

Restoration

By

Todd D. Utley

Copy Right

Todd D. Utley ©, 2013, all rights reserved

Published on Smashwords

1R E S T O R A T I O N

Chapter 1 It was an early June blue sky day in Noblesville, Indiana. Nothing unusual was happening at the Kerrington's house. Bobby just went outside to shoot some basketball with his best friend and neighbor Matthew McNeil. The two of them had been friends since Kindergarten at No.12 North Side Elementary.

It was 2056, and even though the electronic revolution was winding down, there were still some cool things to do on the gaming console in the Family Room. Bobby was not all that interested in hologames though, he would rather pursue the more traditional things that sixteen-year-old boys like to do outside like sports and hiking. Technology entertainment was popular but for Bobby basketball was it and it was real, he enjoyed getting physical and having a good time, he was good at sports.

He came from a long line of all stars and they all loved hearing their Grandpa Kerrington talk about the good old days of "Hoosier Hysteria" when basketball was the biggest thing in Indiana and everyone followed it with great pride. Even though he was a great ball player, he had a second love, he liked to go fast and he often thought that if he didn't make it big in basketball then auto racing would probably be his second choice, after all, Indianapolis still had the greatest motor speedway in the world.

Grandpa Kerrington was on his mind more than usual today because Bobby knew that he was very ill and was refusing the Restoration procedure that so many people were taking advantage of these days. Since the pandemic of 2027 and the legalization of human cloning to preserve human life, traditional death from old age was becoming a true thing of the past.

One company in particular, LifeTech, had made the cloning process affordable enough for Medic-Star, the government health care program, to provide each person with a single clone to be used once in their lifetime at no cost, while additional clones could be purchased.

In the more recent presidential elections several of the candidates tried to platform their entire campaigns on the promise of multiple clones to be available to each citizen at no cost making basic immortality feasible for all. Of course they hadn't delivered on their promises but that is how it goes with politics.

Bobby knew very well that Grandpa Kerrington didn't approve of Restoration because of his religious beliefs. He was worried that his grandpa would pass away and never be seen again, just like in the old days when people died all the time.

He knew that his grandpa hadn't been using his Lifecorder unit at night because it was on the workbench in his garage in about a hundred pieces. He figured that he must have been trying to understand how the thing worked, which was a bit funny to Bobby because Grandpa wasn't very good with the other electronic gadgets around the house.

Bobby didn't really think too much about his own Lifecorder unit because it had been beside his bed for as long as he could remember. He just knew that it kept track of all his memories, and after all, everyone has one, no big deal. Everyone had the implant in their brain that downloaded to their Lifecorder while they slept. If a person died they could be restored.

Their clone would be brought up from storage and loaded with their life file. The scientist called it IHE, short for Individual Human Experience but no one else did.

The equipment was elaborate but the procedure wasn't. It only took about an hour. When you woke up you were still you, but in a fresh body.

Grandpa was always ranting about how the government was playing God and that they had better stop before God got angry. But a lot of older people said stuff like that. Bobby knew why Grandpa was dying. He had seen pictures of his Grandpa when he was younger, with one of those smoking things in his mouth. He was standing with one of his best friends from his platoon in the photo. He was a decorated war hero according to Bobby's father but he didn't like to talk about it. He had some bad memories from his days in Iraq.

Bobby had never actually seen anyone in real life smoking because cigarettes were banned many years before he was even born. First they were banned in public and replaced with the electronic version that was not nearly as bad for you. Eventually it just lost popularity all together.

In 2027 there was a pandemic caused by a meteor that hit earth. It exploded on impact releasing toxic spores that settled on a nearby tobacco field. It multiplied on the crops releasing a deadly virus into the air that nearly wiped out everyone in Europe before spreading to every other continent. It had wiped out almost half of the world population before they got it under control.

Shortly after the pandemic the government decided to outlaw the growing of tobacco all together for fear of the spores coming back. Grandpa had "smoked" as he says, for so many years that it caused cancer in his lungs. If he didn't go through with Restoration he was going to die.

Many efforts had been made in the last hundred years to cure cancer but nothing succeeded. They had found more ways to stop it if it was caught early but those that waited too long to get checked out were faced with either outdated and expensive treatments or Restoration.

Restoration had now become less expensive to perform than the old treatments so most facilities were abandoning the old chemical and radiation methods in favor of this new way to live on. Many of those that suffered through the old methods ended up having to be restored anyway so why go through all that grief. Only the true-blue hold outs chose death over life in that case for some ethical or religious reason. Just like Grandpa they believed you shouldn't mess with nature or God's plan for living things.

Bobby was trying to keep his mind clear of it and was glad Matt had come over to play some ball. Matt was in rare form today with his shots from three point land and had launched one really high from way back. It came down short hitting the front of the rim hard, bouncing straight back even further.

It might have been the distraction of worry for his grandfather, or it might have been the cat running from Butch, the neighbor's fearless dog that believed all small animals were snacks. Either way he didn't realize how far back he had ran as he launched into the air to catch the runaway ball. While still in the air he saw it, he heard it, but there was nothing he could do. It seemed as though time stood still.

He saw Matt reaching out toward him as if to use his will power to pull him back. In his peripheral vision he saw the speeding car. Just like people always say, "my life flashed before my eyes." It was true. In the same moment he heard the squalling of the tires, he could hear the radio that was on in the car, and he saw the horrified look on Stacey Rushbell's face through the windshield.

Stacey was actually a guy, a teenage bully. Well maybe just more of a nuisance than a bully. A pain in the butt for sure that lived four doors down. Maybe it was because of being a guy with a girl's name or maybe it was just plain meanness. Bobby didn't really know why, but Stacey was never very nice to Bobby or the other neighborhood kids. He was always teasing other boys. He was big for his age and had no worries about anyone bothering him. He was always telling Bobby, "Suck it up Nancy!" It seemed sort of ironic for Stacey to use that term when he had a girl's name himself.

In that split second that seemed to take forever, Bobby could see that Stacey was doing everything in his power to avoid hitting him. He had slammed on the brakes hard and yanked the wheel to the right. In that moment it was as if they communicated.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I would never hurt you."

"It's my fault, I shouldn't be in the road."

Time moved again. Bobby wanted to dive out of the road, but his feet weren't on the ground. He was still coming down grasping the ball for dear life and wishing it could float and carry him over the speeding car. There was no more time, only the impact. There was darkness and a moment of nothing, nothing at all. It was like a blank spot with no feeling, no thought. Like that split second when a 100 mph fast ball reverses direction off the face of a bat as it becomes a home run. His senses came back on like the power during a storm in the middle of the night.

He could smell the burning rubber. He could feel the heat of the pavement that had been warmed by the June sun beneath his body. He felt wet and tasted the blood in his mouth. He was afraid to open his eyes and not even sure if he could. He still felt partially disconnected from reality but he heard the cars electrics shut off and the door open. He could hear voices. They sounded frantic. "They're calling for help." He could hear footsteps that sounded weird like they were walking on something crunchy. "It must be the broken glass from the car under their feet." He heard voices but couldn't tell what they were saying anymore, and most strangely of all he didn't feel any pain.

He heard the Sirens. They grew louder and louder and then there was nothing, just nothing. It seemed like he entered a dream. There were beautiful people in a bright place. A woman came to him.

"Come with me," she said.

He followed her to a bench by a lake and they sat down. She stayed there with him for a few minutes.

"Wait here, don't worry, everything will be fine," She said.

He wasn't worried at all. He just sat there on that bench looking out at the beautiful lake. The place was so beautiful it was intoxicating beyond words, he couldn't think of anything else.

Bobby woke up to a group of people gathered around him. At first he didn't really get what was happening but he caught up fast. He knew he had been playing ball and then his heart started racing because he remembered there was an accident.

He didn't remember everything, but he knew Stacey hit him with his car. He looked around the room and everyone seemed happy to see him. He realized he was lying in a hospital bed. He must have had a serious look on his face because everyone calmed down and stopped smiling so much.

His mother leaned in close to him.

"Bobby, Sweetheart, are you okay?" She asked.

He realized he needed to say something because everyone looked so worried, but he didn't really know the answer.

He looked down at his hands. They looked normal. He looked at his feet. They seemed all right. He felt fine, in fact he felt better than fine, he felt great. It must have seemed like forever with everyone waiting for an answer.

"Yes, I feel fine."

Everyone burst into joyous smiles again and started talking excitedly. Everyone was so happy, but Bobby was wondering why it was so hard to speak, it was like he had never talked before.

"Hey Bobby, you're the first one in our family to. . ."

"Thank God you're all right Son!" His father blurted out, as he interrupted Bobby's cousin in mid-sentence.

Bobby looked around the room now more intently and noticed Stacey Rushbell standing in the far corner. He was smiling, but in a way that Bobby had never seen before. It was a happy expression instead of his usual mischievous grin. Bobby motioned for him to come over. Before Bobby could say anything, Stacey spoke up.

"Look Bobby, all those times, I was just messing with . . . , you know I didn't," tears began to well up in his eyes, but before Stacey could finish Bobby interrupted.

"It's all right Stacey, it was just an accident, besides it was my fault I jumped right out in front of you." Stacey patted Bobby's hand.

"I'm so glad you're all right." He moved back to the outer edge of the room. Minutes later he slipped out unnoticed with a new plan that included being nicer to everyone.

Grandpa Kerrington was right there by Bobby's side all evening. Before he left, he told Bobby he loved him and tousled his hair just like he had been doing for as long as Bobby could remember. He left without saying anything else. Bobby could tell something heavy was on his Grandpa's mind but it would be a while before Bobby would find out what it was.

Regular visiting hours were over so the nurses ran most everyone out. It was only then while alone with his parents that Bobby got the answer to the question that had been on his mind since the moment he woke.

"Have I just been in a coma or did I die?" Bobby asked.

His mother looked away for a moment to keep from losing her composure.

"Yes Bobby, you did die," She said as she wiped a tear away.

"You've known for a very long time from health class at school and the conversations we've had around the dinner table that Restoration works. We all know it's possible to live again even after an accident like the one you had."

"So I got a new body?"

"Yes, but it's an exact copy of the first one. All the memories and experiences that make you who you are, were uploaded into your new body from your Lifecorder file. You'll still know everyone and you'll still have all your thoughts and personality and everything."

"I thought it took a while to grow clones?"

"Your new body was grown at LifeTech and held in suspension just in case of an accident or illness or even the pandemic you learned about in history class. Many people have opted to go on living after an accident or illness and that is so much better than dying. Who would want to die when you can be restored?"

Immediately Bobby without thinking of the delicateness of the subject blurted it out.

"Grandpa Kerrington, that's who!"

The unexpected comment hit Bobby's Father like a brick after such a trying day. What with the realization that he nearly lost his son, and then the thought of losing his father was just too much for him.

"Excuse me for a minute," he said. He quickly left the room to keep from breaking down in front of his son. Bobby didn't mean to upset anyone he simply couldn't understand why Grandpa didn't want to live.

His Mother leaned in and gave him a kiss.

"We'll see you tomorrow, okay? You get some rest now."

"Is Dad all right?"

"Don't worry young man, your father is a strong man and very wise, he'll be just fine. We all had a very long day waiting anxiously to see that you were all right. You just focus on getting stronger so you can come home real soon. If you need anything just press that red button there by your hand and the nurses will come right away. Your father and I'll be back first thing in the morning to see you."

"That drop of liquid the nurse put on the back of your hand a few minutes ago was a sleep aid. You'll be out in a minute so just relax and get a good night's sleep okay?"

"Okay."

"I love you Son."

"I love you too."

Within seconds he was sound asleep.

Dodge Kerrington had left the room in a rush to hide his emotions from his son. He knew Bobby had been through enough and he had read that some people, especially youth, have problems adjusting to the idea of a new body. The last thing he needed was to see his Father falling apart.

It was hard to believe this was real. The paramedics had taken a final reading from the implant in Bobby's brain just before he died in the ambulance on the ride to the hospital. Per standard procedure that information was added to the Lifecorder data.

Dodge knew that Bobby would eventually remember the entire events of that day and the experience of the accident might cause Bobby some real problems with anxiety and nightmares. He was worried about whether or not Bobby would really be Bobby. His father had been ranting for years about the "playing God" thing and Dodge was concerned that his dying father might not accept Bobby again. That could cause Bobby and the whole family a good bit of emotional pain and complication.

Dodge really wanted his father to accept the Restoration procedure, after all, why should anyone choose death when we have this technology? "Wait, this gift, that's it!" Dodge remembered one time before his Mother passed away that his father had mentioned he was thankful to God for the doctors and the new technology they were using to save lives.

He remembered, from conversations with his father, that he had made comments like, "God had gifted the doctors with special skills and tools to save lives." And "Science was a gift from God."

That was the angle. This is what he would use with his father to convince him to go through with the procedure. It saved Bobby and it could save his Dad.

He was headed back to the room to say good night to Bobby and met Linsey coming out.

"He's asleep now and he won't be waking up, they sedated him," she said.

"I really wanted to tell him good night." Said Dodge.

"It's all right my Dear, we'll see him in the morning, "Let's go home."

Dodge looked in on him.

"Good night Son, I love you," he whispered.

As he drove home from the hospital he began putting together exactly what he would say to his father. There were definitely some hurdles though because his father had several friends that had nearly died of old age related disease's years earlier and they had opted for the Restoration process. His Father swore that he hardly knew them after the process and he believed they were not the same because the process was flawed. He knew his Dad would play the religion card as well. Dodge would have to choose his words carefully and be ready for any argument.

Bobby woke the next morning very early. He was so hungry that his stomach woke him once earlier but he actually thought he was dreaming. He had hoped that was the case and that the whole thing had never happened. When he opened his eyes and saw the nurse standing in front of his bed with a tray, he knew it was real. He felt really good but at the same time not as strong as before.

"Good morning," said the nurse, in a tone that was just a little bit too jolly. Bobby tried to be cheerful back but didn't really feel like it deep down inside, he was still worried about his Grandpa.

"I'm sorry Bobby, this food is a little plain, but it's specially formulated for your first meal. I'm going to turn on the TV and start an educational video that will explain a few things about your new body, okay?" Bobby was a little surprised at this but nodded in agreement, without looking up from the tray. He was poking at the glob of pinkish goop on the plate in front of him. It smelled good, kind of fruity, but it didn't look very good.

"What's in this?" He asked.

"It's an engineered super food made out of several genetically altered fruits and vegetables. It's rich in vitamins, and minerals, and there's also a few super proteins in there to help build the muscles up fast so you can go home sooner."

It contained several more powerful ingredients but it was much too complex to elaborate on with every patient. Besides the Lifecenter Administration frowned on full disclosure and discouraged the staff from expounding upon the details.

As the video began to play on the TV, Bobby slowly but surely began forcing down his first meal. The whole time all he could think about was a big plate of pancakes with some bacon on the side and a big glass of OJ. The video, while pretty poorly made, was still fairly informative. He had remembered very little about the LifeTech system from health class and now was listening intently as this whole cloning thing had just become very personal. Like most teens his age he had thought it wouldn't be a concern until he was very old. He learned that the Lifecorder contained two nuclium power cells good for ten years each. One for the main power source and the second for a backup in case the first should fail. It was quite amazing technology and the video went into a much more detail explaining how it all worked.

As a bonus, Scientist also discovered the soul of a person leaving their body upon death. They had accomplished this ground breaking discovery a few years before the pandemic broke out and their continued curiosity and research lead to the development of the Lifecorder which actually only recorded a person's memories and not the soul at all. They didn't know exactly how the soul worked but it did exist and as a result they had publicly acknowledged God or a higher Power out there that must be instrumental in creating Life and the Soul.

Some people called it the Spirit but Grandpa called those people "tree huggers" which Bobby didn't really get. He remembered the days that this happened very well because Grandpa was in a great mood for weeks after, walking around with a little more zest in his step than usual. He would smile and say, "Those clowns finally had to admit we didn't come from a monkey."

Scientists had discovered, that cloning a person after the soul departed, didn't really yield a whole person but instead more like a crazy person with little or no personality. Even though early attempts yielded a person that looked like the original and even knew their friends, and relatives, and every detail of their life, they seemed to be without any personality and no conscience whatsoever.

Several earlier experiments yielded individuals that had to be euthanized due to their violent and radical behavior. They simply had NO ethics whatsoever, and would sometimes kill their pets for an accident or murder their friends and family over losing at a game. It wasn't until they discovered that the soul leaves the body after about one hour following death that they perfected the system. Restoration performed within that hour was always successful while those performed after were not.

They discovered, a cell sample kept fresh and suspended in a special pure solution that sustained the life of the cell, would cause the process to work. Even with that, the soul was still leaving the body eventually, but it was delayed. It somehow knew that the person was not completely dead.

Science couldn't answer all of the questions surrounding this technology yet, but they had made the system work for now. Of course they still refused to call it a soul. They called it P-Source2 or Personal Source Energy Squared instead. In spite of their play on words, everyone knew that this was just science speak for soul.

Some Restorations had failed, but they were conducted either by other companies that had since gone out of business, or in some cases they had attempted the procedure after the one hour cut off time. The soul seemed to have left and didn't return leaving the clone incomplete and out of its mind, more like a robot or animal than a person. In the end, the recommended longest time in between death and restoration remained at one hour. If they did attempt it after an hour the family members had to sign an "after 60 minute waiver" that allowed doctors to keep the restored individual for up to 90 days after the procedure for observation and possible euthanizing should any problem arise.

Bobby still didn't understand exactly how it all worked even after watching the video twice, but he knew enough to believe he would be all right. After all, he was restored in 28 minutes, much faster than the 60 minute cut off point. He also had two friends at school that said their grandparents had been restored and they seemed perfectly fine. Of course when a person was planning the Restoration there was no emergency. They simply made an appointment for the procedure and then checked in at one of the Restoration centers, sometimes the hospital if they were deathly ill.

They had to bring their Lifecorder in for upload into the new body. They were given a pill causing them to fall into a deep sleep like being in a coma. While they were out the technicians would bring in the clone and then upload the data. After waking you up, they ran a few simple neurological tests to make sure everything was normal. If you passed, they would release you to a room for observation and visitation. If everything was successful, then after two days you went home, and the old body was destroyed after 90 days.

They always waited two days just in case something went wrong with the clone. If there was a problem, they could reawaken your original for a while, giving them some time to grow another clone and try again, but that very rarely happened. In some case's people were so close to death when they decided to be cloned that they would have to freeze them long enough to grow a clone. Once complete they could thaw them out and make the switch. It had to work on the first attempt because they found out how to freeze a person and thaw them out successfully but no one had lived more than three days after being thawed.

The one thing that bothered Bobby the most was not knowing anyone his age that had gone through this and he wondered if his friends would treat him the same way. He also wondered if he could still play basketball as good as he did before. Suddenly he began to feel ill. He knew he was going to be sick. He tried to get to the bathroom but his legs were so weak, he only made it halfway and had to go for the trash can. A nurse in the next room heard him and came to his aid very quickly helping him back into bed.

"Didn't anyone tell you? You can't walk too well just yet, you have to go to therapy." Reflecting on the video, Bobby did remember a part about muscle atrophy but didn't completely understand it. "Don't worry everyone gets nauseous the first couple of times they eat. You only have to eat that stuff today and then tomorrow you get some regular food."

"Wow, that's a relief, that pink goop tasted even worse coming back up!"

Back at the house, Dodge and Linsey Kerrington were discussing how they might approach Grandpa Kerrington about Restoration. He had not been in a very talkative mood the night before as he was leaving the hospital. Dodge hoped that his Father would ask them to take him up to see Bobby, but they had not heard from him at all since the night before, and could only assume that he was avoiding going up to see Bobby due to his feelings about cloning.

Linsey had become very close to Dodge's parents in recent years in the absence of her own parents who had both passed away several years before the Restoration process was feasible.

It was really hard on her and Dodge both when Dodge's mother, Elizabeth, had passed away, and now they were both faced with losing his father too.

Linsey was hopeful that they could convince him to do it for them and for the children, if not for himself. Alan had always had a soft spot for Linsey and would kid Dodge.

"Boy you lucked out when you got this one you big clod! If it weren't for her, you'd be lost."

Now Linsey was planning to turn on the charm the best she could to persuade Alan to go through with the process. What they didn't know, and what they would be surprised to discover, was that grandpa was way ahead of them and was already on his way to the hospital to see Bobby.

He had been up most of the night with insomnia. He couldn't quit thinking about Bobby. He wanted to know if it was really him or if Bobby would be different, and he had to see this for himself, he couldn't wait any longer.

He had lost Elizabeth to the cancer and now he resented the fact that science came through with a way to live forever when it was too late for her, go figure. Out of his resentment he had turned his back on the idea that this could be real, or that God had blessed humanity with the ability to discover such a thing. "If God did this, then why? And why now?"

Was it just the natural course of things or were we humans playing God? He didn't know, but he knew he was going to find out. He and Bobby were very close and he believed that if he spent some time with him alone and talked with him one on one, he was sure he could get the answer.

If Bobby wasn't Bobby then he knew he didn't want to go on living any longer and would just rather go on to heaven to be with Elizabeth. If Bobby was all there and normal, then he might consider going through with the Restoration. He loved him very much and wanted to see him grow up and he wanted to spend time with him but not some empty shell. Alan Kerrington arrived at the hospital at 7:45 that morning and by 8:20 he had his answer. He walked into Bobby's room and was greeted by Bobby in the usual manner. Bobby was already a tall sturdy young man at age sixteen. He had brownish blonde hair and blue eyes. He actually carried a great resemblance to Alan in his younger days. He had his Mother's smile but other than that he was nearly a dead ringer for a sixteen-year-old Alan.

"Gramps!" Bobby shouted, when he saw Alan coming in. "I'm so glad you came, I'm really getting bored with this place. How about we get outta here and go shoot some hoops?" Alan could hardly believe his ears; it was Bobby all right. Bobby asked if he would show him that trick hook shot again just as soon as he could get home.

Bobby didn't shut up for at least five minutes. When he finally did, he looked at his grandpa who was sitting there smiling at him speechless.

"What? What is it? Am I talking too much?" Grandpa Kerrington looked at him for a second.

"You know I can't believe I am saying this Bobby but I'm going to do it."

"You mean Restoration?"

"Yes! I'm gonna do it."

Then Bobby remembered.

"But Gramps, you took your Lifecorder all apart?"

"Don't worry young man that wasn't mine, it belonged to a friend of mine that passed recently. I got a call from his daughter after he died. She wanted me to go get some of his things because he told her that he wanted me to have anything in his place that I might want."

"The funny thing is the only thing I took was his Lifecorder. I just wanted to see what was in the darned thing. My friend had one for years but decided that he didn't want to go on living and wanted to just pass away normally. Until yesterday, I thought that was what I wanted too. I was up all night and realized that I can go to heaven later and if it's eternal like I really believe that it is, then my lovely Elizabeth, your Grandma, will still be there waiting for me when I get there. Right now I just want to stay here with you but I had to see for myself that it was really you Bobby. Now I know what I want and I'm gonna do it. I'm going to go through with Restoration."

Bobby was so happy he couldn't stop laughing and smiling. Just then Dodge and Linsey appeared in the door with a very surprised look on their faces. Dodge was a little concerned and came in quickly.

"Dad what are you doing here already?" Alan was already up with his arms open moving toward them.

"Come here you big clod! I'm gonna stick around for a few more decades and make you two youngsters stay in line." He was already embracing his son and gesturing with one arm for Linsey to get in there for the group hug.

"Oh Dad! You made our day!" Said Linsey.

"You didn't really think I'd leave a sweetheart like you to fend for yourself with this guy did ya?"

Everyone started laughing and joking and didn't stop for a good while. The commotion caused two of the nurses to pop their heads in just to see what was going on and Alan noticed them.

"Hey ladies, I'm getting restored like some old rusty truck. You better watch out!"

The two nurses laughed while swishing their hands at him in dismissive gestures and shook their heads as they went on down the hall.

"Wow, Dad, didn't know you had that in you!"

After everyone settled down a bit, Bobby filled them in on what to expect in the process with the pink goop. They all visited for an hour and then decided it best to leave so that Bobby could rest.

While Dodge took his Father across town to register for his procedure, Linsey had a very nice conversation with the nurse and then the doctor about what to expect when Bobby got home. The "Doc" took Bobby's vitals and answered some questions that Bobby had about getting his strength back, gaining weight, and getting out of there.

On the ride across town Dodge and his father were having a serious conversation about how much time Alan had, and whether or not he had the time to get his clone matured to an appropriate age for him to make the switch.

"There's no way I want to be a kid again," Said Alan. I want to be at least 50 in my new body. It would be awkward if I were younger than my own son!"

Dodge chuckled as he imagined that situation and how comical and weird it would be.

"Okay Dad, let's go see the staff at the Life Center and see what they have to say about your current condition and your potential second mid-life crisis."

"Oh very funny Son, you'll think mid-life crisis when I get in that new body, I'll be able to whoop you again, young man!"

They both laughed, but beneath his laughter Dodge was a little bit concerned that his Father might have waited too long and didn't have enough time left to get his clone matured for the procedure. He had noticed that his father coughed a lot of the time and had to excuse himself frequently because of his fits. He had not seen any real spark of life in him for a very long time until today at the hospital.

They arrived at the Life Center branch nearest to Alan's house and signed in. In just five minutes they were called in for a consultation, and much to their surprise they were assured that they could mature Alan's clone to the age of fifty in just eight weeks. Even if Alan's condition were to worsen suddenly, they could go ahead and transfer the data from the Lifecorder at a moment's notice and keep the clone in the process of accelerated aging until the process was complete.

The only thing Alan would miss would be the time he was under sedation while the clone completed the process which would be no different from taking a vacation and missing out on a few things happening back at home. They both learned something else that they didn't know either. Even though a clone could be developed to an older age, the restored person always feels much better than they did at the same age before restoration and the logic was very simple. The new clone body had no wear and tear on it at all, no scars, no injuries, no bad food, no cigarettes, nothing bad that a normal fifty-year-old person might have.

This made Alan feel pretty good about what was happening. He had many health problems due to his hard work as a mason after he left the military. For many years he had worn out his body and now with the lung cancer he felt terrible. He knew it would be a relief to have a new body with no pain. Alan had an appointment the next day to bring in his Lifecorder for a check up to make sure everything was in order with it. Barring any problems, he would be given the green light to be restored.

Chapter 2 On the other side of town in room 331, Bobby was forcing down his lunch, another delicious plate of pink goop, yum! He hated the way that it tasted but he knew he had to eat it to get stronger and get out of there. His friend Matt was coming up to see him so he wanted to get that stuff down before Matt and his mother got there. If he was going to get sick, he wanted to do it before he had visitors. He got it down all right but then he thought it was going to come right back up, so he got out of bed and started toward the bathroom that was just a few feet away. He made it, but by the time he got there the nausea feeling had subsided a bit, so he sat on the toilet looking at his feet trying to beat the urge.

He was amazed at how nice his toenails looked. He got some nail fungus while on a camping trip two years ago and was having trouble getting rid of it. Now he had brand-new feet and they looked really nice again like they did when he was younger. He was looking at them in amazement. "I wonder if my scar is gone?" When he was eight, he had his appendix removed and he had a big scar from the operation. He closed the bathroom door, stood in front of the full length mirror on the back of the door, and removed the thin hospital gown.

Just as he expected, no scar! Did this mean he had his appendix? "Well duh," he laughed out loud at himself. Of course he had it, he had a whole new body! Man! What a mind job! He still couldn't believe it. Hit by a car, killed dead, and now back again. The thought of it suddenly brought back the memory of the whole incident and this time it was very clear. His stomach started to churn again and he thought for sure he would lose it. He heard voices, it was Matt and his mother coming into the room.

"Hello, anyone home?"

"I'm in the bathroom, I'll be right out." He looked at himself in the mirror again. "I'm awfully thin." He didn't have the muscle mass that his old body had. The Government Issue clones didn't get much nutrients while in suspension, just enough to be healthy. "Good way for fat people to get skinny."

He sat back down on the toilet for a moment to rest his legs, he really wanted to make it to the bed without having to crawl or ask for help. He slunk the robe back on and stood up while quickly opening the door. He walked out to the bed as fast as possible in an effort to make it all the way there. He almost made it. Grabbing onto the chair, he managed a couple more steps, and got to the bed rail. Matt jumped up.

"Hey Buddy let me help you there," he said.

Bobby was a little embarrassed but was glad his friend was there to catch him.

He and Matt were really close and always helped each other out. One year they had gone to summer camp together. It was a camp that specialized in canoe trips to remote places of Michigan. It was in the spring right after school and the weather turned quite cold in the middle of the trip. Matt got very ill after their group capsized their canoe in the cold water. Bobby made it back into the boat first with two other boys then quickly went to Matt's rescue.

Matt wasn't a very strong swimmer back then and Bobby knew it, so he got to him just a fast as he could, helping him into the canoe. Matt was up all night sick with a fever and a bad earache so Bobby stayed up with him talking to him and getting him whatever he needed. Since then they had been very close, just as close as any brothers could ever be. Both boys had older sisters but no brothers so it was even more natural for them to be like brothers.

As soon as Bobby got back into bed the two boys started talking about all the things they would do when Bobby got home, they talked for almost two hours about all the things they did together while growing up.

"I know you would probably like to forget it," said Bobby, "But what exactly did you see when I got hit?"

Matt swallowed uncomfortably and paused for a second to think.

"Well it happened so fast, I saw that it was going to happen but it was too late. I saw Butch chasing that cat just as you went up for the ball. Then I saw Stacey's car and it looked like he was about to swerve left to miss butch until he saw you and then he swerved right instead. He hit the brakes really hard but it was still not enough to avoid the accident."

Bobby could hear the quiver in Matt's voice, he knew he was getting choked up so he did his best impression of Stacey.

"Stay out the street Nancy!" That brought a little grin across Matt's freckled face. He was a good-looking kid that took allot after his Mother, he had reddish brown hair and green eyes and looked ornery as could be but he really wasn't, he was actually very polite and very quiet until he got to know you.

Matt came back with, "You won't hear Stacey say that ever again!" And they laughed about it again only to avoid being serious. Bobby figured they could talk about it later, it was still too soon for Matt. How gruesome it must have been seeing his best friend getting killed by a car.

Bobby felt like he had cheated death and now he knew how those other people felt that he saw on TV. There were quite a few stories on the evening news about both children and adults that had gone through Restoration and he wondered what it must be like, now he knew first hand. They went on visiting for about an hour. After that Matt and his Mother said their goodbye's and left Bobby to rest.

Across town Dodge and his Father were just leaving LifeTech. On the way out they saw a man in the waiting room with no legs and missing one hand, he also had a large scar on his right cheek. Alan noticed that the man was not much younger than himself and he had a green shirt on with an Army Strong logo. Alan stopped to speak with him.

"Excuse me Sir," he said, "Are you a veteran?"

"Yes I am, and I have the scars to prove it."

They talked for a few minutes about their service to their country and they discovered they had been at some of the same bases for training but at different times.

The man explained to Alan and Dodge that he had received a voucher from the military for his service and his sacrifice for his country which allowed him an additional clone, one to use now to restore his body to full health, and another for later use to avoid dying of old age. It brought tears to Alan's eyes which he quickly choked back as he thanked the man for his service and wished him luck with the new lease on life that he was about to receive.

As Alan and his son walked to the car Alan turned to Dodge.

"You know Son, I was wrong about this whole thing, it really is a gift from God, that Veteran deserves to receive it more than anyone I have ever met." Dodge agreed as they got into the car and headed to the hospital to see Bobby.

When they arrived, Bobby was just waking up from the nap he took after Matt and his Mother left. The nurse would be arriving soon to bring his third, and hopefully, final plate of pink goop. He figured the sooner the better. In the morning he could have some real breakfast and go to therapy for a third session.

Dodge and Grandpa had arrived at the hospital just in time to meet up with Linsey and Sarah, Bobby's older sister. Sarah was almost eighteen and was the typical teenage girl with all the typical emotions. She was an absolute mess ever since she had heard about the accident.

Even though she and Bobby suffered from a near terminal case of sibling rivalry, they still loved each other deep down. When she got the news that her little brother had been hit by a car and had life threatening injuries she passed out in the office of the gymnastics training camp where she was at for two weeks of intense training. The on duty nurse had to treat her for shock and reassure her that Bobby was going to pull through.

Her mother had not told the staff there that Bobby had actually died because she knew that it would be too much for Sarah and that just saying he was in serious condition would be bad enough.

They managed to get Sarah on the next flight home in time to see Bobby by the following evening. They told Sarah the whole story in the car on the way home from the airport and Sarah began sobbing uncontrollably when she heard from her Mother that Bobby had actually died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Sarah didn't know anyone personally that had been restored and so she believed that it didn't really work as advertised. Her mother reassured her that it did in fact work perfectly and Bobby was still just as much Bobby as he ever was.

"Just wait until you see him you won't believe it! It really is Bobby," said Linsey.

She poked Sarah, "So, you love him after all?"

"Oh Mom! Stop it, of course I do!" And that started another round of sobbing mixed with stuttered laughter that made Linsey smile.

When they got to the hospital lobby, Sarah saw her Grandfather, he was standing just inside the door with her Father. She ran into her Grandfather's arms and began sobbing into his shoulder. She told him she was so happy that he decided to be restored. They all spent several minutes getting their composure again before going up to see Bobby.

Linsey told Sarah on the ride back about Grandpa's decision to go through Restoration. She was so happy that her Gramps was going to be around to help her Daddy give her away at her wedding some day. She told him about that as they stood there in the Lobby. The thought of it made Alan a bit emotional which he quickly played off.

"Well, we shouldn't just stand her slobbering all over each other," he said, "Let's go see your little brother young lady."

When they arrived at the room, they met the nurse coming out that had just dropped off Bobby's dinner tray, a nice big plate of pink goop.

"Well, all right, I figured it was about time for more visitors. Go right in, he's doing just fine." With a big smile she turned and sped off to the next room. Staff was much happier in hospitals these days, death was pretty much a thing of the past and it was certainly good for moral.

They all tried to stick their heads in at the same time with a simultaneous "Hi" and big smiles. Bobby was really glad to see all of them but especially Sarah.

"Hey Sis! How's it goin?"

Sarah tried to be strong but she just burst into tears and ran to his side where she smothered him with kisses and told him how much she loved him.

"Jeeze! Sis, Come on! I'm okay and I feel great, I'll be outta here in no time, and look no more foot fungus." He stuck his foot out and got it as close to her face as possible.

"You are a fungus! Get that stinky foot out of my face," she said.

Everyone laughed at their antics. They all visited for almost two hours. They talked about everything that had happened and how Grandpa was going to be twenty years younger looking and completely healthy in just a few weeks. Everyone agreed that Sarah and Bobby were certainly still the same duo. Bobby talked Gramps into trying a small bite of the pink stuff and the awful face he made was hilarious.

"Whoa, that is awful," he said, "Maybe I should reconsider!" They all cracked up over the face he made and continued to talk until Bobby dosed off.

It was the right time to slip out and so they all agreed to come back in the morning to see how he was doing with his real breakfast. As everyone got up to leave his Mother placed a quick kiss on Bobby's forehead and whispered that she loved him in his ear.

Dodge Kerrington was a great Scientist turned Electronics Engineer. He had attended MIT and had successfully graduated in the middle of his class. That doesn't sound too impressive until you consider that while getting that degree he was in his mid twenties, had a wife and two children, two mortgages, and a full time job, then it takes on a whole new meaning. He started out wanting to be a Chemistry major but ended up switching it to an Electronics Engineering Major and so he spent six years in College to reach his goal.

Linsey knew a lot of career Moms and realized from her short time in that mode that it was rough on a family and it made her appreciate her situation even more. She had worked at two different jobs while Dodge finished his education and decided during that time that her desire was to be a full time Mother and Homemaker. Dodge went through several employers after graduation before he finally landed the position that he really wanted at Embedded Systems Specialist. It was a rather small company when he hired on but it grew rapidly due to their timely involvement with Integrated Biotech.

ESS acquired a long term contract to provide all of Biotech's Engineering Support for LifeTech, a company they bought out. LifeTech was the company that had developed the technology responsible for saving his son's life. They were also the original government contractors that successfully created the first clone with enough documented memory transfer to prove the technology was feasible. That first successful clone was the man that appeared on the Harry Letterman show as a guest all those years later.

After ninety-six attempts the government had finally succeeded in producing this one man with half way decent results. All the prior clones were euthanized after complete failure to load. In the beginning they conducted brain transplants to make the clones complete. It worked but they lost all of them to infections or to scar tissue that

formed over a period of months. The scar tissue resulted in a condition similar to Alzheimer's.

After the first successful clone they released every stitch of their documentation to the private sector under heavy security procedures in order to privatize and hopefully perfect the process. That is how ESS got involved, they threw their hat in the ring and in the end they succeeded where others had failed.

Not many people knew about the deal between ESS and LifeTech. All parties had kept the whole thing very tightly guarded to protect their trade secrets and the high-tech systems that enabled their one of kind system to work.

Others had tried and failed and only produced zombies instead of clones which resulted in huge lawsuits filed by the families of the victims. The companies folded due to the financial disasters that it created for each of them. A short time later LifeTech secretly approached Integrated Biotech offering them a huge buyout which they immediately accepted to avoid a similar fate. When the acquisition was complete, they used their newly injected capital to buy up the remnants of all the prior cloning companies that had popped up and failed.

Under the veil of the new shell corporation they had created they brought all the technology together from the various failed companies and brought all the best minds together into one group. They unloaded the dead weight of lower level tech people plus anyone who even remotely resembled a security risk. As soon as they got it down to a small core of all the best brains they brought everyone in for a briefing and demanded that everyone sign off on the tightest, most comprehensive, non compete non disclosure agreement any of them had ever seen.

It guaranteed each employee receiving one hundred million dollars upon retirement should they make it without violating the agreement. Anyone who did violate the agreement would be fired, dissociated, and destroyed in the industry to the point that they could never work again in that field, period.

These guys were serious about keeping all of this under wraps and would do just about anything to protect it. Dodge was one of the few to know of the deal because he was just high enough in the pecking order to be brought in on the briefing. He too had signed off on the same stringent agreement through ESS which was contracted to Biotech, which was the shell owned by LifeTech.

The LifeTech higher ups viewed this arrangement as a double layer of protection and they had gone to great lengths to make sure they were covered from every angle. Dodge was sworn to secrecy and dared not to tell anyone, not even Linsey. He had never kept anything from her before but he knew the financial well being of his children and their children and so on could very well hinge on the very large bonus that he would receive upon retirement if all went well.

He had to keep the trade secrets and the knowledge of the bonus to himself. While his salary was very good, it was still nothing compared to the huge bonus upon retirement from ESS. He could qualify as early as age fifty and he only had five years to go. He simply couldn't take the risk of it getting out somehow through Linsey to one of her friends or even a family member.

Linsey didn't know about Dodge's real job or that he had signed away the rights to their phone and internet privacy as part of the deal. He had no way of knowing when they were being monitored and when they weren't. If he were to tell Linsey and she slipped with even the most subtle of comments to a friend or relative they could lose everything.

Dodge knew the LifeTech system was solid because he had been a key player in developing it for many years. Linsey and the rest of the family thought that he was working on a computer programming console for the Medic-Star system that the government was using for healthcare data entry at hospitals. He was involved in that project prior only as a consultant but he knew enough about it to make it believable when friends and family got interested in what he was doing at work. If they got too nosey, he would just say that he couldn't discuss the details because it was proprietary and he could be fired for telling too much. It was a little disappointing that he couldn't tell anyone how these things actually worked. He was proud of his accomplishments but he couldn't tell even his closest friends and family about it.

The next morning Bobby woke up before dawn. His stomach woke him again today but this time he actually had something to look forward to, within the hour he would be feasting on anything he wanted from the menu.

He had already made up his mind. He was getting the pancakes with extra butter, maple syrup and the sausage links and bacon on the side. He would wash it all down with some OJ and a cup of coffee. While he was waiting, he decided to watch a little TV so he turned it on and began watching some of the morning shows.

Weekday morning TV was definitely a new experience and he wasn't too impressed with the lineup. Just then there was a light knock on his partially open door. A man slowly poked his head in.

"Hello there, mind if I come in?"

"Not at all, come on in," said Bobby.

It was another patient from across the hall. He was a small but good looking young man with an athletic build, short cut dark hair and a good tan.

"Sorry to bother you but I couldn't help noticing that your TV is working, mine isn't and I was wondering how you got yours to work. I'm not too good with electronic things, never have been, oh sorry I'm Ben, Ben Hartford," he said as he extended his hand to Bobby.

Bobby shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Ben, I'm Bobby Kerrington."

"Nice to meet you too Bobby."

"To answer your question, I just turned mine on and it's working fine," said Bobby. "But it could be that you accidentally bumped one of the buttons on the remote. Like for instance if you press the input button by mistake it switches the TV to auxiliary input and you just get static, just press it again and it will go back to the programs."

"Hey, thanks a lot, I'll try that when I go back. So what are you in for? Oil change? Alignment?"

Bobby chuckled. "You must work on cars huh?"

"Yes I do, in fact that's how I ended up in here, one fell on me. I wound up losing one of my legs and my left hand. I used my one free Restoration to get my health back. It's hard to be a mechanic with only one hand, and I don't know any other way to make a living. Hey you're so young what happened? That is if you don't mind me asking."

"No it's fine. You had one land on you and I got t-boned by one."

"No kiddin? Well I guess we have something in common we both got hit by cars and we're still here."

"Yeah, I guess that's true, they were just going in different directions!"

Ben laughed out loud.

"Hey you're really funny! So, how do you like the pink stuff?"

Bobby grimaced.

"Yuck, yuck, and yuck is all I have to say about that stuff. I can't wait until the nurse gets here today. I get to eat some real food."

"Oh man, you're gonna love it. That first real meal was great. I had a steak and a baked potato, what are you goin for?"

"The choice was easy for me," Bobby said, "I'm going for a big stack of pancakes."

"All right, good choice, you can't go wrong with pancakes! So did you have any thoughts about how lucky you are to be alive? You know like what you might do differently?"

Bobby thought for a minute.

"Well, I was thinking I might try harder to get along with my sister."

Ben laughed.

"I know how hard that is, I have two older sisters myself."

"What about you Ben? Are you going to make a bucket list?"

"What do you know about bucket lists? You're so young."

"Well, my Grandpa has been very ill and he was talking about it one day and I didn't know what it was. I asked my Mom and she explained it. The good news is my Gramps is about to go through Restoration so he's going to be around longer and have plenty of time to do more of those things on the bucket list after all."

"Well that's good, everybody needs a Grandpa," said Ben.

"So what about you? I know you're not as old as my Grandpa, but did the accident make you think about some things you might want to do? You know, like the bucket list thing?"

"Well you already know how bad I am with electronics, I can't even operate my TV," he said with a chuckle. "I was actually thinking about learning more about electronics because the cars are pretty much all electric these days except for a few classics. I'm a pretty good mechanic on the basic stuff but I can't do any of the stuff that really pays well on the cars. I was also thinking it might be a lot safer than working under the cars. You know if another car falls on me I'm all out of spares and I can't make enough money in the auto repair business to buy another clone for when I'm old."

"Sounds like it was a wakeup call."

"Exactly. Now that I've had this accident it might be a good time to make a change and get out of the auto repair business."

"You know my Father is an electronics expert, he even designed part of the Medic-Star system they use right here in this hospital."

"Wow!" Ben was impressed, "Really? Could I meet him later? I would really like to get some advice about engineering schools."

"Sure, I'll introduce you to my folks when they come in later to see me. By the way, my Dad has one of those classics, a GTO."

"No way! Does it run?"

"Oh yeah it's completely restored but in a high-tech way you know."

"Wow I'd love to see it someday, I've only seen a few and only worked on two of them but they were junk really."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks Bobby, it's been really nice talking with you. I'll get out of your hair for now. Enjoy that big ole breakfast Buddy."

"Don't worry I will, nice meeting you Ben."

"Thanks for the advice on my TV, I'll go give it another try," he said as he slipped out of the room.

After Ben left Bobby reflected on the experience of meeting another person that had just gone through the same thing he was going through. Ben was older than Bobby but quite a bit younger than his Grandpa, it was interesting to him that this technology was helping people of all ages and from all walks of life.

He was so busy being a kid and having fun he hadn't really noticed the difference it was making in the world. It was on the news and he knew about it from health class but he just thought of it as a way for old people to avoid death, he never realized it helped kids like him to go on living and young men like Ben get their lost limbs back so they could work and make a decent income. It was for sure a sobering experience.

"So young man are you ready for some real food?" The nurse asked as she zipped into his room. Bobby was definitely ready and placed his order without a second thought. By the time his family arrived he had devoured his food and had fallen back to sleep. It was such a satisfying meal that he felt like he had just eaten a huge Thanksgiving dinner and needed a nap. He was wakened when his Dad came in all smiles with the rest of the family right behind.

"Guess what son? You get to come home tomorrow!"

"Wow Dad really? I thought I would have to be here a lot longer."

"Nope," said Gramps, "You're coming home. We just talked to the Doctor out in the hall. He said if you keep all your meals down today you can go home in the morning."

"Oh, wow that's great, so far I haven't felt sick to my stomach since yesterday at lunch. Well if you can call that stuff lunch."

Bobby began telling his Dad about Ben from across the hall and how he wanted to become an electronics guy just like him and would like some advice.

"Sure I'll stop in on him before we leave."

"Oh you don't have to Dad I told him to come over here when he notices you guys visiting me. I'm sure he will in a few minutes."

"Okay that's fine. We would all like to meet your new friend." Bobby's Mom suggested that she would cook a welcome home meal for Bobby of his choice and they were discussing that when Ben poked his head in.

"Hey, mind if I come in?"

"No of course not Ben, come on in and meet my family," said Bobby. "Everyone this is Ben Hartford from across the hall we met this morning." Ben came in but acted a little shyer than before due to the room being filled with people.

"Ben this is my Father Dodge and my Mother Linsey and my sister Sarah, and my Grandpa Kerrington or Alan if you prefer."

"Pleased to meet you all."

Dodge shook Ben's hand.

"Nice to meet you young man. Our son told us all about your car accident. Seems you two have something in common."

"Yes unfortunately for me I have to continue working on the darned things unless I go to school for something else." Dodge already knew where it was going so he volunteered information.

"How about we swap digicards? I would be glad to answer any questions you have about the electronics industry, and if you attend a school that is on our company list ESS has an intern program you can apply for."

Ben was very gracious but didn't want to overstay while Bobby's family was all there.

"Okay, thank you Sir, "Here's my digicard." He got out his skyphone and they swapped info.

"Please forward that to Bobby later. I'd like to take him out for a burger and fries in a few weeks, you know, catch up to see how he's doing. That is if it's okay with you Bobby?"

"Sounds great, thanks Ben."

"You bet, see ya later Buddy, nice meeting all of you."

Ben slipped out and left Bobby and his family to their visit.

He went back to his room where his TV was working perfectly, "Sharp kid that Bobby." It WAS the input button that made his TV work again just like Bobby had suggested.

The next morning Bobby ordered another big breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, juice, toast, and a big glass of OJ. He even had some coffee again, "Not too bad if you load it up with cream and sugar."

He was feeling much stronger today and so he decided to try walking around his room a little bit. He eased out of bed and felt pretty good, his legs were much stronger. He was relieved because he knew that his increased strength and keeping down all his meals would allow him to go home later that morning just as promised.

