Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 20

Wednesday, December 26

7:02 AM





Lucas and Drew rode theelevator down from Sublevel 2, where they found Kleezebee and Brunostanding together in the middle of the surveillance room. Lucas tookthe last sip of his soda and tossed the can away in the trash binnext to the elevator.

“That food was prettygood, considering,” Drew said.

“I thought the eggswere a little bland, but the bacon was just the way I like it—extragreasy.”

“Mom didn’t seem tolike it much. She barely touched her food.”

“She said she didn’tsleep well last night, being in a new place and all.”

“We should go back uplater to check on her.”

“Yeah, for sure. Didyou bring your notebook?”

“Got it in mybackpack. Did you need it?”

“Yep, let’s show DLyour QED equations.” Lucas walked up behind Kleezebee, where heoverheard part of the professor’s conversation with Bruno.

“By the time you gethim outfitted, I’ll have its location and the rest of the assets inplace,” Kleezebee said.

“What are the ROE’s,boss?” Bruno asked.

“Stun only. There hadbetter not be any casualties this time.”

“Count on it, sir.”

Lucas looked up at themiddle row of video screens, which showed activity at three locationshe recognized. The first was his apartment complex, where militarytroops had surrounded the building. A squad of men was approachingthe front entrance.

The second location wasa lengthwise view of his mother’s neighborhood. The camera was toofar away to see much detail, but Lucas could see soldiers and Humveeslining the street.

The third screencontained a high-angle feed, possibly shot from the clock tower ofthe Student union  , showing a platoon of men guarding the open shaftleading down to NASA’s underground facility. Two soldiers werestanding next to the opening, prepping their climbing gear.

Kleezebee looked atLucas and said, “It’s General Alvarez. He’s searching for you.”

“Where? I don’t seehim,” Lucas said, checking the three middle screens.

“He’s outside yourapartment.” Kleezebee asked his techs, “Can you give me aclose-up? I want to see who he’s talking to.”

The camera zoomed in onGeneral Alvarez standing near the door to the manager’s office,then panned to the right, showing a shorter man with two black eyesand a heavy gauze bandage taped over his nose, and another coveringthe center of his forehead.

“That guy’s amess,” Lucas said.

“Must be the guard Loverpowered in the desert,” Kleezebee said. “I didn’t know youhad it in you.”

Lucas smiled withpride.

“Alvarez is nevergoing to stop until you’re dead, too,” Bruno told Lucas.

Lucas agreed withBruno—Alvarez was never going to stop looking for him. “So what’sthe plan, Professor?”

“I’m afraid we haveno choice. We’re going to have to kill you.”

Lucas wasn’t surewhat to make of the remark. “You’re just kidding, right?”

“I’m dead serious.You need to die a horrible, public death or else the general willnever stop gunning for you. Follow me.”

Kleezebee used thehidden access panel inside the fire extinguisher to open the secretentrance to the med-lab where Trevor was working inside.

“Let’s getstarted,” Kleezebee told Trevor.

Trevor retrieved abucket of BioTex from the shelf and poured it into the middle recessof one of the medical tables.

“Ah, you’re goingto duplicate me again?” Lucas said.

“Precisely,”Kleezebee said.

“But what about myreplica’s body dissolving into BioTex?”

“You mean like whathappened to D in the desert.”

“Yeah. We don’twant the general getting suspicious.”

“That obviouslydidn’t go according to plan. We had no idea Alvarez wouldincapacitate them, which didn’t allow ‘em to refuel for the restof the day.”

“So D ran low onsugar reserves, which is why he dissolved too quickly.”

Kleezebee nodded.“Temperature and humidity can also affect dissolution time which isnormally several hours. This time we’re not taking any chances byletting the general capture you. Instead, he’s going to see yourreplica die, but we’re not going to leave any forensic evidencebehind.”

Trevor reached abovethe medical table and lowered a retractable arm with a flat,four-pronged electronic probe attached to its end. A bundle ofmulti-colored wires connected the probe to the retractable arm’shousing which Lucas presumed was used for the programming download.Trevor checked the contents of a four-inch gray plastic tube that wasattached to the side of the electronic probe. The plastic tuberesembled a tube of caulk and had a funnel-shaped tip.

“What’s that?”Lucas asked.

“It injects theBioTex with the activating enzyme.”

Trevor inserted boththe electronic probe and the plastic tube tip-deep into the surfaceof the BioTex, then entered a series of commands into a handhelddevice. The area around the probe’s submerged tips began to glowlike an underwater diver’s flashlight, only this one was orange. Aminute later, Trevor removed the probe and allowed it to retract tothe ceiling.

Kleezebee grabbedLucas’ right wrist and inserted his hand into the BioTex. Lucasheld his breath when the viscous substance sent a warm sensationrippling across his skin. He could sense the synthetic being’spresence as it smothered his hand and wrapped around his nervousfingers. It felt like a freshly mixed batch of pre-heated Play-Doh asit seeped into the crevasses between his fingers. The pliablematerial had tremendous strength, squeezing his hand tight andpartially restricting the blood flow. The DNA transmission was infull swing.

