there?

I came out, and he pointed for me to follow him to the car. As I came outside, he tapped on the hood and motioned for me to push the car back up the alley. I placed my hands on the hood and braced a foot on the curb. Even in my weakened state, the car rolled easily up the alleyway.

Tigre remained eerily silent on the way to the compound. I didn’t mind though; I wasn’t in the mood to talk either. The thought of dying and coming back to life consumed me. If I have the ability, what about my clone? I refused to believe that lunatic was the real me. But, is he really dead? That thought scared me more than all others.

We arrived at the hacienda under the cover of darkness. Tigre had cut the lights for the last couple of miles, allowing the moonlight to illuminate our path. He pulled up to the front and indicated with his hand for me to get out. When I didn’t immediately jump out of the car, he started pushing my shoulder.

“Wait, where are you going?” I asked, grabbing his arm.

He shook it off gruffly and pushed me again. “To get your girlfriend.” He reached toward my seat belt.

“What do you mean? Where is she?” I grabbed the seat belt blocking the button.

“Get out. Manuel is waiting.” He reached over and pushed the door open.

I relented and stepped out after realizing negotiating with Tigre would be futile. The hacienda itself looked the same as the night of Dr. Strayer’s murder, except for one thing: Instead of a single barrel sticking out of the tower, there were two and as we entered the gate, I noticed two armed men behind the trees. Heightened security, had Somatotech gotten to them?

I walked to the same door Doña Maria had ushered me through my first night at the hacienda, the night Dr. Strayer had died.  The door creaked as I opened it to the unlit hallway. The Doña stood dead center silhouetted by the light escaping the kitchen.

“Doña!” I went toward her. I couldn’t contain my smile. Unfortunately, it wasn’t reciprocated. My own dissolved as I saw the concerned look on her face. She shook her head slightly, maintaining strict eye contact. Her heart beat hard and fast. She was nervous.

“What’s going on?” She didn’t answer, just turned on her heel, walked down the hallway slowly and into the kitchen.

A chill crept up my back as my ears picked up on the gentle sound of someone else’s calm breathing.              I strode into the kitchen, rounding the corner with hesitance. Manuel sat at the tile island alone facing away from me. I walked to the other side and sat on the stool across from him. His hand rested on a Berretta 9mm, his finger toying with the safety. He fixed his eyes on the speckled marble backsplash behind the sink.

The distinct odor of freshly cooked tortillas wafted through the air as we sat, the heat from the stove warming my skin. Memories of my time learning to cook with the Doña flooded back. She stood near the pantry with her back to me, apparently looking through ingredients.

I spoke first, “Where is everybody?”

Manuel slowly turned toward the entryway and then back to me, reminiscent of the first time I had met him at Salsitas.

“Welcome back, Coyle,” he said, with his characteristic deep scratchy voice, “You are a most unexpected guest.”

“I’m glad to be back.” That was an understatement. The afterlife sure didn’t seem as grand as people made it seem.

“Unfortunately, your presence is unnerving for our household. Even the Doña has her misgivings about you now.” He nodded toward her.

I looked to the Doña for some rebuttal. She stayed turned away from us though her heart picked up a beat. A sinking feeling hit my gut. The Doña?

Manuel continued, “We all saw you die. You bled out in my arms. Lucky for you, Dr. Bartnev brought you back, stopped the bleeding, and took out your tracker. Later, you crashed. Heart stopped frozen. He called it at 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday. One day ago.”

“I...”

“Don’t speak, Coyle. Let me finish. While I do not know what you are…” He paused. “Where the others are afraid, I, on the other hand, recognize a tremendous opportunity for us.” He motioned to himself and then to me.

“Opportunity?” I cocked my head and furrowed my brows.

“You owe me. I gave you housing, food, weapons, and most importantly, protection. This is a great debt to repay. Thankfully, your abilities now can match that debt if utilized correctly.”

A crash from the pantry diverted our attention. A glass bowl burst into thousands of pieces on the tile floor in front of the Doña. She sped out of the kitchen without a word. I attempted to stand, but Manuel grabbed my arm.

“Sit,” he commanded. I sat.

“I owe you, I know I do. And I will do what it takes, but Manuel, I don’t like the sound of what you are describing.”

“You don’t have to like it. It is what it is,” he said while again handling the handgun.

The creak of the front door echoed down the hallway, so I swung around in my seat. Manuel had put me on edge with all this talk of debt and repayment, not to mention him toying with that gum. Footsteps echoed out toward us, running closer and closer down the hall. I stood up and prepared for an assault.

"Coyle!" Jamie’s voice rang out like sweet, unexpected music. She rounded the corner and barreled toward me.

My angel had come. Her impact nearly knocked me off the stool. We embraced, holding each other with a tightness not even death could separate.

"I thought I had lost you." She squeezed harder, burying her head into my chest.

"I'm sorry, I…”

She didn’t let me finish. Jamie lifted her head and gently pulled me in close, her hands on either side of my face. She paused a few inches from my lips, staring into my eyes. Hers welled up with tears. They dripped onto her blushed cheeks.

“You promised! You promised not to leave me.” Tears now spilled over her lips, making her pause to wipe them away.  “I woke in that van to blood everywhere and Aedan screaming. The guy driving said you had been shot and weren't moving. I couldn’t see you, I just couldn’t believe it.” She wiped more tears away. “I screamed at whoever kept us out, away from you.” Jamie’s cold eyes flashed toward Manuel and then she continued, “They finally opened the gate, and we raced up to you. When I got close, I could see the blood pooling all around you. You weren’t moving; you weren’t breathing Coyle! I ran to you and turned you over. Your eyes were open, but you weren't there. I couldn’t see any life in you. That look, the look I loved was gone. I shook you and slapped you. But you wouldn’t come back to me.” She stared into my eyes. “I hated you at that moment. You’d promised to not leave me.” I gently wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I just had to get in. Aedan… ”

“I know, I know. It’s just hard. Hard seeing the one you love escape your reach. I had nothing. Nothing I could do would save you.” She rested her hand on my heart.

“How did you save me?”

“I didn’t. Manuel ran to us, grabbed you from me and carried you into the house. I ran after him, but Tigre stopped me at the door.”

“Why?”

“I was hysterical, basically a basket case. Tigre said only Manuel could save you.”

“What about Dr. Bartnev? How did he know all this went down?”

Manuel spoke up, “Dr. Bartnev, just as Dr. Strayer, is a former companion in crime. We called him the moment you stopped the firing.”

“The moment I stopped the firing?” I released Jamie and gave Manuel a hard stare.

“We couldn’t take any chances, Coyle,” he said without looking at me. “I gave the orders and they were to fire until we were certain you were who you claimed to be.”

That was the agreement; he couldn’t risk it. My clone would have killed them all. I turned to Jamie, not wanting to relive the terror of that night. “But later I came to. I felt your kiss, your tears.”

“I knew you could hear me. But then you… ”

“I died again.”

“And now, miraculously, you are alive,” Manuel again interjected.

“What kind of trickery did they work on you?” Tigre, uncharacteristically, spoke up.

“Miracle patient.” Dr. Bartnev entered the room. Surprisingly, I didn’t hear or sense his approach. “Cells, Coyle’s cells, hold much ATP. Remarkable indeed.”

Manuel and Tigre turned to Dr. Bartnev with confused looks.

“Adenosine triphosphate, the molecule that directs energy transfer in cells,” I explained to everyone, eyeing Tigre. Death hadn’t killed my nerdy side.

“Correct, ATP runs cells. I analysis your blood. Intracellular levels five times higher than normal person. Your cells stop working with lots of trauma but no go into apoptosis, cell death.”

“So he can’t die?” said Tigre with a hand resting on his holstered weapon.

“He dies, in a sense, but it is more a shock. His cells no function for a time.” Dr. Bartnev rested his hand on my shoulder. “But this wonder never quite stays dead.”

A muted gasp escaped Tigre’s mouth.

3  Captivated Captives

“I’m sure there is a way to kill this young man. It may prove difficult, but there is always a way,” said Manuel, eyeing Tigre.

“Um, I am right here, Manuel.” I waved to him as if he didn’t see me. “Can we stop talking about how I’m gonna die? I’ve kinda had enough of that in the last few days.”

He nodded and then whispered something in Spanish to Tigre. He eyed me with the same look he gave me at the mortuary. Tigre grinned and looked at me as well. I made a mental note to learn Spanish as soon as possible.

Jamie squeezed her arms tighter around me. I wrapped my arms around hers in response, savoring the smoothness of her skin. Nothing made me feel more alive than loving her. Will I ever die? The thought of living forever struck me as so diametrically opposite to my last year of life I almost chuckled. No wonder Manuel sees me as an asset and possibly a threat; I am the most powerful person in the world. Did the army know about my true nature? Are all the cancer patients Somatotech treated like me, immortal? Jamie stared into my eyes, sensing my reflection.

“Hey guys, can I have a moment with Jamie?” I looked at the three men in the kitchen with us.

“Only a moment, we have business to discuss,” said Manuel, while motioning to the others.

“Business?” Jamie said with a sharp look at Manuel.

“Take your moment,” Manuel said with an air of antipathy.

All three strolled out of the room. Manuel stayed close; I could hear his breathing only a few yards down the hall. My neck hairs stood on end. Something was amiss.

“How are you doing?” I asked Jamie while gazing into her misty eyes.

“I’m…” she hesitated. “I’m OK. It took me awhile to wrap my head around things. You know, the whole clone thing.” Her eyes drifted to the floor. “The way he touched me like he knew my body and he felt some, some ownership over me. I couldn’t help but project that on you. I’m sorry.”

“You have no reason to apologize. I can’t even imagine how awful it must’ve been,” I said, clenching my fists, “if only I could have broken you out earlier.”

“You, Aedan and the others risked your lives for me. I am eternally grateful to you all, especially you.”

She drew close to me and landed a soft one on my lips. The smell of her hair, the touch of her skin and her soft lips, convinced me I was truly alive. I savored the sensation, breathing it in, letting the moment linger.

“Have they treated you well here?” I asked while holding her tight.

She hesitated again. Her heart picked up, and she started to sweat.  “Yes, yes they have.” She looked out toward the hallway. “But Coyle, I have a bad feeling about this place. They’ve kept me away from Aedan. I saw him only once. I wanted to thank him and check up on him, but they forbade it. Why would they do that?”

“Manuel is a power freak, plain and simple,” I said. “Is Aedan OK?”

“Manuel tells me he’s getting better. Coyle, they wouldn’t let me around you unless you were unconscious. Dr. Bartnev, he helped.” Her eyes shifted to the entryway.

“Why would they want to keep us separated?” I asked as Manuel’s footsteps approached.

“OK, time is up. It is late Jamie; you should be on your way. Coyle and I have business to go over,” Manuel said as he walked into the kitchen.

“Yes, sir,” Jamie responded obediently.

“Wait.” I held onto her.

“Why have you kept her from Aedan?” I said while placing myself between Jamie and Manuel.

A flash of anger crossed his face. He quickly masked it with his trademark stone face. “Aedan has suffered a great injury. By the time we were able to get the bullet out of his leg, it had become infected. Dr. Bartnev ordered him to be quarantined for his own safety.”

“Why did it take so long to take out the bullet?”

“Our more important asset required more immediate attention. We were saving your life, Coyle. Besides, Roxanne handled your friend.”

Roxanne had tended to Aedan in the getaway van after he had suffered a gunshot wound to his leg at Somatotech headquarters. Roxanne and the Special Forces guys had played a crucial role in the escape. Why hadn’t I seen them?

“Where is Roxanne anyway?” I asked as Jamie came close behind me. Tension radiated from her body.

“Your little-covered friend and her compañeros escaped, er… took off after Aedan went to the operating room. We have been searching for them, but they seem quite skilled in evasion.”

“Why bother searching for them?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“You brought them here. A stranger with untrustworthy punks. Now they know the hacienda, they know our faces. We have to find them and convince them to remain quiet. In fact, that is your first and most important mission.”

“Coyle isn’t some slave you can order around!” Jamie yelled from behind me.

Manuel slowly turned toward her. “Young lady, you of all people should understand debt for you are indebted to us as well. Without our resources, do you think Coyle and his ragtag team would have been able to extract you? You have a debt to pay as well. Your mission will begin soon.”

“She is not doing anything for you. I will pay hers and mine, Manuel. Don’t think you can drag her into this business.” I stepped toward him, the anger boiling up.

Manuel’s hand rested on his sidearm and eyed Jamie.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Coyle. You are intelligent but are you wise?”

My muscles tightened at his insinuation. I stepped toward him. Jamie came close to my ear and whispered, “Coyle, my dad once told me, that with children of God, actions against us do not always require a reaction. True disciples control their agency. He’s a bully, and he just wants to rile you up.”

While I wasn’t sure about the whole child of God and disciple stuff, she had a point. Manuel didn’t deserve a response. I stepped back; my anger ebbing. This wasn’t the same anger or rage I had felt before. This seemed more natural, almost defensive rather than murderous.

Jamie’s closeness retreated suddenly. Before I could switch focus from Manuel, Jamie hit the tile floor without the slightest attempt to catch herself.

“Jamie!” I yelled as I spun around to see her sprawled out. Jamie convulsed on the floor. Her arms stayed fixed, extending out in front of her while her legs and torso shook violently. I dropped to my knees next to her and cupped her head into my hands, protecting her from slamming into the nearby counter.

“Dr. Bartnev, we require your assistance again,” Manuel called out calmly.

Dr. Bartnev strolled into the kitchen without even a hint of urgency and observed the scene. His hand slipped into his pocket and pulled out a syringe.

“What is happening?” I yelled. “Why is she having a seizure?”

“She has epilepsy. It is fairly common.”

“No, she doesn’t, she never did. Why don’t you do something?” I yelled at him while Jamie continued to convulse.

“We wait. Longer than five minutes, we have a problem.” He looked at his watch.

“Are you kidding me? You are just going to let her… do this?” I pointed at my disheveled shaking girlfriend.

Dr. Bartnev didn’t respond. His muted look infuriated me. He twirled the syringe in his hand like it was a pen.

“What do you have in there? Diazepam, maybe Lorazepam? You can end this now!” My mind contained an entire pharmacy from my days at Somatotech training.

“We wait, Coyle. Many times she has done this. Never more than two minutes long, you see.” He stooped down next to me and rested his hand on my shoulder. A moment later Jamie stopped convulsing and rested back on the cool floor.

“Jamie? Can you hear me?” I swept her hair from her face. “C’mon sweetie, come back to me.”

She stirred, her eyelids slowly opening. Confusion beamed from her bloodshot eyes.

“What happened?” She sat up with a start. “Did I? Oh, Coyle, I didn’t want you to see me like—”

“Jamie, there’s no need to be embarrassed. When did this begin?”

She didn’t answer. Tears welled up in her eyes. My heart collapsed on itself. What have I caused?

“We just need to find out why all of a sudden this is happening to you.” I pulled her close to me and threw a suspicious eye at Manuel and Dr. Bartnev.

“Her first seizure occurred the night you died. And Coyle, we had nothing to do with it.” Manuel obviously could feel the heat from my accusing eyes. “She acted as if a stupor came over her and then crashed to the floor, just as you saw her do.”

“He’s right, Coyle. At times, my body doesn’t respond, and something deep inside takes over.” She started shaking in my arms.

“Everyone leave,” I said coolly.

“Why?” asked Manuel.

“Leave now! Get out!” I rested Jamie against the table, jumped up and pushed Manuel back. “You too Dr. Bartnev, leave.”

Sensing an impending beat down, both men sulked out of the room again.

I crouched down next to her again and glanced at the entryway. This time both men had retreated farther away.

“Jamie, do you trust me?”

“Coyle, I’ve never trusted anyone more than you.”

“I need you to lift up your shirt.” The words had left my mouth before I realized how insensitive it sounded.

“What? Coyle!” Shocked, she pushed me back. “A little forward don’t you think? And here?” She looked around with eyes wide.

“Sorry, it’s not like that. I’m obviously still a little brain dead.” I knocked on my head with my fist and made a face. She wasn’t amused and returned a face. I continued, “Remember how my dad acted strangely? He had a seizure too. Right after it, he was back to normal for a bit, and he told me Somatotech had implanted a device into his side. We need to check if they did the same to you. Maybe that’s why you are having seizures.”

“Where would they put it?” She held out her arms and flipped them over, inspecting for evidence of an implant.

“My dad’s one was near his armpit.”

Jamie tried to pull up her sleeve to inspect her armpits, but the tight fabric only bunched up. Her hands slowly drifted down to the end of her shirt.

“Coyle, I made a promise never to be naked in front of a man unless that man was my husband.”

“You won’t be naked, Jamie, and I wouldn’t ever ask you to go against your promise. You have a bra on, right?” I asked sheepishly. I’d never asked a girl that before.

“Of course,” she said while cocking her head and raising her eyebrows.

“Or you can just go into the restroom and check. Either way, we need to see if they are trying to control you.”

“No, I need you to check Coyle. Just turn around.” She pushed my shoulder.

I could hear her slip the shirt off. I wouldn’t dare turn around to sneak a peek; no way would I betray her trust in me.

“OK, you can turn around.”

Jamie sat there, the smooth skin of her back exposed, and her front covered by a tightly hugged shirt. I rested my hand on her tight shoulder. Her tension eased a bit and she turned ever so slightly toward me.

“Coyle, at night I have terrible nightmares about that day. When I wake, I feel such hate toward you. I have to shake myself out of it, to remember it wasn’t you, that it was some monster with your face and body.”

“That monster can never touch you again. No one will ever hurt you like him. I promise.”

“I want to trust you. I want to feel secure, but nothing feels solid right now.” She cast her eyes down. “It will take time Coyle. Is that OK?”

“Of course. Whatever and however long it takes.” I kissed the top of her head and squeezed her shoulders.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah, if you are, let’s have a look.”

She lifted her left arm and turned more toward me. Nothing. She lifted her other arm. There it was. The very same scar as my dad’s, albeit more healed, extended from just below her armpit to her bra line. I palpated the object underneath; it had the same rectangular shape about an inch long oriented vertically.

“This is why you are having seizures. Freakin’ Somatotech put it in you while you were under.”

Jamie strained to see it while remaining covered.

“But your dad seemed to be in a stupor all the time, mine only comes on every once in a while. Why is that?” she said while pressing against the sharp edges.

“Must have different effects on different people. Maybe they didn’t have time to test it on you before we broke you out.”

“What do we do now?”

“Do you trust Dr. Bartnev?” I asked, knowing she had spent time with him while they took care of me.

“I do, at least I think I do,” she whispered. “Most of the men avoid me like the plague. He’s the only one who talks to me other than Manuel.”

“He is going to have to take a look at it. If it’s anything like the device they implanted in my neck, it might be tricky extracting it. Are you OK staying here while I get him or should we go somewhere else?”

“Just get him. Hurry, please. It’s kinda awkward sitting here in the kitchen with my shirt off.”

I rushed out the hallway and found Dr. Bartnev smoking a cigarette near the front door. He flicked it out the crack in the door as I approached.

I lowered my voice, “Jamie has an implant as well. I think it’s the reason for her seizures. Can you take a look?”

He nodded and accompanied me back to the kitchen. Manuel stood at the other end of the hallway chatting with Tigre. When he caught sight of us, he took a step toward us. I shot him a nasty glare, and he froze in his tracks as we rounded the corner into the kitchen.

“There’s more to you, miracle patient.”

“What?” I whispered back as we entered the kitchen.

“Normal men’s blood cells have no nuclei. Every cell in your blood has nuclei,” Dr. Bartnev whispered.

“What does that mean?”

“All your cells can generate by themselves. Blood cells can regenerate very quickly bringing volume back to adequate for life.”

“Is that why you couldn’t give me blood?”

“Yes, partly. But also, your blood type is different. Not A, B, or O. A new blood type, Bart.”

“Bart?”

“Yes, I discovered it. I name it,” he said and glanced over to Jamie.

I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, but my attention quickly shifted back to Jamie.

“Hold on.” I stepped in front of the doctor, obscuring his view of her. “Jamie, Dr. Bartnev is here. Can he come see you?”

“Yes, it’s OK.”

Dr. Bartnev came in and knelt down next to her.

“Where is it?” said Dr. Bartnev, looking her over.

Jamie lifted her right arm to reveal the small scar. Dr. Bartnev felt around it and then proceeded to push down on the device.

“Ow! Are you trying to make it hurt?”

“Where it painful?” asked Dr. Bartnev as he pressed again.

“Ow! Lay off! It wraps around my back, like lightning shooting through my skin.” She ran her other hand along the side of her chest.

“It must connect with the intercostal nerves. If I remove it, you will be forever numb here.” He moved her hand and traced his finger along her ribs to her back. Jamie shuddered and jerked away.

I pulled back his hand, and he ripped it from my grip. “OK, that’s enough. When can you take it out?” I asked with a hushed voice. Jamie threw on her shirt and stood up.

“I will need to speak with Manuel,” he said, still crouched on the ground looking up at us.

“No, Dr. Bartnev. This needs to stay between us. Manuel does not need to know,” I whispered.

“His house, his rules, Coyle.” He stood up and took a step toward the exit.

“Then let’s take her to the mortuary. He doesn’t need to know.”

“No one leaves here Coyle.” His eyes drifted to the exit. “Not even me these days.”

Manuel walked into the kitchen displaying a slight smirk; his eyes focused on me.

4  Accidentally on Purpose

"Aedan, hey Aedan. Wake up man," I said while gently pressing on his shoulder. Manuel had granted me permission to visit Aedan after I agreed to the first mission: tracking down Roxanne and her dudes. Manuel made Jamie go back to her room; she said she was tired anyway but I knew she was lying to avoid confrontation. Without even mentioning it, we both understood the need to bide our time.

Aedan stirred, and his eyes gradually peeked open. A look of confusion swept over his face, which was quickly replaced with a broad smile.

"You made it. Heck yeah, you made it." He coughed.

"And you’re making it." I looked him over. A white bandage wrapped around his thigh where the bullet ripped through his flesh. An IV bag with yellow liquid dripping into tubing hung high above the bed. The long stark room surrounded his bed. Converse to a modern hospital room, there was no TV, no desk, no windows, nothing but the bed and the IV pole.

Aedan looked himself over and cautiously rubbed his leg. "We'll see, man. I'm not all superhuman like you."

"I'm not sure what I am. Apparently I can’t die now."

“Yeah, I figured as much since you’re standing here. You were way dead dude.” He paused, thinking. “Sweet, I have a vampire friend.”

“Basically dude, except instead of an insatiable hunger for blood I can’t get enough Banana Slurpee.”

“Mmmm, Slurpees…” Aedan attempted to sit up, struggling to get his arms under him.

"Hey, lay back, man. Don't want you opening your stitches," I said and rested my hand on his shoulder again. He relented and collapsed back down.

"Where’s Roxanne?" he asked.

"I haven't seen her. Why do you ask?" I winked at him and grinned.

"No reason, just wondering." He broke eye contact.

"Right.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Manuel is requesting I find her. I guess she took off after taking care of your sorry butt.”

“Hey, it was my leg!” He motioned down to the bandage on his leg.

“You know what I mean.” I looked toward Tigre. “How have they treated you?”

“Fine. But, it’s been freakin’ boring just laying here. You would think they could spare a TV for an injured soldier like me.”

“They don’t keep anything that receives or transmits a signal here, except for their fancy untraceable cell phones. This place is chock-full of rigid rules.”

“And rigid people.” He nodded toward Tigre.

I leaned forward, pretending to inspect the controls on the bed. “About that, we need to talk. Not now, but soon,” I whispered into Aedan’s ear.

Tigre glanced over but held his spot by the door.

“I gotta do a bunch of missions to repay my debt. You rest up, and we’ll be outta here as soon as you’re not a cripple.”

“I’d take being a cripple over a freak!” He cracked a wry smile.

“Oh yeah? How about this freak teaches the cripple a lesson.” I took him into a headlock and gave him a soft jab to the side. He coughed once, then again and again. He doubled over the side of the bed as I released him. “Dude, are you OK?” I patted him on the back as his coughing fit escalated then subsided.

“Can’t kick it, man.” He patted his chest. “It’s been driving me nuts. Every time I cough it feels like I rip the stitches in my leg.”

“Sorry dude, I didn’t mean to,”

“To hurt the cripple?” he said while lying back onto the bed a slight smirk crossed his lips.

“My freak came out I guess.” I adjusted his pillow and pulled up his covers.

“Super-freaky,” he said and pulled up the covers even further.  Aedan’s face grew dark. “I need to see my family, man. You know my mom. She’s totally flipping out right now; I can guarantee it.”

“Don’t worry dude, soon enough we’ll rock the Kasbah.”

He smiled, knowing exactly what I meant. “Rock the Kasbah” comes from Aedan’s favorite band The Clash. It became our phrase in high school, used any time the existing rules didn’t align with our world view. This was particularly apt for our current situation.

“Yeah man, Rock the Kasbah.”

Tigre looked back at us; brow furrowed. “That’s enough, time to go.”

“OK, I’m coming,” I yelled out to Tigre, then quickly whispered, “Who comes in here, you know, to take care of you?”

“The good doctor and Tigre and that’s it.”

“Enough!” Tigre yelled and motioned toward the door.

“Aight, See ya, dude. I’ll try and beat you up again real soon.”

“Bring it on.” Aedan held out his fist, which I gave a good pound with my own.

Tigre held the door open for me and after I went through, he promptly locked it from the outside. I watched as he clipped the keys to his belt and pulled his shirt down over them.

“When can I see him again?” I asked Tigre, as we walked along the outdoor path leading back to the main hacienda.

“When Manuel says you can. Not a moment earlier, Fénix.” Tigre wouldn’t look at me. His heart rate picked up, and he marched a little faster.

I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get into Tigre’s mind, so I matched his pace exactly. Even our heel strikes hit at precisely the same time. He picked up the pace. I moved in unison. My mind picked up on even slight modifications in movement and sent blazing fast adjustments to my muscles. Annoyed, Tigre started running. As did I.

“Deja eso!” he yelled at me, as I strode next to him. I smiled at him with my eyes fixed on his as we sprinted the last twenty feet to the door. We arrived at precisely the same time. A scrupulous performance on my part. Tigre didn’t seem to share my opinion. He whipped out his pistol and rammed me into the wall next to the door, with his arm across my chest. He aimed the gun under my chin and pressed the barrel into my neck.

“I’ll end you right here and now, Fénix.” A wild look crossed his face. I knew that look; I’d seen it before in my clone and Dr. Tessel. Killer. Tigre had just enough of crazy in him to be a killer.

“You know you can’t, Tigre.” I grinned at him. “Maybe I am the devil.” I returned the wild look to him. I widened my eyes, flared my nostrils and bared my teeth. I nearly lost it. I had to swallow down the laughter building inside.

He stepped back, releasing me from the wall and the impending gunshot wound to the face. He crossed himself hastily and avoided my gaze, obviously shaken.

“Shall we go in?” I motioned like Vanna White at the door. He stormed through, slamming the door against the wall. I followed behind with a new swagger. Mission accomplished: get in Tigre’s head.

Manuel waited for us in the kitchen. He caught sight of Tigre’s face and shot me a look. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Enjoy your visit?” He quickly glanced between us and then continued, “As you can see, we saved his life as well. Another debt to repay, I assume you will take on that debt as well?”

“Whatever, Manuel,” I said while rolling my eyes, “let’s just get to it.”

“Very well.” Letting it pass, Manuel sprawled out a large map of the Denver metro area on the kitchen island. Small round red and blue stickers were scattered all over the map. He extracted a telescoping pointer from his pocket and slapped it down on the map. “These are the locations where your comrades have been seen. After each sighting, we have staked out each location for their return. They never return and after searching each location, no evidence of them being there remains. Nothing dropped off, no cell-phone usage, nothing. The locations vary from convenience stores to movie theaters, to hospitals, to even an adult bookstore. Nobody at these establishments seems to have interacted with the perps, so they have no additional information.”

I stared at the map, trying to grasp the pattern. The points spanned the perimeters of Boulder, Denver, Longmont, Littleton and even Castle Rock. What is Roxanne up to? I knew I should have vetted her and her friends before involving them but time was of the essence, and I had needed all the help I could muster against Somatotech.

He continued, “They come separately and in different vehicles each time.  One of the witnesses said the covered girl stood in one spot for about a minute, checked her watch, and then left. She did nothing else.”

“Wait, so you’ve seen them but just let them go? What’s up with that?” I turned to him, but he kept his eyes focused on the map.

“Another organization provides us with information, nothing more. Anything else would break our bank.” Manuel looked up at me. “Business has slowed since your little incident.”

“I’m so sorry to hear,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“Don’t worry, we will recoup the lost funds.” He smiled and glanced over to Tigre. “Verdad?”

“Definitivamente,” said Tigre in response with his own broad smile.

The hairs on my neck again stood on end. Manuel had something sinister up his sleeve; I could feel it. Dang it, if only I understood Spanish.

“Back to work,” Manuel said with a swat of the pointer on the map.

I focused back on the map. The problem was simple; what are they doing and where will they go next? Were all the stops related? My gut said yes; that they were doing the same thing at each location. “The answer will come from what all the locations have in common. We humans do not act randomly, there is a reason these locations are unique,” I said and pointed to the closest dot. “What is at this location in Castle Rock?” Somatotech’s training facility was located in Castle Rock.

“An abandoned warehouse, right across from the Outlets.”

“Did you search it?”

Manuel gave me an offended look.

“Right, of course, you did.” What a dumb question, Manuel is one of the most thorough criminals I knew, not that I knew many. “Can you put these in chronological order?” I asked Tigre.

Tigre pulled out a piece of paper and pen from his pocket and proceeded to write the date and time next to each dot. The first location was Castle Rock, second, multiple in Littleton, and then they skipped up to a few sites outside Boulder, followed by Longmont and scattered locations around Denver.

“So, they stopped on their way out of here, in Castle Rock the first day of the escape. Then headed north, stopping in Littleton, Denver, Longmont, and then stopped at home.” I plopped my finger down on that dot, and I smiled at Manuel, waiting for it.

“Yes, we searched her home,” Manuel actually smiled back, “and it was clear, no trace of her. Wiped clean.”

I stared at the map again. The clusters of stops were always only a few miles apart from one another.

“Tell me what is at each of these locations.”

Tigre consulted his paper again and rattled off the office buildings, hospital, restaurants, fields, warehouses, and a wrecking yard at the various locations.

“What else is there? Train tracks, power stations, bus stops, high power lines, anything else that is common to all of the locations?”

Tigre looked to Manuel, and they both shrugged.

“Nothing that we have noticed.”

“Humph.” I let that slip.

Manuel raised his eyebrows. “Well genius, that’s why you are on this specific mission. Figure it out.”

“Oh, I can guarantee that, but I need to see these locations in person. When can we go?” I said, rolling up the map.

Manuel and Tigre looked at each other again and nodded. Manuel spoke up, “Let’s go now.”

“I gotta see Jamie first.”

“There will be time when we get back. Your task is this mission, nothing else.”

“C’mon Manuel, don’t be more of a jerk than you need to be.”

“Insults won’t get you what you want, Coyle,” he said and glanced at Tigre. “Doña!” he yelled out.

The Doña walked into the kitchen and gave me a conciliatory look.

“Doña, will you please tell Jamie that her boyfriend will be indisposed for a while?”

“Yes, Manuel.” She turned and left without another word.

“Better?”

“Not quite.”

“Too bad, let’s go,” he said and nodded to Tigre.

Tigre walked up behind me and pushed his gun barrel into my back, leading me out of the hacienda. He gave me a quick shove toward the car, so I hopped in the back seat. Manuel drove with Tigre and me in the back seat of the same car that had come to my rescue that night in the parking garage, the same night Dr. Strayer had been murdered. Tigre unholstered his gun and rested it on his lap.

“Sure is nice being back with you guys.” I slapped the seat next to me. Both men flinched. Tigre grabbed his gun and aimed it at my head. He cocked it jerkily.

“Coño muchacho! Te voy a matar pronto,” Tigre yelled, shaking the gun in my face.

“Tranquilo Tigre. Con tiempo, con tiempo,” Manuel said while casually looking in the rear view mirror.

“Con tiempo, con tiempo.” I turned to Tigre and echoed Manuel in my best Spanish accent.

Tigre chuckled and dropped the weapon.

“Beautiful Spanish, my friend, just beautiful.” Manuel smirked.

“See? We can all be friends.” I patted Tigre on the shoulder. He glared at me, hand still gripping his gun.

We arrived at the first location in Castle Rock, across from the Outlets. It looked like a run- of-the-mill warehouse with a few loading bays, some large metal doors and a sign for some aeronautics company I hadn’t heard of. The parking lot brimmed with cars, and a few people exited the building. Normal appearing power lines led to the building, and a cell-phone tower extended high into the sky over the far corner of the parking lot.

“Which way was she facing?” I yelled to Manuel and Tigre, who were walking around staring at everything and anything they could.

“No idea, let me ask my informant.” Manuel dialed the number and a few moments later, he hung up. “He says she faced toward I-25 and the parking lot.”

“Excellent. On to the next stop,” I yelled then jumped into the car.

“Wait, what do you see?” Manuel asked.

“I need more than one sample to come to a conclusion, my dear Watson,” I said in my worst English accent. “Onward!”

I hopped into the car and waited for my captors to get in. The next location stood next to a hospital outside of Littleton. We pulled up and stopped in the southeast back parking lot.

“Call your informant again,” I said as I walked up to the hospital.

Manuel got on his phone again. “One of the muchachos stood here facing the hills.” He pointed south, motioning with his finger toward the bluff.

Bingo. At each location, Roxanne and the guys faced the looming cell towers. What is she doing with them? All of the towers sat at the periphery of the Denver metro area. I continued to look around, pretending I hadn’t made the connection. High-powered electrical lines also crossed the bluff. The thought crossed my mind, how much should I tell Manuel?

“So, what is it? What are they doing at all of these locations?” asked Manuel.

“It must have something to do with all of these power lines, you know, the high-powered kind,” I lied and pointed in the distance.

“What are they doing with these power lines?” asked Tigre.

“That, I don’t know. We need to find areas where there are these types of lines and hope they show up at those locations.”

“What we need to know is who these punks are working for. Could it be that they work for the very company you invaded? Was it not odd they were so well prepared when you invaded? If so, our home is not safe. Jamie is not safe; Aedan is not safe. Considering their resources, at any moment they could wipe us out. Maybe now you understand the seriousness of our mission,” said Manuel, while folding up the map.

“Why don’t you move everyone to someplace safe?”

“Would you have the same motivation to help us?”

“So you are holding them hostage?”

“More like collateral. And do not forget we saved you and Aedan.”

“Yeah, you said that… Multiple times. I will get her, I promise.”

5  Track and capture

I needed to use a computer to figure out what was so special about those specific cell towers. There had to be hundreds in the Denver area. Geographically, all of the ones they visited straddled the outskirts of the Denver metro area. Manuel drove us to a library and left Tigre outside in the car on lookout.

“Hurry and do your search,” Manuel said, after sitting next to me at the computer desk. A row of computers stretched out to both my sides. A few were occupied, but no one seemed to notice or care about our presence.

I pulled up a map application and did a search for high-powered lines. The map highlighted blue lines intersecting Denver. Manuel watched with intrigue. I placed markers at the first two locations.

“I need the map to do the rest. Could you go get it?”

“I will call Tigre. He can bring it in.” He reached into his pocket for his phone.

I stopped him, “No lookout? That’s not like you, Manuel.”

I could see the gears turning in his head, weighing the risks. He glanced around, scoping out the exits. The closest door stood a good thirty yards away. “No funny business. You’d better be here when I get back, or your friends…” He left it there with a wink and turned toward the front door. He turned back slightly. “You wouldn’t be stupid enough to contact the authorities, right?”

That would be stupid. I’m supposed to be dead. I can imagine that call, “Um, I’m Coyle Murray, you know the kid who killed those guards and died in prison, um, yeah, I am not dead, and I am being forced to commit crimes to free my friends. Um, could you help?” First, they wouldn’t believe me, but once they did, I would be thrown in jail to be a sitting duck for the Somatotech goons.

“No one would be that stupid, Manuel,” I said and turned back to the computer. I could see his blurry reflection in the glossy monitor. He stood there, eyes fixed on me for a moment, then turned on his heel and walked out of the library.

I flew into action, the keyboard creating a steady hum of clicks as my fingers ran free. The two towers, we had visited, were 5G MAX towers, the new cellular data network. I found a map of all the 5GMAX towers and took a mental picture. I lined up the maps in my head; there was only one 5GMAX cell tower left in the Denver area they hadn’t visited. I analyzed the days and times in my head. Their visits were all in the afternoon and usually clustered over a couple of hours. They visited the southern towers over the first two afternoons and then the northern towers over the next day. The last tower stood at the midpoint between the northern and southern towers.

I heard a car door slam shut in the parking lot, so I deleted the browsing history, closed the browser, and switched to the power line map. I placed a marker near the remaining tower, which gratefully had a few high-powered lines within a few hundred meters.

“Take me here,” I said and pointed to the corner of North Gun Club Road and East 6th Parkway as Manuel walked up. “We may have to stake them out, but this is the only remaining site with the right characteristics.”

“Don’t you need the map to determine that?” He waved the map in my face.

“Oh, um, yes. Let’s verify.” I grabbed the map.

Manuel sat down next to me as I rolled out the map. “While you do that, you won’t mind if I flip through the sites you visited?”

“I stayed on this site the entire time you were gone, I promise.” I wondered what nervous twitch I had while I lied.

He stared at me, his eyes searching mine. “Right,” he said slowly, “you should know by now I trust no one other than my men.” He pulled up the browsing history, which now only listed the map of the power lines.

“Looks like you were telling the truth.”

“Like I said, Manuel, I stayed on that site,” I said while staring at the map. “Besides, why would I lie to you?”

“I said it looks like you were telling the truth. You have plenty of reasons to lie, my Fénix. Did you know that I introduced Angelfire to hacking?”

My blood went cold. Even a basic understanding of computers would render what I erased retrievable. Had I underestimated Manuel?

“Did you also know that most computers keep a log of user activity, particularly ones in public libraries? It shows which programs were opened and at what time. If I had more time, I could even flesh out your specific keystrokes. Now, are you going to tell me what sites you visited or do I need to proceed?” He raised his pointer finger precariously over the keys.

I relented, “I did some other searches, OK? I tried to find my dad, to see if he is alive and still at our home.”

“And is he?”

“I couldn’t tell.”

“I can tell you where you father is Coyle. You should have just asked.” He grinned. “Just as I have scouts out for the covered one and the muchachos, I have scouts watching your father. He is indeed alive and continues to work as a launderer. Somatotech keeps a close eye on him, likely to see if you will show up.”

“When can I contact him?”

“When opportunity knocks.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means the time is not optimal. You currently have responsibilities. When you have fulfilled your end of this bargain, you will be free to contact whomever you wish.”

The hair on the back of my neck pricked up. Would Manuel actually set us free? “How many missions until we’re free?”

“Don’t worry, I will let you know when your debt is repaid. Now is the time to focus.” He glanced at his watch and stood up. “Time for a stakeout.” I rolled up the map and strode behind him, content with my secure secret.

We drove over to the location and did a couple of passes. A shooting range and a Greek restaurant stood across from a construction yard with the cell tower behind it. Only from the restaurant was there a visible shot to the tower.

“She or one of her buddies, will be over there,” I said and pointed to the restaurant. “Unless they’ve already been here.” I seriously doubted they had. People are largely predictable. Schedules ground people, even Roxanne.

Manuel looked around for a suitable stakeout spot and ended up taking us into the alley next to the construction yard.

“This is your opportunity to demonstrate your appreciation, Coyle. Please wait between the shooting range and restaurant. When she comes, I want you to apprehend her and bring her to us. We will take it from there.”

“Yes, sir!” I said while saluting my commander. Manuel didn't flinch.

“Get out,” said Tigre.

I stepped out and in my best nonchalant walk, made my way over to the pathway between the buildings. I stood there for a good twenty minutes, intent on staying alert. The sun shone down from directly above me. I didn’t have a watch, but I knew it had to be near noon. Sweat ran along my arms and face, dripping onto the ground. I tried to scrunch against the wall to take advantage of the minimal shade from the roof overhang to no avail. Manuel and Tigre parked just outside of earshot, but I could see them. I tried reading their lips but realized quickly they were speaking Spanish, as I thought Manuel said, “Come vacuum eat maker.” Realizing my efforts were futile, I diverted my attention to the tower. Why would Roxanne be interested in the new cellular data towers? It had to do with Somatotech, for sure, but what is the connection? The missing link started to infuriate me. Why can’t I figure it out? My tricked-out brain was supposed to be killer at this association game.

Before I went completely mad, Roxanne stepped out of a car that had recently pulled up at the far corner near the restaurant. She walked over to the exact spot I’d predicted. She glanced at her cell phone for a moment and then slipped it back into her pocket. I strolled out of the alley behind her. After a few tentative steps, I called out to her, “Fancy meeting you here.” She spun around. “What’s so special about this place? Checking for cell service?” I pointed to the cell tower.

“None of your business clone of Coyle,” she said with a slight hiss. She took a few quick steps toward her car. I shuffled in front of her, blocking her path.

“Manuel needs to have a quick word with you.”

“Ha! So it is true. You are his monkey servant now, at his every beck and call. You do know he’s taking advantage of you?”

“That I do.” I looked straight into her eyes, hoping the message would transmit through them. I wished I could get in her mind and tell her the truth about what I planned to do. Maybe she would help me.

“Well, at least you are aware of your stupidity.” She put her hand on my shoulder. "You need to leave."

"I can't leave without you."

“Oh, you can.” She nodded. “By the way, you should bring Jamie here, you know, and see what happens," she said, seemingly ignoring my previous comment.

“How about I bring you to Jamie? Come back to the compound, so we can figure this all out.” I placed my hand on her covered shoulder, securing her close.

“We both know I’m not going back to that Venus fly trap.” Her other hand made its way to my other shoulder.

“You gotta come back with me. Manuel has taken Jamie and Aedan hostage.” I came out with it, hoping Manuel and Tigre couldn't hear me.

“I figured that would happen. I’m sorry, Coyle, but I gotta lot of work to do.” She squeezed my shoulders gently.

“Work for Somatotech?”

She laughed. “Give me a break; I do have some morals, Coyle. My employer likes to remain anonymous.”

“Well, whoever it is, you better let them know you’re taking a leave of absence to come with me.” I wrapped more of my arm around her shoulder. She tensed.

“Don’t make me teach Manuel a lesson through you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked naïvely and placed my other hand on her shoulder. There we stood, almost in an embrace. The awkwardness grew as we stared at each other. Her heart rate stayed even, but her muscles tightened.

Finally, she leaned into me and whispered in my ear, “Wanna know why they didn’t train you in hand to hand combat at Somatotech?" She paused. "Because of me.”

Her right hand snapped down and jabbed my upper abdomen, expelling the air straight out of my lungs. She followed it up with a knuckles-flexed hand strike into my throat, collapsing my airway. My own arms released her and grasped at my neck. I fell back onto the sidewalk stunned. I had no reserve, no air going in or out, nothing to maintain my oxygenation. She’d incapacitated me in under a second. I gasped for air against a tight trachea. The pangs of air starvation began to ring out in my head. My muscles cramped, and I crumpled into the fetal position. My vision began to darken and blur as my head became light.

Roxanne knelt down next to me. “Sorry, Coyle, but be sure to say hi to Jamie for me. And remember, bring her here, it will help, I promise.” She leaned down further and landed a soft kiss on my cheek. “Say hi to Aedan for me,” she said, standing.

A shot rang out from my left or was it right? My brain began to shut down once more. The last thing, I remember, was the sight of Roxanne leaping to the top of the gun range and out of sight.

6  Revelations

My eyes shot open as a frigid rush spread over my body. Dr. Bartnev stood next to me, bucket in hand and grinned from ear to ear.

“Welcome back!” he said. “You are my very favorite patient. You no die!”

“I am glad I can satisfy your doctor needs, Dr. Bartnev,” I said as I sat up. I regretted it instantly. The world began to spin, and my head felt light. I collapsed back down on the cool table and wiped some of the water from my eyes.

“You need recharge. Stay down.” He grabbed four syringes and hooked them up to the multiport connected to the IV in my arm. He infused each one sequentially.

“What is all that?” I had become very wary of anything in a syringe.

“Recharge. Caffeine, creatine, erythropoietin, and ephedrine. You perk up, I promise.”

“Um… I guess you’re the doctor.”

“Sort of. Remember, no license.” Dr. Bartnev winked and held up his hands.

“Yeah…” I tried to speak. I couldn’t continue. My mouth failed to form words due to a growing internal sensation. The muscles in my arms and legs began to tingle. The sensation grew sharper, like little shocks of electricity shooting through each of my muscle fibers. My heart rate picked up and kept rising. I glanced at the heart monitor. 260 bpm. I took a deep breath, a really deep breath, as if I was sucking all the air out of the room. My muscles flexed with the delivery of oxygen and the supplements. It was as if I could feel each molecule being absorbed into each and every cell, giving them strength. I squeezed my hands around the metal base of the bed, bending it inward. Pure power surged through me. I couldn't help but smile. Finally, my heart rate decreased, and the extremity of the sensation washed away, allowing me to speak.

"Holy cow," I said slowly. "That was... freakin' awesome!" I hopped off the table and did a few quick stretches. "I feel amazing."

"Alive is good; most patients would die from mixture."

I glared at him. "So I’m your guinea pig now?"

"C'mon, Coyle," he said, cocking his head slightly. "You, my patient won't die. Why not try new things? I have sedative if you go crazy." He showed me a handful of syringes in his pocket.

"Maybe we should hold off a bit, doctor," I said while throwing on a shirt. "We don't really know who or what I am."

"You are a miracle, as Manuel puts it, you are phoenix," he said while gathering his concoctions.

"Where is Jamie?"

"She is currently in her room. Would you like to speak with her?" said Manuel, as he strolled into the examination area.

"That should be a given, Manuel," I said while tying my shoes.

"I’m not sure I should let you after your failure back there. The covered one escaped even though you had her in your arms.” Dr. Bartnev raised his eyebrows.

“It wasn’t like that, doc. I was about to apprehend her.”

“Right.” Manuel rolled his eyes and grinned at Dr. Bartnev. “Anyway, you will have another chance. We were able to track her to a warehouse district near Longmont.”

“Then why haven’t you grabbed her?”

“Hmmm… think about it Coyle. Should I use my men who can die or my man who cannot die to capture another that probably cannot die as well?” He motioned toward me. “Besides, I need to gather some more men as your backup.”

“Can I see Jamie now?” I asked, growing tired of the current topic of conversation.

Manuel thought for a moment while I stared at him. “Sure, but it would be wise for you not to mention your failure, especially your run-in with the covered one."

"You know she has a name, right? It's Roxanne. And why would I not want to tell Jamie?" I said flexing my biceps in some sort of man-proving action. Manuel didn't notice.

"Our operations do not concern her. Besides, you must report to me first. What did you and the covered one-?"

I glared at him.

He continued, "You and Roxanne talk about? You stood there long enough."

"She called me a monkey for doing your bidding."

"Hmmph," he chuckled and snorted at the same time. "No monkey, just a boy clearing his debt. What else did you discuss? And what was that kiss all about?"

The heat in my cheeks grew so I looked down. "She wouldn't tell me who she worked for but she laughed at my assumption she worked for Somatotech. And, I believe her."

"You would." A grim smile crossed his face. "But in this instance, I agree. If she did work for Somatotech, they would have converged and taken you as she wouldn't have traveled alone. In this way, we have learned many things, including your friend's ability to evade the company and keep us in the dark for a few days, a much harder feat than it seems. It is clear she has skills. The car she left at the scene had no VIN, a fake license plate, and registration. It also had anti-tracking equipment. High-end anti-tracking equipment. Whomever she is working for, they have deep pockets."

I could see the dollar signs twirling through Manuel's mind. His conniving entrepreneurial spirit would find a way to profit from capturing her.

"I need to see Jamie," I said, walking to the closed door. "Now!"

"Yes, I permit it. But remember, no disclosure about you-know-what." He turned to Dr. Bartnev, twirled his finger and the door unlocked with a click.

"Thanks," I said while rolling my eyes.

The Doña waited for me in the hallway.

"I will take you to see her," she said in a monotone.

"Doña, what's up? What's happened here?" I asked, trying to see her eyes as we walked. Her heart rate again picked up and a slight sheen of sweat developed on her skin.

"Things have changed Coyle. I can't discuss it, it is forbidden."

"Manuel doesn't own you. You are not his slave," I said in a hushed tone.

"These days I feel I am. I wish you had never come here, Coyle, for both of our sakes."

I couldn't speak. Doña's friendship carried through my first stay at the hacienda. She had become my Mexican grandmother; someone I trusted. Now she wishes she never met me?

"That's harsh, Doña," I whispered as we passed Tigre in the hallway.

She didn't say another word. We walked outside to an area of the compound I hadn't been before. In the southwest corner tucked against a grove of trees sat a lonely guesthouse.

As we approached the house, one of Manuel's men rounded the corner. The Doña and the man caught each other’s look. Both looked pained and tired. The man nodded his head up and down slightly and then unlocked the front door. The truth of the situation washed over me. We were captives, plain and simple.

The Doña led me through the door and into a quaint front room with a small couch, coffee table, and end tables. The room was otherwise barren. A window air-conditioning unit hung precariously out the side window.

"Jamie, Coyle is here," the Doña called out then turned to leave.

"Help me Doña," I pleaded as she stepped by me.

"No, no one can help you Coyle," she said while closing the door behind me. The familiar sound of keys clanked from the other side.

"Coyle!" Jamie rushed into me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"Hey sweetie, how ya doin'?" I pulled my head back and swept her hair out of her face to see her misty blue eyes.

"Like a rat in a cage." She chuckled slightly.

"Well now, throwing out Smashing Pumpkins references! You must be feeling OK."

"I’m OK; we just need to get the heck out of here.” She nuzzled into my chest. “When are we leaving this forsaken place?"

"Just as soon as I can figure out how," I said, retreating a bit. "Probably after I finish all of these missions."

"How did your first one go?"

"Manuel says I can't talk about it." I pulled her back and looked into her eyes. "But it has been quite uneventful." I furrowed my brow, looked down and tapped my neck near a disappearing scar, which remained from where Dr. Bartnev had stuck a tube through my throat.

Her eyes widened, but I shook my head slightly urging her to remain quiet. I twirled my finger indicating later.

"I'll get them done and we will be out of here lickety split," I said, shaking my head. I knew it wasn't true. How could Manuel let us go? Not only was I his greatest asset, we knew so much about his operation and the hacienda that there was no way he was letting us go. The only place we would go is in the grave.  So, our only option was to escape. My mind was already formulating a plan and, from what I saw, Dr. Bartnev would have to play a key role.

"Good to hear," she said, also shaking her head with her own brow furrowed.

"Have they fed you well?" I said, changing the subject.

"The Doña sure can cook. Lovin' the enchiladas. Frankly, her cooking is about all I like here.”

“Likewise.”

“We need to get out of here, and soon, Coyle. My parents must be totally wigged out by now.”

"I know, my dad probably thinks I am dead.” I went silent with an abruptness that screamed there was something I was holding back. The thought of my dad brought on some serious guilt. Guilt that I still hadn’t told Jamie about her own dad. “Uh, Jamie, there is something I need to, er, I have to tell you.” I had to tell her now or face an even a worse reaction later. “It’s about your family.” I sat down on the side of the couch.

“What do you mean?” She sat down with her legs crossed and brushed her hair out of her face.

“After you were kidnaped I went to your home.” The memory of that fateful night streamed back as I began relating the details to her. “Your parents were there and were understandably pissed off. You left that message saying I had taken you.” I moved closer to her, keeping a few inches between us.

“I thought you had!" she said. "What would you have done? My greatest nightmare had come true. Someone, I trusted and loved, betrayed me, took advantage of me. You, my first love, had become my attacker, my aggressor.”

“You're right; I would have done exactly the same. With um, that perspective you will need to consider what I am about to tell you.” I adjusted on the couch, so my eyes met hers.

“What happened, Coyle?” Her eyes widened.

“Both your mom and dad were freaking out. Again, totally expected, but your mom was especially upset. While your dad was questioning me she, uh, she got your dad’s pistol.”

“What happened?” Tears already began to well in her eyes.

“Your mom, she meant to shoot me, and I kinda wish she had, but your dad―he moved just as she pulled the trigger.” The words fell down in the air like a ton of bricks. Just saying it forced a lump in my throat. I struggled to continue.

Jamie lifted her hands and covered her weeping eyes. “No Coyle, no. Please no, that couldn’t have happened. My dad?” she screamed through clenched teeth.

“I’m so sorry Jamie; it did happen. The bullet went through his chest. I used the first aid I’d learned at Somatotech and he was breathing better when I left.”

“You left?” She retreated from me, scooting back on the couch with her hands crossed over her chest. A heavy glare emanated from her eyes.

“I had to,” I pleaded. “The police were on their way. I could hear them, they were getting close. If they had caught me, Somatotech would have murdered you." I paused. "I chose you. In order to save you, I had to believe your dad would be OK.”

She remained still, contemplating the situation. She looked up with a jerk. “Is my dad OK?” she asked with intensity.

“I... uh, I don’t know,” I muttered.

“And you are just now telling me this!" She yelled. "What if he died, Coyle? What if I missed my own dad’s funeral? Did you ever think of that?”

I hadn’t. The gravity of my distraction and inconsideration hit my chest hard. What if he did die? My actions, at least indirectly, would have caused another person to die. The tally was already too high. Admittance to hell probably only required a few, and add the Pastor’s death to the list, and I was definitely a shoo-in. I could have saved him, but would he have wanted me to stay or would he have wanted me to save his daughter? I had to feel he would’ve wanted the latter.

“Jamie, I’m sorry. I know those should’ve been the first words out of my mouth when we rescued you but everything has been so jacked up I… ”

“Don’t Coyle. Please, just stop, I don’t want to hear it. I need to call my dad now!”

“Manuel won’t permit it. He already told me,” I whispered

“Then you’d better find a way.” She turned away from me. “Please leave.”

“I’m—” I began.

“Stop. Out!” she yelled and ran to the back room.

I stood there, my head low while tears formed in my own eyes. I turned to leave without a glance at her. As I knocked on the door for them to let me out, I noticed the air conditioner unit in the window again. All of the other windows had bars on them, but on this one the bars only went down halfway until they reached the unit. I heard keys jingle near the lock. I jumped into action, and I lifted the edge of the unit slightly. Loose, very loose. I hopped back to the door as they opened it. The Doña led me back without a word. I didn’t mind. My thoughts were on escape.

That night in my room, the same room as my previous stay at la hacienda, I kicked off my shoes, threw off my shirt and quickly brushed my teeth. I wished I could talk to Jamie again or Aedan. I listened to hear if someone was close but came up with nothing. I was alone, completely alone. Jamie and Aedan probably felt this way each night here. This was my doing. I had brought them here; I had brought this on all of them. All I had to do was obey, go along with Somatotech; would that have been so hard? Now all of our families are in danger and would be until the company crashed and burned. But, even if they do, what will the army do? Will they sit back and take it if they are exposed? I seriously doubted it. They probably had a freakin’ army of clones by now. Clones. Could it be that they made more than one copy of me?  I dropped my head onto the pillow, closed my eyes and focused. I focused on connecting with my clone, or at least whom I thought was my clone. My mind searched for that familiar feeling but came up empty. Maybe he did die?

The thought of my other reminded me of another aspect of my life that seemed absent. The nearly unconquerable fits of rage, I had experienced before, had seemingly dissolved away. Before, I nearly killed people at any minor provocation. Now, I sensed an emotional control. Could it be that with my other gone, so was my anger?

7  Leader Líder

A clank at the door woke me. I shot up to my feet and prepared for an onslaught. The door remained still.

“Coyle, Manuel is waiting for you in the kitchen. Get up,” the Doña spoke through the door.

“Good morning to you too,” I said as my heart slowed to a normal pace.

“I wish it were,” she said quietly.

I heard her walk away toward the kitchen. Manuel was making this place miserable. The staff was obviously disgruntled but powerless. A thought came to me. Could they be turned against Manuel? Could I use that discontent to my favor? Could I take his place? We needed a hideout away from Somatotech, a central base to operate from, and Manuel needed to be stopped. Maybe an escape isn’t what we needed but an uprising.

I dressed and walked into the kitchen. Manuel and Tigre sat at the island eating their breakfast. Neither of them raised even a brow when I walked in and sat across from them. The Doña dropped a plate of eggs and hash browns in front of me. Her hand rested on my shoulder, and she gave me a slight squeeze. The Doña was on my side, at least I hoped.

“Sounded like you and your girlfriend had quite the fight last night.”

“It wasn’t a fight,” I said as I buried my fork in some eggs.

“Personally, I‘d be upset if someone so close to me held back such an important detail.”

“You know?” I put my fork down.

“It was all over the news. ‘Pastor shot by wife after cancer survivor kidnaps daughter.’  It even made national news.”

Dang. So much for being an afterthought, I thought. The media had plastered my face and now my tarnished reputation everywhere. That will be hard to recover.

“He’s alive,” he said fleetingly.

Oh, thank goodness, I thought and breathed a heavy sigh.

Manuel continued, “Only one news source described your heroic efforts to save his life. The rest sensationalized it.  I think CNN said it best, ‘Miracle patient goes wild and kidnaps girlfriend.’ That has a better ring, right?”

“I don’t really care. All I care is that he’s alive. I need to tell Jamie.” I stood up.

“Not now. We have work to do. Missions come first. We need to pay Roxanne a little visit at that warehouse.”

I turned to the Doña at the stove, “Will you tell her?”

The Doña didn’t respond and kept her back to me.

“What is going on here, Manuel, did you threaten the Doña? If you did, I'd rip you apart.” I stayed standing and eyed Manuel.

He grinned and returned to his eggs.

“Come on, answer me!” I yelled.

“Sit down, Coyle.” The Doña turned to us with a hot pan in hand. “No one threatened anybody. By you coming here, we all have to bear a greater burden for our way of life to continue. The challenge is twofold. While you are here, we cannot bring others for protection. Also, your friends, who have escaped, threaten the protection we all provide. If we can offer no protection, we can no longer be a family.” She put down the pan and pulled off the oven mitts. “If our family breaks up…” she paused. A single tear slipped down her face. “You must find her, Coyle.” Her eyelids twitched, and her gaze drifted to the ground for a split second. Her demeanor was slightly off from before. Her shoulders stayed straight. They didn’t sag like when she walked with me. She noticed me staring and turned away.

I sat down, stunned.

“See, Coyle. Even our Doña understands the seriousness of our current predicament. When will you?” He took another bite of his eggs, placed his napkin on his plate and pushed back from the island. “Thank you, Doña for another fantastic breakfast. Time to plan,” said Manuel as both he and Tigre stood.

I threw a few bites into my mouth and followed Manuel and Tigre out of the kitchen. The Doña’s eyes met mine as I stepped into the hallway. They seemed concerned, as if something else was bothering her.

We met in a smaller, windowless room off the main hallway, guarded by a single man at the entrance. Stacked on the shelves along the wall lay hundreds of maps in cardboard tubes. Also hanging on the wall was an array of cell phones and chargers. White labels on each of the phones clearly showed their numbers. I took a mental picture of all of them and stored them away.

“So, you searched the place, right?” I said as I stepped up to the table in the middle of the room behind Manuel and Tigre.

“Yes, and came up with nothing. Now it’s your turn, brainiac.”

Manuel rolled out another map of Denver onto the table and pointed to the location of the warehouse. “Ah, Commerce City. My old stomping ground. Many a criminal calls it home because of the bounteous industrial parks and dumps. If someone had the time and money, many bodies could be found there among the crushed cars, dumps, and incinerators.” Manuel glanced at Tigre. Tigre narrowed his eyes and shook his head ever so slightly. Manuel rolled his eyes back down at the map. “Anyway, our scouts saw her enter the south side through a ground-level hatch. But, when we sent one of our men to follow her he reportedly couldn’t open it. Even with a winch and a truck, it wouldn’t budge. It was as if someone had sealed it from the inside but had anchored it as well with something very heavy.”

My mind started racing. Who did Roxanne work for? Why was she out in the open living in that house before if Somatotech knew where she stayed and monitored her activity? Why was she not careful then? She probably wanted it that way, so she could keep an eye on them and record their activity as well. What did she gain from our operation in Somatotech’s basement? I understand the secrecy now, she kinda outed herself with the infiltration. Is she someone I could trust? And what was up with that kiss?

“Coyle?” said Manuel, waving his hand in front of my eyes.

I shook my head out of the meditation, “Sorry, just thinking.” I looked down at the map. “What about the other entrances? Where do they lead?”

“Checked ‘em all. They all lead to the central open area in the warehouse. We couldn’t find any door or stairway that led down to a subfloor. We also checked the building plans, and they do not include a basement.”

“Secret lair. Sweet.” I said, letting my Aedanness come out. The men glared at me.  “You have to admit, it’s pretty cool, right?” They maintained their stare. “Well OK. I’ll need to see it.” I placed my finger down on the spot.

The door flung open with a shot and crashed into the wall. “What are you doing in here?” The Doña stood in the doorway, her eyes ablaze with anger.

I jumped up, swung around to face her, and then cowered behind Manuel when I saw the fury. The startle reminded of when my mom had found me lighting firecrackers in my room. I needed to hide, to escape her gaze. Manuel dropped his pointer on the table, and Tigre hid his face.

The Doña cocked her head to meet my eyes and changed her tone. “Wouldn’t it be better to use the large island in the kitchen rather than clutter up this storage room?” The rage in her eyes calmed.

“Uh, right, that will do. Let’s move back to the kitchen,” said Manuel with a conciliatory tone. Tigre grabbed the map and rolled it up hastily.

“Just a suggestion,” she said, eyeing Manuel. “I’ll clear space.”