His doctor came in and had him stand up and walk around a bit. He checked his vitals and asked him a few questions and said that everything looked very good.

Within an hour his parents arrived, packed his things up, and wheeled him down to the front desk. His Father signed a few papers and out the door they went. Just inside the front door Bobby stopped.

"Wait, I want to walk out of here and the rest of the way to the car," he said.

"Really? Do you think you're strong enough Bobby?"

Linsey was a bit worried. Bobby got up out of the wheel chair and walked out through the double doors and the remaining thirty yards to the car and got in. Sarah was already sitting in the back seat, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Nice to have you back fungus feet," she said.

Bobby smiled. "Yes, things were just about back to normal."

When they got home Bobby called Matt over. The two of them went off to the TV room to play on the gaming console. Bobby wanted to shoot some hoops but he knew he wasn't strong enough for that just yet. "It sure was good to be home!"

Chapter 3 Dodge sank into the recliner in his study while flipping out the footrest with a loud "ca-thunk" and let out a big sigh. "What a weekend!" He was exhausted, physically from lack of sleep, and emotionally from all the events of Bobby's accident, recovery, and home coming.

He had been working overtime and was already exhausted on Friday afternoon when he got that awful call and then hurried to the hospital. He planned to be lazy that weekend and recharge his batteries for work on Monday but instead he was even more wiped out. He had to get some rest and be prepared mentally for a big event of some kind that was taking place Monday morning.

His Boss came by his office Friday morning and told him that he had better rest up over the weekend because Monday was a big day. Dodge tried to get out of him what it was but Tim Stance was a company man and when he was told to keep something quiet he did just that. There was no way he was going to get it out of him.

Dodge figured it must be good news because he noticed Tim was wearing his golf shoes right after lunch. That meant he was heading out to the club early today and there was no way he would be doing that on a Friday if the company was in trouble.

Tim was a good guy and he and Dodge were good friends even though Tim was his boss. Tim even sent a gift basket up to the hospital as soon as he heard about Bobby's accident. It was full of the nicest stuff, and Dodge couldn't help but think, "I'm pretty lucky to have a good job with a Boss I like." He drifted off into a deep sleep.

"Hey you, ya comin to bed? It's almost midnight." He sat up only half awake and looked at his watch.  
"Wow! I must have really been tired, was I out for four hours?"

"Yes, and I didn't have the heart to bother you," said Linsey.

"Well I might as well just go on to bed before I get woke up too much, got a big meeting tomorrow."  
"Oh is it serious?" She asked, as they walked to the bedroom.  
"No, I don't think so. Tim was heading out to golf when he told me about it so it must be good news."  
"Well that's good, you don't need any bad news after such a rough weekend!" Dodge agreed.

The next morning the Kerrington house seemed almost back to normal. The only thing different now, was the invisible cloud of thankfulness hanging over everyone. It was sort of a new appreciation for life that was in the air. When there has been such a brush with

death, the sky suddenly seems a little bluer, everyone smiles more and everyone is generally more pleasant. Linsey thought this may have been a blessing in disguise, a wakeup call for the whole family.

Dodge Kerrington arrived at the office a few minutes early Monday morning right on track with his usual routine. He stopped by the break room to get another cup of coffee skipping his usual bagel. Linsey fixed an unusually large breakfast that morning so he was stuffed but didn't want to fall asleep in his meeting. He had never done that before but with the long weekend and a full stomach he was feeling it could happen. A little extra coffee would be a good safeguard against snoozing.

There was a buzz of excitement in the air as all the top managers gathered into the executive conference room on the seventh floor. It was rare for Dodge and his peers to be called to this room for a meeting because it was typically only used for the most important of gatherings among the owners of the corporation and other business owners that they were approaching for big deals or a corporate takeover, all things above Dodge's head.

Everyone could tell from the demeanor of their Supervisors in their various departments that it was going to be good news. The meeting was brought to order. Tim, Dodge's boss, was asked to make the announcement.

Tim stood up. "Good Morning everyone."

A few people responded with "good morning."

"Most of you know me, but for those of you who don't, I'm Tim Stance and I head up the embedded micro team of the implant division. I feel very honored today to have the privilege of bringing you such great news. We have had a tremendous technological breakthrough in our biotech engineering division in California. As you all know in the past Restoration after complete bodily death could only be accomplished in those individuals born on or after May 1st of 2038, the day when brain stem cell sampling became mandatory in all hospitals worldwide for all new born children."

"It's common knowledge that the procedure must be accomplished within the first eleven weeks of human life after birth. DNA from these unique cells must be used as the seed DNA for the surrogate's clone. Otherwise, the P-Source2, a.k.a. Soul, won't transfer to the Clone and the Restoration process fails."

"For those of you who don't recall, 38 was when our predecessors at Biotech discovered the eleven-week rule. Even then, and with everything done properly, a person only has one hour after unexpected complete death to be restored and still retain their P-Source2."

"Now with our latest breakthrough our scientists have done it again. They have discovered a hormone that is released in the brain during the first eleven weeks of life after birth. This hormone alters the brain stem cells and locks the P-Source2 to the individual's unique DNA signature permanently. We don't yet understand this process entirely but our Scientists have developed a working solution."

"When a cell sample is taken from the brain stem of a person older than eleven weeks, any age, and then subjected to the exact same hormone found in the infant's brain it will result in cells that have the altered P-Source2 locking DNA. Once the cells are altered by exposure to this hormone for a minimum of forty-eight hours they'll work just as well as the cells of those individuals that had the procedure within the eleven-week period following birth."

"With this breakthrough we can now provide the same assurances that even a person born prior to May of 38 can have a complete Restoration even after an unexpected complete bodily death. The same one hour rule applies but never the less this is a huge stride."

"Computer," Tim instructed, "Large screen, front wall, load presentation." A huge holographic image appeared just off the front wall of the conference room.  
"As you can see ladies and gentlemen, the procedure is outlined here in this rotating diagram and graphical representation."

"Next image please. Yes and here is the best part of all. As you can see, the new ability will be offered to everyone in the world that already has one of our Lifecorder units at no additional charge and any new customers that are coming on board from this point forward."

"Notice here on this chart that the new feature is very affordable and it will boost our revenue by an additional 28.6 trillion dollars by 2058." The entire room broke out into a round of applause. Everyone knew this was a financial windfall for ESS and no doubt large profit-sharing bonuses for everyone would follow.

The fact that people born prior to 38 could not be restored after complete bodily death had been a real sore point with the sales department for years. Because they had no cell sample within the eleven-week time frame, they could only be restored on a planned basis while they still had some living cells to retain the soul.

Those people were disappointed with the system, especially those individuals that had very dangerous jobs like the Police and Fire Fighters. Many of them in recent years had opted to make career changes to increase their chances of immortality.

Tim called upon one of the financial officers to continue the presentation in regards to all the economic benefits of this new discovery. As the man was speaking, Dodge's mind began to drift. He started thinking about the implications of what they were doing, was his Father right? Were they playing God? How good were the clones really? The oldest one alive was now thirty-four and still seemed okay, at least for now.

He was a 65-year-old terminal lung cancer patient that took part in a trial back in 2022 when it was still a top-secret government experiment. Now his combined ages of 65 and 34 made is total life span 99. The news said his family was planning a celebration on his 100th birthday coming up in a couple of months.

He had recently been on Late Night with Harry Letterman and seemed to be in great health with no adverse effects. So had man discovered the fountain of youth? Had immortality actually been reached? "Only God knows for sure." It was certainly looking that way. The financial guy was done and now one of the Biotech guys was getting up. Dodges' interest was captured again, or at least partially.

"Let's take a look at how all of this works again. The CELL signature and DNA of each person prevent any given individual's Lifecorder data from being uploaded into another individual. For example, let's say someone wanted to steal a person's Lifecorder unit to get this persons thoughts and memories out of it in an effort to get at technical prowess or talents, abilities, etc. It would pretty much be useless to them because they would not have his clone to load it up into to get the information out. I'm sure everyone would really like to know how to do that but in a way it's better that they don't know, this difficulty and complexity provide built in layers of security for the whole system as it is a natural deterrent against criminal elements attempting to do anything with the data."

Dodge recalled a few news stories where people reported their LifeCorders stolen but it was of no consequence, LifeTech simply provided them with a new Lifecorder unit and it was fully updated that night as they slept and nothing was lost whatsoever.

Medic-Star had just recently begun offering a back up service that allowed your complete lifefile to be uploaded as frequently as you wished. The service was affordable and operated through your skyphone or other electronic devices with a minimum of 20KTB band width. Now people could easily backup their life on the secure Medic-Star system with no worries of fire destroying it, or someone stealing it.

The scientist was going on . . . , "We have decided to reactivate a previous security protocol in the next release of the new Lifecorder 3. All LifeCorders have built in tracking devices that can be utilized should the unit be lost or stolen, and this feature is very helpful to authorities searching for the missing unit. We had designed this feature into the original units but congress passed a law that forced us to disable it. This was because so many of the units were issued through Medic-Star to the elderly and low income families for little or no cost. The older generation complained that the tracking device was too big brother-ish and the low income group complained about added cost. So we disabled it in the software. Now that we have a law passed which allows it to be activated it can be accomplished through the skyphone network at no charge and so the function will become active in the older units with no additional effort. All the new units will be distributed with this feature enabled as the default factory setting but instructions will be included for disabling that feature if the customer chooses to do so."

Dodge knew pretty much everything about that tracking device. His team was called upon to disable it in the software more than ten years ago. Dodge felt that it should just be omitted from the hardware and then there would be no reason to mess with the highly sensitive software side of the design.

Higher ups insisted that they could lobby through the right channels in congress and get the law pushed through, turns out they were right about that, "money talks," and now they can reactivate all those tracking devices for people that want that feature and increase their profits even further.

It took ten years but they must have finally got to somebody and pushed it through. No doubt he would get called into his boss's office sometime later this week. He would probably be given the task of reinstating the tracking code into the software.

Upon some reflection he remembered exactly where he stored the code and that he had backups of everything on a virtual server plus a third one at home that no one but him knew about. Even though it was against company policy to take those materials home, Tim had allowed it because Dodge volunteered to work on it over the weekends to get the project done in time for the deadline more than ten years ago.

That accomplishment got Tim a nice promotion and a huge increase in salary back at that time and Tim knew it was Dodge that really got it done. To be fair he took Dodge along with him and saw to it that he also got a good salary increase, and many good bonuses and perks over the years.

Even though Tim had never openly given Dodge the credit for the software which several publications at the time labeled "the work of a true pioneer and genius" Dodge didn't mind at all, he really didn't like that kind of attention and he still got rewarded very well financially for it.

Thinking back about the project he remembered how tired he was when it was done. He took a copy of it in on a Monday after staying up late all weekend trying to get the code stable and absolutely perfect. He handed it off to Tim and went on with his other task of the day.

Tim delivered it to the head of the development team for uploading into a test unit for some trial runs. He came back later the same day and took Dodge out for a long lunch.  
"Dodge," he said, "You knocked that one out of the park Buddy. The development department loaded your code and it worked perfectly!" I won't forget this I promise! They were both very excited and they went on talking about where it might lead to during their lunch and then returned to the office late. In the excitement Dodge realized he never got the microdrive back and he was so tired the night before that he saved his final revisions to the microdrive and not his home PC.

At the end of the day he left his office a few minutes early and headed up to see Tim but he had already left early for a round of golf at the club, no doubt he was celebrating with some of the higher brass due to their huge success that day. Dodge grabbed another blank microdrive from his desk and ran down to the development lab. Everyone had gone now but several of the workstation computers were still running backups so he jumped on one to retrieve a copy of his work for safe keeping.

He just realized in that moment sitting in this meeting that he never copied that file back to his home computer. In fact he wasn't for sure where he put the microdrive when he got home that night all those years ago.

The scientist had finished and another financial guy was up droning on about how this was going to make the company even more money and where they intended to invest it. He looked across the room and noticed Tim was looking at him. Tim made a hand gesture. It was code for, "It's Miller Time." Dodge smiled and gave him a subtle nod of agreement then they both returned to pretending that they were interested in the financial stuff.

When the meeting finally adjourned, Dodge met Tim out in the hall.

"Man! Wow! Was that the longest and most boring ending to an exciting announcement ever or what?"  
"Yes, Yes it was!" Tim agreed, "Let's go get some lunch and have that beer, better yet let's have two."

Dodge laughed, "Better make them light beers, I have to come back to work."

"What! No way man, look, I'm your boss and you're coming with me to the club. We'll have a big sandwich and some chips and a couple of REAL beers and then go play nine okay?"  
"Well, all right you're the Boss, but you know how I golf. You gotta spot me my handicap otherwise I'll never live down the butt whooping you're about to unleash on me."  
"No worries Dodge my man," Tim said as he hung his arm on Dodge's shoulder, "I'll give you pointers and spot you ten strokes!"

Chapter 4 It was nearly eleven p.m. when Dodge finally rolled up the drive at home. He called Linsey earlier to let her know what he and Tim were doing. Linsey didn't mind. She said, "Besides you never know with Tim, get a few beers in him and play some skins and you might just come home a lot richer!" Dodge was glad that Linsey didn't mind because he and Tim really did have a blast. She was already in bed when he got in but she was still awake, she was too curious about the big announcement at work to sleep.

"So how did it go?" She asked, as Dodge slipped into bed.  
"Well Tim Stomped me pretty good on the front nine, but I nearly caught up on the back nine after he had a few too many beers. He still beat me though, even drunk." They both started laughing.  
"Good thing you're not counting on golf for a living huh?"  
"No kidding, we'd be poor for sure!"

Dodge knew what was coming next and he hated to lie. He thought about it all the way home from the club. He formulated a plan. He would lie, but as little as possible.  
"So what was the big break through you guys were celebrating," asked Linsey, "Did you cure cancer or what?"  
"Whoa, well I wish, then a lot fewer people would need Restoration, it's hard to believe we can clone people but we can't cure cancer."  
"So, what's the deal?" "Well they found out they can use the tracking again now in the Lifecorder units, remember that project that ESS worked on about ten years ago, the one that was on a subcontract with another company?"  
"Oh yeah," Linsey had to think, "So why is that such a big deal?"  
"Well ESS will make a lot of money off the sales of the tracking services and that will make our company even more successful."

He went on for a few more minutes and Linsey didn't say anything. He repeated some of the boring financial stuff that they droned on about in the meeting and it put Linsey right to sleep. He laughed a little to himself. "It's a good thing I had extra coffee before that meeting, otherwise I would have fallen asleep just like her."

He didn't feel too bad about what he told her, she knew about the project she just didn't know that it was HIS project.

He laid there for a few minutes reflecting about everything that had happened over the weekend, and then suddenly it hit him, where had he put that microdrive? "Oh well, I'll look in the morning."

The longer he laid there the more he wondered and he couldn't sleep now for wondering where he had put it. He quietly slipped out of bed and went down the hall to his study. He had a pretty good Idea of where he might have put it out of habit. He went into the study and over to the far window, reached up behind the curtains and grabbed a key that he kept above the sill. He went to his desk and opened the bottom right-hand drawer and pulled out a small fireproof box that he kept a few very important items in, like the title to his 1969 Pontiac GTO. "Very rare."

He opened the box and began digging around for the microdrive. He found it quickly because it was easy to spot among the others in there because it was a bright orange color, a limited run promotional issue at the time with ESS's company logo of a computer chip on it.

He figured right, he was a creature of habit, he didn't remember putting it in there but there it was just as he thought it would be. He tossed it back in and was about to close the box when he remembered he still needed to copy it to his PC for safe keeping. Microdrives were very reliable but it never hurt to have another back up.

Chances are he would be asked to look at it soon anyway. "Well what the heck I'm up already." He grabbed the microdrive and flipped on his computer. He opened the file up with his now outdated editor just for old times sake. The huge file was on his screen. Hours and hours of hard work that paid off well for him and Tim both. It was like going back in time seeing that old code from ten years earlier. Now it was time to do what he had forgotten to do years ago, save it to his hard drive.

He hit the save and found the old file, selected it, and hit save again. The usual message appeared on the screen as expected. "Replace file LifeCordertracker9 file size 398KTB, with file LifeCordertracker9 file size 1289KTB?" "What? Why was the file on the microdrive so much larger? It should have been only one night's worth of editing." He always saved it nightly over the weekend with the exception of the very late hours of the night Sunday which ran into Monday morning when he fell asleep at the computer.

He woke up late the next morning at his desk and had to rush off to work with the finished program neglecting to save the few small tweaks he had made to the program. That was the whole point of going down to the development lab and making another copy off the work station because in the chaos of the day he forgot to ask for the microdrive back from Tim.

Tim took off early to go golf that day so instead of bothering him at the club Dodge went and copied one off for himself to take home for his archive. He was still exhausted so he tossed it into his little fire box and locked it away for safekeeping, forgotten until now. But now something weird was going on with the file, something he would have noticed ten years ago had he backed the microdrive up to his PC like he should have.

It was late now and he was tired but he had to take a look at the file, he just had to know why it was so much larger. He began scanning down through the code page by page. It was very time consuming as the original program was complex and spanned over three hundred pages, but now his editor info window indicated that the page count was more than eleven hundred pages, weird. He kept scanning. The code seemed to go on forever. It had been so long since he viewed it that it seemed a little foreign to him now. Several hours later he still hadn't found anything that threw up a red flag. He scanned the first one hundred pages plus a few more. He thought that maybe the development guys appended something onto the end of the file so he jumped to the last page and began working backwards.

He scanned another hundred pages in reverse and found nothing. Whatever it was must be in the middle somewhere but why? He removed the microdrive from the com. port, put it back into the fire safe, locked it and returned it to the bottom desk drawer. He couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. The mystery would have to wait until another day.

He returned the key to the window sill and as he did he noticed a glint of light coming in, he pulled back the shade. No way, was it nearly dawn? He had stayed up all night, unbelievable! He was exhausted but his mind was racing. He was due back at work in two hours but there was no way he could make it through a whole day of work, he had to get some sleep.

He went down to the kitchen, grabbed his skyphone and said, "Call in sick," something he hadn't done in over a year. He laid the phone down and let it do its thing. He had a preprogrammed message that would automatically call him in sick with Steph for the day. Dodge used his last bit of energy to get into bed, kiss his wife on the neck, and plunged into a deep sleep.

An hour later he was awakened by Linsey.  
"Dodge! Get up. You overslept!"  
"No, no Hun, I'm sick today I'm staying home."  
"Really, are you all right?"  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just had a bad case of insomnia last night so I was up all night."  
"Oh, okay, well I'm going downstairs to make sure the kids get something good to eat before they run off to god knows where. Can I get you anything?"  
"No thanks, I just need sleep."

Linsey didn't quite know what to think, her first thought was that maybe Dodge had more to drink while golfing than he let on last night or maybe he was worried about Bobby and his Dad and couldn't sleep, anyway he seemed fine so she went on about her day with plans to check on him later.

Dodge slept because he was so exhausted but he kept dreaming about the code and what might be wrong with it. He felt that he had let the company down by not double checking everything the day that he took the finished code in and gave it to Tim.

Did he not run the compiler right? What did he do that caused the program to be so large? Did he accidentally add some other old code to the middle of it because he was so tired? He had to get up and go back at it to find out what in the world had gone wrong, and if it had gone wrong, how in the world did the thing even work? Extra code inadvertently inserted in the middle should have locked the system up and caused some major errors, yet the product had been working for years with no apparent problems.

At 11:00 A.M. with just four hours of sleep under his belt he was up. After a quick shower and a shave he was dressed and headed down the hall to the study. He called over the railing to Linsey.  
"Hey darling, can you bring me some coffee? I'll be in my study." She heard it but she didn't believe it. What in the world was going on with Dodge? First he stays up all night then he calls in sick, which he never does. He gets up with very little sleep and heads right to the study? "I wonder what he's up to?"

"Sure, I'll make some fresh, bring it up in a bit."  
"Thanks, you're a peach," he said as he headed around the corner and down the hall to the study. He fired up the PC and began searching through the code again from where he left off. Within a few minutes Linsey came in with a cup looped in one finger, a full carafe of coffee, and a plate with a cream cheese bagel.  
"Oh, thanks! Just put it there on the corner," said Dodge.

He didn't really have time to think up a reason for what he was doing or at least not an air tight one.  
"Okay Dodge Joseph Kerrington, what the heck are you up too? You've been acting mighty strange over the last twenty four hours and I'll demand a complete account of all your activities. Is there another woman?"

Dodge looked up from his work. Linsey was standing there smiling sheepishly at him in a rather attractive pose. "Oh boy, he was in trouble now." He had piqued her curiosity to the point of no return. A half-baked story wouldn't sell it but he took his best shot anyway.

"Well Linsey Ann Kerrington. I've been up all night thinking about work and Bobby and Dad. Then while lying in bed taking it easy I remembered that I had some figures for the third quarter engineering budget. The whole thing is due to Tim's boss by tomorrow. With all the commotion around here I forgot about it."  
"I have to get it done by tonight so that I can get some sleep and take it to Tim in the morning. Otherwise Tim is going to get yelled at and Tim is my friend, Okay?"

Linsey said, "Okay," but instead of leaving the room she walked around the desk to sneak a peek at the computer screen while pretending to arrive for the sole purpose of depositing a kiss on his cheek. Dodge knew how stealthy Linsey could be when she got really curious so he had already opened a financial report on top of his code window before she walked around. All she saw in her quick glance was a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet.

"You behave in here Mister and just holler if you need anything okay?"  
"Sure thing Babe, I will, thanks." Before she got all the way out of the room Dodge already had the code back up on top the financial report and was scanning over it again with even more intensity.

He spent several more hours and went through the entire middle of the code and found nothing. How could the file be so much larger and the page count so much greater when there have not been any changes? "Of course!" He must have accidentally pasted something at the bottom of the screen, something inert. A bit of information that would be placed after the final, "end of code," command. If so it would have no effect on the program.

"I hope I didn't put my entire personal phone library on the bottom of the programming code." That would mean that every single Lifecorder out there had his entire phone book embedded in it. How embarrassing that would be if someone discovered it years later? He thought this might be possible because he would sometimes edit his phone book on his PC and then use copy and paste to move the whole thing to his skyphone for an update. He had done it that way for years.

He scrolled down through all the pages to the last one. There was hundreds of blank pages on the end of the code but no content and no phonebook, what else could it be? Why all the blank pages?

He expected at least a single character at the very bottom as a place holder thinking maybe he fell asleep on the space bar that night years ago and saved a bunch of blank pages, filled with spaces which would certainly explain all the extra pages but it would not explain the ridiculous difference in file size as blank pages would barely take up any file space. If that was the case, the file would be only slightly larger, not three times larger.

Then he hit himself in the forehead, "Idiot, the phonebook file wouldn't take up that kind of file space either!" He felt stupid for even thinking that. He sat back for a minute and contemplated what to do next.

His electronics troubleshooting skills were quite sharp so he focused on how he could apply them to this situation. He was not really a software programmer by trade but back at that time when the code needed to be edited they recently lost John Calhoun, their best programmer to another company.

They didn't have time to recruit another candidate for the job or bring one up to speed for that matter. He knew a great deal about the software end of the design because he was so highly involved in every aspect of the project. John Calhoun was a good programmer but an even better friend. Even though he left the company he told Dodge to give him a call if they had any problems with the code.

One reason Dodge took a copy home was just in case he got stuck and needed some help finishing it up. John had it completed anyway but after he left the company the development department made a few small changes in the hardware which required tweaks on the software side.

Dodge only had to call John twice to bail him out. John was so good he knew how to help him over the phone. The guy pretty much spoke Trinary and thought in pure F code. Even though Trinary and F code were considered outdated, they were still to that day the building blocks behind every modern code assembler and John could take them apart and put them back together in his sleep.

The youngsters coming out of engineering school these days thought that the old code was useless, not realizing that it was running behind the scenes making everything they designed work. They were all spoiled by the new assembler programs that wrote the code for them by transforming entire pages of Trinary and F code into single command words.

The ability to read and write raw code made guys like John Calhoun worth their weight in gold. The young pups couldn't code their way out of a wet paper bag! If the assembler program got kinked up, they were useless.

He was thinking about calling John to help him out. They stayed in touch as friends and they ran into each other at the golf club occasionally. Sometimes they would have a beer or a coke while they caught up. They couldn't really be best friends now because they worked for two different engineering companies, they had to watch what they talked about.

With Non-Disclosure Agreements, Trade Secret Clauses and Lawyers lurking behind every bush, everybody was walking on eggshells. Maybe he would just try to fix it himself. Dodge thought about it for a little more and came up with an idea, he would delete the extra pages and see what happened.

He saved it again as "testfile.gts" to be sure that he didn't lose it, then he carefully placed his cursor right after the END command and began holding down the delete key. He held it down for several minutes before remembering that the program had a function that would allow deletion by entire pages.

He noted the page that the last command was on being page 317. He brought up the "delete code by page range" box and entered "318-*" he used the wild card instead of putting in the actual last page number because he wanted to be sure he got everything deleted after that last command. He hit the delete key and then saved the file.

Once again the usual message appeared on the screen as expected "replace file -testfile.gts- file size 1289KTB with file -testfile.gts- file size 405KTB." Hmm, the exact opposite of the first time this happened the night before.

Deleting the extra pages got the file back close to the original size that Dodge had on his computer that night ten years earlier. The file was slightly larger, but that was to be expected, after all, he had made some subtle changes and some small additions of code here and there.

"So why were the blank pages causing the file size to increase so much?" Ah yes another idea. He went back and opened the original file, and then using the copy and paste function he copied only the blank pages. Next he shrank the original program window and opened a second program window and selected "new file" from the menu. Now he had a blank window on the screen. He clicked in the window and pasted. Nothing appeared on the screen but the page count shot up from zero to 794.

He brought the other window to the front that contained the original oversized file, and the page count was 1112. He quickly brought up his calculator on the screen and tapped in the numbers, unbelievable the math was exact when he subtracted the original page count of 318 from the total of 1112 he got 794 the exact page count of the blank pasted document. He couldn't see anything on the screen but something must be there, what was causing this strange anomaly?

Then it hit him, print it! He went over to the printer and loaded it up with paper but it only held two hundred pages. It was not a large office printer, just a small home office unit. Then he realized, "I don't need to print all of it, just a few pages to see what comes out if anything." He quickly went back to the PC and brought the window to the foreground that contained the 794 page blank document and hit the print icon at the top selecting a page range of 1-10 and hit print.

The printer responded and began warming up then it stopped and let out a few beeps followed by a beep every two or three seconds. "Great a paper jam! good timing" He jumped up and went over to fix it but was surprised by the message on the info screen. "Unrecognized Font." "Huh? Really?" He printed something but it was not something the printer could actually print? "Great!"

Linsey popped her head in just then.  
"Need anything?" She could tell he was irritated by the expression on his face. "What's wrong? Misplace millions of dollars?" She would always try to lighten the mood when she thought Dodge was stressing.  
"Uh, no Hun, just a paper jam, you know how irritated I get with stuff that doesn't work right, especially electronics since that's my field and all." Linsey, smiled.  
"Yeah, I know, they shouldn't sell it if it isn't perfect, right?"

She was having some fun quoting Dodge. He was always saying that when things failed to work correctly and he really was a perfectionist.

After Linsey left the room, he reflected on what she had just said for a minute. What if he had screwed this thing up somehow? What if all the people of the world were in harm's way because he didn't get the software right? That was it, he had to call John, he had to find out if this was just a file reporting its size incorrectly or if there really was something in that file that he couldn't see, something potentially harmful that he may have caused. He was hoping that it was something simple like the GTS assembler program reporting too many pages due to some weird glitch but he really needed to find out for sure.

He dug through his desk drawer for a holographic business card that John had given him. They weren't popular now but they were quite the fad for a while. He remembered John telling him to keep it because he programmed all his new personal info into it. Dodge knew he put the card in the drawer with a stack of others slated for reviewing later but now it was nowhere to be found, what the heck had he done with it?

He had no way of contacting John because it was a work day and he really shouldn't call him at his work. Big high tech companies kept very detailed phone records of every incoming and outgoing call. He knew they should not be talking to each other due to all the legalities of their employers being direct competitors, but he had to talk to him about this problem.

It was afternoon. John should be headed home soon and Dodge knew where he lived, or at least where he lived if he hadn't moved. It was a long shot but maybe he still lived there. With John's new salary package he received when he switched jobs a few years ago he could have easily afforded moving to a much more affluent community but the only way to find out was to go and see.

Dodge had to keep this from Linsey and his mind began to reel wildly in an effort to come up with a reason he needed to go out. After all the crazy things he had been doing Linsey would be absolutely insatiable with curiosity if he announced out of the blue that he was going to see John Calhoun. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was just that she was fairly sociable and he couldn't have her mentioning that he and John had talked to each other, just too risky with all the legal stuff to worry about.

He renamed the file -phonebook.txt- he figured that if he lost the darned thing at least it would seem useless to anyone that might happen upon it. He password protected it with "unrecognizable font" which made him chuckle a bit but he knew he wouldn't forget it. He closed out all the windows except for the financial report just in case Linsey got curious while he was gone. He locked up the original microdrive in the box and put the key back over the sill again.

He was still thinking of what he might tell Linsey when his phone began to ring. It was his Dad, and that gave him an idea. He answered and his Father's rather excited voice came over louder than usual.  
"Hey Son, do you have some time to talk?"  
"Sure Dad but I was heading out, can I drop over in a few minutes, that way we can talk in person."  
"Hey that's even better," said Alan, "See you in a few minutes."

His Father just handed him the perfect alibi for going to see John. He went downstairs and told Linsey his Dad called and wanted to talk to him in person about something and that he sounded excited.

"It must be something about Restoration so I'm gonna run over there," he said, as he gave her a quick kiss.

Linsey knew Alan was getting excited about his new lease on life.  
"Yes of course," she said, "but don't forget I'm fixing chicken tonight so be back by six for dinner okay?"  
"Sure thing Hun," said Dodge, as he walked out only pausing to give her a quick kiss.

Deep down he doubted that he would make it back by then but he would deal with that problem when the time came. He arrived at his Dad's house in record time. Alan Kerrington was sitting at his kitchen table when his Son walked in. He had two of his best friends there that were both about his age and in similar health. Neither of them had cancer but they were pretty much ticking time bombs with cigarette residue, beer slag and the remnants of pure lard lining their insides.

Years of eating badly, drinking, smoking, and not taking care of themselves had taken its toll. They were all hard workers and were old school military men that were surprised themselves that they were still alive. Just like Alan they were widowed and pretty much only had each other to keep company.

"So what's going on Dad?" Dodge was anxious to get it out of him so that he could move on to the real mission at hand.  
"Well Son, we've decided we're all going to get restored and then we're going to go out and do everything on this bucket list starting with some good old-fashioned skirt chasing!" Alan and his two friends busted out laughing. Dodge must have had an "oh no" look on his face even though it was funny, he only mustered up a small grin.  
"Hey, don't worry Son, I was just kidding about the woman chasing, we're just gonna go camping, fishing and hiking, you know stuff we all loved to do when we still had our health."

Mark Stent, one of Alan's buddies started laughing.

"Hiking my ass! Alan is only speaking for himself! The only hiking I'm doin is to the cooler for another beer," added Jerry. They all started laughing and clanking their bottles together.

"Oh, no, no, that's great fella's. I think you guys should definitely do all of that," said Dodge. "Excuse us fellas. Hey, Dad, can I talk to you in the other room for just a minute?" Alan was a little surprised.  
"Well sure Son, let's go in here, hey you guys have another beer and come up with some more ideas, I'll be back in a minute."

They went to the living room just around the corner from the kitchen.

"What's going on Son?"

"Look Dad, I have a problem that I need to investigate with an old work buddy. The thing is Linsey doesn't know about it and I have to keep it under wraps until I have more information. If my being over here comes up any time soon, just play along like I was over here for the whole evening."

Alan looked concerned.

"You lunk head, are you cheatin on that peach of a daughter-in-law of mine!"

"Hell no! Jeeze Dad, you think I would do something like that?"  
"Son, are you in some kind of trouble?"  
"No, no, Dad, I just have to be careful because I'm going to see an old work friend about a computer problem and he works for a competitor, I have to be really secretive because Linsey knows everyone and is very sociable, if she let out even the slightest slip to someone I could lose my job, that's all."

"All right Son, if she asks I'll cover for ya, but don't make a habit of it because I don't like you keeping things from Linsey and I'm no liar."  
"Believe me Dad, if there was another way . . ."  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get going, the sooner you get home the less likely she is to call me looking for you, and I won't have to lie."  
"Thanks Dad, I'll talk to you soon, oh and I really do like the bucket list thing."

Dodge wasted no time getting across town to John Calhoun's house. He went up to the door and rang the bell. A young woman came to the door that Dodge assumed must have been John's daughter.  
"Hi there is John here?" The young lady responded with. "John?"  
"Uh, yes, I'm looking for John Calhoun."

She smiled. "Oh you must be looking for my Uncle John. He and Aunt Karen moved."  
"Oh, well, I'm Dodge, Dodge Kerrington and . . . " before he could finish she turned her head and yelled. "Mom, there's a man here, Dodge Kerrington, he's looking for Uncle John."

A woman's voice came from the next room.

"Really Dawn? You yell like that when there's a visitor at the door."  
"Sorry Sir," she said as her mother arrived at the door to take over.  
"Sorry about that, we're still training her on proper door answering manners."

Dodge smiled.

"Yes I know how teenagers are, I have two of my own at home."

"So you're looking for my brother John?"  
"Yes John and I worked together for a few years and this is the last address I had for him. I lost his new skyphone number that he gave me at the golf club a while back."  
"Oh yes, John and his golf! No problem I'll get the number for you."  
"Oh, would you mind calling him for me my phone isn't holding a charge. I need to save what little power is left to call my wife later. She gets worried if she can't reach me."

"Wow that was fast thinking, I'm getting good at this stuff."

He didn't want John's number on his phone. He thought Linsey might notice him calling an unusual number while he was supposed to be visiting with his Dad.  
"Sure no problem," she said as she stepped out onto the porch and sat down on the bench. Dodge felt awkward, but he sat down also to be polite.  
"Hi John, this is Sis, there's a Mr. Dodge Kerrington here that would like to speak to you. Okay, here he is . . . ,

"Here you go," she said, as she handed Dodge the phone.

"Hi John . . . , yeah I didn't know you moved . . . , sure I know where that is, can I come by? Okay I'll be there in a few."

Dodge handed the phone back to John's sister.  
"Thank you so much," he said.  
"You're welcome, have a nice evening."

"You too and thanks again," he said as he stepped off the porch.

It was getting late and all this running around was taking way too much time. He wasted no time getting over to John's house. The bagel Linsey brought him earlier in his study was long worn off and now he was starving. He passed two burger joints on the way to John's house. "Oh man that smells good." There was no extra time, he needed to meet with John and get back home in a believable time frame to avoid any questioning.

John Calhoun had definitely moved up in the world. Dodge could hardly believe the massive spread of a home back on a long private lane. It was impressive, and more like an estate really. John's career moves had obviously served him quite well. He zipped up the long curvy brick drive through the security gates and to the front of the house. "Wow!" He rang the bell and a well dressed elderly man arrived promptly to greet him in traditional butler attire.

Wow John had a butler!  
"Good evening Sir, you must be one Dodge Kerrington I presume?"

Dodge nodded to indicate yes in amazement, and then actually said the word yes when he realized he was being impolite.

"Please come in Mr. Calhoun is expecting you." Just as he got inside the door John appeared in the sitting room right off the entry way.

"Dodge, man, great to see you, welcome to my humble abode, he said sarcastically."  
"Yeah right, real humble abode, more like a freaking mansion."  
"Oh well buddy you can't take it with you so you might as well spend it on a gigantic castle that says screw you guys, I'm rich, right?"

"Come on in, sit down, let's talk, it's been a long time. You know what, let's not sit here, lets go out to my man cave behind the pool house. It's well equipped my friend and when I say well-equipped I mean it!"

John led Dodge through a maze of corridors and large rooms and then out through the kitchen and around the pool and then back to what appeared to be a ten-car garage behind the pool house.

They stepped into the garage and were headed over to the stairs when something caught Dodge's eye that made him stop.

"John, is that what I think it is?"

John paused, "Well I don't know Dodge, depends on what you think it is?" Suddenly the mission at hand took a back seat to what Dodge believed was under the car cover directly to his left on the way to the stairs.  
"Is that a vintage corvette under that cover?"

John grinned with the utmost sarcasm.

"Why yes it is, would you like to see it?" He said in a very deep voice.

With a quick maneuver he gathered the entire car cover into his arms so that it didn't touch the floor. There in the glow of the blue-ish LED security light sat a 1960's vintage corvette. It was painted in a metallic blue that was so deep you could just about dive into it and go for a swim.

For just a fleeting moment Dodge lost sight of his mission.  
"Man you're doing well! I'm going to come back another time to drool on that car, but right now I have a software problem that I believe only you can solve, will you help me?"

"Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, of course, follow me," he said in a reassuring tone. They went up the stairs to what John previously described as his well-equipped man cave. Dodge was really expecting the coolest TV ever and maybe a pool table and some insanely expensive gaming console and of course a nice sound system and full bar, but instead what he saw, shocked him.

From the beginning of the room to the end it looked like a computer museum. He had the oldest computers all the way up to the newest fastest and most up to date models. He even had some stuff that wasn't on the market yet that he was testing for another company as a moonlighting thing. "Very impressive."

Dodge didn't have much time so he explained the whole thing to John as quickly as possible and handed over the microdrive.

"If anyone can figure this damn thing out, it's you bro, you were by far the best programmer we ever had, and they should've paid that salary gap to keep you!"

"No worries my friend, I'll look into this, but it's probably nothing. I see strange things like this all the time. It's probably your poorly developed plan for the flux capacitor. It's loaded into every Lifecorder ever produced and I shall be the man to decode it and release your gift to the world! Time travel will finally be possible!

They both busted out laughing. "Man John, you always made us all laugh in the lab, we sure miss you there at the old coal mine."

"Yeah, well, I miss it too but I had to move on. Hey you'd better get home to that hot wife of yours before she dumps you for someone that'll pay her more attention. I'll meet you tomorrow at the club right after work, don't worry Pal, I'm sure it's nothing. Come on I'll walk you out so you don't get lost in my humble abode."
"You just gotta keep rubbing it in huh?"

John couldn't resist ribbing him a bit more on the way out.

"Hey ya know we have some executive positions opening up, how about you come into RockTight for an interview and you can work for me!"

Dodge smiled and shook his head.

"No thanks I'm pretty content."

Of course John was unaware of the hundred million dollar bonus Dodge had coming in just a few short years. Providing he still had a job after he got to the bottom of this mess.

Chapter 5 Dodge forgot just how hungry he was, until he was leaving when he noticed someone at John's must have made a late night snack, it smelled like roast beef and it made him remember the burger joints he zinged past on the way there. On the way home he wheeled into the first one he came to and ordered up a double with cheese, fries, and a coke. Man it sure tasted good, but he ate it so fast that it was not as satisfying as it should have been.

He tossed the bag and empty drink into the trash on the way out of the lot; he didn't want any evidence around that might hang him later. He made it back home by 9:15 and remembered he was supposed to make it back for chicken by 6:00, he got nervous and really hoped that Linsey hadn't called his Father. He went in through the garage into the kitchen where Linsey and Bobby were sitting at the table looking over some brochures.  
"Well, there he is, I was just about to call you."  
"Yeah Dad, you missed a really good dinner, fried chicken, it was awesome!"

Linsey smiled at Bobby, "Thank you Son," she said. Bobby had been Mr. Polite and very pleasant to be around since the moment he returned home from the hospital.

Dodge gave Linsey a quick squeeze on her shoulder as he headed for the plate of chicken covered with foil on the stove.  
"I kept it warm for you. I figured you just got to talking with your Dad and lost track of time; so how is he?" Dodge thought for just one second.  
"Oh he's doing great, Dad and two of his friends are all going to get restored within a week of each other, they're even going to try to get it done at the same center so they can spend the day or two after together and complain about the pink goop."

Bobby laughed.

"I can't wait to see those guys eating that stuff!" He said.  
"So you guys must have talked a lot about all that," said Linsey. "I was about ready to call your Dad to see if you were on your way home when you walked in."

"Oh, well, we did talk a lot but we also went out to grab a burger and the place was busy so it took a while."

Linsey got a perturbed look in her eyes, "Seriously? A burger when I have homemade fried chicken on the table with mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, the works! Why didn't you guys' just come over here?"

Dodge knew he was in trouble on that point because it was a very good one. His father bragged all the time to everyone about how good Linsey's fried chicken was. Half way through her sentence he took a huge bite of chicken and exaggerated the amount of time it was taking to chew it while he pointedly held one finger up in the air toward Linsey to indicate "hold on, chewing" He had to think fast.

"Well, Dad wanted a burger and it sounded good to me too, and we were talking about some guy stuff, you know, hey what was I supposed to do, deny a dying man a big juicy hamburger and quality time with his favorite son?" Linsey wanted to smile but wouldn't give him the satisfaction. "You mean only Son! All right you're off the hook but next time you bring him over here mister."

"Okay, I will, I promise, and by the way even though I ate a burger, this chicken is delicious and as you can see I am eating the whole plate."

He knew he had dodged a bullet on that one. He would have to talk to his Father first thing in the morning after he left for work to fill him in on the details of his alibi. Neither of them had heard the last word on this incident yet and Alan would need to be prepared with the right answers.

Dodge noticed that Bobby was still pouring over the brochures and smiling a little throughout his Fathers demise at the hand of his sharp witted Mother.

He tousled Bobby's hair.

"So young man, how are you? And what are all these brochures about anyway?"

Dodge picked one up and began looking it over as Bobby began to explain that it was all about a racing career school and just how affordable it was and how it would change his life making him into a world class race car driver with huge earnings potential.

Dodge knew that Bobby liked basketball and enjoyed playing on the school team but he also knew that he didn't show the potential of himself or his father. Alan was extremely good at sports and so was Dodge. Bobby had the gift but his heart just wasn't in it for the last couple of years. He began showing a lot more interest in cars and motorcycles and of course girls.

His continued interest in racing surprised Dodge. The accident was so bad, and it involved a speeding car. He thought it might have given Bobby a bad scare that would turn his interest back to ball, but that was not the case. In a way motor sports were now safer than ever. Not only did they have better safety factors each year but now they had the reassurance of Restoration even if there was an accident that took their life.

The top drivers made such good money they could easily afford an extra clone if it was needed.  
"What do you think Dad?" Bobby was staring at him intently with an impatience that was nearly cutting through him.

It really wasn't affordable but he knew how much Bobby had wanted it and they had spent a small fortune on Sarah's gymnastics training, equipment, and summer camps.  
"Okay, why not? But I want you to take it seriously Son." Bobby was up dancing around the room like a loon while Dodge was still speaking.  
"And I expect you to get nothing less than a B in all your classes this fall or it's no more racing for you!"

"Okay, Okay, Okay, thanks Dad! Oh yes, and Mom! I love your chicken!" He blurted out as he ran from the room with undaunted excitement. Dodge stood there watching the kitchen door swing back and forth in amazement. He looked at Linsey who was sort of glaring at him.

"What?" He said.  
"Nothing," said Linsey.

"No really, What?"

"Nothing!"

"Come on, What?"

Linsey went over to the kitchen sink and looked out the window above it as if there was something outside to look at. It was dark and all she could see was her own reflection.

"You could have asked me ya know," she said while still staring out the window. Dodge stood there stupefied with the unfolded brochure still in his hand.

"Well I figured you and Bobby had already discussed it for hours and you just gave him the standard -ask your father- and then I'm supposed to ask you and give him YOUR answer. Right? If that's how it's going to be then you can just tell him NO yourself! AND ANOTHER THING, I don't recall anyone asking ME when Sarah signed up for gymnastics. You can break your damn neck just as easily that way!"

Linsey spun around with her arms crossed and glared at Dodge. They hadn't fought in weeks, and now was not a good time for Dodge with all the things he had on his mind. Linsey was a smart gal and when she was right she knew it and stood her ground but when she was wrong she could see that as well and would usually back down.

"Okay, I'm sorry," she said, "You're right I just wasn't being very fair about it I guess. I was going to say yes anyway I just wanted to be included."

Dodge still at a loss stood there and stared at her with a blank look. He didn't know what to say, sometimes Linsey would do this kind of thing and was really mad and then other times she would do this and just let it go and be fine. He was waiting to see which way it would go.

Linsey was still looking at him and her demeanor was slightly less angry. She thought for a second and then threw her arms up.

"It's just so dangerous!"

She started crying and Dodge did what any good husband would do. He put his arms around her and held her tight.

"Don't worry dear, they have great safety devices these days, better than ever, he'll be just fine."

He stood there and held her for a while, they were both tired and emotionally drained. They hadn't really dealt with Bobby's death and restoration yet. Everything was so chaotic with the accident, worrying about Alan and then having to rush to get Sarah back from camp and then everything Dodge was dealing with that he couldn't tell Linsey about.

He realized that Linsey needed a good cry and a long talk, and he certainly wasn't giving her enough attention lately. He knew that at some point he would have to tell Linsey what he had been up to. He decided to wait until he knew more and that should be the next day.

Come on Babe let's go for a walk around the park and talk, just the two of us. He could tell that suggestion made her happy.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I know I get a little dramatic sometimes."

"No worries, we've all been through a lot in the last four days."

Linsey went to the base of the stairs.

"Kids, your father and I are going for a walk around the park path, we'll be back shortly."

A stereo OKAY resounded from their rooms above.

When they arrived back at the house, they were both tired from talking and walking. Dodge knew he had a big day tomorrow, he missed a day of work after a major announcement and he figured his PC mail box and even his paper mail box would be full. He would have to play catch up all day and then go to the club to meet John after work. He was actually anxious to go to bed, hopeful that tomorrow would bring good news from John that the file was fine. He went all day on only a few hours sleep and it was catching up with him now.

Bobby had displayed how quickly he was getting his strength back earlier that evening by jumping around the kitchen in excitement. No one was too surprised when Matt showed up early to play basketball with Bobby the next morning. But not before snarfing down some breakfast in record time.

Things were somewhat back to normal now. Dodge actually had time to read the digipaper and enjoy a second cup of coffee before heading out to the office. He was scanning the paper more intently than usual these days now that his family was so directly involved with Restoration. He was more interested than ever in the daily stories of people going through the same things and how they were adjusting to their new lives.

Sarah and Linsey were already gone to the women's center for a swimming and diving class that they had signed up for several weeks earlier. Sarah was always looking for ways to improve her gymnastics abilities and Linsey had always wanted to take the synchronized swimming class because it looked like a lot of fun and it would help her stay in shape.

When he arrived at ESS, it was total chaos. There were people lined up like cattle all the way down the main hall and around to the receptionist area and they were all talking.  
"Good morning Mr. Kerrington."  
"Good morning Steph," he said.

Stephanie Zimmer had been with the company longer than most. She was good at her job and she knew it, and even though she was a very nice person she didn't take any crap from anyone.

"What's going on Steph?"

"Well, the higher ups decided that everyone in each of the development groups needed a refresher course in security measures so they are calling them into the main conference room about fifty at a time for . . . , " she paused for a moment to yell at some obnoxious interns.

"Hey this isn't high school! Pipe down or I'll have security come down here and crack all your heads open!"

She turned back to Dodge.

"Sorry about that Mr. Kerrington, these kids are getting unruly." The woman could change her face and demeanor instantly. It was a little frightening to be honest.