Lucas wondered if partsof his consciousness were being harvested as well. If that were true,would that somehow make him less of a human being? He considered thespiritual implications of the BioTex technology:

Certain religiousgroups might argue that one’s rightful place in heaven could comeinto question if he allowed his soul to be transferred to anotherbeing. Others might proclaim that once his consciousness wasdownloaded, the synthetic copy should be considered a sentient beingand eligible for salvation. Even more compelling was the question ofreplica dissolution. What would happen if the replica’s handlersordered it to dissolve into an inert state and effectively lose itsself-awareness, would that be considered suicide, or perhapshomicide?

Drew and Lucas had bothbeen raised to be good Christians by their mother. Dorothy was adevout Catholic, but never forced her religious beliefs onto theother members of her family. She allowed Lucas and Drew to find theirown path and decide for themselves. “Faith is a personal journey,”she would preach. “Each of you must find your own path to God.”

Unlike his brother,Lucas had trouble accepting most of the Church’s doctrine, feelingthat 90% of the world’s population had been tricked into donatingtheir hard-earned money to something that could never be proven orquantified. He believed their fear of mortality was masquerading asblind faith.

Regardless of his ownpersonal beliefs, Lucas had difficulty resolving the conflictingreligious and scientific viewpoints raised by the BioTex technology.The more he thought about it, the more his mind fluttered. He decidedit was best if those philosophical questions were discussed bypersons with more life experience, certainly not by a naive collegestudent who had just stuck his hand into the cookie jar.

Once his memory and DNAwere downloaded, the BioTex released his hand and Lucas stepped awayto observe the transformation process. One by one, his features beganto appear from within the synthetic ooze. It was as if he werewatching a rendering of a 3D computer-generated model, except it wasoccurring in real-world space.

Drew asked Kleezebee,“How long have you guys been developing this stuff?”

“Longer than I careto admit. It’s been a long, slow process but the results have beenworth the effort.”

“I should say so,”Lucas replied. No wonder the professor was never in his apartment;with everything on the man’s plate, when did Kleezebee have time tosleep? Between his university duties, his real estate developmentoperation, managing the silo, and developing all this cool newtechnology, Kleezebee must have been stretched pretty thin. Itbrought the meaning of multi-tasking to a whole new level.

Drew said, “I assumeyou’re using nanotechnology to manipulate its synthetic framework.Some form of real-time genetic engineering. I would love to know moreabout how this stuff works.”

“Perhaps, when wehave more time,” Kleezebee replied, reviewing a batch of paperworkjust brought into the room by a video technician.

* * *

Tenminutes later, the replica sat up on the medical table, turned itshead, then spoke to Lucas using his own voice, “Hello, I’m Dr.Lucas Ramsay, pleased to meet you.”

Lucas studied everymillimeter of his twin’s face, looking for imperfections in thereplication process, but finding none. Even his jagged scars anddimpled cheeks were duplicated perfectly. The replica smiled at him.

“Nice job with theXerox. Can I ask it some questions?” Lucas asked, wondering if thiscopy was more stable than the last. Or would Bruno have to tacklethis one, too?

“Sure, fire away, Lwon’t mind,” Kleezebee said.

“Do you know you’rea copy of me?” Lucas asked his twin.

“Sure do. I’m aBioTex duplicate of the single greatest mind on the planet!”

“Oh, yeah, that’syou, all right,” Drew said after a moment’s chuckle.

“What’s was thename of Dad’s favorite TV show?”

“The X-Files,” histwin answered correctly. “Dad had a major hard-on for Scully, theredhead.”

“And Mom’sfavorite?”

“Mom never watchedTV. She preferred to curl up with a good book and a bowl of homemadestrawberry ice cream.”

“Right again. Butthose were simple. Let’s try something a bit harder,” Lucas said,formulating a trick question. “How many girlfriends have you hadand what were their names?”

“We have had only onereal girlfriend. Her name was Jill and she was this smokin’ hotblond who lived up the street. We were fourteen at the time and spenthours making out in her parents’ basement. But she never let uspast second base.”

Lucas looked atKleezebee and nodded.

Then his replica added,“However, we did lose our virginity to a forty-year-old librariannamed Robyn. Our performance lasted only thirty seconds before sheran off crying to her car because—”

“Okay, that’s morethan enough,” Lucas said, throwing his hands up in the air. Herealized the replica had no real emotions and certainly no shame.Otherwise, his clone never would have admitted his prematureconclusion with the older woman, especially in front of his boss. Hefelt two inches tall and wished he’d never asked that lastquestion.

“Convinced?”Kleezebee asked.

Lucas nodded, thinkingabout the replica’s curious use of the “we” term in its lastanswer. He wondered if it were a conscious effort on the part of theduplicate, or maybe it was some type of residual personality traitinherited from him? Too bad he hadn’t taken a few psychologyclasses during his undergrad work; he might have been able to answerthat question.

Lucas slid two stepsbackward when the replica jumped down from the table and stooduncomfortably close to him. He told it, “Don’t you need to go eata box of candy bars or something?”

“Bruno, why don’t you take L down to outfitting? I’ll send theupdates down when they’re ready,” Kleezebee said.