We all walked back to the kitchen with our tails between our legs. I didn’t really understand the chastisement; it was only one map. When I thought of clutter, I imagined my room with all my skateboard parts, clothes, and mementos of my mom. Good thing the Doña couldn’t see that place. But maybe it wasn’t about clutter, maybe the Doña hadn’t wanted me or the other men in there for a different reason.

The Doña had indeed cleared the island, now spotless. I didn’t see her anywhere, and I couldn’t pick up on anyone else’s breathing nearby. Tigre rolled out the map.

“Anyway, we will drop you off at the hatch with Tigre. I will scope the perimeter myself.”

Oh goody, more time with Tigre, I thought.

“But first we have a small side mission. We need to teach some punks a lesson.”

“And what did they do?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re paid to do a job,” Manuel said while rolling up the map.

“Oh, so you’re now so desperate for work you will take anything? What if these ‘punks’ are innocent?”

“We are not the judges; our employers are.”

“Oh man, get me the freak outta here,” I said under my breath. Manuel shot me a glance but held his tongue.

“Bring in Samuel and Juan,” Manuel said to Tigre.

Tigre left the room and promptly returned with two of Manuel’s men.

“OK, here is the plan. These punks hang out at the Dave and Buster’s in Denver near I-25 on Thursdays for lunch. Samuel and Juan, you are the draws. Provoke them, and they will respond, I promise. I know these types of punks. Bring them out to the grassy area on the north side of the building; the trees are there for cover. After that, we, specifically Coyle, will take it from there.”

“Um, what? And how many are there?” I said.

“Three, unless they have friends with them.”

“And what am I supposed to do with them?”

The men grinned to each other with lifted brows.

“Teach them a lesson they won’t forget. As a gift for participating, I will arrange some time for a little reunion with your friends. OK?”

“How long?”

“A good twenty minutes, I promise.” He crossed himself.

Somehow I doubted that little move meant anything to him.

“Whatever,” I said.

8  Operations

We took two cars, a Cadillac with dark tinted windows and a pretty nondescript Toyota Camry. Manuel and I rode in the back of the Cadillac with Samuel as the driver. Tigre and Juan rode together. I heard Tigre speaking with Manuel just before we jumped in the cars, probably asking to ride in a different car than with I. Despite not understanding it; I memorized their conversation.

“Podemos deshacernos de ellos? No darian mas dinero,” said Tigre.

“No, ella sabe demasiado de esta misión.”

“¿Cuando vamos a estar a cargo?”

“Con tiempo.”

I didn’t mind if Tigre didn’t want to ride with me; Manuel is much less jumpy. Although, I am always looking for the opportunity to get into Tigre’s head.

We pulled into D&B’s parking lot at 11:30 p.m. and found a spot near the grassy area. Tigre opened my passenger side door.

“Move over.”

I scooted to the middle seat between the men. Juan jumped into the passenger side seat up front.

“OK, here are the punks.” Manuel handed out a few photos of the guys. “They should be by the horse race monitors.” They looked to be in their twenties, and one of them had a fraternity shirt. All of them looked like they could crush rocks with their bare hands.

“Frat boys on steroids, great.”

“You can handle them, just don’t give them a hug and let them kiss you.” They all laughed. My cheeks went red.

“Samuel and Juan, ready?” asked Manuel.

“What did they do?” asked Juan.

“What did I tell you about stupid questions?” said Manuel. “It doesn’t matter what they did or did not do. We have a job to do.”

Juan looked at Samuel. He shrugged in response.

“Otra vez. ¿Ya listos Samuel y Juan?” yelled Manuel.

They again looked at each other. “Sí, vámanos,” said Samuel.

I made a mental note of the Spanish words and what I assumed they meant. It sounded as if Manuel repeated himself. Samuel obviously affirmed with “Sí” and I had heard “vámanos” and knew it meant “let’s go.”

Both men exited the vehicle and beelined for the entrance. We watched from the tinted windows. Only five minutes later our “punks” pulled up close to the building and went in. They looked more imposing than their photos implied. My mind took me back to the first time I had met Aedan at the skate park. I imagined these frat boys hurling shaving cream-filled balloons at unsuspecting dorks like myself. My fists clenched. Maybe I could teach these punks a lesson.

Samuel and Juan made quick work. Only a few minutes later the frat boys led our men out of the building. One of the frat boys practically pushed Juan through the door. Juan regained his balance and stood up to the man, holding back his fist. They gathered near the front door, and I could see Samuel pointing to the grassy area.

“Wherever you want it, vato,” the frat boy with blond hair yelled at Samuel and shoved him back.

Samuel lost his footing and slammed down on the ground. He jumped up as fast as he fell and rammed into the man’s chest. The blond-haired man tumbled backward but held onto Samuel causing both of them to fall into the front doors. One of the other men sucker-punched Juan in the jaw, sending him to the rail at the top of the stairs.

“Uh oh. Looks like the party started a little early. Coyle, you’re up,” said Manuel.

Dang.

“Throw this on and make it quick,” said Manuel, as he tossed me a hooded sweatshirt. “Oh and tell them they better throw the game on Saturday. If they don’t, this will happen again, but next time to their families.”

“I have to beat these guys down because of a game?”

“Competition pays the bills,” Manuel winked.

“So we aren’t protecting anyone, just fixing bets? And their families? What’s up with that?”

“We are protecting our clients’ interests. You better get out there before they kill Samuel and Juan.”

I turned my head to see the scuffle. Juan and Samuel were on their backs taking quite the pummeling. Juan was already KO’ed, and Samuel would join him soon. I threw on the baggy sweatshirt, flipped up the hood, and jumped out the car, running toward the fight.

“Hey, punks! Lay off them, or else!”

The men stopped for a second, laughed at the sight of me and then resumed the barrage of fists and kicks.

I needed to work on my threats, maybe work on a more imposing voice. One of the men, who wasn’t actively kicking the crap out of them, turned to face me. I leaped into the air, ascending the twenty or so stairs in one stride. His surprised look was short-lived as I landed four punches to his face before he could react. He crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold.

“You’d better let them be, dudes, or you’ll be a bloody mess like your friend.” That sounded better.

The two remaining men charged me, both dropping their shoulders. Too easy, I thought.

Just before they collided with me, I pushed off, rising a good eight feet off the ground. Their forward momentum carried them down the stairs, tumbling head over heels. They landed on each other but quickly untangled themselves and charged back up the stairs at me. The taller one made it to me first, swinging a wide arching punch toward my face. I leaned back, allowing his fist to pass an inch or so from my face. Then I grabbed it and pulled hard. The frat boy had made the mistake of throwing all his weight into the punch, allowing me to use his weight against him. He fell forward into the railing as I pulled him down. Blood exploded onto the ground from his crumpled nose.

The other guy reached me and decided to kick instead of punch. His leg made contact with the back of mine before I could release his bloodied compatriot.  My knees buckled with the strike, sending me to the ground. I rolled to the left before the punk could get off another one. He followed me toward the edge of the stairs. I hopped up and flipped over the railing, putting it between us. He took a stance and jabbed at my face. I would have been knocked out with just a few of his punches if it weren't for my increased reflexes. My muscles reacted instantly to the trajectory of his punches. His eyes widened, and his upper lip curled. His fists came faster, once grazing my face but never making contact. He stopped for a split second and then swung hard at my face. I grabbed the rail and swung under it, extending my feet in front of me. With him leaning forward and my feet making contact on his legs, he flipped forward over the rail. His face smacked against the concrete step. I continued my rotation and flipped over the top, landing on his back as he struggled to his knees. My force brought his face back down on the concrete, and he groaned. He didn’t fight back. The tension in his back eased. He had given up, or at least his battered brain finally took over and shut it down.

I leaned down and whispered in his ear, “My boss wants me to tell you to lose this weekend or else.”

“Screw you!” he managed to say, with blood-tinged spittle spraying onto the concrete.

“Dude, I’m serious. My boss won’t stop at you and your buds. He will target your family. Lose the freakin’ game. It isn’t worth it.”

He rested his bloody face on the concrete. I stood up off him. A crowd had started to gather inside the glass doors. That’s when I noticed my hood had flipped down with my little loop de loop. A few of the people pointed at me and whispered to their neighbors. I couldn’t make out what they said due to the doors and the ambient noise. But I knew. Someone had recognized me.

I ran to Samuel and Juan and threw them over my shoulders, their heads dangling behind me.  As I turned to where the car was, I saw Manuel and Tigre driving toward the exit a couple hundred yards away.

“What the …?” I yelled and ran toward them.

Manuel honked the horn as he exited the parking lot. His blinker indicated he was turning to the left. A six-foot concrete block fence surrounded the parking lot. Another honk and I knew his intentions. I sprinted along the wall toward the honk. Another honk came near where I ran so I stopped, slipped Samuel and Juan over the fence and hopped over. Tigre had already exited his vehicle and started dragging Juan toward his car.

“Sloppy work Coyle. What the hell were you thinking?” Manuel said as he pulled Samuel by the arm toward his car. “Help me!”

I picked Samuel up by the legs and with Manuel rested him in the back seat.

“Separamos!” Manuel yelled to Tigre before jumping into the car. I plopped down into the passenger seat. Manuel pulled out into the street, but not with the speed I would have thought. He pulled out cautiously and brought the car to the speed limit. Tigre’s car screeched out, flipping a U-turn and honking the horn.

Manuel pressed the Bluetooth connect button on the steering wheel and called Tigre.

“Llévalo a la casa de seguridad numero uno. Voy a llevarlo a la numero dos.”

“Él esta despertando, no será necesario,” said Tigre.

“OK, nos vemos ahorita en el almacén.”

I listened intently, understood a few words, and learned a few new ones by deduction. Manuel tapped the button and turned his head toward me.

“You couldn’t have just punched the guys? Instead, you created a scene, a very dangerous scene.”

“I… ” I almost told him someone recognized me but thought better. He would be even more livid.

“Did you deliver the message?”

“Yes, they got it loud and clear.”

“You fail once, and now you almost fail again. Our arrangement may change if the outcomes are not different in the future.”

“It won’t happen again,” I said and stared out the window. My heart beat fast, not because of the run with two men draped over my shoulder but my growing hatred for Manuel and Tigre. The thought of escaping this man consumed me. I could have knocked him out right then and there, but what then? Tigre or one of his men would retaliate before I could get back to the compound. Aedan and Jamie would be dead. I had to play along, for now.

9  The Fall

We dropped Samuel off at a house on East 17th Avenue just as he was coming to. A woman helped him to the door, slinging his arm over her shoulder. Manuel lingered by them as they struggled and then gave the woman’s arm a light squeeze. She smiled, and he walked away with a slight skip in his step. This house was important to him. I memorized the address and glanced at the windows. A young girl perched herself in the upstairs window as Manuel entered the car.

“Let’s go,” Manuel said, turning the ignition. I didn’t ask about the house. Maybe now, I had something on him. We drove out of the small streets of Denver and got on I-25.

“Manuel, what changed? I mean, when I left you to rescue Jamie you were all gracious to me. Now you don’t trust a word I say. What gives?” I had to ask him. We had been almost friends. They’d souped up my car, for crying out loud.

Manuel stayed silent for a couple of minutes before speaking, “I told you I would contact you.”

“Oh, so I should have let Aedan die rather than risk your operation? I had to take him somewhere-”

He interrupted me, “That was your choice and…” He paused. “And I would have likely done the same, but you broke my rules and have brought a serious liability to our operation. I can’t trust you again.”

I didn’t have a response. Nothing I could say would change things. His explanation didn’t merit a response anyway.

“Do your job, and we both will get what we want,” he finally said and put on a look that this discussion had ended.

I kept my eyes on the road.

The awkward drive to the warehouse where they had seen Roxanne took about thirty minutes. Manuel and I kept our silence. Thoughts of what would happen to Roxanne if I caught her filled my mind. Tigre would probably kill her on the spot. Her blood would be on my hands as well. But if I didn’t capture her, Manuel’s patience would surely run out, putting my friends in danger. Would there be a way to capture her, but maintain her safety? The Cadillac jerked to the side as Manuel drove over a speed bump, tearing me out of my concentration.

“We’re here.”

I looked up and saw a sprawling white-walled warehouse filling up a few city blocks. It looked abandoned from the outside, but faint lights shone from the inside. Tigre and Juan had parked over by the large hatch and a group of seven men huddled around them. Another group of men stood near the far corner of the building, blocking an alley with their car. As we parked next to Tigre’s car, I heard another car pull into the parking lot and stop just inside the entrance. I had no doubt they blocked the rear entrance as well. Manuel and I stepped out of the car and approached the hatch.

“Here is where Roxanne entered and never exited,” said Manuel, resting his foot on the door. “What do you think?”

I grabbed the handles and tried to open the doors. They didn’t budge even a millimeter. Sealed. The men had swept away the dirt, revealing a massive concrete slab with the hatch in the middle.

“We’re not getting through here unless you blow the whole thing up,” I said and backed up from the hatch.

“If it comes to that, we’re prepared.” Manuel grinned and looked to the group of men. One of them carried a plastic box of what I assumed was dynamite or other explosive.

“Wow, well before you blow this place, can someone show me the rest of the warehouse? Maybe there is an easier way in, rather than making such a ruckus?”

“Tigre, Juan, Diego, take him in.”

Tigre turned toward the building, grabbing my arm. Manuel grabbed Tigre’s arm. “Nunca lo pierdas de vista,” he said while pointing to his eyes. Thank you, Manuel, yet another Spanish phrase I now understood. ‘Don’t let him out of your sight.’ Manuel then pointed to the group of men who scattered over to the windows of the warehouse. Counting Tigre, Juan, and Diego there were fifteen men watching my every move.

Tigre opened the side door, and the still-bruised Juan led us with a pistol in hand. I stepped forward to follow, but Tigre stopped me. “Espera,” he said and placed his arm in front of me. Yet another Spanish word in the registry.

“Despejado,” Juan yelled a few moments later.

Tigre led me into the dimly lit warehouse. We made our way through a few offices, and I scanned each one, looking for anything suspicious. I pulled up carpet, lifted desks, and moved bookcases but found nothing.

“Despejado,” Juan called out from the voluminous main area, as we approached the stairs that led down from the office.

The emergency lights shed light only around the perimeter, allowing a good view of the walls, but the center of the room remained dark. Light from Manuel’s lookout men flooded into the space from the windows. The beams created an ever-moving lattice of light, casting hundreds of shadows about the room. Tigre stuck close to me while the other two men searched ahead. Extending along the length of the room were conveyors covered in dust. Large rectangular metal boxes covered the conveyors in the middle of the room. A divider hung down from the ceiling, in the middle of the room, leaving the sides open. Tigre handed me a flashlight, and I began my search, scanning the corners and walls. I pressed on equipment looking for latches, doors, or any other way to connect with the underground structure leading from the hatch. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and frankly, nothing even looked like it had been touched for a long while. A thin layer of gray dust covered every surface.

Tigre hovered around me as I searched; keeping an eye on what I had examined. An unfortunate consequence of having heightened senses is that people’s body odor is much more intense and extends much farther. Tigre’s was no different. It practically suffocated me.

“Tigre! Ven para acá! Mira,” Juan yelled out.

“What is it?” Tigre yelled back.

“Sangre, mucho sangre.”

“Blood,” Tigre repeated.

Tigre began running toward the middle of the room, but I held back. He took a few steps toward Juan, then stopped and turned back to me when he noticed my hesitance.

“Come now!” He waved with his hand holding his gun.

As if on cue, all of the lights from outside now focused on the middle of the room. I took a few strides behind Tigre when the floor gave out from underneath me. A hatch had opened up, swallowing me whole. I fell for half a second then landed hard on a pad in a shady room. I looked up, and the hatch slammed shut above me.

“Hello?” I yelled out, “Is there—“

Someone grabbed me from behind, cupping my mouth. I swung back at my attacker but only hit a helmet. My hand crumpled on the hard surface, and I heard a few of my finger bones crack. My attacker swept my feet and came to the ground with me. As we crashed to the ground, he wrapped up my legs and pulled my arm behind me. He yanked as if he was playing the tug of war of his life, extending my arm back so far my tendons stretched tight like guitar strings.

Right before my shoulder popped out of its socket, he whispered in my ear, “Coyle. I need to know you will not yell out if I release you.” I recognized that voice. It was Jonas, one of Roxanne’s friends who had helped me extract Jamie from the depths of Somatotech.

I nodded my head up and down, and his grip released.

“Jonas!” I whispered as I got to my knees.

“Get up and follow me.” He grabbed my arm and jerked me up. “Sorry about the takedown. I guess I could have let up, you didn’t put up much of a fight.”

BANG BANG BANG. Tigre and the other men were banging at the floor above where it had swallowed me. Jonas kept moving forward and led me toward a metal door at the far end of the room. It had opened before we reached it, and a shadow of a figure stood in the adjoining hallway. Roxanne.

As the door shut behind me, Roxanne spoke up, “Welcome clone of Coyle. We must hurry.”

Jonas pushed slightly on my back; I resisted, standing firm.

“No, I can’t. If I’m gone too long, they will kill Jamie and Aedan.”

“We won’t be gone long. Besides, we have a plan for all of that.” She walked into the shadows.

“Who is we?” I said as I followed with cautious steps.

Steve and three other guys stepped out of the shadows of the small room we’d entered. The dim light only illuminated their strong jaws and piercing eyes.

“Clone of Coyle, I’m sorry we weren’t upfront with you before. I lead this gang of miscreants at the request of Medital. They hired us to bring down Somatotech, which I imagine is your goal as well. We didn’t expect to cross paths so soon, but I guess I underestimated you. You surprised the crap out of me at tower ten. It could be that the rumors are true,” said Roxanne.

“Wait, you work for Medital? Was it you in my room?”

“The one and only!” She patted my shoulder. “Too bad that witch nurse found the cameras.”

“You wanted to spy on me, to see me naked? Is that it?”

Everyone in the room laughed. “Ha! We’re quite familiar with your man parts, Coyle. We’ve followed you from your inception.”

“Since my inception?”

“Since the very moment Coyle’s cells were harvested to make you.”

The same doubt as before began to flow into me. But, it couldn’t be possible! I grabbed onto my feelings for Jamie again, real, palpable feelings, feelings that couldn’t be implanted. “I am Coyle. You have it wrong.” I scanned around the room at the teenagers who all appeared around my age, looking for confirmation.

“We don’t have it wrong. Somatotech never releases its originals, only the clones. It’s part of their plan because the therapy just doesn’t work. They can’t cure cancer in the patient, so they replace them. You are Coyle’s replacement.”

“And who killed Dr. Strayer then? He was my clone.”

“This is where Somatotech deviated from their normal operation. They made two clones of Coyle hence why you two were named Alpha Male one and Alpha Male two. We’re not sure why the change in course but there are theories. They could have been testing their capacitation program or maybe even weeding out the weaker one of you, or the rumors could be true.” She looked around the room. “And, well, you won because of your connection.”

“So, are you a clone?”

She smiled, as did everyone in the room. “We are all clones,” they said in unison. My nerves went on edge, and the room seemed to collapse on me.

“And do you have the same connection I had?” I rubbed my temples as my head began to pound.

“We don’t know, but we may. All the information we’ve acquired indicates we are the only clones of our originals, it could be that we haven’t had the chance because there isn’t anyone to connect with.”

The gravity of these revelations hit me. My legs gave out, and I slumped to the ground. The ground beneath me seemed to give way and the sensation of falling returned.

“Help him out guys, he’s got the ‘Oh crap, I’m really a clone’ shock,” said Roxanne. The other guys helped me to my feet and then practically dragged me to a rickety chair.

“It can’t be.” Tears began to spill out from my eyes.  “Who am I?” I screamed.

Roxanne crouched down next to me. “You are a human being who happens to be a copy of another person. He lives on through you.”

“You mean he’s dead?”

“We’ve not determined that yet though most patients do die within a couple months of ‘treatment,’” she said while motioning with her fingers. “Alpha male two has died; we can confirm that.”

“Did he stay dead?”

“What do you mean?”

“I died, remember? Am I still dead? If I can come back, why can’t he?”

“Good point, you are quite the freak,” she said with a smirk.

“Look who’s talking,” I said. Her smirk disappeared, replaced with a glare. All eyes focused on me. “Ahh yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean that, you know considering your, uh, problem.”

“My problem?” Roxanne came close, her hot breath on my face. She pulled off the wrap from her face. Her skin glowed a pale hue in the dim light. Smooth without blemish. Absolutely stunning.

I turned from her glare and also from her beauty. “I’m sorry, Roxanne,” I whispered.

Silence. Only the banging from above echoed in the room.

“Coyle, we decided to bring you in because I know you have a good heart and extraordinary courage. So, I will forget what you just said. Somatotech has affected each of us in different ways. We are all different now, different from regular people, but I don’t see our changes as limitations. We adapt and are stronger for it.”

I ignored the fact that she had just called me a freak. But, she was right, not only about Somatotech affecting me but man oh man I needed to control better my tongue.

“Anyway, let me introduce you to the team. You have already met Talon and Striker.”

Jonas and Steve stepped forward. They looked exactly the same as the day I met them.

“Talon and Striker? I thought you were Jonas and Steve?”

“Jonas and Steve were our originators’ names; we use them while in public. But Medital wants us to have our own identities, so they had us choose names,” Talon explained, eyeing me.

“So you chose Talon?”

“You got a problem with it?” He stepped toward me but Striker held him back. “It’s harder than you think to come up with a cool name, jerk.” Talon snapped at me. Why such antagonism? We’d worked well together when we broke into Somatotech. Now his glaring eyes never broke contact with me.

“So what is your name then?” I turned to Roxanne.

“I chose to retain my originator’s name.” Everyone remained silent. “I couldn’t find a name that better suited me.” Silence again. Roxanne’s eyelid twitched slightly. Something lurked behind her eyes, deep in her emotions. She held it back, but we all could sense it. She turned to the group. “This is Jarom and Red Cloud.” The three guys stepped forward. Red Cloud was built like a tank; I couldn’t discern his neck from his head. Tattooed deep red flames extended up the back of Red Cloud’s head and wrapped down to his eyebrows. Jarom, while certainly fit, had longer legs and arms and stood a good five or six inches above the rest. His height made his muscles look more natural though still menacing.

“Good to meet you, Coyle,” Jarom spoke up and approached me with a hand extended. “We’ve heard a lot about you. Your operation at Somatotech has become a legend, well at least among us.” I shook his hand heartily. Red Cloud stayed back, eyeing me.

“Uh, thanks. Doesn’t Somatotech watch you all?”

“They did, mainly just checking in on us and following our online activity. But the cat’s kinda out of the bag now. They know we’re organized against them, so we went underground,” said Roxanne.

A screech echoed from above, and a single ray of light extended down to the floor of the room I had fallen into. A crowbar had been jammed along the side bending the metal hatch.

“Here’s the plan. Talon will go with you back to the compound. He will aid you with your escape. We want you to look the hero.”

“Uh, you know they’ll flat out torture him, right?”

“Counting on it. That diversion should give you time to break out,” Talon spoke and cocked his head, “Don’t worry, I’m a big boy.”

“They may kill you,” I said, knowing how unstable, and power hungry Tigre and Manuel were.

“C’mon Coyle, you know better, or at least I thought you would. Killing me would defeat the whole purpose of having a hostage with information. They’ll beat and beat until I talk. And I’ll talk, just not the helpful kind.” He smirked.

“We will be in communication with Talon the entire time.”

“Uh, they will strip you down when you get there. No freakin’ way are you slipping in a wire or cellphone.”

“Coyle, the people we work for are the second leading healthcare tech company in the world. Just as Somatotech has implants, Medital does as well. We all have cellular devices in our skin behind our ears.” Talon turned and pulled his ear forward. Sure enough, a small bump protruded just behind his ear. “A wire extends to our auditory nerve as well as to a device on our ear drum. Everyone can hear everyone and everything.”

My mouth dropped open. Roxanne and her men grinned.

“Can you shut it off?” I asked with a whisper already sensing that others were listening.

“Nope. It takes a bit to get used to, you know, hearing for eight people rather than just yourself, but your brain adapts,” she said, tapping on her head above her ear.

Sorting through what other people hear seemed impossible, how would you know which was your own?  “So, you have no privacy? Does Medital monitor and record everything? And you trust them?”

“They sure do. We trust them because we share a common enemy.” She paused. “Medital is different, I promise,” said Roxanne.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the guys moving his hands in the direction of another guy. Sign language. Nice. Trust only goes so far. I chose not to say anything as that would give away their secret.

“Talon will be our ears and can be your mouth to communicate with us.”

The banging continued above, and another loud screech rang out, followed by more rays of light.

“They are going to blow that hatch open soon,” I said.

“All right, time to roll,” said Roxanne, looking up at the hatch.

“Wait, I need you to do one thing,” I said, coming closer to Roxanne. “Knock the crap out of me. I need to get back to Dr. Bartnev.”

“Why?” she asked, shocked.

“He has something I need. Manuel doesn’t let me to him unless I’m in real bad shape.”

“Hmmm, could you use Talon to help you get what you want?”

I rotated my sore shoulder. “He could be useful.”

“Hmmph,” Talon let out and glared at me.

“Hmm, so we stage it as a battle to the near end for both of you. They find you both unconscious and take you to the Russian doctor. There you can work together to get whatever you’re looking for.” She pulled back her hair and grinned. “I like it.”

“And how do you all get outta here?” I asked, searching the room.

“That won’t be a problem. Once they have you two, we’ll skedaddle through a passageway they’ll never find.”

“So where do we go?” I motioned to Talon and me.

Red Cloud opened a metal hatch at one end of the room.

“This will lead to the building next door. Yell for your friends when you get out. They will run over, and we will slip out.”

“Uh, when are you going to beat me down?”

“Fight club next door baby! Just you and Talon. Good luck.” She winked. “Head on over.”

Talon and I entered the hatch and crawled for a couple hundred feet in a 4 x 4 foot metal shaft. A slight breeze wafted through with a sweet fruity smell that seemed to linger in my nostrils. “What’s that smell?” I asked Talon ahead of me.

“C’mon dude, think! This used to be a massive meth factory. The smell is the residual ether.” He continued forward without looking back. “The cooks would make the meth in the chemical factory we are headed to and then transport it to this one for shipping. The trucks would park over that hatch outside and while they received legitimate contents, a compartment fastened to the frame would be loaded with drugs. This kept the two operations completely separate. Neither side knew the other. A simple knock at the hatch would let either side know the drugs were ready for shipment. Worked like a charm for a while.”

“What happened?”

“One day a curious worker opened the hatch and came face-to-face with the other side. With the anonymity gone, they closed down the operation. We, well Medital, found it, and we have been using it ever since.”

“But now you led Manuel’s men right here?”

“We have many hideouts, Coyle. We can sacrifice one to get you on board.” He continued down the shaft. “Not that we really need you.”

At the end of the shaft, we found a ladder, which led to the building above. We climbed out into the basement floor among huge metal tanks and ventilation fans. Talon led us up an inconspicuous narrow staircase tucked behind one of the tanks. We ended up on the ground floor and in the front of the factory. A faint sound of a hatch opening deep below emanated from one of the pipes, probably from Roxanne and the men escaping.

“All right, how we gonna do this?” I turned to Talon.

“Now that I know you can’t die, I’m thinking I may practice some of the moves I’ve been learning.” He smirked.

“Whoa, wait—” Talon landed a roundhouse kick to my face before I could finish. The blow threw me to the floor, and my head smacked on the ground. He ran toward me. I raised my hands in front of my face. “Hold on! I need to get their attention!” I screamed, and he stopped a few steps away.

“Oh, yeah. Good point.” He slid to a stop and then swung his arm out, motioning to the warehouse we’d left. “Yell away.”

I wiped the blood off my lip, rubbed the back of my head, and stood up. I walked over to a window facing the warehouse and opened it.

“Manuel! Help! I got one of them. Come quick!” The men from the alley whipped around to face the window. One of them raised his radio and radioed Manuel.

“Good enough!” Talon yelled as he flew through the air leading with his feet. I shifted to the right but not before his feet made contact with my right shoulder, sending me into the window, which shattered into thousands of pieces. Shards of glass cut deep into my skin. Since I had incapacitated my right hand with our earlier skirmish, I swung with my left arm, connecting with his right cheek. He hardly flinched and returned my strike with a jab to my injured right shoulder, deepening the gashes left from the glass. I nearly collapsed to the ground from the pain but managed to stumble backward and out of his reach.

“C’mon dude, just knock me out! Why are you so effin pissed at me?” I yelled and spat out the blood pooling in my mouth.

“Just showing you you’re not that special despite what they all say.”

“What do they say?”

“That you are the perfect clone. They say you have no afflictions, not a single cell out of whack. They’ve called you the freakin’ chosen one. But, I think it’s bullcrap.”

“I don’t know where they’re getting their info, but I have plenty of problems.”

“Yeah, you don’t know how to fight.” His fist came at me with blinding speed, literally. I could hardly see it before it collided with my face and snapped my head back. Lights out.

10  Progress

My eyes struggled to open as my mind regained consciousness. The unconscious haze lingered even after my eyes opened. Where was the Russian water technique for waking an unconscious patient? When my eyes focused, I saw that I lay in the examination room alone. Dang, I thought. Where did they have Dr. Bartnev? And for that matter, Talon? I was unconscious when they apprehended him; maybe they seriously jacked him up or even killed him.

I sat up and let my blood level out in my head before hopping down off the table. My pants and shirt lay on a nearby chair, so I threw them on. Someone had stripped the room bare. No instruments, no medications, not even a stethoscope. I walked over to the door and tried the handle. No surprise. Locked. I knocked, and one of Manuel’s men came to the door. Another one stood behind him.

“Has despertado, bueno,” he said. I gave him a look of “I don’t understand.” “You’re awake. It is good.” Thank you for a few more Spanish words, I thought. “I let Manuel know.” He walked down the hall leaving the other guard alone.

“Thanks,” I yelled out to him. I could have busted down the door, but what would that accomplish? Manuel would be pissed, and his men would probably try to shoot me. Although, I sensed a growing discontent among them, something was off. I knocked again, and the other man approached the door but didn’t come close. Smart man, he kept out of range of the door and my arms. The man looked to be in his thirties and had a clean-shaven face, unlike most of the guards. His searching dark eyes and careful stance indicated that this man took his job seriously. A professional.

“I’m Coyle, but you already know that. What’s your name?”

His eyes held a suspicious look for a moment but then relented as the awkwardness of silence grew. “My name is Stefan.” He rested his hand on his gun.

“Stefan, do you fear Manuel?” His eyes darted to the floor for a millisecond, then returned to me. His hand tightened ever so slightly around his holstered gun, and his heart rate accelerated.

“No, I do not fear. I trust him,” he said, but his physiology said otherwise.

“That’s good. He seems to run a tight ship.”

“Sí.” He looked away.

“I haven’t seen you on the missions. Why don’t you come?” He kept his back to me, and his shoulders slumped a bit. “If they trust you to watch me, surely you could be useful on the missions, right?”

“I’m useful, more than useful. But Manuel…” He paused looking around for others. “He doesn’t trust me out there.”

“Out where?”

“Out on the missions. I question too much, and he doesn’t like it. He trusts me here guarding you because we all see you as a threat. There’s no questioning.”

It seems everyone either had it in for me or at least held me in contempt. “I’m no threat to you, Stefan. Someday you will see that. I’m sorry he doesn’t trust you, I know exactly how that feels. Unfortunately, with Manuel, once you are out of favor, it seems hard to return.”

“Es verdad.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, wanting to learn.

“That’s the truth,” he translated.

“I hope to see you on the missions, Stefan. I could use you,” I said and stepped back to the examination table, letting my vote of confidence marinate in the mind of my new friend.

“Open it. Manuel’s orders,” said Dr. Bartnev outside the door.

Stefan unlocked the door, and it swung open.

“You regular patient now. Feel OK?” he said as he extracted his stethoscope from his coat pocket.

“There is nothing regular about me, Dr. Bartnev,” I said as I sat back down on the exam table. “You and I both know that.”

“I mean, you back to regular. Feel OK?”

“Yeah, like you said, I’m a miracle patient. By the way, what happened to the other guy, Jonas?”

Dr. Bartnev’s eyes shifted to the door for a quick second. He lowered his voice, “He’s kinda miracle patient too. Shot many, many times by one of the men.  He lives but down for many days. Down and out.”

Crap, there went our plan to work together. “Who shot him?”

“Tigre. Your friend attacked and Tigre is quick with a gun.”

“Figures, Tigre hardly holds back with me.”

Dr. Bartnev placed the stethoscope on my chest and listened for a few moments, then examined my face, pressing on my jaw and cheeks. “Regular, all regular. Very nice,” he said while folding up his stethoscope in his pocket. I could see the shape of syringes pressing on the fabric.

I decided to press my luck. Dr. Bartnev did seem trustworthy; at least I knew Dr. Strayer trusted him. But, Dr. Strayer trusted Manuel and that sure didn’t turn out. Maybe Dr. Strayer didn’t necessarily trust him but knew he could keep me safe from Somatotech? Now we were anything but safe. Dr. Bartnev had to play along.

“Dr. Bartnev, I need to ask you a question before Manuel gets here.”

He raised his eyebrows but didn’t respond. He turned away from the door and faced the back of the room. I checked the small window in the door. Stefan stood with his back to us a few feet off.

“Jamie and Aedan need to see their families. And, I uh, have a plan to make that happen. But, I need your help.”

“Great risk, Coyle. Talking to me and planning escape.”

“I know it is, but I’m willing to do whatever I can to protect my friends. Dr. Strayer would want me to, you know that.”

“Indeed. He was good person and friend.”

“So, can you help me?”

“He will kill me if I help you.”

“He’ll never let anyone leave here if I don’t take him out.”

“What you need?”

“Only what’s in your pocket. Midazolam, at least two syringes.”

His fingers toyed with the syringes in his pocket. Tiny beads of sweat formed on his forehead and his eyes darted from me and then to the floor. I heard footsteps, Manuel’s footsteps at the end of the hallway about fifty feet away. Someone strode next to him, likely Tigre.

“Just slip them to me as I stand up. If Manuel finds them, act surprised and I will say I pick-pocketed you, I’m a freakin’ genius remember? Surely I can pickpocket as well. But, it’s now or never. C’mon Dr. Bartnev,” I spoke rapidly but carefully articulated my words. Moment of truth. I stood next to him just in front of the table. My chest rubbed against his shoulder. He stood there frozen. Manuel’s footsteps approached the door. “Dr. B. Now!”  He jerked his hand out of the pocket, syringes in hand and in plain sight of the door. I grabbed his wrist pushing it down and out of sight, and then lowered my hand over the syringes. His fist clenched tighter around them. “You better kill him,” he said, then released them into my hand. I slipped them into my pants pocket as Manuel opened the door. He and Tigre entered.

“Touch toes now,” said Dr. Bartnev pushing on my back. I bent over, hoping the action wouldn’t depress the plungers and leak the precious drug all over my pants.

“That’s enough. Dr. Bartnev, I’ve told you many times to not examine Coyle without me present. Please leave.” He motioned toward the door, then slammed his hand down on the table next to me. “¡Coño Stefan! You should know better. No one other than Tigre and me should be alone with our… amigo.”

“Lo siento, Manuel,” Stefan called out from the doorway. His eyes drifted from the floor to me. I shook my head slightly and then glared at Manuel. Stefan shook his head in response.

Dr. Bartnev eyed me then turned to leave. “He regular. Healthy, ready for missions,” he said before going through the door.

Once Stefan and Dr. Bartnev retreated, Manuel turned to me. His eyes screamed mistrust, and he took a small step toward me. The distinct smell of coffee and cigarettes wafted in his breath. I stood my ground. Manuel fed on weakness, and I couldn’t let him win this.

“¡Bién hecho muchacho!” he yelled as a broad smile crossed his face. I returned a confused look. “It means, good job boy! You finally succeeded. Even though you demonstrated your weakness, you were able to detain him until we were able to apprehend him. We’re very pleased.” He slapped my back.

“Uh, thanks. How is he?”

“He’ll survive. When he comes to we’ll extract the information we need although that might be awhile.” Manuel leaned onto the exam table. “So, what happened below the building?”

“I fell through that door he’d opened. When I landed, he tried to knock me out by constriction but I wriggled loose. He meant to capture me; at least that’s what it seemed like. Once I broke loose, he freaked out and tried to get away but I followed him. In the other building, I caught him and knocked him out cold. That’s when I called for you. When I turned to the window, he attacked. There’s something seriously different about him; there is no way a normal person could wake from the blow I gave him.”

“Different indeed. Reminds me of someone.” He grinned at me, apparently pleased with my false story.

“You think he’s like me?” I acted surprised.

“Don’t play coy with me Coyle. You and I both know he’s a product of Somatotech.”

“He was quite strong, intelligent, quick, and frankly good looking. I can see the resemblance,” I grinned, and he chuckled.

“Well, since the doctor has given you a clear bill of health we have a mission to complete.”

“Can I see my friends before we go?”

His grin disappeared. “We’ll talk after the mission.”

11  Darkness Revealed

The mission turned out to be a simple intimidation beating of a guy, although Manuel insisted I knock him out and then go back for a wallet the perp supposedly dropped. When I came back after a thorough and unsuccessful search, the guy I’d knocked out had disappeared. A pool of blood remained, staining the asphalt. I had busted his nose that had sprayed blood all over the alley, but this seemed too concentrated, too much of a collection. White chunks were scattered in the pool along with some hair. The hairs on my neck stood on end.

“Where’d he go?” I said, my hands empty from the search.

“He awoke and we delivered the message and let him go.”

“I didn’t find a wallet or anything else for that matter,” I said while staring down at the blood.

“Hmm, Tigre said he saw him throw it down back there. Not a problem. Let’s go.”

I walked over to the car and noticed the back end sunk one inch lower than before. Sometimes our missions involved pickups and drop-offs, but Manuel hadn’t mentioned anything about this one. As I sat in the back seat, the suspension didn’t compress like before. Manuel and Tigre climbed into the car as routine.

“That must’ve been some message, Manuel,” I said, feeling a bit squeamish looking back at the blood and tissue on the ground.

“I believe he received it loud and clear,” said Manuel, while pulling the car out of the alley.

“Is he OK?”

“He walked away. Do we normally follow the punks to make sure they get home OK?” said Manuel to which Tigre chuckled.

I didn’t respond.

“We need to make a stop at the mortuary,” said Manuel.

“Didn’t Somatotech shake down the restaurant and get info on you? That would make the mortuary a dangerous place to be, right?”

“My people don’t snitch. Yes, Somatotech came sniffing and continues to do so, but no, they do not know about us… yet. Our scouts say the coast is clear, so we go.”

Manuel drove the car into the back alley between the mortuary and Salsitas and placed the car in park. I left my seat belt on, not knowing whether they wanted me to come inside. Both Tigre and Manuel unbuckled and then stared at me.

“Uh guys, all you have to do is say it. Do you want me to come in?”

They looked at each other as if to say, “Well, we can’t leave him here.”

“You’re coming inside.” Manuel turned to me. “You’ve proven quite useful and we’re beginning to trust… I mean believe in you, Coyle. But, you must stay where we put you.”

We slipped into the alley door, and Manuel led me into the office.

“Stay here until I come for you, OK.” Manuel slapped me on the shoulder, left the room, and locked the door behind him. Someone had repaired it after I had pulled it off its hinges when I came back from the dead.

“Yes, sir!” I said and saluted him, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me.

He passed the windows of the office down to the embalming room without giving me the slightest glance. I shuffled over to the wall and placed my ear on the wall. Spanish, all freakin’ muffled Spanish. I couldn’t understand a single word. The sound of metal rubbing on metal from the back of my room caught my attention while they continued to speak. The rubbing on metal stopped, and their voices became distant as if they had gone outside. I ran over to the window, looking out to the hallway, but the angle prevented any sight of the room. I returned to the wall. A loud thump emanating from the embalming room startled me. It was definitely something heavy, and from the sound of it, probably was placed on one of the tables. The trunk! Whatever had weighed down the car was likely on the table now. Another grinding sound came from the back wall of the room. This one lingered as if someone was moving something large very slowly. Manuel and Tigre had stopped talking. Their silence got me thinking. This was a procedure, something they had done before, likely many times. The sounds again drifted away, but this time not toward the alley, but the back wall, the wall with the body storage cooler. The sound of something slowly moving returned and then all went silent.

I continued to listen. About five minutes later the sounds returned although the rolling sound was now higher-pitched. Tigre and Manuel began talking again, apparently done with their task. They drew close so I returned to the spot where they had left me.

“Whatcha doing in there?”

“Taking care of business, which, in this case, is none of your business,” said Manuel. “And now, Tigre and I need to do some business in here, so if you would kindly follow Tigre to the other room.”

Tigre opened the door leading to the hallway and motioned for me to follow. We walked into the embalming room, and he escorted me to the sliding metal door that exited to the alley.

“You stay here.”

“Right here?” I pointed to my feet. “Not right here?” I stepped to the side.

He didn’t indulge me; instead he turned and left the room. I stayed by the door until he entered the office and shut the door.

I ran to the wall and listened. I could hear Manuel and Tigre whispering in the office, so I took the opportunity to inspect the morgue once more. The body refrigerators took up half of the wall, extending to large posters hanging from the ceiling with life-size, human gross anatomy models. My eyes followed the posters down to the floor. A subtle arching scratch jutted out from the back wall of the room. I moved closer to investigate. The posters hung on a small rod suspended from the ceiling just off the wall. Looking closer, I could see two small breaks in the rod, making a small rod between the larger one that extended the length of the room to the back wall. I stepped over to the wall and moved the poster out of the way. Sure enough, similar gaps extended from the ceiling to the floor in the wall. I pushed on the wall. A slight click emanated from the far end, and the door recessed into the wall. It slowly slid, rotating out, rolling on a hidden wheel. I had heard that low grumble earlier. I hoped Manuel or Tigre couldn’t hear it from the office. Lights came on as I stepped down a ramp into the cinderblock room.

A shot of anxiety flowed through my veins at the sight. An imposing stainless steel box the size of a minivan stood in the middle of the room. On one end, a small metal door gaped open and on the other, a large pipe entered the ground. A cremator.

Heat still emanated from the machine, as if it had been used recently. I walked over to the pipe entering the ground. It was oriented toward the back wall, toward Salsitas. I had been in that alleyway multiple times and had never seen an exhaust. But, Salsitas had an exhaust on its ceiling. Did it share smoke from this cremator? Had Manuel and Tigre just burnt a body? Or maybe they burned some evidence? My heart rate quickened at the thought. A rush of nausea billowed up from my belly.

I needed to get out of there. Could Manuel actually burn people’s bodies? My senses heightened at the thought. I listened carefully for sounds of them coming. Manuel and Tigre had stopped whispering, so I slid the door back into place and hung the poster just as I heard them open the door of the office. I held down the corner for a moment so it wouldn’t sway before jumping toward the sliding metal door. I tried to look nonchalant as they entered, but I could feel the sheen of sweat on my forehead building.

“Let’s go,” Manuel said without a hint of suspicion.

Tigre opened the sliding door to the alley a few inches, peered out and then opened it enough for us to slip out. Coming outside proved to be an assault on the senses, compared to the relative silence of the mortuary. Maybe the shock of knowing Manuel and Tigre are really killers heightened my senses. The sunlight made my eyes water. Horns honked; cooks in Salsitas’ kitchen barked out orders, and a train chugged loudly along the Santa Fe rail. A regular ticking sound caught my attention. I looked over and saw Tigre’s watch with the second hand moving in staccato beats. These men end life, life that creates noise and movement.

Once in the car my mind fixated on what I had just witnessed. Man, did they underestimate me? I thought. I’m the most observant person in the world; did they really think I wouldn’t find the giant cremator they’d just used? Letting me have all the time I needed to search this place seemed foolish. Or maybe they wanted me to be intimidated? It did freak me out a bit, actually a freakin’ lot. Manuel was more sinister than I had imagined. Could this be the way they could kill me? I doubted my ATP stores could handle 1500° Fahrenheit.

12  The gospel of sound

“Manuel, you promised me twenty minutes with my friends. Can I get that now?” I said as we walked into the hacienda.

“Sure, you didn’t completely fail on this last mission and the one before that provided Jonas, who will prove useful. You’ll help in extracting intel from him, once he wakes.” He smirked toward Tigre. I would’ve loved to deck both of them for what they did to him, but I had to play along. I couldn’t show a single smidgen of loyalty to Talon if I wanted to meet with my friends.

“Thanks for taking him out. He beat the crap out of me, well, really just sucker punched me.”

“Yes, his skills seem far superior to your own.”

“Give me another chance with him, I’ll show you what I can do. Now about that twenty minutes…”

“Sure.” He looked to Tigre. “Escort Jamie to Aedan’s room and then call for Coyle.”

Manuel and I walked back toward the kitchen in the long hallway. A door on my left swung open, and two men strolled out. I caught a glimpse of the room with its rounded concave ceiling and entryway. An altar stood at the back of the room with a few rows of chairs facing it. A thick rope extended into the ceiling. Manuel noticed me staring.

“It is our chapel. Some of the men need to feel the influence of a higher power.”

“Do you?”

“I rely on my own power. Power I fostered and grew with my own hands. I guide myself rather than leaving it up to a god. I will not kneel to him or her when men kneel to me.”

I was speechless. While I had my doubts about God and knew I had some power, his level of narcissism exceeded a sane level. Manuel believed he was a god, plain and simple.

“Don’t tell me you don’t feel it, Coyle. The power to make someone else do your bidding, the pure control over someone else’s life.”

“I feel the temptation, sure, but I don’t relish it, Manuel.”

“That will change.”

I looked back at the small chapel. The shape of the room reminded me of a topic I read during my Somatotech training. Dead spots. Acoustic dead spots. The concavity of the ceilings and walls created destructive interference areas where sound waves would cancel. I analyzed the path I believed the sound waves would travel and determined that the outer row of chairs near the altar and just inside the entrance were dead spots. An individual standing here would have a hard time hearing or at least understanding speech at specific locations in the room. This is where we needed to meet.

“Manuel, can Aedan, Jamie, and I meet in here? Jamie misses her church.”

He looked inside, then at the hallway, and then back inside. “Sure, have her pray to her God that her boyfriend can continue his work for freedom.” Manuel seemed pleased with the new meeting location. Probably due to there being only one entryway and its proximity to the kitchen, it was much easier to monitor.

“Thanks, Manuel. Can I stay here and wait?”

“Yes, with a guard,” said Manuel as he walked toward the kitchen. Perfect, I thought. I needed someone to test my sound wave theory.

I walked into the chapel and sat down on one of the seats. “Hello, hello, hello,” I said and listened for the echoes, their direction, and intensity. I moved to other locations and repeated the task.

“Hello?” One of Manuel’s men stood behind me.

“Uh, just seeing if God listens.” I stood up. “Come join me.”

“No, señor.” He kept his ground. I needed him to step one foot forward.

“Please, come forward,” I whispered and looked at him expectantly. He looked confused because he didn’t hear me clearly, not because of a dead spot but because I spoke at a barely audible level. He took a small step forward. “What is your name?” I said loudly before he could come closer. He stopped but didn’t respond.

“OK, I’ll just get my prayer on.” I sat back down, ducked my head and waited for my friends. I’m not sure whether it was reverence in the room or something else, but I slipped into introspection. My near death experience and now Roxanne and her clone crew have both claimed I am Coyle’s clone. My knowledge and memories were trained, implanted in my brain. They weren’t real for me. They aren’t mine but Coyle’s. I am living his life. What am I making of it? If anything, I have brought tarnish to his name and family. And what had I done to his friends? I’m deceiving Jamie into thinking I am her boyfriend, not intentionally, well until now. Did I dare tell her now? Telling her about her dad nearly ended our relationship. Revealing that I'm an imposter would surely destroy her. My head started to throb.

Two people approached the chapel. “Vete de aqui hombre.” Tigre pulled the guard out as he entered the room. “Les voy a vigilar.” Thank you, Tigre, I added those words into my bank, but no thank you for removing my well-positioned guard. Tigre planted himself at the entryway but on the other side, a good three feet from where I needed him.

Jamie walked in from behind Tigre.

“Coyle,” she said as she approached me with wet red eyes. My heart sank and I wrapped my arms around her trying to pull her close. She crossed her arms in front of her body, pushing me back with tense muscles.

“I’m sorry Jamie, I’m so sorry about your dad and about me being an idiot.” I gazed into her eyes, but they shifted away. How could I deceive someone so beautiful, inside and out?

“Coyle, you gotta get me out of here.” She stared at the floor.

“I’m doing the missions. I think Manuel was proud of my more recent work.”

“Hmmph,” said Tigre. He could hear us. I had to get him over to the dead spot.

“Tigre, how many more missions until you let us go?”

“Manuel keeps the tally. He will let you know.”

“What would happen if I left right now?”

“You wouldn’t make it past this door, muchacho.”

“Oh really?” I walked to the entryway on the side I needed him. He pushed off the opposing wall and stopped my path. He pushed me back, and I deliberately tripped over a chair behind me.

“Are you an idiot?”

“I was kidding Tigre, geez. I know I could never get past you,” I said while grinning. I stood up using the chair and then slid it over to him in the exact spot I needed him. “Relax, I am not that stupid.” He grabbed the chair, sat down, and unholstered his gun, resting it on his lap.

“Where is Aedan?” I asked.

“He’s too slow; Stefan brings him.”

“Who are you calling slow?” Aedan came in swinging on crutches. Stefan strolled in behind him. I smiled at both of them. Stefan smiled back, nodded, and then left.

“You are a cripple, a very slow cripple,” said Tigre. He didn’t move his chair to let him by. Aedan struggled to squeeze through with his crutches. He looked up baring his teeth until he noticed where Tigre’s foot lay. With his next movement, he placed his crutch on his foot and put his full weight on the crutches.

“Coño!” Tigre jumped up and slapped the crutch out from under Aedan’s shoulder. He came tumbling down, but I dived forward, catching him before he collided with the chair in front of him. Tigre glared at me and made the universal symbol for “I’m going to kill you” with his finger across his neck. I shook my head in disgust.

“Sorry Tiger,” said Aedan as I helped him up.

“Don’t test me, cripple,” he said while sitting back down in the chair. While Aedan’s assault was genius, it threatened my plan. Gratefully, Tigre plopped down on the chair without moving it.

I moved to the exact position I had been in while I spoke with one of Manuel’s men.

“Tigre,” I said at a normal conversational level. Nothing, he sat there glaring at Aedan. “Guys, come over here. At this spot, Tigre can’t hear us well.” They could have the whole placed bugged and then we would be hosed, but I hadn’t seen any wires or any other indication of any bugs. We had to take the risk. Besides, I had to believe they suspected we would plot and try an escape.

Aedan shuffled over and sat on my right. Jamie moved up a row of seats but kept her distance.

“Jamie, can you come closer? He can probably hear you from there.”

She turned away from me but scooted over to the seat next to me on my left.

“Thank you, Jamie, I’m sorry again.”

“In the doghouse, dude? What’d you do this time?” asked Aedan.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, looking at the floor.

“Oh, just like you didn’t want to tell me?” she yelled. Tigre looked up but only smirked when he saw how pissed Jamie appeared. So, there was a threshold at which he could hear. We had to maintain our voices at a conversation level. But, from Tigre’s response, maybe Jamie’s outbursts would keep his suspicion low.

“Tell her what?” asked Aedan.

I looked at her. She kept her back to me. “Her dad was shot and I knew it and didn’t tell her until a couple days ago. I’m an idiot, I know.”

“Dang man. Jamie, I’m so sorry. Do we know if he’s doing OK?”Aedan rubbed his brows.

“Manuel says he is, he—“

“I don’t believe a single word that comes out of that snake,” said Jamie while staring at Tigre.

“Fair enough. I gotta find out from someone else, and I will on the next mission.”

“You’d better,” said Jamie, loud enough for Tigre to hear.

“Jamie, Tigre can hear you when you talk that loud. That’s fine if you aren’t saying anything about our escape.”

“So you want me to talk loud?” she asked.

I nodded.

“But, you only want me to talk about things other than what I really want to talk about? Like how are we getting out of this place?”

“Not exactly. When we talk about our escape, we have to talk at a normal level. Anything else, we talk loudly so he can hear.”

“How’s your leg?” I said loudly, changing the subject to save some face.

“Aches, but I can take it, man,” he said, then hushed his voice. “What’s the plan? Oh, and what’s all the fuss been about round here?” He sat up and rubbed his thigh.

“They captured Jonas, well; he gave himself up. Oh and get this, he actually goes by Talon.” Aedan nodded approvingly.

“So he’s here to help us?” asked Jamie.

“That was the plan originally, but he won’t be doing crap for a few days. They shot him up.”

“Uh, as you can see by my continued cripple state, it takes more than a few days to recover from being shot up.”

“He’s not like you. He’s more like me.”

“Ah ha! I thought so! He was a little too perfect.”

“Anyway, here’s the plan; we have to take this place over, by ourselves.”

“As in a hostile takeover? A three-teenager uprising against an army of angry armed men?” His eyes widened reflexively.

“Yep, we are going to turn this place to our cause. I’m gathering some seriously sensitive info to help them turn. The plan is to take out the ringleaders; Manuel and…” I lowered my voice because Tigre looked over, “Tigre. Once we have them, the rest will join us or surrender.”

“What on earth is going to convince their men to betray them?”

“Manuel and Tigre kill people and burn their bodies in a cremator,” I said without emotion.

Aedan and Jamie stared blankly at me. I could hear Jamie’s heart rate pick up, she dropped her head and began to weep.

“Get me outta here Coyle!” she yelled and Tigre looked over and then stood.

“What’s going on?” he yelled.

“We will, again once I complete my missions,” I said, ignoring his question. “She’s just homesick,” I said loudly.

“You have five more minutes,” he said and sat down.

“How are we going to take them?” Aedan glanced back at Tigre, who was now toying with his gun. “You aren’t talking about doing the deed, right? I had my fill of that at Somatotech dude.”

“No. No killing. Maybe a few bruises, but no killing, I can’t take it anymore either. Capture and exposure. That is all we are after. I will apprehend Manuel, and you will take care of Tigre.”

“And how am I supposed to overpower that chunk of Mexican muscle?”

“With these.” With my back turned to Tigre, I showed him the syringes chock full of sedative. He grabbed one of them.

“Ah yeah man, going all doctor on them. I like it.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“How fast does it work?” He inspected the opaque liquid inside.

“It would work a whole lot faster if you could get it in his veins, but I doubt you could convince him to sit down with a tourniquet around his arm. Just jam it into his arm or leg and press down the plunger.”

“So, what am I supposed to do until it works?” He slipped it back into my hand.

“Just get out and lock him in your room,” I said, tucking the syringe in my pocket with the other.

“So, let me get this straight. I have to stab him somehow with a syringe, get the key, convince him to stay in the room and lock it from the outside, all with me having a bum leg. Sounds like I could use your help.”

“I can’t, I gotta draw Manuel away from here just as you have to draw Tigre away from Jamie and into your room. Talon is incapacitated, so he’s no help. Listen, Manuel and Tigre seem to go on their killing missions in the morning, so this has to go down in an afternoon. It could be soon. After you take him out, you need to get into the room next door. In it, you will find a bunch of cellphones. Grab one and wait for my call. I should have Manuel down for the count around 1 p.m., and that’s when I’ll call.”

“Dang man, I’m not in the best shape. Couldn’t we wait a few weeks until I am fully back to my impressive original self?”

“No freakin’ way, not weeks. The longer this goes, the more power they feel they have over us. I hope I can give you a week or so, but if the opportunity knocks, we gotta take it.”

“And how will we know when that is?”

“I’ll find a way to let you know. It will be something only you, Jamie and I would recognize. Keep your eyes and ears open.”

“And are we staying here after this little mutiny?” Aedan asked.

“Where else can we go? This place is off the grid. It’s the perfect center for our operations.”

“I’m leaving this place the first second I can,” interjected Jamie, loud enough for Tigre to hear.

“Only if it is safe, Jamie. What if they’re waiting for you to come home? They could snatch you so easily, and I doubt they would just lock you up again.”

“I’m leaving here,” she said, slowly annunciating each syllable. “What do you want me to do while this is all happening?”

“Stay safe. If anyone comes to get you, knock out the air conditioner in your room to escape. It’s really loose. Once you get out yell for the Doña, Dr. Bartnev or… ” Who else could we trust? My mind flipped through the men and landed on Stefan; he seemed trustworthy. “Or Stefan.”

“Who’s Stefan?” asked Aedan.

“A new friend on Manuel’s crew.” I described what Stefan looked like, and both Aedan and Jamie indicated they knew who he was. “I’m working on him. I hope to turn him before this all goes down. Maybe he could relieve your guard, Jamie?”

We sat there in silence before Aedan spoke up. “What are these operations you want to do from here?”

“Taking down Somatotech,” I said frankly.

Aedan rolled his eyes. “C’mon Murray. I’d rather live out my days here at the Hacienda than risk my tail at that place again.”

“No shooting, no killing. We will be smart about it. I promise.”

The disconcerting look that crossed his face screamed, “Your promise didn’t pan out last time.”

“And… Roxanne and her crew are going to help us,” I said, hoping it would convince him.

“Hmm… are they coming here?” he asked while unconsciously combing his hair back with his hand. His cheek blushed a bit. He so had a crush on Roxanne.

“Yeah, right after our little coup.”

He snapped back to reality, “They didn’t exactly pacify the situation last time. Why are the coming after we take Manuel down anyways? Why not now and break Jonas, I mean Talon and us out now?”

“It would be a bloodbath, dude. Remember that promise about no shooting or killing? Manuel and his men would unload on them and vice versa. But, Talon will help when it all goes down. Look for him.”

Jamie interjected, “Coyle, you haven’t mentioned what we are going to do with our families after we do this. Aren’t they still in danger?”

“They are, there’s no doubt those goons are watching them. But, I know they’re all alive,” I said, and she scowled. “I know that’s little consolation. We’ll contact them after we control this place, but we’ve got to be smart about it. Somatotech is surely monitoring their phones, houses, work, and probably even their friends.”

“Coyle, I love you man, but if anything happened to my mom, I…,” Aedan’s voice wavered.

“I couldn’t forgive myself either,” I said. “Listen, I know I brought this upon all of you and that is something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life. Dr. Strayer…” A ball formed in my throat and tears threatened almost immediately as I said his name. “He, he died trying to help me. I won’t let that happen again.” I clenched my fists as a rush of grief and pain enveloped me.

“You can’t be sure, Coyle. Nothing is ever sure,” Jamie whispered.

“You’re right Jamie, but I promise to do all I can. That’s all I got.” I looked at my hands and then to Aedan, “Listen Aedan, If we can convince Manuel’s men to join us we will have a force to be reckoned with, a group of men who can protect our families.”

“How can you be sure they will join us?” he said.

“I can’t be. But their chatter is revealing. They are already pissed off at Manuel for changing things. Throw in that he is burning the people he kills, and I gotta believe they will tip over to our side.”

Jamie turned to me. “If they don’t, both of us die. You know that, right?” she said and then turned back.

I didn’t have a response. Was I taking an unnecessary risk? Manuel would never let us go. He would never give up that control. Either we revolt and risk retaliation or remain slaves and captives until we’re not useful.

“The Doña and Dr. Bartnev are friends, at least I believe they are, so if things do go bad you need to seek them out.”

“How are you going to let Manuel’s men know what he’s done?”

“I’m planting the seeds already my friend. We will reap with a big reveal on the day of reckoning.”

“I like the sound of that!” Aedan said while Jamie rolled her eyes.

13  New Trust

My missions continued. I beat up businessmen, verbally assaulted clerks, shook down addicts for drug money and settled debts with my fists. Each time I did, I felt as if a little piece of goodness slipped from me. My goodness tank ran dangerously low and with it the feeling of being human. Unfortunately, I needed to continue.  Aedan had to heal and to heal he needed time. I couldn’t refuse the missions without hearing more of Manuel’s threats. Besides, I think his trust in me began to strengthen. That trust would have to be his weakness.

“Today we are doing a mission that will pull your heart strings.”

I raised my eyebrows, curious. We both sat at the kitchen island chowing down on huevos.

“Two guys have been harassing a shop manager, a Muslim shop manager. They have thrown out racial slurs and threatened him. The owner of the shop requests that we provide protection and intimidation. All for a good cause.” He grinned.

“You are a freakin’ saint, Manuel,” I said and rolled my eyes. He grinned, and I continued, “Who’s all coming?”

“I think you and I can handle it.” Manuel chuckled and patted me on the back, “Tigre and I have a mission this morning, and then I’ll come pick you up at noon. Enjoy your breakfast.” He dropped his fork on the plate and pushed it toward the Doña.

My internal alarm went off. They didn’t want me around for a morning mission, I thought. They were going to kill someone today. Today! Crap, I need to let Aedan and Jamie know that today is D-day. The problem is; I’ve revealed hardly anything to Manuel’s men. It will all come as a shock. Would they react before we could convince them?

“How long will your mission take?” I asked as Manuel went for the door.

“A couple hours. Why do you ask?”

“Just wanted to see if I had time to see Aedan and Jamie this morning?”

He stared at me for a moment, trying to gauge my intention. “Let’s stick with afternoon visits.” He turned and walked out the door. Stefan came into the kitchen as he exited. Manuel made a motion with his hand and nodded to me. Stefan was my guard for the morning.

“Buen día, Stefan. ¿Cómo estás?”

“Buen día, Coyle. Estoy bien. Hablas bien el español ahora.”

“Estoy aprendiendo, sí. So you are my guard this morning?” Thank freakin’ goodness; I needed to bring someone onto our side, and quick.

“Yes, a standard watch. You may go to your room, the kitchen and the bathroom in the hallway.”

I mapped out all of the locations in my mind and analyzed them for ways to communicate with Aedan and Jamie. Sure, I could have busted a window in the hallway and yelled out but that would effectively shut down our little operation. I looked around the kitchen. No windows, no phones, no radios. Jamie and Aedan’s rooms were in opposite locations on the compound, so only a loud noise could reach both of them. Nothing in the kitchen could make that type of noise without raising serious suspicion. I needed to check the hallway and my room.