Dodge laughed.

"Jeeze Steph, take it easy, they're just PhD's they don't know any better."

Steph laughed and patted Dodge on the back.

"Well maybe I'll cut them some slack but don't tell anyone, we can't have it getting out that I'm getting soft or all hell will break loose!"

"Ha Ha, don't worry I won't tell anyone. Hey, can you have Brenda bring me a bagel up to the office from downstairs? It looks way too hectic down there by our break room."

"Sure thing Mr. Kerrington, she'll be up there in a bit."

"Thanks Steph!"

When he got to his office, his inbox was full and the message light on his phone was flashing. He fired up his PC and hit the message icon, 97 messages. He looked at the phone, 32 messages, "oh boy, fun day ahead." Within five minutes Brenda zipped in and out with his bagel so fast that he barely had time to thank her.

He waded through his day in efficient style, the interns and newbie's gradually disappeared from the hallway one group at a time until they were all gone, by four o'clock, things were getting back to normal. Surprisingly only two of his team leaders came in to meet with him and that was unusual after having a day off. He had a good handle on his projects lately and he didn't have any newbie's in his department anymore. His greenest team member had been with him now for more than four years and pretty much knew what he expected, how he wanted things done and when.

He ran a tight ship for a long time and it was starting to pay off, maybe it was time to start taking more early afternoon's off to play golf with Tim. He didn't have a chance to talk to Tim today but he did see him twice in the hallway. They were both busy and shot each other a nod and he got one -thumb's up- from Tim around three o'clock as he darted by.

He started thinking about his arranged meeting at the club with John and realized that it wasn't the best choice of places to meet, what if Tim happened by and saw the two of them talking? It might make Tim feel uneasy thinking that secrets were being shared or that John was recruiting him for a job.

Dodge thought, the best thing to do was look for Tim's car, if it was there then he might have to postpone the meet or go somewhere else to talk.

He pulled into the parking lot of the South Side Golf Club at 4:30 p.m. The South Side Club was a very well designed course and club house facility built about twenty years earlier with the hard-working executive in mind. It was very spacious, with thirty-six holes of golf, a pool, hot tubs, and they even had several on duty masseuses to keep your muscles loosened up after a hard day at the office and a round of golf.

In recent years they had tried to make it more family oriented by adding tennis courts a basketball court and enlarging the women's locker rooms to accommodate the increase in ladies and their daughters that were now attending. They also added two more dining rooms for a wider variety of cuisine, and a workout center with on staff trainers to help you stay in shape or rehab from an injury.

It was really nice but most of the patrons that came there for years preferred the basics. They enjoyed the golf and the 19th hole, the bar and grill area under the clubhouse. It had a walkout basement type of setup on a hill and a huge deck that overlooked the pond by the 18th green.

Dodge scanned the lot but didn't see Tim's BMW, it was easy to spot because it was new and bright red with highly polished wheels. Tim always tried to park out in the open; he was a true car guy that hated door dings and tree sap. That narrowed down the good parking spots considerably.

He would have looked for John's car also but in his excitement over the classic corvette he neglected to pay any attention to the other cars in John's garage so he had no idea what John might be driving.

He went into the 19th hole and sat at the bar. He knew Tim preferred The Wharf which was the seafood dining room around the corner and up the stairs. He figured Tim would not come down where he and John were meeting and that would decrease their chances of being seen together. He ordered a beer and nursed it slowly while eating a few pretzels from the wicker bowl on the bar.

"Wow, really good pretzels" he thought, he hadn't tried them there before, they were delicious. He waited there for over an hour, no sign of John, he was about to leave when the bartender approached him with a note.  
"Hey you're Dodge right?"

"Yes," he said.

"Well, a guy called and left a message for you here."

The bar tender handed him a post it type note with Heineken at the top. He thanked him and got up and headed out to his car. As he walked out, he thought, "makes sense, I get free sticky notes from electronics houses, he gets them from breweries." The note simply said, "The spoon, JC."

Dodge and John spent some time after college and between jobs eating a lot of meals at this place called Joann's. It was cheap, served good coffee, and it was open twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. The two of them never called it by its real name only "the spoon" short for "the greasy spoon" so Dodge knew exactly what John meant but he had to stop and think about where it was and wondered if it was still open, "it must be."

More important though, why the heck would John want to meet in that old dive? He headed out to his car and began thinking about old times in that place. He tapped the map maker on the steering wheel and said, "Eat at Joann's" Sure enough, the computer acknowledged it and gave him the best route and ETA. Huh, I guess Joann knew what she was doing when she bought that place, he thought.

Ten minutes later Dodge was pulling into Joann's, it actually looked the same, but it had a fresh coat of paint and a few other spruce ups. He slipped inside and looked around for John, he was in one of the booths way at the back, he shot his hand up to reveal his location when he saw Dodge come in.

"What's going on Bro? Are we strolling down memory lane tonight or what?" John looked a little nervous and strung out.  
"I was up all night, I didn't get any sleep at all. I didn't come to the club because I don't think any of our co-workers should see us together right now."  
"Jeeze John, what in the world is going on?"

"Well Friend, brace yourself, because if what I discovered on that drive you gave me is what I think it is then we're all straight up shit creek!"  
"Well what is it?"  
"Ok I shouldn't have said that because I'm not really sure yet about what it is, I was up all night trying to decipher what was in that file. You were absolutely right about the first three hundred and eighteen pages but the area that appeared to be blank, well it wasn't blank, it wasn't even close to blank."

"First it just looked like spaces with no characters there at all. I ran several crack programs on it, oh and by the way Einstein you forgot to tell me the password, come on really, unrecognized font, you made it so easy to crack that if you had lost it a kindergartner could have cracked it with a third grade dictionary and a decoder ring out of a cereal box!"

"John, calm down buddy, what's goin on?"  
"Okay, listen, I figured it out, at least the masking part of it anyway. It is pretty genius but I still don't know what the code means for sure but it doesn't look good." Dodge was getting very anxious.

"Okay, then just tell me about the masking part."

"Well whoever appended your file with this extra information went to some amazing efforts to conceal it. More of the program is about hiding it from view than whatever it does. It's mostly interested in staying invisible."

"Most people would never question the file size like you did because they would not know what the actual file size was before it was appended. Only the creator of the file would know the original size."

Almost anyone viewing the file would only view it down to the end command and not question any dead space below that. The creator of this hidden code wrote a very compressed program that launches upon the opening of the file and won't display anything on the screen until it has sampled the display settings and deciphered the background color.

It sets the font color to an exact match to the background color rendering the extra code invisible." Dodge pondered for a minute.

"Okay, so did you just change the background color and Xanadu there it was?"

"Oh no, no, no, my friend they thought of that, this thing is too smart for that, it simply detects any change in the background color you might make and then it adjusts itself again accordingly."

Dodge thought for a while.

"Okay, well, why won't it print?"

"Ah, yes the print problem. These guys, whoever they are, are one step ahead of everything I could think of. When I tried to print it, I got the same thing you did the other night. I set up a little app to capture the printed document into a file so I could see better what was going on. It communicates with your printer first and reads all the printable fonts available in the firmware then it comes back and makes up a font name that simply doesn't exist in the printer. It doesn't even have to be a name that makes any since at all it can just be a font name made of random characters so that the printer won't print it, simple but effective. It really doesn't matter anyway because I got around that and printed the pages and they came out in a useless format that I have never seen before. It's encrypted or scrambled when printed because of course, they thought of that too."

Dodge was still baffled.

"Do you think you can crack it?"

"I don't just think I can, I know I can, but it's going to take a while."

"Why?"

"Because I found out that they are using binary language in the program in some kind of weird shell that I have not identified yet. The good news is I am deciphering it right now on a machine running DOS 5.0."

Dodge sat there looking at him for a moment.

"Have you lost your mind? DOS 5.0? Really? Are you talking about that old Microsoft disc operating system from the 1980's? That crap is so old and the company isn't even in business anymore! Oh, and did you say binary?"

"I know that's the genius of it, what better way to hide something so well than using something people no longer understand or can even recognize as code? You see the program is not all that complex in itself, it's the masking program needed to hide it that is so large and taking up all the space on the drive. The program itself is only a few Megs."

"No Way! Did you say Megs as in Megabytes? I haven't heard that term in twenty years, nothing, and I mean nothing is that small!"

"I know, but someone went to allot of trouble to hide this tiny, binary program. In fact it's so small most security measures we have today wouldn't even catch it. It could slip through as a few parity bit failures. It would look like a standard communications glitch."

"Okay so explain to me why in the world you're using DOS to decode the thing?"  
"It was the only thing slow enough to fool it or a better term might be, make it malfunction. You see the thing is so fast that a really slow system actually confuses it. I had to fire up one of my museum pieces to make the crack work.

I developed a fake bios file in the PC that reports to the program that it's a modern day processor with a reasonable amount of speed. The program realizes that it's being compromised every time I run the cracker on it so it sends out a command to close the program based on the processor speed that I told it but I lied to it with the fake bios file. The old narrow front side bus and very slow processor on this old machine can't shut down fast enough.

Meanwhile the processor dribbles out a tiny bit of the deciphered code before the masking program can shut it off. Apparently whoever wrote this code never dreamed anyone would try to defeat it with Windows 3.1."

Dodge nearly choked on a drink of coffee that he just took.

"Are you telling me that you have a functioning machine running Windows 3.1 and it's deciphering a complex code that was written some 65 years later on state of the art equipment?"

"Well yes but I didn't say it was doing it quickly, and keep in mind that they wrote it in binary which is antiquated as well. I created a batch file that automatically restarts the program almost instantly after it's halted. When I was leaving the house to meet you, it had been running for about six hours and if all goes according to my calculations it should be done around two o'clock tomorrow morning. Oh and by the way it's not even really 3.1 it's an upgraded beta version that I fixed up to be almost as good as 3.1 and I was lucky to find that. Man, talk about unobtainium!"

"Wow Bro, really? Unobtainium? You're still the king man, you always were thinking up new words, I guess you haven't changed."

John smiled for the first time since they started talking.

"I'll take that as a compliment and call it a night, I gotta get some sleep."

"Thanks John, I appreciate what you're doing. Hey do you have any idea what motive the creator of the program had in mind? I mean, where is this going?"

"I don't know, but this thing makes me nervous, after I get a little sleep and see the whole thing decoded I should be able to give you an answer."

"All-right call me tomorrow and let me know what you find out, this is killing me I have to know."

Chapter 6 John Calhoun was the most knowledgeable man on the planet when it came to retro programming techniques and he had studied nearly every system made all the way back to the commodore 64. He had to sign it out of a museum to study it and paid a pretty penny on the museum's insurance premium to retain it for sixty days.

He would have bought it but it wasn't for sale. He documented it very carefully and built a virtual model of it that could run in a DOS shell on an old PC running Windows 95, one of the worst most bug ridden releases of software Microsoft ever released. In spite of the problems with Windows 95 people loved it and bought millions of copies of that version and everything that came after. It propelled Microsoft into huge profit margins and into one of the largest and richest companies in the world. It wasn't until 2020 that Microsoft began to really decline in the shadows of the conglomerated giants Apple, Google, and Face Book that ultimately took over the industry until they were bought out by Galaxy-Star in 2030.

John was a huge fan of all the old retro stuff and he thought the old machines were really fun to tinker with but he never dreamed it would be such a valuable problem solving tool in this situation. When he got back to his office over the garage, the PC was still clunking along doing its task slowly but steadily. It was still on track to finish around 2:00 a.m. so he wasted no time in getting to bed for some rest. He set his wrist watch alarm for 1:45 a.m. so he could witness the completion of the decoding.

On the way home from the diner Dodge noticed the time on his phone as he looked at the incoming call, it was Linsey and it was almost 9:00 p.m., he had done it again. He answered.

"Hello my dear, how are you?"

Linsey was starting to wonder what happened to him this time. She and Sarah stayed at the pool most of the day and then went to the sporting goods center at the local mall. They needed to pick up some new Gymnast gear for Sarah's upcoming try outs. It was for a local team that produced many Olympic hopefuls. It took them the better part of the evening so she was surprised that he wasn't already home.

"So where have you been mister?" she said, sounding a little suspicious.

"Well, I went to the club after work looking for Tim because I was almost sure he would be there golfing, but he wasn't. I figured you would be out late with Sarah getting the stuff she needed so I grabbed a soup and salad at the 19th hole."  
"Bobby told me that you Okayed him having dinner with Matt's family and staying over for the night so I fended for myself. Hey you would never guess who I ran into at the club, John Calhoun."

Linsey was surprised.

"Really? John Calhoun, how is he doing? I haven't heard you mention him in years."

Dodge figured it was time to break the ice on having John in the picture because he was bound to call him on his skyphone. It would be as if they had run into each other, exchanged numbers and got reacquainted.

"Well, he's doing very well, they bought a huge new home in Grande Estates, they have a pool, a big garage, a gated place, you know, even got a butler."

"Wow, can he get you a job where he works!"

"Oh, well that came up, believe me, but you know John, it was just a good ribbing about me working for him."

"Yes I remember how he was always kidding around with you and how much fun you two had together. You should invite them over sometime."

"Yeah maybe I will, in fact I got his number and gave him mine, we should do that. Well I'm almost home so I'll see you in a minute."

"Okay, bye."

Phew! Another brush with unexplainable things that he somehow got out of, he was getting a little too good at this.

After he got off the phone with Linsey, he realized that he had not seen John's wife Karen at the house and that John had not mentioned her. He couldn't help but wonder if John and Karen were still together and he felt a little embarrassed just then for not asking about her and how they were doing. He was so wrapped up in solving the mystery of the invisible code that he had not been a very considerate friend. He decided he would make a point to ask John how he and Karen were doing the next time he saw him.

Dodge slipped into bed with Linsey after a bowl of ice cream and a little conversation. He couldn't help but notice how good she smelled. She backed into him really close and drifted off to sleep almost immediately. Dodge was lying there wide awake but didn't want to get up and leave her, what a great woman she was, always there for him, thick or thin, she was the most reliable constant in his life.

Dodge was lying there watching her sleep, he decided then that they needed to get away for a while, just the two of them. They needed some down time and some fun, after all, what is life if all you do is work? He had to get this one thing done first and when it was over and taken care of they would get away.

It seemed like just minutes later but it was actually 6:30 a.m. when Dodge's phone rang downstairs. He sat up and realized he had slept so soundly that he hadn't moved at all. He was still tucked in really tight with Linsey who hadn't moved either.

"What is it?"

Linsey mumbled, still half asleep. Apparently she didn't hear Dodge's phone which was downstairs on the charger.

"Oh, uh, I must have been dreaming and wow I'm really hot, I didn't move all night I guess, I'm gonna go ahead and get up it's about time to anyway."

"Okay dear" Linsey mumbled, as she rolled over and went right back to sleep.

Dodge grabbed some cloths and went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The bathroom was also connected to the guest room on the other side so he went out that door and down to the kitchen to grab his phone. He looked at the missed call, it was from John and he had left a message. He went back up to the bathroom while listening.

"Hey Dodge, I know it's early but I would really like to have breakfast with you, meet me at the spoon."

That was it, no other information, it must have turned out to be nothing and John just wanted to give him the good news. His mind began to race while he showered, "maybe it's really bad and John didn't want to tell him over the phone, oh crap!"

Dodge finished showering and dressed quickly then peeked in on Linsey. Her alarm was about to go off and so he went down stairs and left before she or the kids got up. He just had to get out of there and get to the diner without the delay of the normal morning conversations and routine.

When Dodge arrived at the diner, John was just getting there too. He had a concerned look and neither of them said anything as they walked in and found a table near the back. The place was a lot busier now and apparently drew a pretty good breakfast crowd.

The waitress saw them sitting down and motioned with a coffee pot from behind the counter to John who was facing that way. He held up two fingers and she grabbed some cups and headed their way.

"Here ya go, I'll be back in a flash to take your order guys."

Dodge looked at John who still hadn't said a word.

"Okay, give me good news. Just tell me it was a stupid little phishing program or something harmless like that."

"I wish I could my friend, but the news is bad, and it's a good thing you're sitting down. When I got up and went out to my lab this morning and looked at the code I couldn't hardly believe it. If I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes, I would've called me a liar."

"What is it? Tell me," insisted Dodge.

"Look I'm not 100% sure, but I am 99% sure, that with a little more work, I think I can disable this thing, so don't get to excited okay?"

Dodge was glaring at him.

"Come on John, just tell me! I've been waiting for almost three days here and I'm about to lose . . ."

"Okay, okay, just stay calm. It's a back door into the transmitter section of the Lifecorder uplink software. Okay? There, I said it."

"What? Why? What good is that to anyone?"

"Okay, that's three questions all at once and I'm just one guy, I need more time."

"Sorry. Why would anyone want such a thing? I mean it's useless, the Lifecorder can only communicate with the chip in the person's brain that it's DNA coded to. Even if you could communicate with it, the data is useless, everyone knows that."

"I know I reviewed all those test results several times when I was working for you on the project. As I recall the test data proved without a doubt that each person had a unique brain signature and so the data was completely unreadable by anyone or anything other than their brain or that of their exact genetic clone."

"Okay so assuming that's all still true, why the back door?"

"Best I can figure, someone back at the time was thinking we were wrong or at least maybe had not discovered a way yet. I guess they were planning ahead."  
"Man, you know how diabolical that is?"  
"Yeah I know, literally millions upon millions of those implants are out there in the brains of every human being on earth including you and I and it's supposed to be a one way transmitter only."

"Wait, whoa, are you telling me that this back door could allow the thing to be a receiver as well as a transmitter?"  
"I'm not really sure yet but . . ." Just then the waitress returned.  
"Okay whatcha havin guys?"

They hadn't even looked at the menu because they were so engrossed in their conversation. John looked at Dodge and back at her.

"Um, well what's good?"  
"The country omelet is very popular, it comes with . . ."  
"Yes," John interrupted, "Just bring us two of those, thanks."

"You bet guys, have it right out."

As she walked away Dodge looked at John.

"How did life suddenly get so complicated? We're so screwed!"

They both took a drink of coffee and thought for a moment.

"Hold on a second," said John, "I just realized something. The damn thing would never work anyway because the implant is designed to transmit only, it can't receive unless it's brand new and in a new clone. You need the complex equipment that only the Life Centers have. They have to use the needle probe to go in and direct load the data. It wouldn't matter on the software side what you did, if the implant doesn't have the hardware to receive a wireless signal it's not gonna work, right?"

John took another drink of coffee and swished it around before swallowing it.

"Yeah that's right. Unless?"

"Oh great. Unless what?"

"When your team was designing the implant I remember one particular meeting during which the real estate on the chip was discussed. You made the comment that there was more than enough room on the die to add additional circuitry if needed for creating a rolling code section."

"Yeah, so?"

"The thing is we never did that because the test data came back showing that stealing the data or attempting to add data was pointless due to it being un-useable by anyone but the actual persons brain that it belonged to. Security was no longer an issue and that extra space was never used."

"Yeah, I do remember that. When I get into work today I'll look back at the chip die again and go through the layouts to see if anything was added in that space. I really don't think so because I approved the final design myself and I think I would have noticed a big change like that."

Their food arrived. They ate quietly while they thought for a few minutes.

"John, I have to fix this thing, it happened on my watch, but I can't do it without you."

"Don't worry we'll get to the bottom of this and you know I've got your back, we've been friends for a long time. Even though we haven't been able to hangout I still consider you my best friend. We both knew when I left ESS and went to RockTight Systems that we would have to keep our distance due to the sensitive nature of our jobs, but you know what, screw that! I won't let you down on this and no one else needs to know we're talking." Just then Dodge remembered.  
"Hey I'm sorry I didn't ask before and I know this isn't the best time but, how's Karen? How's everything? You guys doing okay?"

"It's bad to let lawyers and big corporations ruin a perfectly good friendship." John looked out the window for a minute to tone down his feelings.

"Three questions again, I'm not a machine!" John said jokingly. He paused for a moment before answering.

"Well, Karen left me, she ran off with some pro baseball player, can you believe that shit!"

"Damn John, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Well don't be, we were both unhappy for a long time and I'm pretty sure she was cheating on me for quite a while. At least we didn't have children so I guess we're only hurting each other. You know what, I'll tell you more some other time, we have bigger fish to fry right now and besides I met someone over a year ago. She's awesome and we're doing great, when you meet her you'll know I did a lot better. So any ideas on where to begin with this programming issue?"

Dodge was surprised at how well John was dealing with his personal problems and was relieved to see it. He was right, they could talk about it later. Right now they had a mystery to solve.

"I have plenty of unused vacation time and I don't have a wife at home to ask lots of prying questions. Why don't you go to work the rest of the week and I'll call in sick so I can continue to work on this thing. I'll let you know what I find out. I won't call you unless I discover something important, that way Linsey won't ask too many questions."

"Oh, don't worry too much about that. I created a pretty good cover story about how we ran into each other and how you and I are going to do some catching up. She even said we could have you guys . . ." Dodge stopped short because Karen was no longer in the picture.

"It's okay man, just tell her we split, I don't care. You can still have us over, it'll just be a new us, or at least a new better half of us."

They both laughed.

"Okay, we'll definitely get together for some dinner after all this is over with. I'm going to finish up this unbelievably good omelet that what's her name with the simple life recommended and then go on in to work. I'll poke around a little bit to see if I can find any old notes and refresh my memory on everyone that worked on the project."  
"Be careful my friend. Whoever is behind this may be very protective of what they're up to."  
"Don't worry I'll be careful."

They continued to talk as they finished their breakfast. They discussed whether or not the thing would even work and why it had been ten years since and nothing had happened. They contemplated that the hacker may have been fired or transferred before he could complete the job and they were really hoping for that to be the case.

Chapter 7 Dodge arrived at work behind his usual schedule but it didn't really matter, he was senior management now and enjoyed flex time benefits. He saw Tim in the hall talking to one of the other department heads shaking his head back and forth while looking into a manila folder with a red tab. Red tabs were financial. "Oops! Someone must have overspent for the quarter!"

He could tell by Tim's demeanor that he would be there for a while and would probably end up in the poor guy's office chewing on him for at least an hour. Tim was a great Boss and Dodge considered him a friend but some of these clowns hated him. If you did your job he would treat you with mutual respect and if you did it long enough and well enough he might even become your friend.

On the other hand you certainly didn't want to cross the guy and start screwing up because you'd find yourself taking the walk of shame toting a cardboard box stuffed with all your crap.

Tim looked up and saw Dodge just as he went behind the poor sap taking the beating. The poor fella was facing Tim and Dodge just couldn't resist using his own neck tie as a noose to pretend he was being hanged while dangling his tongue out at Tim as he passed behind the guy. Tim just about lost it when he saw what Dodge was doing but quickly gathered his stern look back and ignored his antics.

"Who says you can't have fun at work." He stopped by the break room for another cup of coffee. "Ah ha! Cup cakes, must be someone's birthday." Steph never missed a birthday and she always made sure the cup cakes were ordered and brought in first thing that morning so they would be fresh. She also sent email memos to everyone so they knew whose birthday it was.

When Dodge arrived at his office the door was open and there was a man in at his computer that he had never seen before.  
"Excuse me, what is going on?" He asked.  
"Oh good morning Sir, I'm Brian Nelson from IT. I'm just installing the latest software patch to our security system on your work station. Be out of your way in just a minute."

Dodge was a little rattled at this unexpected intrusion into his privacy. IT installed patches once or twice a month but never in his absence, and Brian was new.

"Who let you in Brian?" Just curious.  
"Oh, sorry, you weren't here yet when I came by and we're on a very tight schedule so I went down to see your secretary, Stephanie right?"  
"Yes, my assistant, Steph."  
"Oh, right, anyway she let me in. I hope you don't mind, I never look at anything else, I'm just installing this patch, and I'll be gone, a.s.a.p."

"Oh, no, that's fine, just wondered, go ahead. We all have our jobs to do and in your defense I did come in late today." Normally Dodge would not have thought anything of it but he was a little paranoid now and would probably stay that way until he and John solved this mystery. Just then Steph stuck her head in.  
"Good morning Mr. Kerrington, how are you today?"  
"Fine thanks Steph, and you?"  
"Good as always. Hey, hope you don't mind I let Brian in but don't worry he's a really good egg." Brian cracked a smile while he continued to work. "And by the way, don't forget its Patti's birthday today so be sure and say hey to her okay? She's Mr. Patterson's assistant down the hall on the left."  
"I will, thanks for reminding me."

"You got it boss!"

Stephanie zipped on down the hall saying hello and reminding others of Patti's birthday. She was one of those people that was rarely, if ever, sick and she was always very upbeat with a big smile. He wished more people around there were like her; most of them seemed really bored with their jobs.

"All done Sir, I shouldn't need to return for 30 days. Have a good one."  
"Thanks, I'll try, you too."

"Hmm, Brian is pretty darned cheerful. Maybe Steph and Brian should date!"

As soon as Brian cleared out Dodge jumped right on his PC and looked at all activity for the last 24 hours. He didn't see anything other than his own work and what Brian just did. He looked a little deeper into the activity report details to make sure everything looked like normal security patch installs. IT guy Brian appeared to be clean, so one suspect down about fifteen hundred to go!

First he really needed to do his regular work and then he could move onto his investigating of the hacked code. He worked just as fast as possible to get his messages answered then he called Steph in and loaded her up with a few things to do which would clear his plate a little faster.

By 2:00 p.m. he was free enough to get into his archives and do some digging. He had more work but it was not that pressing and he knew he could put it off until tomorrow. He planned to take a look at the final electronics design file on the server for the implant chip. He wanted to see if there had been any circuitry added to his design without his knowledge.

Considering the situation he was a little concerned about pulling it up on his monitor. If a hacker was still accessing the system they could be monitoring who viewed those files and when. He thought about it for a moment, "John would know what to do."

He called John on his sky to avoid using his desk phone. Talking to John could throw up a flag somewhere if things were being monitored closely. He felt he was being a little paranoid, but at this point erring on the side of caution was certainly prudent. John answered on the first ring.

"Dodge, I was just about to call you. I made some progress, everything okay on your end?"

"Well no one is treating me any differently, and it's been ten years, so I guess so."

"Okay, good. Well here is what I know for sure. As I originally thought, it's definitely a back door and it's in the transmitter section of the Lifecorder uplink software. The thing is I'm still baffled because it seems useless. But regardless I'm pretty sure that its purpose is to create a bidirectional communications link.

No one has ever been able to upload anything into the brain of a person other than their own IHE file so the whole thing seems pointless to me. Even if you wanted to do that, it has to be done with the head gear at one of the Restoration centers or hospitals. You need the robotic bi-polar needle and that section of the chip operates on different protocols than this code anyway."

"Okay, so please, in laymen's terms what good is it?"

"I don't know that yet and neither of us will be able to figure that out without having the hardware and at least a schematic for the section that this code was written to control. I have my piece of the puzzle solved as far as it can be without having the hardware. It's up to you buddy. Ya gotta find something there on your end before we can go any further."

"All right but unfortunately I need your help again. I can access the final designs on the server but if I do, my work station would be flagged for it. Well, assuming someone is monitoring me here at ESS. I could go to another person's workstation but then that may put them in harm's way and potentially tip off our hacker. I don't want to spook them, any ideas?"

"I have just the thing you need. It's a neat little program and it's compact enough to send over to your skyphone as a compressed file. It works on the principle of date time discovery or keyword. It's basically a worm but don't worry, I designed it so tight that the security won't catch it.

All you need to know is part of the file name or the date it was created or last viewed. Once it's installed you load the keyword and it goes looking. It finds a list of files on the server that contain your keyword so there may be some junk to sift through but it will find the file without flagging that it has been accessed. It is completely untraceable.

You pick the actual file from the list and then note the date and time that it was last accessed and by whom. You can open the file and look at the content, and when you're done, simply click the "close it softly" option in the menu. The program will give you the option of manually entering file last viewed by and viewed date and time information or, clone. You want to pick the clone option. When you close the file it will redisplay the date and time and person that accessed it prior to you and leave no trace of your inquiry.

If anyone is checking on it periodically, it will show that it has not been accessed. Very important detail my friend and don't forget this because this is absolutely crucial. Do not copy the file! You can copy the entire contents of the file and then paste it to another window on your PC, or even your phone, but do not copy the actual file. This is very important."

"Okay I get it. So send it over to me and I'll get it going. Oh wait, how do I get it into the system?"  
"Do you have a good reason to email anyone inside the same router leg that you're on?"

"Uh, well, no. Oh wait, I could email a happy birthday wish to Patti down the hall it's her birthday today."  
"Perfect! Get me her email address. I'll send you an email on your phone that says happy birthday in colorful text. I'll embed the worm in that. Once it's in the system for ten minutes it dissolves completely and is undetectable. Of course you only have the ten minutes so you'll have to get your snooping done as quickly as possible once she receives it."

"Okay, understood. Her email is Patti dot L at ESS Inc dot tech".  
"All right you'll have the goods in about ten minutes. I'll send it to your phone and then you can forward it to your own email there at work. Open it and copy the contents of the window to a new email and then enter her email address followed by any additional comments to personalize it. Once you get a confirmation that she has received the email simply click your print icon as if though you wanted to print the confirmation out. When the printer selection box appears click the drop down and scroll all the way to the bottom and select the printer option "print to file". It will have an asterisk after it and this is what launches the program. Click it and your computer will reboot on its own. When it comes back up, you won't recognize the operating system because it won't be normal. It will just be orange text on a black background with very simple commands similar to the old DOS systems. You'll see the place to put in your keyword and that will get the thing started. You have to stay right on it because ten minutes go by fast."

"Why is it limited to ten minutes?"  
"Any longer than that and the security could potentially catch it. If you don't get done in time your computer will automatically shut off and then we'll have to start over. Let me know what you find."  
"Wait, John, how do I save something if I find it?"  
"The on screen prompts will offer you options of places to send it off to or save it. I would recommend a new unused microdrive."

"Okay, will do, I'll be watching for the file."  
"Oh, by the way, Dodge, there will be no mouse or voice command functionality, its old school bro!"

"Okay, I'll do my best." "Great old school DOS style!"

Not five minutes later Dodge received the file, and he quickly forwarded it from his phone to his email. When he opened it, he was greeted with a corny, happy birthday jingle and a little banner that scrolled across the page followed by some cakes with little dancing legs. He chuckled to himself. Only John Calhoun could make something that looked so corny and cute into a diabolical hack with great purpose. That guy was a little bit scary.

He added a quick "Happy B-day Patti! From: Dodge Kerrington," to the subject line and hit send. Much to his surprise he got an auto response back immediately which read  
"Hey Everyone, it's my birthday! I'm celebrating and leaving work early today. I'll be back tomorrow and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks! Patti."

"Great, an auto response, I hope the code still functions." He went to the print command, and sure enough, the drop down printer box included "print to file*". He clicked it and his computer shut down just like John said it would. It shut off so fast that it startled him and he thought maybe the program didn't work right. He made a quick note of the time it was 3:15 and he had until 3:25 to complete his task.

The computer came back on in about five seconds and booted up quickly with a very simple and unusual screen that looked like something from the old days just like John said it would. He saw some of these screens on John's retro toys when in DOS mode and even on PCs in old movies but never had to use one. The instructions were very simple and straightforward. He quickly located the keyword box and tried to move his mouse over it. "Oh shoot, it doesn't work." Then he remembered what John had said "no mouse or voice commands." "Ah, yes, TAB." John always had to use the TAB key on his retro toys.

He tabbed down to the key word box and typed in "implant_rev_26". "Now what, there's no run button? How the heck am I supposed to run this blasted thing?"

He tried tabbing through the fields but didn't see anything, crap, the clock was ticking. "Come on Dodge, you idiot, think!" Then it dawned on him, "Enter." He hit the enter key and bingo the thing showed a little box that displayed "running." A little row of running dots appeared under it that ticked along as if it was trying to entertain you while you waited impatiently for the results.

Just then he heard footsteps nearing his office in the hall and he had no idea who was coming but figured he had better turn the screen a bit out of sight. It was certainly not a normal screen. Anyone that saw it would question what he was doing. He heard his co-worker in the office next to him greet the person coming. It was Tim, crap! Bad timing! If Tim came in to talk to him he wouldn't be able to work and it would time out.

Panicking he grabbed the Desk phone hand set just as Tim rounded the doorway into his office. Dodge had to think fast and began speaking loudly and firmly into the phone trying to ignore the dial tone blaring in his ear.

"Look I don't care what excuses you may have I need those parts by the end of the month or I'm going to drop you guys and find another supplier, we have deadlines to meet and I know for a fact that I can get them elsewhere . . ."

He paused for a moment to allow for an imaginary rebuttal from the imaginary caller . . .

"Look I understand, you have a supply chain too but I can't wait. Oh let you explain? Okay, go ahead, but if I have to listen to this entire excuse again I'm going to expect a sizeable discount on the parts for having to wait." He looked up and Tim was pointing to his mouth with both index fingers while liping, "I'll come back later." Dodge gave him the thumbs up and Tim went on up the hall to his own office.

Phew! He should be getting an academy award for all the incredible acting he had done in the last several days. First an elaborate tapestry of stories woven to satisfy his wife's insatiable curiosity, and now he was having to put on a show for Tim as well. He didn't know how much longer could he keep this stuff up.

The program was still running and the little dots were still ticking along as he hung up the handset. He looked at his desk clock, it was 3:21 and it still hadn't . . . Ah, yes, a list appeared in a little window. He quickly tabbed down through several similar files from the same project, and there is was. He found the exact file he was looking for. It had a last accessed date of 06-15-2046 and the name was R. Simpson.

Ron Simpson was on that project back then so that was no real surprise. Out to the right were options with a little legend which he quickly perused . . . , view contents= VC + enter. He quickly typed VC in the box and hit the enter key, he was down to just under two minutes.

The file opened quickly and with no time to look at it he simply focused on the legends to see which one he wanted.  
"Copy window contents all=ca+enter." He typed ca in the box and hit enter and another box appeared on the screen.  
"Type path + enter," there was a little box with the blinking cursor, what the heck? His mind was going blank!

He was running out of time. "Oh shit the microdrive!" He was distracted by Tim coming in and he hadn't plugged in a microdrive.

He frantically ripped open his desk drawer and grabbed a blank drive out of the box and jammed it in the port. Think! Think! He had to think! What's the path? He was so spoiled by point and click programs and voice commands that he couldn't even remember the basics.

What was it? His brain kicked into high gear but what only took three seconds seemed like forever, then it came to him . . . ,  
"md/p1/write <enter>" (microdrive, port1, write) it was so simple but he hadn't done a manual command like that since college. He completely locked up under the pressure. A little box popped up . . . , "executing" with the little running dots underneath. "Come on, come on, come on," he knew it was going to be close.

There was no indicator of any kind, in this basic DOS like program. He had no indication of the file progress. There was only the little box that said executing and the little running dots under it ticking along.

He looked at the clock again it was 3:34 P.M., less than a minute left before it would time out. It was going to be close and he was hoping it would finish; he didn't want to have to go through all of this again. Yes! It was done! The little box displayed "complete."

He was looking for the way to end the program in the legend when the computer automatically shut off. It had timed out just seconds after it finished copying the contents of the file.

He removed the microdrive and put it in his pocket for safe keeping, before rebooting the machine. It came back up in the ESS operating system and seemed to be working perfectly.

John was a genius that's for sure. Who else could create a program that slick and powerful in such a small package?

He whipped out his phone and called John. John answered on the first ring again.  
"Did it work?"  
"Hell yes it worked! What time should I come over?"  
"As soon as possible, I can't wait to see this thing and figure out what this guy was up to."

"All right I'll check with Linsey to make sure we don't have a game or something that we have to go to."

"Okay, let me know, bye."

A few minutes later Tim walked back into Dodge's office. "So buddy, whose ass you picking out of your teeth? Oh and by the way thanks for the whole tie noose thing in the hall earlier, I was really trying to give that guy the evil eye and you almost made me laugh."

"You're welcome boss, what are friends for? Right?"  
"Hey why don't you come to the club with me in a little bit and we can play some skins?"  
"Oh man, I would love to take your money but I promised Bobby I'd come to his final ball game tonight. He joined one of those summer leagues and I've only made it to one game."  
"Oh, I understand that completely you should definitely go to that. We can get together another night. Oh, and what? Take my money? That's a laugh! Challenge accepted, with a rain check of course. Hey, how's Bobby doing anyway? Is he adjusting well to his situation?"  
"Yeah, he really is. None of the other kids from school or the basketball teams have said anything to him other than just general questions. Several asked what it was like to get restored but they're just curious I'm sure. Bobby said several kids told him they have grandparents or parents that have been restored."  
"Yeah, it's becoming the norm. Give him my best."

"Will do."

"Hey, by the way, I know he's a big basketball fanatic but it sure would be fun if you brought him out to the course sometime. I'm going to bring my nephew Chris out some this summer. Maybe you could bring Bobby and we could all play a few rounds together."  
"That's a great idea. I'll ask Bobby tonight to see if he's interested."

Dodge was doing his best to act normal with Tim because they had been friends for a very long time. He knew Tim would be able to sense a problem if he gave even the slightest hint that there was one.

Dodge's mind was preoccupied during the entire conversation. He couldn't wait to get out of there and get to John's. They made some small talk for another minute and went their separate ways.

On the way home he remembered that he had not talked to his Father to update him on the whole "going out for a burger thing." He hit the call button on the steering wheel and said, "call Dad." He was hoping that Linsey hadn't called him asking questions.  
"Dad, how are you?"  
"Pretty good."

"Have you talked to Linsey?"  
"Yes, and oh boy, did she ask a bunch of questions?"

"Oh no."

"No, I'm kidding really. She did call and she did say a lot. I had to read between the lines to figure out that you and I went out for a burger!"  
"I'm sorry about that Dad. I intended to call you for an update so you would know what to say if she called."

"Yeah well I don't know what you're into but I hope you get it straightened out soon, I don't like it."  
"Don't worry Dad, it's nothing really, I promise. I'll fill you in soon okay?"  
"Okay, and I'll see you Sunday for lunch, seems were having Linsey's famous fried chicken. I got an earful for eating a burger when her chicken was available." Dodge laughed.

"Sorry Dad."

"Nothing like getting yelled at by my daughter in-law for not eating her chicken and I didn't get to eat the burger either."  
"I'll make it up to you, lots' of Linsey's chicken and we'll go out for a burger too!" Alan laughed. He was so much happier now. Dodge hadn't seen him act like this since before his Mother died. He was really glad that his Father would be going through with Restoration in just a few days.

"Okay, Dad, I'll see you Sunday for dinner if not sooner, Love you."  
"Love you too Son, be careful!"

As he hung up the phone, he realized he hadn't told his Dad he loved him for a really long time. There were a lot of positives in their lives and yet this cloud was hanging over his head.

He knew he wasn't spending enough time at home and he really needed to go there first before going over to John's. He pulled into the garage and went in through the kitchen to find something that smelled great simmering on the stove and what appeared to be a cobbler in the oven with the door partially open just enough to make the entire house smell like a bakery.

"Hello?" He call out, as he poked around a little more to see what was cooking. He lifted the lid just in time to get caught by Linsey and Sarah coming into the kitchen.

"Well that seems about right come in and go right for the food without kissing your wife." Linsey had a big smile on her face and was standing there looking better than ever with her hands half in her front jean pockets. She was looking Dodge up and down with those big green eyes from the other side of the center Island. Sarah was looking like she was bracing herself to be grossed out.  
"Oh god, you guys aren't gonna start kissing are you? Ya know there's food in here, some of us don't want to be sick."

Just then Bobby came running in, basketball in hand, covered in sweat, his hair matted to his forehead. Dodge couldn't believe how much weight he had put on already, he must have gained ten pounds since he got home from the hospital. Clone bodies are always healthy but not necessarily an exact match in muscle mass. They are always very lean at first and then they develop based on the person's life style after Restoration. Surprisingly overweight people usually ended up being overweight again after being restored because their new body adjusted to their habits as much as anything else.

Dodge leaned over the Island and gave Linsey a big kiss just to fulfill Sarah's prophecy of being grossed out.  
"Oh, yuck, you guys, eeck," she squeaked, as she left the room while pretend gagging. Bobby just made the usual kissing sounds and started laughing at them.  
"Get a room you two!" said Bobby.

Dodge hollered at Sarah.  
"Hey, how's come its gross when we do it, but great when you're slobbering all over your boyfriend?" She had already left the room but came back with the classic, "Because you're old and it's gross." It made Linsey laugh.

Dodge was glad to see his son doing so well. Nearly losing a child makes you have a new appreciation for them.  
"Hey young man, how's everything going?" he asked.

"Not too bad Dad."  
"Sit down here while your Mom finishes dinner and tell me about your day." Bobby washed his hands and started to plop down but Linsey shoved some plates into his stomach before he could and he knew the drill. He began walking around setting the table while telling his Dad how Gramps came over and showed him and Matt how to do that trick hook shot that he was so good at in his glory days.

He went on to say that Grandpa was in a great mood and having fun but had to sit down to rest and catch his breath after he had a bad coughing fit. Linsey arrived with the silverware which she deposited in Bobby's hands without saying anything. Bobby continued walking around the table putting them out while they talked.

"I can't wait until Grandpa gets restored. Hey will his birthday change?"

Linsey let out a little laugh from over by the stove.  
"Sorry," she said, holding up one hand in Bobby's direction without looking away from her task. Dodge couldn't help but think how great this was going to be.  
"No, his birthday will be the same. We're planning to have a get together when he comes home from the LifeCenter because it really is a new start but not a new birthday. I don't think we'll ever forget the day or year that this happened because it is pretty special."

"Is Grandpa going to look really young like me or more like you?"  
"He decided to be age 50 or at least look like he did when he was fifty. He'll look a lot younger than he does now and his body will be unused so he'll feel like he's eighteen again."  
"Wow, that's great Dad I can't wait." Dinner was ready and they all sat down to a meal and some good overdue conversation. It was nice to slow down and catch up on what everyone was doing these last few days.

Linsey asked Sarah to help her clean up and Bobby ran outside again to shoot basketball. Dodge carried a few dishes over to help out and then slipped up to the study. He had to look at that microdrive, he might not be able to get to John's house but he could certainly look at the file. He could send John a copy so that he could look at it too.

He fired up the PC and popped the microdrive into the port. He quickly opened a view window and brought the content of the drive up on the screen. He grabbed his phone.  
"Call JC." John answered on the first ring.  
"Oh man, I've been waiting for your call like a girl on prom night! you coming over?"

"Well, no, it's complicated. I'm married with children remember?"  
"Right, right, I understand. Can you send me a copy?"  
"Of course, and by the way, how in the world do you dream this stuff up anyway?"  
"It's what I do."  
"Well bravo, my friend. All right, lets see, I got the contents of the file up right now. Oh great it's just a bunch of hieroglyphics."

"Yeah that sounds about right. That's because your viewing compressed and encrypted program code in a text window. Did you work on this hardware design file at home like you worked on the software at home?"  
"Yes, how did you know?"  
"All over achievers cheat by working at home on stuff that's not supposed to leave work. I do it too, that's how I know. Pull up a copy of the file from the last time you edited it."

"Okay just a minute." Dodge laid his phone down and ran over to the sill again, retrieved his key, and ran back to the desk. He slung open the bottom drawer and grabbed his fire box and unlocked it. John could hear him digging around.  
"Man what the heck are you doing?"

Dodge grabbed the phone while he continued to dig.  
"Well I'm digging through a whole pile of old Microdrives looking for it."  
"You do know Microdrives aren't that reliable long-term right? You should keep these files on your PC."  
"No way that's my system, I don't . . ."  
"You don't what?" .  
"I just remembered something that may have some significance in light of what's going on."  
"What is it?"  
"About eight or nine years ago we had a break in and the only thing taken from the house was my PC."

There was a long silence on the other end as John was absorbing what Dodge had just implicated.  
"Do you think it's connected to this?"  
"I don't know, maybe, they didn't take anything else."  
"Did you have the design files on the PC they took?"  
"No, only the editors and assemblers, I have always kept the actual files on Microdrives in my little fire safe that I hide in my bottom desk drawer. Back then I even had a false bottom in the drawer and I kept the fire safe under it. I even hide the key in a separate place. The thieves didn't find my fire safe."  
"What was on the computer anything important?"  
"Nah, lots of personal stuff but nothing from work."

"Okay, good, now don't panic it could just be a coincidence and even if it isn't, they obviously know where you live and you're not dead yet. It's been nearly ten years and nothing has happened, even if they were after intellectual property they're probably just a bunch of cyber crime Geeks not cold blooded killers. Don't get all twitchy on me we still have to figure this thing out. Did you find the drive?"

"Oh, yeah, hold on."  
Dodge set the phone down and dug through a few more drives.

"Yes, I got it." He put it in port two and pulled up the contents.  
"Ah yes more hieroglyphics," he said.

"Okay if you have both files open look up in the right-hand corner and click the file size." Dodges' eyes flashed across both screens to the right-hand corners.  
"Crap! That's not good. The one I had in storage is only 250KTB's and the one off the server at work is 478KTB's."

"All right, go to the larger file from work and then scroll down to the bottom of the page, are there any blank pages?" Dodge began scrolling down but it was a very large file.  
"Hold on this is gonna take a second." He scrolled for a good long while and suddenly hit blank screen just like with the other file. "It must have been tampered with in the same way."   
"Looks like the same thing all over again it's just like the other one I gave you. It's got tons of blank pages after the last viewable command and the smaller file doesn't."  
"Okay, compress it and upload it to your phone. Go into that message I sent you earlier at work with the birthday email in it. There is a cloaking program built into that message so we might as well reuse it. Just select reply, attach the compressed file and send. I'll start working on it right away but don't expect a call until tomorrow. I'll have to come up with an entirely new way to decode it because the assembly software is totally different from the first one."  
"Okay will do," he said, as they ended the call.

Dodge lay awake that night for several hours. He was wondering if that break in years ago had anything to do with this security breach in his design. What could those behind this possibly intend to accomplish?

If they wanted the technology why didn't they just steal it and sell it to their competitor? If it was fast money they were after, that would have certainly been the way to get it.

Could it be that the thieves simply wanted a really fast computer and nothing else in the house? Maybe they got spooked and grabbed the computer and ran before they had time to get more stuff?

He lay there and thought about the team and the files and the secrecy and the huge payoff that he had coming in just four years. He couldn't help but worry that it might all be lost. Tech Companies that have security breaches don't survive. On top of that whoever did this was good, really good, and that scared him to death.

If the people behind this whole mess actually did something with it, something bad, then chances are he would be going down in flames. All his hard work lost, his multimillion dollar bonus gone, and maybe even a prison term to face if he was implicated as a conspirator.

Cyber crimes were getting cracked down on hard in recent years. Some cyber criminals had even received life sentences. He wanted to sleep but thought he couldn't. Sometime between two and three, he finally drifted off.

Chapter 8 Dodges phone began vibrating across the night stand at 6:45 a.m. He was not surprised that it was John but was surprised that the call came so soon. He was so hyper aware of the potential call and he answered it so quickly that it didn't wake Linsey who was generally a light sleeper.

He set it to vibrate just in case John called but he really didn't expect a call until later in the morning or maybe even afternoon. He slipped out of the bedroom as quietly as possible and into the bathroom where he answered the call.

"Hey John, what's up?"  
"Well buddy, I have good news and bad so I'll give you the good first. I was able to crack it faster than I thought because it seems that the perpetrator used techniques similar to that of his first job which made mine a lot easier. I would guess it was the same person or group involved with the code files. The commands used to execute the cloaking function were very different because it uses two entirely different software packages for viewing and editing. But the basic idea of how they accomplished the cloaking was nearly the exact same approach.

I took a copy of your circuit board layout software that you were using at that time and sort of worked it backwards based on the text and font and color codes that it uses to display things on screen. Then I used the same idea of it being super fast and loaded it into a little bit newer machine that I had here with a customizable front side bus speed controller. I also tripled the actual clock speed of the PC so that the clock on the PC would move from 1p.m. to 4p.m. in only one actual hour. It's a time trick. The program thinks it's running too slow so it speeds itself up to match the clock."

Dodge went down to the kitchen during this long explanation to get some coffee going.  
"John, Dude, you're a genius, but ya gotta dumb it down."  
"Right, sorry! Anyway it should be done in the next hour can you come over and take a look at the files? I have an exact copy of your layout and design software from that period loaded on one of my faster stations. I could look at it but wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at and you're the hardware guy that does. Be about like you looking at my code from one of these crackers."

"Yeah, ya know what, I'm gonna call off work. I'll be over in about forty-five minutes."  
"Hey, if you haven't eaten anything yet don't, I'll have Jeeves whip up some gourmet coffee and Eggs Benedict."

Dodge knew that the timing was just about right and Linsey would think he had gone to work. He finished making the coffee just to look legit. "Eggs Benedict and gourmet coffee, John really knew how to live." Knowing John his new gal was probably a super model too.

He jumped in and out of the shower with a quick shave and dressed in record time. Linsey and the kids were downstairs fixing breakfast when he came down. He filled his travel mug with a cup of coffee to go. He talked briefly with them but really had a one track mind to get over to John's. He got up from the table where he had perused the daily digital for only five minutes.

He was just about to say goodbye when Linsey noticed he was getting up.  
"Hey you, where ya think you're going? We've got breakfast goin here!" He smiled at her and stuck his gut out as far as possible and pointed to it with his free hand.  
"No thanks Babe, your cookin's great but its startin ta show!" Bobby couldn't resist.  
"Wow Dad, you expecting? When you gonna pop that kid out?" Linsey got a quick kiss as Dodge grabbed his phone and headed out. He couldn't resist messing up Sarah's hair as he passed by.  
"Daaad!"  
"Oh you're still beautiful!" He said as he went out toward the garage. She really was too, with her light brown hair and blue eyes, not to mention an athletic build thanks to strict gymnastics training. He could see some Linsey in her but even more of his own mother. He remembered pictures of her when she was a young and there was a good resemblance.

As Dodge entered the garage, he spied his own private piece of nostalgia under the car cover in the far bay. She hadn't been out on the road in several weeks. He couldn't resist, he had to drive the GTO. He whisked off the cover and tossed it up on the workbench in front of the car. He grabbed the keys out of his hiding place in the toolbox and hopped in. He fired it up, backed it out, and took off, it felt great!

He loved old hot rods, nothing like the crisp throttle response of a fast retro head turner with a sweet exhaust note. He had the paint redone on the old 69 Pontiac in Baltic Silver with three coats of dark blue pearl on top. He had them add some very light ghost flames down the hood and sides. They were barely visible because they were only two shades darker than the base coat. The boys at Mitch Smith Performance in Anderson wrenched new life into the old 400 cubic inch block and drive train a few years back. It set him back over twenty grand, but boy would she run!

He arrived at John's in record time and wondered how he avoided a speeding ticket. The gate was closed so he had to push the little button and talk to Jeeves. He was pretty damn sure that Jeeves wasn't his real name and John was just being entertaining as usual.

"Good morning Sir," said Jeeves, as his face appeared on the monitor.  
"Morning Jeeves, JC expecting me?"  
"Yes Sir, I'll open the gate for you, oh and by the way Sir, nice piece of iron!" Wow, Jeeves, while butlerish and rather old, did know the proper terms for classic muscle cars. He sped up the curvy driveway that made a fairly tight left right left turn through some trees and then opened up into the magnificent meadow that contained John's ridiculous house. Instead of stopping at the front he went on through the breeze way and around back to the garage area. He goosed the throttle just as he shut it off to show off for John. He had already come out of the garage when he spotted the GTO coming.  
"Whoa! Man! That's nice!"

"You like her?"

"What's not to like, she's beautiful."

He was glad to see that John appreciated his classic hot rod.  
"Okay, why didn't you tell me about the Goat? Classic GTO, smoking hot wife, and perfect kids, you know Dodge you're truly a rich man!"

Dodge was flattered by John's comments. On the way in he realized that John was right. While John had lots of nice things and loads of cash, he didn't have the wonderful family that Dodge did. That truly was something.

John's Mother had passed away very young, and his Father was estranged for years. John was an only child so he was an island really, but he did have his friends.  
"Hey John, seriously, Jeeves isn't really his name, is it?"

John laughed so hard that he nearly choked on the drink of coffee he had just taken.  
"No, no, I'll never tell, you'll just have to figure it out," he said, as he continued to laugh and shake his head.

They went around the garage and worked their way through the complex and into the downstairs kitchen. A middle aged Spanish woman was working over the massive stove. "Dodge this is Miranda, Miranda Dodge Kerrington."  
"Hello," said Dodge. She only nodded and smiled in a nice gesture.  
"Miranda, we'll be on the Patio by the pool, please bring the food out when ready. Thank you." She nodded and smiled again.  
"Oh, you do like Eggs Benedict right?" asked John.  
"Oh yes, eggs over medium please," Dodge said as they were leaving to go sit on the patio with their coffee.

Miranda smiled and nodded again then continued her work without ever saying a word. They walked through a few more huge rooms and out a huge patio door onto a large pool deck, it was absolutely awesome. Within minutes the food arrived and it was delicious. The coffee was gourmet, that was no lie, but Jeeves hadn't prepared it as Dodge implied, what a nut. Who would have guessed that he had a talented Spanish chef as well as a refined older gentleman as a butler? What other surprises did John have up his sleeve? He thought he knew the man but was beginning to wonder.

"Ya know John, you could allow your kitchen help to talk to the guest." John laughed.  
"Dude, she's allowed to talk to you, she's just extremely shy, especially around new people."

"Okay, if you say so."

They finished their food while talking about what they might find added to the circuit design file. They were both anxious as they made their way back to John's man cave over the garage.

Of course this wasn't an average garage just as nothing else on the estate was average. It was large enough to house John's entire fleet of vehicles that numbered upwards of twenty and ranged from "oddly cheap and ordinary" all the way to "look at me, I'm so stinking rich!"

They both ran up the stairs taking them two at a time just like they used to do back at ESS for fun. When they walked into the room, they were both a little winded and John stooped over for a moment with his hands on his knees.  
"Wow that's harder than it used to be," he said. They plopped down in a couple of nice leather chairs adjacent to the machine running the crack. A few key strokes later and John announced it had completed and was ready to be loaded into the viewer.  
"Sir would you like the honor?" John said as he rolled out of the way of the keyboard, "after all it's your design."  
"No you mean it WAS my design before some hacker got hold of it." Dodge wheeled up to the keyboard, cracked his knuckles and began typing.

His fingers moved with great agility as he hammered in the launch codes and password sequences necessary to start the viewer. It was a very complex piece of design software that few people could operate and doubtful any at the level of Dodge Kerrington.

He loaded the files, ran all the assemblers and rendered the layers with incredible speed. He hit the regen matrix icon which loaded a fresh set of rendered layers. It appeared on the holographic viewer that was directly in front of them to the left of the traditional 2D display.

There it was, right in front of them, in all of its magnificence. A master piece of technology, the key to immortality, almost 10 years of their lives had been poured into this project and several more decades of other pioneers prior to them that started the first work.

John worked the code during that time under the direction of Dodge, but really either one of them could have been the department head. Dodge was chosen primarily because he had been there longer. John was so talented with the software that they made an amazing team. There were certainly many other contributors but the two of them were really the core of the project, without them it would have failed.

They sat looking at it in awe of what they created; they had forgotten the beauty of their accomplishment. The thousands of tiny complex circuit lines were a thing of beauty to them. Its many layers of traces that were each displayed in a different color looked like a carefully woven tapestry of yarns. They were laid together with geometric precision, never touching each other, except where designed to do so. The layers were populated with Ultra Microscopic components that could only be placed by nanobots in an extreme clean and controlled environment. They sat there admiring it for almost five minutes.

"Okay let's have a look at the layers that shouldn't have anything in them," said Dodge. He began turning off the various layers that he was familiar with. One by one the design became less and less complex to view. He turned off 28 layers, all those that he remembered being part of the core design. Still, six layers remained. "What was in them?"

He zoomed in, way in. He turned on the layer detail and clicked on the trace nearest the crosshairs of the pointer. There it was just as plain as day. No more wondering, no more cracking, no more doubt. Right in front of them in letters that jumped right out of the viewer and reached right into their chest and caused their hearts to skip a beat . . . , "lc_Implant_WirelessReceiver_Section1_Layer1."

They both sat back for a moment with their mouths hanging open. They both knew exactly what had been done to their design but why? John got up and paced around a bit. Dodge spun around in his chair, watching him nervously.  
"Please tell me this is just a bad dream and I'm going to wake up and all this crap will be gone."

"I wish I could!" said John, in a sarcastic tone.  
"Where do we begin?"

"I guess with Ron Simpson. He was the last one that opened the file almost ten years ago."  
"I guess so. We need to find out if he viewed it as we are now or if he was only able to view it like we did before."  
"Good point, he might be innocent in all of this, just as we are."  
"I remember Ron, nice guy, always on time, kind of quiet, just did his work and kept his head down," said Dodge.

"Have you seen him around there lately?  
"No, as a matter of fact I haven't seen him. I know he transferred out of development into sales about four years ago. I saw him a few times after that but then not so much. I'll check on it tomorrow."

They both leaned back in their chairs and looked at it again.

"This is definitely not good," said Dodge. It means someone went to an awful lot of trouble to turn our little one way transmitter into a bidirectional transceiver. Someone at Biotech or LifeTech didn't want us to know that they were making these additions."

John agreed. "We were trusted with all this technology, yet they went to a lot of trouble to hide this additional capability from us. It seems that they are doing it without the need for the needle probe, or maybe even the entire Restoration console."

"Do you think the government is developing a way to spy on people?" asked Dodge.  
"I don't know but I would think if they were able to read our thoughts we would already be in their custody being questioned or even dead."

"Maybe it's a mind control thing, you know, someone wants to control the masses or subtly influence people in a subliminal way."  
"Yeah maybe, let's keep our minds open and our eyes open even wider. I believe this could get a little dangerous. I think for now we had better keep it just between the two of us."

Dodge agreed as they continued to look at the additional layers in wonder of their origins. John believed that whoever performed the work possessed skills at least equal to that of Dodge's and that was a rare individual.

Dodge looked at his watch. It was only 9:00 a.m. They had plenty of time to research the list of people that worked on the project.

The obvious first choice was Ron Simpson. He was the last person to access the file and so it made sense to start there. Dodge had interviewed every single person that worked on the project with the exception of John because John was already there at the company and was pretty much his equal.

He kept a copy of all the personnel files at home in his stash of micro drives and it was now coming in quite handy in this research. There were twelve people including John and Dodge that were involved so that left ten people to be researched including Mr. Simpson.

They decided to divide the list but to work on Mr. Simpson simultaneously first. The World Wide Web was naturally their best resource after they quickly exhausted the personnel file on Ron. The company personnel files available to Dodge at the time of the interviews were very limited to only what he needed to know to determine good candidates for the positions. Basic resume information about past jobs and performance and a few personal references were about it.

The most valuable information turned out to be the social security numbers and dates of birth. This basic information in the hands of John was gold. John's hacking skills were unsurpassed, giving him the ability to circumvent the best of security systems to retrieve pretty much whatever he wanted.

At one time John even worked on a covert team of professional hackers hired by the CIA to hack into the Pentagons file system. They got the job done in less than a week followed by an intentional public disclosure of the breach. They were immediately arrested by federal agents. It was the only way to force the hands of those in charge to improve the system. In less than 24 hours they were released and very quietly rewarded for their success in agreement with the contract.

Their team spent the next two years remodeling the Pentagon's security systems to be as un-penetrable as possible. Dodge had never asked John about the payoff but it was pretty well known that this was the beginning of John coming into some very good personal wealth. From then on he continued to make career moves that yielded even better salaries and accomplishments.

John had worked so hard to get where he was and now Dodge was also on the cusp of great success and wealth. Dodge couldn't help but think that if it blew up in their faces they could both lose everything, so it was pretty important to them that they find out what was going on.

They each spent several hours going through numerous documents related to Ron Simpson. It was hard to believe how much of a trail one person leaves in the world of digital systems in this modern age. They saw where he was born, went to preschool, kindergarten, all his grades through high school, college, graduate school. Everything seemed normal and it seemed he was for sure a legit American Citizen. This discovery squashed any thoughts of foreign espionage that they were having. This guy was clean, squeaky clean; not even a traffic ticket, but where was he now?

They started searching for his current whereabouts and it didn't take long. There on the screen was the story from the newspaper; it caused a lump to form in Dodge's throat, the kind that also makes the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

"John, you had better take a look at this man, you're not gonna believe it." John quickly rolled over to Dodges station and he too had the "oh shit!" moment. There on the screen was a photo of a badly burned wad of metal that was once a car. It had a tarp draped over part of it with fire and police apparatus all around. He read the headline.  
"Local Tech Engineer Killed in Train Accident."

According to the story in the paper his car had become disabled at a railroad crossing. The engineer of the train said they came around the tree blinded curve in the tracks at 11:45 p.m. to see the car apparently stranded on the tracks at the crossing. A witness from another approaching car said the engineer leaned on the whistle and flattened the wheels of the train throwing a sea of sparks high into the air trying to stop but still hit the car at a fairly high rate of speed.

Other witnesses said the man must have been unconscious because he made no effort to get out or to move the car. Upon impact the car burst into flames and was pushed almost a half mile down the tracks before the train could stop. The deceased man was later identified as their very own Ron Simpson.

John and Dodge looked at each other; they were both thinking the same thing but neither of them wanted to say it, was this simply an accident? But on the other hand if it was an accident then the whole thing probably ended with Ron Simpson right there on those tracks; that would explain why nothing ever seemed to come of it. It could have been a single man working alone on some scheme that never got finished.

"All right, well that's a dead end," said John, "no pun intended. I guess we move on to the other people and see what else we can find."

They worked for several more hours and found nothing on any of the other people. They were all still living and working at various jobs, some were still at ESS. Others had moved on but with no issues and no one else in the group was missing. It was getting late and Dodge needed to either head home at normal time or come up with a story to cover so that they could continue working.

"Hey John, I have to either go home or call Linsey and tell her that we're going out to do something, what do you think we should do?"

"Well I don't know about you but I would like to keep going. I'd like some answers before I sleep again."

Dodge agreed and decided to call Linsey. She answered in a very noisy environment.  
"Hey where are you?" Linsey's voice blared out of the phone so loud that John heard it and grinned.  
"I'm hanging out with John tonight, we thought we should go get a sandwich and catch up some more, you know, old times." Linsey paused. "Oh sure that's fine, I'm taking the kids to that new movie they wanted to see and we're standing in line, it's really noisy. I was hoping you would come join us but that's okay, you go ahead and catch up. You and John need to do that, I'll see you when we get home. Love you!"  
"Love you too!" Dodge sort of yelled back into the phone so that she could hear him.

"Okay, well I guess we're good to go, what do you think we should do next?"  
"Well, my friend, what did we always do when we couldn't find dirt on anyone during the hiring process? What was the last thing we always checked?" They pointed at each other and at the same time said, "Medical records."

All good investigators knew that medical records were very accurate and also very revealing. If you wanted to get into a person's deepest darkest secrets, just go look at their medical files. This was no problem at all for John so they dug right in and started back at Ron Simpson again to see what they could find.

There were several data warehouses that kept records much like different credit agencies keep duplicate records. They divided them up and started looking at Mr. Simpsons past. Everything looked normal. All the records documented the usual childhood illnesses, dental records, inoculations for measles, chicken pocks, polio, aids, leukemia, etc. It wasn't until John, who had a habit of talking out loud while sifting through data, was mumbling about the parents driving so far to see a doctor. "Wait John, what did you say about traveling to see their doctor?"  
"Well, it appears that Ron's parents at one time lived in Ohio and then when they moved to Indiana. They continued to see their old doctor in Ohio for little Ron's shots and checkups."

Dodge went back to a similar file.  
"No that's not what this file that I'm looking at says. It shows that he got all his inoculations right here in good old Indiana."

John was in disbelief.

"Let me see what you're looking at."

They both looked at it several times and came to the same inexplicable conclusion. Ron Simpson received double inoculations both in Ohio and Indiana, but why?

Why would one kid need double treatment for the same things from two different doctors? It just didn't make any sense. There was either a mistake or they were simply viewing an error in the system, there must have been another Ron Simpson that lived in Ohio and the records had gotten mixed up.

They continued their digging to see what else they could find. Still it didn't make sense because the two different files showed the same parents listed with the same social security numbers and the same addresses for the family. They first showed up in Ohio and then in Indiana where they lived later but there were still records of treatment for Ron after that move yet they seemed like duplicate treatments.

They could both understand going back to your old doctor but why would you get double treatment for the same things? This didn't make much sense at all.

They decided the next logical step would be to call that doctor the following day and so they began to do a little research on his current practice to get his phone number or email address.

His practice no longer existed so they looked up the old address and discovered there was a general practitioner there at that address but not by the same name.

"Hey you don't think he's dead do you? asked John. Ron was a kid many years ago and maybe the old doctor is just deceased."

"Yeah, good point," said Dodge, let's look him up."

A few minutes later they had their answer. The kind old doctor was dead but not from old age, instead from something that sent chills up their spines. Hit by a train! The newspaper story from an Ohio news organization showed images of the fiery crash.

The scene and description of the events were so eerily similar to the death of Ron Simpson that it couldn't be a coincidence, no way, not in a thousand years. Ron Simpson and his childhood physician had died in exactly the same way. They were both in a stalled car on a railroad crossing late at night. In both cases the driver was apparently unconscious and unable to move the vehicle or get out. In each incident the rail crossing was following a blind turn in the tracks, where trains regularly travel at a high rate of speed.

Why? What was the connection between Ron Simpson, His child hood doctor, and their project? Why would someone kill both men in the exact same way? Why was Ron Simpson receiving double inoculations for childhood diseases? It would have to wait until another day, it was late and both John and Dodge were exhausted.

John walked out to the car with Dodge.

"Have a good night buddy, and don't worry, we'll solve this, just don't go anywhere near a rail road crossing tonight!"  
"Don't worry Bro, I'm going straight home, locking the doors and staying put with my family, this stuff is freaking me out!"

Chapter 9 Dodge arrived home at 9:55 p.m.; pulled his GTO right into the garage and locked everything up. His family reacted in the usual way to his coming in and didn't really notice him being a little more vigilant about checking the doors. He was still a little on edge from all of the mystery surrounding Ron Simpson and his mind continued to race.

He was having thoughts now that maybe he and John were going completely off the deep end, losing it, and acting like a couple of paranoid teenagers after doing something bad when they knew better. Was it possible that Ron and his Doctor had simply died coincidentally in very similar fashion? Maybe he and John just stumbled upon a unique situation. He certainly hoped that was the case and he tried to calm himself.

He grabbed a soda out of the fridge and an open pack of crackers from the kitchen counter and headed for his chair in the family room. The whole family was watching some hilarious blooper real about dogs and cats doing funny things. He was glad to see them all smiling and laughing and it melted away some of the tension.

"Well hello there stranger, glad you could make it home to see your family!" said Linsey. He smiled and sat down on the sofa with her instead of sitting in his big chair as usual. Linsey always liked that and she gave him a kiss on the cheek before going back to laughing at the show.

"So did you have a good time catching up, you and John?" asked Linsey.  
"Yeah it was good, we talked about the good old days and had some fun remembering over a coffee and some scones. Not too healthy, but it sure was tasty."

He hated lying to Linsey even about little things, but it was for her own good at this point.

It was bad enough that she had just gone through Bobby's death and Restoration she certainly didn't need any extra stuff to deal with and as of now it was still just speculation, there was no immediate reason to believe they were in any danger.

The funny animals show ended and the local news came on. The kids lost interest and went to the game room to play some video games leaving Linsey and Dodge to watch their "super boring news stuff" as Sarah put it. The first story was the "breaking news story" and of course as they always are, it was bad news. Apparently a man had lost his mind after finding out his wife was cheating on him. He killed his wife and two of their three children and then turned the gun on himself. "What horrible news, wasn't there anything good going on in the world anymore?"

Luckily the in-laws came over at the wife's earlier bequest due to the argument and found the murdered family within a few minutes of it happening. All the children were successfully restored but the crazed man shot his own Lifecorder unit and his wife's unit before killing her and himself.

They had no back up subscription plan so they couldn't be restored. They were gone, dead forever, or as some people believed, gone on to eternity. Dodge thought to himself that the murderous man was probably not in a very good place right now and would probably like a do-over for that one.

The following stories were the normal stuff; there was a drug bust, and a group of people at the town hall upset over a new liquor that was license granted to an eatery in their neighborhood.

Then near the end of the newscast there it was, the story that brought Dodge out of the sleep that he was drifting toward. A very wealthy business man in Arizona claimed that he had been robbed in the most unusual way.

He claimed he went to bed on Monday night and awoke Tuesday morning to a very strange feeling, someone else in his head! The entity in his head was controlling him but he was still himself. He recognized his family and was able to act normal that morning at the breakfast table with his wife and children.

He was forced to leave the house as if going off to his office at work but the other presence was there and he couldn't do anything about it. He claimed after leaving his home that the entity in his head coerced him into doing things against his will. It ended up going to the bank and transferring his entire family fortune to an offshore bank account, an account that he somehow knew the numbers for.

The entity continued to control him all day until he went to bed that night. He fought it but he eventually succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep. The following morning he awoke, sat straight up in bed.

"We've been robbed! Call the police!" he said.

His wife thought he dreamed this and he hoped that she was correct. Upon calling the bank it was confirmed that he was in the day before and did in fact transfer the funds, and now they were nearly broke, two hundred fifty-six million dollars gone!

Of course no one believed the man's story including his wife who was certain he was giving it to a mistress and was planning to join her. She left him taking the children and he went nuts. They locked him up in an institution and were still investigating to find out what was wrong with him and what really happened to the funds. The bank account that the money was transferred to was closed out the very same day with no way to trace it.

Linsey poked Dodge's arm.

"Hey there Hun, you all right? look like you just seen a ghost?"

Dodge was glued to the story and must have turned a little pale at the thoughts going through his mind. He had goose bumps at the very thought of this being somehow connected to their mystery. Could it be that controlling people in this way was Ron Simpson's motive for adding layers to the chip? Or was Ron Simpson just an innocent man who happened to be the last person to view the file? Did someone watching murder him to keep it under wraps?

Even if that was the case, why kill Ron's childhood doctor? Just then Dodge realized he had zoned out on Linsey.

"Oh, no, sorry dear I just remembered I forgot to lock my office at work when I left, you know how I am about security."

Linsey patted his leg.

"Well you were just in a hurry to meet your old pal and completely forgot about work I guess. So how is Mr. John Calhoun these days?"

Dodge thought for a second, he was supposed to be catching up with John and now Linsey wanted the details.

"Think fast and make it believable!"

"Well he's been through a lot in the last few years. Karen left him a while back and ran off with a professional baseball player." Linsey's jaw dropped.

"What! Seriously? I thought John and Karen were like the perfect couple, or at least they seemed to be?"

"Yeah, I know, but apparently she had a secret, and well kept. She just dropped the bomb on him and left."

"It's no wonder he needed to see you, how's he holding up?"  
"Well that happened over a year ago, he's fine now, even has a new gal in his life. We were talking about maybe getting together some night for dinner, all of us, so we can meet each other. John says he's happier now more than ever and that she's just what he needed in his life."

"Well that's good news and I'm glad he's all right. We should definitely have them over some evening or better yet go out so I don't have to cook!"

Linsey grinned at Dodge with that look she could always use to get her way, the one that he couldn't resist. Then she leaned over and kissed him with about as much tongue as lips. "Nice, that usually leads to more fun later."

Dodge agreed that they would all go out and then Linsey got that wild look in her eye like he hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. "Oh man!" He never knew when this would happen with her or what would set it off but he wasn't about to question it. Linsey grabbed the remote and shut off the TV without taking her eyes off of Dodge.

"Hey kids, were going to bed, don't stay up too late, okay?" A stereo "Okay" came back from the next room. Suddenly every other thought left his brain along with most of the blood as his mind turned to the fantastic sex they were about to have.

Linsey had hold of his hands and was walking backwards toward the stairs leading him and looking directly into his eyes. "She sure looked good." When they got to the bottom of the stairs she laughed as she spun around and bolted up ahead of him. She was feeling frisky for sure. Damn! Even after all these years she could still rock his world!

A few minutes later he found himself being worked over like no body's business by the hottest woman he had ever known. Not so much her looks, she WAS a looker for SURE, but it wasn't that. It was more about the animal that came out in her, she had a hunger that had to be satisfied and once she started she wasn't going to stop. He couldn't even remember what he was concerned about earlier. It was the furthest thing from his mind and it didn't even matter.

An hour later they were both completely exhausted and had collapsed on the bed in a mess of sheets and blankets. After catching his breath for a minute, Dodge went downstairs in his boxers to the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator door and let out a "phew!"

He stood there in the cool air for a moment. His heart was still pounding as he opened a black cherry Gatorade and drank half of it down without stopping, he needed to hydrate. A bead of sweat ran down the small of his back and it gave him a shiver.

He and Linsey were no spring chickens but they were in great shape for their age. Occasionally she still tried to challenge him in bed but he would never let her out do him, he always got the last hoorah. He took pride in still having enough stamina to pull it off.

He finished off the Gatorade as he walked slowly back up the stairs. Linsey was already out cold and there was a dove chocolate wrapper lying on the night stand. She always craved chocolate after sex. He snuggled up to her and within just a few minutes he was out too.

Dodge woke to Linsey's voice calling to him from the bottom of the stairs.

"Dodge breakfast, come down." As he got up out of bed, he smiled at the thought of their wild antics the night before. They still had it, those wild romps that some couples give up after a few years of marriage. Some of his friends were in bad marriages. They were lucky to get it once a year on some special occasion like their anniversary, what a drag. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he smelled something delicious that he hadn't had in a long time. It had to be French toast!

As he started to the bathroom he felt several muscles tighten up in his back and abdomen then a terrible pain shot through his right thigh that caused him to wince. He realized he wasn't as young as he used to be. Those late night mattress acrobatics were catching up with him! Oh, well, what the hell, it was a good time and it was well worth a few stiff muscles. He grinned as he limped into the bathroom for a very hot shower.

He got down to the kitchen to find both the kids at the table with Linsey well into a fantastic breakfast feast. She must have been up for at least an hour preparing it. She was always a fire cracker the morning after a night of wild sex.

"Wow Mom! "What's the occasion?" said Sarah.

"If only she knew."   
"Yeah, really Mom. Thanks," added Bobby. "This is awesome."

Linsey sat down and smiled.

"I just felt like doing something special for all of us today. It's Friday and we're going to have a nice weekend together because none of us have any obligations tomorrow morning. It'll be the first Saturday that we can all sleep in and relax that we've had in a long time. I thought I would get up and fix a nice breakfast today because you won't see me doing it tomorrow morning. I'm sleeping in!" Everyone laughed when they realized her master plan to take the next day off after an awesome breakfast. She was bribing them in advance to not bother her tomorrow morning.

Dodge raised up his coffee cup.  
"Let's all toast Mom." They all clanked their cups and glasses together in a ceremonious gesture.  
"To Mom," they all said in unison.

Linsey laughed. "You guys are all silly."

"And you're so hot!"

Dodge got a little misty eyed thinking about their night. He caught her gaze for a second and couldn't resist a wink. She rubbed his foot under the table just to tease him back.

"Now everyone, don't forget, and this is very important. Grandpa's Restoration is Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., so make sure you don't plan anything else. It's the big day and we all have to be there! And don't forget you can sleep in tomorrow morning, but not this Sunday, we're all getting up and going to church with Grandpa." The kids both let out a long "awe" of disappointment, but Dodge quickly corrected both of them.

"Hey you two, we don't go that often, and it's important to Grandpa. Besides, it's good for you and you might just learn something about yourself, or God, or something useful."

Dodge had completely lost track of the time, the big day had snuck up on him. He was so caught up in trying to solve this mystery, he didn't realize that days and weeks had gone by. Now it was nearly time.

Bobby sat up straight in his chair like he was about to make an announcement.  
"Hey everyone, Grandpa will be the first in our family to have a planned Restoration, this should be very cool. Everyone agreed with Bobby and they remembered how bad Bobby said that pink stuff tasted and how it made him feel sick. They went on talking about everything that Grandpa would be able to do again when restored and cancer free. It would be wonderful to see him active again like he used to be.

They all enjoyed the special morning but now it was time to get going. Linsey had gotten Dodge's mind off the mess for an evening and a morning at least but now it was time to face the reality of the dilemma once again. As he headed out to the garage, he saw the GTO sitting there in the glow of the LED security lamp above. It was casting a blue-ish white light over the car cover that somehow seemed to say.

"I'm under here, I'm waiting patiently, just dying to get out of here and blow the carbon out of my cylinder heads with a fresh tank of high octane, drive me!" He headed toward his Volvo, wait, no! He wasn't driving the boring electric snooze wagon to work today; he was sick of being conservative! Life suddenly seemed way too short in spite of immortality waiting in the wings.

The battery powered electric cars had come a long way since the volt and the leaf. They had ample power and all the amenities of the gasoline powered cars. They also had a much better range since the invention of the nuclium cell; the closest thing to cold fusion so far. If you wanted to haul your family around town for some errands the electrics were fine. On the other hand if you wanted to go fast and feel the rumble of 500 horses under the hood then you needed a good old-fashioned fossil fuel guzzling muscle car like a 1969 Pontiac GTO!

As he pulled the cover off of the GTO, he had a moment of clarity. It was as if the decision to do something he enjoyed cleared his mind momentarily. "Maybe Linsey had blown HIS carbon out!" He found some humor in that thought. Just then he realized that neither Ron Simpson nor Ron's childhood doctor had been restored. Or at least there was no mention of it in the documentation, why was that?

Now days when there was a story of a deadly accident, there was almost always the story of their Restoration in the news the next day. This was something he and John needed to check into right away. Maybe they were both still alive. If that was the case then it would indicate that both accidents were just that accidents, but it they were truly dead then it would have to be final with no Restoration possible.

He fired up the GTO and headed to ESS. "If there is a hit out on me then I might as well go out in style and they'll have to catch me first." Boy it felt good!

He felt a little bit like a secret agent living on the edge, constantly looking over his shoulder for a would be assassin, it gave him a bit of an adrenaline rush. He sobered up for a second.  
"What was I thinking this isn't cool, someone might actually be trying to kill me!" He kept checking the rear view mirror on the way to work to see if he was being followed.

He had never really had that feeling before and it was very strange. He reminisced about his youth when he and his father would watch classic James Bond movies together; agent 007 was always being chased while driving a fast sports car. It was always a BMW or some exotic car like a Jaguar but never a classic American Muscle Car. He chuckled at the thought of an English Secret Agent speeding away in a Corvette or a tricked out Shelby GT with rocket launchers and guns behind the headlights.

He was about half way to the office when his skyphone interrupted his music, it was John.  
"Morning John, any news?"

"Well, yes, but first I want to know if you saw the news last night?"  
"Well if you mean the story from Arizona about the wealthy man that claimed he was robbed by a mind controlling entity? Then, yes, I did, do you think it's connected?"

"I don't know, but it sure gave me a start! It certainly would be a motive for adding a receiver section to our transmitter. If criminals could use this to control anyone they want then it would certainly be a way to get very rich and powerful very fast!" Dodge realized that he and John had both been thinking the same things.
"Well let's look into it tonight when we both get home, I have to put in a full eight today at work in order to keep up but I can work on it this evening and tomorrow morning, Linsey and the kids are planning to sleep in so I can get up early and head over to your place to do more research."  
"All right," John agreed, "let's do it. I'll see you in the morning."

Friday night came and went in the typical manner, Bobby had his friend Matt over to watch a movie with the family and Sarah went to her cousin Brenda's house for a sleep over. Dodge ordered a pizza and everyone enjoyed the movie. It was an action-packed flick complete with high speed chases double crosses and secret meetings that ended with a spectacular shootout and plenty of pyrotechnics. He couldn't help but think of how his own life could easily turn into a similar scenario but with a not so nice ending; then he just dismissed it as a silly thought and hoped it was just that.

Saturday morning came much too quickly, he would have loved to sleep late, tucked in close to Linsey dreaming the morning away but today he couldn't, he had to get up and get over to John's to get more answers. He wanted to drive the GTO but realized the loud exhaust note might wake Linsey up and make her inquisitive to his early morning activities.

So today it was back to the boring Volvo, his trusty daily commuter car. When he got to John's, he found him around back by the Garage polishing a bright red 1985 Ferrari 308. As he pulled up, he called out of the window of the Volvo.

"Hey Pal, you ever gonna drive that thing, or you just gonna drool on it?" John, looked up just in time to crack a smile and shoot back.

"That's why they call it a spit shine man!"

As Dodge got out and walked over John explained that sometimes he could think and clear his head while polishing a car. It just seemed to work for him.

They made their way up to John's lab over the garage to get to work. John sent Jeeves a message asking him to bring them some coffee and pastries. Neither of them was in the mood for a big breakfast. They just wanted to get to work on solving this mystery. The sooner it was solved, the sooner they could get back to their lives.

When Dodge saw John's work area, he knew immediately that he was really tearing up the research. It was a real mess.

"Hey John, um, you been sleeping Bro?"

"Yeah, I get a little."

"How have you had time to do so much research on this and go to work too? Look at this mess!"

John shook his head.

"Well, it's simple man, and let me tell you how it went. My Boss called me mid last week, jumped all over my ass for not coming in enough. I informed him that I was using vacation time that I had coming to me and that he couldn't do anything about it. So he starts in with me about performance and we got in a huge argument over other things that really had nothing to do with my taking time off. I told him that I know for a fact that I made the company what it is today and if it weren't for me pretentious ass wouldn't even have a job."

"Oh boy, what'd he say?"

"He fired me!"

"Oh shit man, what are you gonna do?"  
"Well you know I wasn't going to take that lying down. I called the owners of the company and made them an offer they really couldn't refuse. I bought the company. There are some legal issues to iron out and some more papers to sign but it's mine."

"No way!"

"Yes way! And I insisted on them firing the CEO immediately and to be sure to let him know that it was at the bequest of the new owner, Mr. John Calhoun!"

Dodge honestly thought that John was kidding.

"Are you yanking my chain buddy?"

John paused from refilling his coffee cup and looked up at Dodge.

"Yeah, I really did it, I own RockTight Systems."

"Did John really have that kind of money?" He knew John was loaded but didn't think he had enough to do something like that.

John sensed his curiosity.

"No worry's buddy, I have enough left and I don't even want that company, I just wanted to fire my boss!"

They both busted out laughing.  
"Oh my god you're killing me! That is the richest thing I've ever heard!"

Dodge was laughing so hard tears ran down his face and he had to brace himself on the bar.

"It's okay I'll just sell it back to the original owner for 80% of what I paid, it was worth it to get rid of old fish lips!"

Dodge burst into another round of hysterical laughter. John had always made fun of his boss and did impressions of him whenever they would go out for a drink.

He was always saying he had lips that looked like a fish and it was hard to take him seriously when he was talking to you unless you didn't watch his mouth moving. Dodge did meet the man once and it wasn't that bad but John was always very good at finding that one funny quirk about a person and exploiting it in a humorous way.

Dodge rocked back on his heels and regained his composure.

"Well, we've laughed until we've cried, now I guess we gotta do some work."

John grinned.

"Oh no, I think we should watch fish lips getting fired on video!"  
"What? Are you serious? How'd you get it on video?"  
"Well when you've just paid millions of dollars for a company you can demand access to high quality video surveillance system. Hell I even have audio."

"This I gotta see," said Dodge with boyish enthusiasm.

John spun around and got on his best PC equipped with HD video.  
"Play video," he said. "Title, The Axe."

Dodge chuckled at John's choice of words.

The recording of fish lips getting fired by the owner began to play. It was hysterical and they could barely stay in their chairs.

John's now fired boss was one of those Ivy League  
-better than thou- pricks that got his job because his father ate lunch and played tennis with a former senator on the board at RockTight.

Now he would have to go back to daddy and cry for another cushy job, and no doubt he would get one. John had obviously spent a little too much time editing it and even added some sad music to the final scene showing fish lips walking down the long corridor to the front door with a cardboard box full of his personal effects.

"Nice touch," Dodge said, as it was playing. John had even arranged for the maintenance man to be applying the new decal of "Mr. John Calhoun CEO" on the double glass doors to his former office suite. He was right on cue just as fish lips walked by with box of all his crap. He stopped right in front of the doors and stared at it in disbelief and then looked right into the security cam as if he knew John was watching. What a masterpiece.  
"Hey, remind me to never piss you off pal, you really are a diabolical man," said Dodge. They were still talking about how he did it as they returned to the other PC stations.

"All right, since I no longer have a job, I've been pretty busy looking at the other employees on the list. I've been checking to see if they've been up to anything that would relate to the project. So far I haven't found anything."

Dodge was dwelling on the fact that Ron Simpson historically received dual inoculations and that was really making him wonder about the reason behind it. He had an idea.

"Hey let's look at the medical records for Ron's parents. That's how we found out what we have so far, let's use that angle again. Maybe there are both a Ron and a Ron Jr. and there might be some data record mix up there."  
"Good thinking buddy let's check it out."

Within twenty minutes they had the full medical records of Ron's parents. There wasn't much to look at, they both seemed very healthy and Ron's father was named James so there was no mix up there.

They were about to dismiss it as useless when John spotted something interesting in James Simpsons files. He wasn't just James Simpson, he was Dr. James Simpson. He didn't notice it at first because it was not written in but instead was denoted by checking a little box with the choices being Mrs. Mr. Dr. etc. and so it was not as noticeable as it would be if it were written out preceding his name.

They looked a little deeper to see what else might be in the file that they overlooked. At the very end of the file there was a very illegible document that was once some kind of carbon copy type sheet. This item had been scanned on a very poor device and was nearly useless so they passed over it the first time through. John ran the image through a program that makes multiple guesses at potential OCR choices until readable words are available. Once rendered into legible words, the medical records listed his occupation as Pediatric Geneticist and his wife Mary was a Doctor as well. She was listed as a Neurological Specialist.

John immediately raised the question.

"If they were both involved in the medical fields I wonder why Ron went into electronics?"

Dodge agreed that this was a curious question as children of doctors usually do wind up in some kind of medical field but not always. They pondered that Ron might have been labeled an underachiever in such an intellectual household so they decided to look at his academic records again with this in mind.

His grades were excellent all through high school and even through college. He did some grad school work that looked like he was leaning toward the medical field but he obviously wound up in the engineering field later. John had an idea.

"Let's check up on Ron's parents and see what fields they're in now providing they aren't retired."

Dodge agreed and they went to work on the parent's complete history right away. It didn't take more than twenty minutes for both of them to see the same grizzly conclusion unfolding on the screens before them. The headlines were clear.  
"World Renown Geneticist and Wife missing at Sea" Then the following headlines . . . ,  
"Dr. James Simpson's Yacht Found Capsized Off Florida Coast"  
"Doctor and Wife Presumed Dead" The stories went on to detail the cause of the accident.

According to investigators there was an explosion caused by a fuel leak in the engine room. Most of the yacht was destroyed by fire and it was capsized and barely afloat when discovered thirty miles off the coast of the Florida Keys where the Simpsons had been visiting their lavish vacation home.

Apparently, the two of them went out for a weekend cruise, and never made it back. To most people this wouldn't raise suspicion and the authorities didn't suspect foul play. Dodge and John felt quite differently and now they were concerned that those behind this thing very possibly murdered not only Ron Simpson and his childhood Doctor but now possibly Ron's parents.

What were they trying to protect, and how far would they go to protect it? There were still plenty of unanswered questions, especially little Ron's dual meds, things were not adding up so they agreed to continue following this thread.

Several hours passed with no results. John called Miranda to bring them some lunch to the deck behind the garage so they could eat quickly and get back at it. Dodge took a moment during their lunch break as an opportunity to call Linsey to explain that he woke early and was bored.

Not wanting to disturb her, he came over to John's and got sucked into a big tournament of nine ball with several of Johns friends, they wanted him to stay to finish it out. He and John were on a roll and set to win the whole thing. He hated to lie to her again but he didn't know what else to do at that point.

After he ended the call, he realized that this thing was getting way too serious, and he was going to have to bring her into it soon. At 3:00 p.m. that afternoon the missing piece of the puzzle appeared; the one thing that would be the beginning of the end, the crucial piece of information that would change their lives forever.

They found the record of a project that Dr. Ron Simpson and his wife Dr. Mary Simpson spear headed for several years. The government-funded project was highly classified at the time but had been reduced to a level of security that John had no trouble circumventing.

It was a ground-breaking research project in human cloning. They had volunteered their infant son Ron, as the first donor of cells and tissue for the project. Little Ron had been cloned. This explained the dual inoculations and the two different doctors, one in Ohio and one in Indiana.

They simply used the same social security number for both boys and saw no need to create another identity at that time. But what happened to the clone? Was the Ron Simpson they worked with the clone or the original? Was the deceased Ron Simpson in the train crash the clone or the original?

Many questions remained unanswered but they had certainly made some headway today and now they had to consider whether to continue on their own or go to the authorities. They were becoming even more concerned for the safety of their families. Dodge sat there for a moment wrestling with the decision. He turned to John . . . ,  
"I can't do this anymore John. I've been lying to Linsey and now this is getting way too serious, we need to take precautions. I'm really beginning to believe we may be in danger."

John realized Dodge was right.

"You're right my friend it is, but don't worry about anyone tracing research we've done here at my house because my network here is more secure than the Pentagon and that's no joke. The question is, how much research did you do at home?"

Dodge thought about it.

"None, everything we've discovered of any significance has been here at your place."

"Good, so we don't have to worry about anyone thinking we're on to them. We still don't really know who's behind the actual hacking and changing of the design files yet but we'll find out soon enough. Ron may have just been a pawn and that may be why he's dead, or at least one of him is dead. The other Ron may still be out there, and for all we know, he did this himself."

"Yeah, I suppose he could have."

"How do you want to handle this with Linsey?"

Dodge paused and ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck before answering.

"Why don't we all get together over here for dinner? I'll bring Linsey and you could have . . . , You know what? I just realized that I don't even know her name, that's terrible!"

John shook his finger at Dodge.

"Yes shame on you for not knowing her name! No worries, we haven't exactly stayed in touch until this problem came up. Her name is Amanda, she's very sweet and super hot and she even has her own money!" Dodge looked away slightly while holding up his right hand.

"Come on, bring in the high five buddy, bring it!" Of course John did.

"Okay, so as I was saying. We all eat together and after the meal and a couple of glasses of wine we can bring them up to speed. We all need to watch our backs until we get this figured out and that's why I want to tell Linsey about this. I don't want her to get caught off guard in some situation."

John paused.

"I don't know, maybe. I certainly don't want Amanda in any danger. I do care for her but I just don't feel like I can trust her with something like this yet. I hate saying that about her. I guess it's just because of what Karen did to me; I must have trust issues or something."

"You really do need to tell her John. Maybe you could do a background check on her. That's your thing man, go snooping and find out everything about her. Once you know that she's all right you can tell her what's going on."

"Yeah maybe you're right. Okay, I guess we can do the dinner thing. We gotta come up with a day and a time and what we want to eat. I can have Miranda fix a real nice meal."

Dodge thought about it for a second.

"Well Linsey and I both like seafood and she really likes white wine. What about Amanda, what foods does she like?

"She likes seafood okay and wine too, that'll be just fine."

"Okay, so if we get together Wednesday evening will that give you enough time to do a background check on Amanda?"  
"Dude, I already did that. After Karen pulled her little running off deal, I investigated every woman prior to the second date! I even have cameras around the perimeter of her house to make sure she's not seeing anyone else."  
"Wow, you do have trust issues. But I guess in this case it may have just paid off!"  
"All right, so Wednesday it is unless I hear differently from you tonight when you talk to Linsey."

They called it a night and John walked out with him.

"Hey speaking of additional security I would like to add some at our house. We have a very basic security system and I would really like some added cameras to be installed and some other sensors so that we can sleep better at night considering the situation." John patted him on the back as they were walking out toward Dodge's car.

"We can take care of that and don't worry about the expense, it's on me."  
"Thanks!" Dodge said.

"Hey how's your Dad doing? Isn't he supposed to get Restoration done soon?"  
"Yes in fact we're going to the Lifecenter Tuesday morning for the procedure and that's why I didn't want to come over until Wednesday night for dinner. I want to have that whole thing behind us and know that he's all right before we dive into this any deeper."

Chapter 10 Sunday was a good day. Dodge actually got to sleep in until about 9:00 a.m. They went to the late Church service at 11:00 a.m. and they all sat together with his Father which was nice, they hadn't done that since Easter.

Pastor Ben delivered a message of hope for the world which was nice as opposed to one of those sermons that makes you feel guilty for not being perfect.

At the end of the service Pastor Ben mentioned Alan along with two other people that were also scheduled to be restored in the coming week. He said that the assembly should all remember them in their prayers this week and to pray for problem free Restorations, it was very nice. Afterwards the whole family went back to the Kerrington's for Linsey's Beef Manhattan with all the extras, it was delicious. Linsey even made a cheesecake the night before and it turned out really good too.

Dodge tried to not think about Ron Simpson or ESS or anything having to do with work or the danger that may be lurking ahead. Instead he cleared his head, focused on his family and tried to rest. He knew it was about to get very serious and this thing could take a while to resolve.

It might turn out to be nothing more than a string of coincidental oddities that looked very suspicious or it could turn out to be exactly their worst nightmare, forcing them to run for their lives from either the killers or the authorities or both. Either way there was no sense in getting all worked up just yet, they still didn't have all the facts.

For now he needed to focus on Alan for two days in preparation for one of the biggest days they would ever see. Bobby's restoration really opened Alan's mind to the concept of it and now he would take the voluntary leap to do the same thing.

This would be a special moment for the family because Alan would become the first person in their family to defy death from natural causes and make a conscious choice toward immortality. Hundreds of thousands of people all around the world already experienced it but it didn't seem real to Dodge until now. Now that it was hitting them right at home it meant so much more.

Just a few months ago he was not sure if this was something that God frowned upon or approved of. Did God see this as man delving into an area that was forbidden? Who knows, but just a few short weeks ago his father had chosen death over life because he believed that Restoration was wrong.

After Bobby's accident, death, and Restoration Alan changed his perspective. He decided to believe that this science, this amazing new technology that man had been allowed to discover, must have been a gift from God.

Now Dodge's thoughts were torn, on the one hand he agreed with his father's current feelings and had pretty much always felt that this technology was a gift. He was secretly working on the implant for years while his family believed he was working on a project for Medic-Star. Now he wasn't so sure about the ethics of it all.