“Can I go to my room?”

He agreed and escorted me out of the kitchen. We passed the chapel door. I thought back to my visit with Jamie and Aedan. My mind searched the room. There was an altar, chairs, and a rope extending to the ceiling. The bell! I had never heard it rung at the compound. Would Jamie and Aedan recognize it as something out of the ordinary? It was our only chance.

“Stefan, do you believe in God?” I said, pausing at the chapel.

“Yes, Coyle, I do. Do you?” He stood next to me, staring at the altar.

“I’m not sure, but I hope he’s real,” I said.

“He’s real Coyle; I can assure you.”

“Manuel thinks it’s foolish to believe in a higher being.”

“Someday we’ll all know better, including Manuel,” he said with a sigh.

“Can we go in?” I motioned toward the room.

“For a moment, yes. But we mustn’t stay long.”

We walked in, and Stefan crossed himself before sitting down near the door. I strode over to the altar and knelt down. The rope hung on the side of the altar only a foot away. I looked up as if I was looking for the heavens, but actually, I was examining the bell above. Cobwebs stretched from wall to wall, the length of the shaft leading up to the bell. This hadn’t been used for quite a while. Who knows if it actually worked? I glanced back at Stefan, who had closed his eyes momentarily, likely deep in prayer. Seizing on the moment, I grabbed the rope and pulled. Nothing. It didn’t budge down like I thought it would.

“You have to swing the rope, don’t pull,” Stefan said as he walked up to me and grabbed the rope.

“Oh, sorry.”

He slowly rocked it back and forth until the metal ball made contact with the bell. Deep echoing sounds rang out to the entire compound.

“We used to ring this bell in the morning, at night and every time we had a successful mission to thank God for another day we were alive.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“Manuel has told us to thank him rather than ring a silly bell.” He let the rope drop and sat down in the chair closest the altar. “It feels good to ring it again.”

“May I?”

“Of course, now that Manuel is off the property. The men would love to hear it again.”

I grabbed the rope and rang it. But, I didn’t do it as Stefan. I rang the chorus to “Rock The Kasbah” over and over. I knew Aedan would recognize it, but I wasn’t so sure Jamie would.

“Hey! That’s enough!” Stefan grabbed the rope from my hand. “This place, this sacred place, deserves reverence.”

“I’m sorry Stefan, I meant no disrespect.” I decided not to lie to my new friend. “I wanted my friends to recognize that the bells were ringing for them as well.”

“I understand. I’m sorry for you and your friends; this situation is unfortunate.”

“Stefan, do you believe what Manuel has done to us is wrong?”

“I understand the threat you have brought on us.” He paused gathering his thoughts. “But treating you as slaves and captives is wrong.” He crossed himself again.

“Thank you, Stefan, I needed to hear that. Manuel is so freakin’ overbearing I forget there are good people here.”

“We have a good group of men who are loyal to the cause.”

“And loyal to Manuel?”

He didn’t respond. This confirmed my impression that the men held resentment for the types of jobs Manuel had taken on and because of how he had treated us. The crazy mission, to turn this place over to our cause, could possibly work, although I hadn’t expected it to come so soon. One critical detail was missing. I needed something with which to threaten Manuel. Something that would prevent him from ever coming after us, ever coming back here. My mind scanned my conversations with him, our outings, and all of the missions. The only time Manuel had acted differently than his cool self was when he had caressed that woman’s arm where we dropped off Samuel. That house and the woman seemed to be significant to him. Maybe his family lived there?

“Stefan, could you answer a personal question?”

“Only if it doesn’t threaten my ability to do my job.”

“Fair enough. I hope it won’t. I never see any women other than the Doña here. Are any of you guys married?”

“Many are, yes.”

“Are you?”

“I’m sorry; that’s a question I can’t answer.” His eyes stayed fixed on the altar. Reading his physiology proved difficult, because he didn’t answer the question with a simple yes or no. Again, Stefan had demonstrated his wisdom. He would never admit to having a family and put them at unnecessary risk. I doubted even the other men knew his personal details.

“Is Manuel married?”

“His personal life is more open than mine. He trusts his men, or at least he intimidates them enough so that his personal and work lives can be one. But, he wouldn’t appreciate me giving out information about his family.”

“I understand.” But, he already had, and maybe he did it on purpose. I decided to push a little more. “His family lives on East 17th, right?”

His eyes widened for a split second, and his hand tightened on the edge of the chair. This went too far. “I can’t answer that question, Coyle.”

“Stefan, I need to tell you something that could change things between us.”

“Go on.”

“Manuel and Tigre are doing shady business in the mortuary. Something I don’t think you or the men would approve of.”

Stefan let a smile come to his lips. “We all know they launder money through both the mortuary and the restaurant. While we don’t approve of it, we see it as a necessary evil to keep us running.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. Did you know there is a cremator at the mortuary?”

“No, but there’s much I don’t know about those businesses.”

“Stefan,” I hesitated for dramatic effect. “Manuel and Tigre kill people and burn their bodies in that cremator.”

His eyes narrowed, and his smile instantly disappeared. “How do you know this?” he spoke quickly.

“I’ve been there after they did the deed. I felt the warmth of the cremator.”

“Does Dr. Bartnev know of this?”

Crap! That hadn’t dawned on me until now. That’s Dr. Bartnev’s mortuary; he has to know of the cremator. The question was whether he knew Manuel and Tigre were using it to erase their victims. Could he stoop to their level and be a part of it? “I’m not sure. I hope not,” I said and rubbed my forehead.

“Coyle, this is very sensitive information. It would create quite a stir among the men.”

“I’m counting on it.”

Stefan whipped toward me. “What are you talking about?” He curled his brow and stared at me intently.

“I’m taking down Manuel and Tigre for our survival.”

He couldn’t form words. His mouth gaped open, and his hand slipped down to his gun, but he kept it in the holster.

“Stefan, I need your help. You know Manuel won’t let us leave here alive. The men trust you, probably even more than Manuel at this point, I need you to talk to them and convince them not to retaliate when I take care of Manuel.”

“¡Diablo! Coyle, you know what you’re asking me to do? If you don’t succeed, I’ll be dead and so will my family.”

“I thought you kept them secret?”

“Manuel would find them; he is the most resourceful man I know.”

“I won’t fail. You and your family will be safe.”

“When are you doing this?”

“This afternoon, they are going to kill someone this morning, I guarantee it.”

“Aye Dios mio, muchacho. So, you expect me to convince my men to abandon our leader in a matter of hours?”

“You can’t tell me they haven’t been upset with how things have been going!”

“Yes that’s true, but exacting a mutiny is a whole different ballgame.”

“You gotta do your best, but most of all you gotta make sure Aedan and Jamie are safe.”

He crossed himself once more and recited the end of the Lord’s Prayer, “Tuyo es el Reino el Poder y la Gloria por Siempre Señor. It’s in his hands.”

“It’s in all our hands.” We stood up at the same time. I looked at the clock on the wall, 10:45 a.m. One hour and fifteen minutes until game time.

14  Game Time

“Come on dude, come on man. I’m sorry, I won’t…” screamed Mason, the dude I just grabbed from the minimart. He was just a garden-variety punk spewing racist hate at a Muslim employee. I had grabbed him and his buddy, Jake as they went into the store. They were weak, so I had wrapped both of them up under my arms and carried them behind the store. Manuel had grabbed Jake when I dropped them.

“Shut up!” yelled Manuel with spittle spraying out of his mouth but his lips curved in a wide grin. “Nice work.” He looked at me.

I raised my fist high above my head. I felt like I was holding a weight that wanted desperately to come crashing down on this man’s face. Mason’s fear-stricken eyes begged for compassion.

“Get it over with,” said Manuel, inching closer to me with the other guy in tow by his collar.

“I… I can’t,” I said, looking at Manuel. “I won’t.” I dropped Mason onto the ground. He scurried over to the wall like an animal fearful for his life.

“Coyle, now’s not the time.” His eyes began to burn with anger.

“No better time Manuel. This has to end; this is not me.”

“You are whoever I say you are. I own you. You will do as I say.” He threw Jake down next to Mason. His head slammed against the concrete wall. He instantly recoiled and cupped the back of his now bloody head with his hands.

“I’m done, Manuel. I’ve paid my dues.” I raised my hands in concession.

Manuel ripped his phone from his pocket and held it toward me. “One call, Coyle, one damn phone call and your sweetheart will suffer a terrible accident. Jamie has such a beautiful face with such smooth, soft skin. It would be a damned shame for anything to happen to it. Acid has a way of disfiguring without killing. Every day after this very moment, you will look into her scarred face and realize you made the worst decision of your life.” He lowered the phone, eyes fixed on mine. “Finish this.” He motioned with a slight nod toward the cowering men.

I looked at my watch. 1:02 p.m. It was time. Trusting Aedan had gotten the message and stolen the gun; I snapped my arm forward. My fist contacted his temple before he could flinch. Instantly unconscious, his head slammed against the concrete floor. I hit him hard enough to ensure he was knocked out but, hopefully, not hard enough to kill him. I picked up his cellphone.

“Oh dang! Nice work!” said Mason as he stood up.

“Sit down!” I yelled and pushed him down back down on the concrete.

“Hey, what gives?”

“Never come back here. If I find out you have, I’ll hunt you down and pull each of your limbs off.”

Mason, eyes wide, remained silent.

“Now, for saving your life you owe me. I am collecting on that debt right now. At exactly 1:45 I want you to call this number and give them this message,” I said and handed him a piece of paper with the number for Channel 7 news. “I am monitoring the news so I will know if you don’t do it. And if you don’t I will find you and—” I motioned as if I was pulling arms apart. He shuddered. “This works to both our favor. You won’t have to worry about Manuel anymore.”

“OK dude, yeah, I’ll do it. Thanks, man,” he said while helping his buddy to his feet.

“Remember, never again,” I pointed back toward the minimart.

“Right, right.”

“Get out of here,” I yelled.

They left without another word, Jake still cupping his battered head.

I picked up Manuel’s body and flung it over my shoulder. I crept over to the car, popped the trunk, found the handcuffs he always kept in the back and locked them on his wrists, then plopped him in the trunk. I wasn’t too careful, and his head slapped the side, creating a small laceration above his eyebrow. He deserved it. I took out the syringe of sedative and jammed it into his leg, injecting the entire dose. I slammed the trunk closed, jumped in the car and started driving to the mortuary. My heart beat wildly, and I had to keep wiping my hands from the nervous sweat building up. I checked my watch, 1:15 p.m. Time to call. I dialed each number I had memorized from the map room. After seven numbers, the eighth one rang.

Aedan answered on the first ring. “The cripple comes through!”

“Aedan, you’re OK?”

“Better than OK, I am a freakin’ genius!”

“Is Jamie OK?” I asked.

“Yeah dude, we are all good. She got out, and the men didn’t do crap, just let her run up to the house. Your man Stefan came through! The Doña took her into your room and locked the door.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s still there. But dude, you should have seen it. I freakin’ swiped him with the IV pole--,”

“Who is with her now?” I interrupted.

“The Doña, don’t worry dude, she’s safe.”

A rush of anxiety swept through me. “Aedan, get in that room, now!”

“What’s a matter?”

“Something Manuel said.” The dots seemed to connect; maybe Manuel is a front man for her operation. He works for her and not the other way around. I scanned the conversations; all of the Spanish people had spoken around me. A conversation Manuel and Tigre had right before we raided Roxanne’s hideout warehouse stuck out immediately.

“Podemos deshacernos de ellos? Nos darían más dinero,” said Tigre.

“No, ella sabe demasiado de esta misión.”

“Entonces, cuándo vamos a estar a cargo?”

“Con tiempo.”

Translated:

“Can we get rid of these guys? We’d get paid more,” said Tigre.

“No, she knows too much about this mission.”

“Then when are we going to be in charge?”

“In time.”

Manuel and Tigre were planning to take control. Could this all be fitting into the Doña’s plan? “I think the Doña is behind all of this,” I yelled into the phone.

“Oh sh—”

I could hear Aedan running down the hallway. He stopped at the room and yanked on the door.

“Jamie?” he yelled. “Jamie, are you OK?”

No answer.

“Aedan!” I yelled into the phone. “Aedan, get back on the phone!”

“Dude she isn’t in there, or, or maybe she’s…”

“She’s not, dude. Get the keys from the men. One of them must have them.” I searched my mind. Images of each and every man flashed before my eyes. I never saw anyone else with those specific keys, not even Manuel. “Dang it!” I yelled.

“What dude?”

“The Doña is the only person with keys to that room.” My hands began to shake, and perspiration grew on my forehead.

“What can we do?” said Aedan.

The armory. “With Tigre’s keys you have access to the armory. Get something heavy and blow the crap out of that door. Get Stefan to help you.”

“What about Jamie? That crap could kill her.”

“Aedan, I guarantee she isn’t in that room. There is an escape hatch under the bed. They’ve gone through there.”

“Where does it lead?”

“I… ” I visualized the house. During my first visit, the Doña had indicated it led to a cellar. Where would the cellar be? Now knowing that the Doña was the mastermind behind this whole operation I also guaranteed none of the men knew where it led. “Have some men circle the house looking for the cellar. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“K dude. Good luck.”

“Find her, Aedan. She’s—”

“I know Coyle, I will,” he interrupted.

We hung up, and I slammed my fists on the dash. How could the Doña betray me like this? How much did she direct? Could it be that she knows about the cremator? If she did and I exposed them, Jamie would be in serious danger. My hands tightened on the steering wheel.

I drove around the block before pulling into the back alley of the mortuary, scouting out the area. No trace of Somatotech, although they could have gone more undercover. I pulled into the back alley of the mortuary, coasting in just as Tigre had done when I came back to life. The night gave him the advantage. I rolled in under the bright-as-blazes near noon sun. No cover for my “covert” mission. Although, I had a sense the neighbors were used to this type of secretive activity.

I popped the trunk, hefted Manuel over my shoulder and used his keys to open the back metal door. Bonk. Oops! His head against the door frame as I passed the threshold and flopped from side to side. I couldn’t help but grin.

I set him down on one of the autopsy tables. His limp body laid there defenseless. Nobody would be the wiser if I squeezed the life out of him. I rested my hand on his neck, tempted with the power I held. It wouldn’t take much; his trachea would collapse with a simple pinch, or I could squeeze off his arteries, starving his brain. Did he deserve to die? He kidnaped, robbed, blackmailed and even killed. He freakin’ burned people’s bodies, robbing the victim’s loved ones of closure. Would the world be better without him? Absolutely. Did I have feet to stand on? I’ve killed. I was a killer. Did I deserve to die? I backed my hand away. I was no judge or executioner.

I put on latex gloves, grabbed his gun from its holster and tossed it into the office.

I slid back the door to the cremation room and then hefted Manuel again. This time I let his head slip past the door without incident. I plopped him down next to the cremator, undid his handcuffs, and then reattached them around one of the pipes entering the behemoth. A quick pull verified that Manuel wouldn’t be getting loose. I filled a bucket of water in the adjacent room and used the technique Dr. Bartnev had taught me, namely dumping the entire thing on Manuel’s head.

Apparently, I had given him a hefty dose of sedative. His eyes opened then closed in slow continuous movements. His head rocked back and forth for a moment and then his hand drifted to his bleeding forehead.  He tried to reach with his other arm, but the handcuffs restrained him. Finally, it dawned on him, his eyes shot open, and his nostrils flared. He frantically yanked at the cuffs and pole.

“What in the hell are you doing?”

“This has been a long time coming, Manuel.” I pulled out his cellphone.

“I’m going to tear you to shreds and then burn what’s left of your sorry body. Then I’ll do the same to your teeny girlfriend and your cripple friend.” He kicked at me with legs flailing wildly.

I took a small step back, just out of reach. “With the evidence I’m giving the police you are the one who’s gonna die, Manuel.”

“Not before I kill you first. And if I can’t, Tigre will and he will do so much worse.”

“Tigre’s joining you very soon.”

I held up the phone and showed the screen to him while dialing 911. A female answered on the second ring.

“Operator, I have a murderer in my custody. He has killed numerous people and cremated their bodies at the Santa Fe Hill Mortuary. Located behind a hidden door in the embalming room is a large cremator room. I have left this door open. A partially cremated body, one of his victims, is currently in the cremator. His gun can be found in the office of the mortuary and his car with the blood of his victims is in the alley next to the mortuary. This information will be arriving at channel 7-News later today. Please hurry, his name is Manuel Sanchez, and he is currently handcuffed to the cremator, unarmed.”

“You son of a b—” he yelled as I dropped the phone and crushed it under my foot. “After all I did for you.” He spat at me.

“You saved me once Manuel, but you damned me when I came back. You enslaved me in your criminal vigilantism, Manuel. Don’t act all altruistic. You killed people for your own gain. However you try and justify it in your twisted power-hungry brain, you freakin’ killed people. It’s time to face your crimes.”

Manuel surfaced a sinister smile.  “Face my crimes? Your ignorance is yet again surprising. You’ll have the same fate, Coyle. The hacienda is full of evidence against you. If I am going down, you will be right there with me. She will see to that.”

I took a step toward him and produced my own sinister smile. “Sure is Manuel, sure is. But you aren’t going to say anything about the hacienda, nor is Tigre.”

“And why is that?” He gave me a slight upward nod.

“What do you think your family on East 17th would think of your ‘operations’? Should I go visit them?”

Manuel jumped up, straining at the handcuffs. “You touch them and you die.”

“We both know I won’t need to. You’ve got plenty of enemies, and they’re chomping at the bit to exact revenge. All it would take is an address delivered to the wrong person. Let’s see, what was it, 305 East 17th Denver, Colorado 80203?” I grinned. “You will say nothing about the hacienda.”

“Stefan.” He sat down and rested his head on the warm cremator. “Cabrón.”

“Despite what you may think of him, he has morals, “I said. “Unknowingly helping you kill and burn people didn’t seem to jive with him.”

Sirens rang out in the distance, about a couple miles away.

“My time here is up Manuel. I do thank you for saving me from Somatotech, but I hope I never see you again,” I said and turned to leave the room. Spittle flew out from Manuel’s mouth and splattered on my back and neck. The saliva slipped down under my shirt, making me shudder. My instincts told me to turn and whale him into a pulp. Oh, how I wanted to! But Jamie’s admonition took the forefront of my mind, “With children of God, actions against us do not always require a reaction. True disciples control their agency.” I stood there calming my nerves before making the next step away.

I glanced at the clock, 1:55 p.m. The train whistle blared out just as I busted out of the front door. I rounded the corner and prepared to sprint the last block toward the tracks, but I ran smack into a black SUV. I dented the passenger side door and ricocheted onto the asphalt, my head contacting the curb. Small glittering lights swirled around my visual field. I blinked, but they remained, obscuring my view. Warm blood spread in my hair and down my forehead as if an egg had cracked on my head.

The driver’s side door opened, and a man in a suit rushed around the vehicle with a handgun engaged. My haze dissipated as he rounded the hood. POP. He didn’t wait for me to get up. A bullet tore through my left arm above the elbow.

15  Trainspotting

“Lay down now! On your stomach or your head gets it next,” he yelled while aiming his gun between my eyes.

The pain pinned me down surging from my arm. I struggled to roll over and placed my right hand over the wound. I squeezed hard, noting it missed my humerus. Instead, it had obliterated my lower triceps. The bleeding had stopped before the man came close.

“Put your arms behind your back.”

I released my left arm and swung my right onto my back.

“Now the other.” His breathing picked up.

“Are you freaking kidding? You just shot it. You move it!” I yelled back at him.

His hand wrapped around my left elbow and yanked my arm out from under me. The pain burned as it spread up my nerves.

The goon made a critical mistake. In his right hand, he held the gun and cuffs. I glanced back and noticed the cuffs hung from his trigger finger. My right hand grabbed the gun and his hand, locking it in place against the gun and cuffs. Before he could release my left hand, I spun, pulling him down to the concrete with a fluid movement. He struggled against my grip, trying to free his trigger finger. I squeezed harder, and each of his fingers snapped simultaneously. The sudden collapse of his hand surprised me, so I dropped his hand and the gun. Reflexively, he grasped his mangled hand. Taking advantage of his compromised position, I kicked the gun under the SUV and elbowed him in the face, knocking him out instantly. I had to do it; at least that is what I told myself.

A horn blared out from the tracks. The train had arrived. Each time I had heard it, the train stretched out at least a couple blocks, between ten to fifteen cars. I ran toward the tracks, still a good two hundred yards away. My incapacitated left arm flapped back and forth with each stride. The engine ripped past the block as well as only two cars loaded with coal.

"Oh crap," I yelled as I picked up the pace. The pain in my arm screamed with the increased effort. Tires screeched behind me. I glanced back to see two police cars pull in front of the mortuary and the officers jump out. One of them ran to the SUV and checked the Somatotech goon.

I returned to my escape. The train passed out of sight.

“Hey, stop!” one of the cops yelled and returned to his car. He peeled out toward me with sirens blaring.

I broke into a full sprint, striking the ground every few yards. Despite my effort, the police car closed in on me. I rounded the corner onto South Delaware Street and sprinted parallel to the tracks. The train chugged away two blocks ahead, oblivious to my chase. The police car rounded the corner just as I made up some ground on the train.

I jumped up onto the tracks, off the street, stumbling on the loose rock. I regained my balance by pushing myself up off the rail and started sprinting toward the back of the train. As I had planned, I contacted every seventh railroad tie by stretching my stride.

POP. POP. POP. Gunshots rang out in my direction. My heart skipped a few beats as I looked back. The police car had stopped a few blocks back, replaced by a black SUV. A masked man leaned out the window with an AK-47. He let a few more fly. The bullets struck the rocks near the rails, shooting them up at me. I turned and pushed my muscles to their breaking point, now hitting every eighth tie.

I needed to reach the train before the tracks traveled over the street and into the industrial area. There I could use the cover of the train until switching over to the light rail at the station south, of Alameda Avenue and into the safety of crowds.

The SUV’s engine roared as they obviously caught sight of the overpass.

I had made it to within a few strides of the train before the shooter opened up on me. A steady stream of bullets barreled toward me. I reached out to the back of the freight car just as a bullet ripped through the skin on my neck.  The pain stunned me for a moment, sending shockwaves down my back and up my head. More warm blood began flowing down my back, staining my shirt. I reached back with my good hand to stop the stream, but I lost my footing and crumpled down between the rails. Rocks jammed into my exposed skin, adding to my list of bloody wounds. Bullets rained down on my location while the train escaped my grasp. Gratefully, the raised rails gave me cover.

My training in the death field flashed into my mind. The rocks. I clasped a few in my right hand and rolled over the far rail during a gap in their firing. The SUV pulled up, and three doors opened. I peeked over. Four men approached with three AK-47s and one handgun. They fanned out to surround me. My forehead sweated profusely, the salty liquid stinging my eyes. The rocks warm from the sun heated my exposed skin.

“Coyle, what an absolute pleasure to see you again.”

Yet another voice I’ll never forget. Col. Stevens. The same jerk who had taught me how to handle a gun during my Somatotech training.

“Come on out soldier. This situation can go two ways. One, we let the bullets decide your fate, or two, you give up. Either way you come with us, dead or alive.”

My blood boiled at the title, “soldier”. I have nothing against the military; in fact, I had seriously considered joining. But, the type of soldier Somatotech wanted me to be was more a killer than a soldier. Col. Stevens had mockingly used the title in the training shooting range. I should have taken him out when I had the chance.

The crush of rocks behind me broke my trip down memory lane. One of the men crept up behind me slowly. I didn’t need to see him. My ears localized on each step. When he made it within twenty feet, I rolled onto my back.

“Don’t move!” he yelled and took a few more cautious steps.

I dropped all of the small rocks except one, which I pressed between my thumb and second digit. I raised my hands into the air with the rock wedged out of sight.

“I said don’t move!” He took another tentative step.

My arm cocked back and snapped forward, hurling the rock before the goon could squeeze the trigger. The rock hummed through the air as it sped toward him. He tried to raise his gun to deflect it, but it tore through the side of his head, cutting down to the bone just under his helmet. He fell backward, dropping his gun. I spider ran as low as I could by the far side of the tracks to go over to him. The other goons opened up on me again, kicking up rocks around me. Bullets ricocheted off the tracks, spraying them in all directions. I stayed low and pulled the unconscious man in front of me. I grabbed the gun, swung it around and stuck it under the man’s armpit.  Bullets hit his vest as I aimed at the first goon. I squeezed the trigger sending a barrage of bullets at him. He dived behind the SUV. In my peripheral vision, another goon approached from the left. I snapped around and aimed the gun at his legs. The bullets swept him off his feet, so I let up on the trigger, not wanting to kill him.

“Retreat, men!” The colonel’s voice rang out from behind the SUV. He knew, first hand, of my ability. He knew I could take out all of his men if I wanted to.

“Worried about my angles, Colonel?” I yelled from behind my human shield.

"I'm always worried about your angles, soldier," he yelled as he climbed into the SUV.

Their tires screeched out, as they lurched back toward the road.

I grabbed the goon’s handgun from his leg holster and laid him down away from the tracks. His heart beat steadily and his respirations kept regular. As long as there wasn’t any bleeding in his brain, this dude was going to live. I maintained cover with the rails from the other wounded goon.

“You know I could kill you easily?” I yelled out to him.

He whimpered in between rapid breaths. His heart raced, and I could hear him rustling his clothes, probably trying to apply pressure to his wound.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” I yelled. “I could also save you. You gotta know I’ve got the skills. Throw your guns toward me, and I can help you.”

“How do I know you won’t just end me?”

“Dude, you’re a big target, an easy target. I could have taken your head off if I’d wanted.”

He didn’t respond. After a few moments, he tossed his rifle and his handgun in my direction.

“Any others?”

“No, I wouldn’t be that stupid.”

“All right, I’m coming over with my gun aimed at your head. Don’t move.”

I peeked over the rail. The SUV turned a corner and accelerated out of view. The man lay on the ground prostrate, legs splayed out and bleeding. He took shallow quick breaths. Even from my distance, I could see his eyes begin to glaze over. This guy was going to die on me.

I rolled up on the rails and pushed myself up and into the air. My feet hit the ground, and I took two strides to make it to him. I landed on my knees next to him and ripped off his pants below his knees. A splintered bone stuck out of his left leg, and a through-and-through hole extended through his right calf. A steady stream of blood flowed from the left leg.

“Ah man, I’m sorry dude,” I said as I retrieved the emergency medical manual from my mental reserves. “In cases of life-threatening exsanguination, a tourniquet may be applied to the limb.” The diagrams and pictures flashed through my mind outlining the process. I grabbed his belt from his pants and wrapped a portion of his ripped pant leg around it. I then wrapped it at the widest part of the thigh, securing it with the buckle. The bleeding slowed to a drip. I wrapped the remaining pant leg around the right leg wound.

“Thank you,” the man whispered.

I whipped out my phone and called Aedan.

“Dude, what’s going on? Are you on your way?” Aedan picked up.

“Did you find Jamie?”

“Yeah dude, I, uh, found her.”

“Well? Is she OK?”

“Dude, you better get here fast.”

16  Entrusted

“The Doña has her locked in a room?” I nearly lost grip on the phone after Aedan dropped that bomb.

“Yeah dude, she’s got her in a steel-wall locked room at the end of that hallway under your bed, and dude, she’s not letting her out. Not without you.”

“Damn it! What does she want?” I screamed into the phone.

“She’s not saying. I tried to get the door down, dude. I shot at it, used a freakin’ grenade on it. Some of the men helped me.”

“You used a grenade on it? Dude, Jamie could have been hurt.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, “I didn’t really think that one through too well. It worked on the first door. Sorry, ‘bout that.”

“It’s OK, I kinda suggested it with the other door. What are the other men doing?”

“Running like chickens with their heads cut off. It is freakin’ chaos here. Stefan has some of them under control, but the rest don’t know what to think. Hurry man.”

“I missed the freakin’ train dude. I don’t have a way back to the car.” I looked down at the mangled man and the blood on my hands. “I have two men; they’re bleeding and need my help.”

“Jamie needs you, man. Just call 911 and get over here. However you can.”

“We could use these guys, dude; they're Somatotech goons. They gotta have information.”

“True, but a crazy grandmother has kidnaped your girlfriend. Priorities dude.”

He had a point. I couldn’t carry these men, all bloody, out of here without raising a crap load of suspicion. Frankly, I was surprised no one had come already.

“Aight, I will get there as quick as I can.” I looked around. The light rail station was at least ten miles away. If I had caught the train, I would have been there by now.

“Hurry dude.”

I closed the phone then opened it again and dialed 911.

“911 What is your emergency?”

“There are two men in need of medical attention. One man has been shot in the legs, and the other has a head wound from a rock. We are next to the Santa Fe train tracks near South Delaware Street. Please hurry they are bleeding.”

Click. I hung up before she could respond.

I turned and started running on the tracks without acknowledging the man again. I figured I could maintain a pace of four-minute miles, meaning I could make it to the light rail station in Englewood in forty minutes. Then, the light rail would take about forty-five minutes to arrive in Sedalia. Finally, the run up to the compound would take another twenty minutes. One hour and forty-five minutes. If I had a car, I could make it in forty minutes or less. If I had a car. Dr. Strayer. Some of his last words to me were, “steal a car”. The justification was there, a crazy grandma had my girlfriend, and I needed to get there quick before something happened to her.

I looked around to the neighboring blocks. A few cars were parked on the street, but all sat way too exposed to passersby. I ran off the tracks and toward the smaller streets. A few blocks passed by as I ran, but no older cars. After five blocks, I came upon a body shop. At least ten cars were parked in the side lot, adjacent to the shop. A gray Mercedes started in the shop and slowly pulled out of the garage close to me. A shop worker pulled it in front of the office and stepped out, leaving the car running. He probably left it running for the customer in the office. This was too easy.

I walked casually toward the luxury vehicle and opened the door. Both the customer and shop worker’s backs faced away from me as they went over the bill. Way. Too. Easy. I sat down, put the car in gear and pulled away slowly. A wide grin stretched across my face with the rush. As I rounded the corner, I pressed hard on the pedal, and the fancy German sedan screeched forward.

As I swerved through traffic at ridiculously high speeds, I remembered Bucky, my dilapidated but beloved car. Jamie and I had fallen in love in that car. This Mercedes had the power, handling, and sex appeal, but none of the charm. I made it within five miles of Sedalia when the car started to slow even though I pressed on the gas pedal.

“This is Onstar. This vehicle was reported stolen. Pull over immediately and put the car in park or I will for you.”

I almost spoke but thought better because I knew they recorded these “conversations”. There was no use. I stepped on the brake and pulled over. As I went for the door handle, I heard the lock click. Nice touch, trap the criminal in the car until the police come. Well, I wasn’t an ordinary criminal. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around my elbow. A hard blow with my elbow and the driver’s side window sprayed out into the road. After I wiped down the steering wheel and everywhere I thought I had touched, I crawled out and brushed myself off, putting my jacket back on, despite the slashes left from the glass. The cops would be there soon, so I sprinted off into the fields.

The compound came into view in just under fifteen minutes. From a mile away, I could see that no one sat in the tower on the house. Tigre’s car sat unattended in the roundabout. I called Aedan.

“Coming up on the compound now. Where are you?”

“In that hallway below your room.”

“All right, I’m coming down.”

I slammed through the front door with my shoulder knocking it clear off the hinges. Two men in the hallway immediately dropped to their knees and crossed themselves as I entered.

“Dios mio, por favor,” one of them said as I approached.

“No voy a dañarles, amigos.” Translated, “I’m not going to harm you, friends.” I patted his back as I sprinted passed him. No one would dare confront me now. I had taken down the untouchable. The door to my room sat ajar, and I sprinted through then dived forward into the hatch on the floor. I landed with my hands on the floor below and rolled out. Stefan stood in the middle of the dimly lit underground hallway, blocking my path. He put out his hand to say stop.

“Coyle, slow down. We have everything under control.”

“What do you mean? Where’s Aedan?”

“Come on in Coyle,” the Doña called from inside the room at the end of the hallway.

Stefan turned and walked toward the Doña’s voice. I barreled past him into the room. The Doña lounged on a small sofa in the center of the small room. Emergency supplies lined the walls and a toilet, and small sink sat in the corner. A large desk covered with a sheet leaned against the close wall. Jamie and Aedan stood in the other corner, staring at me. The look on their faces was of relief but also trepidation. The Doña held control of this room.

“What’s going on? Jamie, are you OK?”

“I’m fine, Coyle,” her voice lacked confidence, but she did sound relieved.

“Coyle, thank you for bringing down our local tyrant,” said Stefan.

“Coyle, do not be upset. I apologize for lying to you all this time, but it was necessary for our operation to continue. Manuel got out of hand, accepting jobs outside even our ethical boundaries, and he needed to be eliminated. Thanks to you, we found out he cremated some of our targets, and I knew it had to happen sooner rather than later. I sent him on a mission that I knew would tempt him to kill.”

“And you let him do it?” I interrupted.

“Yes, and I’ll have to live with that guilt, but more people would have died if I didn’t go along with your plan.”

“My plan? How’d you know about my plan?”

Stefan pulled the sheet off the table, revealing a large monitor with live streams of surveillance cameras strewn about the compound. How had I not seen them? I thought.

The Doña, sensing my confusion, explained, “We had a very adept surveillance expert install them to remain undetected. I think you know him, Mr. Angelfire.”

Wowza he was good! Even with searching each room in my mind, I couldn’t find a single camera.

“So you heard everything, from the beginning?”

“We did. Everything. We had to confirm your plans before we committed to supporting them. I was surprised you never approached me for help.”

“I guess I’m not a good judge of who’s in control. You played your part well; I honestly thought you were powerless.”

“My power over Manuel started to slip the moment you left here to rescue Jamie. He hoped you would return, as did I, but for entirely different reasons. He knew that if you did return, his suspicions would be confirmed.”

“What suspicions?”

“That you were frankly superhuman and an incredible asset to exploit. And exploit you he did, taking on jobs we wouldn’t take before because they were too dangerous or flat out wrong, but quite profitable.”

Dr. Bartnev strolled into the room. I eyed him with disdain. The Doña saw my glare and placed her hand on mine, giving it a light squeeze.

“Dr. Bartnev didn’t know, Coyle. The mortuary owns the cremator legally. The only reason Manuel and Tigre had access to the mortuary was to pick up and drop off money. Because Manuel kept the good doctor here, he never saw the despicable things they were doing.”

Dr. Bartnev remained silent. Again, I sensed that the control in this room rested firmly with the Doña.

“Why did you take Jamie down here?”

“These men are loyal to Manuel and don’t know I’ve been in charge. I would have no sway with them if Jamie were caught out in the open. When I heard your plan, I knew I had to protect Jamie until the truth came out.”

“You haven’t told them?”

“Stefan has revealed enough to keep them at bay.”

“Why not tell the men yourself?” I asked.

“Again, to them I am just the Doña, who cooks and cleans, nothing else.” She motioned for Jamie and me to sit on the sofa with her. I was anxious to have Jamie close to me, so I jumped toward her and gave her a tight squeeze. This time she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me even closer. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a—“ she whispered.

I interrupted, “No, Jamie. I’ve been the jerk. I made the mistakes. Things will get better now, I promise.”

We pulled back and locked eyes. She still looked calm, but I sensed apprehension, her shoulders remained rigid.

“Sit, Coyle,” said the Doña and she patted the couch cushion next to her.

Jamie and I sat but not before I fist bumped Aedan, and he smirked. Jamie stayed close to the Doña, and I scooted forward to keep eye contact with the true leader. She brushed Jamie’s hair with her hand. “Well Coyle, that’s how it must remain, my power behind the shadows, unsuspecting. For you, Coyle, are now to become the men’s leader.”

Jamie shot up from the Doña’s sofa. “What?” she let out before me.

“What do you mean?” I asked and joined Jamie on the couch.

“As I see it, you need a secure location. In return for the protection and seclusion here, you take the helm of Sanchez Protective Services. You only do the jobs you want to do, and we will assist you in your operations to take down Somatotech.”

“I am no leader Doña,” I said, sitting down on the couch. “Besides, I freakin’ hate the work Manuel does. I’m tired of beating people up.”

“Coyle, you’ve more potential as a leader than anyone I’ve ever met. Do the missions your way, you are much more intelligent than Manuel, you can find a non-violent means, I’m sure of it.”

I looked to Jamie and then Aedan. Both shook their heads to say no, fueled by their desire to leave this place that had caused them so much pain. But, I saw an opportunity. As I had planned, if the men answered my call and backed me, maybe we could take down Somatotech? The side missions could bankroll the whole takedown.

“I will consider it on a few conditions. One, I bring my dad here. Two, we try and get Aedan and Jamie home with protection. Three, Dr. Bartnev takes out the neuro-devices from my dad and Jamie. And four, no one dies.”

“Those are tall orders, Coyle. Bringing your dad here would be a great risk, given the company’s non-stop surveillance.”

“Take ‘em or leave ‘em.” I had always wanted to say that phrase. Jamie saw my growing grin, and she couldn’t help but smirk back at me. I was taking control, and it felt so dang good.

“We’ll take them. But we must convince the men you are the right leader.” She looked to Stefan. “Gather the men in the kitchen; tell them it is a matter of life and death.”

17  Transfer of Power

Stefan began gathering all of the men in the kitchen. A few were on missions, so we had to wait until they arrived. Jamie and I stayed down in the bomb shelter holding each other on the couch, savoring the gentle rise and fall of each other’s chest. It just felt comfortable. We were safe for now. Aedan sat next to me and gave both of us a quick hug. I didn’t shake him off.

“Getting soft on me, Aedan?” I said as he sat back on the sofa.

“Nah, that was more for Jamie than you. Just glad she’s OK.”

“Right, dude,” I smirked at him.

“Coyle, are you seriously taking over Manuel’s role?” Jamie asked.

“I think it’s the only way. We need this place and its men.”

“Well now, from scrawny skater to cancer survivor to kingpin. Nice progression, dude,” said Aedan.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“When can we call my parents?”

“Right after this meeting. I’ll arrange it because you know, I’ll be in control of this whole place in a few minutes.” I smiled.

Aedan jabbed my side. “Sounds like the power is already going to your head.” He smiled and ruffled my hair.

“We’re ready for you, Coyle,” Stefan called down the underground hallway before I could retaliate on Aedan.

“Ready?” I looked at my friends.

We moved up together, Jamie and me helping Aedan on the ladder to my room, and then into the kitchen. The men packed the back wall with the Doña, Dr. Bartnev and Stefan sitting at the island. Jamie and Aedan left me at the door. I walked in front of the massive stove and hood and then turned to the men.

I spoke in Spanish, “I’m sorry today has been so crazy. A lot has changed since the day Manuel picked me up and brought me here. I appreciated the help you all gave me when Jamie, my girlfriend, was taken. When I came back, Jamie and my friend Aedan were essentially taken from me again. Not by an evil company but by someone I trusted, Manuel. I know many of you felt uncomfortable with his treatment of us. I also know many of you didn’t agree with the type of jobs Manuel started taking.” The men remained silent, so I continued. “But, my friends, Manuel is guilty of much worse.” I paused again. “Manuel and Tigre have killed many people in the last few weeks. They’ve become hit men, not protecting but eliminating.”

“Mentira!” one of the men yelled out.

I looked at the man but held back my anger. “I wish it was a lie. But, it gets worse. Manuel cremated his victims. Burned their bodies beyond recognition, preventing their loved ones from ever having closure. He lied to you. He killed people, and he let that power consume him.”

“Manuel took care of us! How dare you accuse him!” the same man yelled out. “Where is he anyway?”

“Manuel and Tigre have been arrested for murder. I turned them in.”

“You son of a…” he screamed out and jumped at me. Stefan and another man held him back.

“Hey!” I yelled and approached him. “You may not believe what I’m saying, but I saw it with my own eyes. I felt the heat of the machine that erased a person’s life. I will fight the power that corrupted Manuel and Tigre and, with your help, we can do more good than evil. So, to that end, and from this moment on, I’m taking over. Manuel did things a certain way, and now I will do them another way, a better, smarter way. You’ll be taken care of; I can assure you of that. But, I need to know you’ll be loyal to me as you were to Manuel." I switched to English, “Do I have your loyalty?"

The men exchanged looks, unsure how to respond. The same man who had yelled out stepped back and attempted to leave. Aedan hobbled over and blocked his way with his crutch, wedging it in the door well.

"You have my loyalty," the Doña stood up and spoke.

"And mine," Dr. Bartnev joined her.

“And mine,” Stefan spoke up, the first of the crew.

The men exchanged looks again, and a few tentative hands extended into the air. A few men said, “Sí.”

"Anyone who does not join us, can leave, no questions asked." I eyed the man who had yelled at me.

"Wait, Coyle. Let me speak." The Doña walked up next to me and rested her hand on my shoulder. She addressed the men, "you may leave, yes, but know that you will always be watched for we cannot afford traitors. Stay and be taken care of. Leave, and you are no longer a member of this family. Coyle will treat you right, I know him to be an upstanding young man, wise beyond his years. You have no reason to fear him." The Doña’s hand tightened on my shoulder. She held on to her power.

The man remained in the room. Remembering one of the leadership books I had read during my training, I made a mental note to get to know that man. My leadership had to be based on personal relationships if I was to be effective.

“I want you men to rest. We’ll have no missions for a few days. After we eat together, go home, be with your families, and then come back ready for a different type of work.”

“Coyle, unfortunately with all of the hullabaloo I haven’t had an opportunity to make anything,” said the Doña.

“Not a problem, I think I remember some of the lessons you taught me, and Jamie is a fantastic cook. We’ll help.” I looked to Jamie. She nodded and grabbed one of the aprons hanging near the door.

I walked over to Aedan. “Wanna help?”

“Ha! You know I’m a terrible cook. I think you three can take care of it.”

“Could you mingle with the men then? Get to know them. Some of them will likely be your bodyguards.”

“Nice, I’ll pull out my high school Spanish to impress them.”

“You do that,” I said and patted his back. “Good to have you free again.”

“Hey, where’s Talon?”

Oh, crap. I completely forgot about our clone friend. I looked around for Dr. Bartnev and found him standing in front of the pantry.

“Dr. Bartnev, how is our captive?”

“He alive, but not recovered, not like you.”

“Can you take me to him?” He agreed, and I told Jamie I would return to help with dinner in a moment. The Doña had already started chopping fresh chicken for enchiladas.

Dr. Bartnev led me down a hallway I had never entered before. We walked to the end, and he extracted a key from his pocket and opened a large steel door. The sight of Talon lying unconscious on a thin gurney in a cold bare concrete room nearly brought a tear to my eye. Dried blood caked the floor around his bed. The chill in the room couldn’t be helping his recovery.  I walked to his side and pulled down the sheet off his chest. Neatly sutured bullet holes littered his chest and abdomen. Dang you, Tigre. I thought. Tight metal shackles bound his arms to the sides of the bed.

“Can he wake up, now?”

“I keep him sleep. Too painful. Manuel not allow anesthetic.”

“Let’s give him some now.” Without hesitation, Dr. Bartnev took out a syringe from his pocket, hooked it up to the hub, and then depressed the plunger. He then took out another syringe and repeated the task.

“He wake soon. He fall asleep in five, ten minutes.”

After a minute, Talon’s eyelids slowly opened and closed. He winced as he adjusted on the bed and struggled against the restraints.

“Hey Talon,” I said while pulling the sheet back up over his wounds. He groaned and opened his eyes. A look of relief spread over his face when he recognized me.

“Coyle.”

“Good to see you awake, man.”

“Yeah man, you too. I woke about an hour ago, but the pain … I passed out again.”

“I know dude, Manuel kept that stuff from you. He’s a freakin’ monster.”

“By you coming here I’m assuming you took care of him?”

“Did and done. We’ve got control.” I grinned. Power seems to breed happiness.

“Some help I was.” He cast his eyes down.

“Don’t worry about it dude. They shot you, over and over. You’re lucky to be alive.”

“It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. That guy, Tigre, didn’t even give me a warning. Just pulled out his gun and started shooting. Your buddy Manuel had to rip the gun out of his hand to stop him. By that time, he had pumped me with five or six rounds.”

“They’re both monsters, but they’re taken care of.”

“Did you kill them?” He smirked.

“Should I have?”

“You’re weak that way, Coyle. But, at least you’re human.”

I didn’t know what to say. Was that an insult? Is a clone a human anyway? I didn’t feel like pondering my existence, so I changed the subject. “Roxanne and the team can come now, I know they’re listening.”

“Roxanne’s saying they will come in a few days. They’ve got a couple things to take care of.”

“No, rush. Besides, looks like you’ll need some more time recovering. We’ll move you out of this cell.”

“Coyle, sorry.” He grasped my arm and gripped tightly.

“For what? Talon, you did your part. If you hadn’t given me that beat down I wouldn’t have gotten the sedative and this plan wouldn’t have worked.”

“Glad I could be of service. I’ll knock you out anytime.”

I laughed, and he grinned. “Talon, what did you mean when you said I was the chosen one?”

A dark look crossed his face. “It means Somatotech believes you should be the chosen replicant.”

“Replicant?”

“Did you ever see Blade Runner?” I hadn’t and shook my head. “Somatotech seems to have borrowed the name. It’s, well you, are a template for all future clones because you were so successful. Your cells and DNA are the purest of any clone to date. They’re free of the small mutations which caused Roxanne’s photosensitivity and my … ” His voice choked up. “My problem.”

I almost opened my mouth to ask him about it but thought better.

“Medital believes Somatotech is beginning mass cloning production using you as a template.”

“But they don’t have me, how can they use me?”

“We’re not sure, but they have sure ramped up their stock of the equipment needed for operations.”

If I was so valuable, why did they let me free into society after the treatment? Why not keep me there and use my body?

Talon’s eyelids drooped, and he yawned.

“Aight’ dude, I’ll let you rest. If you need anything, just let Dr. B know. He’ll take good care of you.”

“Thanks …” He slipped back to sleep.

Dr. B and I walked back to the kitchen. Laughter emerged from the table where Aedan and a group of the men sat. Apparently, Aedan had unleashed the few Spanish phrases he knew, which mainly consisted of swear words and talk of poop. The men were rolling with all of it. Jamie and the Doña worked in tandem at the stove, smiles on their faces as well.

“What can I do?” I asked them. They looked at each other and then at the growing pile of dishes at the sink. “All right, but my skills are being seriously misused.” They chuckled and returned to cooking.

I stood at the sink for a moment and then turned around. Jamie smiled at me. Aedan laughed like a wild hyena at the table. The Doña hummed a tune while she worked. A foreign feeling washed over me. Happiness. I felt happy. For the moment, I could forget that I’m a clone, that there is a company that wants me dead, that my dad is under their control, that my girlfriend has one of their implants, and that I almost got both of my friends killed. At that moment, my mind released the darkness, grasped the happiness, and held it close. Tomorrow the worry and stress would return, but for that moment, I felt dang good.

After the meal, the men left with instructions to return in two days. Many approached me and shook my hand as they left. The Doña, Jamie, Aedan and I remained at the kitchen table, chatting, laughing. I had my arm around Jamie when she started shaking again. Her eyes rolled up in their sockets, and her arms pushed against me. I let up slightly, not wanting to hurt her as she pushed against me. Saliva whipped from her mouth as she thrashed, flinging it onto all of us.

“I’ll get the doctor,” said the Doña as she stood up.

Aedan jerked up off the table and looked dumfounded. “Dude, what’s going on?”

“It’s the implant Somatotech put in her; it causes seizures. She should be okay soon,” I said, hoping it would be true. Just then, my stupidity hit me like a slap to the face. I had her cook at the stove, the hot as hell stove! What if she had seized and fallen on it? She could’ve burned her face off, not with the acid Manuel had threatened with, but the outcome and regret would be the same. I had to take better care of Jamie. That happiness I had held onto seemed to dissolve away into the reality of the situation.

Just as Dr. B. came into the room, Jamie’s convulsions slowed and then stopped. She came to, and instantly her cheeks blushed.

“It happened again, didn’t it?” she asked, with her gaze fixed on the table.

“Yeah, but I had ya.” I gave her a squeeze, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close.

“Will you always have me?”

Could we be together forever? Right then I wanted to ask her to run away with me, just abandon all of this crap. Then we could always have each other, away from Somatotech, from the Hacienda, away from the pain. But, with that implant still in her we had to stay put until Dr. B. could remove it, or she would stay under the company’s thumb. Jamie wouldn’t want to leave her family anyway, and for the moment, I kinda liked being in charge, so I dropped the thought.

“I hope so, but Jamie, I can’t keep making promises I’m not entirely sure I can keep. The road we’re on is so…uncertain.” Especially if she finds out, I’m a clone.

18  Daddy Daddy

“Can I call my dad now?” asked Jamie. The Doña had suggested we all move outside on the back patio for some fresh air. We watched as the sun began to drop, casting varying hues on the foothills and clouds.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” I looked over to the Doña.

“You’ll need to leave the premises. None of our phones contain GPS, but providers can triangulate with the cell towers. Make sure you are at least ten miles away. If you encounter trouble out there, call this number.” She showed me a number on a small piece of paper she pulled out of her bra. I memorized it instantly.

We fetched one of the cellphones from the map room, and Stefan showed me to the garage containing my beloved car, Bucky. The garage door clanked open revealing my first love. The men had painted it, added ground effects, lowered it, fixed the doors, and done work under the hood but Bucky retained her shape and character. Jamie could’ve gone through the passenger side door now that it worked, but she entered on the driver’s side, like good ol’ times. We drove toward Castle Rock with my arm around her. Silence felt more comfortable at that moment.

“Coyle, pull the car over. Now, please. Hand me the phone so I can call Somatotech,” Jamie calmly said and removed my arm from her shoulder.

I looked over to her, stunned. She grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it to the right. I slammed on the brake pedal jerking the car to a stop right before we slipped into a ditch.

“Hey, what’s going on with you?”

“Hand me the phone, Coyle. Somatotech can help us. Let them make things right, alpha male.”

“Jamie!” I grabbed her face. “Come back to me, c’mon!”

“Let go of me, Coyle. Somatotech warned me you would hurt me,” she said, her voice monotone.

I looked around, trying to figure out why now, why at this point Jamie had fallen under their control? Up on a hill outside of Castle Rock stood one the 5G towers Roxanne had visited. She had told me, “bring Jamie here, it will help, I promise.” It hit me. These towers must be transmitting to the implants in Jamie and undoubtedly my dad as well. This is why Jamie had escaped their control while at the hacienda; it resided outside their range. Roxanne and her crew must’ve been testing each tower to see if it emitted the signal.

Jamie grabbed for her seat belt buckle with one hand and went to open the door with the other. I snapped down on her hand, holding it against the buckle and pressed down on the gas pedal. She pulled back and managed to open the door. I whipped the car around to get back into the safety zone, but Jamie had other plans. She leaned out the door and let her body go limp, flopping out as I barreled down the street. Only my grip on her hand anchored her to the car. I slowed, got a better grip on her hand, and pulled her in the car. Unfortunately, once in the car, her free hand slapped me over and over.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

A minivan pulled up next to us and started honking its horn. Her window came down, revealing a middle-aged white woman who obviously wasn’t happy with me forcing my girlfriend back in the car and holding her close while she thrashed at me.

“Pull over! I’m calling the police.”

Dang. Just what I needed, an angry soccer mom with a cellphone. I pressed down on the gas pedal hoping I could outrun her. Bucky jumped forward ahead of the van, just as the street went from four lanes to two. The slapping continued, but now, she held her fingers like claws, so her fingernails dug into my skin. I couldn’t let go of her hand or the steering wheel, so I just endured. The soccer mom behind me held her cellphone close to her ear, and she kept her eyes fixed on my license plate. Gratefully, the men had switched out the original plate, although I bet the one, I had, was off a stolen car.

Just as abruptly as it began, Jamie stopped her crazed slapping fit and slumped into the seat. Her body looked deactivated as if someone had flipped the switch to off. We approached a crossing street at seventy mph with the lady close behind me. I didn’t want her to see Jamie passed out, so I whipped the car onto the cross street and kept most of my speed. The woman didn’t have time to respond but did slam on her brakes, leaving a trail of rubber on the pavement. The street led up to an upscale residential area around Castle Pines Golf Course, where the speed limit was 35 mph. I hit eighty as the road straightened. The van pursued, almost out of view as I rounded a corner. My foot reacted almost instantly to the sight of a garbage truck stopped at a house, but it was too late. Bucky’s tires screeched but failed to stop us before slamming into the back of the truck. No airbags in ol’ Bucky. I held Jamie with one arm, but I couldn’t stop the momentum of my own head. I smashed into the steering wheel, opening a large gash on my forehead and crushing my sinuses. Blood began to stream from my forehead and nose as I tried to clear my vision. When I could see, the sight sent a shock of fear through my body. The back end of the truck had nearly taken our heads off; it extended into our front cab and had stopped a few inches from the steering wheel.

Jamie’s hand was bleeding, but I didn’t see any other injury. I unbuckled her and myself and tried the doors. They were wedged shut and wouldn’t budge. Blood kept streaming down my face, clouding my vision. I had to stop the bleeding before I did anything else. My shirt gave little resistance as I ripped it off and then wrapped it around my head as well as a piece on Jamie’s hand. Pain surged through my head when I cinched it down to tamponade the bleeding.

Jamie started convulsing in the passenger seat, her arms flapping wildly, spraying blood all over the place. I cupped her head to protect it from the hard surfaces. Someone knocked on the driver’s side window, but I didn’t look away from Jamie.

“Hey, are you OK?” one of the garbage men peered into my window. I continued to protect Jamie’s head. “Do you need help?” He tried the driver’s side door, but it had jammed shut.

Tires squealed in the distance, and I knew the woman would be there in under a minute. I took a second to analyze our options. Jamie was in no shape to run, and I doubted I could carry her without detection through this neighborhood. I could steal that pissed-off woman’s car, which may give us a big enough jump on the police, but then I’d have to incapacitate her. Another option could be run and hide in the neighborhood until the scene cools down. I looked at the garbage men peering into the car. Could they help me? Could I turn this around on that soccer mom?

I dove into the back seat and opened the door, cupping Jamie’s head from behind.

“Oh, crap! Dude, your face!” the other garbage man said as I stuck my head out from the passenger side door.

“I’m all right, but there’s a crazy woman chasing us. She almost ran us off the road back there.” I motioned to the street with a quick nod. “She’s pissed I dumped my cheating girlfriend, you know, her daughter. So, when she saw me with another girl, she went all nuts on me, saying things like I had kidnaped someone!” I rubbed my head. “That’s why I was driving so fast. I’m so freakin’ sorry about your truck.”

“Nah man, that’s no problem; this thing’s a tank. But, your car is destroyed. And you man,” he paused while staring at the blood streaming down my face, “You gotta get to the hospital.”

“That doesn’t matter; we just gotta get out of here. That lady is gonna kill us. Can you help us?”

“Well, what do you want me to do?”

“Can we hide in there?” I pointed to the hopper on the garbage truck.

“No way. Too dangerous.”

“It’s only until the coast is clear, till that woman leaves. You gotta help me, man.”

“You can’t go in the hopper.” He examined the truck. “But there is a space just in front of the compressor where you both could fit.” He glanced through the window and saw Jamie convulsing. “Is she OK?”

“She has epilepsy; the crash probably brought it on. She’ll be OK in a couple seconds.” Sure enough, Jamie stopped shaking and started to come to.

“Jamie, we were in an accident and I think we’re OK. But, there’s a batty lady after us. This guy has a place to hide us, but we gotta go now.”

Her eyes darted from the truck to Bucky, to me, and to the men outside our car. Her hands began to shake, not from a seizure, but shock as the situation dawned on her.

“Can I help you over?” I held out my hands. She couldn’t speak. Instead, she held out her hands and started crawling over the seat.

“Right over here,” one of the men called out from the far side of the truck. I sprinted around the corner of the car, Jamie in tow. The soccer mom rounded the corner just as we slipped behind the side of the truck. The man opened a hatch, and I peered into the small space. The odor of a thousand dirty diapers rushed out and nearly made both Jamie and I lose our dinner.

“We’re going in there?” Jamie found her words.

“Yeah,” I said slowly and crawled in. The triangular space behind the compactor measured only a few feet tall and a couple wide, but extended the width of the truck. Jamie climbed in after me, just as the van stopped near Bucky. We lay on our sides, Jamie in front of me. I held her close, feeling the rapid beat of her heart. She pinched her nose and started breathing through her mouth. With my heightened sense of smell, the odor made me lightheaded to the point of almost passing out.

“Tell her we ran away, nothing else please,” I whispered before he closed the hatch. The darkness and odor enveloped us.

“Where did they go?” the woman yelled out, slamming the door behind her.

“I’m not sure; he got outta here in a hurry.”

“Did he have a girl with him?”

“Nah, didn’t see a girl.” Nice, very nice work. I searched in my pocket for the cellphone, hoping it still functioned. I wriggled it out of my pocket and flipped it open. The light from the screen blinded me momentarily before my eyes adjusted, and I dialed the number the Doña had given me.

“Hola,¿Qué necesita?” Stefan answered.

I spoke in whispered Spanish, “We need help. We had an accident and are now hiding in a garbage truck. The police are on their way, should be here in a few minutes, if not sooner.” I told him the cross streets and about the soccer mom.

“Stay put, I’ll make a few calls to my friends on the police to buy some time. We’ll be there in five minutes. It’ll be only Aedan and me since we sent the men home.”

“That’s fine, I trust you,” I said and he hung up.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere until the police come,” the lady called out to the men.

“Suit yourself, lady. But I gotta move this truck, so back up.”

Someone jumped in the cab of the truck and radioed to his dispatch about the accident. He then turned the ignition. The sound of the engine roared in the metal compartment, vibrating our chests. The truck inched forward with a loud screech of metal grinding on metal. Bucky finally let go of the behemoth, or, rather, the other way around. The truck jerked forward, and Jamie and I banged against our metal confines.

“Ughhh,” Jamie let out with the impact. Gratefully, the roar of the engine squashed any sound waves coming from our little compartment. “Coyle, I can’t do this. This place, I’m, I’m gonna—” She buckled forward and vomited, spraying the goop onto the metal wall in front of her. The vomit them slipped through the cracks and spilled onto the asphalt below.

“Oh, Jamie, I’m sorry.” I blindly wiped some vomit from her face.

“Damn it!” I yelled. Everything I did brought pain and suffering to this girl.

“Which way did he run?” the lady yelled to the garbage men.

“What?” one of the men yelled back. “Can’t hear ya.”

Excellent. Stall guys, stall. I wondered what Stefan and Aedan had up their sleeves to rescue us. Bucky wouldn’t be driving anytime soon; that was for sure.

The garbage men kept the truck on, probably thinking the engine sounds would muffle our own in case we freaked out.

Jamie stopped heaving and rested back onto me. “What happened to me, Coyle? Back there on the road? I felt funny like someone else was inside me.”

“Somatotech took control of you through that implant. It must have a cellular receiver inside or something. Once we were close enough to the tower their signal communicated with the implant. You just about jumped out of the car.”

Jamie began to sniffle. I gently wrapped my arm around her shoulders and lifted her off the metal floor. I leaned back, allowing her to rest onto me.

“Oh, Coyle. I’m so tired of all of this.” Her tears slipped from her cheek and dripped on my face.

“I don’t mean to bring this crap on you. I promise.”

“It’s what’s happened to you, to me, to my family, to your family. It’s all so dark. I feel it deep inside, the demons I never thought I’d have in my life. Everything changed the moment I …” She held back.

“The moment you met me,” I said, almost choking on my words.

She remained silent, and the sting in my heart grew. I knew it was true, which made it hurt even worse. Jamie would’ve lived a great life without me. Comfortable, secure, happy. There were plenty of good guys out there chomping at the bit to date her. Any of them would’ve been better for her than me.

“I just wish things were different. I wish I didn’t have to worry about whether my parents are OK, whether I’m going to be OK. I’ve got problems, Coyle. Do you remember when that jerk kissed me at homecoming?” She didn’t wait for me to respond. “I felt like he had violated some unspoken agreement between girls and boys. He haunted my dreams after that night. I never told you because I knew you’d be upset. But now, Coyle, your clone haunts me every moment of the day and night. I laugh now when I think I felt violated from a simple kiss.”

“He’s dead, Jamie. He’s dead.”

“The terror isn’t though, Coyle. It just continues, alive and terrible.” She slammed her fist against the metal wall in front of us.

I couldn’t respond. The pain in my heart stayed my tongue. I just needed Stefan and Aedan to get here and end this. As if on cue, I heard two cars approaching. One of the garbage men turned off the truck’s engine. Two car doors opened and closed.

“Finally! That kidnapper got away! If my tax dollars actually did something, you would’ve come when I called the first time. I’m ready to give a statement, and you better start a search around here,” the soccer mom said with an annoying shrill.

“Ma’am I’m going to need you to step over here,” Stefan called out from his car. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest to hear his voice.

“Why?”

“For your statement, of course. Is there anyone else in your vehicle?”

“No, why?”

“Just standard questions, ma’am.” He paused. “You two gentlemen, could you please stand by your truck?”

“Sure thing, officer.” Stefan must’ve pointed to the side of our compartment because I heard them move close.

I heard the woman walking toward Stefan’s car, then ruffling of clothing. “What in the hell are you doing?” She was struggling with him.

“We received a report that you were harassing a teenager and his girlfriend. Many witnesses state you tried to run him off the road. Do not resist!”

“This is nuts! Let me go.” I heard a slap and then more scuffling. Something banged up against the car.

“Ouch, that had to hurt,” said one of the garbage men.

“She’s out,” said the other. I heard a car door open and Stefan struggling with something, I imagined it must’ve been the woman and then the door slammed shut. A knock came at the compartment. “I think y’all can come out now. Coast is clear.”

The compartment opened with a creak, and I gently lifted Jamie out. She grabbed a helpful hand to step down, and I crawled out.

“Will you please come with me?” Aedan in full police uniform yelled out to us from his car. I nearly lost it. Officer Aedan. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

“Thanks, guys,” I said as I stood up from the ground.