The new knowledge that some very bad people were behind the scenes with intentions to misuse the technology was blurring his opinion of it. To turn something wonderful into something horrible, using it to rob hard-working people of their life savings was diabolical beyond belief. Forcing someone to commit a murder, or other crime, that is not of their own doing, yet with no deniability, was just sick.

With these thoughts rambling around in his head, he found it difficult to focus on being supportive. His father never cared much for doctors and now he was about to trust them with his very soul. Those were Alan's words; everyone else believed there was little or no risk at all. Dodge called a meeting with the family because he had an idea and he wanted everyone's opinion.  
"Linsey?" he called up the stairs, "come on down and bring the kids with you. I want to talk to everyone for a minute."

Linsey was upstairs at her own desk in the bedroom sending out skymail to all her friends and family. She was organizing and inviting everyone over for a big party two weeks after Alan's Restoration. She figured two weeks should be ample time for Alan to recover, return home, and start feeling much better.

She wanted to get everyone together for a cookout and a Restoration party that would be the first of its kind in the family. Linsey was so deep into her project it took her a few seconds to respond.  
"Okay, I'll get them and we'll be down in a minute."

Dodge grabbed a bottle of water and sat down at the table, a few moments later the family arrived.  
"What's up Dad?" Bobby asked, as he came bounding into the kitchen with so much bounce in him, that Dodge wondered why he couldn't fly.

Sarah was right behind, making a silly face in sarcastic protest to Bobby's energy level.

"Jeeze Bobby, settle down twitchy boy!" She only added to his fidgets by poking him in the side as she rounded him to sit down in the adjacent chair.

Linsey came in with her reading glasses on the top of her head and a yellow tablet with about twenty turned pages filled with lists of food, guest, numbers, and party ideas. Dodge realized he had interrupted everyone in one way or another.  
"Well everyone, sorry to keep you all from your various things, but I had an idea and I wanted to see what everyone else thought."

"I think Grandpa is probably getting really nervous about the procedure and I don't want him getting cold feet because of having too much time over the next two days to think about it. So I think we should spiff up the guest room, which needs a good straightening up, and invite Grandpa over tonight to stay here with us until his procedure Tuesday morning." Sarah was already smiling and couldn't wait to speak up.

"I think that's a great idea Dad," she said enthusiastically.  
"Good because I'm asking you kids to do most of the straightening up in there."

Everyone agreed that this was a good idea and the meeting was adjourned followed by a group effort to clean up the room, it only took about forty-five minutes to have it completely ready for Alan's potential stay.

As soon as they were done Dodge sicced Linsey on Alan with a phone attack of sweetness from the daughter-in-law that Alan couldn't resist. They put him on speaker phone while Linsey worked her magic.

Of course Alan tried to snake his way out of it but Linsey counter attacked with perfectly executed food bribes and "pleeeaasse" the very kind little girls use on Daddy's and Grandpas, and in the end Alan caved. She hit the end button on her phone and they all high fived Linsey.

"Let's go get him! She said," as they headed out to the van. On the way out Linsey added. . . , "Like taking candy from a baby!"

By the time they arrived at Alan's it was after dark. He was sitting out on the front porch in his favorite chair, an old homemade rocker. Next to him was a very old but pristine suitcase with a sweater thrown over it. He was sitting there waiting for his ride just as they expected he would be, but the other thing he was doing, shocked all of them.

At first they agreed that he must have been pretending but as they filed out of the van and got closer they were sure. There was a cloud of haze hanging over Alan and just under the roof of the porch. Alan Kerrington was smoking a cigarette! Something no one had seen in years and something Bobby and Sarah had never seen except on TV.

Before Dodge could say anything, Alan spoke up.

"Don't worry everybody it's my last one! I've been saving this baby for months. I figured I'd smoke it when I got real close to death because it wouldn't make any difference anyway."

He was snuffing out the butt as he went on.

"I forgot I had the darned thing until yesterday. After I was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, I found an unopened pack behind some stuff in the closet. I used to store my cartons up there and one must have fallen out. I just put the pack in the middle of the kitchen table, had a few drinks and talked to it half the night. I told it how much I hated it for having done me so wrong, what with trying to kill me and all."

"I realized it was illegal to have but I figured no one would know the difference that one old man had a pack of cigarettes to place blame on for his bad health. Anyway I smoked one here and there over the years and now the one you just saw me finish was it."

"I realize those damned things have slowly killed me and I know when I get restored I can't do this stuff anymore. I'm going to have to take care of myself so that I can live as long as possible with my new body and do everything I can to help my family, my children, my grandchildren and who knows how many generations. Not only that, I anticipate having to go back to work eventually! I mean has anyone thought about this? If we all get restored and we're all retired who the heck is gonna do all the work in this country?"

"That's a great point Dad, I guess we all need to start thinking about that." Everyone was still standing there in shock especially the kids. They had never seen anyone smoke in real life before.

"Wow Grandpa that stuff smells horrible," said Bobby. He and Sarah had to step back off of the porch to allow the haze to clear.  
"Well thank God a policeman didn't drive by and see you doing that!" said Linsey. "You would've been in jail when you were supposed to be at the Lifecenter getting restored."  
"Yeah, Yeah, I know, give an old man a break would ya?"

They all continued to give him a hard time as they got in the car and headed for home. Dodge scheduled Tuesday off to be at the Lifecenter with his family. This left him little time on Monday to even think about the problems with their hacker. Instead he focused on getting as much work done as possible Monday so that taking Tuesday off wouldn't set him back too far.

His extra effort Monday would allow him to get back to investigating by Thursday, the day after Linsey and Amanda were brought up to speed at dinner. He was on his way to work Monday when he realized his plan had one major flaw. With everything going on he forgot to mention the dinner plans to Linsey, he hoped she hadn't made some other plans and that the kids didn't have anything too pressing.

He tapped the phone button on the wheel.

"Call Linsey." Linsey picked up.

"Miss me already? Just had to hear my voice?"  
"Well yes of course my dear, and one other thing. Don't be mad but we have dinner plans with John and his girlfriend Amanda Wednesday night." He was cringing as he said it because he knew it would be a stroke of luck if there wasn't a conflict with some other event.

"Hey that sounds great I think I'm free except Bobby has a ball game that night. Matt's going also and I'm sure his mother won't mind taking Bobby along to help me out, we take turns doing that so it shouldn't be a problem."

"So, what's Amanda like?" Linsey asked.  
"Oh, I have no idea I haven't met her either."  
"Well I guess it's a date, but next time, please try to give me more notice. I have to prepare for these things with what to wear, my hair . . . "

Dodge interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all know you're naturally beautiful and all you have to do is just throw something on and turn every man's head in the house!"  
"Okay mister, just keep talking and see what you get!"  
"All right then it's a date, I'll see you tonight."

After they hung up Dodge felt a great sense of relief that in just two more days he could stop hiding things from his wife. She really was his best friend and he hated keeping anything from her. Thinking about it now he realized how much it bothered him over the years that he had to keep the bonus from her and even the project that he worked on over the past ten years.

If only his family knew how instrumental he had been in developing the very technology that just saved Bobby's life and was about to give his father another whole lifetime to live and potentially immortality. He was proud of his accomplishments but he had to keep it quite. The long term rewards would be well worth it when he finally got millions in bonus pay. In just two more days he would be sharing it with his wife out of necessity and now they would both have to keep the secret until his retirement. Only then could he safely tell his family and friends that it was his team that had been a big part of Restoration becoming a reality.

The work day seemed to fly by. Dodge had two meetings with his design teams that took a good part of the day and then another meeting with his boss Tim and several other upper management people to discuss the results of the two prior meetings along with the other department heads who had also had similar meetings with their teams earlier in the day. Pretty much a meeting about meetings, funny but that's how corporate America does things.

He was relieved the day went smoothly and he was able to leave on time. On the way home after work he couldn't stop checking his rear view. It was a new habit that he was developing. His senses seemed to be heightened and only getting sharper by the day. It was as if he had been sleep walking through his life for years and now something had awakened him.

He kept passing it off but then he did notice something. It was a vehicle that he had seen on many occasions in the last months but he never really thought much about it. It was a little blue sports car with dark tinted windows. He had seen it on the way to work several times a week and many days on the way home too.

"It was just another hard-working American that shared almost his exact routine to and from work." He noticed other vehicles in the general area that were like that too. It seemed to be sort of a commuting pattern as he saw it. "This person was just as punctual as he was."

Now something different happened and had been happening for the last two weeks but it was only now that he realized it. His schedule had changed dramatically in the last few weeks. He had deviated allot from his otherwise perfect punctuality of many years. He always did the exact same things at nearly the exact same time. It had even become sort of a nonchalant personal game to look at his watch and note how on time he was with his routine.

He took pride in being the guy you could set your watch by. He was certainly not that guy the last few weeks. But in the past he felt an unofficial camaraderie with the stranger that drove the little blue car with dark windows because they too were very punctual.

Now he saw it much differently because he realized he hadn't seen any less of that little blue car, in fact if anything he saw it more than before, sometimes in front of him six or eight cars, sometimes at a stop light sitting at the adjacent crossroad. What were the odds that the driver of this blue car, who was so incredibly punctual just as he was, also had a life altering experience that changed his schedule randomly to the exact same pattern as Dodge's?

The answer was clear, it was absolutely impossible! Either Dodge was losing his mind and becoming hyper paranoid, or the driver of the little blue car was shadowing him. Not really following him because that was not necessary. After all he saw that car pretty much everywhere along the routes that he frequented during his daily commutes and this meant that the driver already knew everywhere Dodge went on a regular basis.

There was no real need to actually follow him point to point all he had to do was just check here and there upon Dodge's whereabouts and that was it. He decided it was very important to act completely oblivious to the blue car and do everything as normal so the watcher would not suspect he had been discovered.

Suddenly he had a very chilling revelation. This tail undoubtedly knew that he had been going to see John Calhoun and that was not good! If anyone was watching them, they might already know what they had been digging into.

What if John's system was not as tight as he thought? What if their lives were all in danger right now? He was supposed to go home but he thought he had better get a message to John somehow without using his phone.

The club was on the way and he had an idea. He made the next turn as normal but the little blue car was hanging way back and continued on straight as Dodge headed to the club. As he saw the blue car go on past the turn at the intersection in his rear view mirror he couldn't help but get angry. "You little blue devil, I'm on to you!"

He realized the tail had no need to follow him any further, that tail knew exactly where he was going and that's all the information he needed. When he got to the club he headed down to the 19th hole and went to the bar. He motioned for Jimbo, the bartender, to come over.

"Hey Dodge, what can I get-cha?"  
"I'd like to use the bar phone if that's all right, my skyphone is on the blink and I need to call a friend."  
"You bet!" Jimbo grabbed the phone and set it up on the bar.  
"Thanks Jimbo."

His mind was reeling with the ideas of just how far the people behind tailing him had already gone. Was his skyphone compromised? Was John's skyphone compromised? He knew it was more likely to be his phone over John's but he still didn't want to take any chances. The bar phone had text message capability. It was old but still functional. It was likely John's email was quite secure. He sent a message from the bar phone to John.

It read. . . , "Hey JC, it's your buddy from the club, saw you at the spoon. Call the bar phone if you get this message before six. My sky's on the blink."

He figured John might put two and two together and realize there was some trouble, but if not he would still call the bar phone.

He took a seat at the bar for a few minutes to see if John would call back. He really couldn't wait to long because he was expected at home for dinner within about an hour. His Dad was at his house as well so he should really be there. He ordered an iced tea and sat there watching a little golf on the big screen while he waited.

Within five minutes the phone rang but Jimbo was way down at the other end. Dodge pointed to the ringing phone and Jimbo gave him the "go ahead" nod. He picked up.  
"19th hole."  
"This is JC, somebody there call for me?"  
"Yeah, John its Dodge, listen buddy, we may have a problem and I didn't want to call you on my phone."  
"What's going on man, you seem a little rattled?"

"I am and for good reason. I just realized I'm being tailed and that I have been for a while." John was skeptical.

"What are you talking about? I really doubt that."  
"No, No, listen John you have to trust me on this and I don't have time to explain it to you right now, but I am 100 percent sure, and when I do have time to explain it, you will agree that I must be right. It's a mathematical thing okay?"

"Okay buddy, I know when you're sure your right that you always are, so I believe you. Do you think you're in immediate danger?"  
"No, I don't, they're just keeping tabs on me and they have been for a long time. I realize now they must know that we've been spending some time together."  
"Do you think we should call off the dinner at my house?"  
"No, in fact I think we should keep it just like it is but I would like to have it outside, in fact, pick the most accessible place you have so that we could be easily seen from some vantage point."

"Why in the world would we want to do that? They might snipe our asses!"  
"Because, I think, we should allow them to see us hanging out, having a great time while eating and dancing out there too. We should spend all of our time outside while smiling and acting like we don't have a care in the world, then Linsey and I should leave right after."

"Oh, I get it, you want them to think all this time we've been spending together is strictly social and has nothing to do with the hack."  
"Exactly, I want them to watch us and I want them to see us having a great time out in the open. They may be watching us through the scope of a sniper rifle but I don't think they'll use it. If they see us not caring and smiling and partying they'll be convinced that we have no clue we're in danger. If they believe that then they won't see us as a threat because they'll think we don't know anything about it."

"It's a long shot, but as of now I don't think we've been breached. They must know you and I are hanging out but they don't know why. If we convince them it's just a social thing then they may cancel their plans to blow us all to bits. I mean why kill people if it's not necessary right?"  
"Dodge, my friend, you're a genius."  
"Okay, so dinner is on but it's an outdoor party, see you there man, and wear your dancing shoes. Hey what about telling the gals?"  
"Well I think we should both do it in the privacy of our own homes after the party and we have to make sure that they understand that they must act normal and not to be looking over their shoulders everywhere they go. I still plan to tell Linsey, but I'll do it that night after we return home from the dinner party, maybe you could do the same."

"Okay, sounds like a good plan, see you Wednesday at seven."  
"We'll be there. Hey John, before you hang up, we gotta make sure our skyphones are secure. Is there anything you can do?"  
"I already did it while we were talking. I installed security layers on our phones that even I would have a hard time cracking! We can talk on them freely no worries. I also checked the logs, there was no pairing or eavesdropping that I could find."

"By the way just as a precaution, we shouldn't talk about this stuff while driving or really anywhere but at my house until we have a chance to do a security sweep for bugs."  
"Agreed, we'll be there, see ya then."

Jimbo was moving down to Dodge's area just about the time he hung up the phone.  
"Hey pal is everything okay? Why the long face?"  
"Oh, yeah, it's just a friend of mine, he's going through a divorce, you know how ugly those can get, right?"  
"Oh yeah I've been through two myself but seeing as how I'm a bartender I have actually been through about a hundred." They both laughed. Poor Jimbo, his job demanded that he listen to every poor broken hearted sap's depressing divorce story.

Dodge realized he burned up just enough time to look like he stopped in for a couple after work beers.

"Hey thanks for letting me use the phone Jim. I gotta get home before the wife misses me."  
"You bet buddy. And I'm glad to hear a guy say his wife might miss him, that's rare these days!"

Chapter 11 On the way home he acted as normal as possible, in fact he checked the mirror less than before because now he knew that he was being monitored and didn't really wonder anymore. On top of that he was a creature of habit, and blue car guy already knew his routine. As long as he didn't deviate from his normal things, there shouldn't be a problem.

Once they had the outdoor party, it should put the watcher's minds at ease that John and Dodge's interest in seeing each other again was strictly social. They were good friends and now that John no longer worked for RockTight there was no conflict of interest, or at least that was the plan anyway.

Two blocks from home his skyphone rang, he answered it on the hands free car connection, it was Linsey.  
"Hey Babe I'm almost there."  
"Okay, I was just about to put dinner on the table so I wanted to make sure you were on your way."  
"Sorry, I'm running a little late, I stopped by the club and had a beer and got caught up in talking with Jimbo at the bar about golf."  
"Wow, you guys, and your golf, did you have a hard day or something?"  
"Yeah actually I did, we had meetings all day and I just really wanted a nice cold draft beer, it always tastes better on draft." "I understand, see you in a minute."  
"Okay."

He pressed the end button on the wheel.

He couldn't help but think that if someone did have his car bugged or even his phone tapped in some way that they would really believe he was clueless. Anyone listening would never suspect that he and John were on to them and that was how it had to be if they were all going to stay alive.

He was still plagued by the thoughts of how Ron Simpson died and then Ron's Doctor and even Ron's parents, why were they not restored? He figured maybe the parents couldn't be restored because they drowned very far out at sea when their yacht capsized. It was probably many hours before it would have been discovered and with the one hour limit long surpassed Restoration would have been impossible.

But what about Ron and his childhood Doctor, why had they not been restored? They had been in accidents that were surrounded by witnesses and authorities immediately. Emergency personnel highly trained to make sure people get to the hospital within the hour. Everyone knew that the Medic-Star storage service could insure their lifefile would always be secure and available.

He and John would have to look into this next to see just how elaborate these murders were. How did the killers make the permanent death situation look believable? Maybe they blamed it on some system failure.

No one would suspect anything unless they had connected all the deaths together like he and John had, only then does it look so suspicious. As single incidents nobody would be the wiser. Their deaths had occurred in different areas of the country and enough time in between that the authorities simply would not make the connection.

Dodge arrived home and walked into the kitchen from the garage entrance to see his family gathering around the table for dinner. The fantastic aroma of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and homemade Cole slaw.

Linsey and the kids went all out for Grandpa's last dinner as a dying man.  
"Before we eat I want to do something that we haven't done enough of around our family in recent years," said Allan. Dodge already knew exactly what his Dad was going to do.

"Let's all join hands and say grace." They all closed their eyes and bowed their heads as Alan Kerrington asked God to bless the bounty they were about to receive, bless all the hands that prepared it, and thanked him for the new life that he was about to receive and for Bobby's Restoration. It was a very touching moment and it nearly brought tears to all their eyes. As soon as he finished, he smiled and said, "Please pass the rolls!" The mood changed from serious to happy and light hearted in less than a second.

They all stuffed themselves soundly before Linsey surprised Alan with a blackberry pie that she had picked up at the bakery. It wasn't homemade, but it was fresh baked and very good. They spent the rest of the evening around the table talking about old times and Grandpa was very entertaining for Bobby and Sarah with many colorful stories. He spoke of the old days when kids went to school dances, smoked cigarettes, got in too many fist fights, and drag raced fast noisy cars like their dad's. He told them about working on his Grandpas farm and how they would have to do so many things by hand like driving the tractors and combines to plant and harvest because they didn't have the robots like the farmers had now.

The kids got tired and Grandpa was running out of steam so they all retired to bed in preparation for the big day. At around 2:00 a.m. Dodge heard something downstairs but he couldn't make out what it was. He normally would have slept through it but his mind was running on heightened alert due to the whole hacker mess and blue car guy. Paranoid was an understatement but he was masking it well.

As he made his way downstairs very slowly while listening he realized the sound was coming from the kitchen and it sounded like his father coughing. He entered the kitchen to find Alan sitting at the kitchen table with a roll of paper towels on the table in front of him and a couple of them in his hand. In front of him on the table lay three different kinds of inhalers.  
"Dad you okay?" Alan would have liked to answer his son but he was too busy just trying to breathe. Dodge realized this and sat down at the table with his Father. Alan coughed and hacked for the next half hour unable to speak except for saying "coffee" to Dodge. Dodge made himself busy preparing a fresh pot and getting out two cups, sugar, and cream and set it all out on the table between them. After several hits from the inhalers and more hacking that bloodied several paper towels, his Father finally got enough breath to speak.

"This is what I do at night," he forced out between gasps. Dodge reached over and patted his Father on the hand and slid the hot cup of coffee across the table to him. After a few minutes he was able to talk a bit better.  
"This is what I've been going through now for months. I lie down at night and get an hour or two of sleep then I just can't breathe. Not even the oxygen helps much because I have these coughing fits. If I had only known that those damn cigarettes would do this to me I would have never smoked that first one."

"Well, Dad, you only have to make it through tonight and then it's over, you get another chance with a brand-new body in just a few hours from now."  
"I think I'll just stay up, if I go back to bed, I'm just gonna start coughing again and I hate it."  
"Okay, I'll stay up with you, how about we go sit in the TV room? We'll put on an old movie and have some fun."

"Sounds good let's go," said Allan.

They got up and headed for the TV room.  
"Let's watch one of those classic James Bond Agent 007 flicks, I love those old movies!" Dodge agreed as he chuckled to himself. "If he only knew!"

At some point during the movie Dodge dosed off. He awoke to the end credits rolling up the screen to one of those famous 007 sound tracks. He looked over at his Father and saw that he had dosed off too. He was relaxed it the recliner with his feet propped up on the footstool. He appeared to be sleeping peacefully but he looked so tired. The cancer had taken a toll on his body and spirit. There was no doubt in Dodge's mind that his father was very near to dying. Thank God in just a few short hours he would be young and healthy again.

Dodge got up quietly and went into the guestroom and retrieved Alan's Lifecorder unit off the bed side table. He brought it to where his Father was sleeping and placed it there beside him to make sure it got updated while he slept. He wanted his father to remember what a nice evening they had together.

He sat back down in the chair next to him, turned off the TV and went back to sleep. At about 5:45 a.m. Dodge heard the coffee pot time beep and smelled a fresh pot beginning to brew. He had set the timer for morning so that it would be ready when Linsey came down. He looked over at his Father who was just beginning to wake up and they both sat up in their chairs. Alan immediately began using his inhalers as he did every morning before attempting to get up and move around. Two of them were for helping him with his breathing and the other was a fairly new drug for relieving pain. It was specially developed for people that were in excruciating pain due to terminal illness. It was designed to make them as comfortable as possible until their time came to go.

Just as Dodge left the room he heard the sound of Alan choking, so he ran back into the TV room to make sure he was okay. His Father had his head over a small trash can that Dodge kept by his recliner.

"Dad, you okay?"

"Yeah, sometimes this happens in the morning. I'll be okay, just go on about your business."

It was only then that Dodge fully understood why his Father wanted to stay at his own place but by the same token no one should have to go through that alone. Dodge went into the kitchen and poured some coffee for both he and his father and by the time he got everything put on the table Alan was up and making his way to the kitchen.

Dodge carried their coffee out to the patio with his Father following. The sun was just peaking up over the horizon and so they just sat there together silently and watched it rise.

"Dad, I need to tell you something and it might just be the craziest thing you've ever heard."  
"Okay, Son, go ahead, whatever it is I can handle it."

"You can't tell a soul, not even Linsey knows this and it has to stay that way for a few more days. Even when she does know I don't want anyone talking about it unless we have to. I want to tell you now just in case, God forbid, something should go wrong with your restoration. I would never forgive myself if you passed and found yourself looking down from heaven at me thinking, "Why didn't my son tell me he was in such a mess?"

"You can tell me Son, what is it?"

"My team and I at ESS are actually secretly working for LifeTech. We developed the very system that is about to save your life and it has taken us more than ten years. During that time apparently one of our team members went rouge and installed a back door in the software and a wireless receiver in the unused space on the chip. Long story short, he's dead, his parents are dead, and his doctor is dead. I'm being followed daily and I believe the family could be in danger. Alan was just staring at his son with a blank look on his face that could only mean he was in shock.

"Man when you say you need to get something off your chest, you aint jokin kid! How long have you been walking around with this on your shoulders?"

Dodge was almost embarrassed at the answer.

"Oh about two months I guess. But that's because at first we didn't really know how deep it went and we thought we might just be paranoid."  
"Who's we Son?"  
"Oh, well that would be . . . , Just then he realized he shouldn't be speaking outdoors about all this and he decided not to use John's name.

"Just a friend, I shouldn't really say."  
"You don't trust your own Father? Who would I tell?" "Dad, please, you should keep your voice down, you know, ears everywhere."  
"Oh, sorry."

"Look, Dad, I really didn't want to tell you this now because you're about to go to your procedure today and I didn't want you to worry. On top of that, I'll have to get right back to working on who's behind this thing and I wanted you to know that I might not be at the hospital as much as I'd like to be during your recovery."

Alan reached over and slapped his son on the back hard. The man still had moments of strength even with being old and sickly.  
"No worry's Son," he said. "I'll recover quickly, and I'll help you in any way I can. No one messes with my family while I'm still kicking! Right now I'm sure glad that I decided to go through with this. You may just need the younger version of me around to watch your back. Hey when's the last time I showed you the gun collection? You know I added a lot to it during the pandemic. I thought if the criminals came for us looting and killing, they'd have one heck of a shoot out on their hands before they got us."

Alan was always the "Be prepared like a Boy Scout, shoot them all and let God sort them out," kind of a guy. He was in the military when he was a young man and was deployed twice to Iraq just after Sadam Hussein was toppled from power. He saw a good bit of action and was very pro gun. He saw firsthand how people lived in countries that didn't have freedom and he was more than willing to die to protect it.

When the pandemic hit and the world began to go out of control things got very scary right there in Noblesville. The stock market crashed and had to shut down completely for months. A state of martial law ensued and the president of the united states made a decree that all prices on everything would be frozen and regular currency would be used and accepted in a normal means. In spite of the ruling people simply bartered instead, it was like jumping back two hundred years in time to trade a chicken for a quart of fuel oil.

The United States, Canada, and Mexico had pretty much become cut off from the rest of the world both for reasons of quarantine and the collapse of the world economy. In the early stages looting, riots, and criminals completely out of control were moving across the country in waves. People had lost their minds and taken up the "every man for himself" attitude.

When the National Guard and standard military battalions finally got control of the population again, tens of thousands had been killed and entire communities in some cases were looted out and burned to the ground. His Father and several other men from their neighborhood moved six families into the largest house in the neighborhood.

This house was on the highest ground in the area and was older brick construction. They barricaded themselves in the home with all their resources of food, water and weapons. They boarded up the windows on the lower floor and most of the windows on the second floor. They did all of this in the two weeks prior to the riotous gangs moving through the town. The men took turns at watch and sounded off if anyone suspicious came near their make shift fortress.

Only a few smaller gangs moved through the area. Anyone that came within two hundred yards received a verbal warning and then they were fired at. Needless to say every single one of them went packing off in a hurry. They only had to stay in the house for two weeks before the Calvary arrived.

Once the military presence was strong, everyone emerged. They hadn't lost anyone in their group but there were people reported murdered as little as a mile from their location. They were very lucky that the men in the community were smart and resourceful in a tough situation.

Alan kept his guns all these years and was continuously adding to his collection. He tried not to think about his days in Iraq and didn't really talk about it very much. Dodge assumed that the memories were mostly bad and that his Dad simply didn't want to be reminded. Dodge thought about his Father's offer to help him.

"Sure Dad, I might just take you up on that. We may need some extra security around the house soon, you bought any more toys to add to your collection in recent years?" Alan grinned. "Oh yeah, I was up to 33 pieces last I counted and I have plenty of ammo too. Ya know I don't talk about things much, but I left all those guns to you in my will and I want you to do the same someday for Bobby. Some of those pieces will be worth a small fortune some day and his son will be the fourth generation to have them, some pieces fifth because of those that my Father gave to me that had belonged to my Grandfather."  
"That's great Dad I'll make sure of it, I promise."

As they continued talking, they noticed one by one the family was arriving in the kitchen. They just sat there and continued to reminisce about some of the things that happened when Dodge was a boy and they talked about his Mother and how much they both missed her. Soon breakfast was ready and Sarah called them in to eat.

They all had a wonderful time around the table eating and talking about how awesome it would be for Grandpa after today and Bobby told Grandpa in detail what to expect the day's right after his Restoration and of course the details of the pink stuff you had to eat all over again.

The time had come to go to the Lifecenter. They all piled into Linsey's taxi, as she called it, because it had the most room. They made sure they had Alan's Lifecorder unit and they were on their way.

On the way Linsey announced to the family that she had bought them all a little gift. She had been saving up for something special and hadn't decided what it would be just yet. Two days ago it hit her. She decided exactly what to spend her little nest egg on. It would be a gift that would last for a very long time and be money well spent. She bought the entire family a life time membership to the Medic-Star Lifecorder database. As soon as next week they would all be visiting the local branch to have their new LifeCorders with the uplink configured. From then on their files would be backed up to the main database twice weekly.

The new service would ensure that their files couldn't be lost even if their Lifecorder units were destroyed and they were deceased at the same time. Everyone agreed that this was a great choice and a very thoughtful way to spend her money that she had worked so hard to save up.

When they arrived at the Lifecenter Alan was admitted and the family was allowed to watch the procedure through a window that separated them from the procedure room. The procedure was very safe and didn't require any surgery so bacteria and germs were not an issue but the life centers had this separation just in case something went wrong.

In the event of a problem they could close the blinds on the window and spare the family seeing their loved one restrained and drugged. Within a few minutes they rolled Alan into the room on a very comfortable looking bed. They proceeded to strap him down to the bed but only gently and very loosely, it was merely a precaution and all part of the standard procedure.

He had on a blue terry cloth robe and was sitting up slightly looking very comfortable. His Lifecorder unit was already in the room and they turned it up to view the id tag on the bottom. They asked Alan to verify that it was in fact his unit. He looked at the tag and agreed that it was his unit. A technician with a sophisticated key device of some kind opened the unit and pulled out the memory bank and placed it into a control console next to the bed.

Alan saw everyone through the window and waved and smiled. He was ready to end his suffering and be healthy again. The doctor came in and checked him out briefly, they had a short conversation followed by the nurse handing him a white pill and a small glass of water. The pill was to put him to sleep while they brought the clone on line, uploaded his life file into the clone, and then wake it up. This would be followed by a series of questions and a motor skills test. If he passed both then he would be wheeled out to recovery for a visit with the family. After one hour the family would be moved into another room and questioned to make sure the restored person was acting completely normal. Once these steps were complete, the old body would be frozen and kept for up to 90 days.

It only took a few minutes for Alan to drift into a very deep sleep. The doctor checked his vitals one more time and ran a simple pin prick test on the bottom of his foot to make sure he was completely out. One of the nurses pressed a button on the wall and a curtain came down over the window. A few minutes later the curtain went back up. Alan was gone, they had rolled him out and then wheeled the bed containing his clone body in. It was placed in the exact same position and it had on a blue robe just like Alan did before. This switch was undoubtedly designed to prevent friends and family from seeing both bodies at the same time. Seeing them together might frighten or confuse some people especially children.

The lights were dimmed and there was some very soothing music playing softly so that the awaking person would feel comfortable in a relaxed environment. Everyone was amazed at how young Alan's clone looked. He chose to have the appearance of age fifty in order to avoid being a youth again. It would have been too strange for him and the whole family if he were restored to a much younger age.

The Lifecenter staff had already advised Alan that in spite of appearing to be age fifty he would be as healthy as an eighteen-year-old and that his joints and muscles would be like that of a youth because the clone body was only exercised very lightly by computer programs. There was basically zero wear and zero injury, he should feel fantastic. His clone was also much thinner in build. This was normal and after first waking up the body would be somewhat weak but would build up very quickly as he became increasingly active and ate regular meals.

A long, robotic needle was moved close to the clone's right ear, the general area where the implant resides in the base of the brain. The doctor loaded a program and hit the run button. A small sterilization laser popped out of the robotic arm and zapped the full length of the needle as it entered the clone's head directly behind the right ear lobe. It stopped when it made contact with the chip at the base of his brain. The doctor loaded and ran a test program on the clone that caused the fingers to move in sequence one through ten from left hand to right hand to establish that the clone's nervous system was healthy and working.

He ran a second sequence that caused the toes to wiggle one at a time and then the clone's eyes blinked five times. Another sequence caused the left arm to rise when the doctor shined a pocket light into the right eye of the clone and then the right arm to rise when the light was shown into the left eye. The last program ran was the auditory test which caused the left leg to raise slightly when the doctor snapped his fingers in the right ear and the right leg for when he did the same in the clones left ear. The tests were all done very quickly; it was obvious this process was quite routine for the staff.

Dodge wondered how many people were restored daily in that very room; it must have been upwards of twenty. The Doctor rechecked the memory bank position in the console to make sure it was seated securely in the port. He typed in, what appeared to be some access codes, from a digiboard the nurse brought in and then hit the start button. The nurse quickly left the room and the Doctor stepped behind a little dividing wall and sat on a stool. He was viewing a monitor and while doing that he grabbed a bottle of water he had stowed back there and took a nice long drink without ever taking his eyes off the monitor. Thousands of lines were flying across the screen but it only meant something to the doctor and Dodge. Dodge knew what it was because of his involvement in the design of the system, but he still couldn't tell anyone. The doctor was simply viewing parity bit checks for the communications link between the console and the clone's brain, a clone that would soon be his Father.

Lines of code flying by were a good sign that the communications port was working correctly. Even if a bit of code didn't copy the system would simply send it over again up to thirty times before it would halt the system with an error code. The entire transfer only took about nine minutes and then the screen showed a large "complete" message.

The doctor went to the console, ended the program, and waited as the needle retracted out and the robotic arm moved out of the way. He took some vitals on the clone and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with several staff members trailing him. They began loosening the restraints that were previously applied quite tightly. The clone already had an IV inserted and the nurse began to administer something into that connection as the curtain was lowered again.

A few moments later the curtain went up. What seemed to be a lifeless body just moments ago was now a living breathing Alan Kerrington. The staff had him raised up in a sitting position in the bed and had freed one on his hands. He was looking at all of them through the large window and smiling as he waved to them followed by an inspection of his own hand, the very one that he had just waved to them with.

The whole family moved closer to the glass in awe of what they had just witnessed. It was one thing to know that a fourteen-year-old boy died and was restored the same day when you're sitting there looking at him, but it was a whole different thing to see an old, dying man restored into a much younger version of him right before your eyes!

They didn't see Bobby restored, they only saw him after it was complete. This time they actually witnessed the whole process, amazing! The staff was already talking with Alan and asking him some test questions as a nurse was freeing him from the remaining restraints. The doctor walked over to an intercom and pressed the button.  
"Congratulations Kerrington family and friends, your loved one is fully restored and doing very well. Please exit the observation area now to your left and proceed to room 876. He will be there in a few minutes for a visit." Alan waved again as they were wheeling him out of the room on the bed.

As the Kerrington's left the observation room, another family was waiting right outside. They were obviously a little nervous and the Kerrington's were all smiling and talking. As they passed, the inbound family was curious.  
"What was it like?" one of them asked as they were passing. Linsey spoke up. "It was the most incredible thing we've ever seen, you're going to love it!"

"It's so cool," added Bobby, "Grandpa got younger in like five minutes!"

The other family was glad to see them coming out so happy about the results and seemed a little relieved as they went on in. In a few minutes the Kerrington's were comfortably seated in a large room that was just like a home family room. It was softly lit and equipped with a well-stocked kitchenette, a large TV, and game console. There was also a spacious balcony with chairs and a table on the other end for large groups.

They had only been there for about ten minutes when the door swung open and a smiling nurse came in pushing Allan in a wheelchair announcing as she came through the door.  
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new and much younger, Alan Kerrington!"

Alan began greeting everyone by name and seemed exactly himself, just so much younger, it was unbelievable.

"Well Dad how do you feel?" asked Dodge.  
"I feel great!" The nurse interrupted politely . . . ,  
"Mr. Kerrington, would you like to stand up and move around a little bit?"  
"Yes, I would like that." She clicked the wheel locks on the chair.  
"Okay you're ready to go."

Slowly and carefully Alan stood up. He began to take baby steps and then sat back down in the wheelchair and released the wheel locks. He moved around the room for a few minutes and began to look comfortable. He rolled over to a large mirror that was on the wall as a decoration more than for checking your hair. He just sat there looking at himself and then he ran his fingers through his thick hair, he couldn't believe it. He turned around and looked at his family.  
"Thank you for talking me into doing this."

He looked back into the mirror and was checking out his new younger look. The nurse was smiling as she left the room. "Well you all enjoy and just buzz me with this button right here by the door if you need anything." The whole family thanked her as she was leaving.  
"No need to thank me, I love this job!"

They continued to visit with Grandpa for another two hours. The nurse returned and called Dodge out to an office adjacent to the visiting room and then Alan's regular doctor came in.  
"Well is everything appearing to be normal?" he asked.  
"Yes, my Father is acting just like himself only much happier because he's no longer sick."

"Okay great, we'll move him down to his recovery room where he'll be staying for the next few days to ensure that he can eat normally and keep down that first meal or two. We'll get him acclimated to his new body and get those muscles working better. After he gets his strength built up he can go home, maybe as soon as Friday."  
"That's great."  
"After we remove him from the visiting suite we'll bring in some questionnaire forms for each of you to fill out. This is standard procedure to make sure he acted normally toward each person and understood his current reality, okay?"  
"All right, thanks Doc."

Dodge returned to the visiting room and they all said good night to his Father. The nurse came back in with the chair and wheeled him down to his recovery room. They filled out the forms which were basic questions like . . . ,

"Did your friend or loved one seem alert and aware of your presence? Did they comment on any current events? If so, what were they? Did your friend or loved one say anything that concerned you in any way? If so what was it?

They finished up the survey forms, thanked the staff, and headed for home.

When they finally got home, it was nearly dinner time and they were all famished. They had completely missed lunch and didn't really think about it because they were so excited and wrapped up in Alan's Restoration.

They did have a snack from the kitchenette in the visiting room but that had long worn off and they were all tired and hungry. They decided to have some cold cut sandwiches and chips because it was quick and easy. Just as they were finishing up, Dodge's phone rang; it was John.  
"Hey John what's going on?"  
"Well I just thought I would call and make sure Alan was all right, how did it go?"  
"Oh man, you have no idea how cool this is. It's the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. You know we've been involved in this technology but I really didn't realize just how smoothly it works. They wheeled in his new body uploaded the file, woke him up and he's just fine."

"Wow, I wish I could have been there to see it."  
"Yeah, if you get a chance to go see one you should. He even got up and took a few steps already."

John was surprised by the simplicity with which Dodge described it. For some reason he imagined that it would be more complicated and tedious than that.  
"I've got an older cousin that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She's planning on getting restored soon. Maybe I'll go watch her procedure. Well anyway, congrats on getting your Dad back, that's great man, I hope he lives forever, he's a good egg."  
"Thanks, I only wish Mom could have lived long enough for this technology to be available."  
"Yeah me too man, I lost both my parents within a year of each other just a few years before the technology was available, at least you have your Dad."  
"That's true, we're very lucky, thanks for calling pal, it was very thoughtful."  
"You bet, I'll see you guys tomorrow night."

Chapter 12 The next morning they all got up and had breakfast together before heading up to the Lifecenter to see Alan. When they arrived to room 876, Alan was sitting up in bed attempting to eat the pink goop. They all knew it wasn't very good because Bobby already described it to them and there was no way it could taste good.

Alan being the jokester that he sometimes was proclaimed to the nurse . . . ,  
"Man this stuff is delicious!"

He said this just as the whole family came in while pretending not to see them.

"Oh hi everyone, I was just telling the nurse how great this pink stuff is!"

Everyone had a good laugh at the awful face Alan made while he finished it quickly enough not to taste it and then took a big drink of tea to wash it down.

"Whoa, yuck, even the tea tastes bad after eating that!"

"So when do you get outta here?" Linsey asked as she leaned in and gave Alan a kiss on the cheek.  
"Hey Son, you better watch out, I'm so much younger and handsome now, does she have a sister?  
"Ha ha Dad, that's hilarious, you know she doesn't."  
"Oh well too bad I'll have to find a date somewhere else I guess. I should be going home in about two days my dear. That is if everything goes well."

Dodge was really glad to see his Dad joking and feeling so great.  
"So Dad, what's it like now that you don't have to cough and fight to breathe?"  
"Oh, goodness it's great. I feel like I could run a marathon, at least on the inside, but my legs are still a little wobbly."

"So do you feel okay in every other way?"  
"Sure ask me anything, I'm sharp as a tack."  
"Dodge thought for a moment.

"All right, I'll try to ask a real stumper here. Um, let's see. What was your sergeant's name in your second deployment to Iraq?"  
"Oh that's easy Son. Sergeant Jerry -long gun- Massman. Ya know they called him long gun because . . . ,  
"He stopped short because he realized it would be inappropriate to mention, but Linsey and Sarah snickered anyway.

Bobby said "What? I don't get it . . . ,

"Let's just say his wife was always smiling," said Allan.  
"Oh now I get it. Man that's bad Grandpa," said Bobby. Everyone started laughing and then Alan's face turned a little red.  
"Hey your father started it, he just had to ask a tough question and I had to prove that I'm still all here."

"Okay Dad, you proved your point, we believe you. So do you think you can take all of us on in a game of hoops soon?"  
"Oh man!" Bobby exclaimed, "I can't wait for that."

Alan agreed that he would try to do just that in exactly two weeks after going home. That would be his goal.

They went on talking for another hour and a half and then they left Grandpa to his rest. They all agreed tacos sounded good, they hadn't gone out to a fast food joint for a while so they stopped on the way home and stuffed themselves with tacos. As they turned onto their street, about a mile from their home, Dodge saw the little blue car with the dark windows going in the opposite direction. It was leaving their neighborhood as they were going in.

They were all laughing and talking and Dodge realized he should not react so he just kept smiling and talking to Linsey as if he didn't even notice it. He had never seen it that close to home before. Now he thought that it probably had been there before and he either didn't notice it or hadn't run into it.

He worried that maybe the tail was busy doing something at their house while they were away, but in broad day light? He felt that it was not likely the tail would enter their home and Dodge was sure that he set the security system when they left.

When they pulled into the garage and got out, Dodge approached the door quickly to make sure he got there first. He wanted to see the status lamps on the security pad. He disabled the system for the family to enter as if everything was normal.

Once everyone had gone their separate ways he returned to the console. The pad showed "secure" but there was an unfamiliar icon that required review on the main panel. When he pressed it a small information box popped up with some text that read, "Unknown Error Zone 6". He went back through the menus and located Zone 6=Garage, Man Door.

Apparently blue car guy wasn't as good at his job as he should have been. Just as he was still viewing the menu the screen blinked and the error disappeared completely. "Okay maybe he was that good, they just got home sooner than he expected." He went back through the history log and the error was gone. It was as if something timed out and erased it. He decided to go have a look at the entry door to the garage off the driveway to see if there were any signs of it being tampered with.

When he opened the door, everything looked pretty normal, and he didn't see any scratches or pry marks. But he was fairly confident someone had been in the garage or at least attempted an entry. He inspected the entry sensor very carefully and still didn't see anything unusual.

He retrieved a small step stool from under the workbench and a magnifying glass that he kept in his tool box. He got up on the stool and took a very close look at the sensor with the magnifier. All four of the tiny Phillips screws that held the cover on the sensor, were slightly scarred as if someone used a power driver on them and the bit slipped slightly in the screw head.

He thought about that for a minute. "This could be done in the factory during manufacture if the power driver's torque setting was too high during assembly." He decided to go look at several of the other door sensors to see if they had a similar condition.

He took out his skyphone and launched a magnifier app. He went to where the next sensor was installed. He opened the door and looked around to make sure no one was watching. He didn't want Linsey or the kids asking questions.

He went around the house and snapped magnified pics of four more identical door sensors. He went back out to the garage and reviewed the pics. The was no damage to the screw heads on any of the other sensors. He also made a note of the serial numbers and when he returned to the garage he looked at the serial on the one with scarred screws and it was in numerical order with the others.

There was no doubt, the sensor had been tampered with for sure. He decided to dig a little deeper. He carefully removed the cover from the sensor and discovered that the insulation on the tiny ribbon cable inside had been scraped away with a sharp object. He really needed to go no further.

He had no way of knowing exactly how the tail entered or if he even did but there was a security compromise of some kind for sure. He put everything back and went into the basement to call John.

The basement was the one place that the family almost never went. It was no longer a finished basement as the previous owner had torn it all out for remodeling prior to them buying the house. He and Linsey planned to fix it up until they discovered they were living in a wet area with a high water table. Estimates for making the basement truly waterproof and useable were very high. Instead of fixing it up they simply added onto the house and now only used the basement for storage and a make shift indoor shooting range to sight in Alan's guns for competitive shooting that he was into. It was nice during the long Indiana winters.

He figured if the house was bugged the tail would have been smart enough to realize from the looks of the basement it was rarely used. His confidence in this decision was confirmed as he descended the stairs and walked through a couple of strands of a spider web that was strung across the way which landed right across his face. If the tail had gone down there that night, the web would have already been passed through. Who knew a little spider could be so helpful.

He dialed up John.  
"Hey Dodge what's up?" Hang on a second John. . . ,  
Dodge noticed his old radio on the bench there where he used to work late at night on soldering projects. He flipped it on for some background noise just in case.

"Okay, I'm back."

"What's up Buddy?"

"On the way home we passed the blue car leaving our neighborhood. When we came in the house, I noticed a problem with the security system. I checked it out and one thing led to another. The long and short of it, looks like the garage might have been compromised."

"Which car were you driving?"  
"The Minivan, why?"  
"Well that leaves your Volvo and the GTO. Unless you've got another vehicle?"

"Nope that's it. You think they might have been bugging them or placing trackers on them."

"I would guess that is exactly what they were doing but I would not recommend trying to find it. If you did and you removed it they would know that we're on to them. We're better off letting them think we don't know.

Just don't call me on the phone from your vehicles any more to discuss anything that has to do with our little mystery until I can have a look. You don't want to exercise complete phone silence either as that would be out of character and they may suspect that they have been detected."

"So what can I do?"

"Just act normal. Listen to the radio, sing along, talk on the phone, whatever you normally do during your commutes."

"Okay, I get what you're saying. Thanks for the help Bro, I was freakin out a little there."  
"You got it man, no worries, come on over tomorrow night and act happy to be wealthy. We'll have a great time at our little party lookin like we don't have a care in the world. If we do a good job of it'll throw them off and buy us more time."  
"Sounds good, see you at seven."

The next day at work went smoothly but Dodge found himself to be rather bored with the whole scene at ESS. The same things that used to seem like normal routines culminating into a day at the office with acceptable levels of accomplishment now seemed like a waste of time. He needed to be elsewhere.

He felt now more than ever that his job there was done and he needed to move on to protecting the incredible yet vulnerable system that they had created. The very system that they created to promote immortality was now being threatened by someone that had no regard for human life. Dodge and his team were working to help the human race attain immortality while the hackers seemed to be hell bent on killing to protect their own self serving criminal motives.

He was zoned out at his desk near the end of the day when Tim rapped his knuckles on the door, bringing him out of his trance.  
"Hey boss, what's goin on?" Said Dodge, "Are we having a good quarter or what?"

Dodge already knew the numbers looked good. He figured if Tim was there for any other reason, bringing up a good quarterly report might distract him.

"Oh, yeah the numbers, they look great, so I take it you read the report and you know why I'm here right?"

Tim got a big smile on his face and reached into his pocket.  
"I'm here to deliver your quarterly bonus."

Dodge had completely forgotten about the bonus. He was so wrapped up in the cloak and dagger events over the past several weeks that he completely lost track of the time. Tim was pulling what Dodge thought would be a check from his pocket but instead presented him with a crisp one dollar bill.

They both started laughing and then Tim quickly whipped the bonus check out of the breast pocket of his jacket.

"Here ya go my friend, you deserve this," he said as he slapped it into Dodges hand and patted him on the shoulder.

"Best quarter ever and I do mean EVER! Our stock is up, the shareholders are happy, and the board is elated with our financial position. Things are good pal, we're all gonna be rich by the time we retire."