“Take care of her, man,” said one of the garbage men.

“I’ll do my best.” We walked toward the “police” car, Jamie under my arm. Did I believe that I could keep her safe always? No, not always. I knew that now.

We got into the back of Aedan’s police car and buckled in. Aedan peeled out and whipped the car around. Stefan wasn’t far behind.

“Hey! Wait!” the garbage men yelled.

I looked back at my crunched car, our Bucky, and couldn’t help but think that mine and Jamie’s lives were just like it. Crushed. Never to be the same.

19  Daddy Two

Jamie fell asleep on the ride back to the Hacienda, overcome with what had just transpired. We reached our new home, and I gently carried her in. The Doña waited for us in the hallway and sent us into a room near the front. I laid her down on the bed and, with one exchanged look with the Doña, I left, knowing she would take care of her. I glanced at the clock, 9:30 p.m.

Aedan changed out of the uniform a few rooms down. He had just thrown on a T-shirt as I entered the door.

“Don’t take it off! That uniform suited you.”

“Yeah, like oil on water,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Wanna go for a ride?” I showed him the cell phone.

“Heck yeah.”

We checked out another cell phone from the map room while Stefan pulled out a gray Toyota Camry from the garage. I went to the driver’s side, but Stefan remained in the car. He rolled the window down.

“Mind if I tag along this time?”

“Not at all.” And I really didn’t, especially with what had just gone down. It wasn’t wise to travel less than two deep anymore. Somatotech knew I was back at it and would be coming at me however they could. They were probably combing over the Castle Rock area minutes after we escaped the accident. The accident! The woman! Stefan took her in his car. What had happened to her?

“What happened to the soccer mom?” I asked.

“Patched her up and delivered her to a friend.”

“I’m hoping this friend didn’t get rid of her.” I slid my finger across my neck.

“Ha! Coyle, remember I’m not Manuel.” He grinned. “My friend is a paramedic; he’ll take good care of her. Relax, my friend. Hop in.” Aedan and I did.

“Good to hear.” Things were different with Stefan. “As for that relax stuff, I’ll relax when we’re all truly safe.”

“That may be awhile my friend.”

“Where are we headed?” I asked, looking around at the terrain I wasn’t familiar with.

“Roxborough State Park. The rocks provide excellent cover, and there’s cell service.” He looked in the rear view mirror to Aedan. “Aedan, can I give you some advice?”

“Sure, dude,” he said, leaning forward.

“Your mom will be emotional to hear from you, and I imagine you’ll be, too. It’s easy to give out too much information during emotional highs. I recommend practicing in your mind what you will say. Avoid locations, times, plans, people. Be very general. It’s better to assume your enemy is listening and will analyze every syllable.”

“Sounds like excellent advice for me as well,” I said.

“You’ll do fine.” He looked to both of us.

We drove to the backside of the park and turned onto a narrow dirt road with the headlights off. Only the light from the moon shone on our path. Stefan parked the car directly under a towering rock formation.

“OK, let me scout the area and then we’ll make the calls. Stick to the car.” He removed his 9mm from his waist and stepped out of the still-running car.

“Wow, that dude is all business.”

“He’s just being careful,” I said and peered out the window to try to track him. Every few seconds I would see a faint light from his flashlight, but I couldn’t see him. Dang, he’s good, I thought.

We waited for five minutes before he came back and turned off the ignition. “Coast is clear. I know you’ll want your privacy, but don’t go too far. You’ll only have five minutes to talk and then less than five to get out of here.”

I walked to a grove of tall bushes and found a log to sit on. Aedan walked the direct opposite direction and plopped down on a rock. I pulled out the phone to call the Andersons. My fingers trembled as I pressed the buttons and then paused before hitting send.

“Anderson’s residence,” the pastor answered.

“Pastor?”

“Coyle!” He immediately recognized my voice.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

“Where is Jamie? We’ve been searching day and night since your…visit!” he yelled, the first time I had heard him raise his voice.

“She’s safe. I can’t tell you where she is now; for all of our safety.”

“Is she OK?”

“She is physically healthy, but… she experienced things at Somatotech, things that changed her,” my voice wavered.

“What are you talking about?”

“They drugged her and… someone, my other, he…”

“What? What happened?” he yelled into the phone.

“He tried to force himself on her. She is still shaken.”

The pastor went silent.

I continued, “And Somatotech put an implant in her in an attempt to control her. It’s messed with her brain and caused seizures.

“Oh dear Lord, please help us,” he exclaimed and went silent for a moment. “Coyle, who’s this other?”

I ignored the question and continued to explain, “We have a doctor here, and we’re hoping he can extract it. Maybe, once it’s out, she’ll stop having seizures. My dad’s got one as well.”

“Somatotech is pure evil, Coyle. This has to stop.”

“I don’t know if we can; they’re ramping up production of…” I wasn’t sure if he was ready for the truth, that Somatotech created clones. “I’m just happy you’re OK.”

“I’m fine, but you died! I saw it on TV. You were in prison and, and someone poisoned you. Is this some sick joke they’re playing on us?” he said, voice trembling.

“No joke, pastor. That Coyle did die; at least we believe he did.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pastor, I need to tell you something, something I need you to keep to yourself for the time being. Somatotech did a whole lot more than try to cure Coyle’s cancer. They cloned him. Not once, but twice. I’m one of those copies, and I had a carbon copy. They, Somatotech, used him to kill Dr. Strayer and get to Jamie,” I said with more fortitude now, I had come to grips with it all.

“Why are you saying they tried to cure Coyle’s cancer? They did; you’re alive. Besides, cloning of a human is still years out.”

“Well, fast forward the clock, pastor. I’m alive, but I’m not Coyle.”

The pastor went silent. “That’s impossible,” he whispered.

“The impossible has become possible, likely due to the army’s support. So you knew Somatotech was working on it?”

“Not exactly, but it is a natural extension of some of their work. But, I still don’t believe they’ve done it. Coyle you’re confused, you’ve been through a lot.”

If only he knew. The blood, death, and pain. All the crap I’d gone through may confuse some people but not me. I now know who I truly am. I decided to change the subject rather than try to convince him; there would be time for that. “Again, I’m glad you’re OK,” I said while pulling back the phone to see how long we had spoken. 4:30.

“A few days in the hospital, a couple chest tubes, and a lot of pain killers and I’m back with my congregation. The doctors were impressed with your handiwork.”

“I’m sorry it went down like that. I honestly had no idea…”

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.' Paul Boese. It is time to move forward. My wife will forgive, and I forgave her and you long ago.” He paused and then spoke quietly, “Can you bring Jamie home now?”

“Pastor, I’m sorry but you don’t understand. Jamie can’t come home; none of us can, at least not for a while. This goes way deeper than just Somatotech. If she went home, she’d be going home to the slaughter.”

“Coyle, don’t you dare say that!” he raised his voice; I had never heard him with that much fire behind his voice.

“Pastor Anderson, I’m sorry but I’m just trying to get this through to you. She can’t go home now; I can’t tell you where we are. Jamie will call tomorrow, and after that, our calls will be pretty infrequent. I’ll find another way we can communicate, I promise.”

“Coyle, is she safe?”

“Where we are, yes. Out there? Most definitely not. None of us is, including you. There will be a couple of men watching you and your wife, just to make sure you’re safe.”

“Who is with you? Who are these men?”

“The less you know about my companions, the better, at least for now.”

“How can I help? I’ll do anything,” he pleaded.

“I’m not sure at the moment. I’ll contact you, though.”

“Keep her safe, Coyle. I’m trusting you.”

“Good bye, pastor.” I closed the phone just as it ticked to five minutes.

By the time I made it back to the car, Aedan and Stefan had sat inside waiting for me.

“How’s your mom?” I asked after I shut the door behind me.

“She wasn’t home,” he said, disappointment in his voice.

“Ah man, sorry dude. Was your sister home?”

“Yeah, she was there. She basically yelled at me the entire time.”

“Why’s that?” I asked; surprised anyone could yell at their lost brother.

“She’s pissed I’ve been away. I guess my whole house has gone to crap again. My mom’s gone off the deep end. Sis said she hadn’t seen her for days.”

“When the men get back, our first operation will be finding her,” I said and placed my hand on his shoulder from the back seat.

“I’ll call some men now. Aedan, please describe her,” Stefan volunteered.

“Thanks,” his voice choked up. He described his mother in great detail, even the cluster of freckles on her nose. His voice wavered a few times as he did. After he finished and wiped a tear from his eye, he turned to me. “How’s the pastor?”

“Alive, concerned and confused.”

“Aren’t we all?” asked Aedan.

“Aren’t we all,” I repeated slowly.

We drove in silence back to the compound. The melancholy mood that had overtaken me after Jamie's episode in Castle Rock had seemed to spread to my comrades.

Once we’d arrived home and separated to respective rooms without a word, I focused on connecting again, just to see if there was something or someone out there. At first, I felt nothing despite the mental search. All I found was void in my mind, but just as I started to relax, a faint signal, almost like a beacon came into and out of my mind. I focused harder, but the intensity remained fast. The sensation continued for another minute or two and then dissipated, leaving my mind anxious for more. It craved that connection as if a drug-laden infusion bathed my brain, seeping into the sulci, enveloping the neurons, and saturating the connections. I had to have it.

20  The Chimera

That night I had a dream. I stood at the mouth of a river with my feet in the shallow cold water. The slight current tickled my toes and made me smile at the sensation. A smile of slight discomfort mixed with exhilaration. The sun shone brightly through a thick forest to my side as the sunset was building. I took a few steps up the river and the water began to warm. A few more steps and the water warmed to hot bath water. I stood still, enjoying the warmth on my feet until a raucous sound broke my reverie. Rumbling began in the distance and grew to a loud roar. Something approached, and approached fast. I turned to run, but my legs wouldn't move fast enough. That's when I noticed my scrawny arms and legs, weak like Coyle was before. My strength was gone, now replaced with anxiety and trepidation.

The rumbling grew, and I knew it was too late. I turned and faced a wall of dark red blood careening down the river. The wave knocked me flat on my back, before flipping me over and over unrelentingly. Eventually, I slammed onto the riverbed, pinned down by the flow. The force caused me to inhale a large gulp of bloody water. My lungs seared with pain as if they had filled with acid. As the pure agony of drowning grew, Dr. Baldwin's face appeared before me, the doctor I’d accidently killed at Somatotech when trying to catch my dad. Her mouth gaped open, and her blood-shot eyes bulged toward me. Wisps of blood escaped her head from where her skull had caved and added to the crimson flow swirling about me. I wanted to scream, but my lungs held no air. Her face drifted closer and closer. I desperately wanted to close my eyes, but they wouldn’t respond. Just as her lifeless lips made contact with mine, her face morphed into Jamie’s. Pain ripped through my chest, and I woke.

The sweat on my skin drenched the tightly wrapped sheet engulfing my body. I rolled off the bed to release myself. The cool floor felt oddly comforting, so I lowered my entire body onto it. The darkness of my dream lingered with me. The demons of my past seemed unconvinced with my success of the present. I didn’t kill Manuel. I didn’t kill Tigre. Sure, I knocked Manuel out, and I injured the Somatotech goons. But, that violence was justified.

Jamie stirred in the room next to me. Water rushed through pipes leading to her shower. After taking over this place, Jamie and Aedan had moved into the main house. Jamie and I were tempted to share a room, but a stern look from the Doña squashed that idea. Not that Jamie would have been comfortable about it anyway, especially after the accident. Aedan chose the room closest to the back of the hacienda. He held onto his privacy, even in this communal living. Talon found a room near the examination room and seemed to be getting along with Dr. Bartnev. He still held a small degree of antipathy toward me, threatened by my perceived perfection, but he’d come around. If only he could see my dreams. If only he could feel the demons inside. No, I was far from perfect, my mind and soul felt splintered as if parts were sticking out, exposed to the pain of my reality. My reality of the pain I’d caused Jamie. My reality as a clone.

I got up and stripped, noticing that all the wounds from the past two days had healed. I jumped in the shower, turning it all the way to cold. I didn’t want to rob Jamie of the hot water because she probably needed it more than I. The cold water felt like a million pins shooting into my skin for the first minute. All I could manage were short staccato breaths under that near frozen oppression. I closed my eyes and forced my mind to control my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Soon I took sustained deep breaths, and my skin went numb. The initial rush subsided, but the feeling of being alive persisted. I’m alive. My other is dead. My original may be dead. The three of us, physically the same, but I’m the one who’s alive. Did I deserve this life, whatever is left of it? Rather than deal with the heaviness further, I turned off the shower and got dressed.

Jamie avoided me during breakfast, choosing to eat it in her room. Aedan joined me at the kitchen island.

“Sleep well?” I asked him.

“Nah, tossed and turned all night.” He dumped a couple scoops of sugar in his mug of coffee.

“Your mom?”

“Yeah.” He kept his eyes on his mug and held it tightly in both hands.

“Stefan is making calls this morning. Their network found Roxanne, that queen recluse, and her group, so I’ve no doubt we’ll find her.”

“My mom has a way of disappearing so that no one can find her.”

“We will.”

“Yeah.” He looked up and shook his head slightly and then returned to his mug. “How’s Jamie?”

“Not sure, she ate in her room,” I said, shaking my head back and forth.

“She’s been through a lot, Coyle; she may need some time.”

“I know, but I’m afraid she’ll need so much time that we’ll just be through.”

He didn’t have a response. He knew it as well as I did; I was losing her. “So what’s the plan, leader man?” Aedan said, after taking a swig of his coffee.

“Make sure your mom, and Jamie’s family are OK and get my dad back.”

“We could use some help with all that. Is Talon ready for some action?”

“Frankly, I’d forgotten about him. I’ll check with Dr. Bartnev.” I slammed down a few bites of eggs and took a swig of the orange juice the Doña had placed in front of me.

“Is Jamie gonna talk to her dad soon? When she does, can I call my family again?”

“Yeah, I think the Doña is going to take her this morning.”

“We’re ready to go actually,” Stefan walked into the room. “Aedan, we haven’t found your mom but we have some leads. We can discuss on the way.”

Stefan, the Doña, Aedan and Jamie left without another word. Jamie avoided my eyes as she walked down the hallway to the front door. I didn’t go after her, even though I wanted to because I knew she needed some distance.

After they’d left, I sought out Dr. Bartnev in Talon’s examination room. Talon sat up as I strolled into the room. Dr. Bartnev walked over to me but stayed silent.

“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” he said and extended his fist.

I pounded him back and said, “Nah, just ran into some trouble.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Yeah, maybe. I should’ve asked you this earlier, but I didn’t have the chance. Those 5G Max towers seemed to be transmitting to an implant in my girlfriend, and I think my dad. What were you and Roxanne doing at the towers?”

“Medital has been monitoring their signal strength around the Metro area. Somatotech has been able to get into more towers than us, including government-only towers.”

“So Medital uses those towers as well?”

“That’s how they send messages to our auditory implants.” He tapped just behind his ear.

“So, they don’t work out here? We’re out of range for Jamie’s.”

“Ours work because they switch to roaming, using other towers, similar to a cellphone voice transmission. Because Somatotech actually controls their subjects, they need a stronger signal, hence why the proximity to the towers. Medital doesn’t control us; it just wants all the information we can give them about Somatotech.”

“How can you trust that company?” Talon looked down at the floor, gathering his thoughts. I did the same. Allowing anyone to hear everything I hear and say seemed out of the question. What little privacy I had left I would like to hold onto. Then it hit me. Everything I say to Talon and the crew Medital recorded. They’re after the same endpoint as Somatotech, money. My experience with Somatotech had taught me one thing; money blinds and perverts. If Medital was anything like them, I wanted nothing to do with them. I needed to learn sign language as well so I could communicate with the crew without their snooping ears.

“Coyle?” Talon shook me out of my contemplation. “Medital gave me life where Somatotech threatened to take it. If it wasn’t for Roxanne…” He stared forward and then shook his head slightly.

“What about Roxanne? What’d she do?” I asked, pulling up a chair.

“She’s telling me if I tell you she will kill me.” We both grinned.

“I’ll find out someday, Roxanne,” I said as if I was talking on the phone. It sure felt odd talking through one person to another.

“She says she’s thinking about killing you too.” He laughed.

“Well, even if she is planning to kill me, I’m looking forward to having them here.”

“She says it will be a couple more days. Medital has some important business they need her to attend to.”

“Oooh, Roxanne’s a VIP!” I said in a high-pitched whine.

“She says she’s really going to kill you.”

“Well, get here quick, before I have my men around me. They’re a little skittish, and I doubt they’ll appreciate me bringing you all here.” Talon nodded. “Well, I gotta go. Thanks, dude.”

I fist bumped Talon again; happy we had somehow made amends, though his grin seemed a little menacing. Dr. Bartnev followed me out of the room, and we walked together into the kitchen.

“How long till he’s up and running?”

“A day or two. He’s no miracle, but close.”

“I’ll need his help soon, as in tomorrow. Can’t you ramp him up like you did me?”

“No. His body heal, yes. Not fast like yours.”

“So he can’t take your little cocktail?”

“No, your blood is greater. Much more. Liver stronger as well.” He smacked my back with a hearty fist.

I coughed from the blow, and then asked, “What does having more blood have to do with it?”

“More binding to cells, less toxic elsewhere.”

“And Talon doesn’t have it like I do?”

“Not close, not even,” he said and winked.

My body heals faster than other clones, so maybe it’s true? Maybe I am something different, an elite among the elite.

Part Two
Barrage

21  Daddy Plan

My first order of business had to be freeing my dad, or rather Coyle’s dad, from the chemical and physical clutches of Somatotech. I had some ideas on how to free him given the limited range of the towers, but I needed to bounce them off some critical people. I sat in the kitchen drumming up a plan.

I heard the car pull up to the compound, so I moved to the hall to greet Aedan and Stefan as in they strolled. I looked behind them for Jamie but apparently she’d stayed outside with the Doña. I had hoped talking to her dad would smooth things over a bit, but I guess they hadn’t. Rather than push the issue by waiting in that hall for her, I walked to the kitchen. Aedan and Stefan met me there.

Stefan grinned at me as we made eye contact, but he continued to the refrigerator.

“Coyle! My mom’s OK. Stefan got a call right as we were pulling up. She’s at her sister’s in Boulder,” Aedan basically yelled out.

“Heck yeah man! Good to freakin’ hear!” We exchanged high fives just as Jamie walked by. My hands dropped to my side. She didn’t even glance into the room. Her cheeks were wet, and she sniffled on her way to her room. I stepped forward to follow, but Aedan stopped me with his arm.

I dropped my head and closed my eyes. “Is she OK?”

“Nah, man. She’s not.” Aedan placed his hand on my shoulder. “She cried the entire way back here. Something her dad told her. I couldn’t get it out, but I didn’t feel like prying too much.”

“I understand dude. But, I bet he told her she needed to stay here until we know it’s safe.”

“That’s what I don’t get, man. Why hasn’t Somatotech retaliated? Why not hold our families against us?”

“They will, I guarantee it. They may have another plan to flush us out right now, but when push comes to shove, they’ll try anything, including hurting out families.”

“Then we gotta bring them here or protect them.”

I motioned over to Stefan, who was still browsing the food selections in the fridge. “Right, I had Stefan call some men to watch over each of our homes. They’ll call about any suspicious activity. Aedan, I wanna bring my dad here.”

“That’s cool, man. But promise me my family won’t be far behind?”

“Of course. It just feels like if they wanted to get to me they would stick me where it hurts most. That’s why they kidnaped Jamie. My dad has to be next.”

“Or, they’re using your dad as bait.”

“No doubt. We just gotta be smarter than them. Speaking of, I think we’ll need some help from our hacker friend.”

“Let it rain!” said Aedan and we both laughed. During our invasion to free Jamie, Angelfire had turned on the fire sprinklers to divert some of the Somatotech goons.

“Wanna head back up and give him a call?”

“Sure, dude. It’s kinda boring here anyway. Couldn’t they put a TV in somewhere?”

I rolled my eyes.

Aedan and I drove up to the very same spot in Roxborough State Park to make the call. I dialed the number Manuel had given me back before our falling out, back before we rescued Jamie from Somatotech. Back when I had good relations with him. Aedan kept watch with a flashlight and handgun Stefan had equipped him with.

“Tony Montana is alive!” said Angelfire, referencing to when I mowed down Somatotech guards while freeing Jamie. His voice had a deeper, rougher tone than before.

“Hey, Angelfire. You using a voice modifier? Worried about who may be listening?”

“I’m always worried, Coyle but, no modifier today. Just the natural kind, a cold.”

“Sorry to hear that. I hope you’re up for a small mission?”

He didn’t respond at first. “Coyle, I’ve decided to take a more out-of-the-spotlight role in the compound’s missions.”

“I understand. The last one kinda turned sour; Somatotech proved to be better prepared than we expected.”

“Whatcha talking about? That one was a resounding success. What I’m talking about are the missions Manuel enslaved you to.”

“Things have changed—”

“Y’all back to more personal missions?”

“Reading my mind are you? I gotta get my dad from the company. He’s not in their headquarters though; he’s out in the open.”

“Word is you’ve taken the hacienda. Why not enlist your little army to extract him from the company’s clutches?”

“Wow, you already heard about that?” Word travels fast in the criminal world. “I’m keeping them separate. My affairs with the company are not their affairs, at least not yet.”

“Smart. And do you have a plan to get him?”

I described my ideas to him in detail. I knew Somatotech monitored my dad’s movements so if I was to pick him up it needed to be along established routes; nothing could be out of the ordinary. We needed to move him quickly out of range of Somatotech's signal. Through the unintentional experiment with Jamie, the threshold of power seemed to be about a few miles from the tower.

“So, you need a draw. Something to get your dad close to the tower for extraction?”

“Exactly.”

“If I remember correctly, your dad works at Holiday Inn as the head launderer?”

“Yeah.” Angelfire had done his research.

“Well, let’s grab him at a Holiday Inn near a tower. There has to be one.”

I went through the towers and Holiday Inns throughout the Denver area. Sure enough, the Holiday Inn on South Kipling Parkway near C-470 stood only a mile from one of the south Denver towers.

“The one on South Kipling is the right distance.”

“Great, so we grab him on his normal rounds out there.”

“Nah, he always has someone with him. I don’t want to risk hurting an innocent. We have to get him to come at a time when he’d have to do it alone. That’s where you come in.”

“Oh? You need my help?” the pitch of his voice rose.

“Don’t flatter yourself; you’re the only hacker I know.”

“If you knew more, you’d know how good I am.”

“I was kidding!  I know you’re the best.” He didn’t respond. “So, we gotta hack the laundry system, but make it look like a typical extra order. I know they happen, I remember my dad having to go on runs at night.”

“I’m thinking this little hacking adventure would be a perfect training mission. Whatcha think? Up for the challenge?”

“I’m up for it. I’d bet I could out program you anyway.”

“Ah! Getting spunky, I see. No one takes down the master. So, I’ll ignore your comment for the greater good, my little apprentice.”

Aedan tapped on my shoulder and then motioned toward his watch.

“I gotta go. I’ll hit you up when I’m at a computer.”

“ttyl.”

“Did you just spell out an acronym?” I asked.

Click. Angelfire hung up, and I laughed.

“Any other calls you wanna make?” I asked Aedan, showing him the phone.

“Nah, I’ll call my sis tomorrow, just to check in. Let’s head out.”

We hopped in the car and started the ten-minute drive back to Sedalia.

“Murray, I’ve meant to ask you, what’s it been like to come close to death?”

“Close to death? I died dude. I just came back to life.”

“That’s not how Dr. B explained it.”

“I lost my physical body. If that’s not death, I don’t know what is.”

“But your body never completely died. How do you know your spirit left it?”

“I don’t know if it was my spirit leaving my body but I didn’t have a physical form anymore. I was transported to some place high. I wasn’t alone…” I trailed off, not knowing if I should spring it on him.

“Who was there? Your mom?”

“No, my other.”

“Did you guys get into it? I would’ve ripped him to shreds.”

“Again, I had no body. We just talked.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me the truth, at least part of it,” I said and turned onto the main highway.

“Your clone who tried to rape Jamie, who killed Dr. Strayer, who is a creation of an evil company, he told you the truth? Ha!”

I looked him in the eyes and spoke clearly, “He told me I’m a clone.”

“Ha ha, that’s freakin’ ridiculous.”

“Is it? Roxanne told me the same thing.”

“She’s mistaken, dude.”

“She’s a clone, too, dude. They’re all clones.”

Aedan went silent and stared ahead into the darkness outside the car.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, dude. Believe me; I’m still coming to grips with it.”

“But dude, you didn’t die. You didn’t experience the white light, that pathway to Heaven because your spirit didn’t leave your dead body. All that stuff you thought you experienced with your clone was your oxygen-starved brain. It made that crap up. You can’t trust it.”

“Maybe so, dude. But, Roxanne and her crew know how Somatotech operates. They don’t release the originators, only the clones. I’m a freakin’ clone.”

“Nah—,” he waved my comment away.

“Aedan, you said it yourself! Something is different about me. It’s because I’m not who you think I am. I’m not the friend you saved at that skate park.”

“I said there was something different about you, yeah. They freakin’ messed with your soul that’s what they did. They made a copy of you and that clone died.”

“How could I be so damn perfect, Aedan? Huh? How could they do that with who Coyle was? A scrawny punk who could barely manage a B- average turned into a damned muscular genius?  That’s freakin’ impossible, man!” I yelled.

“You explained it to me. They replaced your cells with improved cells, your own cells. That’s how they cured your cancer.”

“They didn’t cure his cancer. That’s one of their great lies. They don’t cure anyone; they just replace them.”

“C’mon, dude. Someone would find that crap out. Someone would notice. I would notice.”

“Apparently, they are good at what they do.”

“None of this makes sense. Why would you have so much hate for Somatotech then, Coyle? They made you. They would be your parents. And, they made you a perfect specimen. Why revolt against someone who gave you so much, even life itself?”

“Because, even though I’m a clone, I understand humanity and what they are doing is wrong. Your friend understood that as well.” I pulled the car into the hacienda’s driveway.

“You are my friend, Coyle.” He turned to me and stared directly into my eyes.

“I am now, yes. Me, Coyle’s clone.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Whatever dude. You can believe whatever you want,” he said, shook my hand off his shoulder with a quick jerk, and got out of the car. He walked straight to the hacienda without looking back.

That was about the response I expected. It would be even worse with Jamie, and I seriously dreaded it.

22  Contact

Aedan and Jamie needed a break from me. So we avoided each other, mainly sticking to our personal rooms. The halls of the hacienda became awkwardly quiet. Only my conversations with Dr. B, Stefan and Talon echoed in the halls. The Doña stuck around Jamie, attending to her needs. She knew who really needed comfort right then.

Talon recovered enough to help me plan, so we spent the day planning my dad’s extraction. He actually had some great ideas and even volunteered for the more risky tasks. After we had laid it all out, I drove to the public library in Castle Rock and contacted Angelfire.I flipped up the hood of my sweatshirt, ran into the library, and sat down at a computer in the corner near large bookcases.

Angelfire ran me through different techniques to gain access to wired and wireless computer systems. He spoke quickly for twenty minutes and referred me to some articles. I read them in under a minute and memorized each technique and line of code. With my knowledge of the programming languages and networking as a base, the methods came easily.

“Well, you’ve surpassed my expectations… slightly,” said Angelfire as we ended the training. “You’ll do well if you stick to my instructions.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, AG. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

I grabbed a few books before heading out and devoured them quickly. A mom with her kid watched as I flipped the pages after a quick millisecond of reading.  I finished three books in ten minutes. One titled, Mastering Ventriloquism, piqued my interest, especially the section on distant voice projection. I looked at the mom and kid, careful not to expose my face, but just enough to get their attention. When they saw me looking their way, the mom turned her son’s head away. I forced air through my larynx and trapped it in the back of my mouth with the back of my tongue lifted. A guttural sound escaped, and the boy looked across the room. I did it again, and he scanned the room looking for the sound’s source, knowing he wasn’t supposed to look at me. I couldn’t help but smile.

I only made it through the first few pages of the next book titled, Learning American Sign Language because too many people started noticing me making sounds and ripping through books.

After returning from the library, I went to Aedan’s room to see if he’d help me with the mission. I knew it might be a little early, things may be still raw, but I really needed his help. His door stood slightly ajar, so I pushed it open.

“Aedan?” I said before seeing him huddled up on his bed, holding his legs close to his body.

“Get out! Dude, don’t you know to knock?” he yelled at me with blood-shot eyes and tears streaming down his face.

“Whoa, dude. Are you OK?” I stepped towards him.

“I told you to get the heck outta here.”

“Aedan, I’m sorry for what I said.”

“No, you’re not because you think it’s the truth.”

“I’m sorry I made you upset, OK?”

“Coyle.” He stood up and came close to me, our faces a few inches apart. The tears streamed stronger now. “It better not be true. I almost lost my friend already. I’m not ready to lose him again.”

“I’m your friend, Aedan.”

“Yeah…”

“I don’t know what to say, man.”

“Don’t say anything.  Let’s just ignore it for awhile. I just can’t deal with it right now. There’s just too much crap going on.” He wiped the tears slipping down his cheek.

“Speaking of crap going down, Talon and I are going to get my dad.”

“I’m helping then.”

“No, dude, we don’t need you—I mean, I don’t wanna risk your life for this.”

“Screw you, Coyle. I’m coming,” he said with a slight nod.

“OK, but it’s your life you’re risking. I’ll come get you when we’re ready this afternoon.”

Stefan met me at the door as I left and began walking at my side.

“Coyle. I’ve meant to talk to you about your friends.”

“Aedan and Jamie?”

“No, Talon and the others. Do you think it’s wise to bring them here again?” he said while matching my stride.

“I’m not sure they’re my friends, but they’ve got a crap load of intel on Somatotech that I need. When they get here, I plan on getting it out of them and then kicking them out.”

“I just hope we aren’t opening ourselves up to unnecessary risk, my friend. We really don’t know them or their motivations.” He started walking away. “By the way, the Doña feels the same as I.”

It may be a risk, but I hardly saw it as unnecessary. I had to gather all the info I could about Somatotech, and frankly Medital as well before I could make a move against one or both of them. How great was the risk? They already knew our location so they could’ve wiped us out already. We’d have to be careful with what we said around them though, them being constant recorders.

I drove back to the library to get my hacking on. The Holiday Inn's database proved easier to hack than expected, even with the library’s rudimentary computers. The basic lessons by Angelfire were more than sufficient. After breaking down the low-level security, I placed a large order of sheets for the Littleton Holiday Inn at 4:30 p.m., just before my dad would get off. On a typical day, he would send all of his coworkers home by this time and go on the run himself.

We set our respective roles. Aedan would provide the broken-down car on South Kipling Pkwy causing traffic to backup, this would force my dad, who knows Denver roads better than anyone, to take an alternate route on smaller roads. I would follow my dad in the mock police car until he would stop at a stop sign. Then I would turn on the lights and apprehend him. Talon would then jump in the van and drive it to the Holiday Inn. I would escort the van on its path, staying within the 25 ft. radius to not alert Somatotech. The GPS tracker’s range gave us that small buffer.

The plan started out perfectly. Aedan and Stefan wedged two cars together on South Kipling just north of Ken Caryl Avenue causing traffic to back up for a few blocks. Sure enough, my dad turned left on Geddes Avenue, into a residential area. I looked into my rearview mirror. A black SUV trailed a couple blocks behind.

“This has to be quick. I’ll pull up alongside; you jump out and arrest my dad. Don’t hurt him though.”

“These bad boys are hard to control, Coyle. You should know that.” He kissed his biceps.

I glared at him.

“Dude, c’mon. I’m kidding; he’ll be fine. But, I’m going to play the part.” He winked.

“All right, get ready.” My dad stopped at an intersection, so I flipped on the lights. I kept the siren off, not wanting the goons to hear it. I let out a slight honk, and he pulled onto the cross street. His taillights indicated he placed the van in park. The engine shut off. I stepped on the gas to pull up next to him and then screeched to a stop near his door. Talon jumped out, ripped open my dad’s door and started to pull my dad out.

“What the? Get your hands off me.” He fell to the ground, smacking his shoulder on the concrete. I almost tore through my door to help him, but I caught myself.

“Sir, you’re under arrest. Don’t resist.” Talon pushed him against the police car and snapped cuffs around his wrists.

“What for?”

“You have the right to remain silent… yada yada yada. Get in the car.”

Talon opened the car door and pushed my dad onto the seat. I glared at him to which he grinned. Talon was kinda a punk.

“Did you leave the keys in the van or on your person?” Talon asked before closing the door.

“In the van.” Talon slammed the door shut and hopped into the van cab. I waited for the van to pull in front before following close behind.

"Officer, what have I done? I demand an explanation." He leaned forward to the divider between us. “You can’t arrest someone without due cause.”

I remained silent. The Holiday Inn came into view a few lights ahead. Past the hotel was freedom for dad. His van stopped at the next light. My heart nearly stopped as I saw the black SUV pull up on the passenger side. Through the tint, I could see the driver extending his neck to see into the cab of the van. Frustrated, the man rolled down his window and stuck his head out. My hands began to sweat on the steering wheel. He continued to strain to get a better view.

“Talon you have a bogey on your right. Stay down.” I whispered into the radio.

“Gotcha. Thanks for the heads up, Coyle.” Talon practically yelled. I realized I should have turned down the radio, but it was too late.

“That was my son’s name.”

“Hmmph,”I said in as gruff of voice I could produce. A grin slipped onto my lips. I liked impersonating an officer.

“Who’s driving my truck?”

I didn’t respond, and my grin disappeared. The goon now opened his driver’s side door, stepped out and reached for the cab door of the truck.

“He’s at your door,” I whispered.

“Should I take him out?” Talon responded.

“Negative, not now. I’m on it.” I flipped on the lights and blared the siren. The man looked my way then reached the door and pulled it open, obviously not perturbed.

“Dang it,” I said under my breath.

A surprised look crossed the man’s face as he stepped up into the cab. Before I reacted, the goon flew out of the cab, his legs and arms flailing in the air. He landed on the top of the SUV, denting in the roof and flipping over to the road. Nice kick Talon! As if on cue, the three remaining goons exited the SUV with M16s clearly visible.

“GO!” I yelled into my earpiece.

The van lurched into the intersection just as a car ran through the yellow light. The shattering of glass and crumpling metal rang out, the sharpness of it bringing pain to my ears. The car struck the passenger side wheel well, bending the wheel and axle. Talon whipped the van in reverse to free himself but the van wouldn’t respond. A loud squeal escaped the engine compartment. The men approached the van, one from behind, one from the passenger side, and the other from behind the wrecked car. The man inside the mangled car managed to force his door open. I watched from my cruiser; my driver’s side window rolled down.

“FBI! Get out of there!” the goon closest to the car yelled.

The dazed man ran in a serpentine path to the sidewalk and hid behind a bus stop bench.

“Get out of the van, now!” The men aimed their weapons at the cab.

I rammed the police car into gear and shot forward, aiming for the rear end of the incapacitated car. The man behind it looked over just before I made contact. He leaped up like a cat clearing my car as it clipped the side of the Civic. He landed directly where he had leaped, rotated toward us, and aimed the M16 for my head, as I whipped the car around toward the far side of the van. No normal human could react so perfectly. These goons had to be clones. Somatotech must be mass-producing them now.

The bullets came at me, breaking my millisecond of contemplation. A spray of glass struck my neck as one of the bullets shot through the rear view mirror. I glanced back at my dad. Gratefully, he hunkered down in the back seat. Talon rammed the gas pedal down, and the van accelerated. Accelerated is an exaggeration, as it actually crept forward, its bent wheel locking in the wheel well.

“I’m going nowhere dude,” Talon stated calmly.

“I’m coming for you,” I said as I continued my arc around the van. I made it to his side but kept on going. Talon’s eyes met mine as I passed him. We had to split up. With one vehicle, they’d have to choose who to follow. It would be better if they couldn’t follow us at all. Would I have to kill them all? There had to be a better way.

“Where are you going?”

I didn’t respond, keeping my focus on driving. I had to incapacitate their SUV. Two of the men waited for me on the far side. My mind had memorized the exact location of the SUV, so I dropped down on the seat and drove without sight, my left hand on the steering wheel. The windshield burst into a shower of glass as the two men unloaded on us. I aimed the car in my mind and targeted the back wheel well. This police car had better hold up, I thought.

“Hold on back there!” I said to Coyle’s dad, a moment before impact.

I clipped the SUV at the back wheel well, sending debris into the air. My dad and I flew forward, my chest and face slamming into the steering wheel and dash. A few ribs snapped under the force. My car ricocheted to the right and kept on moving. The bumper now hung dangerously close to the ground. I couldn’t see the side of the SUV I had hit, I only hoped I had done enough damage.  I forced my foot down on the pedal.

“You guys OK?” Talon’s voice came over the radio.

My chest struggled to expand to take in the air needed for speech. “Coming… on… your side,” I managed to say. I sat up cautiously to survey the scene. The two men ran out from the other side of the SUV toward me. The other man took cover behind the Civic, apparently waiting for me to come around again.

“Get…ready,” I whispered into the radio.

As I turned past the Civic, the man turned on me. Expecting him to shoot at me, I laid down on the seat. Only when I heard a loud bump on the top of my car did I realize, he had leaped on top. One of his hands gripped through the broken windshield holding onto the car frame. I jerked the car to the left and then to the right, trying to shake him. His grip held, despite the blood now dripping off his clenched grasp. I rammed on the brake sending him forward onto the hood. His grip held again. Before I could press the gas again, he kicked the remaining windshield onto me. The deluge of glass blinded me for a half a second, long enough for the goon to dive through the windshield feet first. Both of his feet struck directly into my chest, cracking more ribs and forcing all air out. I doubled over reflexively. He shifted to the passenger side and wrapped his legs around my neck. I grabbed his legs and wrenched outward, but they remained fastened around my neck. Already weak from the chest blow, my strength failed me, and he began to squeeze tightly.

“Some chosen one,” he muttered and squeezed tighter.

Why didn’t he just shoot me? I thought in the moment before the panic began to grow. I doubled over and then back, trying to weaken his grip, but his legs were just as strong as mine, and I could feel each muscle of his thigh contracting against me. My police cap and glasses flipped off in the scuffle.

“Coyle?” My dad stared at me as I struggled against the goon’s grip. He slammed his fists against the barrier between the front and back seats. “Coyle!” he screamed.

“Get… out… Dad,” I squeaked out. But, I knew he couldn’t. His cuffs held tight, and the doors remained locked. There was no way to open them from the inside.

The goon squeezed harder, collapsing the vessels in my neck. My vision began to darken. Realizing it was futile, I released my hands from his legs. My right hand dropped between the seat and door and rested on something long and metal. A window hammer! I gripped it and yanked it from its holder then slammed it down on the goon’s knee. The blow sent blood and tissue spraying into the air. His knee shattered, and he eased off my neck reflexively. He reached up to grab the hammer, but I quickly rammed it down on his other leg. I adjusted to being on top of him as he writhed in pain, grabbing at his mangled legs. I raised the hammer from the right, and as he put up his hands to block it, my left fist rose and made contact with his jaw, knocking him out cold. I nearly collapsed onto him from the lack of oxygen.

Shots rang out from behind us, but I could tell by the sound they were aimed at the van. I was about to push this goon out of my car as a last act of violence to him but then thought twice. Maybe we could extract some intel from this guy? I hit him once more; just to make sure he was completely out and then rammed down on the gas pedal.

Because of my scuffle, I had driven further down the street than I’d hoped and had to whip a U-turn. More shots rang out and then silence. The carnage unfolded as I made my way up to the driver’s side of the van. One of the goons lay on the ground, not breathing, nor could I hear a heartbeat. Talon hung outside the cab, his seat belt tightly wrapped around his neck. His lips were a light shade of blue, but his chest rose erratically. I threw the car into park and looked for the remaining goon. Nowhere in sight or earshot. I jumped out and released Talon from his deathly stricture, careful to support his neck in case his vertebrae had fractured with the stricture. As I laid him down, I glanced up into the cab and saw a spray of crimson staining the roof. I knew the remaining goon had met his fate and likely lay within the cab, probably Talon’s last act before passing out. I looked down at Talon. His skin had taken on pale hue, and his lips had swollen purple. I nearly lost it. If Talon died... I thought. I squeezed his hand and rubbed on his chest, trying to stimulate something from him. His heart remained still.

“C’mon, Talon,” I yelled at him and began compressions. Dad looked on with his mouth agape. After only a few compressions, I felt Talon’s heart quiver, and then beat regularly. The color returned to his face.

“Talon!”

He didn’t respond, but he did start breathing regularly. A rush of joy swept over me. Talon should be OK.

“Dad, get out,” I said after running to and opening his door.

“How can this be? Who are you? You can’t be my son.” He stayed inside the car.

“Not now, Dad! I’ll explain as we go. More of these guys are coming, I promise, and they will kill us all. Come on out!”

He squirmed out and collapsed to his knees with a better look at the carnage. I couldn’t help myself. A lump formed in my throat. My dad! Or at least, Coyle’s dad. I felt such love for him, a deep, all-encompassing emotion I couldn’t deny. I wrapped my arms around him and wept. He also started crying with tears now flowing down onto my neck.

“Urrghh,” Talon tried to speak.

I wiped the tears from my face and cleared my throat. “Dad, we gotta go now. Can you help me?” I looked into his eyes. The same tired eyes I knew from before. “Can you open the trunk while I get my friend in the back seat?”

“Yes son.” He got to his feet and went to the driver’s side door.

I gently lifted Talon, supporting his neck the best I could and placed him into the back seat. My dad popped the trunk open, and I retrieved some blankets. Using my belt, I wrapped the folded blankets around Talon’s neck and tightened it until it immobilized him. I attached the seat belts around him and cinched them down.

My dad stood outside the passenger side door when I got out.

“And him?” He pointed towards the unconscious man in the passenger seat.

“To the trunk,” I said as my dad’s eyes widened. “Dad, a lot has changed since we last saw each other.”

His eyes blinked twice, and his pupils dilated. “That’s an understatement; I need to call my work and Somatotech,” he said while retrieving his cellphone from his pocket.

We weren’t far enough out yet; they still had some influence on him. “Not now, Dad!” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “We can call on the way.” I played along, hoping I could influence him as well.

I ran to the other side and pulled the man onto my shoulder. He plopped down into the trunk just as I heard the sirens from the incoming police. From the sounds there had to be at least four cars coming fast.

“Time to go!” I yelled to my dad.

“I don’t think I can do that, Coyle,” he said and crossed his arms across his chest. “Somatotech wouldn’t want me to leave the scene of an accident.”

“Somatotech wants you to be safe, right?” I felt like I was talking to a child.

“Yes, Somatotech protects me.”

“Well, the men who are coming, will hurt all of us. I need to get us to a safe place where we can call Somatotech.”

He stood there. I could almost see the drug-influenced gears turning in his head.

“We gotta go now, Dad. To say safe.”

“I’m supposed to call Somatotech if I see you again. I see you now, I should call them.”

“Yes, you should call them, but in the car.” I just about slammed my fist on the hood in frustration. I didn’t want to force him physically, but I would if I had to. Gratefully, he relented, walked to the passenger side, swept the glass off the seat, and buckled his seatbelt.

Just another mile or two and we should be out of range.

23  Free Flowing

I lurched the car forward, the bumper scraping against the asphalt with a sound to wake the dead. I didn’t care as I knew the police or Somatotech goons would be on us soon. We careened past the Holiday Inn and made our way toward the C-470, the major highway that circumvented the metro area. I breathed a sigh of relief once we were on it heading toward Santa Fe Ave. My relief was short-lived. The sirens from the oncoming police cars blared out as they pulled out the highway behind us.

I looked over at my dad. He stared at me. His eyes glazed over as if he wasn’t fully present. The shaking then started at his hands and spread like a wave up to his head and then down through his feet. I had padded the back seat in anticipation of my dad’s seizure, but Talon now lay back there. His head slammed violently against the passenger side window and seat. I reached over to his shoulder, trying to stabilize him, but his head slammed against the window once more, and with such force, a crack formed in the glass. Blood seeped from his hair and onto his shoulder. He shook for about a minute until his body went limp, propped up by his seat belt. Saliva slipped from his partially gaped mouth, and his arms draped down. They swayed back and forth as I turned the car. Blood continued to flow from his scalp wound and pooled on the seat.

“Dad!” I screamed, but I couldn’t stop. The police gained ground behind us. My damaged car couldn’t seem to get over fifty miles per hour. Sputtering sounds came from the engine compartment as I helped the gas pedal down.

“Roxanne, we need help now!” I yelled, hoping Talon’s ears still worked. “If you can hear me, we are on C-470 about a mile from Santa Fe Ave. The police will be on us in just a few minutes. Talon and my dad are out, and my car is shutting down.”

I passed over South Wadsworth Boulevard, heading toward Santa Fe Ave. Cars passed me easily, and a few even honked. Bold people, bold, I thought. Honking at what at least looks like a police car.  The real police cars were coming at me from the west and sounded about a quarter mile away.

“I’ll be on Santa Fe Avenue in just under two minutes. Hope you guys can help.”

Just as I passed S. Platte Canyon Road., a semi truck pulled out behind me. The horn blared out towards me, and I looked in the rearview mirror. Striker and Jarom sat in the cab with wide grins. Dang they acted quickly, I thought. A little too quickly. I waved back at them.

The police were now in view about a mile back. Two cars and a black SUV with sirens blaring gained serious ground on the semi and me with my dilapidated car. I reached the exit to Santa Fe Avenue before them and heard a loud screech of tires behind me. I looked back through the rearview mirror to see Striker’s semi flipping onto its side on the off ramp. The trailer on the back dislodged and slid into the retaining wall. The semi wedged into the single lane and caught fire almost immediately. With the flames growing larger, Striker and Jarom kicked out the windshield and jumped out. Blood streamed down Striker’s face, but he wiped it with his shirt and sprinted into the field bordering C-470. They gave each other a fist bump and split up, one moving west and the other east.

I continued down the ramp and jerked the car to the right at the intersection with Santa Fe Avenue, ignoring the red light. The bumper finally released from the front end and skidded to a stop in the other lane, right in front of the oncoming traffic. One of the drivers gave me the bird and peeled out around it. I continued with my foot pressed firmly against the gas pedal. Someone’s horn blared out from my right. Roxanne and Red Cloud stood outside a large black van parked on a side street just off the avenue. I slammed on the brakes, whipped the car to the right, and just barely made the turnoff.

“How did you get here so fast?” I called out to Roxanne, as I stepped out of the car and ran to the passenger side.

She also ran to the passenger side and swung open Talon’s door. “We knew you were in trouble when Talon told us they weren’t normal agents. We organized right then.” She pulled out Talon by his limp shoulders and flopped him over her shoulder with ease. “Did ya like the semi? That was Striker’s idea.”

“Pretty risky, and gonna bring a lot of attention.” I lugged my dad over to the van.

“Party pooper,” she said and laid Talon down across one of the gurneys in the back. I did the same with my dad and sat down in between them. The police sirens stayed at the wreckage. The destroyed semi did its job.

“Ready to roll?” asked Red Cloud.

“Onward!” yelled Roxanne as she jumped into the cab.

“Wait, I got one of the goons in the trunk.” I ran out to the car. “And, what about Striker and Jarom?” I yelled over my shoulder.

Roxanne jumped out and slammed the trunk down before I could lift it open. “You need to leave him, Coyle.”

“Why?” I said and tried to move her out of the way.

“He’s dead,” she grabbed my shoulder and rammed me into the trunk as if I was a weakling.

“How do you know?” I said, rolling off the trunk.

“These new Somatotech thugs have a chip implanted in their brains. The company can flip the kill switch whenever their little plan is threatened. Listen, do you hear his heart?”

I focused on the sounds around me. My ears localized on the trunk. Silence. He was dead; there was nothing I could do so I retreated back to the van with Roxanne. Another life on my hands; if I had left him maybe they would have spared his life. My chest felt tight as I stepped in.

“What about our saboteurs back there?”

Roxanne joined me. “Striker and Jarom will meet us back at your hacienda. We have cars planted all over.”

Medital must have deep pockets, I thought. Sacrificing a semi, having many disposable cars, planting high-tech surveillance systems in people’s rooms, and keeping multiple hideouts, Roxanne and her team were definitely well funded.

“Uhhgg,” my dad let out and opened his eyes. I jumped to his side and grasped his hand.

“Dad, it’s Coyle.” At least a perfect copy of your Coyle, I thought. Definitely wasn’t the time to spring that bombshell on him.

“Coyle?” His eyes searched my face and recognition flashed in them. He shot up and wrapped his arms around my neck. “Coyle! You’re alive!” I hugged him back. I hadn’t noticed it before, but my originator’s dad had a distinct smell. A dad smell. It was oddly comforting, and that’s when it hit me. I loved this man. I took a moment to consider the feeling. It felt deep, as if it came from within my heart itself. The feeling didn’t stem from my brain.  In fact, knowing what my so-called dad had done I shouldn’t have felt such admiration. But I did, and it felt real.

“I’m glad you’re safe, dad. I’ve missed you,” I said as we released each other.

“I’m not sure where I’ve been.” He rubbed his temples.

“Do you remember your seizure in the bathroom?” He shook his head. “Well, you had one and afterward you told me Somatotech had done something to you. I know what they did now. You’ve got an implant under your skin that communicates with your brain. The company transmits a signal to that implant using the new cellular data towers around the metro area. While you are under the influence you don’t remember how they’ve influenced you.”

He furrowed his brow and looked down at himself, noticing his uniform. “I’m able to live and work normally with that in me?”

“Work, yes. Live normally, no. Somehow they control only certain cognitive functions.”

He opened his eyes wide and shook his head back a forth as if he was shaking out the confusion. “Where have you been, Coyle? I’ve seen you on the news. Everyone thought you were dead. I didn’t believe the sightings.”

“You saw me on the news, recently?”

He nodded. “Channel 9 showed a video of you beating up some football player.”

Dang. So, they did recognize me on my mission at Dave and Busters. The public must have all sorts of conspiracy theories on how I could be alive.

“Yeah, I’ve been around. We have a safe place now and a doctor who may be able to take out the implant.”

A single tear slipped from my dad’s eye. “I’m a failure, Coyle. I put you through all of this. I’ve made you who you are.”

“And who is that, Dad?”

“They showed me what you did at Somatotech...”

“Dad, they kidnaped Jamie. They nearly raped her. I had to get her out of there.”

“You found her? Is she OK? They just called off the search this morning. They declared her dead.”

“Yes, Dad, we saved her from Somatotech. She’s safe with us.”

“Have you told her parents?” he asked.

“Yes, they know she’s safe. But she has an implant just like you. We’ve had some freakin’ close calls and—”

“Watch your mouth, Coyle.” He gave me that look, the one look every teenager knows.

“Sorry, Dad.”  I couldn’t help but smile. Not that I missed the censure, but it gave me a sense of home again, at least the little time I truly had with Coyle’s dad.

We talked about the last couple weeks the entire way back. I left out certain details because I knew Medital listened through Roxanne and her crew. They didn’t need to know all my secrets.

We arrived at the compound, but the gate remained closed as we approached. I opened the side door and stepped to the console.

“It’s OK, Stefan.” I waved to the camera. The chain reciprocated, pulling the gate open.

Stefan, Aedan, Jamie, Dr. B. and the Doña stood in the roundabout in front of the hacienda. Red Cloud pulled the van directly in front of them, the dust wafting over them. I opened the door and supported my dad with my shoulder until he felt stable on his feet.

“Señor Murray, welcome to our home,” said the Doña as she extended her hand toward him.

He took it and pulled her close. “Thank you for taking care of my son.”

“Little do you know Mr. Murray, but he took care of us.” She hugged him then released.

“Good to see you, Mr. Murray,” said Jamie.

“Even better to see you.” He choked up and a tear slipped down his cheek. “We all thought you were gone forever.” His tongue hung on the last word

“Your son and his friends risked their lives for me.” She glanced my way and then gave my dad a hug.

“Well isn’t this just swell!” said Roxanne as she came round the van. Stefan’s jaw tightened at the sight of her. Even the Doña’s heart rate picked up. “I love family reunions.”

“Stefan, meet Roxanne,” I said, moving to support my dad again. Jamie stayed under his other arm.

“Oh, we’ve met,” said Stefan stepping closer to her. “She sucker punched me on their way out.”

“Sorry, ‘bout that, but you should never turn your back on a lady like me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Coyle vouches for you all, which is why we allow you to be here, otherwise we’d never...” He trailed off as he looked to me. “Well, please come in.”

We all started moving toward the door, but Roxanne and Aedan (who hadn’t taken his eyes off her) stayed behind. Jamie caught me staring back at them and grinned. The first grin I’d seen since taking over this place. I smiled back and opened my mouth to say something, but she turned her head away and began walking into the hacienda with my dad in tow. I let her take my dad inside.

“You OK?” asked Dr. Bartnev.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But, Talon’s gonna need some work. He asphyxiated; one of the goons hung him from a seatbelt.”

A grim look crossed his face. “Brain is fragile thing. I’ll do my best.”

While he went in to get a gurney, I walked over to the van and looked at Talon. He lay motionless aside from the gentle rise and fall of his chest. He’d risked his life for Coyle’s dad and me, whether just to prove himself or not, he did it.

“Thanks Talon,” I said, knowing he didn’t hear me, but I figured his crew did.

In the kitchen, the Doña started warming some soup while everyone else congregated at the island. I came up behind Red Cloud and weakly punched his shoulder. “Thanks for coming to the rescue out there.”

“That’s why we’re here, bro.” He paused. “Together we can accomplish great things,” he then said slowly.

That sounded rehearsed, or as if someone told him to repeat it. I wondered how much of the things they said were a direct feed from Medital. Stefan noticed this odd tone as well and cocked his head slightly.

“We understand that your receivers in your head transmit all sound back to the company who has hired you, correct?” asked Stefan while moving closer to our visitors.

“Sure does,” answered Red Cloud, tapping his head.

“So, does that company know where we are currently?”

“No. Why? At least, I don’t believe so; we’ve never said how to get here.” Red Cloud eyes shot downward for a split second.

I jumped in the conversation. “If they went through all the trouble to implant those devices, don’t you think they would put a tracker in as well? Isn’t that how you got to Talon and I so quickly?”

“I don’t know. Roxanne gives the orders.”

Without warning, Stefan grabbed Red Cloud’s collar, pulled him up off the stool he sat on and slammed him into the wall. “Tell us the truth! Or I kill you right here!” I stepped towards them but then thought better of it. While Red Cloud surely could’ve thrown Stefan down, his heart rate and a new sheen of sweat told me he was scared.

“OK, OK. Calm down, jeez! Medital has known about this place ever since Roxanne was here. We don’t have trackers in our implants, but… ” he hesitated. Stefan nearly snarled at him and moved him to the wall near the door, pinning him there. “We, I mean Roxanne and Talon, they uh, placed trackers in every vehicle they’re near, including many of yours.”

“Son of a…” Stefan raised his arm to strike Red Cloud, but I held it back. His fist shook in the air as if he struggled to keep it back.

“That’s how we roll, Stefan. No hard feelings.” Roxanne strolled into the room, Aedan in tow. She glared at Red Cloud, obviously peeved he’d spilled the beans. Aedan glanced at me, not with the smile I expected but with blood-shot eyes.

“You jeopardize our entire operation, and all you can say is no hard feelings?” He turned to me. “Coyle, this isn’t going to work.” He motioned toward Roxanne.

“Don’t worry my friends; we are only concerned with operations that involve our favorite company to hate. All of your other doings are meaningless,” said Roxanne.

Stefan continued to address me, “I don’t trust them, that’s the issue, whether or not our doings are meaningless to them.” He now turned to Roxanne. “Take off the trackers. Now!”

“I’ve got to agree with Stefan, Roxanne. We can’t have trackers on our vehicles. Our operations rely on secrecy and discretion.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment and stood still as if she was listening to something. “OK, we’ll take off the trackers.”

“You can’t stay here either,” said Stefan while glaring at Roxanne.

“Whoa, Stefan, I need them here for a few days, just to work out a plan,” I said.

“The men won’t take it well, Coyle.”

“They’ll stay in the guest house and we’ll keep them separate from the men.”

Stefan came close to me. He whispered, “Coyle, my instincts say this is a bad idea.”

“It’ll only be a few days. We’ll increase the security here, more men at the gate, in the tower and also on the road. If they do anything funny we kick them out.”

“Or take them out,” he hissed.

“You know I have supersonic ears as well, Stefan?” said Roxanne.

“Oh yeah, I know. I was counting on it.” He glared at Roxanne.

“We do mean it Roxanne, if we even sense the slightest funny business, you’re out.”

“Why so touchy?”

“It’s our safety, Roxanne. These are my friends, basically family.”

“You just gotta have a little faith, Coyle. Remember what side we are all on,” she said with her arms outstretched to the sides in an angelic pose.

“You’ve come to our house; you’ll play by our rules. Take your crew to the guesthouse, now,” Stefan said with force.

I changed my tone to more conciliatory, but still firm, “I’m sorry there isn’t much room, but it’s all we got. I’ll meet you there in twenty, after Stefan chaperones some of you in taking off every tracker.”

“Yes sir!” Roxanne saluted me and turned to leave. The gate bell rang out before she could go.

“It’s your friends,” said Stefan after pulling up the video on the console. Striker and Jarom stood at the gate in front of a dark green SUV.

“Let them in. Roxanne, please tell them what I’ve told you.”

She bowed toward me and then left hastily.

24  Planning Deceit

I hung out with Coyle’s dad for a few minutes, telling him everything except that the person who looks, talks, and probably even smells like his son is actually his copy. The Doña finally interrupted, pushing some food in front of Coyle’s dad. I gave him a slight squeeze around the shoulders as I stood up. Jamie smiled at me and slid next to Coyle’s dad on the bench.

Stefan supervised the removal of all the trackers Roxanne had placed. Twenty total devices the size of matchboxes had been placed on anything that moved. The Doña owned at least fifteen vehicles stored in a massive standalone garage on the side of the hacienda. Stefan brought the box of them to me in the kitchen.

“I say we destroy these,” Stefan said while sliding the box over to me.

“I agree, and I want to search the cars myself. When the men get back we’ll do a full sweep of the place.”

“You’ll need to make a statement when the men get here or they’ll perceive you as not one of them.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“A public display. Show them with actions that you can be trusted. Make the distinction between us and them.”

“All right, I’ll think about it.” I looked down at the box of trackers. “How do we destroy these?”

“I thought you’d never ask. Come with me.” We saw Aedan on the way out and motioned for him to follow.

Stefan led me to the field behind the hacienda. We walked about a hundred yards to a small mound of earth. Stefan brushed off dirt from the side close to me to reveal a metal hatch. He released a metal latch and motioned to the hatch, his eyes focused on me expectantly.

“What? You want me to open it?”

“We surely can’t.” He pointed to himself and then to Aedan.

I grabbed the hatch and, using my legs, hefted it open. It had to weigh at least a few hundred pounds and even my muscles revolted at the stress. It creaked loudly as I managed to flip it over. We all peered into the darkness below.

“What’s this?” asked Aedan.

“This is where we dispose of arms and explosives. We buried a skip bin and welded this top and hatch. When we’re ready, we place the explosive below, we cover it with sand, and detonate it. I think we should do the same with their trackers.”

“Ahh yeah,” said Aedan with an ear-to-ear smile.

“Do you have explosives?” I asked.

“A small block of C4 will do the trick.” He grinned and pulled one from his coat pocket.

“Whoa! Is it safe to carry that on your person?” said Aedan.

“Safe enough. I could light this block on fire and it wouldn’t explode.”

“Sweet! Let’s do this.” Aedan was flat out giddy.

Stefan nodded and placed the C4 into the box with the trackers, pressing them into the malleable explosive. He then attached two cords to the C4 and ran them out of the box. Aedan and I stepped back reflexively. “Don’t worry my friends. These wires are not attached to anything back there.” He pointed back towards then house and then hopped down into the skip without the box. “OK, hand it down to me.”

Aedan and I looked at each other. “You’re the one who can’t die. You move it,” said Aedan and stepped back even farther.

“C’mon boys. Get it down here,” Stefan said from the dark below.

I grasped the side of the box as if it were delicate china and carried it over to the hatch. Stefan stood up with arms extended toward me just below the level of the hatch. I lowered it down to him and then retreated to where Aedan stood. Stefan crawled out and followed the cord back to the patio.

“You leave the hatch open?” Aedan asked.

“Of course, otherwise the blast would shoot this hatch into the sky. It’d probably land on the hacienda.”

“Then why have a hatch?”

“Safety protocol. We wouldn’t want someone falling in there. If that hatch closed with any normal person in there, they’d never get out under their own power. It’d be a long slow death,” he said and then looked towards the mountains. “Anyway, I’ll get the tractor.”

Aedan and I sat down on the patio chairs while Stefan filled the skip with multiple loads of dirt. He then joined us, carrying a plastic box with a bunch of switches. “This is what we connect to our cord.” He connected the two cords to the box and handed it to Aedan. “Will you do the honors?”

“Heck yeah, man. Where do I stand?”

“We all go behind the wall.”

We hunkered down behind the short brick wall at the edge of the patio. Aedan opened the switch and then looked expectantly at both of us. Stefan shook his head back and forth.

“Not yet. We make sure all is clear.” He stood up and scanned the area. “All clear? Detonating in 10,” he yelled out, scanning the area once more.

Aedan counted down rather quickly and after Stefan ducked down as he flipped the switch. BOOM. The ground shook and the sky filled with dirt with the explosion. Small rocks and debris showered down on us.

“Holy crap, that was awesome!” Aedan yelled while picking debris out of his hair.

“Can we do it again?” I said and held my hand up to Aedan. He slapped it and smiled widely.

“Ha ha. No, we leave it be for a day or so.”

“Well I guess we’d better get over to the guesthouse,” I said and pulled myself up. We started the couple hundred-yard walk down to the guesthouse. “So, Aedan, noticed you and Roxanne stayed behind for a bit when we were headed into the house. You two… you know?”

Aedan didn’t respond and kept walking.

“Dude, there’s something I forgot to tell you. When I caught up with Roxanne at one of the cell towers, she wanted me to tell you hi. She also wanted me to pass on a, uh, kiss.”

“What’re you talking about?” He took a few strides away from me.

“I’m not gonna kiss you, dude. But she sure seemed like the kiss was meant for you.”

“She kissed you?”

“Just on the cheek and while she did, she told me to tell you hi. It was meant for you, dude.”

“I should sock you right now, Murray.” He clenched a fist and shook it in front of my face.

“Hey, at that very moment I happened to be passing out because she had crushed my airway. I was in no shape to shake her off. She likes you, I guarantee it.”

He took a moment to think. We continued walking, Stefan a few clicks behind. The regular sound of our shoes crushing the dead grass underneath us kept the awkwardness down.

“I asked her if it was true.” He choked up, the last word squeaked out.

“What’d she say?” I knew he meant he’d asked her if I truly was a clone.

“Same thing you said.”

“I’m sorry, dude.”

“I still don’t believe it,” he said as we reached the guesthouse.

I waited for Stefan to catch up and we entered the guesthouse together. Stefan remained by the door. He wanted me to lead, to show them that I held the control.

“Blow something up?” asked Roxanne.

“Sure did, same explosives attached to this guest house.”

Roxanne chuckled and ignored my false threat, “So much tension here. I love it.” She eyed me and grinned. She knew I was lying. She read physiology just as I did.

“OK, so what’s your plan for taking down the beast?” I asked, giving up on the idle threat.

“I like the name, the beast. We have a mission to destroy it from the inside, quietly.”

“Quietly? Don’t we want this to be public?”

“Don’t you know what publicity brings? Do you want to be hunted, captured, and then exiled to some lab to be tested on? If we publically destroy Somatotech, the truth about us will come out. Do you think the government will just let us run around? We’re superhuman and particularly adept at killing. No way, Coyle, they’ll lock us up the moment they find out about us.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. We can first gain public support, paint us as the victims. We’ll have public protection.”

“Ha! Coyle, you’re ignorant to current events, my clone friend. The public is most definitely not on your side.”

“What current events?”

“As of yesterday, you’re a domestic terrorist. Next time you’re online, check the FBI most wanted. You’re number one.”

“Why?”

“Somatotech released video of you shooting up those guards and killing Dr. Baldwin. Couple that with Jamie’s kidnapping and your beat down missions with Manuel and you are seen as a serious and very dangerous menace to society.”

“And how has Somatotech explained my other’s death in prison? They claimed he was me, or at least the real Coyle.” Stefan’s eyes widened and he cocked his head slightly. I hadn’t told him. I’d need to explain things later.

“That’s the best part. They said he was your twin. Ha! Clever, right? So, without any family to refute it, because your dad went along with anything they said, they can easily get away with it.”

“My twin? There are so many people who can refute it. Coyle’s entire high school knew my family after he got cancer.”

“No one has come forth. They have a birth certificate, Social Security number, and supposedly the DNA to prove it.” Roxanne sat down on the couch, pushing Red Cloud and Jarom out of the way.

“Of course, we have the same DNA, we’re freakin’ clones,” I said.

She nodded and grinned simultaneously. “So, terrorist, what do you do now?”

Swaying public opinion of me was going to be more difficult than I expected. But revealing Somatotech’s secrets didn’t have to come from me. I didn’t have to be the poster child. I had too much blood on my hands anyway.

“Someone else needs to break the news.”

“And what news is that?” she asked.

“Um, that Somatotech takes desperate cancer patients, clones them, lets them die, and releases their clones?”

Roxanne didn’t respond at first. Her crew caught each other’s eyes. “I’m not sure the world is ready for all of that,” she finally spoke.

“OK, what do you have in mind?”

“We focus on the ineffectiveness of the therapy, the giant lie of a cure. We then hold that over them, and threaten to make it public.”

“But, Roxanne, that’s not the whole picture. How can you separate the two? The treatment and the cloning go hand in hand. How could they explain their patients dying if they didn’t have someone to replace them?”

“Again, clone of Coyle, if we reveal who we are to the masses, our way of life ends. We have a plan to extract one of their patients. We will then appeal to Somatotech with real evidence.”

I looked to Stefan who grimaced slightly. “Sounds dangerous. Couldn’t we hack their system and get all their records? We’ve got the hacker to do it,” I said.

“We’ve tried. Ever since our little extraction at Somatotech headquarters, they’ve locked down their security. We suspect they’ve moved all records offline somewhere anyway.”

“So, when are you grabbing this cancer patient?”

“Next week. We’d like your assistance if you can get up to operational fitness.” She smirked at Red Cloud.

“I’ll have to confer with my group.”

“Oh, so you have a group now?” She grinned.

“I have people who depend on me, yeah. People who wouldn’t want me to go recklessly on a mission into the heart of the beast.”

“You underestimate my group and our backing. You would be in a supportive role; we’d only use you if we needed you. And again, only if you are up to snuff.”

“And how are you going to get this patient?”

“They dispose of the patients at a facility in Longmont. We’re going to intercept the transport.”

“Dispose of? Wait, you’re capturing a dead patient?” My stomach turned just thinking about stealing a body.

“Yeah, isn’t that the best evidence?”

“Yes, but what about the clone? I thought you didn’t want to expose them that way. The clone will be out there. Unless you—”

“We’ll get her as well,” she interrupted me.

“And what do you plan on doing to her?” That familiar ominous feeling came rushing back, the same I felt with Manuel’s missions.

“We hope she’ll join us, see the light like we all have.” She raised her arms up as if she was embracing the sun. “But, actually I hate the light.” Her crew chuckled.

“And if she doesn’t?”

“We’ll convince her. We haven’t had a single clone turn us down. Somatotech uses us, abuses us. Once we know it, a deep resentment comes forth and that motivates our combined goal.”

“Fancy words, but you’d better not kill her.”

“So, are you in?” She ignored my statement.

“I’ll get back to you. Make yourselves comfortable here.” I looked around at the small quarters. “My men come back tomorrow so please don’t do anything to provoke them.” I raised my eyebrows at Roxanne and she bowed with that same conniving smirk.

25  Unconscious Return

We left the guesthouse, walking back to the hacienda. I hated the feeling Roxanne had brought down on me. I sensed the “end justifies the means” kinda crazy murderous attitude I’d grown to loathe.

“Are you going to participate?” asked Stefan.

“I may. I’d like to meet the clone,” I said, knowing I may witness that clone’s death at the hands of Roxanne’s group. “Maybe I could protect her? We could use her to expose Somatotech.”

“Putting yourself out there seems risky, Coyle,” said Aedan.

“True, we already stirred the pot. They’ll be on alert, but Roxanne and her crew are quite skilled—” I said while opening the front door. I shut my mouth. Jamie stood in the hallway, obviously waiting for us, or actually, me.

“Coyle, can we talk?” she asked.

Stefan and Aedan split to their respective rooms without a word, leaving Jamie and me alone in the hall.

“Of course, wanna go somewhere?”

“Let’s go to the kitchen.” She turned and waited for me to lead. I walked past her, and she wrapped her arm around mine. Have things changed?

We sat down across from each other at the island.

“Coyle, you probably thought your dad was sleeping, but actually he and I have been talking. He feels terrible about everything that’s happened. He blames himself. I told him it’s not his fault, that it’s the company that has brought this pain on us. That’s when I realized it, you know when it finally clicked. I can’t blame you anymore. Sure, you do some stupid stuff but, when it comes down to it, your fight should be my fight.”

“You don’t have to fight. That’s my job.”

“I may not fight with my fists, but I can fight with my voice. I’m still alive and mostly well, despite what that company did to me. That threatens their control and should come to light. It could be so powerful! I can spread the light of truth; I know that’s what my dad would want me to do.”

“I completely agree, as long as I can keep you safe.” I grasped her hand and squeezed gently.

“Safety isn’t something we can rely on right now. But, if anyone can protect us, it’d be you. You’ve done so much for us.” She cast her eyes down and started to sniffle. Her hair drifted in front of her face, obscuring her tears.  I slid close to her and slipped the bangs from her face, tucking them behind her ears, exposing now flowing tears. Her eyes beamed up at me, and she made no attempt to wipe away the stream that smeared her eyeliner. Those eyes! Full of trust despite all I had put them through. Her eyes, bloodshot but beautiful had witnessed my transformation and the destruction that followed. From a scrawny skater, clone, reluctant killer, and now expectant savior, did she really trust me after what I’d put her through? My heart didn't even trust the person locked inside. I had killed people. I wished I could say they were all clones, clones without families or feelings, but I knew it wasn’t the truth. And what did it matter whether they were clones? I’m no different than them, I thought.

"What is it?" She didn't blink. She knows me too well; I'm not one for silence. I looked down at my hands, and my own tears wetted the palms. These hands had broken bones, ripped skin and pulled triggers. People have died because of these hands. My victims probably had kids. Kids who would now know that pain I held inside from my mother’s passing, or rather, Coyle’s mom’s passing.

The thought made my legs weak, so I leaned into Jamie, resting my head on her shoulder. She responded in turn, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I let my arms hang limp beside me, dead like those I had killed.

“Jamie, I’ve done some terrible things.” I clenched my fists together. Her hands slipped down my arms and wriggled her fingers into mine.

"We need to see my dad. I think he can help, help us both."

“That would be so dangerous, Jamie.” I sniffled, keeping my now running nose at bay.

“It’d be worth it, I promise,” she urged.

“Nothing can change what I’ve done. Your dad can't take it away, the pain I’ve caused. My hands are stained with so much freakin’ blood."

"No man can. But, maybe he can help you deal with it," she said, and she leaned in to kiss my cheek as the last tear slid down.

Did I even need forgiveness? Is there some tally in the heavens keeping track of my evil deeds? Deeds done by a clone? Is there a god anyway? Is Santa real? How could a God let his power of creation slip to evil men? Coyle’s mom's face flashed before my eyes. Her compassionate eyes, kind to all, and full of purpose. Her face beamed understanding, not guilt. Of course I needed forgiveness, maybe not from God, but from someone. I know the pain I’ve caused. Maybe I did need the pastor?

“We’d need a location where only he can go, and where we can sneak into.”

Jamie smiled, excited at the possibility. “My dad’s been invited to the Denver Seminary before.”

“Isn’t that an evangelical seminary?”

“My dad has friends in all religions. He’s kinda non-denominational.”

“What kind of security do they have?”

“After the attacks on the Vatican last year, most religious places have followed suit and ramped up security.”

“But, then how do we get in?”

“Coyle, you’re ridiculously smart. You’ll find a way.” She jabbed me in the side.

“That’s what people keep telling me. I’m surprised my head hasn’t exploded.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen,” she came in close and ruffled my red hair before kissing my lips with a quick peck and then retreated slightly. She told the truth. Her presence grounded me, kept my vision clear and focused on those around me.

“We’ll call him later, but right now I’m cooking for you and Coyle’s, I mean, my dad.”

“Mmm… mac and cheese,”

“C’mon! I’m a better cook than that!” I said and squeezed her tighter.

“Just keeping your head from exploding.” Our lips met again, and our hearts seemed to intertwine. This must’ve been what Coyle felt during his time with her. I loved this girl. Too bad someday I’d have to let her know she’s not kissing her real boyfriend.

We both walked to where the Doña had made Coyle’s dad comfortable.

“Hey, Mr. Murray, wanna come eat some of Coyle’s home cookin’?” Jamie said as we came in.

“Hmm, it may be the chip in my chest talking, but I don’t remember my son cooking.”

“A lot has changed, Dad,” I said and turned away, not wanting them to see the lie on my face. How can I go on like this? Knowing that everything I do with these people perpetuates the lie?

“Everything OK, Coyle?”

“Yeah! Let me get my cook on!” I feigned a smile.

We all walked back to the kitchen together. Jamie wrapped her arm through my dad’s, escorting him. My dad smiled and accepted, pulling her in. These are good people, I thought.

In the kitchen, I whipped up the only dish I knew how to make, aside from mac and cheese, huevos rancheros. They weren’t half bad! Both Coyle’s dad and Jamie cleaned their plates.

“Coyle, your mom would be proud of you,” he said, as he passed me to put his dish in the sink.

“Why do you say that?”

“Mom was a very principled person and she stuck to those guns. You, fighting the company she felt principally against, would make her proud. She began the fight you will hopefully finish.”

“What do you mean she started the fight?”

“Before she died, your mom told me that there was something she couldn’t tell me. She said she’d started a report that would bring to light to a scandal of epic proportions.”

“A report? Did you ever see it?”

“No, I assumed it was destroyed by the fire with her computer.”

“Dad, why did you deliver me to them if you knew Mom was going to expose them?”

“I didn’t know, not exactly, she never mentioned that Somatotech was the company. When treatment stopped working, when you were dying, I…I got desperate. It wasn’t about you anymore, it became about me, about what I was going to lose.” He turned to Jamie. “Your dad, I don’t blame him, but he encouraged me to go with them. I’m sorry, Coyle, but I couldn’t let you die.”

“I know it pains my dad as well,” said Jamie, placing her hand on Coyle’s dad’s shoulder.

“The past is in the past, Dad. I’m alive because you acted. I’m grateful for that.” I placed my hand on his other shoulder. A barb of pain stung my heart from lying to this guilt-ridden man. “But now, Dad, I’m more interested in the report Mom wrote. Could she have made a copy? Is there another computer she could’ve saved it on?”

“She never told me, but she backed up all her lab data on a server at the University. If she did make a copy, it’d be there.”

“Good to know, Dad! We’ll have to get into that server. Do you know her login? Never mind, they probably deleted her access shortly after her death. I’ll get in another way, shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Coyle’s dad stared at me intently. I turned away from him to quell the building uneasiness.

“You’ve changed, Coyle.”

“Oh?” I said keeping my head turned.

“You have a confidence I’ve never seen before. I’m proud of you son.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Well, thank you for the tasty eggs, son. I’m getting tired, so I’ll leave you two here. Don’t stay up too late.” I turned back to him, and he grinned.

“I’ll be in before curfew, I promise,” I said and stood to give him a hug. He wrapped his arms tightly around me and squeezed my shoulders.

“Good night, son,” he said, his eyes glossy.

The Doña entered the kitchen just as dad was leaving. They smiled at each other and nodded slightly, but passed each other without a word.

“Why don’t you two head out to the patio, I’ll take care of the dishes.”

“No, Doña we can’t leave you with this,” said Jamie.

“I insist.” She looked to me and lifted her eyebrows.

“We’ll go,” I said and grabbed Jamie’s arm. I knew not to argue with the Doña.

Jamie practically skipped down the hallway toward the patio. I followed behind with a goofy smile on my face. It’d been too long since we could just be boyfriend and girlfriend.

The Doña had placed a single padded patio chair near a bustling fire in the pit. Jamie jumped into the seat and held out her hands toward me. I squeezed in next to her and slipped my arm around her shoulders.

“I’ve missed this, Coyle.”

“Me too.”

Jamie and I sat outside on that porch in front of a dying fire for what seemed like a few minutes and a few hours all at the same time. Glowing embers and the occasional snap remained, lulling us into a deep relaxation. Our eyes seemed locked on the light and warmth as we stared together. Jamie snuggled deep into my chest as I leaned the chair back. Her eyes drooped and then closed. Mine weren’t far behind, and we both slipped into a love-laden slumber.

The instant I lost consciousness, someone or something pulled me into a dream. I knew the feeling; it was similar to when I had controlled my other. But now the person I’d gone into couldn’t move his limbs. His eyes shot open beyond my control. A searing light shone in his eyes, and I finally gained slight control, managing to squint. I couldn’t see clearly, it was as if an opaque filter had been placed over my eyes. All I could make out were fuzzy silhouettes against the bright light. A line of people or beings stood in front of me, not facing me, but looking ahead at each other’s back. Their profiles looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite make them out.

That’s when it happened:  the connection, the feeling I had with my other. I could feel it again in my mind, but this was stronger, more direct, and expansive. The light grew in front of me. I squinted my eyes down even farther, but the light continued to grow in intensity, so I shut them completely. I could feel connections with many beings, their essence was my essence, and their mind was now my mind. There were so many of them, maybe thirty or forty, all together. I focused my mind on them as a group and found little resistance in their minds, but my mind strained to force them. I focused harder, but my head began to throb. I felt something warm drip from my nose as I continued to impel my mental faculties. Finally, something in the link clicked, I passed through a threshold, and my mind broke through their minds. I opened my eyes I could see that the beings had lifted their arms, silhouetted by the warm light. I pushed again with my mind, and their hands came together in a perfectly timed clap. Who are these beings? Why can I control them?

I had them take a small step forward and then a jump backward. Just as I was attempting to make them walk towards me, a shot of electricity traveled down a wire that seemed to be attached to each of the beings. They jerked back in unison with the jolt and then slumped forward, suspended by the wires attached to their backs. I tried to force the message to walk at them, but the connection had dissipated.

Someone began speaking behind me, “Congratulations Coyle, you've finally done it. You’ve finally realized what we all hoped you'd accomplish, neural dominance without the need of implants. We knew you’d stumbled onto something quite extraordinary with your control of AM2, but now! Now you’ve tapped into an entire batch of clones! And, you’ve shown us how to do it.” Someone grabbed me and spun me around. A group of men stood in front of a desk laden with equipment. I still couldn’t make out their faces, but I knew that voice. Dr. Tessel towered before me.

“We’ve missed your contact, Coyle, but we had to wait for our clones to mature before we could let you in. And in you came just as predicted! I knew you couldn’t resist the power. You probably want to talk, to tell us how much you hate us or want to kill us. But, Coyle, you should feel privileged to participate in this groundbreaking research. Think of it, Coyle. Now we take a soldier, clone him hundreds of times and send them into war with the original controlling all of them from the comfort of a domestic base. Limitless supply with absolute control, we’d have the perfect army.”

A man walked over to me and lifted an opaque visor off my face. He instantly came into focus. Dr. Tessel, the snake. His wrinkles had deepened since the last time we had had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting. His menacing grin remained unchanged.

“Ah, that’s better.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea, Dr. Tessel?” said a man behind him.

“I think it’s important this boy meet the geniuses behind our discovery.”

He stepped out of my field of view to expose four men in white coats. Two of them I recognized from the treatment period, the one with a British accent and the other a deep husky voice. A thick brown beard covered the British man’s face, only interrupted by puffy lips. The one with the husky voice had a strong jaw line and tall forehead making him look quite Frankensteinish.

“Welcome back, Mr. Murray. We’ve met before,” said the man with the British accent. His lips curved in a menacing grin.

The other two men cast their eyes down and scooted behind the other two, hiding their faces. One of them peeked out from behind the British scientist. His nose seemed to take up much of his face on which his thick glasses rested. He made eye contact, and he retreated behind him.

“You’ve probably wondered why we haven’t done more to find and kill you. Why did we allow you to continue your tirade with that criminal crew? This,” Dr. Tessel motioned around the room, “this is why. We needed time to develop our technology, and then all we needed was your help. Now that you’ve helped, we’re going to kill you and everyone you know and love. Oh, well, actually, you’ll kill everyone.” He spun me around to face the clones. They turned in unison to face me. Twenty perfect copies of me, or rather Coyle, stood naked before me. Their eyes were closed, and they breathed in a steady unison.

“Coyle Murray’s twin will go down in history as the most gruesome and exacting mass murderer in history. A true domestic terrorist.”

I heard a slight click from behind me as if someone had pressed on a mouse. The clones’ eyes snapped open and focused on me. They took one menacing step in my direction, then stopped. Their glare bored into my heart, which already had begun to race wildly. I could feel the sweat building on my forehead. I needed to break the connection; I had to get outta there. But my mind wouldn’t let go, it held on to the connection tightly as if it were locked. I couldn’t leave.

“Trying to leave we see,” said Dr. Tessel, while spinning me around again. “We’ve analyzed the brain waves of the clone you’ve taken over and can now tell when you’re strengthening or breaking the connection. Also, we’ve copied the signals you’ve sent to these clones. We now can control them just as you had. Try and control them now, Coyle.”

If I can manage to control them, I can kill all of them right now and end this nightmare, I thought. I focused on the group but now found a solid mental block. I tried to find a way around it, but my mind found no openings. My mind felt trapped within an inescapable mental cage.

“Now we have control, and we’re coming for you,” he said through clenched teeth. “Take a look at who you’ve connected with.” The British man slammed a mirror before me. A severed head suspended from a clear platform stared back at me. Tubes channeling blood entered where my neck should’ve been, and my spinal cord dangled below in a pink liquid. If I could’ve vomited, I would have. It was alpha male two, my other, or at least part of him.

“As I’ve said before, we’ve great plans for you, Coyle.” He waved goodbye. “You can go now, but we’ll see you and your adopted family very soon. Sweet dreams, you little punk.” Spittle flew from his mouth.

With another click the mental block holding me captive disappeared. I severed the connection and jumped up with a start, pushing Jamie off my chest.

“Hey!” she yelled as she caught herself with her hands before splaying out on the ground.

“Sorry, Jamie, sorry,” I said and pulled her up to the bench.

“Bad dream?”

“Nightmare of the worst kind. I connected again.”

“What? I thought your clone died and, with him, that connection?” She swiped the hair out of her face.

“They pulled me into him somehow, but, uh, he wasn’t exactly alive.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It was just his head. They’d cut off his head and revived him somehow. They also have a ton of clones that look just like me. I controlled them, all of them at the same time. But, that’s just what they freakin’ wanted. They analyzed the signal somehow and now they know how to control them as I can. They’re gonna release them to wreak havoc on everyone we know.”

“Oh, my…” Her hand snapped up reflexively to her mouth.

“We’ve gotta act quickly to bring them down. It’s now or never.”

An increasingly concerned look grew on her face. “Coyle, when we meet with my dad, you have to tell him to not help us. They’ll kill him just like they killed Dr. Strayer. You know it.”

“I’ll tell him, but I think he’s pretty motivated. And, Jamie, I don’t think it matters what any of us do now, everyone is a target. If our friends and family want to be safe, they gotta come here.”

“You mean you’ll bring them here?”

“We’ve gotta.”

“Thanks, Coyle.” She wrapped her arms around me. “I’m scared.”

“I am too.” In that instant, I’d become an insomniac. I didn’t dare sleep and risk the connection again.

26  Guidance

We called the pastor early the next morning at our usual spot in Roxborough. Stefan said we needed to find a new area after this final call in case they had triangulated the location. Aedan kept watch near the main road.

“Hello?” the pastor said.

“Pastor, it’s Coyle.”

“Coyle! How’s Jamie?”

“She’s OK, I mean, she’s safe. She’s dealing with a lot.”

“You and I have put her through a lot. She pleaded with me to bring her home, but I told her I couldn’t like you wanted. Broke my heart, Coyle, just ripped it out of my chest. Her mom is distraught too.”

“Yeah, about staying separate, I’ve kinda changed my mind. We’d like to meet up with you. She’s not coming home, though, so don’t worry.”

“Coyle, you said it yourself, Somatotech is watching and frankly probably listening. They’d snatch both of you up the second you came close to me. Whatever you want to tell me you can over the phone.”

“It’s a risk; I know, but Jamie needs to see you, and there are things I need too, that I can’t say over the phone, with them possibly listening.”

“But, they’re surely listening right now! They’ll know we’re meeting.”

“I’ll get a message to you about when and where, just keep your eyes open for it. Have you noticed anyone following you?”

“No, no one.”

“You’ve got protection, and they’re some of the best we got, but Somatotech surely has their best watching you as well. Keep your eyes open, especially for anyone who looks like me.”

“Like you?”

“Somatotech’s been busy. There are at least twenty copies.” I waited for him to respond, but he didn’t. “In the message I’ll get to you, I’ll describe what I’ll look like, so you’ll know I’m me.”

The pastor kept silent for a moment. “His evil knows no bounds, Coyle. He must be stopped.”

“Working on it.” I sighed.

“As will I,” he responded.

“That’s not what Jamie would want to hear,” I said, glancing over at Aedan.

“’Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.’ Abdul Kalam. She may not understand, but the fight we have today is for her tomorrow.”

“It’s my fight, pastor.”

“If only it were,” he said slowly.

He spoke the truth. This fight would involve the entire human race if we didn’t end it soon. I glanced at my watch, making sure Jamie had time to talk. “I’ve gotta go. Look for the message.”

“I will. Keep Jamie safe.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes. Wanna talk to her?”

“She’s there?”

“Here she is, but keep it quick.” I took the phone off my ear and handed it to Jamie. “Two minutes,” I whispered and winked at her. She snapped the phone from my hand and pressed it to her ear.

“Dad!”

I walked away, knowing she would probably want some privacy. I made my way to Aedan and let him know we’d be leaving soon. He nodded and walked back with me.

“Do you wanna call your mom?” I asked.

“Nah, Stefan told me she’s still at my aunt’s place. I’d rather not call there and put them on Somatotech’s radar.”

I almost told him about the dream, about the veritable army of clones about to unleash an onslaught on us, but I thought better of it. No need to jack up the anxiety right now, there would be ample time for that later.

Jamie joined us in the car.

“Your dad agreed to meet. And, I told him we didn’t want him helping us but—”

She interrupted, “Yeah, he’s as hardheaded as you, I know. He told me in his usual pastoral way that he’s helping no matter what.”

“I tried.” I held my hands up, but I couldn’t help but grin. I’m not sure why I did, maybe because I realized that both the pastor and I are crazy enough to take this fateful adventure to the end, but for very different reasons. Craziness leads to a certain degree of levity.

After dropping off Jamie and Aedan at the compound, I drove to the seminary to watch the comings and goings for a few hours that same morning. I parked across Santa Fe Avenue and climbed a small berm next to the train tracks. I didn’t need binoculars; my eyes could focus on objects miles away. No one at the seminary would suspect anything from a guy seated nearly a half mile away.  Security guards and metal detectors stood at the main entrances to the buildings. I watched as people walked through, after having their bags checked and visitor’s passes with pictures printed. Given that I was labeled a domestic terrorist, I was fairly certain they’d seen my face. So, entry through the front doors was out of the question. I assumed the emergency exits in the buildings were likely locked from the inside so they wouldn’t be an option either, without creating a ruckus pulling them off their hinges. Twenty minutes passed. I grew impatient; my men would be arriving soon to a very tense situation at the hacienda.

I started walking back to my car but stopped when a food service truck entered the complex at 10 a.m. and went around on Vinewood Street, which led to the rear of the main building. I sprinted across Santa Fe Avenue, weaving through traffic easily as the honks rung out. Large maple trees ran along the perimeter of the complex, so I quickly climbed one and perched myself on a limb looking over the rear of the compound. I watched as the workers delivered large bins of food through a loading bay in the back of the main building. A security guard would inspect each bin and then the worker would wheel them into the kitchen. Once the guards inspected all the bins, they would accompany the workers inside, leaving the door unprotected. They didn’t return for a good five minutes. A non-reciprocating camera hung on the wall adjacent to the door, focused on the loading bay. It couldn’t see the southern wall leading to the door. I had my in.

I rushed back to the compound, knowing that the men would be arriving soon if they hadn’t already. This wasn’t going to be pretty. Too much change right off the bat could weaken my leadership, and having the prior enemy the men were after as guests could push them over the edge. Manuel had painted them as an enemy that threatened their entire operation; it may be hard to sway that opinion. Stefan was right, I had to show my men I was aligned with them, but I didn’t want to alienate Roxanne’s crew either. I needed their help.

As I drove up the driveway, I could see a group of men congregating not far from the guesthouse. Instead of driving up to the compound, I pulled up right to the guesthouse and jumped out to join my men.

“Señor Coyle, what are they doing here?” One of the men approached me, shaking his head.

“I’ll explain in a moment, give me ten minutes. Can you gather the men here?”

He agreed and began rounding them up. I sprinted to the hacienda and bolted into the hallway just as Stefan stepped out of the kitchen.

“Ready for some crowd control, my friend? I hope you have a plan.”

“I do, but the seeds Manuel planted may be too much to overcome. We’re meeting at the guesthouse in ten; can you help round up the men?”

He also agreed and ran around the compound.

I ran to Jamie’s room to give her the news about the seminary, but she wasn’t there. Aedan wasn’t in his room either. I sprinted to the kitchen again, but the seemingly always-busy kitchen was empty. Finally, I ran to the back patio and found Jamie, Aedan, dad and the Doña sitting around a small table.

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” I said, placing myself between Aedan and Jamie.

“Coyle, sit down, we’ve something to discuss with you,” the Doña said. Aedan’s eyes shifted to me and then away.

Did Aedan tell them? If he did… I couldn’t finish the thought, a surge of anger rushed through me, spreading from my head down my extremities like electricity. I wanted to crush his head, to snuff out his betraying life. I took a step toward him with my nostrils flaring and muscles contracting. He saw the crazed look in my eyes and jumped behind the chair. I followed him, leaping over the chair with ease and catching him by his arm before he could get away. I pulled him in and wrapped my arm around his neck. A simple contraction of my upper arm muscles would snap his neck. Instead, I turned him around so he could see my face before I ended him. I held him with both hands around his neck and started to lift and squeeze simultaneously. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, and his lips started to swell.

“Coyle!” someone yelled. Someone else yelled, but it didn’t register. I was drunk with rage and blind with power.

“Please, Coyle, please don’t. Remember who the enemy is. Aedan’s your friend, your best friend.” Jamie’s voice came to me clearly, like an angel cutting through the dark mist. My rational mind caught hold of her voice like a lifesaver and pulled itself out of the pit of anger. Where the rage was, panic now entered. I let go of Aedan, and I fell back onto the concrete patio. Aedan crashed to the patio as well and then scampered away on his hands and knees to the Doña.

“No!” I yelled out. “Not again, please, not again!” I yelled. The fits of rage that plagued me before had returned, likely with the revival of my other. I had nearly killed my best friend. I crouched down on the ground, my forehead resting on the cool concrete. My hands began to shake violently as I came down from the adrenaline high. I closed my eyes, hoping this all was just a terrible nightmare or just a freak accident. I couldn’t revert back. A few seconds passed with my eyes closed, and I could feel the similar feeling, the summoning. Somatotech wanted me back into my other. I ripped my mind out and shot my eyes open. I turned to face my family and friends. Jamie’s eyes expressed concern, as did the Doña’s. Aedan and my dad looked absolutely shocked, not that I blamed them. The monster had returned.

“Dude, Aedan, I’m sorry. I don’t know where that came from.”

Jamie came over to me. “We do. Coyle, I told them about your dream. Your other is back; that’s why your anger has returned.”

“Aedan, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t want to get people worked up.” I stayed on the ground letting the hard concrete ground me.

“You worked yourself up, Murray.” He rubbed his neck and rotated his head to pop the kinks from his now sore neck.

“We believe you should be honest with the men regarding Somatotech, about how much of a threat they are to all of us,” said the Doña.

“Or how much of a threat I am now?”

No one said anything. They all knew it, at any moment I could snap again. What if Jamie isn’t around to calm me down? What then?

“I don’t want to bring them into this any more than absolutely necessary. Many will die all because I ordered them to fight. I don’t want their blood on my hands.” I’d almost had my best friend’s blood literally in my hands.

“That will be their decision, Coyle.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you don’t tell them, I will,” said the Doña. “We’ve,” she motioned towards herself and everyone around her, “all decided this fight is our fight. Our men should be allowed make that decision as well.”

“Taking control I see?” A flash of anger entered my heart.

“Coyle, I’ve always had it.” She smiled, not a boasting smile, but one of subtle recognition. “But we all recognize you’re our savior, our leader, and the key to ending this evil.”

“Do you all think this is a good idea?” I looked at dad and my friends.

“It’s the only way to bring them down, with everyone together,” said my dad.

“Dad, you’re not taking part in this. I can’t protect you 24/7 if you’re out there.”

“We’ll be smart about it. We’ve got a genius on our side.” He also smiled. All this smiling was beginning to get on my nerves. Don’t they understand the severity of the situation?

“All right, but I can’t…” I choked up and had the force the words out, “I can’t lose you.”

“Together we can do this,” Jamie hugged me from behind. I needed her now more than ever. Jamie and I had to be constant companions, or I might kill someone.

27  Sway away

We walked down to the guesthouse together. Stefan kept wiping sweat from his forehead and the Doña focused her eyes on the guesthouse.  My hands shook as I came down from the angry high. When we arrived, the two groups faced each other and neither looked happy. Roxanne was even making faces at Stefan, who sneered back at her. I placed myself in between the two groups who could throw down any moment. The only one of the group who seemed calm was Talon. He stood near Dr. Bartnev, apart from both groups.

“Thank you for meeting us here. I know there’s a tension in the air because you all feel these people, including Roxanne, took advantage of your hospitality.” I turned to Roxanne. “Would you like to say anything?”

Roxanne stepped forward and began speaking an obviously rehearsed speech, “Dearest saviors and captors, we are grateful you allowed us to crash at your hacienda back when we saved the pretty one, Jamie.” She pointed to her, and Jamie blushed. “At the time, we didn’t realize the nature of your operations and the need for secrecy. We left without that understanding, hence, why you all came after us. We’re… sorry.” She curtsied and grinned at me.

“Uh, wow. Thanks, Roxanne.” I’m sure the company ordered her to make the speech, but still, she went through with it despite the obvious pain in her voice. The look on the men’s faces told me that this came as a shock to them as well.

“We don’t want them here, Señor Coyle. They’re not a part of us. Manuel never would’ve let them in,” one of the men shouted out. A few of the men stepped toward Roxanne. She and Striker smiled confidently. I moved in between them holding out my arms.

“I understand, and I agree, they’re not part of us. But, things have changed. Men, Somatotech has threatened to kill my family, Jamie’s family, Aedan’s family, and all of you. They’ve got more resources, more men, and more power than all of us. If they knew where we were, they would’ve crushed us already.  I wanted to keep our operations and my fight with Somatotech separate, I really did, but now I realize I can’t do it alone. We need all of you, including Roxanne and her crew.”

Stefan shook his head and cast his eyes down, obviously disappointed.

“It’s true, we welcome Roxanne and her men as fighters in the same cause,” said the Doña. “But, they are not part of us and will leave once we have executed the plan.”

“Exactly. That’s how it has to be.” I looked to Roxanne. “Agreed?”

“Yes, sir!” She saluted again.

“We would’ve been better off with Manuel!” shouted the same man who had voiced dissent when we ousted Manuel.

“Manuel couldn’t protect you, only Coyle can,” said the Doña.

“Hmmph… why’s that?” he replied.

“Because they couldn’t protect themselves; Manuel and Tigre are dead,” she said.

A hush spread over the men.

I turned to the Doña “What? In prison?” I said loudly. I came close to her. “You didn’t, did you?” I whispered.

“No, Coyle, as much as I wanted to.” I frowned at her, and she turned to the men. “A group from the Aryan Nations shanked both of them in their cells. My contacts inside said the guards let them in to kill them. Someone must have deep pockets.”

“Somatotech,” I said as a surprising wave of grief came over me. I really hadn’t wished for Manuel and Tigre to die. Suffering in prison for a lifetime satisfied my need for justice.  The grief dissolved into guilt as the image of Manuel’s girl in the window of their home flashed in my mind. Could there have been another way? I thought.

“If they can get Manuel and Tigre so easily, none of us are safe,” the Doña added.

“You brought this on us! If you’d never shown up we’d have kept on our merry way,” he yelled again. This time a few of the men nodded in agreement. The crowd shifted at that moment; I could sense it. I could lose control if I let this go further.

“Look, whether it happens now or later, Somatotech would threaten our way of life. Somatotech has an army of clones, of human copies, but these people are much smarter and stronger than all of you. They will continue to grow these clones unless someone stops them. We, you all and I, have to stop them.”

“Clones?” one of the men asked. The men again started whispering to one another. Manuel hadn’t told them who I truly was. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had told them I was the devil himself.

“Yes, clones. Perfect and enhanced copies of damaged and diseased humans. They prey on the sick and weak just as I was with my cancer. They claim to make us better, but it’s quite the opposite. Manuel didn’t tell you about Somatotech’s true doings because he was corrupt just like them.” Should I divulge who I really am? I thought. How would they react if their boss were one of them, a clone?

Before I could finish the thought, the question came. “Senor, we know you’re, uh, different, tu sabes, you can’t die. Are, are you a clone?” he hesitated.

“I… ” I looked to Aedan, who had already dropped his head and stared at the ground. Roxanne and her crew all had wry smirks. Would telling the truth help this situation? I doubted it, so I lied. “I’m Coyle, Mr. Murray’s son. I’m not a clone. But, there are many clones of me, clones who can’t wait to kill you all.”

“How will we know who is the clone and who is not if you all look the same?” the man asked.

“Just as I did with Manuel, there will be a special word I’ll give each of you. That way you’ll know it’s me. Ask for the word and if the person who looks like me does not know, run.”

“What do we do now, Coyle?” asked one of the men.

“We’ve got a backlog of operations that Stefan has vetted. Most of you will focus on those for the time being. Those who’ve been watching and protecting our families will continue until we can bring them here for a time. We need a few days to plan on how to move forward. Once the plan is set, Roxanne and her crew leaves, and we carry it out.”

“And if we don’t go along with all this craziness?” one of the men asked.

“You’ll die, not by my hand, but you’re sentencing yourself to death by going out alone.”

“So die if we don’t and likely die if we do.” He waved his hand dismissively at me.

My nerves went on edge. This man threatened everything, the very unity I’d been trying to establish. The anger surged again, a familiar and oddly fulfilling sensation. Anger brought power; I could feel it, I sensed it the people around me. They would bow to me if I let it out, I thought.

I stepped towards the man who in turn stepped back. The men scampered back at the sight of me breathing heavy and eyes wide. The man started running for his car. In two quick strides, I caught up to him, grasped his jacket, and started dragging him back to the crowd.

“Coyle, no! You’re not this person. Stop!” the Doña yelled as I threw the man into the middle of the crowd. Stefan wanted me to send a message. This man’s bloody face would be quite the message.

“Por favor, señor, I meant no disrespect. I’m just worried—”

“Shut up! I’m tired of your babble.” I looked at my men. “Let what I’m going to do to this man squash any thought of dissent.” I came down on his face, breaking his nose and splitting his lip. He collapsed to the ground.

“Coyle, don’t do this!” Aedan yelled. Jamie screamed in horror as I pulled the man up by the shirt to show his busted and bleeding face to my men.

Roxanne and Talon moved toward me, their expressions telling me they wanted to intervene.

“Stay back!” I yelled and waved them away.

“This doesn’t have to happen, Coyle. Remember. Remember,” Coyle’s dad said and slowly approached me. I raised my arm to strike again. “Son, control it. Please.” His voice cut through, and my rage relented ever so slightly. I stumbled back, now seeing the carnage I’d caused. I’d done it; I’d actually succumbed to that murderous urge. My humanity lost once again.

“I’m sorry. I… I’m so sorry.” I started to run back towards the hacienda while the man rolled in pain on the ground.

“Coyle’s outbreak is a side-effect of Somatotech gaining power,” the Doña yelled out. “They must be destroyed before it’s too late.”

Her words halted my escape. “Too late?” I said.

“Before this rage consumes you, my friend.” The eyes of all my friends screamed concern, making me want to just dissolve into the ground.

I collapsed to my knees. “I can’t lead you all. The true leader, the Doña, will lead us.”

The men’s eyes moved to her, anticipating a response. Her eyes shifted to and from each man and back to me.

“I’ll step in for the time being. But, understand this, my men; you’ll obey every order from Coyle as if it were my own.”

Fear crossed their faces, but the majority nodded in agreement.

28  Hail Mary

“Jamie. I…I can’t go on like this. I wanna be like I was, someone normal. Someone whose actions wouldn’t matter, someone who wouldn’t snap. As I was, I could’ve lived on for a few more years, died, and been forgotten. I feel like whatever I do now will affect everyone, especially you.” If only I could be someone normal, like my originator, I thought. I still didn’t have the guts to tell her who I really was.

“You think you dying wouldn’t have affected me?”

“You’d have moved on.” I turned away from her.

She pulled me back, focusing on my eyes. “Move on? Coyle, you’ll be a part of me forever. You have to know that. You’re my one and only.”

The thought that Jamie was my soul mate had bounced in my heart many times, but I’d pushed it out. I knew it was true but hadn’t verbalized it. But, how could we be soul mates? How could a clone have a human soul mate?

I spent the rest of the day in my room with Jamie. I couldn’t bear seeing the men after I beat one of them down because I’d flat-out betrayed their trust. Jamie and I didn’t say much more. Instead, we sat on my bed with locked arms, her head resting on my shoulder.

“I better figure out how to get a message to your dad,” I said.

“I’m coming with you. I’m staying by your side, Coyle, through all of this.”

“So I don’t kill anyone?”

Her silence answered my question. The unpredictability of my outbreaks had returned. Could I kill someone again? I pushed the thought out and moved on to the task at hand. “Let’s go in five minutes. I’ll see you out front.”

She kissed my cheek, squeezed my hand, and then stood to leave. Before she reached the door, I jumped up and turned her at the waist.

“I do need you, not only because I could turn into a crazed murderer at any moment without you, but because I love you.” I gently lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes before landing one on her soft lips.

“I love you, too,” she said and stared into my eyes.

If only I could keep it this way, I thought and gave her a quick hug. We separated so I could prepare. I retrieved two cellphones from the map room and then headed out through the hallway. Stefan caught me on the way out.

“Are you OK my friend?” he asked slowly. Small bags had formed under his eyes.

“Better, yes. How are the men?”

“Spooked, to say the least. But, they’re on board. They respond to fear; that’s why they were so loyal to Manuel.”

“Not the example of leadership I really wanted to use.”

He nodded in recognition and noticed the cellphones in my hand. “Going out? Coyle, you’re all over the news. Do you think it wise to go out in the public?”

“I know, not the best timing. But, somehow I gotta scope out a way to contact the pastor.”

“Come with me.” He turned and walked down the hall to the examination room. I followed and found him opening a tackle box onto the table.

“Sit,” he said and pointed to a stool, “Oh, and hold this.” He handed me a mirror. “What kinda mustache would you prefer?”

“Wha? Uh, facial hair doesn’t seem to grow on this baby face.”

“Well, Coyle, today you become a man.” He pulled out a red bushy mustache and applied an adhesive to the back. He then pressed it to my upper lip.

“Uh, Stefan, I look freakin’ creepy. Could we add a beard?” I said while looking at myself in the mirror.

“Sorry, we don’t have any more red facial hair.” He grinned after taking a long look at me. “Now to do something about your nose.”

“What’s wrong with my nose?”

“Aside from your eyes, the nose is your next most distinguishing feature.” He extracted a floppy flesh-colored nose and held it up to my face. “Quite a distinguished look,” he said, as he adhered it to my face.

I flipped up the mirror and nearly lost it. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? That thing is huge!”

“A strong nose for a strong man. You’ll get used to it.” He returned to the box and found some brown colored contacts. I slipped them on to my eyes and blinked a few times to lubricate them. Honkin’ nose, creepy mustache, and dark eyes. Nice, very nice, I thought.

I walked out into the hallway and found Aedan and Jamie waiting with wide smiles at the sight of me.

“OK, OK. Get it out,” I said, throwing my head back.

“Dude, where ya headed? The coffee pub? Huh, hipster? All you need are some tight pants.” Aedan smiled and gave the mustache a slight tug.

“C’mon Aedan, I think it’s cute.” She moved in on me but held back by a few inches. I leaned in and her finger made contact instead of her lips. “But, no way are you kissing me with that thing.”

“Ouch!” said Aedan and punched me in the shoulder.

“Rain check then?” I smiled, and the whiskers tickled my nose. “Can’t wait to get this thing off.”

“Oh it doesn’t come off, at least not for a few days,” said Stefan.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope, can’t.” All three of my so-called friends chuckled.

“All right, see ya when I get back, Aedan.” I’d had enough of the revelry.

“For you my dear,” Stefan said and handed Jamie a wig and sunglasses.

“That’s all she needs? While I look like this?”

Stefan grinned and left us there.

Jamie and I made it to a car one of the men had parked in the roundabout. Before we opened the doors, Talon came running out of the hacienda.

“Headed into town?”

“Yeah, scoping out her dad’s church and maybe her home,” I said while opening Jamie’s door.

“Hmm, have you already forgotten what happened to Jamie when you drove her right into cell coverage?”

I had forgotten, or maybe I wanted to forget. Forget what I had brought on her. She’d be under their control the second we got in range of one of the cell towers. “Crap,” I said and rubbed my forehead.

“Roxanne says she’s got something that’ll help. Stop by the guesthouse on your way out.”

“Cool, will do. Thanks, Talon, good to see you up.”

He grinned. “I’m a fighter! What did ya expect?” He flexed his right arm. His neck still bore a circumferential purple bruise.

“Nothing less. See ya in a bit.”

On the way out, we stopped by the guesthouse. Roxanne waited for us near the van. She held a thin black strap and silver box about the size of a Matchbox car.

“Catch,” she said and tossed the box to me through the window.

“What is it?” I said while inspecting the silver box that had only one button.

“Unless you want your girlfriend to go all zombie on you, I suggest you turn it on. That wonder blocks all cellular signals. Wrap it around her arm.” She threw me an antenna with a small screen attached by two wires. “Put that on the dash and flip it on before you get into town, it will tell you if the 5G signal is strong enough to take control.”

“Thanks, Roxanne.”

She looked to Jamie, “Keep him sane, will ya?”

Jamie smiled and winked at Roxanne. I peeled out.

We drove past the pastor’s church looking for a way to deliver the message. Unfortunately, the grounds around the church provided no cover. No trees, bushes or anything else to hide behind. The only structure in the front yard was the marquee sign. I inspected the surrounding properties for a potential lookout to get the pastor’s attention. The dental office to the west would be difficult to infiltrate, as would the homes to the north. A small park to the south had a few large trees, which could provide cover. I looked closer at the trees. A lens shimmered in the light between the branches. I focused on it. A few trees back in the grove a camera the size of a golf ball hung below a branch. I quickly surveyed the buildings again and sure enough, there were at least five covering all angles of the church. No doubt they already had the same array of cameras at his home.

“There are cameras all over,” I whispered to Jamie. I’m not sure why I whispered, it just felt right now that I knew this entire area was under surveillance.

She peeked out the window and searched for the cameras. “I’ll have to take your word on that,” she whispered back. “Do you see my dad?”

“No, his car isn’t here.”

A familiar sound broke my concentration. The sound of metal bearings, polyurethane wheels, and hard metal. There were skaters close. I drove around to the other side of the park and found the small skate park. A few kids were throwing down some weak tricks on the rails and small ollies off a concrete box. I looked around for anyone suspicious or more cameras but found none. These skaters could prove useful, I thought.

I stepped out of the car, flipped up my hood, and jogged across the parking lot to the skate park.

“Hey, hey!” I yelled to one of the skaters. He had a large-brimmed Etnies hat and held an energy drink in one hand.

“What up?” he yelled back.

“Can I have a try?” I motioned to his board.

“Dude, I don’t even know you.”

“C’mon, let me show you a thing or two.”

“You break it you buy me a new one.” He shrugged and kicked the board over to me.

I kicked it to a stop and flipped it into my hand. I walked over to the park, dropped it to the ground and stepped on. As I rolled toward the rail, a distinct sensation of familiarity came over me. The board felt as if it was part of me, as if I’d spent years on it. I ollied onto the rail 50-50 and quickly ollied off. Dang, that felt good, I thought. I pushed off again and kick flipped onto the box and landed manual riding it out all the way back to the skater.

“Who da’ hey are you, dude? Are you sponsored?”

“Nah, man. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to skate anymore. Thanks for the ride.”

“Anytime, dude.” The other guys had come over now.

“Hey, any of you go to that church over there?” I pointed towards the pastor’s church through the trees.

They looked at each other, not wanting to admit if they did.

“If one of you does, I need a favor. And, there’s cash in it for you.”

“My mom makes me go sometimes. What do you need?” said the same skater who’d lent me his board.

I motioned for him to come over, away from the group. When he came close, I whispered, “Just deliver a message to the pastor.”

“A message?”

“A small piece of paper, nothing more. But it needs to be discreet.”

“You mean like all secret?”

“Exactly, find a way to get it to him without anyone seeing.”

“And how much is in it for me?”

“Twenty bucks for each message, sound good?”

“Dang! Sign me up dude.”

“No one else can know, not even your buddies there.” I nodded at the group looking at us. “Tell them I signed you up for some youth group thing at the church. If you get this first message to him without anyone knowing, I’ll think about upping the payment.”

“Gotcha. So when do you want your message delivered?”

“As soon as possible, can you do it today?”

“Deal. So um, how do I get paid?”

“I’ll find you. I promise.”

I took out a small piece of paper and pen and wrote the message, then folded two times.

Denver Seminary 10:05 a.m. Tomorrow. Kitchen. Destroy this after reading.

“See you soon,” I said and handed him the paper.

I rushed back to the car and hopped into the driver’s seat.

“Do you miss that?”

“What?”

“Skating, you know, being normal, doing normal things?”

I stared at the guys skating, and a deep feeling of loss hit my heart. I did miss it. But, how could I? I’d never really done it, other than just now. Coyle had, sure, and Somatotech must’ve put the memories in my head. That’s why I miss it, I thought.

“I do and I don’t,” I said and looked over. Her eyes had a sheen of a recent cry. She shed tears of a normal life lost. My heart ached deeply for this girl, for my girlfriend. I couldn’t hold it back any longer; I’d lied too long, and Jamie deserved to know.  I rested my hand on her shoulder and inhaled as much air as my lungs could take.

“Jamie, Somatotech created me,” I blurted out.

“What’re you talking about?”

“I’m not supposed to exist, Jamie. I’m, I’m a clone; a clone of your former boyfriend. They stole his life and gave it to me.”

“What?” she said, shaking off my hand.

“It’s true. They trained me, put Coyle’s memories in my mind, put the feelings I have…” I couldn’t finish because of a large lump growing in my throat.

She stared into my eyes and spoke slowly, “That doesn’t make sense.”

“All of this doesn’t make sense. But, it’s the truth. Your dad knows it too.”

“I doubt he believes it.”

“Whether he does or not, it’s the truth. I’m not your boyfriend, at least not your original boyfriend.”

“Stop saying that, you are my boyfriend.” She looked down, gathering her thoughts. “Aedan told me you would come to me with this junk. You’re confused. Somatotech and probably Medital want you to be confused so they can manipulate you.”

“Aedan promised he would wait until I could tell you.” My fists clenched tight.

She came close, her breath tickling my neck and her eyes boring into mine. “Aedan knows who you really are. Just as I do. You are Coyle, the Coyle I met in high school and fell in love with. The Coyle who’s meant to be the one. The one meant to save the world from this evil.” She landed a soft kiss on my cheek.

I opened my mouth to refute her, but her sincerity stayed my tongue. She’ll know the truth someday, and it will crush her. Not today though, I thought.

29  Religious Right

When we got back to the hacienda, the Doña and Stefan had organized the men in single file lines out in the roundabout. Roxanne and her crew were out working on their van, but few of them looked on the group with apparent concern in their eyes.

“What’s going on?” I asked as Jamie and I emerged from the car.

“We’re dividing into teams. Those who’ll aid in your missions, those who’ll continue with the hacienda’s missions, and finally, those who’ll be watching our guests. They all have volunteered for the roles,” said the Doña, while pointing at each group.

That last one made me grin, especially because Aedan stood at the front of that line. Five men stood in each line. I looked to those who had volunteered to aid in taking down Somatotech. All of them looked to me with confidence in their eyes. Stefan stayed near them. He nodded as if to acknowledge that he had picked them out specifically. I nodded to my little army. I looked to the other groups and noticed the man I had beaten stood in the “watch our guests” group. He kept his eyes downcast.

“Thank you all for sticking with us, and especially me.” I walked over to the man. “I’m sorry for my outburst. You’re part of the family.” I was about to place my hand on his shoulder but thought better.

“Si senor.” He shot a glance at me and then returned his gaze to the ground.

My heart ached. I wanted to explain that wasn’t me and that I was actually a good person, a clone granted, but a good clone, but I knew the message probably wouldn’t be well-received right now. I never wanted someone to fear me as he did.

“We should split up and discuss our next moves,” said Stefan.

“Those helping with my missions, please come with me,” I said and motioned toward the garage.

“Those watching Roxanne and her group, please come with me,” said Stefan.

“Everyone else, meet me in the kitchen,” said the Doña. “You picked the group who gets fresh tortillas.” She winked at me and her group chuckled.

Just as we started to split, Talon walked out of the hacienda. All eyes instantly swung to him. He sensed the tension and looked to me.

I shuffled over to him swiftly. “Dude, Talon. I consider you part of the team, but you gotta know these guys see you as one of them.”

“Can’t I be both?”

“I wish you could, but with you-know-what…” I tapped my head near my ear, “… the men will always be nervous around you.”

The hard stares from the men told him the truth. “OK, I gotcha, guess I’ll be on my way.” He started to sulk in the direction of the guesthouse.

“Wait,” I said and started showing him some of the sign language I’d learned. I signed, “We’ll talk later. Sorry.”

He signed back with quick gestures, but I only understood about half of it. Looked like, “Don’t worry. Friend. Go my group. Leaving”

He smiled, nodded, and then jogged off toward the guesthouse.

The Doña walked over to me and whispered in my ear. “They found the surveillance equipment in the guesthouse. It’s gone offline.”

“Figures. I’ll try and push Talon for info on their plans.” She nodded and stepped back. “OK, let’s meet in our groups,” I yelled but nearly stopped before the words came out. I glanced to the Doña, worried about any hint of usurping her authority. She grinned and seemed to say, “Don’t worry,” with a slight nod of her head. The men froze in place.

“Do as Coyle says,” she said and nodded to the men.

The respective groups split up without hesitation. My group and I met amongst the cars in the garage, while the others met in their predetermined locations.

When everyone settled in between the cars I began, “We’re planning on meeting with Jamie’s dad and will need surveillance and potentially protection. The thing is; we can’t use cellphones to communicate ‘cause Jamie’s got a cell blocker to stop Somatotech from controlling her and my dad.”

“So how we gonna communicate?” one of the men asked.

“Look around, men. We’ll use these.” I extended my arms out in the direction of the cars around us. A few of the men cocked their heads in confusion. “We’ll develop a code with the horns.” I opened one of the car doors and hopped in. “OK, ready?”

I hashed out a code where one sustained honk meant danger they’re near, they’re entering the parking lot, two sustained honks meant they’re in the building so get the heck out, three short meant we’re coming in to help, four short meant all clear, we’re headed home.

I reviewed the details I’d given the pastor and laid out where I’d like two groups of men to watch while we rendezvoused. We also went over a plan if Somatotech goons infiltrated the seminary; where Jamie and the pastor would meet the team, where I would draw the goons and finally where we’d meet afterward if we were separated.

Finally, I needed to give them a warning, “If I go all crazy on you again, run for your life and find Jamie, or my dad, or just freakin’ shoot me. Shoot me until I’m on the ground not moving. Everyone needs a weapon, for your own protection.”

They nodded in agreement amid nervous looks. I knew what they were thinking, “Who’s the bigger threat? Our leader or Somatotech?”

Before I could dismiss them, Dr. Bartnev entered the garage.

“Presents!” he said loudly and held up a fist-full of syringes.

“Whatcha got, doc?” I said and pulled one out of his hand.

“I call it ‘Super Juice.’ It jumpstart our leader, Coyle when he dead, well, almost dead.” He handed them out to the group with a wide grin only partially obscured by his bushy mustache and beard.

“Same stuff you gave me earlier?”

“Stronger,” he said and winked at me. I couldn’t help but smile. Crazy Russian doctor, I thought.

“All right, keep those out of me unless I’m not breathing. OK?” The group nodded in unison and pocketed the Super Juice.

“OK, Dismissed. We’ll meet up Monday morning at 9 a.m. before heading out.”

Before they’d all left, Coyle’s dad approached me and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Coyle, I’d like to come."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Actually, it was a freakin’ terrible idea.

"All this is my fault; I need to help remedy it."

"How will you risking your life help to remedy this whole situation?”

He pulled me to the side, away from the men who remained and Jamie. “There may be some details Jamie’s dad will only tell me,” he whispered.

“What kinda things?”

“About his work there, about what he did to thwart their research.”

“And why can’t I just ask him?”

“Greg and I are friends; it may take that friendship to get it out.”

“All right, but I’m not too keen on you going out there.”

“Really, Coyle?” He cocked his head and raised his brow. “I don’t think I need your permission; you are my son and all.”

“That I am,” I said slowly and walked out of the garage.

I met up with the Doña, Aedan, and Stefan in the kitchen after we had met with our groups. The “watch Roxanne” group made plans to place a tracker on their van to which I said, “Good freakin’ luck.” They’d have to be as stealthy as a ninja to get anywhere near that thing without them knowing. The “Hacienda operations” group had a few protection cases, both pretty low key but would at least provide some income. The Doña was smart enough not to put her men too far out there right now.

Just as we finished our discussion on the roles, Roxanne silently strolled into the kitchen like a prowling cat.

“So, friends, what’s the plan? Seems you all are organizing without us. It there anything we extremely fast, strong, and intelligent clones can help with?”

Stefan nearly sneered at her but toned it down with the look I shot at him.

“We’re going to meet up with the pastor on Monday, but I don’t think we’ll need your help on that one.”

“Suit yourself, Coyle, but we had plans anyway.”

“Oh?”

“Just some prep work for our own little operation, you know the one you promised to help us with?”

“I didn’t promise, but I’m still considering it.”

“Well, you’d better consider quicker because we’re exacting that mission on Wednesday.”

“I’ll let you know after I meet with the pastor, I promise.”

“Where ya going to meet him?”

The look in her eye gave me pause. “Uh, we’re still fleshing that out. Somewhere discreet, somewhere safe.”

“Holding your cards tight to the chest, I see.”

“That’s the only way to play, right?”

“But is the game worth playing, Coyle?” She gazed around the room. “Especially with us, the people who’ve helped you and saved you?” Her eyes met Stefan’s. She glared at him.

“I’m balancing a lot of crap right now, Roxanne. Give me a break.”

“Breaks are earned. See ya ‘round clone of Coyle,” she said and left the kitchen.

Why did she just say that all in front of Stefan and the Doña? I thought. Why rile them up? The look on dad’s face indicated he didn’t understand what the heck was going on. I hoped it was true, that he just thought Roxanne was crazy and babbled nonsense. I still hadn’t spilled those beans to Coyle’s dad.

“As I’ve said, Coyle. I don’t trust them,” said Stefan to which the Doña nodded in agreement.

“We trust until we’ve got a reason to mistrust. Get that tracker on them, and then maybe we’ll have something on them.”

I heard a shuffle in the hallway outside the kitchen. Someone was listening. I tiptoed quietly over to the entryway and glanced around the corner. Talon stood near the front door, staring back at me.

“Dude! You can’t be sneaking around here,” I said while jogging down to him. When I reached him, I signed, “What did you hear?”

“Sorry, just wanted to use the bathroom,” he said and then signed, “All of it.”

“Dang it,” I said and shook my head. Now they knew we were planning to place a tracker on their van.

He signed what I believe was, “Sorry.”

I managed to sign, “Trust?” I then pointed to the guesthouse. If I could’ve I would’ve signed, “Do I have reason to not trust Roxanne?”

Talon nodded but he cast his eyes down, and his face twitched. “She’s dealing with a lot, too, Coyle,” he said aloud.

I signed, “I know.” I looked around to make sure none of the rest of his crew was around. I signed, “Could you teach me more sign language?”

“Sure,” he signed and then made the universal sign for pen and paper.

I pointed to the hallway, and he followed me into my room. We remained silent so as not to tip off the rest of his crew of our doings. We plopped down on the island, and Talon ran through a couple hundred signs by showing me the sign and then writing down the word.

Aedan strolled by my room about fifteen minutes into the lesson.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Talon glared at him, knowing he just gave us up to the crew. Aedan curled his brow, confused.

“Just grabbing some food for the crew,” Talon said, trying to save the situation.

I tossed Aedan a few of the drawings Talon had made and motioned for him to remain silent. I tiptoed quickly out of the room.

From the hallway I yelled, “Hey Aedan, where ya at?”

“In the kitchen with Talon,” he said with a slight air of confusion.

“What’s going on?”

“He said he was just getting food, but we bring his crew food, so I’m not really sure what he’s up to.”

“Wanna explain yourself?” I said, trying to sound angry.

“Just getting a snack, boys, relax.”

“Eat the snacks in the guesthouse, where you belong,” I said, trying to paint Talon as an adversary rather than a friend. I couldn’t have his crew thinking we’d turned him, even a smidgen.

“OK, chosen one, I’ll obey and stay in my little house on the prairie.” He winked and signed, “I hope that worked.”

I nodded, and Talon left, jogging out of the hacienda to the guesthouse. Aedan started out of my room.

“Hey, dude, how are you doing?”

“How am I doing? After you nearly choked the life out of me? Just peachy, thanks.” He turned again to leave.

“Hey, Aedan! I said was sorry, and I really am. That wasn’t me.”

He paused at the entryway but kept his back turned to me. “Who knows who you are now, man? Surely not my friend anymore.”

“Not your friend? What are you talking about? Dude, that crap won’t happen again, I promise,” I said, hoping it would be true.

“You’re real freakin’ dense, Coyle.” He tapped his temple with his finger. “It’s not about that. It’s about you not trusting me, not letting me help like I’m some kinda worthless kid you have hanging around. This,” he pointed to Talon exiting the hacienda, “this is the first time you’ve used me for anything, and I just stumbled onto this crap.”

“You’re looking at this the wrong way, dude. You’re pissed off at me because I don’t want you to die? Because I choose to keep you safe rather than throw you out there?” My arm shot out pointing at the world beyond the hacienda.

“I can take care of myself. And, I can hold my own with them.”

“With who? Aedan, huh? With the clones that are stronger, faster, smarter and more determined than you?” My voice was sharp, exacting, and almost cruel. I spoke the truth though, and I’m sure he knew it. “They’ll rip you apart, dude,” I added.