Dodge couldn't help but smile, and it felt good. In spite of everything that was going on in the background, right now he was living in the moment and it felt great. He looked at Tim and then the envelope.  
"Hey man, you gonna open it? I'd kinda like to see the look on your face!" Dodge ripped into the envelope like a kid on Christmas morning. He stared at it in disbelief. The check was made out for $365,000!  
"Wow! Why is it so large?" Dodge said while still looking shocked.

Tim was nearly dancing he was so happy.  
"Well Buddy, it seems we made it through our three-year probationary period for the Lifecorder without a single documented malfunction. This was a huge milestone for the company and our investors poured in billions in cash the day after the release of the report. The combination of the huge influx of capital and the press release about the perfect record and the end of the probationary period caused the stock to go through the roof."

"We owe it all to you and your team Dodge. Some of the other teams were instrumental in providing some supporting peripherals but what you guys accomplished was the core. Congrats buddy, you're gonna be splashed across the cover of Time Magazine someday as the man that made immortality possible!"

Tim smacked him on the back firmly and walked out of his office whistling his way up the hall. Dodge just sat there staring at the check. "The stock!" He went back to his PC and opened up his stock options app. He couldn't believe it, he was a millionaire, not just once, but many times over. He had a check in his hands for an enormous amount of money and he had a stock portfolio worth more than eighteen million dollars!

At that moment he had a realization. He was rich because of an announcement, nothing more than some silly reports that made everyone believe in LifeTech and the Lifecorder system. What would happen when they found out it had been breached and the so called "perfect" system was in shambles and riddled with security issues? If he sold the stock now, he could lock in his family fortune and be set for life. If it came out later that he knew of the impending stock fall, then he would be indicted for inside trading and stripped of his wealth. He thought for a moment. "I'll just sell half." He put in the order and sold half the stock and then he transferred the nine million into his personal accounts dividing it equally between his savings and two checking accounts.

"Wow that's a lot of money!" Linsey was really gonna enjoy a nice shopping spree. "Not even Linsey could spend all that money!"

Dodge had always earned a good salary but they had always lived on most of it. What was left went into the company stock as a retirement plan. That smart choice had finally paid off and it was a larger return than he could have ever imagined. Now they could do pretty much anything they wanted to.

Hell he could quit his job! But then he thought that he probably wouldn't, he just wasn't that type of guy. He might not be at this particular job but he would be doing something to stay busy. He shut off his PC, pocketed the check, and headed out for the day. Before he even got out of his office his phone rang. He didn't recognize the number but he answered it anyway because it appeared to be local.  
"Hello, this is Dodge," he said.  
"Is this Mr. Dodge Kerrington?" A female voice came through on the phone.  
"Yes, speaking."

"Mr. Kerrington, this is Sally Macintale from the Central Bank of Noblesville. We just noticed some very unusual activity on your accounts and we're wondering if you had made any deposits today?"  
"Oh, yes, I did actually and they were rather large, is that okay?"  
"Oh, well, yes sir it's marvelous, but we need for you to come into the bank just as soon as you can."

"Well sure, is there a problem?"

"Well Sir, we need to upgrade the type of account you have."

"Really?"

"Yes Sir, there's a limit of 500K on your current accounts, so the deposits you made today just disqualified your current free accounts. Please come in to the main office just as soon as possible, preferably in the next 24 hours."  
"Oh, okay," said Dodge, and then he hung up without saying goodbye. He was still in shock, but he understood that this big money and the activity on his account was flagged right away. "Oh well no more free checking."

As he walked down the hall, he saw his fellow team members in the corridors. Everyone was smiling and several people high fived him. He wasn't the only one that got a huge check but because of his rank he knew he got the largest one by far. What a wonderful day for everyone there, not only did they get bonus checks but several other people had invested a large percentage of their salaries over the years into the stock program just as Dodge had and now they were reaping the rewards.

He felt kind of bad for them. They were oblivious to the impending disaster that was likely to strike. Most of them would probably use their new stock buying power to purchase even more stock on margin, anticipating that it would go even higher. Some of those people would likely lose it all very soon. He knew all this was probable but it was still a good day seeing all those people so happy that they were literally dancing in the hallways.

People he hadn't seen crack a smile in years were suddenly grinning and laughing and gathering around the water coolers and break rooms in undaunted delight. As he made his way out to the parking lot reality began to set in. He had a problem to solve, he might be a rich man but it wouldn't do him any good unless he and John could thwart the attack on the system.

He drove home in the usual manner and just as he predicted in his mind, about half way home he noticed the blue car. The tail was creative if nothing else, this time he was sitting in the second level of a parking garage near the shopping mall adjacent to the main road. Just a few days ago Dodge wouldn't have noticed something like that. Now that he was aware of the tail he had become an expert at locating him, in fact he was actually starting to think like him.

Every time he noticed a convenient nook somewhere he would think, "Now there's a good place to hide and wait for me." The whole thing had become almost like a game, sort of a "Where's Waldo" of cars.

Dodge decided not to care, it was going to be a great night and they were going to have fun. There was the big check in his pocket to show Linsey and then when he told her about the stock she was going to flip for sure. On top of that they were going to a dinner party at a rich friend's house and they were going to eat, drink, and dance.

As he pulled in the driveway he was trying to imagine how he would show Linsey the check and he was also pondering if he should share the news with the whole family or just her. He decided to only tell Linsey for now. They could share it with the kids together at a later time.

As he went in through the garage, he didn't even bother putting the door down. He was tired of locking every door and sneaking to make sure all the windows were locked and looking over his shoulder in a way that no one would notice. Not tonight, tonight he was just going to be Dodge Kerrington with a wife and two kids and a life and now a whole lot of success.

He felt good as he opened the door between the garage and the house. He walked into the kitchen where he was greeted by Sarah and Bobby who were at the table. They had a very old cookbook and their Mother's digital recipe file out looking through them. Dodge was curious.

"What's going on guys?"

"Hi Dad, we're doing something special tonight," said Sarah.

"Oh yeah, what's that?"  
"Bobby and I are going to prepare a meal for just the two of us. I've been doing really well in home economics these last two years and I've cooked with Mom on many occasions. She said since you guys are going to John's, that Bobby and I could make a meal all on our own. We took an inventory of the fridge and pantry and now we're seeing what kind of dinner we want to attempt."

Dodge was impressed. "Okay good, I like the initiative you're taking. I hope it turns out good, just don't burn the house down, okay?"  
"What?" Bobby was dismayed, "that's the exact same thing Mom said. Can you believe that Sarah? No one believes we can cook a meal by ourselves without starting a fire."

Sarah smiled at her Father. Don't worry Dad, we won't burn anything down. Besides, I know where the fire extinguisher is.

"I was just kidding sweetheart, I trust you and your brother to do a great job. AND to do a NICE job cleaning up so that when your Mother and I come in late, the kitchen will be clean and we can go to bed, okay?"  
"Yes Dad, I promise."  
"Yeah," Bobby chimed in, "It'll be spotless!"  
"All right," said Dodge, "I'll hold you to it."

He made his way upstairs to see what Linsey was doing. When he walked into the bedroom, he noticed the entire bed was covered with clothes. Linsey was standing in front of the mirror looking at the dress that she had just put on. It was a pink sun dress with a small flower pattern around the neck and around the hem at the bottom. He had not seen that dress in a while. She was so beautiful wearing it. He just stood there looking at her for a moment.

It seemed like a long time before she noticed him there. She was turning slightly to the left and right while smoothing the dress down over her stomach as if unhappy with her own shape. Suddenly she noticed him there and looked at him in the mirror and smiled.  
"Hey you, how long have you been standing there?"  
"Just long enough," he said. He came up behind her as they both continued to look into the mirror as if they were watching themselves through a window. He wrapped his arms around her as he watched it happen in the mirror.

"Wow, you're in a romantic mood mister is that something large in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" She always was a humorous flirt when they were alone.  
"Well," Dodge replied, "I do have something large in my pants and I promise you that you've never seen one this big! Why don't you just reach in there and grab it!"  
"Whoa, big stud, settle down, we still have dinner and dancing before we get to all that!"

Dodge laughed but didn't let go of her.  
"No seriously reach into my pocket. I have some spending money in there for you and it's all yours. I want you to go on a shopping spree tomorrow. Linsey let out a little yelp and with a huge grin on her face she began digging through his pockets violently.

"Jeeze! I should've tried this a long time ago!" He said jokingly.

Her hand found the check and she pulled it out. Her smile melted away as she looked at it intently. She sat down slowly on the edge of the bed just staring at it for a moment with a blank look on her face.

Dodge was glued to her every move and to every expression on her face. He was enjoying the dramatic reaction. This must have been what Tim felt like every time he handed out a big bonus at work.

Linsey looked up at him.

"Can I really spend this?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yes absolutely, it's yours, do whatever you like."

Linsey's mouth dropped open while she still held the check up in front of her face and looked it over intently. With a more serious look she began questioning.  
"Are you kidding me? What's going on? Why do I have this huge check and why are you giving it to me to spend?"

"Because my dear, our ship just came in, and there's a lot more where that came from."  
"Whoa, wait a minute. Where's this ship and what's it got on it?"

She was up again now and backing him up against the dresser.  
"Well, it seems that our stock went nuts and it split, uh, a few times. My auto buy triggers kicked in and the stock went even higher and that caused my bonus to go up like twenty times more than normal. Anyway were rich!"

Linsey's eyes were huge, not because she was a money hungry person or anything, but mostly because she hated it when Dodge kept secrets from her. Now she smelled a rat.  
"All right, out with it, how much?" She demanded.

Dodge had that look of a school boy caught in a lie. "Well, um, you know, it's up to eighteen million but don't get excited."

"Eighteen million! Oh my god! Don't get excited! Are you nuts? Who wouldn't be excited? A few days ago I was sacrificing my little savings to buy everyone a lifetime membership to the Medic-Star backup service. You walk in here tonight and tell me we have eighteen million dollars plus this huge check and I'm not supposed to get excited!"

Linsey threw her arms up and let out a "woo hoo" as she leaped onto Dodge, knocking him down onto the bed. She leaned over on him and began kissing all over his face.

"Dodge Kerrington, you're the smartest, most handsome man, I've ever known."

She smothered him with more kisses and then paused to smile at him. Dodge looked into her eyes.

"Hey there hot mama, settle down! We still got dinner and dancing to do before all that!"

"Touché, but just wait till I get you in this bed tonight!"  
"I'll hold you to that," said Dodge.

He playfully smacked her on the butt as they got up off the bed.  
"I'm going to finish getting ready now. How about you, you gonna change?" asked Linsey.  
"Yeah, I think I'll take a long hot shower and change into some casual clothes."

While he showered, he couldn't help but think about Linsey's reaction to the check and the fun night that was ahead. He hadn't seen Linsey that excited for a long time. He hated that he would soon have to tell her about the hackers and the potential danger they were facing.

People don't usually want to hear that they are in a dangerous world of cyber-crime, where they could easily be the next targets. LifeTech and potential restoration gave them an edge but somehow someone murdered Ron Simpson and his parents with no hope of being restored. He and John would have to formulate a plan to guard against the same thing happening to them.

They would need a method of avoiding permanent death no matter what the hackers did to them, they had to outsmart them at their own game. As he stood there in the shower relaxing in the hot water he began to formulate a plan, one that he would share with John and the ladies very soon but tonight it was all about having a good time. It was about to get very dangerous and he wanted to be ready but he doubted himself, did he really have the balls to face down a killer? He was just an engineer; he really wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. He would have to use his brain more than brawn. He couldn't beat them at their own game the way they played it. He wasn't normally prone to violence yet he felt an internal conflict beginning to brew and he knew deep down inside there was a welling rage. A wildfire of contempt for these ass holes was burning ever hotter and he knew that if push came to shove he would fight hard for everything that he believed in.

Chapter 13 It was party time. Dodge and John knew that it was more than a party, it was in fact an act. But to Linsey and Amanda it was just a party, just four friends having a great time. Dodge knew that the ladies would be acting completely natural simply because they didn't know anything was going on. Dodge and John agreed that this was for the best and would be very believable for the watchers because it was real.

They were hoping to bring down the hackers and get to the root of their diabolical plan. Of course they were assuming that there was a ring of them but maybe there were just one or two people behind it. Hopefully that would be the case.

As he and Linsey headed out to the garage Linsey turned toward the Volvo while Dodge was heading toward the GTO. They both hesitated then Linsey looked at Dodge and smiled before heading in his direction.

"You sure do love this old hot rod don't you?"

Dodge grinned. "She's my mistress!"  
"You're right," said Linsey. "Now that I have some major spending money I'm gonna get me a sexy little sports car. Maybe even a convertible, something pretty to zip around in."

"That's a great Idea, you should. You've been driving that practical Mom taxi for way too long. You should get whatever you want."

"All right Mr., I will, I might even start on that tomorrow?" At first Dodge thought that would be a bad idea because they needed to focus but then he realized that would be a great thing to do. It should throw off the watchers even more. First they have a party out in the open and then they're out buying a new car the next day.

"Yes, let's do it!" Dodge said.

He figured the hackers already had knowledge of his new found wealth. It was public in the office and it would be in the stockholder's report soon so it couldn't be hidden anyway. If the hackers were even halfway decent at what they were doing then they already knew. Not spending any money would be considered unusual behavior and might even throw up flags.

It was settled, they would buy Linsey a new car right away. As they sped along the freeway toward John's house, Linsey went on about the colors she liked and the different models that she found appealing. Dodge tried to make suggestions where he could but she was so excited he couldn't get a word in edge wise. She was leaning toward dark metallic red and it had to have polished wheels and a sunroof, unless of course she got the rag top. She also said that it had to have the latest entertainment system. "Why not? We can afford it."

They arrived at John's house about five minutes early because Dodge couldn't keep his foot out of the big block and pretty much sped all the way there. If he kept it up, he was going to be getting a speeding ticket soon. "Who cares," I can afford an occasional ticket!

As they pulled up to the gate, it began opening.  
"Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Kerrington," Said Jeeves through the intercom. "Mr. Calhoun is expecting you. Please drive up to the front entrance and we will valet your auto."

They could see his face on the monitor.

"Thanks Jeeves, you look dashing tonight," said Dodge.

"You as well Sir and I see you've brought your lovely wife. How refreshing to see such a pretty face."

Dodge knew Jeeves was insinuating that Linsey was well out of his league. "The clever old dog. Jeeves? Really? I gotta find out this guys real name and then give him a hard time, what an act, especially the slicked back hair and starched shirt."

When he got the time, he would pry out of John how much extra he had to pay that old fart to act like a 1950s butler.

When they pulled up in front of the house John and Amanda were standing there with champagne glasses in hand and a young server was standing alongside with two more glasses of bubbly on a tray awaiting them.

Linsey looked at Dodge with the tips of her fingers over her mouth and let out a little laugh before Jeeves got her door open.  
"Oh my god, it's like life styles of the rich and famous act around here," said Linsey.

Dodge snickered.

"I don't think it's much of an act Hun, the man is loaded." As they were getting out a young man quickly offered to valet the GTO. Dodge reached back in his pocket to retrieve the keys that he had already put away out of habit, he wasn't used to all this service. He knew John was putting on the Ritz to make it extra fun for Linsey and Amanda and for the benefit of the watchers. Not to mention some good old fashioned showing off.

"Yes, thank you young man. Not a scratch now, she's special!"  
"Yes Sir," he answered politely. As they went up the walk to the front doors Dodge looked back and was humored. The young valet was trying to idle the car around back but struggling with it. He was used to cars that nearly drove themselves. The GTO had tons of power and a touchy clutch that took some getting used to, but he did finally get it around there.

Amanda and Linsey were already introduced to one another by John at the curb and were yakking up a storm with each other like two old friends while they made their way through the huge mansion that John humbly called a house.

It became somewhat of a mini tour, as they went along stopping several times, to admire expensive works of art that John collected. They made their way to the main patio which could very easily be seen with the right equipment from several different vantage points just off the boundaries of the property.

John picked that spot in order for the watchers to have a clear view of the festivities and have a good chance at getting audio from their evening as well. They wanted the watchers to believe that this group of people was completely oblivious to being watched or being in any danger whatsoever. The better they could sell them on that point, the less they would be watched, and ultimately the more they could continue to research the hackers undetected.

John's staff did an amazing job at everything including the food which was outstanding. John's Chef served a special fish entre that they couldn't even pronounce properly, but words wouldn't do it justice anyway. They had plenty of the best white wine to go with it and great mood music playing in the background as they ate.

It was a wonderful evening. The weather was perfect and the clear skies allowed for some star gazing. After the meal they talked for a while before the desert was served. Some kind of French pastry with a dark sweet sauce poured all over the top of it. It was delicious and would have probably made them all tired had they not got up to do some dancing.

None of them were exactly ball room dancers but they knew enough to have a good time slow dancing to some classy music. After two sets John cut it on Dodge and Linsey so they switched partners for a dance and that gave Dodge a chance to get to know Amanda better.

She was a very pretty woman and at least ten years younger than John. She had been a professional tennis player as a youth. Having won many titles, she had become quite wealthy from all the endorsement deals. She had also learned to play the piano as a girl and had become quite accomplished as an adult. She promised she would play for them sometime.

Her father introduced her to golf during college and she fell in love with the game. Although not very good at it she still agreed that it would be fun if the four of them played together sometime. She complimented Linsey and said that she was sure that she and Linsey would soon be good friends. John and Linsey were catching up as they danced and talked about Bobby's recovery from Restoration and also the progress that Alan was making. Linsey told John how much she liked Amanda and what a great couple she and John made.

Off in the distance a man was watching them through the scope of a high powered rifle. It wasn't a typical sniper rifle that fired bullets but instead something only an assassin of the highest caliber would possess. It was a technology that few people in the world were aware of. It was based on a very old military design of a rail gun. It was an experimental weapon that could accelerate steel projectiles using very powerful synchronized electromagnetic fields. This weapon could be used to kill a person at long range without leaving a mark on the body and without making any sound. The victim would simply fall over dead for no apparent reason. The projectile was carried in a thin steel shell. The contents within the shell were frozen in liquid nitrogen prior to being fired. Based on careful calculations of distance and air temperature the outer shell of the projectile would break away at seventy five feet from the victim and dissipate into very tiny fragments that were nearly impossible to locate. The frozen core of the projectile contained the poison crystals which were shaped as perfect spheres for accuracy of flight for the last seventy-five feet. The spheres would land in the eye or the mouth where they were absorbed instantly. The poison was completely untraceable by investigators. The conclusion of any decent Medical Examiner would be death by natural causes due to heart failure. The victim could be restored if their lifefile wasn't corrupted, but the man with the gun was working for people who had already taken care of that little detail. He had John Calhoun in his sights and was ready to pull the trigger. He called it in.

"734 to Base. Observing the target participating in what appears to be an outdoor dinner party. They're entertaining guest, Dodge and Linsey Kerrington."

"Copy that 734. Do they appear concerned for their safety?"  
"Negative Base, they appear festive. They're slow dancing out in the open to some kind of classic music."

"Are they outside?"  
"Affirmative Base, for more than two hours now, do I take the shot?"

"Negative 734, stand down. Continue to observe, record their activity and return to base."

"Copy that Base, standing down, observe and return. 734 out."

He moved his finger away from the trigger and applied the safety. He began to disassemble the weapon carefully returning each piece to the foam lined black case for transport. He thought for sure today he would get kill #27 to add to his record, but it was not to be.

The set ended and they switched back again for one more slow dance. The evening went well and ended with great conversation and some fantastic gourmet coffee prepared by some culinary genius in the kitchen. It was most likely the female Spanish Chef that cooked the rest of the meal. It was getting late and so they said their good nights as Dodge and Linsey made their way out to the car that was waiting by the front entrance. They were completely oblivious to the killer over a mile away that spent the night on top of a tall building observing them. His finger having been taunt on the trigger, that if pulled, would have ended John Calhoun's life.

While Dodge and Linsey drove home they had a great talk about Amanda and John and what a dream life those two were living. What a cool thing that a man could start with nothing as John did and make it so big. He was just an average young man that worked hard and worked his way up into the huge success he was today. He was truly living the American Dream. They both realized that they too had made it, now they were going to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Immortality was here and prosperity had become a reality for them, what a wonderful time to live. They arrived home at 9:45 p.m. and felt more relaxed then they had in a long while. They made their way in and found the kids quietly watching TV in the family room. Thank God the kitchen was all cleaned up, and not burned down as they had humorously feared. They didn't really want to visit with the kids tonight they had other activities in mind. They stuck their heads in just for a second.  
"Hi Kids. We're going up to bed, see you in the morning."

"Okay," they both replied without looking away from the TV.

"Don't stay up all night."

"We won't," said Sarah.

The kids knew what this type of quick informative conversation meant when their parents came in late after a night out. As Dodge and Linsey made their way up the stairs they heard Bobby snicker and say something in a low voice to Sarah.

Sarah shushed him, and added, "Shut up dweeb, what do you know?"

They couldn't help but snicker themselves at the kids as they made the top of the stairs. Dodge was feeling debonair so he whisked Linsey right off her feet and carried her into their room. He kicked the door shut with his heel and tossed her onto the bed before beginning to undress. He didn't want to think about anything else tonight, the long talk could wait. Right now they both had one thing on their minds and that was all that mattered.

Linsey was a regular fire cracker again tonight and Dodge could barely keep up with her. When they finally came up for air it had been over an hour and they were both exhausted, what a night. Dodge remembered a romantic slump about two years ago, but lately the magic was back, must have been something in the air or the water. "Whatever it was, if you could bottle it, you could sell it!"

In the very early hours of the morning, Dodge awoke to his wrist watch alarm vibrating. He put it back on just before he went to sleep as part of his master plan to break the news to Linsey. John slipped him a box of cigars at the party and even announced, "Dodge my old friend, these cigars are for you. I had these imported from Cuba, smoke them carefully and don't get caught, it might cost you a night in jail."

After their romp Linsey went to the bathroom to freshen up and change into some comfortable shorts and tee shirt to sleep in. While she was changing Dodge opened the Cigar box and found a note that said, "Cigars are good but there's more." Under the first layer of cigars he found a digicard with complete instructions and a small bag of electronic goodies. He viewed the sequence. #1 use the enclosed device to detect bugs #2 the four small disc are scramblers, locate the bugs then peel and stick a scrambler as close as possible to the device. #3 do this in complete silence, any noises you make will be heard. #4 have your talk with your gal, remove each of the scramblers #5 act as normal as possible and have normal conversations in the room there after, any change in behavior or total silence will be a tell that the bugs have been discovered. Call me tomorrow.

He waited until Linsey was sound asleep. He knew she would be horrified once she found out that strangers were listening in on the most intimate parts of their lives but this was the most convincing of all acts that would make the watchers believe that they were still undetected.

Using the electronic sniffer he found in the box, he moved around the room very quietly and carefully. Within seconds he found two listening devices placed in very close proximity of one another. He figured this was for redundancy just in case one failed the second would serve as a backup.

He quietly peeled and stuck a disc near each of the bugs. The tiny blinking led on the disc, switched from red to green, after about two seconds of being placed. Obviously this indicated that the bug's transmission was locked in on and blocked. Dodge understood that the place was clean and he could talk freely with Linsey.

Linsey Kerrington awoke the next morning to Dodge sitting on her side of the bed with a tray containing coffee cups and all the necessary extras for coffee the way she liked it. She sat up a little.

"Wow? A big check, a night out, dancing, a wild romp, and now coffee in bed, you must be trying for an encore huh?"

An encore of last night had crossed his mind as he watched her sleeping, but now the time had come for the talk, one that would certainly put a damper on their previous euphoric mood.

"Well, sweetheart," he said with a smile, "I made you your favorite coffee, the kind with the extra chocolate and I toasted you an English muffin. I even hung out the do not disturb sign on the door this morning, but not for our usual reasons, instead I have something very important that I would like to talk to you about."

"Okay, I'm listening," said Linsey, as she took I long sip of her coffee. No matter what intro Dodge could have concocted, there was really no way to smooth this situation out in a more palatable way, so he started from the beginning.

He told her about the project he was secretly working on for years. He told her about the huge bonus he would be receiving upon retirement, which now seemed less important because they were already rich. All of this upset her somewhat because he kept it from her for so long, but she understood that he had no choice if he wanted to keep his job.

Then he told her the rest of it. At first she didn't believe him so he showed her some of the documents. She read some of the details about Ron Simpson and his parents and the childhood doctor.

She realized it was no joke and that it was actually a dangerous situation. He showed her the bugs. There was one just behind the headboard of their bed, and another inside a lampshade next to a small sofa that they sometimes used for reading at night. Linsey put her hands over her mouth and tears began streaming down her face.

"They're going to kill us! They are, we can't stop them."

She was headed toward hysterical when Dodge grabbed her into his arms and held her tight. He kissed her forehead.

"No dear, I won't let that happen, don't say that! Listen, John and I are all over this. We have our own plan to take these guys down. Don't worry these guys don't know who they're messing with."

Linsey calmed down a bit.

"What are you going to do?" She asked, as he wiped the tears from her face?  
"Look, John, Dad, and I, are the only ones that are in, and now you. Soon Amanda will know too, if not already."

"The party last night was fun, but it was also a way to put the watcher's minds at ease that we're oblivious to them. This should buy us a good amount of time. I can tell you more details later but for now you must do exactly as I say and you gotta keep your head. We have to be strong for us and for our children. We can all make it out of this alive if we're smart about it. You and I have been talking now for two hours. The watchers that are listening in on these bugs will believe that after last night we're simply sleeping in, but we can't keep radio silence much longer or they'll get suspicious."

"What!" Linsey looked confused. "You mean we have to keep those damn things in our bedroom?" Then she put her hands over her mouth again. "Oh my god, we sure gave them an ear full last night! Didn't we?"

He smiled. "Yeah we sure did, and that's exactly the kind of normalcy that is so believable. I'm sure there was a couple of yahoos listening somewhere and laughing their butts off because they think they invaded our privacy. It won't be so funny when they're looking up the barrel of a swat rifle and getting a knee jammed in their back. I know it's a lot to ask but we have to act as normal as possible to keep these guys at bay."

Linsey sat there for a moment hugging her pillow.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"  
"That's my girl! Well first of all, don't change anything about your routine, if we stick to it they won't think suspect anything. Second, they can only hear us they can't see us so that's to our advantage. So long as we're indoors we can use hand signals or pass notes if needed. John already has a plan to intercept the signal from these bugs and send a failing battery message out on its com link channel. First then we'll disable it and replace the good battery with a dead one. They'll have to switch to the backup bug and then we'll do the same thing to it about a week later. They'll be irritated by this but not suspicious. They'll need to get back in to replace the bugs and when they do we'll be ready."

"John plans to hack the bug's transmission section to add a secondary harmonic on the carrier frequency that only we can detect. When they retrieve the bugs, they'll take them back to their workshop. When they do they'll be unwittingly giving up their position. The hacked bugs will be sending out that extra signal every few seconds. John will have sniffer cells throughout the skyphone network that will triangulate those signals and voila, we'll have at least one of their locations. Soon we'll have our watchers watching them."

Linsey was amazed, she had no idea her husband possessed these skills.  
"Okay," she agreed. "I'll do whatever it takes to get our family out of this."  
"Just act normal, take the kids wherever you normally do, go to all the places that you normally would, don't change anything.

And don't worry, John and I have a plan that we believe is bullet proof. We're gonna find these guys and take them down. They should've known better than to mess with us, after all we created this thing not them."

"All right, now I have to bring the bugs back on line and we're going to pretend like we just woke up, we'll have a conversation and act normal."

He went to each bug and removed the little disc near it as quietly as he possibly could. He put them back into the Cigar box and quietly lay back down on the bed.

"Hey, good morning lover," he said to Linsey.  
"Good morning stud," Linsey said and then put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  
"So how about we get up and take everyone out for breakfast?"  
"Well, it's getting a little late for breakfast, looks like we slept in."

Dodge nodded at her in approval, "She should have been an actress."   
"All right we'll call it brunch then."  
"Sounds like a great plan to me," Linsey said as she stretched. "After last night I didn't really want to get up and cook anyway."

They both got up and began getting ready. They had plenty to do today. They were taking the whole family out for brunch and then he and Linsey would be going car shopping. This time it was all about her. She would get her very own sports car, just like she had before they got married.

Less than five miles away in the center of a very old foundry that appeared abandoned a man stood alone before a large computerized console. He was an ambitious man, much like Dodge Kerrington. He too had worked hard to get where he was and he also had dreams and goals that he intended to see through.

Even though he and Dodge had those points in common that was about it, everything else about the two of them was completely different. He was not family man and he didn't care for anything or anyone other than himself. It seemed as though he was driven to destroy anything in this world that made normal people happy.

He was a very wealthy man and he had worked hard to get it. In fact he had worked so hard to get his wealth, that had he done it legally, he would have probably still been quite wealthy. But not this man, every rule he had ever been presented with was broken as quickly as he could devise a way. Every structure of working organized society was viewed by him as something that needed crushing and he was his own self-appointed man for the job.

His name was Cyrus Slade. He was viewing fresh reports just printed out from a large complex console that stood before him. The old foundry was really just a shell, the perfect disguise for a very strong bunker of a lair. He and his underlings had been working to build this fortress inside the old foundry for more than 12 years. It was high tech on the inside but very inconspicuous on the outside.

Cyrus's plan was insane just as he was, yet it was simple and perfectly executed so far. He intended to systematically rob the wealthiest families throughout the world and convert all that wealth into enough power to take over the United States Government via bribery and corruption. With the White House and the Pentagon in his clutches, he would use the incredible might of the U.S. military to take over the rest world one country at a time starting with the smallest ones first and working his way up until he had them all. He was truly insane and would stop at nothing to reach his goal. He was determined to rule the world.

He knew the timing was right. Most of the rest of the world was still recovering from the pandemic, so they would be easy targets. The execution of his plan, while still in its infancy, would soon come to a head as he finally obtained the key to the LifeTech system. It was the one missing link that he needed to guarantee his success.

All he needed now were the two people that really understood this technology, the inventors themselves. He would soon have them in his lair, locked away, and under his control. Once these things were in place there would be no one else knowledgeable enough about the LifeTech system to stop him.

He would groom an attractive young candidate to come out as a politician for the following election to run for presidency of the United States. He would hijack the minds of the most intelligent people and leaders all over the world. Being controlled beyond their will, they would support him both verbally and financially.

There would be no stopping him. Once in control of the greatest nations he would carry out the rest of his plan. Not only would he be the singular ruler of the free world, he would also rule forever as immortality was here to stay. His administration would decide who would be allowed to live and who would be eliminated. As he read the reports a subtle grin tried to come across his face but he denied it. In his mind he laughed but on the outside he showed no emotion. The reports were clean and to the point, no clutter.

Kerrington Residence;

Condition: normal

Behavior: unexpected above average contentment due to new found wealth

Activity: celebrating new wealth with friends and family

Surveillance: Audio functional, watchers assigned

Video: None

Note: Seem unaware of any potential threat

Agent: No. 734

Calhoun Residence;

Condition: Normal

Behavior: Content, New Girlfriend

Activity: Hosted dinner party for Kerrington's, had meal/music/dancing outdoors in plain sight with no cover

Surveillance: Line of sight only, Audio: none, Video: none (state of the art security preventing penetration in both autos and home)

Note: Seem unaware of any potential threat

Agent: No. 734

They now had surveillance on the Kerrington's and it was good. They were getting good information about John Calhoun as well due to spill over between them. Soon the unsuspecting Dodge Kerrington and John Calhoun would awaken in his captivity as clones but the world would never know.

Their deaths would seem accidental and no one would conclude that Cyrus had them working for him in his own private lab. When he was through with them, he would simply erase them. They were expendable for sure, but for right now he needed them. He needed to drain their brains and keep them under his authority, with all of the experts working for him, who could stop him? He continued his research determined to find a way into the Calhoun fortress.
Back at the Kerrington house everyone was acting normal but Linsey and Dodge knew things were far from normal, very far. Linsey took Bobby and dropped him off at a ball game then had to swing back by the high school to pick up Sarah who was working as an instructor in a summer gymnastics camp for grade school kids.

She earned a little pay for it and also gained points toward a scholarship for gymnastics to the college of her choice. Linsey couldn't help but be proud of Sarah for working so hard toward her dream. Soon they would be able to tell the children of their new found wealth, she looked forward to giving Sarah the choice of attending any college she wanted, with the best gymnastics programs available.

While Linsey was doing her normal running Dodge sat in front of the TV with a ball game on and got really into it once in a while and was yelling at the TV.

"You idiot, I can't believe you missed that!"  
"Way to hustle, yes!"

Even though he wanted to watch the game and think of nothing else he couldn't. Every waking moment of the day he was forging a plan in the back of his mind.

How could he and John do all the things they needed to do to bring these guys down while being continually watched? They needed the freedom to move about and conduct research without being detected, if only they could . . . , then it hit him, yes! that's it, they needed to clone themselves!

Their clones could continuously do everything that needed to be done and then report back to them on a daily basis. The watchers would be watching John and Dodge and would have no idea they had clones off somewhere else doing extensive research.

It was a great idea but implementing it would be awful tricky. How would they get the clones grown for the process? Where would they get the equipment to do the uploading? How would they get reports sent to them and instructions for the next step relayed without being compromised?

Clean communication without detection would be crucial to the success of such a plan. Dodge decided to call John. He went down to the basement and scanned it for bugs, it was clean. He dialed up John.

"Hey John, can you talk?"  
"Sure I'm in lab, it's clean, I just checked it again this morning. What's on your mind?"

"I got an idea. I wanted to go over it with you to see if you think it's workable."  
"Okay shoot."

Dodge laid out the whole thing and John thought it was brilliant. They didn't know exactly how they would get everything they needed just yet, but the theory of how it would work seemed sound. Instead of communicating every day with their clone, they would devise a system to interlace the IHE (individual human experience) of both the clone and surrogate into one file daily. During each sleep cycle, the combined IHE files would load tandem into both the surrogate and their clone. When they both awoke everything the clone experienced and discovered would be completely known by the surrogate and everything the surrogate experienced and discovered would be known by the clone. It would be the perfect communications link that couldn't be deciphered even if it were intercepted.

Every good scientist knew that it was impossible to decrypt memories and that those files were useless to everyone except the original subject or the clone there of. It was the perfect plan and it would leverage their time in a very useful manner.

The next step was to figure out how to obtain all the equipment they needed to create the clones and a place to do it. They would also need to mask it as some normal activity. They still had a lot more figuring to do. John said he would check with an old friend at the pentagon that owed him a favor and he might be able to locate some equipment through that source and others.

Dodge continued to think about the whole plan, but was somewhat dumbfounded as to how they could really get the equipment needed without committing crimes. A complete Lifecenter Restoration Console didn't exactly fit in your pocket. He really didn't want to be involved in criminal activity but he didn't see any other way.

On top of that, he didn't see how they would be able to go out and do the things needed in order to get their clones in place while being watched constantly. He would continue to think about it, but for now there were other concerns at hand.

It was time to go see his father at the Lifecenter. He should be about ready to come home and the whole family was anxious to see how he was doing. They had only talked to him on the phone a few times the last two days because their schedules were crazy. They were running Sarah and Bobby to several different things that all seemed to pile up in a two-day span. They all met up at the dinner table early for some spaghetti with meat balls and a salad, it was quick but still quite healthy. They all pitched in to clear the table and load the dish washer in record time, then headed out to the van and jumped in.

On the way to see Alan they talked about all the things he told them about on his bucket list, it was fun to think about him doing all those youthful things again. When they arrived at the Lifecenter and entered Alan's room he was in good spirits and he was going through his things.

His face lit up when he saw them coming in.  
"Hey everybody thanks for coming up, it's so good to see you" he said, as he began hugging them one by one.  
"I was starting to think you guys forgot about your old Grandpa" he said as he grabbed Bobby in a neck hold.  
"Yeah right Grandpa, you don't look so old anymore" Sarah said with a smile, in fact you look so young and handsome; I see why the nurses all like you so much, that one with the dark hair is eyeing you, so you better watch out!" Alan looked up and around like he was searching for the lady. "oh yeah, is that right? I gotta peel the ladies off of me now, so you all might have to sneak me out when I leave."

They all continued joking about how young he looked again.  
"So Dad, how are you feeling? Are you eating well? Looks like you've gained some weight."  
"Oh yeah, you wouldn't believe it, I've gained ten pounds already and I even did a push up this morning, haven't been able to do that in fifteen years! Man, I feel so good it's unreal, like a dream! I get to go home tomorrow that's why I'm organizing my things." The whole family was shocked. They thought he would have at least two more days.

"Dad, do you want to come and stay with us for a while? You know just until you get stronger," asked Linsey.  
"Oh, no dear, I really appreciate the offer but I have a whole list of things I need to do around that old house and now I actually feel like doing them. I can't wait to get home and get into a routine. I'm even planning a fishing trip with my buddies in two weeks. They were all up here yesterday and we planned the whole thing out, it's gonna be a real blast!"  
"Okay Dad, that's fine you should do whatever you want, we completely understand that," said Dodge.

They all went on talking until visiting time was over. Alan told the kids some great stories about his time in the military that they hadn't heard before; he felt they were old enough now. He told stories about how he and their Grandmother struggled as a young married couple while raising Dodge and his younger sister Cindy who had died of an unusual childhood disease.

He wished that the Restoration was available back then so that she and their Grandmother could have been saved; he missed her now more than ever. He loved the idea of staying with his family but said that someday he would like to die. He didn't want to live forever because he would not get to see her again if he stayed in this life. He was certain that she was in heaven waiting for him to meet her there.

Visiting hours were over and they all said their goodbyes and made their way out. On the ride home nobody had too much to say, as they were all pondering the things Alan had said about the hereafter and how he wanted to see his lovely wife again in heaven. It was a lot to think about. Immortality seemed great on the surface but there did seem to be a price to pay one way or the other as a result of having it.

Dodge wondered if they had done a good thing or not, he pondered the same question before but the positive side of his mind always won out by saying, "look at the lives it saves." Right now though, he felt a small part of himself that was still unsure.

When he laid his head down that night his mind was reeling with many thoughts, he would have loved to talk about them with Linsey but the bugs were always on and so they talked about the normal things of the day and about Alan and his returning home tomorrow and everything it involved until they both drifted off to sleep.

The next morning while eating breakfast Dodge's phone rang, it was John. Linsey knew as Dodge answered it by the way he looked at her that he was heading to the basement to talk so she distracted the kids with ambitious talk of everything they needed to do in their busy day ahead.

"Hey Dodge, how's it going?" John's voice crackled with anxiousness. "Can you talk?"  
"Yeah I can. I'm just heading to my space." John knew he meant the basement so he paused while Dodge made his way down.

"All right, I'm downstairs what's up?"  
"Well Buddy I figured out the problem of how to get the equipment without being seen doing it."  
"Oh, yeah how's that?"

"Well we aren't doing it. I've called in a favor from my friend at the pentagon instead. This buddy of his knows the Captain of a decommissioned Black Ops team that is really itching for some action. Seems since the last UN treaty was signed the Black Ops program has pretty much been dismantled."

"These guys were the last team in service that was forced into early retirement and now they have nothing to do. I told them we had an international level conspiracy that needed thwarting and the team Captain started salivating all over himself. I told him we needed them to extract the entire working upload unit from a Lifecenter or maybe a hospital. He said they could do it, but it would cost us twelve million dollars, which they would divide up amongst the twelve team members needed for a heist of that magnitude."  
"Wow, that's a lot of cabbage!"  
"If you want the best you gotta pay for it, and I will, I'm okay with that."

Dodge felt a little uneasy about it.

"Do you think we can trust these guys?"  
"Absolutely," John came back very confidently.

"These guys are sworn to secrecy on so many missions that it would make your hair stand on end if you knew the things they had done already for our country. Besides, I know the Captain personally, he's the one that got my team the security breaching contract years ago, this guy's solid Dodge, no worries."

Dodge knew that if John was that adamant about it then he could trust it to be true.  
"Okay Buddy, so how's this going down?"

"Well, these guys are saying, the best way to do this is to appear as a bunch of reckless thugs robbing a hospital or Lifecenter of anything and everything of any value. They'll dress like a bunch of guys in a gang. They'll go in with hair pieces on, fake tattoos, leather jackets with chains, dark glasses, a biker gang gone bad sort of look."

"After they knock the staff around a bit they'll take the equipment that we need and high tail it outta there. The media, the police and authorities will chalk it up as some run of the mill thugs doing a smash and grab job. The best way to put the authority's minds at ease is to not take the whole system. With this strategy they'll know that the thieves didn't get a complete system and it will be useless to them."

"You and I will have to come up with whatever pieces are missing. When we get the equipment to our own location we'll have to build the missing pieces that we already have into it and get it all working."

"John, I like the way you think Bro, I was laying in bed last night and couldn't come up with a way but you did."  
"Hey my man, that's what makes us a good team!"

"All right so that will work but where are we going to take the equipment once we have it? You know, where is our lair going to be? If we're going to have these clones activated and working for us we had better find a secure place to do it that our hackers won't discover, any ideas?"

"Yes, actually, I'm working on that. There is an old dairy farm out in a little farm community called Lapel. It's right here in Indiana and only about a thirty minute drive. This old dairy building is all brick, really solid. My uncle bought it about forty years ago for a song and started fixing it up. He was convinced the world was going to end at some time predicted by this crazy television preacher he was watching. Anyway my uncle had a small fortune that he made in the stock market and he decided to spend his life savings on a bunker that he would put in under this old dairy farm building.

So he has a ton of work done on the place, installs three phase power generators with backups, security galore and it was all stealth. Only a few of us family members know about it and of course his widow my Aunt Ruth.

The place just looks like an old run down dairy farm with a plain, little, house out front. The truth is it's more like a private arsenal with just about every type of old weapons system you can think of with tons of food and water stored inside.

As the years went by he realized the world wasn't going to end after all, so he sort of lost interest in it, and now that he has passed away, my Aunt is stuck with the place. She knows that I'm the only other mad scientist type in the family and thought I might be interested in it. She always said I was a lot like Uncle Rob.

I told her I wasn't interested, but when this thing came up it crossed my mind and so I called her yesterday. She said it still hadn't sold and if I wanted it I could have it for 60 percent of the original asking price; she just wants to get out of there. She intended to move down south and enjoy what time she had left in a warmer climate. I said yes and now we have ourselves an awesome lair.

My uncle was a scientist of sorts but not a very good business man. He was always working on inventions that he thought he could sell and make a fortune but none of the stuff ever worked out because he didn't know how to market his creations.

Since he made his fortune in the stock market, he gave up on the tinkering. The good news is the old dairy building is not only a doomsday bunker; it's also a fully stocked workshop. He had a complete metal working shop chock full of tools and a complete laboratory with microscopes, electronics equipment, and all kinds of high tech goodies.

Some of its probably useless now but allot of it was fairly new stuff that he purchased within the last five years or so. A lot of the instrumentation and electronics items might prove useful in putting together and fixing the equipment when it comes in from the heist.

Dodge knew this was probably the best they could get in such short notice.

"When can you get possession?"  
"Just a few days, I'm wiring the funds into my Aunts account tomorrow, she's so excited that she's already packing for her trip to Georgia. I hired a team of professional movers to go help her out. She was elated because she's getting old and can't do things like she used to. She would have probably taken a year or two moving out but this way it will only take two days. The movers are on their way there now and I even gave them a bonus to be extra sweet to my aunt. I told them to do whatever she wants and I'll pay them another bonus on top of their regular fee after it's all done."

"Sounds great Bro, I can't wait to see this place."  
"So when do you think the Black Ops team should strike and where?" asked Dodge.  
"Well I'm still working on that but I am also letting them advise us on it. These guys are good and they are doing some poking around. They are looking for life centers in police zones that have the slowest response times and then cross referencing that with distance between districts and a few other factors to make a determination on the safest targets to consider."

"Oh, wow, they are good huh?"  
"Oh yeah, these guys are pros' man, they'll do plenty of research before they strike. They'll even have alternate escape routes complete with diversionary vehicles in case of a police chase, these guys don't get caught."

Dodge was impressed.

"Okay Buddy sounds good, hey how did Amanda take the news about all of this?"  
"Well frankly my friend, she flipped out, she said it was just too much and she's scared to death. I told her we would stage a spat out in front of the house; she could announce that she was going to her mothers in Virginia for a while to sort things out. This way she can leave town until this blows over."

"Good idea man, no need to have additional bodies in harm's way, and we certainly don't want her blowing our cover."  
"Yeah, exactly, and I think she will be just fine when this is all over."  
"I hope so Buddy, she really seems like a great gal for you and she's not hard on the eyes at all." John laughed.

"You aint kiddin bro, she's a keeper! How's Linsey holding up?"

"Well, she's in a little deeper now and has nowhere to run, just like you and I. She says that she can handle it, and she seems to be playing along nicely, she's a pretty tough lady especially when someone messes with her family."  
"Good I'm glad to hear it, I always knew she was tough because she puts up with you!"

"Very funny, but I would have to agree with you, I don't know how she does it."  
"Okay Buddy, stay tuned, when I hear back from the Black Ops on when they intend to make their move, I'll call you so that we can discuss the plan, fine tune it, and then give them the go ahead."

"All right talk at ya soon." As Dodge ended the call, he realized he had been down there a little too long, so he hurried back up to the kitchen. Linsey and the kids were finished eating but were still at the table talking. He sat back down and finished up his plate while they all talked about their plans for the day.

As soon as the kids got up and left he and Linsey went down to the basement for a few minutes and he filled Linsey in on the details of the plan.  
"I'm scared," she said.  
"I know Hun, I am too, but we have to be strong. This is bigger than just us, this is really a threat to our entire way of life, we still don't know exactly what these guys are after but I'm sure it's big. If we wait until we know everything, it might be too late."

"Why don't we just go to the authorities?" asked Linsey.  
"Because, we don't know how high up this thing goes, we don't know what people they have in their circle. We have to find out more but in order to do that we need to work at it full time. We can't work at it full time because they are watching us for precisely that kind of activity. This is why the lair and the clones and all the secrecy is necessary. Once we find out exactly who and what we're dealing with then we may be able to go to the authorities with it. Until then we'll just have to act normal and wait."  
"Okay, I'll do my best," said Linsey in a somewhat reassuring tone.

Chapter 14 It was time. Alan Kerrington was coming home today at 10:00 a.m. With the phone call from John and all the thoughts churning in Dodges head he spaced it. He was brushing his teeth when he remembered and he shot a quick glance at the clock on the bathroom wall. Phew! It was only 9:15 they still had time to get over to the house and put out the balloons and the banner that the kids made.

It didn't really matter that he forgot because he knew Linsey hadn't forgotten. She was really good at remembering times and appointments. Alan would have preferred no fuss, but that wasn't going to fly with Linsey and the kids, they loved doing that kind of stuff.

He quickly finished up and ran downstairs where Linsey and the kids were rolling up the banner and putting rubber bands around it for transport. Linsey had a tote complete with balloons ribbon and some clear tape.  
"Oh, good, I'm glad you came down. Grab the cake off the kitchen table and we're ready to go."

They all filed out to the garage with everyone carrying an armload of things. Linsey had a tendency to overdo it sometimes but it was always well received because everyone knew she meant well.

They arrived at Alan's house with just enough time to blow up the balloons to put out on the light pole in the front yard, hang the "welcome home young grandpa" banner on the front porch and plop down in the chairs to wait.

Sure enough right on time the limo arrived. All the life centers provided a free limo ride home for the newly restored. It was a really neat way to come home, like starting a new life with a little celebrity status.

Alan spotted them as the car rounded the corner, he popped out the sunroof and began waving at the imaginary crowd on both sides of the street as if he were in a major holiday parade. "What a nut!" The kids loved it. Alan was so happy and full of life. It made them all feel great.

As the car pulled into the drive, Alan had the door open before it stopped and bounded out of it like a youth. He threw his arms up toward them.

"I'm home!"

They all went out to greet him. Dodge and Bobby both tried to shake his hand but he pulled them in for a hug. Linsey and Sarah were both tearing up and gave him hugs and kisses. The limo driver presented them with a fruit basket and a bottle of complimentary bubbly, as was their standard procedure, before quietly leaving them to their little celebration.

They made their way onto the porch where Alan thanked them for the banner and balloons and then they went inside and enjoyed Alan's favorite cake, pineapple upside down cake with ice cream.

The kids went outside to talk to some neighbor kids that they always liked to play with when visiting. Linsey, Dodge and Alan sat at the kitchen table and enjoyed some coffee and conversation. While it was still going on, Dodge pulled a note from his pocket and handed it to Alan.  
"Just keep talking to Linsey, act natural." Alan knew it must have to do with the hackers so he did exactly as instructed.

He and Linsey did their best to continue a normal conversation as they watched Dodge. He got up, pulled the detection device from his pocket and began moving around the room. The device was silent and only had blinking lights on it to indicate if a bug had been found.

He spent about two minutes scanning the room including a few seconds standing on the chair he had been sitting in so that he could scan the light fixture just above the kitchen table. He jumped down and returned the device to his pocket.

"All clear," he said as he sat back down. Alan was looking at him like he was a loon or something.

"You two mind telling me what the Sam hill is going on?"

"Remember what I told you about right before you went into the Lifecenter?"  
"Yeah, I figured it had to do with that."  
"Well it's gotten a little more complicated."  
"Apparently!" Alan said sarcastically.

The next half hour was spent bringing Alan up to speed. They explained that he might also be under surveillance and that he really needed to act normal but to be careful.

"Don't be looking over your shoulder all the time," said Dodge.  
"Don't worry you two, I'll be acting normal but I'll be on high alert. Remember I'm a veteran and I have seen plenty of action. I can keep a cool head under pressure. You two stay safe and for god sakes carry some protection!"

"We don't have carry permits Dad," said Dodge.

"Come down to the basement with me."

They went downstairs and there on two large tables in the middle of the room lay an entire arsenal of weapons. They were all cleaned and loaded, with extra boxes of ammo next to each one.

Linsey let out a little noise of some kind.

"Oh god, I don't like this, I really don't." Alan turned and grabbed Linsey by the shoulders.  
"Listen young lady you're the sweetest, most precious thing in my life. When Dodge brought you home that first time to meet Mother and I, we knew right then and there that he couldn't do any better. You're the best daughter-in-law any man could ever ask for and I love you dearly. Now I want you to listen to me because you know how much I love you and I would never steer you wrong." Linsey was shocked by his sternness, and she had never seen that look in his eye.

"Listen," he said. "There's this old Clint Eastwood movie where he's holed up in a cabin with some friends that weren't used to fighting. They were about to get into a gun battle when Clint gave them a little advice. He said, "When things get bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, you gotta get mean, I mean plum mad dog mean, cause if you lose your head and give up, then you neither live nor win, that's just the way it is."  
"That's what this situation is like darlin', you gotta fight fire with fire, you can't throw smiles at these guys, they'll stomp a mud hole right in ya, do ya understand what I'm saying?"  
"Yes, I do, I'm sorry, I just really hate guns! But I understand, I do, I know we need them."  
"That a girl, I knew ya had it in ya!" He said as he patted both her shoulders.

Alan spun around and looked at Dodge who was standing there in amazement. His Father was the only man he had ever known that could talk to a woman that way and make it work.  
"Son, I want you to take four or five of these, there's an empty cake box up stairs that will hold several weapons and some ammo, you stuff your pockets as well. Linsey, I want you to look at these smaller ones and pick something out you think you can handle. Son, I know you can handle a gun because I taught you well, but you're gonna have to take her home and go down to the basement for some instruction, do you still have the range down there?"

"Oh, yeah, it's still there, might have to move a few things around but it's there."  
"All right, good." Dodge and Alan were watching Linsey, she was still standing there looking over the smaller guns.  
"Well Hun, go ahead, pick out the one you like," said Alan.  
"Well, that one's kind of pretty," she said, as she pointed at one with a pearl handle. Dodge and Alan laughed, they both had a feeling she would do something like that, but it didn't matter they were all guns and they all worked.

"Okay, dear, here, I knew I could count on you to pick the pretty one." He picked up the pistol, removed the clip and checked the chamber for a round. He put the gun in Linsey's hand.

"It's not loaded," he said. "Now point it at the wall over there and see how it feels."

Linsey smiled a little bit.

"Yeah, I think I could shoot this one."  
"All right dear, just so you know that's a Ruger 380 Auto and it holds seven rounds, it was Elizabeth's favorite."  
"It was, that makes it better, I'm glad I picked it."  
"Yeah she used to kid me about it. She said, "If you have to shoot someone at least with this gun you could do it with some style."  
"Okay, well, she's got hers, what's it going to be for you Son? Take whatever you want now and you can come back later and get more or I can come over with my tool box later like I'm fixing something at your house and tote a couple in that way."

Dodge surveyed the massive collection.  
"Why do you have all these out anyway Dad?"  
"Well, I figured If I didn't make it through the procedure, you would be reading my will and finding out that these were left to you anyway. I cleaned all of them real good one last time, you know how much I enjoy my collection."  
"Okay, fair enough."

Dodge knew which ones Alan loved the most and steered clear of those.  
"Okay I guess I'll take the Smith & Wesson Snub nose 38 and the two 9 mil. Glock's"  
"Good choices Son, I'll go upstairs and grab the cake box." As Alan went up to get the box Linsey stood by Dodge holding the gun in her hand still looking a little awkward.  
"Don't worry you probably won't have to use it and neither will I. It's just insurance, you know, help us sleep a little better at night."  
"Sleep!" Linsey shot back sarcastically, "Who's gonna be sleeping?"

"Look, I'm scared too babe, but we really have no choice but to fight this, otherwise we may well just end up another train accident, something that no one can explain, our LifeCorders mysteriously failed to work properly and our Life Files got corrupted somehow. You know I told you about how Ron and the others died and couldn't be restored for those reasons. I don't want us to end up the same way, I'd rather go out shooting."

"Okay, okay, I get it, I'll try my best." Alan was returning with the box.

"I wiped it out and here is some paper towel to wrap them in. Put the guns and ammo in here and then take some extra ammo in your pockets."

They packed up the cake box, stuffed their pockets and headed up stairs. As they walked outside onto the front porch, they saw Bobby and a neighbor boy chasing Sarah across the yard with water balloons. Just as the boys rounded the corner by a large shrub Sarah's friend Jenny popped up with a water balloon in each hand and nailed the two boys at point blank range in the face. They were so startled that they fell down and dropped the balloons intended for Sarah's back.

The adults busted out laughing and then the kids did too. Dodge yelled  
"That a boy Bobby, way to show those girls." Alan turned to Linsey.

"Ya see what that girl just did, perfect aim, if she can do that, then you can too."

Linsey smiled and said, "Girls rule." The boys were picking themselves up off the ground as Sarah was returning to point and laugh. Then the chase was on again, the boys had rallied and were in hot pursuit across the yard. The adults just stood there watching and laughing at the great fun the kids were having. They talked for a bit while the kids drip dried and then they all said goodbye and piled into the van.

When they got home Dodge carried in the box and took it downstairs without the kids noticing. They ate dinner while talking about the historical day they had with Alan coming home as the first family member to be voluntarily restored.  
"Hey, where's that left over cake," Bobby asked as they were finishing up. "I could sure go for some more of that." Linsey smiled and looked at Dodge. They both knew full well that it was gone and that Bobby noticed what he thought was left over cake being carried home.

"Uh, well, there was only one piece left, I couldn't resist so I ate it after we got home," said Dodge. Linsey almost laughed out loud at Dodge's lie. Bobby was dejected.

"Really Dad, you ate all of it?"  
"Yes Son, but no worries there will be another cake."  
"Hey, how about strawberries and ice cream?" said Linsey. Bobby's eyes lit up.

"Yes!" He said.

After desert they headed for the family room for some TV time. About forty-five minutes later Dodges phone vibrated on the end table, it was John with a text message.  
"BO team moving on target, perfect op, couldn't wait, I gave okay, okay?" Dodge texted back.  
"Okay, I trust you." Another message followed.  
"Watch local news at 11."  
"Will do," replied Dodge.

They had made their first major move and Dodge couldn't wait to see what went down or at least the media's version of it. He looked at the clock, it was only 8:00, he had three hours to wait.

"Hey Bobby, you got any of those fireworks left over?"  
"Yeah, why?"  
"Well, I read in the daily digital yesterday that the city was considering banning them next week because we haven't had much rain. If you're gonna use them maybe tonight would be a good night to set them off."

Bobby jumped up.

"Oh man, yeah, I don't want to get stuck with them, I'm gonna go see if Matt wants to set them off with me." He went out of the room and Sarah got up as well.

"I think I'll go keep an eye on those two, I can't believe you trust him with explosives!" She said as she left the room shaking her head pretending to be concerned. The truth was, she liked firecrackers almost as much as the boys.

Dodge knew they had an opportunity, so he motioned to Linsey and they headed for the basement. He had a nice firing range down there from several winters ago when he and his father sighted in guns for a competition that Alan was entering in the Spring. The longest point across the basement diagonally was 44 feet, it wasn't much but plenty far enough for handguns. He had a homemade bullet trap on the far wall. In the front he had a replaceable ½ inch thick piece of plywood. Behind that he had mounted a sheet of ½ inch thick lexan plastic glass at a forty five degree angle towards the floor on a heavy steel frame with springs. Below this sitting on the floor was a series of 12" x 12" polyurethane rubber cubes that he and Alan made up. They became the final resting place for the expended rounds.

The bullets would enter in through the plywood and hit the angled plastic, then ricochet into the soft rubber cubes on the floor. It worked great for a homemade bullet trap and it allowed them to be inside instead of out in the freezing Indiana weather in January.

Alan had home loaded low grain rounds just for the purpose of indoor sighting Dodge still had several boxes of them and they would be perfect for teaching Linsey to fire the gun because they have less kick than a standard round.

The kids had begun setting off the fireworks and even had a radio playing pretty loudly out in the garage. He and Alan used to fire the guns down there all the time with no complaints from the neighbors. It was barely audible outside the house, but Dodge felt better having the cover of the fireworks, they didn't want their watchers thinking they were preparing for a battle.

Dodge quickly checked the trap to make sure the rubber blocks were still good and they were ready. He tacked up a target on the plywood for Linsey to shoot at. He loaded the gun while Linsey watched and then unloaded it and gave it to her. She loaded it and chambered a round.

"Hold on" Dodge, said, He went over to the workbench and opened up a drawer and retrieved some ear plugs, they both put them in.

"Okay, let's see what ya got girl. Oh wait." He decided to move her closer for the first few shots, it was a huge target for him but not be for a beginner. He really didn't want to be dodging bullets in the basement. He showed her how to hold it properly and the correct way to look through the sights.

"Now just hold your breath right before you squeeze." She fired a round and then laughed.

"Wow, that feels so powerful!"

"Ah, I think she likes it!" He said with a chuckle.

He moved her back another ten feet. She fired another and laughed again.

"Wow, this is fun, I see why you guys like doing this."

He was glad she was having fun and wasn't terrified of it like some people were. She was doing good with the aim, and actually hit the target, not bad for her first time.

He moved her back all the way to the far corner now and she fired a few more rounds, she was out.  
"Okay, reload," he said, but this time the rounds are full grain, that means they're going to kick harder so be ready for it, okay? And also aim just about two inches lower on the target to compensate at first."

She nodded and began reloading. She inserted the clip and chambered a round. She raised the gun and unloaded the entire clip without stopping into the target. The rounds had noticeably more kick and he could see the recoil move her hands a lot more. As she lowered the gun she grinned at Dodge.

"Wow, what a rush, I could really feel the power in those!"

Who knew it? Linsey liked shooting guns! He was glad.  
"Okay, let me show you how this is done," he said as he quickly loaded his gun with a clip. He walked over to the trap and tacked up a fresh target that was much smaller than the one he had put up for Linsey. Hers looked pretty good though, it was a twenty four inch target and she had put almost all the rounds at least somewhere on the paper and a good number of them were from about 30 feet.

His much smaller target looked tiny to Linsey from back in the corner. As he walked back he said, "I guess we'll see if I still got it." He turned and faced the target with the gun, and immediately fired the entire clip. It felt great, he hadn't fired a gun in more than six months. Since Alan became so ill he hadn't been over so they hadn't fired the guns. It felt good in his hand. He missed the feeling of raw power that it produced.

He and Linsey approached the target. All but two of the rounds struck the target near the center while the first two rounds were almost off of the target to the left, still very good from 40 feet.  
"Wow, you're still really good even after not practicing for a while," said Linsey.  
"Yeah I guess it sticks with you."

They both walked back over to the workbench where Dodge showed Linsey how to disassemble the guns and clean them, check the firing pin, and reassemble. The sounds from upstairs had stopped. They must have run out of firecrackers.

They heard Sarah, Bobby, and Matt entering the kitchen.

"Well we better get back up there," Dodge said.  
"Where do you want me to keep this thing?" Linsey asked.

"Well you should really carry it with you, probably in your purse. Keep the clip in it but don't chamber a round. That's how a lot of people get hurt, they forget to put the safety on and it goes off when they reach for it and hit the trigger. It's easy to do if you're in a panic.

Of course if you think you're entering a dangerous situation, you should chamber a round and remove the safety, there's no time for that in the heat of the moment, you have to be ready."

"Okay, I got it." Linsey and Dodge both tucked their guns in the backs of their pants and put their shirts down over them.  
"Okay let's move them upstairs, I'm going to carry mine daily but I'll store it in the night stand at night and you should probably put yours in your purse up in the bedroom."

They went upstairs only stopping briefly to talk to the kids and then on up to their room to stash the weapons. They made normal small talk in the bedroom and discussed going back down for a snack and some TV. They went back down to the kitchen and made a snack. Dodge came up behind Linsey and kissed her on the neck and then whispered in her ear, the heist is on, should be on the news at eleven. Linsey turned around and gave him a long kiss just as Bobby spotted them. He laughed.  
"Oh yuck, I'm gonna barf!"

Matt was sitting at the table with Bobby setting up a board game for them to play and he laughed too.  
"My parents do that in front of us too. Both boys laughed.

Sarah said, "Oh please grow up," to the boys as she headed past with her snack and drink on the way to the TV room. Dodge and Linsey joined her for the last twenty minutes or so of her favorite show which was a bloopers reel of people and their pets doing ridiculous things.

It was really funny and they all had fun watching the show together. The news came on, and as usual, Sarah left the room out of shear boredom. Dodge and Linsey were especially interested to see if the heist went down and to see what the media had to say about it.

The main anchor came on.

"Breaking news tonight folks, we have a very unusual crime here in the down town area, and it's sure to be a national news story as this is the first crime like this that we've ever seen. A group of angry thugs stormed the north side 116th street Lifecenter tonight demanding that everyone lie down on the floor and hand over their skyphones, jewelry, wallets, and purses."

"One security guard attempted to thwart the attack, but was knocked through a plate glass window and out into the parking lot where two of the assailants continued to beat him until he was unconscious. A second guard fired two shots at the thieves during the episode but missed, the assailants returned fire hitting the guard in the leg and shoulder. Doctors reported that he's in serious but stable condition tonight at Wishard Medical Center, where he's expected to make a full recovery.

The group seemed disorganized and made off with only the victim's personal items, the cash register from the gift shop and about two thirds of a LifeTech uploading console. Dr. James Hullue, a spokesman for the Lifecenter had this to say.

"At this time we believe this to be a random act of thievery. These criminals didn't appear to be after anything in particular and were likely just trying to get something of value to sell, in fact they left behind several pieces of the system. Without those items it simply will not function."

"Another witness said he saw one man taking all of the beef jerky from the gift shop and stuffing it down his pants while muttering something about it being overpriced, behavior that would not be expected of pros. This is Brian Wilcox reporting live at the scene for news 21, back to you in the studio Alise."

Dodge noted that they had several surveillance camera shots of the team and they really did look like thugs. Their Tattoos looked real, some had dew rags on their heads, others had hats, and most of them had sunglasses, and cut off shirt sleeves, it was great, nobody would ever suspect that they were actually a highly skilled Black Ops team.

The story ended and it became part of the everyday news, no big deal, it would soon be forgotten. John called a few minutes later.

"Hey Buddy, did you see the story?"

"Oh, yeah I did, it was crazy, our boys did a great job. Too bad some people got hurt."  
"Yeah, I know, the team leader called me right after and apologized for that. He said the one guard on duty that started to fight back was not supposed to be there today. The regular guard scheduled to work was sick and this guy got called in to cover for him. This guy is ex-marine, tough SOB, didn't back down. But you saw how well our boys handled him. By the way, he didn't miss with those two shots that he fired. He hit two of our guy's dead aim in the chest from forty feet while moving. Our boys had on body armor so they got out with just a few bruised ribs but there is no doubt in my mind that he knows he hit them. This guy is good."

"He might be the only one that thinks these guys were not just run of the mill thieves. They didn't interview him because of his injuries so we're lucky in that respect. Then again he might think that they died later after they made their getaway. Hopefully he won't say anything and even if he does, people are'nt likely to listen to him."

"So, did we get everything we needed?" Asked Dodge.  
"Yes they took exactly what was on the shopping list. You and I will come up with the rest very easily and piece it together. I am having the heisted console shipped to the lab in Lapel, from now on let's just call it the farm, okay?"  
"Works for me, do you have anyone stationed out there to receive items?"

"Yes, one of the Ops team guys volunteered to stay there full time to keep an eye on things until we can get a full team in place. He can receive any items we have sent there. My Aunt is completely cleared out and already in her new house down south getting comfortable, she has no reason to return there."

"The next step is to obtain the equipment we need to grow our clones. This equipment is extremely specialized but most of it can be obtained in ways that won't be traceable."

"I intercepted some communications between one of the clone growers and the manufacturer of the equipment. It seems they have a refurbishment program for the equipment. It's sent back to the factory at the first sign of malfunction or one year of service, whichever comes first, for a complete rebuild."

"I hi jacked their data stream and removed two serial numbers and work orders for two complete sets of the equipment. I altered the shipping manifest and rerouted the two units to a shell company in Ohio that I created, all fake.

"They'll be shipped to this empty warehouse in Ohio where one of our ops team guys will be posing as the shipping and receiving clerk. As soon as the truck is gone he will load the equipment onto our truck and bring it to the farm."

"The turnaround time for these standard refurbs is about six months. No one will know the equipment is missing for at least that amount of time and even if they did realize it they would likely never find it. When we're done with it we'll send it back as refurbished and they'll never know the difference."

"Who's going to repair it? I mean, it's broken right?" Asked Dodge.  
"No" John replied.

"These two units are in good working order but they hit the one year limit so they're going in for maintenance. They may need a little cleaning and maybe something replaced while we're using them but it should be very routine stuff. That's one reason why I got two of them. We only need one, the other is a back up for parts if needed."

"All right, makes sense" said Dodge.

"So we get the thing delivered and all the pieces collected up, how are we going to get it put together?"

John thought for a moment.

"I'm not sure, I haven't figured that part out yet.  
"All right you and I will think about that some more. In the mean time maybe you can continue to iron out more details about the farm so that when I do get there I'll have everything I need to set up the equipment."

"I'm all over it man, don't worry I'll make sure everything you need is there. I should also tell you I've located a fantastic geneticist through our Black Ops team Captain. I like finding people this way because I know I can trust each one of these guys to give only high quality referrals."

"This guy is out of work recently and he needs a job really bad. He got pretty excited when I told him about the project and that it involved bringing down some cyber criminals. He had prior experience with hackers stealing one of his best ideas and obtaining a patent before he could."

"He would love to be part of a team credited with sending hackers off to prison. His name is Jason Bluffton and he will be arriving in two days. He will be setting up the tanks for the clone growth and collecting samples from you and that way, he can get started right away on growing our clones."

"Oh, and Dodge, if you don't mind I think we should get Linsey and the kid's DNA to this guy as well, you know just as an insurance measure, it would be a good idea to get some clones growing for them too, after all, these guys have killed before, and they might cause a 'so called' accident at the clone warehouse where all of your clones are stored. I'm thinking we had better have backups don't you?"

Dodge agreed, this way they would be safe no matter what the hackers pulled, one step ahead of them would be the smart place to be.  
"Okay, sounds good, we'll talk soon."

As the call ended Dodge realized how deep they were into this mess. They had passed by the point of no return miles back, now they would have to forge ahead to get out of it alive.

Dodge went to the kitchen to get a late night snack, the stress of the situation was getting to him a bit and a good snack might calm his stomach and his nerves. The news was over and the kids already said good night and went up to bed. Linsey was at the kitchen table using her skyphone to pay some bills. She was telling Dodge how nice it was to pay off their credit cards and catch up all their bills and still have plenty left over with no worries.

He was glad to see her free of that stress. Linsey asked how the conversation went with John. As he toasted an English muffin he handily condensed the entire contents of their conversation into just about a two minute update. He had scanned the kitchen for bugs earlier that morning, it was clean, so they talked freely.

The muffin popped up and he slapped some peanut butter on it, grabbed his glass of milk and headed for the TV room, he wanted to catch the late edition news on the competing network to see if there was any additional coverage that the earlier team may have missed.

Sure enough the breaking news story of the night was their LifeTech heist. Pretty much the same info, the same witnesses, and the same conclusions by authorities. Then the funny part, the newscast changed their focus to another story.

"And in an un-related story on the west coast today, another wealthy man, a very successful real estate broker, woke up this morning telling his wife that they had been robbed. Just like several other victims in recent months, the man said that when he went to bed two nights earlier he felt fine. When he awoke the following morning he seemed unable to control his actions. He got up, showered, dressed, kissed his wife goodbye, and then proceeded to visit his local bank branch where he wired his entire fortune, against his will, to an offshore bank account."

"He proceeded to his office and worked his normal day returning home that night, seemingly fine. He ate dinner with his wife and kids, went to bed, and woke up the next morning going mad and telling everyone this outrageous story."

"He was admitted to the mental ward at the bequest of his now financially ruined family. When the authorities checked his story, they found that he was telling the truth about the funds transfer, but also found that the funds were gone out of the receiving account. They promptly pressed charges of insurance fraud against the man." Dodge turned off the TV in the middle of the story because he already knew the rest.

This piqued Dodge's curiosity so he decided that maybe there were many more stories similar to this one out there that were not being broadcast on the local news. He went up to his office PC to check for similar stories. He opened a search window on the web and entered  
"cyber crime news" as a search. Sure enough within minutes he had located numerous stories from around the world of people giving away their entire fortunes to unknown persons at the drop of a hat and then claiming later that they had no intentions of doing so. The older stories were much smaller amounts of money so they didn't make the headlines as often.

All the stories seemed to have one common thread; it always started in the morning and ended the following morning. The time frame was always just one day. It was never two days or a week or just part of a day, no, always one full 24-hour period from dawn to dawn. There could only be one explanation. It had to be happening through the Lifecorder.

It made perfect sense that when the victims lay down at night the hackers got into their LifeCorders and were able to influence them somehow, the next morning they controlled

the victim causing them to transfer their wealth to the offshore accounts.

That night when they laid down again the hackers would withdraw but they couldn't erase their tracks completely. The next morning when the victim awoke they knew they had been railroaded but couldn't prove it and few people would believe them.

Some wealthy people had already stopped using their LifeCorders out of paranoia that it was this portal the criminals were using to get in. Other wealthy people wrote it off to some clever guy robbing himself and then claiming it on his insurance.

Some were not using their Lifecorders as a precaution, but most just laughed it off and continued to trust the system. Dodge was now even more convinced that this must be the hacker's motive, this is why they were killing people, those individuals that knew too much were getting snuffed out.

But who were the culprits and why were they doing this? Was it just plain greed, or did they have some specific purpose for all that money? He looked at the clock, it was 11:45, he needed to go to bed soon so that he could function on a high level at work tomorrow.

He met Linsey in the hall as they were both headed for the bedroom. They lay in bed fully aware of the listeners but in spite of that they had a great talk, they couldn't talk about the things that were the heaviest on their minds so instead they distracted themselves by talking about everything else until they both fell asleep.

Chapter 15 The next morning Dodge went to work as usual and tried to pretend his life was normal. He said hello to Steph with a smile, made his way to the break room and got a fresh cup of coffee and a yogurt and then headed for his office.

He stopped for a brief chat with Tim in the hall and was reminded to attend a budgetary meeting on Friday. Tim also reminded him to go

look at his stock because it was on the rise again. Even though that was good news, he really didn't care to look at it. He had already cashed out half and was pretty much set for life. He was much more concerned about waking up one morning to discover that his brain was hijacked by some greedy loon that would force him to go to bank and sign it all away. That's when it hit him that he had better move some of their money into different accounts that required two signatures in order to transfer funds, yes that was a good idea, he and Linsey would go do that one afternoon this week. Just before lunch he got a text from John. It was a grocery list of things he needed Dodge to poke around for at work.

He wanted Dodge to look in his personal junkyard of parts to see if he had some items they needed to get the console back into working order. It seems the op team gave it a bumpy ride by wrapping a chain around it and dragging it out into the parking lot before tossing it into the back of their getaway van.

Two of the boards inside had sustained damage and needed minor repairs. They needed to find three integrated circuit chips and four diodes to make the repairs and so he forwarded the list of parts to Dodge.

Dodge waited until the end of the day and headed down to the lab while he knew he could still get in. He had the pass code to get in but didn't want to use it. If he could walk in while his team was still in there and then stay until after they had all gone he could simply get the needed parts and then leave.

If anyone was tracking his code in and out of areas they wouldn't even know he was down there if he didn't swipe his hand for entry. He milled around a little bit in the break room nearest to the lab and watched his team leaving one by one. He figured the fewer people that saw him the better just in case there was a mole in his team.

He waited until only Jim Stanley was left in the lab. He was one of the oldest techs on staff at age 75 yet he refused to retire even though he must have been worth millions.

If there ever was a guy that should go get restored it was Jim. He had both hips replaced in his late 50s and both knees replaced in his 60s and then had his neck fused a few years ago.

People would kid him about it and he would just say, "nope, if it aint broke, don't fix it." He even had a bionic hand that he was always adjusting because it would malfunction frequently. He lost his left hand in a small explosion when he was young and had the bionic prosthetic installed years later when they became affordable.

Now that Restoration was so prevalent, all the bionics' companies that were so successful before, had all gone bankrupt. The guy could barely get around and still wouldn't go get restored. But that was Jim. Everybody loved the old guy and probably didn't want him to change anyway. He was like an icon.

It looked like Jim was about to pack it up and so he started heading that way. He knew Jim was inquisitive so he grabbed the clock off the break room wall and removed the power cell and slipped it into his pocket. He headed for the lab.

"Hey Jim how's it going in here today? You working overtime?"

"No way Boss, I'm just wrapping it up! What-cha need?"  
"Well, this clock in the break room over there wasn't working so I took it down, seems someone has taken the power cell out of it."  
"Huh, well let's see here what size is it?"  
"Looks like a no. 7"  
"Okay, let me go back to the supply room there and see if we have any." Jim started to the back and Dodge started looking through the chip inventory where he believed the items he needed could be found.

Bingo, right where they should be. There were plenty of them too so they wouldn't miss a few. He headed to the diode section just as Jim was coming back.  
"Well don't have any back there, I'll go next door here and see what they got."

He knew it would take Jim at least five minutes to hobble around the corner, do a hand swipe to get into the neighboring lab, turn on the lights and find a cell, because he didn't get around very fast. He went back to searching for the diodes, a little harder to find, seems they were out of them in general stock but he knew there were some old cards in a drawer at the back of the lab where he and John used to work a lot.

He went to the back and began going through the drawers, sure enough there was a box of cards marked "salvage." He opened it up and grabbed out a circuit board. It had at least ten of the diodes they needed but they were soldered in place and would be time consuming to remove. "Ah, what the heck." He just shoved the whole assembly down the back of his pants as is was basically flat. It was a bit uncomfortable due to the square shape and the sharp corners on the thing. It was jabbing him in the butt and back every time he moved but he needed the blasted thing.

He replaced the box and closed the drawer and headed back up front just as Jim was returning with the cell he had found.  
"Here ya go boss, give that a try." Dodge thanked him and snapped the cell into the clock.

"Hey look there, good as new. Thanks Jim," he said, as he slapped him on the back and headed for the door.

He went back to the break room there by the lab and placed the clock back up on the wall. He headed to his office, but the circuit card was jabbing him all the way. Several people said hello and he smiled and tried to act natural but that board was really digging in! He made it to the men's room at the end of the hall and went into a stall. He took the board out, which now had little pieces of him on the corners.

He wrapped it in several layers of toilet tissue and returned it to the back of his pants again. He got to his office at the other end of the building where he removed the card and put it into his brief case along with the chips from his pocket. He placed them into a static safe bag before tossing them into his case. "Mission accomplished, time to call it a day."

He called Linsey on the way home.

"Hey Babe, are the kids eating dinner with us tonight?"  
"No, Sarah has a sleep over at Cousin Brenda's and Bobby is eating dinner and going to the movies with Matt. He'll probably wind up sleeping over with him tonight, or at least that's their plan."

"Well in that case would you mind if we went out for dinner with John and Alan?" Linsey figured there was a hidden agenda so of course she agreed. She liked cooking most of the time but it was nice to be waited on occasionally.

"That would be great," said Linsey.  
"Okay, I'll call them, is six okay?"  
"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be ready," she said.

He hung up from her and called both John and Alan. They both agreed to come. He invited them to Red Lobster because not only was it very busy, it was also one of the noisiest places in town to eat. He wanted to have a meeting that couldn't be overheard. They all agreed to meet at the restaurant at six.

Dodge noticed that morning that one of the windows was unlocked in the kitchen at home. He observed that it was locked before going to bed the night before. He was getting very good at noticing minute details as he passed through any room. He knew immediately that someone must have been in the house that night.

He scanned the kitchen before the kids came down and found a bug in the light over the table. Now they had to watch what they said in the kitchen area also. He knew he had to do something about it so he began working on a plan in his mind.

Dodge and Linsey got to the restaurant first and put their name in for a table. A few minutes later John arrived and found them in the waiting area. About two minutes later Alan walked in. John spotted him and recognized him in spite of not seeing him since his restoration.

John busted out laughing.

"Oh my god! It's the young and handsome Alan Kerrington!" He jumped up and gave Alan a big hug.

"Wow, you look great!" He said.

The hostess called their name. Their table was ready so they made their way back to a large booth and ordered some drinks and an appetizer. When their drinks arrived, Dodge sent a message to the team member tailing the hacker's tail and asked for a report. The Ops team came back with a message.  
"Followed you to destination but remained outside. Will advise if any change." Dodge knew that this meant there were no eyes or ears on them inside the restaurant.

"Okay everyone, here's the deal. We were followed but not inside. We can talk freely. This night out was mostly for fun but we do have a little business to discuss."

John wanted to hear all about Alan's Restoration so they all told him about the experience. John shared how he and Amanda had concocted the made up argument over her wanting to redecorate every room in his house and throw all of his cool man stuff out to the curb. He told them how she had run off to her Mom's house in rural Tennessee to hide out. They all agreed that it was better than her being a target.

Near the end of the meal, Dodge gave John the parts he scavenged from the lab and he told the story of how he had to shove the board down his pants, everyone laughed when he got up and lifted the back of his shirt to reveal the scratches on his back where it dug into him as he walked. They had finished their meal but decided to order some desert and coffee because they still had some business to discuss.  
"I discovered this morning that we now have a new addition in our home," said Dodge.

"They have added a bug in the light over the kitchen table."

"I've been working on a plan in my mind to get rid of it and I've come up with one, but I would like you guys to weigh in on it. We could have some of the Black Ops guys watch the house. The next time the tail enters the house thinking he has circumvented the security system the team will trip it manually. The intruder will assume that he made a mistake by setting it off somehow. The system will call the police and when they show up we'll make a big deal about the break in. We'll ask John to hire the absolute best consultants to make the security system so good that nobody can get past it. The new security consultants will find the bugs during the system upgrade and get rid of them. That gives us our privacy back and the hackers will blame it all on their stooge that got sloppy and set off the alarm. We can do the dead battery trick on the bug in the kitchen instead of the ones up in the bedroom. It will be easier to get to and we won't have the guy creeping around in our bedroom anymore." Everyone agreed that this was a solid plan, and that they should go ahead with it in as soon as possible.

John informed everyone that the farm was functional, the geneticist was now on site preparing clone growing chambers and there were now two Black Ops team members there to help Jason. Their main objective was security but during daylight hours there was no threat, anyone approaching could literally be seen coming a mile away. They took turns as lookout while the other assisted Jason with any heavy lifting or assembly work that he might need done in the lab to get it all set up. He also let everyone know that they still had to repair the upload console with the parts Dodge had gotten and that their DNA had to be obtained. He pulled several skin tag kits from his pocket and passed them around the table as they were having desert.

They continued to have conversation as each of them gathered a skin sample from the back of their hand with the tiny scraper in the kit. John gave Linsey two extra kits to take home for Sarah and Bobby.

"I'd just do it while they're sleeping," he said. "No need to have them asking lots of questions. Of course that's your call." She agreed to take care of it and put the kits in her purse for later.

They discussed how they would manually set off the alarm system next time the tail entered the house. They agreed that it wouldn't look suspicious at all to the watchers because it was quite certain that the hackers knew of Dodge's new found wealth. It would be perfectly natural to upgrade your security system to the latest after a break in and when the cost is of no concern.

Everyone passed the DNA kits back to John and he carefully checked them to make sure the name tags were in place and put them in his pocket. It was one more step in their efforts to insure their own immortality. Once this DNA was grown into their clones, the hackers would have a tough time of killing them off.

It wouldn't be so easy for them like it was with Ron Simpson and the others, this time the little people were fighting back. Just before they all said their good nights John sent a text message to the Black Ops team Captain and asked for an update, he came back with a message.  
"2X assets in place, facility attended until mission complete," John translated for everyone. "There are two Ops team members watching your house around the clock. They have instructions to manually trip the alarm if the hackers break in again."

John told everyone that Black Ops team members had already successfully identified several watchers, listeners, and tails. They even knew some of their full names, backgrounds, and their home addresses. That was all they had so far but they were working continuously to put more of the puzzle together.

"Don't worry we're making quick progress and you're in less danger with each passing day." Alan Kerrington made a fist with his right hand and pounded it into his left.

"Let me at'em boys," he said. Everyone knew exactly what he was thinking, because they wanted it too.

"Yes Dad, but with brains not brawn," okay?" Alan smiled.

"It starts with brains but it always ends with brawn. Mark my words, before this is over with, there will be blood on our hands. In war it's inevitable, and this is war, make no mistake about it." Dodge hoped his Father was wrong, but feared that he was right.

They all felt the same way but there were still too many unknowns. It was hard telling whether or not there was any dirty government agents involved. They were likely very intelligent, well funded, and well armed both with weapons and technology.

They had to handle this like a game of chess, not an all out war. They had to infiltrate slowly and get to the main man, the king, the one person that it couldn't survive without. Take him out and the whole thing should come tumbling down and all mysteries would be revealed in the end.

They would only resort to violence in the end if they had no other way. It was getting late and everyone was full and tired. They had managed to have a very productive meeting in a noisy environment where not even the people at the next table could have ease dropped even if they wanted to.

They had full knowledge that the hackers were outside keeping tabs on them but they didn't come in. It was futile to attempt audio surveillance in such a noisy place. They all said goodnight and went their separate ways without even looking around for the watchers. They knew the Ops team had their backs.

John went home and prepared the DNA kits for shipping via his secret helper at the bank, an associate that he paid handsomely for a simple delivery service, no questions asked. The procedure was simple, he would go into the bank with a deposit pouch and make a "so called" deposit by giving the teller a bag with the contents and some cash for payment.

The teller already knew where to take it per their standing agreement. The guy hadn't let him down in more than ten years, and why would he? It was easy money!

After Alan left Red Lobster, he went home and smoked a cigar. It was one of the Cubans that John smuggled in through his man at the bank. Dodge palmed it to him on his way out of the restaurant.

"Don't get caught, and for god sakes, don't inhale it!" He whispered.

Alan had no intentions of inhaling it. He wanted to keep his new body healthy. Besides, it was a cigar, not a cigarette. He stayed up late out on the porch until each of his neighbors turned off their lights and no one was about. He sat there and slowly smoked the outstandingly smooth and aromatic cigar. Just him and the crickets, and a frog or two. It seemed like the best one he'd ever had. Maybe it was just because it had been over twenty years since his last one, or maybe it was really that good. After all it was a Cuban.

The next morning John went to the bank to make his deposit. One of the clever things about this system he had with his bank pal was that the contents of the bag were always in a little metal box. John had these tough little boxes made that could only be opened with magnets placed in just the right spots and with great accuracy.

The boxes were stainless steel construction with a red anodized coating. The triggers inside were regular steel with very light spring loads to counteract the magnetic pull of the "keys" as it was. The exterior of the boxes were covered all over with laser etched words and numbers in a random pattern that made them very curious to look at.

The magnets had to be placed upon the exact number or word for the box to be opened. Each of the magnets had to be of the right magnetic strength. Too much magnetism would move the tumblers too far while too little would not move the tumblers far enough. Either error would result in the box not opening and this made the locking mechanism very complicated to defeat.

The trusted receiver of his deposits possessed the coded magnets and the cipher to determine where to place them to get the boxes open. Couriers were simply not paid enough to be trusted. Everyone knows the best way to keep a delivery boy honest is a good lock on the package.

John always put the metal box into the deposit pouch with five thousand dollars cash, it was always the same amount of money regardless of the value of the contents. This insured that the delivery boy was never tempted to smash the box open.

If you show up one day with ten times the normal payment in the pouch do you think the delivery would ever get there? of course not! He assumes the value is out of this world because you paid him so much more than usual and he makes off with the contents and the extra cash.

So . . . ,

Rule no. 1 Always put a lock on the package.

Rule no. 2 Always pay the same amount.

Rule no. 3 Always say the exact same thing.

Rule no. 4 Act the same regardless of the contents.

John's courier always went to the same pawn shop with the package, that was the rule. What he didn't know, was that the pawn shop owner was a direct employee of John's, not to mention his cousin, and that the whole shop and operation were John's own personal smuggling operation for anything and everything that he wanted to get in or out of the country, even people.

John and his cousin had an agreement, John paid him big bucks and his cousin did whatever he was told to do, no questions asked, zip the lip, top secret, and especially above all, don't tell anyone about what we're really doing, especially family!

They never dealt in anything harmful like drugs or weapons, it was mostly Cigars, Snuff, Caviar, Wines, a few exotic cars that wouldn't pass emission laws in the U.S. etc. Surprisingly they found out that they could actually make excellent profits by selling things to overseas buyers that these crazy people would bring in to pawn off.

The shop was supposed to be a front but had turned somewhat legitimate because people would bring in things like an old moped, one of those antique motorized bicycle like things. Foreigners collected these things and the American built ones like the Indian brand brought huge dollars in the foreign markets, unbelievable.

John had already forwarded shipping instructions to his cousin about this deposit and his bank connection knew to always take it to the same place and drop it off.

He went in to see his man at the bank. He slid the package over to him.

"Deposit this as usual. Thanks," he said, with no other communication. This teller was always glad to see him. He made several times his regular salary just by delivering a few packages each month for John. He never asked what was in the packages and never attempted to open the box, or at least didn't succeed at it anyway.

Later that day, John got a text message from his cousin.  
"Deposit received, forwarded to receiver next day a.m."

This meant the contents had been shipped overnight early a.m. delivery to the farm. He sent a message to Jason.

"Package ETA, tomorrow early a.m." A few minutes later he received a reply.  
"Copy that, JB."

He had already discussed their time tables and their goals with Jason Bluffton when he hired him to do the genetics work there at the Farm. He knew the kind of man Jason was and had no doubt he would have the chambers ready and all the base tissue seeded and ready for the DNA.

It would only be a few days and their new clones would be the size of a normal human fetus in the later part of the first trimester. Once past that first step extreme accelerated growth would be induced, the clone would grow to the equivalent of a ten-year-old child in just one month. The growth would have to be slowed down a bit for the pubescent stage and then accelerate again after that.

It was now common place to grow a full adult clone in just two or three months. The government programs did it much more slowly using older technology but to their credit it was very reliable and stable. Rapid growing required constant monitoring to ensure everything was going just right.

Only the wealthy that needed or wanted a replacement much sooner could afford this luxury and would usually have it done privately and paid big bucks for the services. There were only a few companies doing it and each laboratory was very heavily licensed and regulated by the USCRA (United States Cloning Regulations Agency).

What they were doing was highly illegal but it had to be done, there was no other way to stop the hackers, especially if the government was involved, and as of right now they didn't know.

They planned to start Dodge's clone first because they needed him to be there at the farm with his electronics and engineering prowess to accomplish more of the tasks required. A week or so later Jason would be starting John's clone.

They were about to attempt something that had never been done before, they were going to clone a person while his surrogate was still alive and allow them both to go on living. They knew that the government had probably already attempted this and maybe even succeeded but there was no doubt it was beyond top secret and they had no public knowledge of it. John had conducted numerous searches in the most private and top secret records servers but found nothing. It was probably on paper only for added security.

What they were about to attempt was groundbreaking for the private sector and it was very exciting. All of the surrogate's life would be uploaded into the clone and the clone awakened. The big question was this, what about the soul or the PS2 as scientist liked to call it? If a person is not brought back after a total death incident within one hour, it just doesn't work.

Scientists had speculated that it was due to the soul leaving the body completely because it had a consciousness of some sort. They now believed that it had an awareness of the presence of life, or the circumstance of death, when death was final, it had to leave. But what would happen if they cloned a person while the original was still living? Would the universe or some higher power, maybe even God, assign a soul to this new life? Or was this energy that we believed manifested as the soul somehow attached to the life force of the physical body? Could it be shared with two bodies? After all, if the two bodies are from the exact same DNA, like identical twins or even triplets, that start out in the womb as one cell and then split to become two or more children, all would be said to have their own souls. These questions remained unanswered by science to date, but they hoped to find out more as they proceeded with their experiment.

There would be a lot of questions answered by this cutting edge research and experimentation. At the very least, even if the two Dodge's and the two John's couldn't exist at the same time, they would at least have back up clones ready should they be killed at any time by the hackers.

The only way they could find out for sure was to try it. Jason Bluffton was absolutely riddled with anticipation that he would have the opportunity to do this for the first time ever. If it worked, it would be truly groundbreaking and even though he couldn't receive credit until later, it would be worth the wait.

Jason knew that when they got to the bottom of this whole thing they could come out into the open. When that happened, he would be recognized in the science world as a ground breaking pioneer of genetics and the leading expert on PS2. He was glad they offered to pay him handsomely for his services but he would have done it for a lot less just to be involved.

The next morning Dodge went to work as usual with anticipation of hearing news later that afternoon regarding the package that John was sending to the farm. Things were beginning to click, their operation was moving ahead quickly and he was anxious to hear if the clone pods were active and if the DNA was received in useable condition.

Dodge knew Jason was solid, he was the kind of guy you would want on your side if you were under fire with your back against the wall. John checked him out, and found him to have a good reputation with prior employers. He also had the drive, the gift, that special something that only a small percentage of the people in the world seem to have.

The team was coming together nicely and soon they would have the farm running efficiently with everyone working toward a common goal. John was continuing to look at the lives of several other people that he was considering for the team. He was studying the resumes of their lives. Not the kind they had posted on the Head Hunter sites for career advancement, but rather, the actual paths of their lives, their accomplishments, their associates, their families, their living resumes.

He was good at digging deep into a person's past and finding the most hidden skeletons and dirty laundry, but he looked at the positive things too.

A mere twenty miles away Jason Bluffton was signing for a package at the Farm. It was not a large package but it was certainly a valuable one. Before the delivery truck could even make it back out to the road, Jason was already opening the package.

He was watching the driver pulling away in the distance but his focus was on the little box right in front of him with the red "Urgent" label and the black "Fragile" label. He opened it carefully and removed the foam padding and the protective bags.

The temperature and humidity indicators were intact and still green in color which meant that the shipment was handled correctly and without potential damage. The DNA samples appeared to be in perfect condition. It was time to go to work. The clones would soon be growing.

Dodge had a plan in place to get his privacy back and begin turning the tables on the hackers. But as his Mother used to say.

"If you want to make an omelet, ya gotta crack some eggs."

He knew this masterpiece of a plan was going to take some effort. He had very carefully placed the little dome that he and John made directly over one of the bugs. It was a clear plastic dome with a hole in the center to allow sound to enter but with a liner that would not allow the bug to transmit normally. The device contained a microchip that John programmed to do some simple repeater functions. It received the audio signal from the bug but stripped off the status messages from the carrier signal.

The status messages included things like the battery level function, GPS coordinates, and temperature. First John developed a program that would begin to listen to the bug and pick up on how it transmitted the data. Dodge only had to leave the dome over the bug for about one hour in learning mode. With this step complete, he downloaded the data from the device to his skyphone and sent it to John. He removed the dome according to John's instructions and placed it in his bed side stand drawer for future use.

About two hours later John called back and told Dodge to go in the bedroom and place his phone near the bug for five minutes with the ringer turned off and then retrieve it. In about fifteen minutes John called.

"It's complete, the tail should come soon to retrieve the bug." Dodge was curious, so he slipped into the bathroom, closed the door, and asked John what he did.  
"Well, it only took a few minutes to pick up on enough of the data stream to decipher the encryption and crack it. Once I had the communications protocol, it was easy to hack the bug's software and change a few things. I reprogrammed the battery monitor voltage levels to make the bug send out status reports that show the battery dropping from 90% down to 30% over the next two days. Their tech will send their man back in sometime when no one is home to replace the bug. I also added the stealth tracking function into the bug just like we planned. It will be easy to triangulate on the signal through the skyphone network. Even if their man turns the bug completely off, it will still transmit unless he removes the battery. That is not likely because they are extremely small and very difficult to change outside of a lab environment. It's very likely that he'll simply swap it for a fully charged bug, in and out, fast and easy."

Dodge was already thinking up a good reason for the family to leave for a few hours one night. When the tail took the bug back with him for repair, they would reveal one of their locations, hopefully their headquarters. They would repeat the same game on the bug in the kitchen. When the tail entered the house to replace that one, the Black Ops would set off the security system just like they planned.

John already found a security system company in the area that advertised a complete sweep of your home for any and all threats. This was included even in their most basic package. He insisted that Dodge's work was high profile enough to blame the bugs on competitors trying to get their hands on ESS secrets by invading his home. This would give him good reason for a new state of the art security system like John's and ESS would have to foot the bill.

Chapter 16 The Black Ops team had been surveiling the Kerrington house now for almost 48 hours with no sign of the tail. The trap was set and the bait was excellent. They had to wait until he returned to swap out the dead bug. It was boring work that required incredible patience but always worth the wait when it worked out.

The next evening when Dodge got home from work, he and Linsey rounded up the kids and went out for pizza and a movie. Dodge and Linsey discussed taking the whole family out for a dinner and a movie in their bedroom where the listeners were sure to hear.