His face went flush, and his upper lip twitched. “Doesn’t matter, screw it.” He stormed out.

My heart dropped with the sight of my friend’s pain. But, I had to keep him safe. I’d rather have him alive and offended than dead.

The thought of Aedan out there unprotected reminded me of Coyle’s dad’s insistence on coming on our little mission to visit the pastor. The pastor would want to talk about me being a clone, I was sure of it. That news needed to come out sooner rather than later and better it came from me.

After a quick search, I found him lounging on the patio chair outside with Jamie.

“Hey ya’ll,” I said, my voice wavering. I parked down on a chair next to Coyle’s dad. “I’ve got something serious I gotta tell you and it’s gonna come as a real shock.”

“Coyle, c’mon, don’t do this. You just got your dad back,” said Jamie with a look of exasperation.

“He’s got a right to know, Jamie,” I retorted.

“What are you talking about?” His eyes shot from me and then to Jamie.

“It’s a freakin’ lie, so don’t believe him. Coyle thinks he’s a clone of your son.” She blurted out as tears began to form in her eyes. She wiped them with quick swipes. “And it’s a lie!” she yelled. A twinge of anger summoned from below because she’d spilled the beans before me, but the pain on her face quelled it almost instantly.

“Why would you think such a terrible thing?” Coyle’s dad turned to me.

“It’s not what I think, it’s what I know, You’re Coyle’s dad and I’m his clone,” I said with a flat tone.

“Don’t you dare call me that, I’m your dad, you’re my blood.” He stood up and then kneeled at my feet. “I came and visited you every day at Somatotech. Every single day, Coyle. I witnessed your transformation day by day into who you are.”

“I thought they kept you away from me.”

“They did, sort of. I watched from an observation room that I could visit at any time.”

“They could’ve switched out your son whenever you weren’t there and put me in his place.”

“They didn’t, Coyle. You have to believe that I can recognize my own son.” His hand cupped my cheek, but I shook it off.

“I’ve been engineered to look, talk, and freakin’ breathe like your son. That’s the travesty; that’s what we have to stop.” I looked to Jamie. “That’s our motivation to stop them from doing this to another family.”

“That’s not my motivation, Coyle,” said Jamie with her gaze locked on the floor.

“Somatotech has confused you, Coyle. You can’t succumb to the thoughts they planted in your mind. I know firsthand how that is. Are you sure there isn’t an implant still in you somewhere?”

“Dr. Bartnev removed the implant. I’m not under anyone’s influence, Dad. My mind is clear and for that matter, it’s made up. So drop it.”

Dad gazed down, but a slight smile grew on his lips.

“I’m glad me being a copy of your dead son amuses you.”

“Coyle, your mother, while sweet and caring, was stubborn as all get out. She’d say, “Once my mind’s made up, it’s made up. End of story.” You’re so much like her. No company could implant the quirks passed down from your mother. You’ve always had them.”

Tears formed in my eyes and lump grew in my throat as if someone had stuffed a golf ball down my esophagus. My heart yearned for it to be true, for me to be someone other than a meaningless human copy. I couldn’t let them see me cry, to give them hope that I’d changed my mind because I hadn’t, so I stood up abruptly and walked toward the hacienda.

“We’ll leave soon for the seminary. Be ready.”

30  Penance

Because we couldn't drive right up to the seminary, I parked the car in a residential area on the west side of the South Platte River across from the seminary. I hefted Jamie on my shoulders and forded the river, although fording is a strong word for crossing the shallow waters of the Platte. Coyle's dad followed close behind us taking large high steps. Once on the other side and under the cover of the grove of trees outside the seminary, my dad and I changed our shoes and pants from the backpack he carried.

"I'll scope it out." I climbed the tallest tree I could find, bounding from one branch to another. At the top branch, I checked my watch, 9:50 a.m. From my vantage point, I could see the rear entry but not where the pastor would enter. At 9:55, the food supply truck rolled around the street and backed into the loading bay.

I released from the tree, going horizontal with my face down as I flew down. With each passing branch, I slowed my descent until the last branch. I hooked my arm, swung around and landed on my feet.

“My little monkey,” said Jamie smiling.

“Swinging from the trees, baby.” I adjusted my sweatshirt. “Time to head in. Glasses on, hoods up.”

We made our way through the trees until we came to the edge of the property. Jamie and dad hid behind a tree while I moved toward the bushes. The guards were just finishing the food inspection as I dove behind a large bush next to one of the residences. We had a thirty-yard dash between the two residence halls to make it to the main building. Anyone happening to glance this way would catch us dashing across, but there was no other way.

Jamie and Coyle’s dad waited for my signal. The men finally entered the building together, but this time the door behind them began to swing shut. My muscles snapped into action like a mousetrap; I shot out from behind the bush, and with still fifteen feet to go, dove at the closing door. I slid on the platform head first, with my hand extended. My fingers slipped between the door and the doorframe just before it slammed closed. Two of my fingers cracked, and the others were mangled, but I had done it. The door remained open by only a centimeter, the width of my bleeding fingers.

I motioned to Jamie and Coyle’s dad to come and stay close to the southern wall. I hoped no one had seen my acrobatics because I was more concerned about keeping our only way in open. They made it over to the wall and scurried to join me with their back pressed firmly against it. Coyle’s dad grabbed the door so I could extract my bleeding hand. I stood up and peered into the building. The door opened to a wide hallway that extended about a hundred feet. There were five single doors on the right and two on the left. Near the end of the hallway on the left was a pair of swinging doors, likely leading into the kitchen.

“We’ve got a ways to go. I think the kitchen is at the end of the hallway. We may have to duck into one of the other doors if someone comes,” I whispered and pointed to the other doors.

We started down the hallway and made it past two doors before I heard footsteps approaching a door to our left.  The door on our right was labeled “Storage”, so I flung it open and pushed Jamie and Coyle’s dad in. I jumped in as well and shut it quickly just as the other door opened. We crashed in the darkness among boxes, mops, and containers of cleaning chemicals. Jamie and I landed on Coyle’s dad, and he groaned with the pressure. Jamie tried to get up, but I held her down, knowing the shuffling could alert whoever walked in the hallway if they hadn’t already hear our suspicious activity. Jamie and Coyle’s dad’s breathing sounded like two billows pushing air back and forth, loud as all get out. I held my breath until I could no longer hear the steps. I listened again to make sure no one else had slipped into the hallway.

“OK, we’re clear. Sorry to squish you, Dad.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t catch you two. You’re quite a load, Coyle.”

“Thanks, Dad” I winked. “Good to go.” I opened the door and led them out. “Let’s jog, but keep your eyes on me. Move when I move.” I pushed off and made my way down the hallway, checking each door for anyone approaching. I nearly reached the end of the hallway before I looked back down the hallway at Coyle’s dad and Jamie, who still trailed a good twenty feet behind. A door swung open near them, and a thin, bespectacled security guard stepped out. I threw my hands up and motioned to the closest door, but it was too late.

“May I help you?” he asked while I walked briskly toward Coyle’s dad and Jamie.

“Run,” I mouthed to Jamie.

She shook her head and turned to the guard.

“I’m sorry, we’re lost. We’re meeting up with my dad and can’t seem to find him.”

“Who’s your dad?”

“Pastor Anderson.”

He pushed up his glasses, “Pastor Anderson? He’s here, just checked him in.” He paused, realizing he’d given out vital information. “Wait, the pastor’s daughter has been missing.” His eyes shot to me and then to Coyle’s dad. “You all need to come with me.” He placed a hand on his radio.

“Fred,” she read his nametag, “I have been missing, but now I’m found. I’m supposed to meet my dad here, in the safety of the kitchen, so I can finally go home. Could you take us there?” She flashed an irresistible smile and stepped closer to him. “I’d really appreciate it.”

“Uh, I... I can’t,” he said, but his eyes deceived him. They flicked to the last door on the left.

Jamie didn’t have a response. She hadn’t recognized his error and her physiology exuded nervousness. I had to intervene.

“Hey, who’s that?” I yelled and pointed down the hallway. He glanced and just as he did, I threw down some of my newly gained ventriloquism skills. “Wow, this door is open. Wanna go in?” I threw a garbled teen’s voice down the hall.” A concerned look came over him, and he turned to the back door. I bolted for the kitchen and pushed the door open. Jamie’s dad stood near the oversized refrigerator chatting with one of the cooks.

“Pastor Anderson, we could use your help out here,” I called into the kitchen. He caught sight of me and rushed to the door after me. I turned to see the guard moving back toward us.

“Did you all go through that door?” the guard yelled at Coyle’s dad and Jamie while pointing to the back doors.

“We were just walking around, waiting for my dad, and then we saw it open, so we figured we’d wait inside,” Jamie explained.

“That’s enough, come with me,” Fred said and went for my dad’s arm. The sight of that aggression set off my rage center. This couldn’t go that way. My chest muscles contracted simultaneously, and I grunted like an animal. I was about to tear this guard to shreds.

“Don’t worry, Freddy, these are friends and family,” Pastor Anderson said, as he pushed his way through the double doors and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. The pastor looked as if he’d aged by fifteen years. Heavy dark bags hung under his eyes, but he bore that same familiar and comforting smile.

“Dad!” Jamie exclaimed and collapsed into him. He caught her in his arms and began to weep. Jamie buried her face into his chest and took in his smell through the sobs.

“Jamie, oh Jamie.” The tears started to flow from both dad and daughter in an embrace. My rage subsided at the sight, quelled by the true demonstration of love.

“Sir, we—,” said Freddy.

Pastor Anderson interrupted, still holding his lost-and-now-found daughter, “Freddy,” he sniffled, “I won’t lie to you. My daughter and her friends are in serious trouble, and she knew this would be one of the only places we could find sanctuary. There are some very bad men after them, and if Jamie had registered at the entrance, those men would’ve known and come to kill each of them.”

Freddy’s eyes widened.

“So, I’m asking you to let this pass, for their sake and my sake. My daughter has returned; please don’t let them take her away again.”

Dad walked over to the pastor and hugged him around the shoulders because Jamie still hadn’t let go. Fred’s eyes shifted from each of ours.

“OK, pastor. But, next time let me know beforehand, and I’ll arrange your meeting.”

“Thank you, Freddy. Where’s the most private room we could speak in? No windows, please. Oh, and please don’t call the police. I’ll take care of that.”

“Follow me.” He led us down the hallway and into the second door on the right. Jamie remained locked on her dad. The room had a single metal desk and three rickety looking old wooden chairs. A small TV hung from the corner, and a refrigerator stood below it. A sturdy looking metal bookcase teeming with thickly bound archives stood in the other corner.

“What’s this room?”

“Our break room that we rarely have time to use. I’ll make sure no one comes in.”

“Thank you, Freddy. You quite literally spared our lives,” said the pastor. He moved over and hugged him. Freddy didn’t resist but also didn’t embrace him, and when the awkward hug had ended, he left without another word. I listened to his footsteps until he was out of earshot.

“Oh, my friends it’s so good to see your faces, bright and… alive,” the pastor said and raised his arms as if he was praising something or someone.

“Good to see you under my own influence, Greg,” said Coyle’s dad.

The pastor’s face darkened. “Did you extract them or are they still in?” he said, referring to the Somatotech implants in Jamie and Coyle’s dad.

“They’re still in, although we do have a device to block the signal,” I said.

“As soon as it’s safe, please get that device out of Jamie.”

“We will Dad, I promise. How’s Mom?” said Jamie.

“This has been the hardest time of our lives, Jamie. She’s handling it the best she can.”

Jamie turned to Coyle’s dad and I. “Could we have some alone time, Coyle?” she asked.

“Of course, Dad and I will be right outside.” Dad and I walked into the hallway and waited a few minutes. Sobs and laughter escaped the room as they formally reunited. I tried to focus on other things so I wouldn’t eavesdrop; their speech sounded clear as if they were standing next to me. Dad, never much one for small talk, kept quiet but gave me some curious looks as if he were sizing me up.

The door opened up behind us. “Your turn, Coyle,” said Jamie.

I stepped in with the intention of gleaning pieces of information on Somatotech I could use. But, when I saw the look on the pastor’s face, one of sincere concern, I knew this conversation would be more about me.

“Coyle, come here,” he said and motioned with his arms outstretched. While I’m not much of a hugger, except for Jamie, of course, I welcomed the gesture. Once his arms wrapped around me, I let down my emotional defenses, and the tears began to flow.  He permitted the tears that flowed onto his shoulder without a word.

“Things are so jacked up, pastor.” I broke our embrace and dropped into the closest chair. My shirt became my tissue, and I sopped up the tears on my face and the snot streaming out of my nose.

“Nothing we can’t remedy together, Coyle.” He sat down across from me. “You’ve experienced far too much for your age, my friend.”

“Far more than you know, I’ve…” I hesitated to verbalize the pain I’d experienced. “I’ve hurt a lot of people, with these hands.”

“Coyle, I can see the pain you’re experiencing. Guilt can be a heavy cross to bear, but you don’t have to carry it alone.”

“No one can take away what I’ve done, or what I’m sure I’ll do in the future.” I sniffled to hold in the stream trying to escape my nose.

“You’re right, I can’t reverse it, no one can. But, God has power over the past, present, and future, Coyle. He can lift that burden, he truly is all-powerful.”

The same God that allowed me, this monster, to be created? I’ll pass. I thought. I shook my head, and the pastor sighed.

“But we, you and I, can work on the future.” He reached out and squeezed my shoulder.  “The key is aggression, Coyle. Never be the aggressor. You have every right to defend yourself and those around you. Unfortunately, the line between defense and offense blurs in the heat of the fight. Dial your desire for revenge back to a low level, just enough to keep you sharp. You have an amazing blessing, Coyle. You have extreme control of your body. Use that to rein in your emotions. Use it to seek non-violent means for resolution. You’ll be stronger for it, I promise, you can control that rage inside.”

“That rage disappeared after my other died. Why’s that?”

“You had a very strong link with him. The anger he held inside likely transferred to you in those moments, for an unknown reason. Now that he is gone, the link has dissolved, that anger cannot affect you.”

“He’s back. I saw him. I connected with him,” I said and rubbed my temples.

“Jamie mentioned your dream. Has the anger returned?”

“I’ve flipped out, yeah.” I clenched my fists reflexively. “I, I get so angry.”

“We all get angry once in a while,” he said and motioned toward himself. I think he may have lied just then, I’d never seen him mad.

“Not like me. Not the anger of murder.” My eyes fixated on my hands, strong, violent, killer hands.

“Coyle, you’re not a murderer.”

“Tell that to the families of the guards I killed.”

“At Somatotech?” His brows curled in concern. He surely knew people had died when we extracted Jamie, but I could see that my confession shocked him.

“Getting Jamie out,” I said while choking up. Why did I have these emotions? Shouldn’t I be cold-hearted if I didn’t have a soul, just like my other?

The pastor sighed. “Coyle, I’m not going to pretend I understand the pain you’re feeling, nor am I going to tell you that you’ll be forgiven by doing this or that. But, I will tell you that many have experienced the conflict you’re going through, having to do awful things to defeat evil and then living with the pain that results.”

“Will it ever go away?”

“I can’t say it will, Coyle. It may recede, but there will always be a remembrance tucked in your heart. This isn’t a bad thing; you can use it going forward, to remind you to look for a better way.”

“I don’t think that’ll be enough to stop me from doing it again. That rage bursts out, and I can’t control myself; I turn into a monster. I, uh, nearly killed Aedan the other day. It has something to do with my other ” I couldn’t keep my eyes off the floor. They seemed paralyzed as if they were afraid to face someone good, someone, the opposite of me.

“You said there was a time when you didn’t have that rage. Tell me about that time.”

“The entire time between when my other died until he came back. I felt in control of my mind and emotions but then the rage came back like a vice I couldn’t kick, right when they revived him.”

“Is there a way to block it?”

“Not sure, but Somatotech has developed a way to block my connection, so maybe there is.”

“That should be one of our main missions, Coyle. If you can control that rage and focus on your true abilities, you’ll be the most powerful force for good in the world today.”

I didn’t feel like pondering my assumed savior state at the moment. That seemed so unreal after I nearly killed Aedan and beat the crap out of one of my own men.

I changed the subject, not wanting to continue the painful soul-searching, “Mr. Anderson, I need to know more about Somatotech and, considering your past, I think you’re the guy to give it to me.”

“What can I tell you?”

“Wait; let’s get Jamie and Dad in here.” I swung the door open and motioned for them to come in. Jamie noticed the trail of tears on my face and smiled respectfully.

I gave my seat to Jamie and turned to the pastor. “OK, so was there any indication they were cloning during your time there?”

“No, at least not that I was privy to. I had access to all of the major labs, and none of them were pursuing it. Really, only my lab was investigating anything close.”

“Close?”

“Remember? I led the stem cell therapy division for a few years. Dr. Tessel may have had the vision back then, but the technology lagged behind.”

“Well they have it now, and they’ve made at least a dozen copies of Coyle,” said Jamie.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve got this connection to other clones, well only Coyle’s clone, I can go into his mind and see, feel, and hear his surroundings. I can control everything about him. That’s how I rescued Jamie. I hadn’t connected for a while, but just a few days ago they got me into him, at least his brain. They wanted me to; they wanted to show me their work. There were so many freakin’ scary looking copies of me.

“Oh my,” his hand reflexively covered his mouth.

“Yeah, tell me about it. They’re all about to be unleashed on the town too. Oh and, just so you know, they plan on killing you.”

“Hmm, I wonder if they’re a better shot than Mrs. Anderson.” The left side of his mouth curled up in a sly smile.

“Dad!” said Jamie, but she couldn’t squash a smile as well. Her smile infected Dad and me, and soon we all laughed heartily. After a minute or so, Jamie hunched over with spasms in her belly from laughing.

“Life wouldn’t be tolerable without laughter, especially during difficult times, my friends,” the pastor said.

Honk. A sustained honk indicated the goons had arrived in the parking lot. The sound cut our laughter off abruptly. My nerves went on edge, and I exchanged a worried look with Coyle’s dad.

“What does that mean?” asked the pastor displaying his own concern.

“Means we only have a few minutes before they come in,” I said and glanced out into the hallway.

“Greg, before we leave is there anything else you’d like to tell us?” Coyle’s dad asked.

“There is one thing.” The pastor furrowed his brow in confusion. “The time frame is all off.”

“What do you mean?”

“Synthesizing an entire human off of reversed mucosal cells would take years. Your treatment only took a few months.” He swept his hand through his hair and stared at the floor. “They would need a larger sample direct from…” His eyes widened.

“What? From what?” Coyle’s dad asked.

“Bone marrow. But, not a normal biopsy, the volume wouldn’t be sufficient. They would need essentially all of your marrow. They didn’t irradiate your marrow, they must’ve extracted it. But still, they would need at least six months or more. Unless…” he trailed off.

“Unless what?”

“Unless they had or have a continuous donor.”

“What is that?” I asked, with growing concern.

“It means if they had a living being to produce cells on a continuous basis, then they could speed up the process. Maybe they developed the cells far enough to create bone marrow and then used that partial clone as a donor.”

“Or, I am the clone and Coyle remains the continuous donor, tucked in Somatotech’s basement,” I stated the obvious. Why would they go through the trouble of using a partial clone when they already have an apt donor, the originator?

“That could be true, but they still have to alter the original cells, and that’s too labor-intensive, whereas clone cells are already modified and ready for use.” He caught my eyes and stared into them. “Coyle, you are not a clone,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “Believe me.”

I wished I could believe him, but that thread of doubt had weaved deeply throughout my mind. It wasn’t even a doubt anymore; it was fact, sealed and confirmed in my mind. “I wish I could, pastor,” I whispered.

A knock came at the door. I motioned for Jamie, Coyle’s dad and the pastor to move behind me. I cracked the door open to see Freddy, the guard.

“There’s a bunch of suspicious men parked outside the seminary.”

I grinned at the thought of my men hanging out at the seminary. They hadn’t honked again, so I knew Somatotech’s goons hadn’t left their cars.

“Thanks for letting us know, Freddy. If they try to come in, please stall them,” said the pastor. Freddy nodded and walked back out front. I swung the door shut and turned to the pastor.

“OK, let’s get down to business. What’s the plan? How do we stop a company with more resources than many small countries?” asked Pastor Anderson.

“We need exposure. The public’s perception of Somatotech has to sour little by little before we spill all the dirty secrets.”

“And how do we do that?” asked Jamie.

“We have Dr. Strayer’s computer and on it, his exposé. He already did the research on Somatotech and died for it. All we need to add is the additional information we know, namely, that Somatotech is actually creating clones of dying cancer patients.”

“Then we’ll need a news source to break the story little by little,” said Coyle’s dad.

“I’m sure Somatotech has infiltrated most news companies by now. We’ll have to be careful who we leak it to,” I said while thinking about the different news companies. CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC had all had scandals tying them to different political and lobbying groups recently. They all played to the highest bidder. That was nothing new.

“The reporter who grilled Dr. Tessel at the press event seemed to have it in for him,” said my dad.

“Ah yeah, I remember. His name is Gary Middleton from News 4. Does he have national ties? This needs to go big.” He had questioned the ties between Mom and Somatotech at that conference as well.

“Not sure, but if not, we can try other ways to get it national.” My dad looked at the pastor expectantly.

The pastor rubbed his temples. “I could start a campaign in the churches as well. The Lutheran Church is adamantly against any forms of cloning, so I expect that support would be forthcoming. Children of God are meant to be created in the bonds of love, not in the bonds of a test tube.”

But yet, here I stand, a test tube clone, I thought.

“That’ll put you in their crosshairs, pastor. They’ll come after you,” I said, looking at Jamie, who was already frowning.

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. My friends and daughter, I feel this is my cross to bear. A cross I created myself from my past.”

Jamie turned away, and her shoulders began to shake. The pastor went to her and lightly squeezed her shoulders.

“Honey, this fight is much bigger than all of us. Our lives, our sacrifice, can bring light into this world, illuminating the dark actions of those who strive to act as God.”

“Save the sermon, Dad. I know you believe in all that but look at it from my perspective. I’ll lose you. I’ll have to go through my life without a dad. Who knows? They may kill mom as well. Do you want me to be an orphan?”

“Jamie’s right. There’s no need to risk your life. You say it’s your cross to bear, but it’s not. It’s my cross, my burden. I’m the one,” I said with all the confidence I could muster.

“You can’t do this alone. All that will bring is more bloodshed,” he said, looking at me intently.

I couldn’t speak because I knew it was true. I looked to Jamie again as if to say, “I tried.” She glared at me.

“Well,” I said, “If we’re going to do this, we have to be smart about it,” I said to the pastor. “Anonymity is key, especially for you, pastor. Write an anonymous sermon on the evil of cloning and distribute it throughout the church. Don’t mention Somatotech outright. That way the company won’t pick up on it at first. Later, we’ll rely on our leak to the news to blow up Somatotech’s practices. Jamie, could you start a social media campaign? We’ll make a video about me. But, Jamie, we have to tell the truth. It will only work if they see me as I truly am: a clone.” My dad’s mouth dropped like a rock.

Before he could speak, Jamie jumped in, “So we lie?”

“It’s not a lie, Jamie, c’mon.” I shook my head, tired of their insistence on my identity. “Besides, the impact won’t be there if they don’t believe I’m a clone. What evidence would we have?”

“Fine, Coyle. Whatever you think is best,” she said sharply. “But, we’ll do it together. It’ll have more force if I’m in it as well. The kidnaped girlfriend revealing the truth about her supposed clone boyfriend has a nice angle.” She wiped a few tears slipping down her face.

Dad looked expectantly at the pastor, hoping he would provide a rebuttal. Instead, he shook his head and gazed at the floor.

“This is the only way. Dad, we need you in it as well, denouncing me as your son.”

Dad shot up to his feet and swung his hand at my face. I dodged backward and let his hand fly by. “I’ll never, ever…” He couldn’t finish the sentence because heavy sobs interrupted him.

No one spoke for a moment as Coyle’s dad composed himself.

“OK, fine,” I said relenting. “But, you, pastor need to explain your work and how it could’ve led to Somatotech’s current doings.”

“That will implicate him, Coyle, he can’t do that,” said Jamie.

“No, Jamie, he’s right, I have to face my past. I’m innocent in that I couldn’t have ever realized their evil intentions for my work at the time but, my work did contribute.”

Just as I nearly finalized the plans for the video, the lights shut off. Jamie squeaked out a muted scream, but everyone else had sense to stay quiet. Only a sliver of light entered through the gap under the door, although I still could see easily. The others in the room stumbled about trying to find each other.

The car horn sounded once and then stayed blaring. That wasn’t part of our code. The hairs on my neck stood on end.

Two persons’ footsteps approached, so I pushed my friends back behind the desk. A shadow crossed the light, and the doorknob began to turn. I shuffled to the hinge side of the door as it opened and readied myself to come down on whoever entered.

“Pastor?” Freddy entered the room. “We’ve had a power outage.” He stood at the door well and stared at me with his brows furrowed. “Wait, how’d you get in here?” He looked back into the hallway.

“What do you mean? I’ve been in here all alo—“ Freddy’s body flying across the room and slamming against the far wall cut me off. I saw the leg that kicked him; it moved with but such power only a clone could accomplish. In charged one of Coyle’s clones, whipping his gun at Pastor Anderson. I snapped into action, swinging my leg in front of me and contacting his leg. The gun jerked from his hand, and he stumbled, but he continued onto the pastor. The clone laid down a fury of punches on the pastor’s face behind the desk before I could pull him back. I wrapped my arm around his neck and flipped back, throwing him into the wall.

“Run!” I yelled as the clone regained his footing. Dad grabbed Pastor Anderson and stumbled towards the door. Large welts began to form on the pastor’s face. Jamie cowered under the table, frozen in indecision. The clone kicked the door closed before they could escape and lunged in front of them. He grinned before knocking Coyle’s dad out with a clean unprotected punch. His arms moved deliberately, and I sensed a slight delay as if he had to think before he acted. His punch had power, sure, but it was no faster than anyone else’s. His movements were too easy to predict. He gripped the pastor by the arm and spun him into his chest.  His other hand snapped to the pastor’s neck and cupped his trachea.

“Stay down, Coyle. Or the prophet dies.”

I closed my eyes to focus on controlling him. His presence was there, I could feel it near my mind, so I forced my will on his. Our minds connected, but there was no transmission. My commands met a wall just as I had experienced before.

“You have no power over us, chosen one,” he spoke with my voice, but it sounded as if the words were fed to him. Jamie scooted over to the wall closest to the door as he spoke.  She’d eyed the gun he’d dropped near the corner of the room.

“I may not, but seems someone else does. How does it feel to be a mule?”

“I have no emotions AM1; I have no need for them.” He scooted towards the door, dragging the pastor. “Now, step back or the prophet dies. NOW!”

“OK, OK!” I said loudly to mask Jamie’s movements behind them. I held my hands up in concession. I didn’t look directly at Jamie, so as not to tip him off to her presence. Her hand slipped onto the gun, and she aimed it at the clone.

“Wait! How are you controlling him?” I asked to stall him before they escaped out the door. If Jamie pulled the trigger now, her dad would likely be shot again, and I doubted he could survive another. The thought of both his daughter and wife shooting him nearly caused my lips to curl in a grin, but the seriousness of the situation squashed the thought in an instant. The clone stared at me for a second then curled up a menacing smile.

“You taught us, AM1. And you were an excellent teacher.”

Jamie thought better of firing at the clone and grabbed a large book from the bookcase that had collapsed during the scuffle.

“I think you need a few more lessons,” I said grinning while watching Jamie through the corner of my eye.

She came down on his head with the book. It stunned him for just a second, long enough for me to dive forward, rip his hand off the pastor’s neck and spin it around. The familiar sound of snapping bones escaped his arm, close to his wrist, and he went down. A quick kick to his face while down and he was out.

Jamie lunged for her dad and cupped his face in her hands. “Dad, are you OK?”

“I’m OK, but your dad, Coyle. Is he?”

I moved over to him and checked his pulse, not that I needed to, I could hear his heart beating steadily and his regular breathing. Freddy’s body produced no such sound.

“He’s out but not gone.”  My eyes shifted from my dad and back over to Freddy.

Jamie followed my gaze. “Is he?”

I nodded, and she covered her face with her hands.

“Can you save him?” asked the pastor.

I moved over to him and placed my ear to his chest. I could hear the blood flowing slowly just above and around his still heart. I moved him slightly and heard the slosh of blood in his chest, moving freely. His aorta had been damaged. There was nothing I could do.

“We gotta go, I… I can’t do anything for him,” I said and stood up, a grave look on my face. The pastor shook his head and pursed his lips.

A chair flew by the door, followed by sounds of a scuffle. I glanced down the hall in the direction the chair came had come from. Stefan and one of his men stood over two men in suits. Stefan’s hand remained locked on the Taser he’d just used on the goons. Blood seeped from both their faces and their eyes were closed, but I could hear their hearts beat steadily.

I hefted dad over my shoulder and trudged into the hallway with the pastor and Jamie behind me.

“Wait, Coyle, what do we do with him?” the pastor said, pointing to the unconscious clone on the ground.

“Let him receive the justice he deserves. Maybe it will appease the public for a while.” Right then it hit me how big of a tactical error Somatotech had made. First, sending only one clone and two of their goons in seemed reckless, although they likely didn’t expect me to be here. Maybe this was just a test run. Second, now we have the power of evidence, that there are multiple clones.

“Pastor, do you have a cellphone with you?” I rested my dad down on the wall, and Jamie moved forward to support his head.

“Yeah, why?” He extracted his iPhone from his pocket. “Oh, crap,” he said inspecting his now cracked-screen phone.

I grabbed it from his hand and turned it on. Gratefully, the screen still worked. Through the splinters, I found the camera app and snapped a pic of me next to the unconscious clone. The ultimate selfie.

“Whatever you do, don’t lose that pic.” I tossed him back the phone. I had the upper hand now.

“Why don’t we take him with us? Back to the compound?” Jamie asked.

“He may have a tracker on him we can’t block. That’d be the death of all of us. The pic has to be enough.”

“But, we could get something out of him, Coyle. Something to help us.”

“We’d have to make sure he doesn’t have a tracker.”

“And how would we do that?” she asked.

Before I could answer, a click emanated from the clone and clone’s heart stopped.

“What’s wrong, Coyle?”

“He’s dead. They terminated him somehow.” The pastor’s mouth dropped open.

Just then, Stefan rushed to the break room.

“Everyone all right?” His gaze shifted from Coyle’s dad to the clone. “My men were attacked, but gratefully they’re all alive.”

“Dang it!” I yelled at no one in particular. I didn’t want them to be involved. I looked around at the carnage around us. “Dad’s gonna be OK, but the clone, he’s gotta take the fall for all of this. How do we make that happen?”

“Without the pastor involved it will be tricky. The whole place knows he’s here. So either he stays here and waits for the police or comes with us,” said Stefan.

“Come with us, Dad, please. We’re safe where we are, we’ll get mom there too,” Jamie grabbed her dad’s arm.

“Jamie, if I leave I’ll be a fugitive. I need to field this. The clone barged in, killed our friend and attacked me. There’s no foul play on my part.”

“No, pastor, you can’t mention the clone. And, I worry the police who come will not be actual police, but a Somatotech crew. If they arrest you, they’ll kill you.”

“So, where do I go?”

“Home, go about your day like this never happened. Somatotech will want to erase all of this. They’ll have a cleaner here in a couple minutes with the police, I guarantee it.”

“Dad, don’t do it, come with us, now!” Jamie urged.

“Coyle’s right. I can’t stay here, but for our plan to work I can’t go with you either. My fate is sealed at the moment.”

“It’s time to go, pastor, I’ll get you home.” Stefan directed the pastor toward the kitchen with a firm hand on the back.

“Dad!” Jamie screamed as I directed her down the hall with my dad over my shoulder.

“It has to be this way, Jamie. Coyle will take care of you,” the pastor said while turning his head over his shoulder looking back at her.

“Why can’t you?” she yelled back.

He had no response, and Stefan pushed him through the kitchen doors.

31  Action and Reaction

Once we were out of 5GMax tower coverage and had flipped off the cell jammer around Jamie’s wrist, I called Angelfire. He clicked away on his computer for less than thirty seconds and found me Gary Middleton’s cell, home and office phone numbers. I thanked him, hung up, and dialed Gary’s cell.

Jamie and Coyle’s dad looked on while I held the phone to my ear. He answered on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Gary Middleton?” I recognized his voice and remembered the tone he had at the press conference.

“Yes, who’s this?”

“I’ll tell you who I am at the end of our conversation.”

“Oooh how mysterious! I’m hanging up now.”

“I’ve got information that will destroy Somatotech,” I rattled off before he could hang up.

He didn’t respond for a moment. “And…”

“And what,”

“And what is it?”

“I can’t give it to you over the phone.”

“OK, can you give me a little teaser and then email the rest to me? I’m kinda busy right now for this charade.”

“No email, ever, and this is the last phone call.”

“Is big brother making you nervous?”

“If you only knew. Gary, we’ve got information that will sink Somatotech, and I want you to write an exposé using the material.”

“So, you’re telling me what to do?”

“I’m confident you’ll arrive at the same conclusion. But, I have to be sure you’re on the right side.”

“The right side?”

“We can’t risk being exposed, at least not yet. If you do anything like alert the authorities or even worse Somatotech themselves, we’ll be forced to end your career.”

“First you tell me what to do and now you’re threatening me. You’re luring me into this so well,” he said sarcastically.

“There’s a much greater threat out there, Gary. Would you like the information or not?”

“Yes, of course, I’d take anything on that sleazy pile of crap,” he relented. “But, who are you and how will I get it?”

“We’ll get it to you when the time is right. As for who I am, you met me at a press conference at Somatotech once.”

“More smoke and mirrors, great,” he said, drawing out the last word. “You know I have to verify my sources. Just as you’re vetting me, I’ll have to vet you.”

“You’ll have your chance. I’ll see you soon with the material. In the meantime, I suggest you start researching the ties between the army and Somatotech.”

I hung up before he could utter another word. I glanced at my watch, three minutes fifty-five seconds.

I looked to Jamie and Coyle’s dad but didn’t feel like saying anything. We remained silent for the rest of the ride.

“Coyle, you need to check the news. The snake is receiving a great award,” the Doña grabbed me right as I entered the Hacienda.

“What?”

“Come with me,” said the Doña. We started toward the kitchen.

“Where did you get this?” asked Stefan behind us. He had noticed the cell jammer on Jamie’s wrist as we walked down the hallway.

“Roxanne gave it to me when Coyle and I were headed into town. It’s to keep me from flipping out.”

Stefan’s eyes widened, and his jaw clenched. He tried to sound unconcerned, “Oh, Jamie, we’ve better cell jammers than that one. Here, let’s swap it out. The one we have wraps around your thigh.” He glared at me. I understood his anger, how could we trust Roxanne and her crew when they’re taking orders from a company that likely is just as evil as Somatotech?

I mouthed the word “sorry” and Stefan disappeared into the house with Jamie.

The Doña led me into my room, down the hatch, and into the monitoring room. She flipped open a small laptop, and the screen instantly turned on displaying a login screen. She noticed the concern that grew on my face. “Angelfire has ensured me this is untraceable. Relax, my friend.”

She returned to the laptop and with a few clicks she pulled up a page from The Atlantic with the headline, “Winning the fight against cancer. Dr. Tessel, the soon-to-be Nobel laureate.”

“Dang. You gotta be kidding me,” I said, scanning the page for more details.

“No kid, in four weeks that man will claim medicine’s greatest prize. But,” She placed her hand on my shoulder, “you, the savior, will bring him down before this atrocity can occur, right?”

“Doña, don’t call me the savior. I’m not that … at times I think I’m more a threat than a savior.”

“You’ll become a savior, Coyle. Your heart will lead you there, I promise.”

My heart? All I knew and all I could feel was a deep urge to destroy Somatotech. If that makes me a savior, then so be it.

Stefan approached me as I emerged from the trap door in my room.  A computer chip and wires dangled from his hand.

He didn’t need to tell me, I recognized it as a GPS device. Roxanne had tracked us through the cell jammer she’d given Jamie.

“Do we need more evidence, Coyle?” he said and tossed me the components while we walked toward the front door.

“No, we don’t. I know they have their own goals, but we need them to hit Somatotech, it has to be coordinated. We’ll use them for that purpose and then discard them.”

As if on cue, Roxanne strolled into the hacienda before we could exit.

“You may find this interesting,” she said and handed Stefan a single sheet of paper.

He hesitated for a moment before snapping it out of her hand. His eyes scanned down the sheet and widened reflexively.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s… it’s a list of the top scientists at Somatotech.”

“So? We already know many of them.”

“It has their home addresses, email addresses, their phone numbers, family members’ names, past employers, aye dios mio.”

“How?” I glanced at Roxanne before ripping the paper from Stefan’s hands.

“We’ve had surveillance on the entire company, from the custodial staff to Dr. Tessel himself for over a year. They’ve tried to hide their scientists, but everyone needs fresh air once in a while. We made sure to be there when they did.”

“Why are you giving us this now?”

“Sorry for the delay, my friends. We had to verify each one before passing it on to you. Coyle, we’re on the same mission, we hope sharing information between us and you will become more frequent.”

“We’re glad to have you on board. Thank you for this.” I raised up the paper.

“We’re not done, clone of Coyle. Take a look outside.” She turned and walked out of the kitchen. We followed her out and as soon as we opened the door Stefan’s mouth dropped open.

Laid out on two large white sheets were thirty weapons, ranging from knives to fully automatic rifles. Our men hovered around the sheets, gawking at the gleaming arsenal.

“Compliments of our benefactor,” said Roxanne with a wide grin. Aedan came up from behind and laid a few more rifles on the sheet. Striker and Jarom sauntered up with boxes of ammunition.

“Why? We have a safe full of weapons,” asked Stefan.

“It won’t be enough, Stefan,” said Roxanne. “I promise. You’re declaring war with Somatotech, so you’ll need an arsenal to match. Besides, clones don’t go down like normal humans. You’ll need some very specialized equipment to take them out.”

One of our men picked up a specialized M16s and inspected the scope.

“Put that down,” Stefan yelled and grabbed the weapon from his hands.

“But, Stefan, shouldn’t we accept this great gift?” he asked.

Many of the men nodded in agreement, and Stefan shot a look at me. If I rejected the gift, I would demonstrate strength and alienate Roxanne. If I accepted it, I would make the men trust Roxanne and her crew and potentially bring on unnecessary risk. I knew what Stefan wanted me to do, but I just couldn’t. Roxanne saved Jamie, helped me rip free of Manuel’s clutches and aided in rescuing Coyle’s dad. It was obvious I needed them, we all needed them.

“Thank you, Roxanne, these will be put to good use,” I said and lifted up one of the tactical knives. The men in turn picked up the weapons and inspected them eagerly.

“Our pleasure.” She bowed to me and then raised her voice, “but Coyle, we need to talk about our mission, the one you promised to help us with.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve got a few things to take care of right now, but I’ll find you.”

Everyone stared at me, even my own men, not satisfied with my response.

“I’ll go in his stead,” Aedan spoke up.

“No, Aedan, c’mon—”

“We’d be happy to have you,” said Roxanne, interrupting me.

Striker glanced at Jarom and furrowed his brow. Red Cloud smirked.

“That’s so freakin’ stupid, dude. Do ya think your mom or your sister would want you to risk your life like that?”

“Stupid? Really, Coyle? Stupid is you selecting who can and cannot fight. Besides, you know my mom doesn’t give a crap what I do.”

“Dude, think of the pain they’d feel if you died. Remember what that’s like? To have someone you love taken from you because of their stupid, irrational, self-destructive behavior?”

Aedan stared at me with his eyes fixed. They began to gloss over, and his nostrils flared. He knew who I meant. His father, the junkie who died from AIDS contracted from a dirty needle, left his family by his own doing.

“I’m gonna walk away now before I deck you, Coyle.”

I opened my mouth to shut his but thought better. I knew the rage I held inside would be unleashed if I allowed it.

Roxanne nodded to me, interlocked her arm in Aedan’s, and pulled him down to the guesthouse.

Everyone shot their eyes to the ground except for Jamie. She came over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

“You’re right, Coyle. He’s being reckless. But, you proving it won’t change his mind.”

“What can I do?” I asked Jamie.

“I’m not sure you can do anything now. He’s going on that mission no matter what you say.”

“Then I have to convince Roxanne our plan is better,” I said, knowing that would be nearly impossible.

“Good luck with that,” Stefan interjected.

I shook my head and rubbed my temples to relieve the building headache. “Men, gather these weapons and haul them to our armory.” A few of them jumped into action, hefting multiple weapons into their arms. “Check each of them for trackers, though,” I said, flipping the knife in my hand.

“We should see if the Doña has a camera we could use for our little exposé video,” I said to Jamie after we returned to the hacienda.

We found the Doña in the kitchen, and she led us into the map room. There she set up a small digital video camera pointing at a dark blue sheet hanging from the ceiling. Two stools stood in front of the screen.

“OK, my budding movie stars, do you a have script?”

We had reviewed each of our parts on the drive back to the hacienda after my conversation with Gary Middleton. Jamie directed most of it, just like she had with our project on DNA before the diagnosis. Except that was with the real Coyle, not me, not his copy. I had to keep reminding myself that the memories I have from before were implanted; they weren’t my own.

Jamie sat down in front of the corner and took a deep breath. Her eyes glazed as if she were about to cry, but she suppressed it with a quick breath and put on a determined face. She nodded and the Doña pressed record.

For a moment, she just stared at the lens reflecting back at her. Her eyes flicked to me and then back to the camera. “My name is Jamie Anderson,” she said with a clear voice, “You may recognize me as the girl kidnaped a month ago. I know there has been an exhaustive search for me, for which I am grateful. The truth is I was kidnaped, but not by Coyle Murray, but by Somatotech, the company that treated my boyfriend. They kidnaped me as they wanted to capture Coyle because he was close to exposing them for what they are. Today, I’m safe because of Coyle. I’m at an undisclosed location, known only to those who protect me, and now I would like to introduce you to someone.”

I walked in front of the camera and sat down next to Jamie.

“I’m not who you think I am. I call myself Coyle, but I am not him. Somatotech cloned Coyle to make me. They cloned many of the cancer patients they claimed to treat. Dr. Tessel and Somatotech don’t cure cancer; they replace the patient. I went under extensive subconscious and conscious training to assume Coyle’s life. They may claim Coyle’s twin committed crimes and die in prison, but I am here to tell you the truth. He was another clone, a clone trained to kill.

“Somatotech doesn’t work alone. The United States Army not only funds a large portion of their operations, but also participates in the training of the clones. A Col. Stevens personally taught me how to use many different firearms.

“We need your help to bring to light these atrocities. Dr. Tessel will be receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine soon after this video is released.  At the same time, we are releasing a report written by the late Dr. Strayer, Coyle’s oncologist, detailing the US Army’s connection with Somatotech.  Me, Coyle’s clone, I will give myself up at that ceremony.”

Jamie shot me a look but returned her gaze to the camera.

I continued, “Please join us as a united voice against Dr. Tessel and Somatotech.  Soon, a journalist will release an expose with concrete evidence of Somatotech’s wrongdoings. We’ve also started a petition to urge all applicable organizations to investigate Somatotech and Dr. Tessel.”

The movie faded to black.

Jamie’s eyes had fury in them, and she raised her hand to slap me. She held back knowing it wouldn’t connect. “Turn yourself in? What are you talking about?”

“The world will need verification, physical evidence of Somatotech’s crime. I’m that evidence.”

“We’ve got plenty of evidence, Coyle. What about that picture you took with the clone? What about Dr. Strayer’s report? And, and this video! That’s plenty, Coyle. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself. Don’t be that guy. The guy who needs to lose.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You feel like you have to feel pain, to lose, to make up for the pain we’ve all felt.”

I couldn’t speak. She’d hit it spot on. I did feel responsible for the suffering, but I knew it wasn’t all my fault. What about Coyle’s dad? What about the pastor? They’d set this all in motion by giving up Coyle to Somatotech’s treatment. The difference was that I could actually do something about it; I’m the evidence, the proof of their dealings. So, yeah, I’d bear that burden and take the fall.

Jamie stared at me, and I stared back. We understood each other at that moment. I knew she was right, and she knew that I’d made up my mind.

“The path we’re on now Coyle will end with me losing you, you know that, right? That’s your choice!” Her eyes beamed up at me.

“You can’t say that. We don’t know where it will lead,” I said.

She feigned a slight smile and cast her eyes down. I grasped her shoulders and gave a light squeeze.

“Coyle, you’re leading yourself down this path.”

“Good! Jamie, I’m not trapped by some presumed purpose. My life has no purpose. I’m not even supposed to exist.”

“Don’t talk like that, Coyle; we all have a purpose in this life.”

“I agree, you all do.” I motioned to her and the Doña. “Humans born naturally probably do, some divine purpose set up before this world was, but I’m not one of you. I’m a clone. I can determine my own purpose, my own fate.”

The Doña walked over to me, rested her warm hand on my shoulder and let out a sustained breath before speaking quietly, “And what do you choose?”

“You’ve said it before, and now I’ve chosen to accept it. I choose to save.”

“I think that is your divine purpose, my young friend.” Her hand squeezed my shoulder lightly.

“Divinity has nothing to do with me, Doña.”

Her lips curled in a slight grin, and she gazed at the floor.

“Doña, don’t egg him on in this. He doesn’t have to sacrifice himself.”

The Doña only pursed her lips and then spoke, “Upstairs we go, we’ve got other work to do,” she paused, looked to me and said, “Savior.”

32  Fight Club

I needed to discuss our little arrangement with Roxanne, especially now that we had a definitive plan on our side. I found both her and Aedan hanging out near one of the trees in the front yard.

“Hey,” I said, not sure what else to say.

“Hey,” said Aedan, giving me a slight nod. Roxanne remained silent, but a slight grin grew on her face.

“Um, could I talk to you, for a moment?” I said, looking at Roxanne.

“I'm assuming you don’t want me here?” said Aedan.

“Nah man, you can stay.”

“Now you’re ordering me to stay?”

“No, c’mon Aedan, I didn’t say that. If you wanna stay, just stay.” I shook my head in disgust, tired of these shenanigans.

“I’ll let you almighty bosses talk,” he said and squeezed Roxanne’s hand before strutting up to the hacienda.

“Are you two, you know—?”

“Coyle, I sense that you and your men do not trust us,” she said, avoiding the dating subject.

“I can’t say we do,” I said. “You’re at the beck and call of just another company with similar aspirations.”

“Medital has the best interests of the human race at heart. Our mutual enemy, Somatotech, does not. Our cooperation will ensure their crap won’t continue,” said Roxanne. “So, before we take you on our little kidnapping adventure, we’re gonna have to teach you to fight.”

“If I go, remember.  Anyway, I know how to fight. I bet I’m quicker than any of you.”

“Speed is only a small part of the fighting pie, Coyle. What if I told you I could predict each of your so-called ‘fast’ punches or kicks?”

“Not possible,” I said but she wasn’t lying. She stared directly into my eyes. She even tilted her head back slightly so I could observe her heart rate from her neck. She was dead serious.

“Haven’t you wondered how you’ve never been able to touch me? How each time you do, I end up putting you on the floor? I know how your fists are coming, making it easy to exploit your form. Watch. Try to punch or kick me.”

“Right now?”

“No, tomorrow, Coyle. C’mon, give it to me.”

“No whining about me hitting a girl, OK?”

“Likewise, no whining after I knock the livin’ daylights out of you.”

I stepped back and readied myself. This was the first time I’d thought about my stance and form. I couldn’t remember if I led with my left foot or my right. Did I step into her when I punch?  Or, would she be expecting that? She looked relaxed yet menacing standing there all covered in her garb. I decided that moving around would probably be the best tactic, so I danced around like many of the MMA fighters I had seen.

Roxanne chuckled as she turned to keep eye contact with me. I sped up rotating around her until the centripetal force started to pull me out. For a millisecond I made it out of her view, so I threw a jab at her face. Her arm met mine and deflected it with a simple swipe. With her arm out, I thought I could squeeze a fist into her belly but she grabbed my wrist and spun around, twisting my arm to my back. I flipped over with her hand still gripped tightly on my wrist, pinned against my back. Face down on the ground I went. She dropped a knee on my back, keeping me at bay.

“OK, uncle,” I said while trying to shake her off. She pressed harder. “C’mon, lay up.”

“Sounds like whining to me,” she said and stood up, giving me an extra little shove on the way up.

“So, are you gonna show me how you did that?” I said, as I jumped to my feet and brushed off the dust that caked my pants and shirt.

“Everyone’s muscles have learned to operate in a certain way. We all have muscle memory. That’s how we walk, talk, eat, write and do other repetitive movements with efficiency and form. Fighting is similar, although most people haven’t developed muscle memory for throwing punches and kicks. Still, people move their muscles in predictable ways. Look at their movements, the way they favor one leg or the other. Observe the contractions of their muscles, their speed, and their bulk. Your mind can calculate their muscle volume, body mass index, and mechanics simply with observation. With that information, you can derive the speed and force of their attacks. By observing their casual movements, you can predict their fighting style and their form. Couple this with our greatly enhanced reaction times and you should never lose a fight, ever. Trust me, I never have. But, remember, some fights are not worth fighting. You need to learn which; otherwise you will hurt the wrong people or die, sort of." She winked.

“So you just look at people and you can tell how they fight?”

“With a few minutes of observation I’ll have enough information to give me the edge. That’s made all the difference in my fights with Somatotech.”

Fights with Somatotech, I thought. Roxanne had gone through the same training as I, with one exception. She had completed hand-to-hand combat as well.  "What did you do?"

"When?"

"Whenever they decided not to train the rest of us in hand-to-hand combat because of you?" That part of my training at ST went conspicuously missing.

"They installed the electronic submission system after me as well." A wry grin slipped across her lips. "Mrs. Tolbert, that training witch, had been forcing me to say some stupid phrase and I couldn't take it anymore. This was right after my first hand-to-hand training session, and I knew I could incapacitate her, to stop the torture, and so I reacted. I jabbed her just as I hit you near that cell tower, right on the trachea, under the voice box. She lost her balance and crashed through the glass door behind her. Her trachea collapsed, she couldn't breathe.” She paused to take a deep breath and closed her eyes.  “And then blood began to seep from the thousands of cuts on her back and head. She died right in front of me. All I wanted to do was stop saying it, I..." She couldn't continue, tears ran down her face and into her mouth. She paused to wipe them away. "She would have died soon anyway."

"Roxanne, that couldn't have happened. Mrs. Tolbert helped trained me; I saw her, I knew her."

She wiped the tears from her face again and replied, "You saw one of the Mrs. Tolberts. By my estimation, there are at least three or four. They keep dying; something about the cloning process doesn't work well with older adults."

"Wait, they’re all clones?”

“Yep, including your beloved Mr. Collins,” she said, sensing my next question.

Mr. Collins, my personal trainer, my friend during capacitation, was a clone?

“So, what do they die of?"

"Cancer. Spreads all over their clone bodies." She paused to wrap the scarf over her face, now dry. "Ironic isn't it? The very therapy that is supposed to cure cancer breeds cancer in the clones it creates, at least in adults. Although who knows, maybe we’ll get it someday as well."

My own health didn’t concern me; I didn’t really have a future anyway. Adult clones are more susceptible to the process for whatever reason, and Mr. Collins had told me he was dying of cancer, he wasn’t lying to me. Maybe Somatotech had actually promised him “the cure” in exchange for my cooperation.

“Well, enough talk, you need practice. Let’s go observe someone.” She smiled and sauntered out of the garage. I followed, and we found a tree near the guesthouse. Red Cloud tinkered with their van’s door below.

Roxanne pointed to him and the pointed to her eyes. I watched his movements, how his muscles contracted and relaxed. He walked over to the guesthouse to retrieve tools. I noticed he pushed off with his left foot when he started walking; also, he was right-handed but preferred his left arm when tightening nuts on the van door. After a few minutes, Roxanne hopped down.

“Hey Red Cloud, wanna spar?” she yelled out and he looked up.

“With you?” He pointed to Roxanne. “No, thanks.” He went back to working on the door.

“Not me, the chosen one.” She pointed to me high up in the tree.

“Hmm, been watching me? Think that little training session with Roxy will make you a better fighter than me?”

“Only one way to find out,” I said and dove out of the tree, rolling out of the landing to a few feet from him. He snorted as if he wasn’t impressed.

“Let’s get this outta the way. I gotta finish this crap.” He gestured at the door then dropped the crescent wrench to the ground. At least he won’t kill me with that hunk of metal, I thought.

“Gentlemen, please take your places in the open field,” said Roxanne, imitating an announcer’s voice.

Adrenaline surged through me as we walked the few yards to open ground. I can do this, I thought. My confidence faded as I noticed Red Cloud’s muscles were at least double the size of mine. He turned around and assumed a fighting position, with one leg in front of him and his chest angled away from me. I readied myself as well, putting my fists up like a boxer. Red Cloud grinned.

“Ding, ding, ding,” said Roxanne, obviously pleased with this little exhibition.

Red Cloud didn’t hesitate. His fists came strong and straight at my face. I blocked the first one by sheer luck, but the second made contact just below my left eye. The impact pushed me back and brought swirling lights to my vision, but I kept my balance and led with my own strike. He blocked it with a simple swipe and led in again, pushing off with his left leg, stepping once before letting his fists fly. I parried to the side and let him try again.  Two steps again, opening up a short window that I could take advantage. I let his fist hit me in the chest, knocking me back. I knew exactly how hard he punched and where the force came from. My mind took the data about his style and formulated a plan.

“I know what you’re doing, Coyle. I’m doing the same.” He grinned and stepped back, staring at me. “Who do you think taught me?”

He jumped toward me, pushing off both feet and extending his knee out just as I tried to push him away. His knee rammed into my right shoulder, sending me spinning to the ground. He knew I couldn’t defend that particular attack well, that my left hand didn’t respond as quickly as my right.

“You’re not learning fast enough, Coyle,” he said taking a few steps back to let me up.

Little did he know that my mind loved crunching the data he’d just given me. I put together more moves in my head. I stepped toward him, and he jumped back, placing him on his right foot. He swung as I came closer, but he lacked power because he couldn’t push off his left foot. I easily deflected his punch, jabbed him in the stomach, and followed it up with a sweeping kick to his right leg. As he flipped in the air, I connected two more times, once to his ribs and the other on his back. He landed hard on his shoulder and rolled onto his back, the air knocked clean out of him.

“Oh, I think I’m learning plenty quickly,” I said and extended my hand to help him up. He grabbed it, still gasping for air.

“Solid work, clone of Coyle. You’re ready,” said Roxanne.

“Ready for what?”

“You haven’t forgotten our side of the takedown, have you?”

“Yeah, ‘bout that.” I brushed off the dirt from my pants. “We’ve decided to appeal to the public, Roxanne. Take our story global.”

The smile Roxanne bore from the fight dissolved away, replaced with a stone cold stare.

“Why’s that?” she said monotone.

“I’ve analyzed it over and over. Your tactic will eventually lead to an investigation, just like ours, and it will reveal exactly what we can reveal right now. Why not skip to the real news that can lead to real action?”

“Because our lives as we know it will die with that news, Coyle.” Her eyes bore into mine, but her face showed no emotion.

“Our lives? What lives do we have? We’re clones; we’re living someone else’s life.”

Her eyes shifted slightly, and her heart rate picked up for a millisecond and then returned to an even pace.

I continued, “After we reveal them, you can take off and go into hiding somewhere in South America or the Caribbean. They’ll never find you, you’re smarter than them.”  Sure, she could leave, but I intended to be the face of the revolt.

“I’m not running away, Coyle.” She shook her head in disgust.

“It’s not running away. Once we’ve accomplished our goal, we’ll be free.”

“So, just to be clear. You won’t participate in our mission?” she asked while taking a small step toward me.

I shook my head and pursed my lips before speaking, “Sorry, Roxanne, I just don’t think it’s the right way to go.”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she turned to Red Cloud and made a signal with her hands with her back towards me. I couldn’t quite make out the signal with her back turned and the dark of night beginning to grow. It looked as if she swiped from one shoulder down to her flank. Red Cloud walked off after a curt nod.

“OK, clone of Coyle. What’s your plan and how can we help?” She smiled without the slightest hint of deceit.

“Uh, change of heart?” I furrowed my brow and turned my head to the side.

“You’re critical to bringing down Somatotech.  If we don’t have you in our mission, we’ll join yours.” She flashed another quick smile.

“But, you just told me our lives would end,” I said, squinting one eye.

“Change of heart, I trust that you know what you’re doing. Plain and simple. So, what’s your plan?”

“OK,” I said slowly. I went through our plan to reach out to the reporter, distribute the video, and publically expose Dr. Tessel at the Nobel Prize ceremony. I didn’t reveal my plan to give myself up. She listened intently without questioning. At times, she even looked bored, as if my plan didn’t register, or maybe she just didn’t care.

“Got it?” I asked, expecting her to want a recap.

“Of course. Would you like it if my crew made a video as well?”

It would be helpful to have more evidence on tape, the more clones, the better, I thought. “Sure, or you could join ours.”

“Deal, we’ll make our own. What’s the timeline?”

“We’ve already made our video and I’m gonna meet up with Gary Middleton tomorrow. I don’t plan on revealing everything to him until I know he’s on our side and not in Somatotech’s pockets.”

“He’s not,” she said abruptly.

“How can you be sure?”

“We know everyone who’s funded by Somatotech, and he’s not.”

I stood there with my mouth slightly agape. Medital has dug deep, from each and every scientist to even investigating the press. Medital held many cards, but I’m sure Somatotech guarded similar info on Medital.

“Well, sounds like I need to get a video together. Come find me when you have other projects for us.” She turned without another word and walked to the guesthouse.

The abruptness of her decisional turn around bothered me as I strolled up to the hacienda. I paused at the door. Something wasn’t right. I glanced back at the guesthouse and saw shadows of the crew walking past the windows. I wondered if the “watch Roxanne” group had set up the surveillance again.

Someone came up from behind and wrapped their hands around my eyes. Each person has distinct breath sounds as the air enters and escapes their lungs, each are unique and inevitable. I could hear a person’s breath sounds from about thirty feet, their heartbeat from about ten. Jamie’s had a quick in breath and longer out breath, with a certain high pitch escaping near the end of exhalation.

"Guess who?"

"Hmmm... someone reckless enough to hang out with an unpredictable clone of her boyfriend."

"You are my boyfriend," she stated.

"But who am I, really?" I took her hands down from my face and spun around to meet her misty eyes.

"You are a human being with feelings, insight, concern, and compassion. A soulless being couldn't express love like you can, Coyle. I know that deep inside.”

“Is it my own soul or the soul of your dead boyfriend?” I turned away and stared out at the lights of Denver.

“Don’t say that. Don’t you ever say that.” She pulled on my shoulder, and I let her turn me around to face her. “My heart isn’t deceived so easily, Coyle. I’ve gotta believe you feel it too, somewhere deep inside, the truth, the truth of our love that started before any of this.”

"Maybe so," I lied and turned away to avoid the pain.

She searched for my eyes, but I avoided her gaze.

“Well, I love you, Coyle Murray.” She slipped her arms through mine and wrapped them around my waist. “I’m headed to bed.” She squeezed. “You should get some sleep as well,” she said and placed a warm hand on the side of my face. Her eyes beamed up at me.

“I don’t really want to. I don’t wanna to connect again with you-know-who,” I said making eye contact and falling for the depth in her eyes.

Her brow furrowed for a moment. “You gotta sleep sometime, Coyle. Just fight that connection. Can I stay up with you for a while?”

I answered with a quick shake of my head to which she turned and moved towards her room down the hall. “Suit yourself. Love you, Coyle Murray,” she said as she continued down the hall. Dang, I’m a lucky guy, I thought, but almost instantly a swift kick of guilt replaced the thought.  I suppressed it deep and continued to watch my angel.

Once Jamie stepped out of view, my mind instantly switched to Roxanne’s turnaround. What was the signal she made to Red Cloud? Roxanne wasn’t impulsive with any of her actions but seemed calculated with everything, how could she just change her mind? Was it possible she had been planning for my answer?

I walked out to the back patio and built a fire in the pit. There’s nothing like a crackling fire to draw the pensive mind. I thought about Aedan and Roxanne, how Aedan seemed happier lately, at least with everyone other than me, how Roxanne was probably using him, and how I didn’t have the heart to tell him. My mind also analyzed our contact with Gary Middleton. Could he be trusted? Or, had Somatotech already gotten to him? If they had, we were feeding the beast exactly what it wanted, Dr. Strayer’s report and our plan on how to expose them.

I lasted three hours, mulling over plans, but I couldn’t avoid sleep any longer. My eyelids drooped and then fell. As if a switch flipped on cue, my mind went to him, my other.

The darkness around me forced me to check if my, or rather his, eyes were open. I blinked, and the darkness remained.

“Welcome back, AM1.” I couldn’t see whoever spoke, but I knew it wasn’t Dr. Tessel. I’d recognize his condescending voice anywhere. The man flipped on a small desk lamp and revealed himself. The nose guy with the thick glasses sat behind a metal desk. He squinted his eyes against the bright lamp and slid his glasses up his honker.

“AM1, thank you for connecting again. I removed the block to permit it, but only for a few moments. I’m Dr. Gerter, the lead scientist in the telekinetic department.”

The nasal high pitch of his voice grated on my eardrums. I tried to withdrawal my connection but the same mental block that locked me in before prevented it. He glanced at the computer and frowned.

“Sorry to keep you here, but I needed to speak to you. As you already know, you’re in grave danger, as are your adopted family and friends. All the pain and suffering that will soon come crashing down on you does not have to be. I can end it; end your misery, your torment. Turn yourself in, reverse the pain, and I’ll take care of you. Your very own, Dr. Gerter.”

He shuffled over and kneeled down in front of my other’s head.

“I so wish I could hear your voice right now, AM1, you’re quite the wonder.” His eyes searched my other’s face scanning from eye to eye to nose and mouth. “I hope you know that, I hope you know how unimaginably special you are. That’s why I want to protect you, keep you whole, so… ” He pushed up his sagging glasses. “So we can accomplish great things together.”

The creep placed his hand on my other’s barely-living head, stroking his hair back as if he was petting an animal.

“Think about it AM1, please.”  He stood up, walked back to the table, opened a laptop and made a few staccato key strokes. The connection broke, and I awoke instantly in the wooden seat, drenched in sweat.

33  Star Power

I stayed up the rest of the night, terrified that if I slipped back into slumber I’d have to be with that creep again.

Stefan found me on the back porch at 5 a.m.

“Gary Middleton is planning on taking his family to Heritage Square outside Golden, may be a good contact point.”

“Creep up on him while he’s with his family? That may scare him away.”

“True, but these reporters typically have more of a spine than most people. Also, conveniently, the surveillance is down at the alpine slide.” Stefan winked.

“Stefan, you never cease to amaze. Thank you for setting this up.”

“You’ve been distracted, my young friend. What was that brawl near the guesthouse about?”

“Training. Roxanne showed me a better way to fight.”

“Let’s hope you never need to use it,” he said and gazed out to the mountains. “Coyle, I sometimes look back on my life and the only moments I regret are those when I let my fists decide my future.”

“I’ve already had many of those,” I said, instinctively rubbing the knuckles of my right hand.

He  let out a deep breath. “You and your friends, you’ve seen too much and, unfortunately, there’s no going back.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve passed a threshold. Medital knows where we are and what we do. Somatotech clearly also knows our doings. Sooner or later they will find us if we don’t bring them down. But, regardless, our time here at the hacienda is running out. We need an escape plan.”

“Do you have somewhere you can go?”

“Me? Don’t you mean we?”

“Stefan, once this hits the press and once the police become involved I’m going to be arrested or captured in some way. I’ll never speak of you or the group, and I’ll likely never see you again.”

He let out another heavy sigh. “We do have a place; it’s off of—”

“Don’t tell me. I want to be able to deny any knowledge truthfully.”

“Do you want me to come to Heritage Square?”

“Yeah, I’d like the company.”  I smiled just as he slapped me on the shoulder.

“Let’s do it,” he said and pulled car keys out of his pocket.

We drove to the Heritage Square’s parking lot a half an hour before Gary and his family arrived. We had a crew following him from his home in Parker. Stefan remained at the base of the slide and hid himself behind a nearby grove of trees.

Rather than take the ski-slope style lift up to the top, I ascended among the trees and waited for them at the top.

“Heads up, T-minus two minutes,” Stefan called over the radio. I stayed out of sight from the attendants and waited.

Gary, his wife, and daughter disembarked from the lift and walked over to the starting point, his daughter in hand.

“Hey! Gary! Good to see you,” I called out to him.

He turned to face me scrunched his nose as if he didn’t recognize me.

“Somatotech,” I whispered to him and his eyes widened.  He whispered to his wife, and she ushered their daughter away with a quick jerk. The look on his wife’s face told me she’d done this before.

“What’re you doing here? My wife and daughter are right over there!” he whispered and yanked me to the edge of the forest.

“Had to meet you someplace you come all the time, to not raise suspicion. We noticed you came here every other Saturday. Besides, what a happy place to chat about clones, murder, and government conspiracy.”

He looked me over. “So, you’re the fugitive the FBI, CIA, and local police are after? You’ve changed a bit.” He pointed to the mustache.

“That’s what people tell me.” I shifted to keep him in front of me, out of sight from the people waiting for the ride. “You should feel privileged.”

“Stories are meant to come out, Coyle. I only feel privileged to break them.”

“This may be the biggest story of your career.”

“We’ll see about that. Do you have it?” He eyed the duffle bag hanging from my left hand.

“How do I know you’re not already in cahoots with Somatotech?”

“Did I seem buddy-buddy with them at that press conference?”

“No, but Somatotech could’ve paid you to act that way, to make it seem like I could trust you.”

“And ruin their press conference? I think not. Somatotech has teams of marketing leaders controlling their image. That was a complete disaster.” An asymmetric smile grew on his lips. His pulse, while rapid, remained even. His facial muscles didn’t twitch. He wasn’t lying.

I tossed him the bag.

“Stuff that away, Gary. We’re trusting you.”

“Ha! You’re trusting me?”

I stepped forward, ready to clobber him.

He stood his ground and said, “I’m trusting you. You do understand that I’m aiding you, a criminal, right? This makes me an accomplice, Coyle. You’d better be right about all this.”

“It’s all there, now make it happen. But, wait for our word before you publish it,” I said and sprinted off down the mountain in the cover of trees.

I met Stefan in the parking lot next to the car.

“He’s in?”

“Apparently, but we’d better keep an eye on him and his computer.”

“Already on it,” Stefan replied and slid into the driver’s seat.

34  Back and Forth

“What’d you do?” Aedan stopped me with a hand on my chest in the hall of the hacienda.

“What do you mean? We got in contact with Gary.”

“No, what’d you do to stop our mission?”

“Your mission? You mean Roxanne’s mission? She apparently decided our plan was better. Plain and simple.”

“Plain and simple, eh? It didn’t have anything to do with you wanting to control my life, right?”

“Dude, I’m not going to lie to you and say it didn’t have anything to do with me protecting your life. But, her plan also wasn’t the right way to go, and I guess she finally agreed.”

“Right,” he said slowly, dragging out the syllable.

“Listen, I’m happy that you and Roxanne seem to be a number, but don’t let that love you’re feeling make you think you have to prove yourself. That’s the whole point of love; it’s not having to prove yourself all the time, being accepted for who you are.”

“Who I am? I’m a freakin’ nobody is who I am. Roxanne is the freakin’ queen of clones. Do you think she’ll just stick with me just because?”

“I can’t answer that, but I know you’re not a nobody. You’re one of the most daring, selfless guys out there and someone I’m happy to have at my side when the time’s right.”

He stared at me for a moment. “When the time’s right,” he echoed me. “You let me know when that is, OK?” he said and walked off.

Our takedown of Somatotech took on many variables and angles. On one hand, we had an outsider writing a report on their dealings and a group of clones producing a video. Both of which we couldn’t control. On the other hand, we had Jamie working on a social media campaign, and Jamie and I producing a video expose. These we could fine-tune the content to achieve the intended result. With Gary’s report and Roxanne’s crew’s, I worried that the message may not come across unified. At the least I hoped it would spur an investigation. The third pillar of this takedown rested on the pastor. His actions I couldn’t control either. Risking direct contact with the pastor became untenable. So, I contacted my skater friend again and set up a system. The altar boy would pass the collection plate through the congregation, first to my skater messenger, who’d either sit in the front or back. He’d conceal the note within a folded $5 bill (which I supplied, along with $20 for his services) under all of the other donations. Pastor Anderson would then respond with a scripture on the church sign or by passing a note back to our skater friend while bidding his congregation goodbye. The system worked without a hitch until the company brought pressure. Somatotech's goons would even be so bold to attend the pastor's sermons. These guys suspected the entire congregation. When the collection plate reached them, one of the goons reached in to check the bills, rummaging through with both hands. Mrs. Williams, one of the congregation’s oldest and most devoted attendees, put a quick end to that. A swift slap of the hand and cold stare and the goon released the cash. From then on, Mrs. Williams kept a watchful eye on the plate and the new members of the congregation.

We had our own crew attending as well, for the pastor’s protection. They were easy to identify, being that the diversity of the congregation was quite lacking. They watched the ST goons, and the ST goons would watch them.

I sent messages on our work with Gary Middleton, our video, and his background work. Stefan included tips for spotting goons, evading them, and the location of safe houses.

His most recent letter stated:

I’m in, Coyle. The church leadership has agreed to my sermon on cloning. They’ve invited me to speak at the Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly next week.

How are you doing? I urge you to ponder our discussion. Remember, while aggression in the name of protection may be warranted, aggression for aggression’s sake is never warranted. You can control it, Coyle. Weak things can become strong.

Best wishes,

PA.

I wrote back:

Excellent. Who have you told about the sermon? Please keep your cards close to your chest. Assume everyone is a Somatotech informant.”

The Nobel ceremony is in three weeks. We’re working with GM on the expose and planning on a press release the day before.

“With your sermon going out and GM’s report we should have enough ammunition for someone to do an investigation. I’m going to see if Coyle’s mom did write a report as well.

He wrote back:

Coyle,

I’m glad GM is working out. Do you think it’s wise to move so quickly? Shouldn’t we develop the story more before you release it?

I’ve told no one else about the sermon aside from the leadership that made the decision to let me speak. I did announce the event to my congregation, as I’m sure you already know since your men were present.

How is Jamie doing? Has she had more seizures? Please keep her safe above all others. I know that is selfish, but it would be the request from any father.

PA

I wrote back:

Time is of the essence, pastor. We want to sway public opinion before public opinion sways too far in ST’s favor.

Jamie is OK. We’re OK. But, she has had more seizures. Dr. Bartnev says there’s no medication she can take, but I will investigate it further. We’re hoping to find a clinic where we can look into taking out the implant. It’s hard to find out whether the clinics have ties with Somatotech.

Stay tuned.

35  Dark Mirror

I called Angelfire to see if we could hack the university’s network to get Coyle’s mom’s report, the one Coyle’s dad seemed to believe contained information on Somatotech.

Angelfire practically laughed at the thought of infiltrating the place, “Ha! Nope, unhackable, not from the outside at least. All of their research data is stored on an internal network without a single connection to the Internet. Not only that, the wiring for the place is all locked down behind at least two secured doors throughout the campus. We’ve tried to pick up any wireless and found nothing. Either they don’t allow it or they have some sort of range modifier. So, in other words, good luck dude. I’ve been looking for a way to get in there for years.”

“So you’re saying I have to be physically inside.”

“Not only inside, but specifically in one of the server rooms themselves. Only there can you bypass their security.”

“So, where is the server room?”

“Likely near the lab your mom worked in, each of the hospital’s labs have a data hub that collects and backs up of data both locally at the hub and in the central server.”

“Can you get me the blueprints?”

“Already sent.”

“Thanks. What about gaining access when I’m in the room?”

“That’s the question, my young hacker friend! You’re in luck, I wrote a program last year just in case I ever had access to their network. I hope it works; I could only simulate their network here at home.”

“I’ll take it. Thanks again.”

“Have the Doña check her email, the program and prints will be there,” he said and hung up.

I went to find Roxanne to see if she had connections through Medital we could utilize. I found her setting up a computer in the living room of the guesthouse.

“Uh, should I be worried?” I said pointing to the computer.

“The woeful lack of Internet at this place was hampering my style,” she said while plugging in a laptop.

“And if Stefan sees that he’s going to flip.”

“Don’t worry, this terribly slow Internet is provided by Medital’s very own satellite.” She pointed up to the ceiling.”

“Jiminy Christmas! They have their own satellite?”

“It’s good to be in business with those with deep resources. Anyway, whatcha want?” she said and returned to the computer.

“We’re planning on accessing a drive at University Hospital, wanna help?”

“What’s on the drive?”

“My mom’s, or I mean, Coyle’s mom’s report on Somatotech.”

“Interesting. You know, I’m thinkin’ Medital has a file on Coyle’s mom. Should I request it?”

“I think you already did,” I said and motioned to my ear.

“Right you are. They are retrieving the file.” She winked.

“Do you have any contacts at the university?”

“No, as you’ll see on the list of scientists currently working for Somatotech, nearly all of them are either current or former employees of the university. So, we’ll have to go in ourselves.”

“Dang, so this is gonna be harder than I thought. So the university itself is in cahoots with Somatotech?”

“No, just scientists wanting to make actual money for their work. Somatotech doubles and triples their salaries. It’d be hard to resist that kinda cash.”

“Coyle’s mom started working for them but stopped because she felt it was unethical, that’s when she wrote the report. I guess the lure of money drew her in at first.”

“What makes you think they haven’t deleted it already?”

“Oh, I agree, they likely have, but on the off chance they missed something I gotta check. It’s important,” I said.

“Important because it’s from Coyle’s mom?”

“Roxanne, I feel love for her, just like I do for Coyle’s dad. So, yeah it feels more important. Do you have the same feelings for your originator’s family?”

She avoided my gaze. “No,” she said monotone and changed the subject, “Infiltrating the hospital won’t be as hard as you think. Medital has keycards for nearly all of the labs. But, if we’re seen, then the real trouble begins. The U has their own Somatotech detail on campus, and these dudes are the real deal. The U thinks they’re just a contractor they’ve hired, but the group is all ex-special forces, and I think they’ve added some clones. They watch each of the scientists and guard the labs. So, you gotta think long a hard about whether this little mission is worth it.”

“If it contains more evidence to bring them down, then yes, it is worth it. We can’t risk any of the men though. So, it’s me and whoever’s willing from your crew.”

“OK then, let’s plan.”

I escorted her to the main house and found Stefan and Coyle’s dad. I didn’t want to mention anything to Aedan because I knew it’d end up in us arguing about me not letting him sacrifice himself. By the sounds of the goons at this place, it was not a place for a normal human. Stefan gave Roxanne a glancing glare but then nodded to the kitchen.

We sat at the island and began to plan. Angelfire provided the digital blueprint of the entire medical campus, including the Coyle’s mom’s renovated lab. I downloaded the program onto a laptop provided by the Doña.

“There is, or at least was, a computer room a few doors down from her office,” Coyle’s dad said as he inspected the blueprints.

“That must be the hub Angelfire mentioned. We’ll check there first,” I said to Stefan while pointing to the blueprints.

“Coyle, notice the exits on that floor, or lack thereof.” Roxanne pointed to the blueprints on the screen.

I had already memorized the entire layout and in an instant verified that there were only one entrance and exit to the floor through the elevator. The emergency exits were dummy doors and led only to walls.

“Why would they make a floor with no emergency exits?” I asked.

“To keep what’s inside safe and to prevent leaks. It also creates a very dangerous environment, especially in a laboratory.”

My mind snapped back to Coyle’s memories of when his mother died in that very same lab. “That means if Coyle’s mom survived the initial blast she would’ve had to make it to that one exit, another fifty yards from the supposed emergency exit. The one that should’ve been a fire door. She could’ve survived.” A tinge of rage hit my heart.

Stefan and Roxanne nodded in unison.

“So, as I see it we have two options, go in with guns blazing or provide a diversion while someone infiltrates,” said Roxanne.

“We’re not gonna shoot up the place,” I said, not wanting a repeat of our gunfight in Somatotech’s basement.

“Diversion it is,” interjected Stefan, obviously wanting to be involved. “Coyle, I’m assuming you’ll be the one accessing the network?” he asked.

“Yes, but I’d prefer to have backup with me, in case I flip out or am incapacitated. Then someone else could access the network.”

“I’ll go in with you,” said Roxanne.

I glanced to Stefan, and he nodded in assent.

“OK, so who or what will provide the diversion?” I asked.

“Let me talk to my crew, I’m sure we can come up with something special.” Roxanne sat back and grinned.

“Something special? How’s about you give us some specifics?” asked Stefan.

“We’ve got quite the bag of tricks. Maybe, fire alarm followed by tear gas or vandalism followed by a stun gun. Or my personal favorite, robbery followed by chase. We’ll analyze and come up with the superior plan.”

“And what should I do?” asked Stefan.

“Driving, lookout, and backup. Bring two of your most skilled men in case it all goes bad,” I said.

“And me?” Coyle’s dad asked.

“Dad, you’re staying as far away from Denver and Somatotech as possible.”

Armed with weapons and gear Roxanne provided, Stefan, Red Cloud, Talon, Roxanne and I descended on the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at 11 p.m. We drove three cars, Stefan and me in one, Red Cloud and Talon in another, and Roxanne solo in the third. We each parked in different parking lots on the north and south sides of the campus. Two research buildings stood parallel to each other, named North Research Complex One and Two respectively, similar buildings stood on the south end of the campus. Complex One housed Coyle’s mom’s former lab on the fourth floor. Red Cloud and Talon were going to break into the southern complex building, create a ruckus and lead their pursuers on a chase throughout the campus and away from the northern Complex One. At least, that’s the plan they decided on. Stefan would be the lookout with a telephoto lens from the car. We each had Bluetooth earpieces and an open line to communicate. We also wore cameras on tactical helmets. Visors displayed four small screens with live feeds from each of us. All courtesy of Medital Inc.

Stefan and I parked on the fourth floor of a nearby parking complex. He set up his camera, and I jogged over to Roxanne’s car and slid into the passenger seat. We watched as Red Cloud and Talon walked over to a window on the first floor of the complex two building. Talon extracted a small hammer from his pocket, turned his head away, and slammed the hammer through the window. Glass rained down, and the alarm instantly blared into the night. I turned to Roxanne.

“You guys have issues with being subtle,” I said.

“They’re not going for subtle,” she said as we watched them enter the building.

Their flashlight shone out of the building as they navigated through the first floor. Then, with another crash they exited the other side. We ducked our heads when two police cars and an unmarked car pulled up to the building. Four uniformed men ran into the building while two men from the unmarked car circled the perimeter.

“We’re heading into another building, are they on our tail yet?” asked Talon over the phone.

“They haven’t caught your scent yet, make more noise,” said Roxanne.

Through the earpieces, we heard glass shattering and metal creaking. I nearly ripped the thing from my ear because it was so loud.

“Was that enough noise?” said Talon.

“You’ve got two bogies coming up on you,” said Stefan.

“Only two? I guess we’ll have to up the destruction,” said Red Cloud before hurling a chair through a window.

“OK, now there are four, wait, seven men coming up on the building you’re in, better make another move.”

“What about the target building? Any sign of life there?” I asked.

“Nope, the coast is clear. I’m gonna focus on you guys now. Red Cloud and Talon, you’re on your own.”

“Just gonna tear some crap up and then we’ll be on our way,” said Talon.

“Time to go,” said Roxanne while donning the helmet.

We jogged along the shadows until we came to the corner of the courtyard in front of the building. Roxanne extracted a keycard from her pocket and held it ready. I mouthed, “One, two, three,” and sprinted for the building. Roxanne made it to the door a half second before me and placed the card against the reader. The doors slid open and thank goodness they did. Otherwise, I would’ve slammed right into them.

The night guard looked up from his desk as I came barreling at him. He managed to raise one hand before I collapsed on him. I wrapped my arm around his neck in a choke hold and pressed my legs around his waist. He slapped at my face with his free arm, but I managed to extract the syringe of sedative from my pocket. I pulled off the cap with my mouth and jammed the needle into his leg. He struggled against me for another twenty seconds until the sedative kicked in. I let him down to the floor and slid him under the desk on his side.

Roxanne had pressed the elevator button and waited from within the elevator. I joined her and stood in silence as we ascended to the fourth floor. The doors slowly opened to the dark floor. We flipped on our flashlights and stepped out toward the lab. The moment we arrived at the lab my heart dropped. The entire place had been stripped clean. No desks, no equipment, nothing.  We continued to the hallway and offices. I kicked in the door to the supposed data room and let out a heavy sigh. Blinking lights of network equipment shone back at me.

“Coyle and Roxanne, we got a problem,” said Stefan, “two cars just pulled up to the building. No one has gotten out, but they’re definitely watching the place.”

“K, just let us know if they’re coming in,” said Roxanne.

I pulled out the small laptop from my backpack and attached a network cable from it to the hub. I ran the program Angelfire had sent and waited for the access.

“Why would they strip everything from the labs and offices and leave all this equipment?” I asked Roxanne.

“I’m not sure, but it doesn’t feel right.”

“Any movement, Stefan?”

“No, nothing, they’re just waiting.”

The program dinged, and a file folder appeared on the screen. I searched for documents authored by Coyle’s mom and found a folder titled, “External research.” Within the folder were three files, a spreadsheet, and two documents. I tried opening the document titled, “The Ethics of Stem Cells, How Far is Too Far” but a field for a password popped up. When I tried the other document, “For your eyes only” the same field appeared.

“You don’t need to read it right now, just copy it,” said Roxanne while glancing into the hallway. “We gotta get out of here.”

I closed the document and tried to drag and drop the files into a folder on the laptop, but the same password field popped up.

“Crap, I can’t copy it without the password.”

“Well, you’d better figure it out quick, Coyle. Four men just got outta the cars, and they’re walking into the building.”

“Dang it! How am I supposed to figure it out?”

“Coyle, you have all of your originator’s memories, surely there’s something in them that could help. Use that giant brain of yours.”

I started from the beginning with the first memories I had of Coyle’s mom. I remembered her pushing Coyle on a tricycle on the sidewalk, his fourth birthday party with a pudding-covered cake, his first hockey practice with his mom watching from the stands. I remembered the warmth of her hugs and how she used to rustle his hair.

“Hurry up, clone of Coyle, we got seconds not minutes here.”

I jumped forward in time, to the last year before her death and started scanning the memories. I landed on one that seemed out of place. One evening at dinner Coyle’s mom recited a poem out of the blue.

“Seeker of truth,

“follow no path,

“all paths lead where,

“truth is here.”

“Remember this Coyle, it will give you access to truth.”

I remember both Coyle’s dad and him staring at Mom wondering what on earth she was talking about. His mom then changed the subject. Why wouldn’t she just come out and say it? Why not just tell us the password? Maybe she knew they were listening already?

I tried the words seeker, follow, and truth, but none worked. I scanned my memory again, searching for another reference to the poem. A memory of Coyle’s mom tucking him in at night shot into my consciousness.

“Truth is here,” she said and pointed to Coyle’s heart. “Truth leads to us.”

Heart and family. I typed in the words, first together and then with a space in between, but neither worked. Then the rest of the memory came to me.

“It’s us four, Coyle. Four in the family.” She then kissed him on the forehead.

Heart Family four. I tried HeartFami4ly and HeartFa4mily to no avail.

Finally, I typed HeartFam4ily. The screen flashed once and then a dialog box popped up on the screen. “Welcome, Coyle. I knew you’d figure it out. Be careful to take care of the report in this folder. Trust no one.” A warmth spread through my heart. Coyle’s mom was special, someone pure.

“Download that crap and let’s get outta here. Something is wrong, very wrong,” said Roxanne, breaking my connection to Coyle’s mom.

I clicked on the files and dragged them to the folder on the laptop. As I did another dialog box popped on the screen. “Thank you once again, Coyle, you’re a tremendous help.” A Somatotech logo then appeared.

“Crap!” I said just as the screen went black. I searched around the computers in the room and found a small box with a single network cable hanging from the router. I turned it over and found Somatotech’s logo printed on the back. I tried to turn the laptop on, but the screen remained black.

“Coyle, you all need to get out of there now! You’ve got at least ten guys coming in. I’ll provide cover.”

“Disconnect and let’s go, Coyle!” yelled Roxanne.

“We don’t know if it’s on here. Let me try again.”

“No, we go now!” She snapped the laptop shut and ripped it from the router. I grabbed Somatotech’s device and ran toward the elevator.

“Going down leads to them, we gotta go up.”

“Up leads to nowhere,” I yelled.

“It’s the only chance we have,” she said and pressed the button for up.

We waited on either side of the elevator doors as they slid open, ready to pounce on anyone inside. No one came out. Roxanne glanced in so fast her head snapped back and forth in two milliseconds.

“Clear. Let’s go.”

We jumped in and pressed the tenth floor, the very top of the building. The elevator slowly ascended and at the tenth floor we both squeezed against the walls out of the view of the opening doors. Again, no one emerged.

We ran out onto the floor and followed the signs for the exit to the roof. Roxanne kicked the door down, and we both hoped it actually led to the roof rather than the dummy doors on Coyle’s mom’s floor. The door clanked down onto the metal platform connected to stairs leading upward. We sprinted up, skipping entire flights of stairs and burst through the door at the top. That’s when the firing began. We could see the flashes of light from the muzzle of Stefan’s rifle in the parking garage. I followed Roxanne as she searched the roof for a way down, but we found none, only the stairwell we’d exited.

“Stefan, are there any men on the eastern side of the building.”

“Yes, three. Four entered, three are outside the entrance, and another three are circling on the western side of the building. The three out front have taken cover.”

“What do we do?” I asked Roxanne, my heart racing and sweat building on my brow.

She looked calm, collected as she search her surroundings. “We jump,” she said and ripped a pipe that stuck out of the roof.

“Jump?”

“That building is about thirty-five feet away; we can make it.”

“Make it to where? The roof is at the same level. There’s no way we could make it.”

“Not the roof,” she said and hefted the pipe like a javelin. Her arm snapped back and then forth, releasing the pipe. It sailed straight toward the building and pierced a window on the fifth floor.

“What the? We have to jump down there? Five floors down?”

“Seven floors, remember we went up from the tenth?” She winked and backed up twenty paces. She shot forward before I could get another word in and leaped from the edge of the building. She sailed through the air head first and crashed into the remaining glass of the window. Into the dark of the building she disappeared.

“Oh crap,” I said out loud and stepped back to spot where Roxanne had taken off. My heart beat nearly out of my chest.

“Coyle, get over here,” Roxanne whispered. Her breathing sounded labored.

I lunged forward taking six large strides to the edge and pushed off. My stomach felt as if it flipped into my chest as I dropped through the air with my bag containing the laptop sailing behind me. I looked at the building as I approached and instantly recognized that my trajectory would have me slam into the window of the sixth floor. I flailed my arms and legs to achieve air resistance. It wasn’t enough, my face and chest slammed into the space between the floors but my legs flipped into the gaping window. I blacked out instantly.

“Coyle, wake up you piece of crud,” I heard Roxanne’s voice. A rush of energy surged through me, and I shot upright. My eyes bulged out, and my fist clenched with the rush. Roxanne removed the needle from my leg.

“Get up, we’ve got company.”

I jumped up and nearly hit the ceiling. Blood trickled out of a gash in my forehead and slipped into my eyes. I pressed the edges together and stopped the bleeding as I followed her deeper into the building. My muscles felt energized as if I could go on forever. Man Dr. B’s cocktail does the trick, I thought.

“Stefan, pick us up at the corner of 19th and Victor in fifty seconds. Red Cloud and Talon we need some cover fire,” she spoke clearly and without the slightest hint of anxiety. Each of our team answered in the affirmative through the earpieces.

We found the far eastern stairwell and skipped entire flights on our way down. She stopped on the second floor and sprinted through the lab. We made it to the window at the northeast corner, and she picked up a lab stool. I reached out and snatched it from her grasp.

“My turn,” I said and slammed it through the window.

She didn’t hesitate. With a simple hop, she flew out the window and onto the grass below. I followed, scraping my shoulder on some of the jagged edges.

Shots rang out, some in our direction and others toward the building. We sprinted past the library and bullets shattered the glass behind us. I dove over a bike rack, pushed off a rail and spun in the air as the rain of metal showered around me. Roxanne kept a few strides in front and shifted from side to side. We reached Uvalda Court, one block from our meeting point when we heard a car screech out behind us. I glanced back and saw Stefan accelerating toward us. More shots came and made contact with Stefan’s car. The rear window shattered, but Stefan maintained his course. Red Cloud and Talon came into view, hunkered down behind a concrete railing of a set of stairs. They took turns flipping up and unloading a clip at our assailants. We reached the intersection just as Stefan pulled up.

“Get in! Now!” Stefan yelled as he hit the brakes.

Roxanne and I dove inside, and Stefan slammed on the gas pedal. He turned onto the grass and came up behind Red Cloud and Talon. Each of them fired off another ten rounds and then jumped into the car.

“Well, I guess we’re two cars down,” said Red Cloud.

The sound of sirens came at us from behind just as Stefan punched the car back into gear.

“We gotta switch out this car,” said Stefan as he pulled out onto I-225 going south. Two police cars and one SUV pulled in about half a mile behind us.

“Do you have one stashed?” asked Roxanne.

“Not on this side of town,” said Stefan.

“Then we’ll get ours. Take the 6th Avenue exit and go south.”

Stefan followed her directions that led us to an industrial park.

“You guys sure love the warehouses,” I said.

No one responded. Talon and Red Cloud stared out to our pursuers who, because of the skillful driving of Stefan, trailed about a mile behind. Stefan turned three more times, and Roxanne led us into a complex of three warehouses.

“Head to the one on the far right,” she said. “Open door three on building A3,” she spoke to someone through the implanted earpiece.

A garage door opened on the side of the building, and Stefan directed the car in. The door shut the moment we crossed the threshold. Once inside, my eyes slowly adjusted to the light from four utility lamps on the ground. Six cars ranging from a Civic hatchback to an Escalade sat parked in a row before us.

“Take your pick,” said Roxanne, emerging from the car.

“I’ll want this car back,” Stefan said while closing his driver’s side door.

“Of course, once things have died down we can come back and pick it up.”

Stefan walked over to the Escalade and inspected the wheel wells, siding, and hood.

“Stefan, don’t waste your time. Of course, there are trackers on all of these vehicles. Medital already knows your location from the trackers we placed back in the day. We just need to get outta here,” said Talon.

Stefan just shook his head and climbed into the driver’s seat. We all followed.

“Open door one of building A3,” said Roxanne.

A door at the far end of the building opened, and Stefan peeled out toward it. The lights from the police cars shone from a few blocks away, but we got on I-225 from another on ramp and soon were on our way.

“Pull out that Somatotech device,” said Roxanne. I turned my backpack around and extracted the four-inch black box. Roxanne grabbed it and ripped the top off of it.

“Hey, why so rough?” I asked.

She inspected the insides and pulled out a chip. “GPS tracker.” She snapped it in her fingers.

“Then why didn’t they know where we were?”

“Our cars have GPS jammers,” said Stefan.

“And this car?”

“Same,” said Roxanne.

“So, how do your trackers work?”

“Cell towers. Medital has technology that constantly triangulates using cellular signal. It’s always on and accurate to within fifty meters.”

I pulled out the laptop and tried turning it on once again. Nothing. I hoped Angelfire could work some magic with it. Did Somatotech now have access to the report? How did they know we were coming?

36  Relation

“You, my cloney friend are in luck,” said Angelfire, who had been working on the computer for the two days.

“Please tell me you got it working,” I said.

“The program trashed the CPU, but the hard drive is intact. But, it looks like the files are encrypted with some serious encryption. Coyle’s mom knew some serious code. I’ve never seen this type of encryption before. I’m assuming you know the password.”

“That I do,” I said.

“And?”

“Sorry Angelfire, until I read it, I’m not letting anyone else.”

He scoffed but relented and sent a laptop with the hard drive from the old one. When it arrived, I carried it carefully to my room as if it were a sleeping baby. My heart raced as I turned it on, found the folder and put in the password. I opened the document titled, “For your eyes only” with two quick clicks.

Dearest Coyle,

If you are reading this, that means I’m dead. For that, I’m truly sorry as I know growing up without a mother would be tremendously difficult. I always knew I’d give my life for my work, but I assumed it would be just my time and energy.  It’s my dedication to the human race that has placed me in my current predicament. I’ll go into it further below. But first I need to make something very clear. Coyle, you will need to be the rock of our family. Your father won’t be able to handle my passing well, as I wouldn’t if he passed. We’re both prone to depression. I love your father dearly; he’s been my constant support throughout our marriage. He’ll need the support now, as will your brother Greg. Be that rock.

If I’m dead, then I need you to know who killed me. The Government of the United States murdered me, specifically a branch of the CIA, which deals with protecting the scientific interests of the nation. Somatotech approached me because of my gene therapy work. They promised a salary comparable to my university salary and would only require two weekends a month. At the time, your father and I were desperate to pay off my student loans and succumbed to the temptation of seemingly easy money. Oh, if only I could go back!

My work there started off quite benign. I focused on gene therapy treatment of certain types of cancers, similar to my work at the university. We had a good cohort of patients who were responding quite nicely. About two months into my work there, they asked me to see a female patient who apparently had developed a photosensitivity as a result of one of their therapies. I indicated that I would need to see her medical chart, but they refused. They wouldn’t even indicate whether this was a result of one of the gene therapies. I told them to send her to a dermatologist and that without knowing the therapy there was likely no possible way to treat it appropriately. From that moment I knew something was off. I began looking into the different areas of research they performed. One day I ran into another colleague from the university on Somatotech’s facility. I knew he focused on stem cell treatments at the university, so I assumed he was doing similar work at Somatotech. I used some of the natural talents God gave me and managed to confirm that fact.

I couldn’t go into any of the other labs at Somatotech because of their strict security protocols, but I knew we each were given a laptop to assist with our research. Here’s where you’re going to be especially proud of your mom. I invited my colleague to my lab at the university at a time when I knew he’d be coming from Somatotech. The company had told us from the beginning never to leave the laptop in a car, at home, or anywhere else, in other words, they wanted it on our person at all times. So, I was happy he followed the rules and brought his computer case up with him into the lab. Men are quite predictable, a simple smile and moment of attention from a woman and their minds go to one thing. This impulse made him drop his bag on a bench. Now don’t worry, I have not and never would be unfaithful to your dad. I just recognized the tremendous power we women have over men. Anyway, back to my mission. While he tried to put on the moves, my post-doc extracted his computer and made an image of the hard drive. My post-doc at the time was a computer science Ph.D. working on epidemiological modeling algorithms and did quite a bit of hacking on the side. After I knew we had the information, I slapped the pig and sent him on his way. Pretty slick, right?

Anyway, what I found on his hard drive sent chills through me. They were experimenting with human cloning and had already established seven clones. Copies of living human beings! All of the originators, as they called them, were patients with cancer.

I decided I shouldn’t share this information with anyone, including your dad so that they wouldn’t be placed in harm’s way. What a tremendous secret to keep quiet.

At the time, I didn’t know the lengths to which Somatotech went to keep tabs on their scientists. One evening as I walked to my car in the university, I noticed a black SUV that followed a couple blocks of behind. It followed me all the way to the gate to our community. At that point I figured they knew I’d brought my colleague to my lab. Sure enough, one week ago an Agent Thielemann and Colonel Stevens came to visit me. They wanted to know why I’d brought him there and what did I know. The agent grabbed me and slammed me into the door. He said that if I ever did anything to jeopardize the research they would kill me.

I wanted to tell your dad and you kids, but I knew it would only put you on their radar. I couldn’t keep it a secret though; my heart said that would be wrong. I leaked the information to a friend of mine at Nature, the scientific journal, five days ago. His name is Arthur Benson.  I know I likely sealed my fate, but I’m willing to sacrifice for the greater good. If they snuff out the report, I’m trusting that you will bring it to light. Show this only to those in whom you have the utmost trust. NO ONE ELSE.

Please know I love you and will always love you,

Mom.

I couldn’t help it. Tears streamed down my face. I let out deep sobs as the pain grew in my heart. Why did I feel such love for that woman? Why did her sacrifice hurt so much?

Jamie heard my crying and knocked on the door.

“Coyle? Everything OK?” she called through the door.

“One second,” I said and wiped my face dry. “Come on in.”

She tried the handle. “Coyle, it’s locked.”

“Sorry,” I said, sniffled and unlocked the door.

Jamie didn’t hesitate. She wrapped her arms around me and pushed me back onto the bed. We laid back, and she rested her head on my chest.

“How ya doing?” she asked while nuzzling further into my chest.

“The report hit me pretty hard.”

“Your mom was an amazing person; I’m sure the report shows that as well.”

“She said I should show it to only those I trust most and no one else.”

“Who does that include?”

“You, Dad, maybe Stefan and the Doña.”

“Aedan?” she asked, looking up at me.

“I’m not sure. He’s so close to Roxanne now, I think she’s manipulating him.”

“Coyle, Aedan is your best friend. He’s already earned your trust.”

I nodded because I knew she was right. It wasn’t even about trust between him and us. My only goal was to keep him safe.

“Wanna read it?” I asked.

“Definitely,” said Jamie. I sat up and watched her as she went through the letter. Tears welled in her eyes after only a few seconds.

When she finished, we both opened the other document and the spreadsheet. Our mouths dropped open as we read the detailed report on how exactly Somatotech clones its victims.

I called up Angelfire when we finished and asked him to look into the post-doc who had written the encryption software.

“Dead.”

“What do you mean?”

“I knew I’d seen similar code somewhere before, so I did a metasearch. Sure enough, at a hacker convention a few years ago there was this Indian dude flaunting a new encryption software. At the time, I didn’t really pay much attention to him. His name was Raj Gupta. But, he died a year ago from an anaphylactic reaction to something he ate.”

“Sounds suspicious,” I said, the hairs on my neck standing on end.

“Yeah, it’s a darn shame, he had serious talent.”

The next few days passed quickly as if life itself had sped up. Jamie started an anonymous blog about ST and planned to reveal herself with the release of the video. She also leaked small parts of Coyle’s mom’s report every day on her blog. Angelfire kept the blog up despite Somatotech’s efforts to shut it down.  Gary Middleton gave us a couple of updates on his report and info he could dig up. Aedan stuck with the Medital crew most days and would only come into the hacienda after taking a nightly walk with Roxanne. Our exchanges became shorter and more awkward as we both realized how much we’d grown apart.

Roxanne and her crew stayed on the compound now that they’d decided on our plan. She found me in the kitchen a week after we’d extracted Coyle’s mom’s report.

“Coyle, I was hoping you’d share that report.”

“It contains a report on the first seven clones,” I said and Roxanne’s eyes widened. I continued, “She also says that the CIA is involved.”

“We’ve known that the CIA was involved for a while now. What does it say about the first seven clones?”

“It doesn’t have names, but it does have numbers, ages, the cancer the originators had, the specific stem cell therapies utilized, and the reactions to therapy. Roxanne, did you meet Coyle’s mom?”

“No,” she said bluntly.

“It’s just, in her letter she describes a clone that developed a photosensitivity, and I thought that might be you.”

“Many of the early clones developed that. I never met her,” her voice turned angry. “Now, can I see the documents?”

Her intensity set off an internal alarm in my mind. “I just told you what’s in it,” I said slowly.

“You mean to tell me that I risked my life and the life of two of my crew to get it, and now you’re not letting us see it.”

“Do you have that video made? We wanna get it uploaded so it’ll be ready to broadcast. We can make a simple trade.”

“Coyle, don’t play games with us. We’ve started writing a script but have yet to turn on the camera. We’ll get it to you by the end of the week.

“Great, I look forward to seeing it.” I turned to leave, but she grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.

“Have those files ready.”

I sought out Aedan that evening. I had to demonstrate that I trusted him. I found him outside on the patio looking out toward the mountains.

“Hey, dude,” I said as I approached.

“Sup,” he said back, not turning to see me. I stood next to him and looked out.

“Hey, I uh, wanted to see if you wanted to read Coyle’s mom’s report.”

“Your mom’s report.”

“Yeah, whatever. I got it on my laptop if you’re interested.”

“Why won’t you show it to Roxanne?”

“I don’t trust her like I trust you and Jamie.”

He didn’t respond.

“Well, come by my room sometime and I’ll show you.” I turned to leave.

“Cool, dude. Thanks,” he said but kept his gaze on the mountains. “I’m gonna go on some missions with Roxanne if that’s OK.”

“Yeah, dude, I’m sorry I’ve been all overbearing with telling you what to do. I just don’t wanna lose you.”

“I’m in good company dude; I’ll be fine.”

Aedan and Roxanne’s crew spent the next few days outside the compound, and when they did return they’d say they were collecting evidence for the video. Jamie and I continued to work on the blog, and we made regular contact with the pastor in preparation for his sermon on Sunday. Angelfire bought the airline tickets for my trip to Norway and Stefan made a fake passport. Stefan began ringing the bells morning and night. The men actually smiled around the compound. Things were coming together, we all felt it. Soon, we’d have Somatotech and their snake of a leader on their knees.

37  Bye Bye

On the Friday before the pastor’s sermon I went to get the latest message from him.

My skater buddy delivered the paper with the message a couple blocks from the church. He flipped up his skateboard, looked around, and tossed me the folded paper.

“So, I guess the pastor didn’t wanna see me or something. He left it on the steps.”

The hairs on my neck stood on end, and my heart skipped a beat as I unfolded the paper.

The paper read, “Exodus 21:24-25 The Rock and The Minister. Alone in your faith.”

“Can you look up this scripture on your phone?” I asked the boy.

He pulled one out, tapped the screen a few times and then showed it to me.

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

“Oh, crap!” I yelled, and the boy took a step back, startled. “Sorry, this isn’t good news.” I pulled out $100 and handed it to him.

“Whoa dude, thanks! Bonus!” He stuffed the money in his pocket.

“We won’t be needing you services for a while, but stay alert, we may call on you again.”

“I’ll be ready!” He dropped his skateboard and pushed off.

“Hey, and lay low for the next few days. Avoid this area.” I motioned in the air.

“All right,” he said without looking back. I hoped my little skater wouldn’t be drawn into this mess.

Eye for an eye. The Rock and the Minister. Alone in your faith. They’ve taken the pastor to the facility in Castle Rock and want me to come alone. Did the pastor send this message or did they? It had to have been Somatotech; the pastor couldn’t have known that’s where they would take him. They’re baiting me in. Tempting me. How could I turn this? I pulled out my phone and called Stefan.

“What’s the word on the pastor’s house?” I asked.

“No movement by Somatotech. Pastor’s wife is home, engaged in normal activities.”

“Put another couple of men on their house. The company picked up the pastor and took him to the Castle Rock facility. I gotta go get him.”

“Whoa, Coyle, you can’t do that. You’re too important to give yourself up. Do you think they’ll let you walk outta there with him?”

“I can’t let him die. I can’t let the company take another one from me.” My hand tightened around the phone as memories of Dr. Strayer’s death rushed on me.

Stefan didn’t respond.

“Let me tell Jamie when I get back,” I said, knowing the news would crush her.

“Sure thing. But Coyle, don’t take your eye off the goal.”

I slammed the phone shut and sprinted to my car on the other side of the golf course. I reached my car and started driving to the compound. Recently I’d noticed that I could turn part of my brain on a sort of autopilot. That part of my brain would control the mundane and routine tasks, leaving the majority of my cerebrum to focus on more important tasks or challenges. I set my “autopilot” to drive the car and thought about what transpired. “The goal,” as Stefan had put it. Take down Somatotech. It would be impossible without Pastor Anderson; he knows the inner workings like no one else and only he could become the face of the resistance. Stefan knew that. We, or rather I, had to get him out. I would need technical support because there’s no doubt their electrical submission system would be active, and likely that turret in the field that nearly killed me. Angelfire would have to be on board. I made a mental note to contact him and see if he could remotely access their system. If the system was deactivated, could I do it alone? I thought. When we extracted Jamie from the depths of Somatotech hell, they called in reinforcements, this time they wouldn’t wait, they would bring an army. An army of Coyle’s clones who are just as powerful as the ones who attacked Talon and me when we got my dad. But, I had my own ragtag group of clones at my disposal. I wondered if Medital would agree to help me extract him.

I made it back to the compound and found Jamie already waiting for me at the door.

“What’s the message today?” she asked with the same anxiety as every other day.

“Let’s go inside. Everyone needs to hear this.” I took a step toward the door, but she placed her hand on my chest.

“Coyle, tell me now.”

I looked for somewhere she could sit down, to take the news that would surely flatten her and create another rift in our relationship. There was nothing, so I wrapped my arm around her.

“Jamie, your dad has been taken by Somatotech.”

“What?” she screamed and her knees buckled. I held her up with my arm around her back. “Damn it, Coyle, I thought you were protecting him! How did this happen?” she screamed.

“I’m gonna get to the bottom of that. And, we’re going to save him just like we did you. I promise.”

“I told you and I told him!” She slammed her fists into my chest. “It was only a matter of time and you two kept tempting them. Tempting them to retaliate.”

“Jamie, we all have been working on this, you can’t blame just your dad and I. The risk was always there, I know. But your dad knew that and believed in our mission.”

“Ha, your mission, are you still hopped up on that? We can’t win, Coyle. They’re too strong, too big, and too rich. I thought that putting together this blog would do something, but as long as they can kill, it won’t do anything. They have the army behind them, Coyle. Are we going to bring them down, too? Our grandiose view of you has blinded all of us to the facts. And now we may have killed my dad in the process.” She swung her hand at my face, but I dodged reflexively. I should’ve let her get that aggression out, but my instincts were too ingrained now.

I grabbed her hands and squeezed them lightly. “Your dad is going to be OK. He believes in our mission because it’s at the root of why he became a pastor. Good versus evil. Somatotech is evil, plain and simple. We’re taking down the company that feeds off the vulnerable. They create and take life for their own purposes, acting as god. A god opposite to the God your dad knows and loves. He can’t help but do all he can to bring them down. We can’t help but do all we can. We don’t have to kill like them; our voices can have power.”

She shook her head. “And die doing it.”

“He won’t die. I’ll get him out.”

“Ha!  You can’t say that, Coyle. You can’t be sure. You don’t even have faith like my dad. How can you be so confident?”

“No, I don’t. But I have my own reasons to be confident.” I’m smarter than them; I’m nearly immortal. I’m the only one who can save him.

“Coyle, you have to rescue my dad.”

“I’ll rescue your dad and you can call me Coyle if you want. But I know who I am, and that’s the very reason I’ll be able to save him.”

“You’d better. Coyle.” She entered the hacienda before me. I followed behind her, into the kitchen. Stefan had congregated Aedan, the Doña, and a few of the men. I took my place at the kitchen island.

“Again, we have to decide how invested our operation becomes in my mission against Somatotech. They’ve taken the good pastor and have cryptically requested that I come to their facility in Castle Rock. I vote for a solo mission. There’s no need to risk your lives unnecessarily.”

“You’re not going in without me, buddy,” Aedan spoke up.

“I’m going in too. And you can’t stop me, Coyle,” said Jamie.

“Are you two nuts? Jamie and Aedan, no. You’re not coming.”

“I have every right to do everything I can to save my dad. You can’t deny me that.”

I would be pissed off, too if someone held me back from saving my loved one. “OK, but you’ll let me go in first. They want me, so I’ll deliver myself and take them out. Then when the time is right you with some men can come in and help clean up the rest.”

“I’m in on this as well, Coyle. You’ll need me,” said Aedan as he glared at me.

“Aedan, they’re not gonna hold back. I’m going to have to clean up.”

“Clean up? What are you talking about doing?” asked Aedan, glancing over to Jamie.

“I’m not going to go into this being ignorant like before. They want to kill me. They will kill Jamie’s dad. While all avenues to save him should be investigated, I’ll take them out to save him, especially if they’re clones.”

“What would the good pastor want you to do?” asked Aedan.

“If there’s a non-violent option, I’ll take it, but I’m prepared to end whoever’s threatening him.”

“End them, Coyle. End them and get my dad back,” said Jamie. All our eyes instantly focused on her. “There will be more and more of them.”

“Soooo, what’s gonna be your move?” asked Roxanne as she strolled nonchalantly into the room. We all shifted our attention to her, the outsider. “Heard your dad was taken, Jamie. I’m sorry. We’re here to help.” Silence. Everyone stared at Roxanne before I spoke up.

“Uh, I need to scope out the compound. I never saw the outside of the place during my training, other than the killer training field, but that’s it.”

“First step is always surveillance. And after that?”

“I’m coming to scout the place,” interjected Aedan.

“And so am I,” echoed Jamie.

“Guys, that’s not necessary and you know it’s a crazy risk every time you go out.”

“It’s my dad. It’s the least I can do. You’re obviously not letting me go in to get him.” She glared at me.

“True, no way in heaven or hell would I let you in there,” I said, finally being honest. I wasn’t going to let either of my friends near the place.

“Coyle, we can help, surveillance is our specialty,” Roxanne volunteered.

“As I know, Roxanne.” I winked at her. She knew what I meant, she being the very person who had set up the peep show cameras in my apartment after my treatment.

“Let’s use our vehicle. We’ve got some special equipment that may help.”

“Oh yeah? What kinda equipment?” They’d been working on that van since the day they’d arrived.

“A winch, battering ram, adjustable tint, dashboard and perimeter cameras, and network detectors to name a few.”

“This is just reconnaissance; those are way overboard for this type of mission,” I said.

“You can never be too prepared,” said Roxanne, while walking over to Aedan. He wrapped his arm around her waist.

“OK, sure.” I grinned at the sight of the two lovebirds.

“I’ll follow from behind, Coyle,” said Stefan. Roxanne shot him a look. Talon looked to me and tightened his lips. I furrowed my brow, but he turned away. Something was off, and Talon knew it.

“Thanks, Stefan. It’s always better to be two deep.” I winked at Stefan and glanced to Talon. He kept his gaze away and down to the floor.

“Well, let’s hit the road. Lots to do and see,” said Roxanne.

“Right now?” asked Aedan, his arms still wrapped around her.

“Time is of the essence.  The longer they have him, the more likely they get tired of him.”

“Indeed,” I said and walked out of the kitchen without another word. I beelined for the map room. The Doña saw me and followed. I waited for her before shutting the door behind both of us.

“Something’s wrong, I can feel it.” I grabbed two phones and two earpieces.

“I feel it too, Coyle. You must be careful.”

“I’m letting it develop, but I’m gonna call on the men to provide backup, besides Stefan. Also, I need to make a call before I leave the compound, is that OK?”

“Make it quick. We can’t risk them tracking it here.”

I dialed Angelfire.

He answered on the first ring. “You’re a clone, eh?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Sweeeet,” he said slowly.

“Just putting you on alert. We’re gonna do some surveillance at our favorite company to hate.”

“I heard about your GF’s dad from the Doña, I hope he’s OK.”

“As do I. Keep your line open.”

“Always open, always available, my friend.”

I hung up and looked at my watch, thirty seconds had passed. I opened the door.

“Ready to roll?” Aedan said as he walked up to the room.

“Yeah, hey, keep your eyes open. Something is rubbing me the wrong way,” I said and pocketed two phones.

“Dude, we don’t have to go if you really feel funny about it, or about me,” he said in an almost accusatory tone.

“Jamie’s determined, so she’s for sure going. But, dude, you really don’t need to come.” He shot me a look but kept his mouth shut.

“What am I?” asked Jamie as she turned into the room.

“Motivated, determined. The same as I was when my dad needed rescuing.”

“We’re getting him back,” she said with force.

Aedan and I nodded. We both knew it might already be too late. Before, when they kidnaped Jamie, they’d kept her alive, barely. I doubted they’d be as gentle with the pastor. He, well we, were so close to blowing Somatotech open for all the world to see. They’d do anything to put the kibosh on that.

We all walked to the same van we used to rescue my dad. Now, Roxanne’s crew was stuffing the back with all sorts of surveillance gear. The seats in the main area were now turned so that they faced each other on either side.

“Changing it up?” I asked after peering into the van.

“It’s best for big parties like ours,” said Striker.

We sat in the back of the van, Jamie to my right and Aedan to my left. Striker and Jarom sat directly across from us. Red Cloud hopped in the driver’s seat while Roxanne slipped into the passenger seat.

“I’d thought you guys had already put cameras on this place by now,” I said as we cleared the gate. I could hear Stefan and the Doña’s men in their cars behind us.

“We wanted to but hadn’t received the order until now,” said Striker.

I stared at him, studying his biofeedback, but I sensed nothing out of the ordinary. He wasn’t lying.

“Why didn’t Talon come along?”

“Wasn’t invited. Our orders come from Medital because they know each of our strengths. Talon’s wouldn’t be particularly useful on this mission.”

“This mission? It’s a mission now?”

“Yeah, you know, setting up reconnaissance,” he said. I sensed a slight uptick in his heart rate and the skin on his neck flushed. “Whenever we do anything as a group we call it a mission,” he added.

“How close are we going to get?” asked Jamie.

“Just close enough to set up our telephoto lenses, so about two thousand feet. Don’t need to get any closer,” Roxanne said from the passenger side seat. “So, Aedan, I hadn’t asked before but, how’s the leg?” She turned to look at us.

“Almost good as new, thanks to you.”

“You’re cute enough to save.” She grinned. “Besides, now that you’re not a cripple we could use you.”

Aedan blushed, and I elbowed him in the side. “Good to know,” he managed to say.

“So, Jamie, do you know if your dad would fight back? Do you think he’d struggle against them?” asked Roxanne.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” Jamie shot me a look as if to say, “Are you kidding me?”

“Why do you ask?” I said.

“It’s important to know what physical state the kidnaped may be in. Somatotech may have already killed him, but on the off chance he’s alive, I’d like to know what I’m working with.”

Jamie shot her a look with her cheeks flushed red.

“Wow, Roxanne, you sure failed sensitivity training,” I said, opening my eyes wide.

“Just stating the facts. It’s better to be prepared.”

“Still, Roxanne, not cool.” I put my arm around Jamie. Roxanne kept quiet for the rest of the ride, occasionally covering her right ear as if to hear something else.

We drove for another ten minutes until I could see the training facility in the distance. A chill crept down my back as I remembered the crap I’d gone through there. Crushing boulders, heat and sound seeking missiles, electrical submission system, and more delightful terrors. It wouldn’t be a happy reunion.

I looked out and noticed the land around the complex was flat and devoid of trees or other cover. The nearest hill with cover stood a good quarter-mile away and even it only had a sparse covering of trees. We kept on traveling nearer to the compound, seemingly without regard.

“Shouldn’t we set up in the hills? There’s no cover here.” I pointed out the windshield.

“We’ll find a place,” said Jarom without looking outside, his eyes fixed on his feet.

“But what are you going to set the cameras on?” asked Aedan, also noticing the exposure.

They didn’t respond. Collectively, their physiology put me on alert. A sheen of sweat grew on the back of Red Cloud’s neck, Jarom’s heart rate picked up by a single beat and Striker’s hand shook ever so slightly. None of them looked directly at us.

I glanced to Jamie, who had sensed my growing uneasiness and responded with a furrowed brow. I switched my stare to Jarom.

“Guys, what’s going on here?” I asked, trying to get their attention.

Before responding, Jarom hit a small black button near his seat and metal brackets flipped out above Jamie, Aedan and I. They snapped over our shoulders, locked to the seat and tightened, tightened so much each of our arms instantly began to swell.

“What in the heck?” Aedan yelled out, struggling against the confines.

I pushed against the brackets, but even with my strength they didn’t budge. “What are you doing Roxanne?” I yelled.

She kept her eyes fixed on the compound, now only a few hundred yards away. Jarom hit another button and the van released something metal onto the road behind us. It screeched as it slid on the asphalt and then came to a stop. Stefan’s tires squealed out as well, and I could tell he wouldn’t be stopping in time. The crunch of metal and glass shot out towards us. They’d taken out Stefan.

“You pieces of trash. We trusted you!” I screamed and tried to kick Jarom. He inched closer to the door, just out of reach.

“Roxanne!” Aedan yelled. “Let us go! C’mon!”

A tear wetted the fabric just under her eye, but she didn’t speak. Red Cloud pulled up in front of Somatotech’s gate. The guard walked out of this station to the driver’s side window.

“So, this is your plan? Deliver us to them and let them kill us. You could’ve killed us yourself. Or is it that you didn’t have the guts?” I yelled at them.

Another tear slipped from Roxanne’s eye.

“So, you’re actually working for Somatotech, right? This whole freakin’ time?”

“Never, Coyle. Never.” She turned to me. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? You’re sorry you’re delivering us to be slaughtered?”

Roxanne didn’t respond.

Red Cloud rolled down his window a single inch. “We’ve got Coyle and his girlfriend in the car,” he said to the guard.

The guard took a step back, shocked. His hand snapped to his radio. “Uh, Mr. Collins, there’s a vehicle here claiming to have Coyle. What should we do?” He tried to peer through the tinted glass as he waited for a response.

“Open the gate, but put the compound on Alpha Alert,” Mr. Collins’ voice came over the radio. Mr. Collins, my friend from my last unfortunate stay, maybe he could help me, I thought. “Who is delivering them?” asked Mr. Collins.

“Identify yourselves!” yelled the guard.

“You don’t wanna know who we are, man. Just take the prisoners and we’ll be on our way.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t allow that. Please drive through the outer gate to check in on the right.” He engaged his rifle and with a short, quick movement, pointed to a check-in area inside the outer fence.

“Screw that!” yelled Red Cloud and he stepped on the gas. The van accelerated, nearly clipping the guard and careening into the inner metal gate, tearing it down. One of the metal posts in the middle of the gate shot through the windshield, nearly impaling Roxanne, but she dodged it gracefully. The van continued to the main building at an alarming speed. Sirens rang out, and I could see guards coming out of the building with weapons engaged. Red Cloud slammed on the brakes and fishtailed the rear of the van to face the building about twenty feet from them. Jarom slid the door open on the side away from the building. Striker detached an M16 from the wall of the van and pointed it at Jamie.

“Get out or she dies.” He cocked the weapon near his ear.

Jarom pressed the same black button, and the restraints lifted.

“Don’t do this, Roxanne,” I said, standing up. “You don’t have to do this!” She kept silent, but she raised her hands and signed, “If only you knew.” She retrieved something from her pocket.  Her left hand slipped behind the seat holding what looked like a small marble. Striker motioned to his ear and made the universal symbol for the phone. I let it drop in my hand and before stepping out of the van, I slipped it into my ear. This small act didn’t absolve these so-called friends of the sins they were committing. I glared at Striker, but his eyes were cold. He did point to his mouth. The small marble dropped deep into my ear canal, and when it made contact with my eardrum, I heard a distinct dial tone.

“Get out!” Striker yelled.

“We’re going,” I growled at him.

Roxanne dropped the other small marble-sized cell phones into Jamie’s hand as she passed her. Jamie stalled at the door looking back at our former friends, now betrayers. Jarom looked down, as did Red Cloud, but Roxanne and Striker just looked ahead. Aedan reached out for Roxanne, but she leaned her shoulders forward out of his grasp. More tears spilled from her eyes.

“Now!” Striker pushed Jamie into me. I caught her before she tumbled to the ground.

Aedan started for the door, but Roxanne extended her arm to stop him.

“Wait, stay with us, Aedan. I… I got approval,” she said, her voice cracking.

Aedan couldn’t find words, his tongue stayed by the shock. He stood there, frozen. Roxanne slipped her hand into his and squeezed lightly. Aedan’s gaze shifted to me and then back to his girlfriend.

“We gotta go!” yelled Jarom. “Whatcha gonna do, lover boy?”

“Stay with them, Aedan. It’s suicide to come with us,” I said while holding Jamie close. She had begun to sob.

“Aedan, I love you. Please stay with me. We can protect you,” said Roxanne.

Tears began to stream down Aedan’s face. “I… I can’t do this. You’re asking me to betray my friends or die?”

“Live on my friend, it’s the smart thing to do,” I said and started stepping back from the van with Jamie. I meant it, no need for him to suffer with us. His eyes widened with each step we took.

Aedan lifted Roxanne’s hand close to his lips. Instead of kissing it, he flipped it over and hocked a quick loogie into it. “Consider yourself dumped, Roxy. I don’t need yours or anyone else’s protection. Besides, no one treats my friends-“ He winked as he tried to finish, but instead absorbed the wet slap Roxanne delivered. Jarom followed it up with a swift kick to his leg just below the knee. Aedan toppled out of the van and rolled in front of us.

“Stupid original,” Jarom mumbled and sneered at me.

Roxanne buried her face in her hands and screamed as Jarom slammed the van door closed.

Aedan hopped up and wiped his tears. He gripped my collar and jerked me close. “Coyle, I’m doing this because I know who you are, the friend I’ve had all along, for whom I’d take another bullet anytime.”

“I don’t deserve a friend like you, Aedan.” I wrapped my free arm around his shoulder and gave him a bro hug.

The approaching Somatotech men and the dial tone in my ear brought me back to our predicament. I whispered Angelfire’s number and the tiny cell phone began the call. I need a major hack if we’re to get outta here, I thought.

“Who’s this?” Angelfire came over my eardrum phone.

“Angelfire, this is Coyle. We’re in deep. Roxanne delivered us to ST at the training facility. We need your help, now!” I whispered.

We slowly walked around the van to face our captors.

“I knew those guys were fishy. I’ll do what I can,” said Angelfire.

“Stay on with us,” I whispered.

Red Cloud stepped on the gas and peeled out, spraying gravel behind him in a torrent of dust and rock. He barreled back toward the front gate just as the guards started firing. The bullets hit the glass of the van and bounced off, leaving small divots. Striker opened the back door, flipped up an M2 Browning 50 cal, and aimed back at the building.

“Get inside!” one of the guards yelled at us while two others surrounded us with their rifles aimed at our chests.

Striker returned fire, blowing huge divots in the ground around us and in the exterior wall of the compound. He missed on purpose, I thought.

Three of the guards ducked for cover, but the three around us just pushed us toward the compound. “Retreat, men. Calling in reinforcements.”

At gunpoint, the guards pushed each of us in the metal front door. Once inside the front room, one of the guards swung his rifle at Aedan’s legs bringing him to his knees. Aedan wailed out in pain. I lunged for the guard but stopped short as I heard the familiar sound of electricity charging above. The ceiling-mounted orbs gleamed from the electrical submission system, my old nemesis from my training days here.

“Stand down, AM1! Or your friends will die right here and now,” the guard yelled.

“Officer Tanner, please bring them to the detainment cells. I’ll meet you there.” Mr. Collins’ voice came over the radio.

“Yes, sir. We’ll restrain them and arrive promptly in one minute thirty-five seconds.”

The guard lugged out metal restraining ties, pulled Aedan’s arms behind him, and wrapped them tightly.

“Ow! Dude, you’re cutting me!” screamed Aedan in agony.

Blood dripped down from Aedan’s wrist from where he attached the ties. They repeated the task on Jamie and me. I found out why Aedan’s wrists bled as they clamped them down on me. The edges of the ties were sharp as razor blades.

“Move,” the officer yelled and pointed down the hallway. Other guards flanked the hallway and the electrical orbs above each activated as I stepped beneath them.

We arrived in the detention area in exactly one minute thirty-five seconds, as the guard had predicted, or rather had stated as if it were a fact. These can’t be normal humans, they’re clones, I thought. The detention room had six cells each with an electrical submission orb hanging from the ceiling.

Mr. Collins walked in behind the guards. He looked healthy, so opposite from the feeble man who had got me out of here before.

“What a pleasant surprise!” His voice held a confidence it hadn’t had before. “Great to have you back, Coyle. And these are your friends, Aedan, and Jamie?” He nearly extended his hand out to shake their hands.

Angelfire came over my earpiece, “Coyle, they’ve ramped their crap up. They’ve got a firewall to end all firewalls, nearly impenetrable. It’s going to take me awhile to get in.”

I couldn’t respond, and it seemed Angelfire knew it because he didn’t say another word.

“Coyle? Are you with me?” Mr. Collins asked, noticing my inattention.

“I’m here Mr. Collins. It’s good to see you.”

A slight hint of recognition, or maybe satisfaction, crossed his face but then quickly disappeared. “It won’t be, I promise.” A menacing grin developed on his lips. “I’ll frisk them. See what they’re hiding on their persons.”

“Can I frisk AM1? It would be an honor,” one of the clone guards asked. Mr. Collins’ eyes shot to mine as if to ask, “anything on you?” I shook my head ever so slightly, and he responded with an equally slight nod.

“Yes, of course. You both can.” He pointed to both guards. “Frisk him thoroughly, don’t miss a single nook or cranny of his body. I’ll search the regulars,” he said and turned to Jamie and Aedan.

Crap, he’s going to find the cell jammer on Jamie’s arm, I thought. The cell jammer! How did the jammer not block Medital’s phones in our ear canals?

They frisked me with overt roughness, sneaking in a few jabs to my sides. The guard even jostled my arms so that the ties cut deep into my wrists. Crimson drips from my own wrists joined Aedan’s on the floor.

Mr. Collins came over to Jamie and started slipping his hands over her legs, up her torso, to her armpits and then down her arms. He paused ever so slightly at the cell jammer strapped high on her right arm, but he didn’t say anything. He repeated the task on Aedan, pausing at the syringes in his pocket, but continued again.

The guards extracted the two cellphones I had in my pockets and slammed them to the ground. They burst into a shower of plastic. They also found the cash I had in my back pocket. Gratefully, I had destroyed the message from the pastor’s marquee. It had become clear they didn’t have him here and likely didn’t grab him; there was true surprise in their faces with our arrival.

“Officers, please call corporate and let them know who we have in the belly,” he motioned toward the door. The guards looked confused. “Sooner the better, officers. Return in ten minutes. I need to interrogate our prisoners.”

All but one left the detainment area.

“Sir, I don’t think it’s wise to leave you alone with them, considering AM1’s potential.”

“I understand your hesitance. Please restrain AM1 in the holding cell. These two can be restrained to the wall.” He pointed to the closest cell and the adjoining wall. This seemed to appease the guard. He smiled, dragged me into one of the cells, and cuffed me to a bolt on the floor. The cuffs weren’t police style; they were actually thinner and appeared to be a steel alloy. I didn’t dare pull against them as they were attached to the restraining ties around my already bloody wrists. He pushed Aedan and Jamie against the wall and attached their ties to bolts as well. The cell door closed, and we all heard it lock.

“Thank you, officer. Please analyze the evidence in the front yard from our visitors. You may recruit others to aid you. Return in ten minutes.”

The clone guard marched out of the room without another glance at me or my friends. Mr. Collins walked over to the door and checked the handle. He then stood in front of my holding cell and whispered at a barely audible level, “Coyle, I’m not who you think I am. I’m the third iteration of Mr. Collins, you knew the second. But, I’m still a friend. The Mr. Collins you knew left a message before he died. One that told me of my true nature and that you, the chosen one, someone who will need my aid, may return.”

“Mr. Collins died?” I whispered back.

“Yes, as will I in a few months. Now, Coyle, we have only a few minutes, six to be exact and soon much less. I’m going to free you, but you’ll be on your own to escape. They’re watching, and once they see I released you, you’ll have only thirty seconds to get to safety.”

“Then you’re coming with us.”

“No, Coyle. I’ve accepted this fate; I’m prepared for it. Just as the Mr. Collins you knew.”

“I’m not going to let you die for me. I can protect you.”

He shook his head slowly and placed his hand in his pocket. “Get ready, Coyle. I’ll free you, and then you free Aedan and Jamie. You’ll need to exit this door in under fifteen seconds before they lock us in.”

He stepped tentatively towards the door, his heart beating wildly. One, two, and three he mouthed and pressed on a device in his pocket, opening my cell door. He dove toward me with wire clippers and made short work of the restraints. Once released, I lunged for Jamie and Aedan, who had turned to face away from me, and Mr. Collins tossed me the clippers. Snip. Snip. The restraints fell to the ground, and I grabbed my friends, pushing them toward the door.

“Mr. Collins why have you let the prisoner out of his cell?” A calm voice came over the radio.

“Because Coyle Murray will end this all,” he replied with confidence in his voice.

Click. A large magnet on the ceiling adjacent the door activated. I pushed on the door with all my strength, but it didn’t budge. We were too slow and now were captives. I pushed again and then kicked and slammed on the door with my fists.

I turned back from the door. “Mr. Collins, what can we do?”

“You’re the chosen one, Coyle. Mr. Collins said you’d know how to be the savior.”

I shook my head and glared at him as if to say, “not helpful.”

“Coyle, I’m almost in. Where are you?” asked Angelfire over my earpiece.

“We’re in the detainment area.”

Above us on the ceiling, the electrical orbs charged, and I knew we had only a few seconds before we’d all be fried.

“AG hurry, we’re about to be unconscious, convulsing and likely dying.”

We all scooted to the far corner of the room away from the orbs, but I knew the bolt would arc and take all of us out. I had to divert the bolt to save my friends. I jumped to the middle of the room and extended my arms up above my head to absorb the charge that would’ve probably killed them.

“I’m in, Coyle—” AG’s voice came over my earpiece, but he was cut short.

The crackling sound followed the burst of light as the bolt crashed down on me. My extremities shot out, and my back muscles went into spasm. That all-too-familiar suffocating oppression came over me, as I couldn’t drop my diaphragm or expand my chest to breathe.

“Coyle!” Jamie yelled and jumped towards me. Aedan yanked her back and held her by the waist out of harm’s way.

The stream of electricity cut off just as fast as it started. I collapsed to the ground in a heap of spasms, and my head smelled of burning hair and skin. Jamie and Aedan rushed to me and checked my pulse. I felt the pressure on my neck, but my eyelids locked shut.

“Coyle? Coyle, are you there?” Angelfire yelled over the earpiece.

“He’s alive, but we’re trapped in here. Can you let us out?” said Jamie.

“Working on it.”

My muscles began to relax slowly, one after another, but the searing pain remained. Gratefully, my heart still beat strongly in my chest, albeit a bit faster. All I could hear was high-pitched ringing, everything else sounded muffled and distant.

“Hurry, Angelfire, we’re sitting ducks in here,” said Aedan, his voice distant.

“Done,” Angelfire said and the magnet disengaged.

The ringing in my ears finally subsided, and I heard the clear sound of boots closing in on  the room.

“AG, can you lock the door in the hallway coming from the entrance? We’ve got visitors coming in hot,” I whispered as my vocal cords wouldn’t respond.

“Gotcha, but I don’t see an exit going the other way.”

“We need time. You gotta do it.”

Aedan and Mr. Collins helped me to my feet, and we stumbled toward the door. My muscles refused to coordinate movements. Instead, they moved in strong awkward jerks. I reached out to the door handle and ripped it back, my muscles acting beyond my control. The door flung open and slammed into Mr. Collins to my right, knocking him to the floor. The blood immediately began to flow from his busted nose, and he rolled on the ground in agony. Jamie crouched down next to him and urged him into a sitting position.

“Sorry, Mr. Collins. I’m all jacked up right now.” I grabbed my shirtsleeve, meaning to tear it off for Mr. Collins to quell the bleeding, but, my entire shirt ripped off. I tossed it to Jamie rather than apply the pressure myself; I likely would’ve crushed his face with the unpredictable force my muscles exerted.

“We better move, guys,” said Aedan while looking down the hallway. We all could hear the banging on the doors only a few yards away.

“Guys, help Mr. Collins, I don’t trust myself right now,” I said and shuffled into the hallway.

Aedan and Jamie slung Mr. Collins’ arms over their shoulders, and we started moving down the hallway, through three sets of reinforced doors. We passed multiple rooms with open doors but no exits or windows.

“We’re headed to the living quarters, aren’t we Mr. Collins?”

“Straight to them, Coyle. There may be alphas or betas in there, they had training in the death field, but could’ve returned. We’d be no match for all of them.”

“We’re going to have to risk it.” I started sprinting down the hall, my muscles finally coordinating their movements. I rammed through the doors of the living quarters, wanting to face the other clones alone but, with a quick scan, found the courtyard empty. Aedan and crew made up the distance and helped the out-of-breath and bleeding Mr. Collins to a couch in the middle of the courtyard. Dorms surrounded the glass-covered courtyard, including my prior cell along the far wall. I scanned the room, looking for a weakness, a potential escape, but found none.

I was about to ask Mr. Collins about a way out when a familiar and particularly annoying voice shot out into the silence. “Ooo la la, Coyle, did you finally come back for more? I’ve been waiting.”

Nevaeh, the annoying Somatotech poster-girl who forced herself on me, slowly stepped out from behind one of the courtyard pillars, extending her legs with near knee-high black leather boots. A tight black athletic suit, zipped in the front, extended up to her neck, hugging her curves. For a second, I remembered why I had slipped with her, but I pushed the thought out of my mind. Jamie sensed my gawking and jabbed me in the side.

“Oh! You brought your little girlfriend! Looking for a ménage à trois? How exciting! And, you already took your shirt off? Oooo!” she said as she strutted to the center of the courtyard.

“Shut it!” Jamie yelled, her face bright red.

“Well now, Jamie Anderson has some fire! So cute. You take after your mom.” She cocked her head and winked at Jamie.

Jamie shot a look at me. “What is she talking about?”

“I don’t know,” I told Jamie then turned to Nevaeh, “If you touched her—,”

“Not a single finger… yet. But we will if Coyle doesn’t come with us.”

Five masked women stepped into the courtyard from Nevaeh’s room. They walked in a straight line over to Nevaeh and removed their masks, whipping their hair in the air like models.

“Hello Coyle,” they said in unison.

Five exact copies of Nevaeh stood before us in identical outfits. They wore the same sexy smirk as they glared at Jamie and me.

“Oh sh…” Jamie let out. Aedan looked at me with a look of “what are we going to do?”

I let down Mr. Collins, leaned him against the wall, and walked out in front of them.

“I am pleased to introduce you to my ‘me team.' They are so excited to meet you, Coyle; they’ve heard so much.” All five of them licked their burgundy lipstick-covered lips in unison.

“Mmmhmmm, we sure have,” they said. “We don’t want to hurt you, Coyle, or your little girlfriend, but maybe we could have some fun?”

“Dude, we have a problem. One crazy former acquaintance and five of her crazy clones in the courtyard,” I whispered in my ear cell phone to Angelfire. They all stood there watching in amusement.

“Crazy? Coyle, how dare you!” Nevaeh’s eyes burned, and she took a few smooth steps in our direction. “I’ll show you crazy,” she said, as her lips curled up revealing perfectly white but menacing teeth.

“I’m working on it; they’ve stepped up their security and if I had more time…” Angelfire said. I could hear frantic typing in the background. “Scrumples! Coyle looks like you’re on your own for now. I’ll update you as soon as I can.”

“Hurry AG!” I whispered.

Nevaeh’s eyes widened, “Oh? Can't your hacker break through? What a shame, it would have been a more interesting fight.”

She stepped closer, as did her clones. They were now only a few feet from me. Aedan and Jamie slipped behind me, and Jamie gripped my arm with a nervous squeeze. We had to get out. I scanned the room, but I didn’t need to. I knew there was only one way out, the same door we had entered, which sealed behind us.

Sensing, or maybe even reading my thoughts, one of the clones jumped in front of the door with ease, covering at least fifteen in a single hop.

I took a small step back, trying to stall, to let my mind come up with a plan. I looked at how the clones were configured, in a V with the far one on the side out of formation by the door. An idea came to me in the milliseconds of thought. I backed up to the wall and pushed Aedan and Jamie to the side of the courtyard, away from the door.

“You versus all of us?” Nevaeh and her clones cackled.

I jumped; using all the force I could muster, using the wall as a brace. I flew forward, switching in the air to put my feet first. I landed on Nevaeh’s shoulders. She grabbed my legs, instinctively trying to bring me down. I let her. I came tumbling down on the three on the right, swinging my fists hard and fast. I knocked out the first and second and stunned the third as I fell. Nevaeh yelped loudly as we came down. Her leg locked over the first clone and snapped in two just below the knee. We crashed into the ground in a heap, me on top of the still-conscious clone. She tried to head-butt me, but I easily dodged in time, knowing this would be her only move. I swung down with my elbow on her face before she could move. Stunned, she shook her head and shoved me back onto the ground.

The other three pounced on me as I landed. They pummeled me with seemingly hundreds of punches and kicks. I blocked half of them but the ones that connected ripped shallow gashes in my exposed skin. As one of their fists came down on my arm, I could see the glimmer of small blades on their black, matching gloves. They were going to shred me to pieces. Tiny droplets of blood from my wounds filled the air like a light rain.

I rolled to the side just as the clones started focusing their beat down on my face. There were too many of them, I couldn’t predict all of their movements at once. I had to absorb some strikes and focus on one crazed clone at a time. I began focusing on the one directly in front of me. Being that she led with the blades on her fingers gave me the advantage. For maximum effect, she had to hit in a certain way, with her wrist bent down. This weakened her punch and opened her up to counter moves. With her next punch, I dodged left and grabbed her fist. The blades cut into the palm of my hand, but I used the positioning of her wrist and exaggerated it, folding it over on itself. I felt a few bones crack under the force, and she recoiled back in pain.

“Ahhh!” she screamed and stumbled back. The other two stopped for a split second, in shock. I rolled to the pillar and jumped up behind it. I then ran to the corner, hoping to isolate one of them. Sure enough, only one approached me while the other two stood back by a pace, grinning. I blocked a few of her swipes, but she moved too quickly and many made contact. The stinging pain spread across my face with a particularly targeted strike. I put my hand up to my face and prodded the gaping wound extending from my upper lip to my ear. She stood back for a second and took stock of her handiwork. I took the opportunity to try the only tried and true fighting tactic I knew, diversion. I knew it’d work; she flinched when I led with my right shoulder. I raised my right hand forcefully as if a strike from that side was eminent. She chuckled and adjusted to block the blow. I jabbed with my other fist, aiming for her throat as Roxanne did. I missed as she turned in response but made solid contact with her shoulder, sending her back and she collided the other clones. They remained upright but stepped back. Time to run.

I sprinted to the other side of the courtyard behind the pillar. Blood spurted from my face and onto the ground as I did, the squirts getting larger as I contracted my legs. They must’ve severed my facial artery, I thought.

“Ooo, a cat and mouse game. I like it,” said Nevaeh. “Do you really think you can outrun us in here?”

I glanced from behind the pillar. Nevaeh and the clones stood in formation at the center of the courtyard.

“I’m planning on denying you again.”

“Ha! Deny me? You didn’t tell your lady friend how much fun we had together?”

“You’re a liar.” I shot a quick look to Jamie as if to say, “Don’t believe a word out of this witch’s mouth.” Jamie nodded and huddled down with Aedan and Mr. Collins in the corner.

“Humph, you really shouldn’t have betrayed Somatotech. They’ve been improving things around here, especially healing. Remember pain is temporary. But, in your case, it will be permanent.”

They converged on me from both sides of the pillar just as Angelfire came over my earpiece.

“I’m in; get to the center, now!”

Aedan and Jamie inched towards the middle with Mr. Collins in tow. The clone by the door looked confused but stayed by the door on guard.

The ravenous women collapsed on my position behind the pillar, as I wedged myself between the pillar and wall. I looked like a spider monkey, inching myself up to the ceiling. Two of the clones collided with each other as they came around, and the rest stopped and laughed at me.

“Come on down my little mouse,” said Nevaeh limping towards me.

I pushed off with my feet and dived toward the center of the courtyard. “Now!” I yelled into my earpiece. I rolled out my landing, but my blood on the ground made me slip to the side. I stopped right at the border of the overhanging courtyard.

Electricity rained down from all of the electrodes at once. Sparks flew up, down, and sideways as the arcs made contact with Nevaeh and her clones. They jolted back and forth in jerked movements as if they were malfunctioning robots. Jamie and Aedan cowered down on the ground, covering their heads with their hands.  The electrical show subsided, and my enemies collapsed to the ground. I collapsed as well, weak from blood loss and exhaustion.

Jamie dove at me, “Coyle!” She pulled off her camisole, leaving her undershirt, and pressed it against my face to slow the bleeding. “Coyle, how do we get outta here?”

“You got company, Coyle. Coming in fast. I’ll lock the doors, but it’s only a matter of time,” said Angelfire.

My mind wouldn’t focus; it seemed content with slipping into a comfortable haze. I had to make a tremendous effort just to speak, “Above, we go through.”

Jamie looked up. “And how do we do that? Coyle, you’re so out of it, you can’t even stand.”

I pointed to Nevaeh and her clones. “Use them. Hurry.”

Her eyes widened when she realized what I implied. “Even with them we’ll still have ten or fifteen feet to go,” she explained, pointing upwards. My mind didn’t feel like explaining.

“Aedan, help stack them up,” I managed to get out.

“Uh, OK. Mr. Collins, can you help?”

“Of course,” he said and shuffled over to the unconscious clones.

While they dragged the girls over near the pillar, I searched for the bleeding artery in my face. Muscle, fat, and skin hung down off my cheek, and still dripped onto the floor. The warm pulse of blood led my fingers right to the artery, and I pinched it off for a few seconds. The bleeding stopped, and I could feel my blood volume restoring. “Aedan, hit me up with the juice.”

“You sure? You lost a lot of blood man.”

“It’s almost back. Just give it to me.”

He pulled out the syringe and needle and injected it slowly into my arm. The same rush of energy as before surged through me. Lights, sounds, and all my senses went into overdrive. My fists clenched reflexively, my fingernails cutting slits in my palms. I jumped up to my feet and flexed all my muscles to release energy. If I didn’t, it felt as if I would explode. Aedan stepped back with eyes wide at the sight of my beastness coming out.

“Let’s do this,” I said and leaped over to the growing pile of unconscious clones. I picked up Nevaeh and placed her on the top.

“Ready?” I said and climbed to the top of the tower. The pile compressed just a bit as I reached the summit. I widened my stance on Nevaeh’s limp shoulders.

“Aedan, get up here. I’m gonna have to throw you up.”

“Throw me?”

“Dude, you’ll go straight up to that railing. If you don’t get it, I’ll catch you, I promise.” There I go again, making promises and putting my friends in harm’s way.

He climbed the pile gingerly, careful not to step on their faces, instead placing his feet on hips, backs and shoulders.

“All right, how do you want me?” I analyzed the compression of the human pile, Aedan’s composition and weight distribution, and the height he needed to reach. My mind formulated the answer.

“Step right in front of me. I’m gonna grab your hips, but don’t get all embarrassed on me. Jump while I push you up.”

“Just get me outta here, dude.” He looked straight up, judging the flight to the ledge.

I grabbed just under his hips and counted. “One, two, three.” Aedan jumped up, and I thrust him into the air. He sailed straight as an arrow up to the ledge. One hand gripped the side, but the other flailed out. He swung violently to the side, banging against the wall. A few fingers slipped off, but the remaining two kept purchase, and he reached up with the other.

“Pull up time!” I yelled up to him, hoping his strength had returned.

He struggled, his arms shaking and head arched back, but managed to swing his leg up onto the ledge and inch himself over.

“What do I do now?” he said, perched on the ledge and tapping on the glass above.

“Hang tight and help Jamie up. I’ll break through when I get up there.” I turned to Jamie. “Your turn.”

A blast rang out from outside the room. Angelfire came over my earpiece, “Problem, my friend. They’re blowing up their own doors, looks like they have explosives on hand. Not much I can do about it. The electrical defense will take another five minutes to charge. So, you’d better hurry; they’re two rooms away.”

“Crap. Jamie c’mon, we have less than a minute.”

Jamie looked up at me and then at the heap of clones. “Uh…” She hesitated.

“Jamie, remember they are just like me. They’ll heal and be as terrible as ever. They can take this.”

She shook her head as if to shake out the thought that she was about to climb a pile of bodies. She extended her hand, and I pulled her up next to me on Nevaeh’s shoulders. Unsteadily, she stood up and looked up towards Aedan.

“Stay straight as a board, like a cheerleader.”

“I don’t like cheerleaders,” she said but still moved into position in front of me. I grabbed her hips and lifted her with ease. I threw her up and caught her feet, pressing her up. She extended her arms up and just barely managed to grip Aedan’s hands. I went to my toes to help make up the gap. Aedan managed to lift her onto the ledge.

“Mr. Collins, it’s your turn.”

Another blast came from the hallway, this one stronger, rattling the glass doors. Mr. Collins stepped back from the human pile.

“No, Coyle. You go; I’ll just be a burden. I’m going to die soon anyway.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it! You’re coming.” I jumped down to him, slung him over my shoulder and began climbing again.

BOOM. The door to the courtyard exploded in a fury of smoke and fire. Shrapnel shot through the air shattering the glass doors and embedding into the walls. The door had shot to the other side of the room and slammed onto the ground next to us.

“You OK?” I asked Mr. Collins.

“I feel intact,” he said while palpating his chest.

“Good! Up you go.” I tossed him up, but instead of going straight up like Aedan and Jamie, he flailed out, his arms and legs swinging wildly.

“Grab him!” I yelled to Aedan and Jamie.  Both of them reached out to grasp him, but his arms and legs swung like windmills. Aedan grabbed one of his legs while Jamie wrapped under his armpit. His weight nearly pulled Jamie off the ledge, but Aedan made up the difference, pulling him up.

Without warning, bullets tore through the smoke from the explosion. The bullets came in an arch, from side to side, obviously from someone who couldn’t see inside. The shots stayed low, at the level of a person and many of them hit the clones I stood on.

“Get up here, Coyle!” yelled Aedan.

I pushed off the unconscious human pile and soared up to the ledge, catching Aedan’s grasp with one hand and the edge with the other. I pulled myself up into the small space next to my friends.

“Dude, this glass, or whatever it is, is freakin’ thick.” Aedan tapped on the reinforced glass.

I tapped on it as well, then hit it with a moderate force. I felt the little give and listened to the reverberation. I couldn’t break it with my bare hands. My heart rate picked up, as did my friends’. A two-inch pane of glass trapped us.

The smoke began to clear and a whole stream of men in tactical gear filed into the room, although they stayed close to the door in formation.

“Get down and stay down,” I whispered to my friends. They inched toward the glass on the ledge and out of direct sight of the men. The men with automatic rifles focused on nearly all directions. I looked at the bullet holes in the wall. A few extended clean through the pillars and struck the walls behind. I scooted a few feet away from my friends and over towards the corner.

“Hey! Up here!” I yelled at the Somatotech goons. They instantly, in perfect unison, turned on me and sent a stream of bullets my way. I dropped down and inched towards the glass just as it came shattering down on me while bullets ripped through the small ledge. The glass also shattered near Jamie and Aedan, opening up a gaping hole rimmed by jagged glass.

“Get out, now!” I said with the perfect volume level, just loud enough for my friends to hear.

“Angelfire, call the police, now,” I whispered.

“What? Why?”

“We need a diversion and protection when we get outta here.”

“All right Coyle. Never thought I’d call the police on my own people.”

Jamie crawled through the gap in the glass, followed by Aedan. As Aedan made it through his foot hit some of the remaining glass, which cracked off and fell to the ground below. The Somatotech men turned from me and focused their fire on my friend’s location.  Aedan and Jaime dove down onto the roof as the bullets ripped through the remaining glass. Mr. Collins hunkered down, laying flat on the ledge.

“Over here!” I yelled, hoping they would direct the fire at me once again.  They didn’t. Mr. Collins groaned, and I knew a shot had made contact. I jumped out the broken glass onto the roof, and spider-ran over to the opening near Mr. Collins. Bullets showered the area, so I stayed plastered to the roof.

“They’re on the roof, send beta squad,” one of the men from below spoke into his radio.

I reached through the glass and touched Mr. Collins’ chest. He was still breathing, and his heart raced.

“Dude, we gotta get outta here!” yelled Aedan from a few yards behind me.

“We’re not leaving him, they’ll kill him.”

“He’s one of them, Coyle!” he yelled. He may be one of them but he’s not with them, I thought.

There was a short break in the fire, so I yanked Mr. Collins by the shirt, pulling him through the now wide-open courtyard glass. The men below fired as I did, and one shot ripped through Mr. Collins’ right forearm. I laid him down on the roof out of harm’s way and inspected him. Blood seeped from the right side of his abdomen and streamed heavily from his arm.

“Coyle, leave me here. I’ll just slow you down,” he said, his face wincing from the pain.

“Not gonna happen, Mr. Collins, I’m getting you outta here.”

“I die if I stay and I die if I go, young protégé.”

“I’d rather you die with us than them.” I ripped off his sleeve and wrapped it around his arm. I couldn’t do much for his other wound, so I hefted him onto my shoulder.

Sirens rang out from about two miles away, coming fast from the south. We sprinted over to the ledge and searched for a way down.

“Over here, Coyle. There’s a ladder,” said Jamie, who had already started the climb down.

“Wait!” I yelled before she could go down any farther.

I looked around trying to make sure we didn’t drop into the training field that nearly killed me before, the one with the sound- and heat-seeking turret. Smoke from the explosions below filled the outer perimeter of the building and clouded my view.

“Mr. Collins, which side are we on?” He didn’t respond. I felt his chest rise and fall, but he had passed out. A metal door opened at the backside of the building, and I heard a group of men come out of the building about two hundred yards away.

“We’ve gotta chance it. Angelfire, I’m gonna have to hang up on ya. Thanks for your help.”

“Always here to help in your craziness, Coyle.”

I realized I had no idea how to hang up this ear canal phone. “Uh, AG, could you hang up on me?”

Click. The dial tone returned, and I started going through the numbers I’d memorized.

“Coyle! Where are you?” asked Stefan as the call connected.

“You’re alive!” I said, surprised.

“It’d take a lot more than a little accident to kill me. Now, where are you?”

“I’m not sure, there’s smoke everywhere.”

“Can you make a signal?”

I spun around, searching anything that I could throw to signal to him. As I did, I noticed the smoke swirl up behind me. An idea came to me.

“Look for a tornado.”

“Wha?”

“You’ll see.”

A ventilation pipe stuck out of the roof in the corner. I grabbed on with one and hand began swinging around to confused stares from my friends. My speed increased until I hand to hold on with both hands and my legs lifted off the ground. The smoke swirled violently upwards in a vortex, extending a football field distance up. Jamie and Aedan shielded their faces with their hands as debris on the roof shot out. My grip began to slip, so I slowed down and put my legs back down on the roof.

“Catch that?”

“Hard to miss it. You’re at the northwest corner, but the police are coming in quick, Coyle. I’m not sure I can get to you out in time.”

“Get over here; I’ll take care of the police.” And the Somatotech clones, I thought. I still didn’t know if we were about to descend to our doom in the turret field. I ran over to the ladder where Jamie and Aedan waited.

“I’ll go first with Mr. Collins. If I yell, run to a different corner of the building. Do not come down.”

With Mr. Collins slung over my shoulder, I slid down the ladder, slowing my descent near the bottom by pressing inward on the rails with my shoes. A blast shot out around the corner of the building, and I knew they’d be on us in just a few moments.

“Stefan, where are you?”

“Coming in hot,” he said and honked the horn. I could hear the engine roaring loudly as he closed in on our position.

“Do you see a turret?”

“A what?”

“A tower with a huge gun on it?”

“No, nothing. But there’s so much smoke!”

We didn’t have time to belabor it any further. “Come on down guys!” I yelled to Aedan and Jamie. “Hurry!”

Jamie made it down just as Stefan arrived with the car. I opened the door and pushed Jamie in and then plopped Mr. Collins on the back seat next to her.

“Hurry Aedan!” I yelled just as a group of Somatotech clones, well at least their shadows in the smoke, rounded the corner about fifty yards away. Aedan’s arms and legs shook out of fear as he reached the middle of the ladder, still above the smoke. He was a sitting duck. I yelled out, hoping the goons would target me again. They pointed their guns toward the easy target, Aedan.

My best friend was about to die.

38  Reunion

I couldn’t let it happen, I wouldn’t. Aedan couldn’t die because of me. The thought of losing him after he’d demonstrated such loyalty flipped a switch in my mind. I let the rage consume me and envelop me in its power. Time slowed as if seconds dragged out into minutes. This was different, the rage felt centered in my heart and perfectly placed. That’s when it dawned on me; this rage came from love. Love for my best friend, with the urge to save him rather than provocation from hate.

I lunged forward at the goons but quickly realized I couldn’t make it in time. The quick flick of their fingers and my friend would die. I had to control these clones just as I controlled Coyle’s clones. I balled up the rage and drove it into my mind. A perfect clarity developed, and I could see each clone’s mind. I pushed away their mental blocks with a simple swipe of mental power and forced their arms down. All of their guns now pointed to the grass.

“Down Aedan, now!” I yelled through gritted teeth as I struggled to maintain my hold on the clones’ minds.

Blood began to stream out of my nose, and stabbing pain grew behind my eyes. I held them there, frozen in place while Aedan jumped in the car.

“Coyle, get in!” Jamie yelled from within the car.

I could try to escape with them, but these clones would surely follow and kill us all. Besides, I could draw the police to me and allow my friends to escape. I had to stay for my friends to live.

“GO! Go now! I’ll take care of them.” I glanced back a Jamie. Tears streamed down her face, and she screamed something unintelligible at the sight of me. Stefan rammed down the gas pedal and sped off into the smoke. I returned to the clones. My control over them had weakened, and some of them had managed to raise their guns. I pushed back with all my mental force, and their guns returned to the ground. Police sirens rang out from just inside the compound gate. I couldn’t see Stefan and the car, but I hoped they’d made it out before the cops arrived. If they hadn’t, I’d needed to provide a diversion. I forced the clones’ arms up and paused momentarily with all the guns aimed at each of their heads. I could end them all, they were all slaves anyway, mindless drones without souls. I wouldn’t be ending productive lives. “Do not be the aggressor,” the pastor’s words rang clearly in my mind. Instead of putting bullets in their heads, I raised the guns to the sky and pulled the triggers. Hundreds of shots rang out into the air until all of the magazines had emptied. The sirens didn’t come any closer. Instead, they stayed by the gate. My diversion hadn’t worked. I had to dispose of the clones and help my friends.

I forced the men to throw their weapons out into the field. The blood continued to flow steadily from my nose, so much now that I’d started to grow lightheaded. Their mental faculties began to recover as my strength faded. I forced them into a circle and placed their arms up and around the neck of the nearest clone. With one last burst of mental power, I squeezed each hand, cutting off the blood to their clone brains. Their hands held strong and within thirty seconds, they collapsed to the ground in a heap. The connection broke with their unconscious state, and I sprinted off to join my friends in the cover of the haze.

A police car had wedged itself into the opening of the gate, preventing Stefan from escaping. The policeman had his gun drawn and hunkered down behind the far side of the car. He kept his eyes fixed on Stefan, who had raised his hands out the driver’s side window.  I skirted around the field in a wide arc through the smoke, so he wouldn’t see me approach.

“Get out of the car with your hands above your head, now!” he yelled at my friends.

I dropped close to the ground and crawled the remaining twenty feet, coming up to the trunk of the car. His hands shook as he kept the gun trained on Stefan. I managed a quick glance inside the car and noticed he’d placed the car in park. An image of a diagram popped in my mind. I’d read an automotive manual during my training, and on one of the pages it had stated that nearly all cars when placed in park lock the rear wheels, not the front. If I could lift the rear and push hard enough, everyone could escape.

“Out now!” the officer yelled.

I caught Stefan’s eye and made signals with my hands telling him to stay in the car. He nodded, and I put my hands under the car. I squatted with my butt near the ground and took a deep breath. My muscles tensed in anticipation.

“This is Officer Stadham requesting backup at the Somatotech facility,” he yelled into his radio.

I forced my upper body up with a ripping contraction of my legs. The skin on my hands felt as if it would slough off with the weight, but the rear end lifted. I rammed forward and to the side with my chest, rolling the car forward and out of the way.

“What the… !” the officer yelled and jumped out of the way. His gun trained on me, but I ducked my head.

I gave it one last push and rolled out of the way, just as Stefan punched the gas and stormed through the gate.

“Halt! Or I’ll shoot!” he yelled as they careened from the outer gate and onto the main road. He didn’t shoot. Instead, he turned to find me. I stayed behind the far end of the car, near the passenger-side wheel. I glanced back at the facility, expecting to see a horde of clones charging at me but the field was eerily empty aside from the billowing smoke.

“Get up slowly with your hands above your head.”

I looked under the car at his feet. They shuffled to the right in small nervous steps. I grabbed a handful of gravel in my left hand and another in my right. I tossed one handful toward the end of the car. He flinched and ducked down behind the trunk.

“C’mon man, stand up slowly, let’s end this,” he yelled out.

“Sorry, sir. I can’t do that.” I tossed up the gravel at the perfect angle, using the wind, to land on his head.

“What the?” he called out.

I used the distraction to leap onto the car and then onto the top of the fence. I flipped down and sprinted to the next fence.

“Stay where you are!” he screamed but I cleared the next fence and sprinted in the opposite direction of Stefan and my friends. The officer jumped in his cruiser and peeled out after me. I counted back the time from when Stefan had escaped the facility. Only forty-five seconds had passed; I needed to distract this officer for a little longer to ensure they’d get away.

I stopped abruptly on the road to give him time to catch up. One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand… When he’d closed the gap within a few feet, I sprinted again, weaving like a mad man from one side of the road to the other. I couldn’t help but grin as I added some yelps and cries to the mix. He stayed behind me, with his lights flashing and siren blaring.

We continued this charade for another mile or so, and then I stopped, put my hands on the back of my head and kneeled down. The officer jumped out of his car, kicked me in the back with his boot, and forced me face down on the asphalt.

The standard-issue metal handcuffs dug into my wrists, cutting off the circulation to my fingers. The nervous cop had clicked them as tight as they would go when he apprehended me. I let him do it. Why not? Little did this small-town cop know that it would take a heck of a lot more than simple handcuffs to restrain me. I waited patiently for the right time to break and escape.

“Stay against the car!” he yelled, as I glanced around looking for the car carrying Aedan and Jamie. I had taken this officer for the chase of his life through the few streets outside Castle Rock. They should have had plenty of time to get away. His heart thumped briskly, and his voice wavered. Sweat slipped down his forehead to his cheeks and dripped off his chin onto my hands. I was sure this little town hadn’t ever seen action like what went down today. Explosions, teenage assassins, clones, and jealous rage! ‘Twas quite a day! I hoped I had given Aedan and Jamie enough time to escape the chaos; we shouldn’t have been there anyway. There was no knowing when Jamie would have another episode. Then they’d be in real trouble.

The cop reached a shaking hand down to his radio while pressing on my back with his other hand. “This is Officer Stadham requesting backup at Happy Canyon and Santa Fe in Castle Rock. I have one subject in custody and at least two on the run. I pursued them from the Somatotech facility.”

His hand lightened up ever so slightly on my back as he spoke. Seizing the opportunity, I pulled out hard on the handcuffs. The links broke easily, releasing my arms though the cuffs ripped deep gashes into my wrists. Before he could react, I spun around, swiped the gun from his holster and threw it a few hundred feet away, my arms moving rapidly like a mousetrap snapping on an unsuspecting victim. Droplets of blood from my wrists sprayed into the air and onto his face. He stood there shocked with hands up and eyes wide. I slapped the radio out of his hand with a swift swipe he never saw coming. It crashed onto the frozen ground, plastic pieces splaying out onto the road. He took one cow-hearted step back and almost tripped on his own feet, so I stepped forward with him, keeping him close, intimidated. I could have knocked him out cold with a simple jab, literally pulled his arms off his body, or kicked him high into the air above his car, but I had changed. Pastor Anderson had changed me.  Violence wasn’t always the answer.

Snapping back to reality, he reached out his empty hands to apprehend me. I shuffled away easily with two quick hops, toying with him. I gave him a wry smirk and a look of confusion washed over his face. My smile grew larger, almost reaching a maniacal level. His eyes widened and, realizing he would need backup, he lunged for his car radio. I turned and sprinted off into the darkness of the night.

“This is Officer Stadham again. I… um… the, uh, the subject escaped. He’s headed northwest on Santa Fe. I’m in pursuit.”

His boots echoed on the pavement behind me for a few seconds until he realized it was no use. My strides covered triple the distance of his. He sprinted back to his car and turned the ignition as I reached the next intersection and ducked into a wheat field across the train tracks that ran along Santa Fe Avenue. I made it across the soft ground of the field and then waded through the East Plum Creek to make it to open fields. The hacienda was at least fifteen miles away through the farms and foothills outside Sedalia. I hoped Jamie and Aedan made it back; they should’ve arrived there by then.

The light from the celestial bodies shone brightly in the clear sky, highlighting the foothills of the Colorado Front Range before me. Only the sounds of my steady breathing and feet striking the ground emanated into the stillness. My heart maintained an even slow beat in my chest while I took deep slow breaths of the clean foothill air.  We escaped! Somatotech, Medital, or both had us in their clutches, and we escaped. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

39  Blighted

A loud buzz from the sky above ripped me out of my revelry. That cop was no match for me, but he had hopefully provided enough of a diversion. I had run from Castle Rock toward the compound for just under ten minutes and would be there in under a minute. I focused on the where the sound came from. My eyes focused on two small planes streaking across the sky. Drones. I wondered why they flew so low. Also, they normally stayed closer to the bases in near Colorado Springs and Denver on their test flights. Whole throngs of drone followers had mapped out their normal courses between the two bases. Aedan and I had once gone to watch them take off among the fanatics.

The drones flew straight for the foothills and straight for the compound. My heart nearly stopped as they sent the first missile in the direction of the compound. The other let two fly as well. The foothills lit up in a blaze of orange and red, the brightness forcing my eyes closed for a second. A deep boom echoed back as they made contact. I still couldn’t see the compound as I had a large hill to climb. I stumbled up, pushing with my hands and knees on the tangle of dried grass and bushes. My hands began to shake, and tears streamed down my face as I neared the top. This had to be Somatotech’s doing, retaliation for our little raid on their compound. But how did they know where the hacienda was? Only my crew and Roxanne’s crew knew its location. Did we miss a tracker somewhere? My mind abandoned trying to figure it out. Instead, it fixated on all the mattered. Are they all dead? That question swirled through my brain like a tornado as the pain of the moment grew in my heart.

I crested the hill, and my darkest fears were confirmed. Fire and destruction replaced my home, my sanctuary. Dad, the Doña, and the men were likely all dead. Wiped away with a flip of a digital switch. Please, Lord, let Jamie and Aedan be OK, I thought. Smoke billowed up into the dark sky from the crater where the missiles had hit. I sprinted up to where the front gate used to stand and yelled out for anyone.

No one responded. I stood there with my heart racing and my fists clenched, staring at the blazing fire and billowing smoke. The heat felt as if sharp barbs shot out of the flames, searing the image of destruction into my eyes. The sound of rotors came to my attention before I could see the spotlights shooting down from the approaching helicopters. I wiped the tears from my eyes and saw that they approached from the north and were about five miles away. I had only a minute or two before they’d spot me.

How did they know about the compound? Could they have put a tracker on Jamie or Aedan somehow while we were there? The trackers. Roxanne’s team said they got them all, but maybe they missed one. Maybe Medital did this? That didn’t explain why someone from the military attacked the compound, though. Only Somatotech had ties with the army.

I ran up to where the hacienda used to stand. My legs lost strength, and I fell to my knees at the sight. Pieces of Stefan’s car were strewn about the ripped up roundabout. Jamie, Aedan, Stefan and Mr. Collins, gone. I heaved and heaved again.

“Ughhh, help,” someone groaned from the wreckage near the back of the hacienda. My heart picked up and seemed to grasp onto the sound. Someone is alive! I sprinted to where the sound came from and searched among the debris. I saw an arm sticking out from a piece of the roof near the back of where the hacienda used to be. I carefully lifted the roofing to reveal a badly injured Talon. My stomach sank to see him in that state. He wasn’t going to make it, and frankly I was surprised he was even conscious.

“Talon!” I yelled.

“Coyle,” he said, and his eyes slowly rolled up to me; blood caked around his mouth. He turned his head, and I could see a gaping hole in his head directly behind his ear.

“What happened?”

“I’m sorry, so sorry, Coyle.” He coughed, spraying a mist of blood into the air.

“Sorry for what? What’d you do?” I stared into his barely open eyes.

“I couldn’t stop them, they were following orders.”

“Roxanne betrayed us, not you. That’s why they didn’t want you along, right? They knew you’d help us?” I needed to believe he was innocent. I needed to believe he’d have saved us if he could.

He nodded and closed his eyes.

“But, who did this?”

He groaned once, and his life slipped away. I placed my hand on his head and wished he could come back just as I had, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Talon, my unlikely friend, would be missed. Another tear slipped down my face. Add that to the hundreds already shed for my lost friends and family.

I looked for something to cover his body but only found pieces of aluminum roofing, which hardly seemed respectful. Instead, I quickly cleared the area around him and under him and laid his body straight, crossed his arms, and saluted him. He deserved more, but I had to search for the others.

I listened for breathing but the sound of the remaining structures burning muffled the sounds. I scrambled from debris pile to debris pile, throwing over bricks, piping, and all that remained of my home. I found no one. Either they escaped before being blown up or they’d been blown to… I couldn’t finish the thought. I couldn’t imagine life without Jamie and Aedan. Life would have no purpose.

The helicopters rocketed up towards the compound, now only a mile or so away.

“Jamie! Aedan! Dad!” I screamed one last time. No response. Despite the crackles of fire all around me, the world seemed silent. I was alone.

The helicopters reached the edge of the compound, so I jumped up and threw myself behind a half-blown away tree with a trunk that had managed to survive the blast. Searchlights scanned around the blast site. I peered out just as the light focused on Talon’s body. The copter approached and then hovered thirty yards way. Shots rang out, and I nearly screamed. Talon’s dead body absorbed the barrage of bullets. Hate replaced despair and power surged through me. I found a softball-sized piece of cinderblock near the tree and aimed for the pilot of the helicopter hovering over Talon. I cocked my arm back to hurl it at his skull, but I couldn’t release. “Don’t be the aggressor,” the pastor’s words came back to me. But, they killed my friends, they decimated Talon’s body, and they want to kill me! I thought in rebuttal of the pastor’s words. “Don’t be the aggressor, Coyle. It may bring temporary satisfaction but in time deep regret will consume you.” I don’t even know him; he’s probably a clone, why would I feel regret? I thought. “You know it’s true, Coyle. You’ve felt it before. You feel it now. Don’t succumb.” I imagined the pastor’s words. Words that cut to my grieving soul. The chunk of cinder block slipped from my hand. Instead of channeling my rage into vengeance, I now focused on escaping.

The helicopters swept up the property, pausing a few seconds here and there.  When both were near the far west side of the property, I bolted out in the opposite direction. I pushed my legs to snap back and forth at a blistering pace. My feet hardly touched the ground as I made crested the hill outside the compound.

Where to go? I thought. Who could help me? Between breaths, I called out to the phone in my ear to call Angelfire. It rang and rang with no answer. Angelfire had never missed a call before. Have they gotten to him as well?

I had made if over a few more hills before I heard the helicopters had changed direction and started towards me. I was sure they hadn’t seen me, but somehow they’d clued into my location. I pushed my legs to move quicker, but the helicopters closed in on me.

My heart thumped hard in my chest, and my muscles began to burn with pain. I pushed through, knowing my only hope was to hide in the city. The lights of Littleton approached in the distance, just passed the Chatfield Reservoir.

I came up on a large field bordered by a tall chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. I dove over the 10-foot fence and landed in a pile of warm goo. The smell instantly told me I’d nearly immersed myself in fresh manure. I sank into the smelly mess that appeared contained within a concrete box about ten feet square. My feet just barely touched the ground before my head ducked under. My stomach churned over with the vile smell consuming me, but I managed to keep it down. I grabbed the side of the container and began to pull myself out, but the sight of multiple containers scattered throughout the field made me pause. Steam escaped six of them including the one I had unfortunately dropped in.

The helicopter approached from the west now and by the sounds of it was about a quarter mile away. If they were using heat sensors, this field would light up with large squares. That stinky heat could obscure my own, and hopefully they’d pass unbeknownst to them that their poop-covered enemy lay below.

I took a deep breath and dunked myself deep into the excrement as the helicopter reached the far edge of the field. The sludge slipped into my ear canals and up my nose, so I blew out, but the vile crap flowed right back in. I kept my mouth and eyes clamped shut. Muffled sounds of the helicopter above kept me from losing my lunch. I focused on the sounds; they were sweeping back and forth, likely checking each manure container. My lungs burned with the lack of oxygen, but I resisted the urge to gasp.

After a couple minutes, the helicopters moved on. I shot up out of the vile pit and crawled out into the field. I wiped the crap from my eyes and began running again.  I found a small grove of large cottonwood trees and hid in a hollow of the largest one.

I had to get to a more populous area to blend in with the crowds, as much as I could being covered in manure. My heat register, as I sprinted across the remaining fields, would stick out like a bright red target on the cold blue ground. I needed to cool my core and find better cover. In the distance, I could hear the flow of water. The Plum Creek I had crossed when I escaped from the training facility. I remembered the temperature when I sloshed through it, around fifty degrees.

I crawled out from my makeshift cover and sprinted for the creek to the sound of approaching helicopters. I still had about twenty yards to go when the lights began searching the area where I’d been. I pushed off hard against the ground and dove into the chilly water. The stream cleared some of the caked cow poop from my body as I submerged deep below. I swam underwater with the current carrying me downstream to Littleton. My body started dropping in temperature, but I feared it might be too late; their tracking probably went far beyond thermal imaging anyway.

The current aided my strokes, but I knew I could make double or triple the ground if I ran. Then I would lose the little cover I had with the water and large arching cottonwoods on the banks. My body had cooled down to around fifteen degrees, not nearly as cold as I needed to escape their sensor. Cooling down that much would easily take ten to fifteen minutes if I stayed still, twenty because I swam. Aside from the helicopter in the distance, the silence surrounding me collapsed in. With the silence came thoughts, and with thoughts came the terror, the terror of losing the only people who had brought purpose to life. I loved them. My heart ached as my mind finally aligned. Jamie was my soul mate whether I was a damned clone or not. My stomach contracted as I began to cry. I stopped swimming and let the current push me along as I added to the liquid current. “Ahhh!” I screamed and smacked my hands against the water, splashing it high into the air. I didn’t care if they heard me; it was over anyway. Life had lost its purpose.

The helicopter clued into my position even quicker than I’d expected. A warm spotlight focused on my body, and I closed my eyes, ready to receive my fate.

The shots came as I expected but, instead of bullets opening holes in my body, sharp barbs dug deep into my skin, ripping cleanly through my shirt and pants. I whirled around to see my assailants, but the darkness obscured my view. I ripped one of the devices from my leg and with it skin, fat and muscle. Four tines held onto my tissue like the claw of death, connected to a flashing gun a good hundred yards away. I went for the other in my arm, but as I did, a shock of electricity rammed through me from arm to arm. My arms shot out straight to the sides then collapsed onto my chest. My heart fluttered a few times and then stopped. That’s when the pain surged. The one still attached made a whirling sound followed by a click. A needle dropped down from a small canister and jerked into my arm. Why are they bothering to sedate me? My heart has stopped; I’ll be out soon anyway. I thought. Surprisingly, the chemical didn’t make me sleep but seemed to clear my mind and wipe the pain away. The anxiety I’d felt just a second before seemed to dissolve into the shallow water I lay in.

My chest tightened, and my mind felt lofty and I knew I’d lose consciousness soon. I focused on the cool water on my skin, dribbling past, tickling as it streamed. I could feel and breathe and think for the time being, unlike everyone I loved and cared about. No dose of medication could take that reality away. Nothing mattered anymore. Who am I trying to save now? I felt silly for even running away; why not face the inevitable fate and die where my friends and family died? Somatotech had won; I just didn’t think it’d be because of a friend’s betrayal.

They descended on me all at once from the helicopters, suspended by wires. I expected a severe beat down or a few thousand bullets ripping through my body. Instead, they surrounded me and placed their arms under my back and legs, lifting me onto a stretcher that had descended behind them. They were careful, calculating, as if they didn't want to hurt me. Thick Velcro straps flopped down onto me and then tightened.

The men had full body armor and face shields made of a metallic material. My limp and fixated body reflected back at me in the face shield of a man who bent down to me.

“This has been a long time coming, soldier. Welcome back,” he whispered into my ear. I could recognize that voice anywhere. Col. Stevens.

He stepped back and the helicopter raised me above the ditch and into the air. I felt weightless like when I’d died; when I’d been carried to somewhere, somewhere distant. Am I dying again? I thought.  My mind held onto my confusion as it succumbed to unconsciousness.

40  Controlled Freedom

I woke in a window-lined room high in Somatotech headquarters. Classical music boomed in my ears, making it hard to think of anything else. I tried to plug them, but my arms and legs were restrained to the table I lay on. My arms were propped up on metal rests.

“Oh! Fantastic, you’re awake!” said someone behind me, out of my view. I strained my neck to see him. “Now don’t hurt yourself, it’s only me, your friend, Dr. Gerter.”

Rage surged through me at the sight of anyone from Somatotech, especially someone who pretended to by my “friend.” I tightened my hand on the armrest and squeezed, expecting it to crumple under my grip. Instead, my skin sloughed off my fingers leaving the muscles and bone exposed. I screamed in pain, my voice echoing in off the glass room.

“Oh dear, AM1 don’t do that!” he said and rushed to my side.

Someone else chuckled behind me. “Impressive, eh?” said Dr. Tessel. “We’ve had our engineering team work on that material. Stronger than titanium and coated with a bonding agent. Heat and moisture activate the material, so, given your angry, sweaty grip, you catalyzed the reaction. We made it just for you.” He winked, accentuating the wrinkles around his eye.

I tried to lift my hands off but found my remaining skin of my palms stuck to the metal as if they were super-glued together. I stopped resisting and let my arms and legs go limp. The pain remained, pulsating from my exposed flesh.

“How? How did you find us?” I asked with my eyes closed to avoid seeing my arms and adding to the pain.

“From the least likely source, our arch nemesis in business, Medital. Not only did they deliver you to us unexpectedly, they gave us the coordinates and told us the precise time when to target the compound since you escaped us, again. Now, how they knew where you were is something you would have to fill me in on.”

My mind locked on an image of Roxanne. She betrayed me. She killed everyone. Their faces flashed before my eyes like a flipbook. Each one lifeless and pale. That familiar anger began to grow. It surged through my heart and spread to my mind. Grief and anger met and coalesced, resulting in a dark, execrable despair. My body urged me to react, to weep, to tear something apart, to disregard the pastor’s word and avenge and kill. But the pain from the previous moment stayed my rage, I had to hold still, or more of my flesh would be ripped off. They knew me too well.

Instead, I screamed, “Why? Why would they do that?”

“AM1, I’m surprised you hadn’t picked up on it before. Medital is working on the very same projects as we. Their clones are no way near ours, but they didn’t want the cat out of the bag as you nearly accomplished. The public, and eventually the parts of the government who don’t already fund us, would have ripped both our companies to shreds. They couldn’t afford that, so they called us. And we were more than happy to oblige.”

“You’re all so freakin’ evil.”

“Evil? Nah, we’re enterprising.” He smirked and nodded at Dr. Gerter.

Dr. Gerter carried a silver tray with a white paste and began slopping it on my exposed wounds. It stung for a few seconds and then a cool sensation spread up my arm, replacing the pain. He winked at me and grinned before returning to the computer console.

“I wouldn’t call creating and taking life enterprising,” I said, straining to look at the Snake.

“I would call it divinity,” he retorted.

“Don’t you have a conscience? Something inside that tells you this is all freakin’ wrong?”

“Does God? He supposedly plays by his own rules. Gives and takes without explanation, all in his supposed wisdom. Do you think he feels guilty when he lets life slip away? You wanna know why he doesn’t? Because he sees the greater plan, the greater vision. I possess that same vision, Coyle.”

“God is god. You’re a man, a weak, selfish, delusional man.”

“I create and take life. That alone makes me a god.”

“No, you’re a monster praying on the weak.”

“I give new life to the weak, Coyle. Besides, I’m just making sure we profit from the next stage of human evolution. You do understand that our clones will soon make up ninety percent of the military. They’ll take over every branch of the US government within a year. Heck, we already have a Supreme Court justice clone. Medital has a few embedded in some low-lying government positions as well, but we’ll replace them soon. These clones are expensive to create but in the long run they’re much less expensive than our lobbying campaign. Now with your breakthrough with telepathic neural dominance, we can control them remotely without any further intervention. For that, we thank you, Coyle.” He bowed slightly, not out of respect but out of dominance.

“Glad I could be of so much help,” I said and glared at him. “Why, if you created me, do I feel such hate for you?”

“The humanity we implanted in you was Coyle’s, his emotions, his drive, what made him tick. Your originator had, what you would call, goodness, stemming from his late mother.”

“Then why did my other not revolt?”

“Alpha male two, or Jimmy, he had only the memories, without the emotional connection. As a soldier, his skills far surpassed yours because of his ability to detach. It was all an experiment, to see if humanity would prove beneficial. Now, as it is abundantly clear, there’s obviously no benefit. All it brings is insubordination and pain. Pain to us and to those you irrationally hold dear.”

Dr. Gerter shuffled over to me and inspected my arms once more.

“That’s pain you created when you made us,” I said and watched Dr. Gerter. His shifting gaze and perpetual smile made me nervous.

“Partly true, yes,” Dr. Gerter interjected and sauntered over to his desk. His fingers made quick work on the keyboard and a graphic of Coyle, AM2, and me popped up on a screen directly above me. All the same facial features but AM2’s lips were pulled tight, and his eyes lacked light. Coyle and I had the same look; our eyes were soft, and we both bared our teeth in exactly the same way. Identical.

“Managing,” he continued, “three beings with the same identity proved more difficult than we expected, you see. In simulations, Somatotech projected similar responses from both you and Coyle. But, at times your decisions strayed wildly. Despite having the exact same memories and emotions, you made very different decisions, unpredictable and extremely entertaining decisions. Coyle exhibited a more docile demeanor, and you, at times, resorted to unprovoked violence.”

“Hmmph, unprovoked?” I interrupted. “You’re missing data, Mr. Scientist. Yeah, I’ve been violent. I’ve killed people. But it’s always been provoked. Whether from the rage you implanted in me or from the goons you sent after me.” I paused, knowing I sounded like a guilty person trying to justify his crimes. “It’s something I’ve been working on. I’ve controlled it.” Although at that very moment I wanted to tear both these men to shreds.

“As we have seen. I commend you. No other clone has recovered and controlled their weakness like you. Quite impressive!” Dr. Gerter said and then chuckled with a deep goofy laugh.

“So, you did give it to me? Just like you gave Roxanne her photosensitivity?”

“Not yours or Roxanne’s. You and she were to be pure. Her ailment was an unforeseen side effect of a particular drug. Your aggression, on the other hand, is more complicated. Your originator had a good deal of pent up anger stemming from his mother’s passing. It could be that, in a more capable form, your anger feels justified to come out.”

My head began to ache. Likely not from the blow I took earlier but because the truth hurt.

“Well, as much as I’d like to see phase two, I’ve other matters to attend to. I’ll leave you in Dr. Gerter’s capable hands. It’s been a tremendously stressful time knowing you.” Dr. Tessel left the room with a slight nod to Dr. Gerter.

Dr. Gerter pulled up a stool and sat near enough for me to hear his high-pitched nasal breathing. “Coyle, you’ve caused a great deal of pain. Pain to your originator’s family, pain on Jamie, pain on the Medital crew, and most recently on your good friend Aedan. How does that make you feel?”

“Oh, now you’re a freakin shrink? Are ya going to charge me for this session?”

He shuffled close to me and dropped his head to my level. “I need to know there is humanity left in you,” he whispered. “Some smidgen hidden deep in your heart. If there is, then not all hope is lost.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I can reverse it, Coyle.”

“Don’t call me Coyle anymore, I’m not him.”

“Precisely my point. I can make you unique; your own person. You have goodness inside you, a potential to change the world for the better.” He grinned. “Choose a name; choose your likes and dislikes. Choose a hobby, a profession, a trade. I can give it to you. A unique set of knowledge and skills tailored for you as an individual to make the world a better place. You could be the greatest peacekeeper in the history of mankind,” he continued to whisper as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear.

“Or I could just live as Coyle before all this crap happened, a regular teenager, nothing special. I’m sure I could be quite good at it. Somewhere far from here and with my memory wiped of all this.” As I spoke the words, my heart ached because I knew that wasn’t true. The truth was; I didn’t want to feel the pain anymore.

He furrowed his brow, “You would prefer to forget those you loved?”

All I could manage was a simple, “No.”

“While the life you lived was a farce, you made true connections, something the researchers did not anticipate. I doubt you would want to throw that away, completely, your ability to connect.” His hand rested on my head, and I felt the warmth of his skin. “Just for my own curiosity, how did it feel to reveal yourself, come out, as they say, to those around you?”

I didn’t feel like divulging my deepest emotions to him, but something about him reminded me of Mr. Collins, someone who wanted to help, but couldn’t quite verbalize it. “To tell you the truth, once everyone knew, I felt comfortable.”

“And them?”

“They just didn’t believe me. I guess because of that humanity you gave me, I was too much like him. But, in the end, I think Jamie loved me as I am.”

He jerked up, and I flinched, ripping another chunk of skin from my forearms. He shook his head and spoke loudly, “Oh AM1, so interesting! Jamie loved Coyle and then Jamie loved you. You and she are the first case of human-clone love. It must’ve felt amazing. Did you use your telepathic powers?”

“Powers? No, I wouldn’t manipulate her, not that I could anyway.”

“You underestimate your powers, AM1. Maybe she loved you because you used your powers without knowing?”

“You know nothing about her love,” I said and closed my eyes. The pain of never seeing her again stung my heart and made breathing difficult.

“Well AM1, this we do know, her so-called love blinded her. She should’ve got as far away from you the moment you nearly killed her at that camp of hers.”

How they knew of my near-murder surprised me, but I had no argument. She should’ve dumped me many times. She’d be alive if she had.

Again, he spoke loudly as if he wanted someone to hear him. “Regardless, AM1, I’m now giving you a chance to erase everything. Start afresh. What would you like to be?”

“So you’ll erase my memories?”

“Your memories, parts of your personality, and all knowledge you gained. Then I’ll retrain you to be whatever you’d prefer.” He prepared syringes on a metal tray next to my bed. “So, what’ll it be?”

I closed my eyes and imagined starting over as if none of this terror had ever happened. If he wiped me clean maybe I wouldn’t feel the pain crushing my heart. But, that wouldn’t bring back Jamie, or Aedan, or Coyle’s dad.  They’d remain dead, and I’d get a new life. The injustice of it sapped all of my energy as if my soul had been sucked dry.

“Surprise me,” I managed to say, closing my eyes.

“Good answer, AM1.” Dr. Tessel had returned. “I'd like to say it’s been a pleasure, but you’ve been a royal pain in the butt.”

“Enjoy your Nobel prize,” I snarled.

“That I will. Enjoy your trip to Neverland, AM1.”

Dr. Gerter slid the needle into a vein in my arm and depressed the plunger on the syringe. The liquid flowed easily into my bloodstream, spreading throughout my body. He then placed a cloth covered with a white cream over my lower face. Sharp barbs of pain shot into every inch where the cream contacted my skin. My face felt as if it were melting away. The pain subsided as the medication bathed my brain.

He bent down, seemingly inspecting his handiwork, and spoke. “Remember, she loved you.”

A few tears escaped my eyes as I slipped away into the dark.

41  Origins

I opened my eyes. They focused slowly on a swaying canopy of green leaves above. The sun’s rays shone down, slipping through the gaps. A bird chirped, followed by the call of a chimpanzee. I wiped my face of a heavy layer of sweat stinging my eyes.

“Rise and shine soldier.” A familiar voice, stern and clear shot out from somewhere close. “We’ve got work to do.” A man in full combat uniform walked up on a path leading through the jungle.

“Where am I?” I sat up in the hammock. My head throbbed, and I wiped some more sweat from my brow before it dripped into my eyes so I could get a better look at the man.

“Outside Granada, Nicaragua.” He stepped in front of me, giving me a full view of his uniform. The name tape on his left chest read Stevens.

“Stevens?”

“That’s Colonel Stevens, son. And, you are First Sergeant Rivers. I expect you to salute me next time you see me.”

Rivers? For the life of me I couldn’t remember my full name or how I got here. Nothing felt familiar, except for this man.

“What is my first name?”

“Jimmy. You’re Jimmy Rivers.”

“What am I doing here?”

“Serving your country, son. One week ago, you led your section into a firefight outside Managua. An insurgent with an RPG-32 grenade launcher flanked the section and let one fly. You threw your men to cover before the grenade hit the vehicle next to you. The blast seriously injured you and put you in a coma. But, true to your form, your recovery has been swift. Your memory will recover soon.” He gave me a hearty pat on the shoulder.

“How long have I been in the army?” My head swirled, trying to grasp my past.

“Son.” He pulled up a chair. “You enlisted two years ago. In that time, you have become one of the finest soldiers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I expect that to continue.”

Two years? How do I not remember any of it? I gazed around, absorbing my surroundings. The Army? If I’d been injured so badly, how come I’m not at a hospital? I thought

“Maybe this will jog your memory.” Col. Stevens tossed me an M4 carbine. Reflexively, I checked the magazine, chamber, and safety. The gun felt comfortable in my hands as if I had held it for many years.

“Let’s finish this coup.” He slapped me on the back and stood. “Just watch your angles, soldier.”

A tinge of inexplicable hate struck my heart.