They were all having a great time, when just as expected, the tail returned to the house to take care of his failing equipment. About half way through the movie, Dodge received a message on his skyphone; Incoming message from: B.O., Device replaced, tracking blue devil, all clear, will advise.

The trap worked and it was safe to return home any time. Dodge nudged Linsey and showed her the message on his phone, she smiled and nodded, she hated the idea of strangers being in their home but she was glad the trap worked, the sooner they ended this thing the better.

Back at home that night after talking for a while and saying good night, Dodge and Linsey turned out the lights and pretended they were going to sleep. Dodge left the light on and the door partially open to give him just enough light to work. He very quietly got the dome device out of his bedside table drawer and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Linsey followed along very quietly, she was excited to be involved in some of the stealth activity.

They went into the kitchen to work on the bug in the light above the table. It was pitch black because they had intentionally closed all the blinds earlier to avoid being seen now. The only light in the room was coming from the fridge, it was just a small LED lamp in the water and ice dispenser that provided enough glow to make out shapes in the room. Dodge was wishing that they had left another light on in the family room.

He very carefully cracked the refrigerator door for a little more light, setting a bottle of ketchup in the opening, to keep it from closing. He began moving a chair but he caught it on a table leg and made a very loud noise. They looked at each other realizing that their cover was blown. Dodge immediately flipped on the overhead lights and made plenty of noise getting out a bowl and some ice cream and began dipping it. He was grinning at Linsey who was still standing there frozen as if under the premise of still trying to be quiet, but then she got it. She walked back up the stairs about half way, then turned, walking back down making the normal amount of noise.  
"Ah hah," she said. "Caught ya havin a midnight snack, huh?" Dodge gave her a thumbs up

"Oh well, just having some ice cream, I couldn't sleep."  
"Mind if I join you?" She said.

"No not at all. Misery loves company ya know," said Dodge while he grinned and motioned for her to take over his task.

She took over the process of dipping the ice cream while Dodge moved back to the table and climbed up on a chair. He carefully placed the clear dome over the bug and then tapped out a quick message to John, "dome on". Seconds later John replied.

"Stand by."

They both sat down at the table and ate their ice cream and talked about the kids and whatever else they could think of. After about five minutes John messaged back.

"Got it, thanks."

Dodge climbed back up on the chair and retrieved the dome device. They rinsed their ice cream bowls, put them in the sink, and headed up to bed where they said their goodnights again.

They had to find something to go do with the kids again to make sure the house was empty after dark. Providing yet another perfect opportunity for the tail to come back to swap out the dead bug in the kitchen. This would allow the Black Ops team the opportunity to trip the security system while he was exiting.

The Black Ops team would trip it manually at the expense of the man in the blue car. The night after next was Thursday night, the usual night that Sarah and Linsey would go for there swimming and diving lessons at the club. Dodge encouraged Bobby to hang out with a friend for a few hours by telling him that he needed to work late that night. Bobby didn't make plans with anyone so Dodge said the work thing got cancelled and they turned it into a Father Son hang out evening instead.

They went to a climbing wall grand opening at the local sporting goods store. The new store, Top in Sports, had it all, a huge mega-store with everything under one roof. Now they just added the new climbing wall with safety gear and professional instructors. You could try it out for free with a coupon from the digipaper. Linsey loaded the coupon onto Dodge's driver's license and Bobby's student I.D. over a week ago when Bobby started asking to go. All they had to do was scan their ID's when they got there, and they could climb the wall for free.

It was funny that Linsey still did these money saving things out of habit. She didn't seem to get the concept that they were now millionaires and didn't really need a coupon for every little thing. Dodge thought it was comical but still kind of sweet that she continued doing those things.

Dodge heard his phone beeping with a message while he was harnessed up and still on the wall. Bobby was still on the wall when Dodge descended to the floor and got out of his harness with the help of the climbing instructor. He was anxious to see the message, it read; B.O., alarm sounding, blue devil on the run. Dodge let out a whispered  
"Yes!" and then quickly put the phone back in his pocket just as Bobby was landing on the floor.

"Man, Dad, what a rush!" I love repelling just as fast as I can go, what a blast! They were both having a really good time.

"Hey Son, let's go have a look at the golf clubs, me thinks you needs a new set."  
"Seriously? That would be awesome, I have been thinking about playing again but my old clubs are too small for me now, I hated to ask for new ones."

"Oh that's all right Son, we can afford it, I got a little bonus at work, besides I think you're ready for some real lessons now that you're a little bit older, and most of your growing is done."

Dodge received a second message while walking to the golf section, it read: from: B.O., Alan on site, speaking with officers, home secure. Bobby was curious.

"What's going on Dad?"

"Well it seems we had a false alarm with the security system, it went off and Grandpa went over when the security system called him."  
"Didn't it call you too?" Bobby asked.  
"Sharp kid."

"Um, let me check. Oh yeah, looks like I missed that message. Must have been when we were on the wall. I think I should call Dad," he said. Even though he already knew the whole situation, he called Alan just to make a good appearance for Bobby.  
"Hey Dad, what's going on?"

"Well Son, as you probably already know, there's been an attempted break in at your house. I got the auto message just like you. I was just around the corner at the Fast Mart, so I hurried over here to see what was going on. Don't worry though everything here is fine, they didn't get in and nothing is missing or disturbed."

Allan knew the guy had been inside but was playing dumb for the officers on the scene.  
"Don't worry, I'll stay here until you guys get home. We're just filling out a police report here, be done shortly."  
"Okay, Dad, thanks, I guess we had better get a new security system huh?" Alan, chuckled because he knew the plan.  
"Yeah, it wouldn't hurt, a new system would be a good idea, crime seems to be on the rise in this neighborhood."

"All right, thanks for taking care of things there Dad, I'll be there soon, bye." Dodge ended the call and put his arm around Bobby. "Well Son, someone was tampering around with one of our windows at the house, and set off the security system. It scared them off and the police came out. Grandpa was in the neighborhood so he swung by and he's there filling out a police report with the officers, don't worry Grandpa said everything was fine. You know I think you're tall enough now for a men's set of clubs. Let's go check them out."

They went over to the golf world area of the store and began the process of getting him fitted for a high quality set with one of the professionals. They had a new system that you just stepped into and it measured you body with lasers. Based on your body type and size the system would call out a six digit alphanumeric code. The on duty fitting pro went in the back and retrieved a set of clubs from among hundreds in a rack. Then you would step into a hitting booth and use each of the five clubs, driver, fairway hybrid, 5-iron, 8-iron, and pitching wedge, to hit a few balls. With this complete the computer system went to work designing your perfectly fit clubs. It was very impressive.

They went over to the in store café to get some food while they waited for the automated system to build his clubs. It took less than an hour for the robotic machine to assemble a complete custom set. By the time they ate, got some balls, a glove, tees, and a towel, the clubs were done and waiting for them. On the way out Bobby was already asking when they could go try them out. On the way home, Dodge called Linsey.

"Hey you guys heading home?"  
"Yeah, we're on our way now, did you get that message earlier?"  
"Yeah, sure did."  
"All right, see you there in a minute.

"Okay, bye."

When Dodge and Bobby pulled up to the house there were still two police cars with their lights on in front of the house and Linsey was pulling in right behind them. She and Sarah were just getting out of the car as the officers were speaking with Dodge. All the neighbors were standing around in their yards, and Matt's parents, Bill and Brenda McNeil, came over to talk to Dodge and Linsey.

"Hey Dodge, everything all right?" asked Bill.  
"Yeah, the officers said that the perp got scared off when the security system went off. I guess crime is on the rise around here."

Linsey and Brenda started talking and moved to the other side of the drive.  
"Yeah no kiddin," said Bill, "I think maybe we should get our security systems updated."  
"Hey don't we have some neighborhood watch guys still canvassing around at night?"  
"Yeah we do but there are just two of them each night and this neighborhood has grown, I don't think they can cover it all anymore." The officers were leaving so Alan joined Dodge and Bill on the corner while Linsey, Sarah, and Brenda stood on the opposite side of the driveway continuing their own conversation.

Soon the neighbors that had been drawn out to talk to each other at the property lines marked by shrubs and short fences were one by one disappearing back into their homes. Bobby and Matt were shooting the basketball around and the excitement was seemingly over.

Bill and Brenda said good night, and headed back over to their house. Dodge and Linsey walked slowly up their front walk and went inside; it was finally the end of a rather long crazy day. They sat at the kitchen table discussing how they should get a better security system, fully aware of the new bug with a fresh battery directly above them.

Meanwhile, across town the man from the blue car was standing in a dark office in front of a very large desk. Two large suited men stood motionless behind him in the shadows. The old, nearly spent, LED lamp above him, provided light to see figures in the shadows, but not faces. Cyrus sat behind his desk smoking a cigar, his face only visible briefly as he took a draw from it. The brightened ember of his Cuban cast an eerie orange glow across his ragged face. The room was clouded by the thickening haze. The man from the blue car was becoming nervous, he looked down at the floor to see what was making a strange sound when he moved. He realized he was standing on a large sheet of black plastic. "Not good!"

As he looked back up at Slade sitting there in the dark, he was fairly sure his fate was sealed, but he tried to negotiate anyway.  
"Mr. Slade, Please, just give me another chance. I'm sure the security system went off due to some malfunction. I swear I was in and out clean. I swear to you, I did not trip that alarm."

Slade was silent for what seemed like a long time.  
"Listen you little rat!" His booming voice instantly filled the room. "Do you realize what you've done? Dodge Kerrington was in the palm of my hand, I had the perfect situation. Those people talked constantly. Sooner or later I would have obtained the information that I needed without having to deal with them personally. Do you have any idea how much I detest dealing with people?"

"Now, I'll probably have to kill him, but first I'll have to torture him to get what I want. All these unpleasant and unfair things that I am going to have to do to Kerrington are your fault! Do you know what that means? It is not 'I' that is responsible for their torture and their deaths, no, not at all. It's YOUR fault you inconsiderate moron! YOU and YOU alone are the cause of their deaths, YOU are a murderer! Do you know what the punishment is for murder?"

"Please Sir, I'll do anything. Please don't kill me, I'll do . . ."  
"Shut up!" Snarled Cyrus, "Pleading will only make your death embarrassing. Just be quiet and make peace with your fate. It's what you deserve."

The word deserve was barely out of Cyrus's mouth as he mashed a button on his keyboard. The man clutched his head, and began grinding his teeth as he fell forward hitting the floor like a sack of flour. A large pool of blood formed on the plastic beneath his head.

Slade took a long draw from the cigar and exhaled with a satisfied sigh. He looked up at the two men standing in the shadows.

"Don't just stand there!" He barked, "Clean up that mess! And send the man waiting out in the corridor IN on your way OUT."

The two suited men quickly folded the plastic around the dead man and carried him out. Cyrus turned back to his computer console. The screen displayed a life file residing in the LifeTech database. He hit the delete key causing a small box to appear.

"Are you sure you want to permanently delete this file?"

Two buttons were displayed below.

"YES" and "NO." He moved the cursor over the "YES" button.  
"Goodbye 726," he said as he clicked it." Another message box appeared.  
"Do you wish to archive a compressed backup of this file?

The same "YES" and "NO" buttons appeared, and an additional message. Note: Choosing "NO" will result in permanent loss of Restoration Potential. Proceed with Caution! Cyrus Chuckled and clicked the "NO" button.

As he was completing the erasure of blue car man, a very thin, small stature man, entered the office quietly and stood where the plastic lay just a moment earlier. The man was only known as "Glitch." He was a notorious hacker that had earned his nick name justly. He stood there quietly for some time.  
"Sir?" Cyrus looked up from his console and took a long draw on the cigar. He blew the smoke out as far as he could so that it reached Glitch's face causing him to choke a bit.  
"726 is deceased, go to his residence, find his Lifecorder and bring it to the lab, see to it that it's compromised in an untraceable manner then return it to his residence, I sent his file to you."  
"Anything else Sir?"  
"Yes, in fact there is, do it without being detected, we've had enough of that."  
"Of course Sir." Glitch turned and left the room without hesitation, he knew Cyrus was not much for conversation and he hated Cyrus anyway, he dreamed of the day when he would collect his half of the money, and never have to see that man again.

Glitch wasn't really scared of Cyrus, but he knew Slade had to be the Alpha dog or he would never hear the end of it. After Glitch left, Cyrus pulled up another lifefile on his PC, it was that of Dodge Kerrington. He sat there and stared at it for a long time.  
"Well Dodge, I sure hope I don't have to kill your whole family to get what I want" but if I have to, I certainly will.

Cyrus Slade was an evil man, he even had an evil sounding name, but a name doesn't make a man any more that a cover makes a book. Many bad things had been done to Cyrus that made him what he was, a man filled with hate. He despised LifeTech, ESS, and the whole premise of cloning. He was one of two infants many years earlier that were volunteered into an experimental program, one was Ron Simpson, and the other was Cyrus.

Cyrus's parents were German immigrants that had entered the country illegally. They were desperate for money to bring Cyrus's two-year-old sister into the country from a hospital in Germany, without medical treatment in the United States she would soon die.

They needed large sums of money to pay for the exuberant cost of the specialist and the long hospital stay. They heard that Dr. Simpson sometimes helped people with a special medical need, especially immigrants of German descent. Ron's Great, Great, Grand Parents, escaped to freedom during the holocaust in Germany many years ago. His family passed the story down and now he was always willing to help others in similar dire straits.

He paid for the young girl to be brought into the country in exchange for the parents volunteering young Cyrus for their secret cutting edge cloning project. Something went terribly wrong with Cyrus's clone and at a young age the clone murdered the parents, his surrogate original and Ron's original before disappearing.

He went on to murder Ron Simpson's clone which was then living as the original Ron and working at ESS. He also murdered Dr. Simpson and his Wife many years later. He made each death look accidental. The older sister died a short time later in spite of all the efforts to save her, probably more from a broken heart than her disease.

As it turned out, Cyrus was the product of a lifefile being transferred into a clone with damaged DNA. In the current system he would have been euthanized but because he was the first of his kind no one knew how dangerous he would become as he aged. They wanted to observe him and study him to see if various drugs, shock treatments, or genetic adjustments might correct his personality disorder and his mental illness, not to mention his physical problems.

Their lack of caution got them all killed and Cyrus became more deranged and more powerful with each passing year. Their genetic tampering had made him extremely intelligent, dangerously strong, and highly driven but at the same time without ethics or morals, basically evil.

He was hell bent on ruling the world, total and complete domination of everyone and all governments. He needed more information to complete the task; he needed the knowledge inside the heads of two men, John Calhoun and Dodge Kerrington.

He had to have it; he must obtain it to complete his plan on time. These two men were the only ones that had the knowledge of the systems vulnerabilities. He needed the system to be bullet proof and he knew if he picked their brains clean and then erased them there would be no one else with the knowledge and skills to stop him.

The security at ESS was so tight that he couldn't get into their servers to get the designs for all the equipment he needed. The names of the men truly behind the genius of the system were locked in there also. He had blackmailed Ron Simpson with the promise of not murdering him or his parents if he cooperated with him.

Once he got what he needed from Ron he murdered him making it look like an accident. When Ron's parents got suspicious that his death was not accidental they hired professional trackers to find Cyrus. They did find him and they started poking around in his affairs. He figured out what was going on and snuffed out the trackers one by one. When he was done with them, he had Ron's parents killed at sea, making it look like an accident.

He disappeared again without a trace. So far he succeeded in covering his tracks and remaining undetected by authorities; they couldn't even identify the man let alone locate him.

At present time he truly believed himself to be invincible, but what he didn't know was that the very men he was watching, the very ones that he believed to be his salvation, were closer to bringing him down than he ever imagined.

Just outside the old foundry down the alley to the east sat a beat up grey van. To the average person and even the security systems of Cyrus Slade this vehicle remained undetected. The Black Ops team members on duty were informed by John that these hackers were not your garden variety criminals and that they had BEYOND the latest technology, the utmost caution would be needed.

The team was keeping the widest parameter possible while still tracking the signal from the hijacked bug. Two days before the man in the blue car met his fate he dutifully returned the bug from the Kerrington's kitchen with the alleged dead power cell. It was sitting in a bin marked "refurb" on the end of a table in the communications lab inside the old foundry.

The tech responsible for fixing it hadn't yet. There it sat emitting a signal that appeared to be random noise to the monitoring system in the compound; it simply blended in with all the other white noise on their monitoring consoles.

The Black Ops in the van decided to keep their loitering to a minimum and left the area after only two hours. They were being very cautious and rightfully so. They backed out of the alley without turning on the lights and very quietly and slowly drove away.

Back at the Calhoun estate John was sitting at his computer console searching for anything he could find on the family of Doctor Simpson and the cloning program. After much digging he found a partial record of the program deep in the archives of the pentagon's cold case division. He couldn't get into all of it but he had been able to get a name, it was the identity of the second participant in the study. The name was Cyrus Anthony Slade. "Yes! Finally a clue, maybe this Cyrus fellow was involved somehow.

He was reading the details of the file when his phone beeped. It was a message from the team.

"From: B O, Compound located, team extracted, out clean. John jumped up out of his chair and did a high kick into the air. "YES, take that hackers!" he yelled, with an added fist pump. He immediately messaged Dodge without realizing the time. Then he looked at his watch. "Oops, crap!" It was 2:15 a.m. Dodge still had to go to work in the morning as usual. John hoped Dodge's ringer was on low and maybe he would just sleep through it.

Dodge rolled over because something woke him but he didn't know what. He was tired from a long day and an even longer evening that started with rock wall climbing and ended with a break in plus the drama that went with it and then insomnia from everything going through his head. He finally drifted off to sleep around 1:30 and now his phone screen was lit.

He retrieved it from his bedside table and looked at the message.  
"Tracker worked!" He was so elated by what it said. He really thought their plan might fail due to the security of these hackers being so high. He wanted to wake Linsey up but she was sleeping so good he didn't dare It could wait till morning, besides, he couldn't talk in there anyway. He shot John back a message.  
"Awesome, talk tomorrow."

He rolled over and went back to sleep, having more piece of mind.

The next morning was busy, Dodge called the local security company that John found and informed them that they had a security emergency and that they needed a team out there to the house right away. Dodge went to the basement with Linsey and turned on the radio. He told her about John's message from very early that morning and how John filled him in on all the details first thing when he got up.

The hackers lair had been located but it was so large that it was more like a compound than anything else so they had already begun calling it just that, the compound. Unfortunately this probably also meant that they were dealing with a group of individuals and not just one or two hackers. It was a little unsettling now that this discovery had been made but they still had no idea what size of a group they were dealing with, that remained to be determined.

The current person suspected to be behind all of this was a man named Cyrus Slade. He explained the whole thing to her and she was just as amazed as he was that their plan to use the hackers bug to find their lair had worked so well.  
"Why do bad guys always have creepy names?" Said Linsey as they went back up the stairs. It made Dodge laugh, but she was right, it was a good question that he couldn't answer.

After breakfast, Dodge called Tim at ESS. He explained the break in and that he was having a new security system installed right away. He told Tim that the company was coming out today to survey the house and that he would not be in today. Tim understood and said for him not to worry there was nothing pressing at work today and that work could wait, the safety of his family was more important.

Shortly after calling Tim he received a message from the Black Ops team. It read: Blue devil replaced, taxi on duty. Dodge perceived that the man in the little blue car had been demoted. Undoubtedly he had been blamed for the security system going off and was relieved of his duties. Of course neither he nor John would have guessed that their little stunt with the security system got the poor guy killed. Now the car to watch for was apparently a taxi.

Spotting a tail in a taxi would not be quite so easy, there were thousands of them and they were everywhere. They made up over 25% of the cars on the road. The cost of owning a car had gone so high due to the EPA's recent sanctions on manufacturers. Many people also liked getting the tax credit for not owning a car and so they used the discount to get 3% off sales tax on all their purchases.

Since the IRS was disbanded in 2020 for corruption, the federal government finally adopted the straight sales tax program. Many of the old IRS employees were hired by the EPA and now corruption was starting all over again within that agency. A world investigative news story was aired shortly after by a reputable group of troubleshooting reporters. Apparently, before the IRS was disbanded, they offered tax incentives to the auto makers that would agree to produce more electric taxies in an effort to promote the clean air act and the reduction of fossil fuels use acts.

Many of the corrupt IRS agents were hired by the EPA, and their motives were now becoming obvious to everyone. They cracked down on the automakers with ridiculous sanctions. As a result the cars became too expensive for the average family to afford. They offered even more federal incentives to auto makers for building more electric taxies. Most of the corrupt EPA officials bought large amounts of stock in the taxi companies and made out like bandits. Several of those involved in the higher levels of the scandal were indicted and were now cooling their heels in prison for their crimes.

It didn't work entirely though, many people with families simply had to have their own cars, it was just too difficult to use taxies or busses all the time. Dodge knew the tail would be hard to pick out of the herd, the hackers picked a much better cover this time, pretty smart.

The security company John found was "High Voltage Security." The vans showed up in front of the house promptly at 10:00 a.m. the exact time of their service appointment. They had all new electric vans with lettering on them that read.

"High Voltage Security Specialist."  
"We Secure It LIGHTNING FAST."

The vans were black with blue graphics all over them that looked like bolts of lightning.

The Foreman came in and did some quick introductions and asked Dodge what area of the house he would like for them to start in. He said the upstairs would be just as good as any place so they started on the second story and began scanning for devices and potential entry points for would be intruders.

Meanwhile Dodge called Tim back at ESS.

"Hey Tim, I know that it goes against protocol, but I would really like to call my old friend John Calhoun over to be here today while these security guys are here. You know John is a security specialist of the highest caliber and I would really feel better if he were here to make sure these guys know what they're doing."

What Tim said next surprised Dodge.

"That's a great idea. John is no longer our competition. You know I heard that he bought RockTight out just to fire his old boss. A couple of weeks later he sold it to the new owners for 90% of the purchase price and resigned as CEO. The only stipulation was that they couldn't rehire fish lips. Crazy stuff huh?"

"Yeah crazy, I didn't know that, but then I try to avoid John most of the time because I am supposed to, you know." Tim reassured him that it was all right now and they could stop avoiding each other. Dodge thanked Tim and ended the call.  
"What a huge relief."

John had said something to him about selling the company, but he didn't really think he would. He dialed up John.

"Hey you son of a gun, you didn't tell me that you sold RockTight already?"  
"Oh yeah man, remember, I said I might do that?"  
"Yeah that's great, I'm really glad, now we don't have to stealth around as much at the club. I just spoke with Tim, he's the one that told me, he said it was no conflict of interest for you and I to hang out. I'd like for you to be my consultant on this system install, can you come over?"  
"You bet buddy, I'll be right over."  
"Okay, I'll call you back from the kitchen in a minute so our little friends with the bugs can hear it. The security guys haven't found that bug in the kitchen yet."  
"Okay."  
A moment later he called him back from the kitchen and invited him to come over.

Thirty minutes later John Calhoun zoomed up in front of the house in his 308 Ferrari. He liked to make a splash entrance for consulting work. Several of the security guys couldn't resist going over to see the car up close. It was super rare and it was in perfect condition. They all spent a minute drooling over it and saying, "oh my god," a few times.

Dodge introduced John to the crew, it wasn't too difficult to get their attention when you show up in a 308, just man code pretty much, after all, you must be some kind of bad ass if you show up in a car like that, or at least that was the consensus.

John wasted no time in getting to the point after the introductions.  
"Look guys, I'm not here to get in your way," he said.  
"I'll observe only, unless I see something that I think must be addressed. Mr. Kerrington has asked me to consult on this install so I'm here for him. All orders will come from him, he's the customer. Please go ahead and do your jobs as usual, I don't want to get in your way."

The foreman on the job spoke up.

"Hey guys this man right here is the best in the business, I've heard of him from several of our superiors and he has been in several of the trade magazines as the leading expert. If he says anything to you, LISTEN and LEARN" he turned to John and said  
"Sir, if you see anything at all that we're doing wrong, no matter how small, please by all means tell me, we want to do the best job possible for Mr. Kerrington."  
"Thank you Bob, I appreciate that." The foreman turned to his crew.  
"All right guys let's get it done."

Back at the compound Cyrus had received word from his watchers and listeners that the Kerrington house would soon be as airtight as John's house. This sent Cyrus into a fit of rage. He immediately called for Glitch to be sent to his office. As he was standing in front of Cyrus's desk the two suited men quietly arrived behind him, he looked over his shoulders at them and smiled while shaking his head. Glitch was quite intelligent and had put security measures in place to preserve his own life should Slade ever turn on him, he wondered now if Slade was trying to fluster him for some reason.

Glitch was not the run of the mill flunky for Slade. Cyrus even feared Glitch a bit or maybe "concerned" about him, would be a better description. Fear wasn't really in his range of emotions, if he even had them. Glitch looked over his shoulder again and then down at the plastic under his feet. He glared at Slade with his sunken in beady little eyes out from under his bushy eye brows.

"Mr. Slade, with all due respect, are you really planning to treat me as one of your stooge's? You know full well that I don't have a cranial charge implant in my head, you can't kill me with a click of your mouse on your PC." Slade slammed his hand down on the desk causing glitch to flinch.  
"NOOOOO!" He blared, "I intend to treat you as the asset that you are. When you become useless then I'll get rid of you by any suitable means!"

Glitch knew Slade couldn't afford to kill him, he needed him, and besides, he had put several things in place that would sink Slade if he were not there to attend to them. Slade knew how crafty Glitch was when he offered him a partnership and he had a mutual respect for the intensity of his diabolical genius. He viewed him as near equal but still wanted to destroy him just to prove that he was the alpha dog.

"Glitch, I have a job for you" he said.  
"The plastic is not for you my friend, but rather for the individual coming in to see me next. He's a watcher that I am displeased with." Glitch suspected that he was lying but accepted the answer just to move on.  
"All right then, what is the task at hand?"  
"I want the file from 726 sent to the cloning lab downstairs." Glitch stared at him in disbelief.  
"Sir you ordered me to destroy his Lifecorder and we did. We returned it to his residence with a hacked file section filled with unusable data. We burned the house to the ground with his body in it just as you requested! You deleted the file from the LifeTech database personally. How do you propose I give you his file Sir?"

"I was hoping in that corrupted, evil, hollowed out, pruned up skull of yours, you had concocted a reason to keep a back up copy of it"  
"No Sir, I didn't. May I ask why you would like his file?"  
"Well, I was thinking we still have a clone of him down in the lab, and if we still had a copy of his file, I could load him up. I could torture him to see if he was lying about setting off that security system at the Kerrington's. I smell a rat in all of this but I don't know what it is. I was too quick to kill him without getting some answers first."

"Sir, I do believe there may be something down in the lab that you should see, I believe you will be pleased," said Glitch.  
"Very well Glitch, I'll meet you down there in thirty minutes."

Back at the Kerrington's the day was going quite well. The security team swept the house for security risk and much to their surprise and the "pretend" surprise of both Dodge and John, the team found several bugs. They got some pleasure out of hitting them with a hammer on the cement patio.

Prior to smashing them, John commented that it must have been one of ESS's competitors that planted them in an effort to get trade secrets. They must have been hoping that Dodge would tell his wife details of his work in their private conversations. He said this by design to leave the listeners with the idea that ESS's competitors would be blamed for the bugs, which was exactly what they intended to do.

Chapter 17 Dodge called Tim at ESS to tell him the news of the discovered bugs and that everyone agreed it certainly must be one of ESS's competitors behind the whole thing. Tim was outraged and insisted that ESS would pay for the new security system and insisted on speaking with the installing supervisor so Dodge put Bob on the phone.

Tim instructed the supervisor to install the absolute best system possible, and that the cost was of no concern, ESS would be picking up the tab including the monthly monitoring fees. He insisted that work continue non-stop until it was complete. When the supervisor got off the phone he gave the news to everyone and informed his team that they would be working overtime tonight. He told Dodge and Linsey that his boss insisted they put the Kerrington's up in the Presidential for the night, the most prestigious and expensive hotel in the city.

He said that the install and tune teams would be working on the house all night and would call in a second and third shift to complete the job. There would be too much noise and disruption for the family to get any rest if they stayed there. John thought it was a great idea and he volunteered to stay all night with the install teams to make sure the shifts changed smoothly without losing any details of how everything should be done. The supervisor called in for a security escort to accompany them to the Presidential for their overnight stay. He also called the president of the company and explained the situation to him. The president reserved the Pent House at the Presidential for Dodge and his family, he said it was on the house, he wanted them to be as comfortable as possible.

They all packed overnight bags including their swim suits, Dodge told the kids that the hotel had at least three pools and one of them was on the roof, they were very excited. That night they had the most fun of their lives. They got the royal treatment at the Presidential; they had a private movie theatre, a bowling alley, a pool, and room service in their private dining room on top of that. They did it all, the kids finally turned in out of sheer exhaustion at 2:00 a.m.

Dodge and Linsey ordered a bottle of wine, and not the cheap stuff either. They polished it off in about an hour while they talked on the beautiful rooftop deck. It was a clear night and even in the city they could see plenty of the stars, the view of the city was breath taking from atop the luxurious fifty story hotel. They felt victorious and they retired to the master bedroom feeling romantic but they both fell asleep before they could even get started.

John Calhoun experienced one of the most challenging nights of his life. He took several naps and drank a ton of coffee and by 9:00 a.m. the next morning it was done. They made such a racket that the police came out and a news crew showed up, the same news crew that came out two days earlier, when the alarm was tripped. It was a slow news day the first time when they came out, but still they only aired a basic story about the crime rate increasing in upscale neighborhoods. Now they thought there might be a follow up story so they showed up again.

John called Tim at ESS and got permission to release a statement to the news crew. It was 5:00 a.m. when John went out onto the front lawn to speak with them. He answered a few questions and then decided to break it to the news crew that the security company had put the Kerrington's up in the Presidential for the night, that's just how good they were. John knew that this would put Dodge on Television and thought it would be really hilarious.

As the Kerrington's emerged from the hotel at 10:00 a.m. the next morning they were running on way too little sleep. They were surprised that they were surrounded immediately by a barrage of reporters with cameras and microphones. Dodge looked at Linsey just before the reporters attacked them with questions.  
"Let's just get to the limo!" They made it to the limo quickly with only a few reporters trying to block them. Dodge answered the barrage of questions with several "no comment" statements as they were making a run for it.

When they got home, the install crew was carrying out the last of their bags and tools, and the vans were leaving one by one every few minutes. John was out in the front yard drinking coffee and talking to Bob, the original supervisor that he had met the day before. He stayed pretty late the night before and wanted to come back by to make sure everything got finished up correctly and to talk with John about any concerns.

Dodge joined them and shook Bob's hand as he thanked him for getting it all done in record time. He asked him to thank the president of the company for putting their family up in the Presidential. The remaining crew wrapped it up and left promptly. John and Dodge went inside and sat around the table with the family to chat for a few minutes and they all had a good laugh about John's prank on them.

"Hope you don't mind Dodge but I took the liberty of parking the 308 in your garage next to the Goat."  
"Oh well I can't blame you for wanting to get that beauty off the street overnight."  
"Well anyway, the system is up and running and now you have your privacy back again. I'm going home and get a much needed shower and some sleep."  
"All right, I'll walk you out."

Dodge and John went out to the garage.

"Hey you gonna tell the kids what's going on?" Asked John.  
"I don't know, do you think I should?"  
"You might think about it. In light of the recent events I think we could all be in danger, especially if this Cyrus guy is behind it all as we suspect."

"Yeah maybe you're right. I'll run it by Linsey and see what she thinks."  
"Okay man, I'll talk to you just as soon as I get some shut eye."

He fired up the 308 and backed it out. He took off fast down the drive. The adrenaline rush would keep him awake behind the wheel.

That night the Kerrington's gathered around the TV for the six o'clock news, they prepared for the big moment with cokes and pop corn. They knew it was their one moment of fame, they would be on the news for sure. Just as expected, they were the second story of the night.

In the foreground there were several reporters and in the background was the front entrance of the Presidential. The reporter began.

"Good evening, I'm Brian Wilcox with news 21 reporting live on the scene. We're in front of the Presidential Hotel here in downtown Indianapolis where Top Engineer, Dodge Kerrington, of ESS, and his family, were put up last night at no charge. The stayed in the spacious penthouse at the top of this luxury hotel. It seems that ESS, the company that has become famous for the MedicStar government contracts, is allegedly under some kind of cyber attack at the hands of their competitors. We're waiting here for the Kerrington family to emerge, we're hoping to get a comment on this development."

"Let's go now to a clip from Angela who was at the Kerrington residence very early this morning taking a statement there from Mr. John Calhoun."

"Mr. Calhoun, the acclaimed security expert and former owner and CEO of RockTight systems, is now apparently working for Mr. Kerrington as a consultant. Interestingly enough he's also a former ESS employee. Let's take a look."

"Good evening, I'm Angela Berry with News 21 reporting live from the North side at the residence of Dodge Kerrington a top engineer at ESS. ESS is well known for its groundbreaking work in the development of the MedicStar health care system. We're here with Mr. John Calhoun security expert and good friend of Mr. Kerrington. Hello John."  
"Good morning Angela."  
"What can you tell us about all this equipment here in the streets of this normally quiet neighborhood? It's the middle of the night, there are bright lights set up, we hear power tools running and there are a lot of workers inside and outside of this house, what's going on?"

"Well Angela, as you already know, Mr. Kerrington is a senior project engineer at ESS, and just two days ago the police were called out here to this residence on a fairly routine security system breach. They thought that the attempted break in was just a normal burglary attempt, and that may still be the case. However the Kerrington's felt that the security system was outdated so shortly after the incident they called the High Voltage Security Company out here to do a security system evaluation. As many of you may know from their commercials their basic system quote includes a free complete security sweep of the house. Much to everyone's surprise, they found multiple high tech listening devices, in the Kerrington's home.

This and further discovery led us to believe that the attempted break in may have had to do with those devices and fortunately it led to their discovery. As a logical result ESS has heightened their security awareness. This attack on the Kerrington family's privacy, is most likely a result of Mr. Kerrington's employment in a high tech engineering firm working on government systems. No doubt competitors would love to know what ESS is working on."

"So what has been done here to prevent this invasion of privacy from happening again?"  
"Well Angela, I can't go into specifics for obvious reasons, but let's just say, this place is like Fort Knox now and we're putting the people attempting to steal these trade secrets on notice. The message is simple, ESS and their employees will all get system upgrades, and their homes will be checked out very well, any evidence collected at the various locations will likely culminate in charges once those behind this are identified by investigators. ESS will simply not tolerate their employees being harassed and their privacy invaded."

"Hold on Mr. Calhoun, I just received a note here. Just one more question, is it true that you bought out your last employer for the sole purpose of firing your former boss?"

"Oh, that's rich, come on now Angela who would do that? You can't believe everything you read in those skyphone tabloids! I did purchase RockTight systems because I saw tremendous potential in the company as an investment. Once purchased I simply replaced the incompetent management with individuals that had goals in alignment with the success of the company. With the right leadership in place the company became even more valuable and as a result I received a buyout offer for RockTight that I simply could not refuse. I need to go now Angela, we have a lot of work to do here and I must get back to it, thank you."

"Thank you Mr. Calhoun. Well there you have it folks, ESS is taking extreme measures to protect their secrets and their employees, back to you in the studio Alise."

The Kerrington's were all munching on snacks and laughing at the whole thing, John was so entertaining and the look on his face when asked about firing old fish lips just about caused Dodge to choke to death on a mouth full of popcorn.

Once again, John had woven a tapestry of words that only a master could comprise, especially when facing such an unexpected question from the media. Across town, John was watching the same broadcast and was also getting some enjoyment out of the whole thing. The video feed returned back to the anchor.  
"All right, thank you Brian. We also have another recorded clip from the Presidential where Brian was earlier, let's take a look."

"Good morning, Brian Wilcox reporting from the Presidential where we're still waiting for the Kerrington family to emerge in hopes of getting a statement from Mr. Kerrington on the security situation. Oh, here they come now let's see what they have to say."

"Mr. Kerrington, what can you tell us about the break in at your house?"  
"No comment, let's just get to the limo!"  
"Mr. Kerrington do you believe the break in has any connection to the listening devices found in your home?"  
"No comment, please just let us through here folks, we would like to get to our car."  
"Mr. Kerrington, does this invasion of your home have anything to do with your work at ESS?" "No comment! Excuse us, coming through, get out of the way people, we have no comment."

"Well that's it, as you can see they didn't have much to say, and they have made their way to the car that was waiting to whisk them away, back to you in the studio Alise."

Seeing themselves on TV was enlightening, the whole family was laughing.

"Oh my god, my hair looked awful! I'm so embarrassed, and I'm going to get teased at school for sure!" Said Sarah.  
"Are you kidding me! We're famous, look we're on TV getting into a Limo." Added Bobby.  
"I agree with Sarah," said Linsey, "I just looked like crap on camera, no wonder actors get work done!"  
"Work done? Shoot, they all just get restored nowadays, who needs work! The plastic surgeons are all going bankrupt," said Dodge.

They had a great time watching themselves on TV in their five minutes of fame.

Across town in the compound, Cyrus Slade watched the same news broadcast as the rest of them but his outlook on the situation was entirely different. He was still unaware that Dodge Kerrington and John Calhoun were on to him and his hackers. The way he saw it he had lost access to the home of his prime person of interest but he still remained undetected, a real victory in his book.

The loss of audio access was a minor setback. Soon he would have Kerrington and Calhoun under his control, soon he would have the answers he needed regarding the vulnerabilities of the system that only the creators could know. Once he had that, he could destroy them both and no one could stop him.

The following week was a great one for John, Dodge, and Linsey. Amanda was still out of town on false pretenses for her own protection. John had his cars checked out for bugs daily as did the Kerrington's. They had their privacy back and it was all under the guise of increased security due to Dodges Job. Under this umbrella they could do regular sweeps leaving Cyrus to believe that it was all to do with ESS and nothing to do with him.

Slade now had to rely solely on the watchers with no means of ease dropping except for a few directional microphones from time to time that caught bits and pieces of conversations. John and Dodge were aware of these capabilities so they didn't talk about these things in open areas where there was risk of being overheard.

Back at the farm Jason Bluffton was working diligently. He was only sleeping two hours at a time in order to keep constant monitoring of the clones that were now rapidly growing in the suspension tanks. He had made his own pods by ordering plastic tanks designed for farm sprayers and then cutting them in half lengthwise with a laboratory laser. It worked perfectly and didn't raise any suspicion when being delivered. After all, there was still a tractor outside and it still looked very much like a farm.

He was exhausted but he continued to work. His only communication with the outside world, was occasional messages exchanged with John to update him on the progress, and a small television that he found in storage there at the farm. He had seeded the tiny clone blanks with the DNA samples from the Kerrington's. He had four tanks going now, and was adding a fifth tank to start Bobby's clone. Dodges' was first and was about two days ahead of John's, then Linsey, Sarah, and Bobby in that order. Dodges' clone was beginning to accelerate more rapidly now as it was day 15 of its progression, the body was now developed to that of a two year old child.

Acceleration could now be increased more rapidly up to the pubescent stage then it would have to be slowed down as science had not yet devised a method to regulate the massive hormone level swings in the body during puberty. As a result this stage required a reduction in acceleration by 50% for eight days, then after that the speed could be increased again.

He had worked tirelessly for days before the DNA samples arrived so that he could have everything ready. The process required nearly sterile conditions to work properly.

First he had to set up an area in the building where he could control temperature, humidity, and light fairly well. The place was a real mess, everything was dusty and there were cob webs hanging down everywhere. They had a spider infestation in one area that had to be exterminated. He had to clean, vacuum, and wipe down the whole place with disinfectant solution. It took him five days to get this area in decent enough shape to make it all work. He had asked for an assistant but they had not found one yet.

They had to very careful about whom they brought in. John had been so busy with everything going on at the Kerrington's that his screening process for Jason's assistant had been set back. Now that the clones were all started and seemingly doing fine he had caught up on his sleep in short segments. Even though he still had to do it in two hour intervals he was getting used to that schedule and felt pretty good.

He had a little bit of spare time today so he decided to do some digging. He contacted John and got some hacked clearances from him to log into government sites related to healthcare and cloning so that he could find some things out. He wanted to know the exact ingredients in the pink goop. The stuff that everybody hated so much but had to have so that they could get strong and healthy fast and go home very quickly after Restoration.

He was having some difficulty in getting results until he used the pentagon pass that John gave him. Once inside their system he started looking for reports on nutrition. He came across a study that someone had conducted in relation to the health of CIA field agents. A few doctors working under orders of secrecy for the government back in the late 1990's had come up with a dietary supplement that had astounding results in the rehabilitation of agents that were injured and laid up for long periods of time.

It was common for people to develop muscle atrophy which made them nearly crippled from lying in bed for weeks on end while recuperating. The government wanted their valuable assets to be available again in a shorter time frame so they developed this supplement.

As it turns out, this was the same pink goop now being served to the newly restored. It helped them get stronger faster so they could go home sooner. This saved the government health care system billions of dollars per year by shortening their hospital stay after the procedure was complete.

If consumed on a regular basis it created muscle mass and strength unmatchable by any amount of a workout regiment or the outdated steroid supplements. Simply put, it made ordinary men and women four times stronger than usual, three times faster than normal and did it with only mild side effects like occasional skin rash and mild insomnia.

He decided to attempt making a batch of it up, but it would require ordering some supplements and herbs from online sellers of naturalist products, and some quite serious chemicals. He sent a grocery list of sorts to John for ordering with a note that said: please deliver by courier. John knew this meant a trip to the bank.
It was a hot summer day and Bobby was having a great time. He and Matt knew that summer was slipping away, it was late July now and summer vacation was nearly spent. It was time to start maximizing the fun days before the return to school. Soon it would be back to the old books.

He had gone to the courts to get in on some pickup games and met a new friend, a boy that was new to the area and looking to fit in. He and Matt decided that the boy seemed down because the other boys were either picking at him or ignoring him. They decided saying hello would be the right thing to do.

His name was Toby Lansing and he really was a very nice guy. He and his parents had just moved there from Michigan. Toby's Father found work there in Indy so the family moved there for a better opportunity. They learned Toby was their age and would be attending school with them in the fall.

They shot around some ball with him for a few minutes and he was pretty good, and he was also interested in the same things they were. They invited him to come over after practice and hang out with them. Matt messaged his Mother and she said it would be all right to bring his new friend home for a little while after practice. Toby just needed to ask his parents if it was okay.

They all sat there and talked about sports and the girls they liked while they waited for Toby's parents to answer. A moment later they got the green light and they were off in a flash to the retro-cade, the new teen hangout in town that had brought back the old style pin ball machines and retro video games. They had the old whack-a-mole, pac-man, space invaders, and even skeeball, all the games that were popular when Grandpa Kerrington was a kid.

Alan had talked Dodge and Linsey into going to check it out one Saturday afternoon. Alan had a blast, it was like a flash from the past for him but Dodge and Linsey just didn't get it, their generation just didn't warm up to it at all. It had been revived by an entrepreneur recently that lived to be 99 years old when he decided to be restored. When he got into his new body, he felt renewed and full of energy like a youth again. It inspired him to start retro-cade and so he obtained rights to the old games and began having them made again.

The mechanical bells, levers and lights of the pinball machines were a new real world experience for youth that had grown up in a totally computerized era, and the retro video games while still electronic were all two dimensional and so basic that it became intoxicating for the modern youth. The new retro-cades were now all over the United States in malls everywhere. The boys settled in there for an evening of fun and junk food from the concession counter.

Back at the Kerrington house Dodge and Linsey were going through tutorials on the PC connected to the new security system. It was feature rich, and so well thought out, that it was certainly the best system available. The house was wired with 36 cameras placed carefully to not invade privacy but still provide excellent coverage of all windows and doors. No one could get in or out of the house without being detected. Any intruder would have set off several sensors just trying to get in. Once inside they would be quarantined quickly by high voltage laser curtains that would shoot across each door frame. Going through these curtains would render even the toughest of men unconscious, badly burned, and all of their electronics completely toasted. It was so advanced that it could easily detect children or pets allowing only them to pass unharmed.

Authorities would be alerted and the perp would be easily taken into custody when they arrived. It was high tech enough to have facial recognition, retina scan and full hand scan touch-less entry as a backup. The house would unlock the door for you before you even got all the way to the door. It had already scanned your retina and face by the time you got to it and it also welcomed you by name.

They could talk to it and give it commands to turn things on and off like lights, music, TVs just about anything. They wanted to learn this system well and get full control of it. In the event of an attack it might be the only thing that would save their lives.

Meanwhile John Calhoun was spiraling ever deeper into the rabbit hole that was Cyrus Slade's complete medical history. He had finally found the detailed files of everything that had been done to this poor man, that is, if you could call him a man. The cloning gone wrong had left several parts of his body grossly deformed. He had been through countless surgeries to fix various problems. Several of his organs had been replaced with bionic organs because cloning him only yielded another copy with all the same infirmities. The real horror of it all, was that he had been in excruciating pain with every operation. His pain receptors were not normal but this was not discovered until his sixth year after he was cloned. He had been put under for numerous operations and they thought he was feeling nothing but his mind was actually fully awake and aware of every cut, every pull and every stitch going in when they sewed him back up.

He could be re-cloned, but it would simply render the same mess that they had started with. The process had not been perfected, as he and Ron were the first clones. Ron was the second one, and they corrected many things that they had learned from Cyrus's process that went wrong. They were keeping Cyrus alive in order to learn from their mistakes, he was like a human guinea pig. This fueled his hatred for Ron and his parents even more.

He knew that eventually they would destroy him when they were done with him. He didn't let it happen, he escaped, he outsmarted them by drugging their drinks and overpowering the guards. After his disappearance the government shut the project down and dispersed the staff. The Doctor and his wife tried to give Ron as normal of a life as possible and were instrumental in getting him a job at ESS.

Cyrus turned to a life of crime and was moving up the ranks fast when he rescued Glitch from a brush with death.

He and Glitch devised ways to rob people without ever leaving their lab. Soon the cash mounted as they stole huge sums of money from the wealthy. Often, the victims didn't even know they had been robbed. In some cases the victims were simply too embarrassed of being taken by a scam, to alert authorities of it, so it remained unreported.

Cyrus quickly became the dominant of the two, as he continually murdered his underlings to instill fear in those left living and still under his control. Glitch took the back seat as the computer expert, a master of hacking and program development, his expertise was near to that of John's.

John was beginning to understand what was driving this mad man and why he was by far the most likely suspect behind the deaths and this whole crazy situation. It simply had to be him, there could be no other explanation. They had to get inside the systems of that compound and destroy the computers. They had to stop Cyrus and Glitch from obtaining the information that only he and Dodge possessed, If the hackers gained total access they could easily control every human being on earth that had a LifeTech chip in their head, there would be no stopping them.

John put together a video presentation of everything he discovered in his research. It was rather lengthy at about one hour of total run time, but it was as short as he could make it and cover everything needed to bring the team up to speed on what was going on. He sent a copy of it out to everyone on their secured channel to their skyphones with instructions for everyone to view it at 7:00 p.m.

One by one, he received "okay" messages back from each of their team members, Black Ops, and Linsey and Dodge. Their total member count was now up to 41 people, quite the little army.

There were a lot of things to do. The Black Ops team had spent two weeks now working on angles of attack on the compound. They obtained satellite views of the building and a complete set of digital blue prints of the foundry. They had no idea what change's Cyrus had made on the inside but they figured it must be extensive and their attack would be challenging unless they could get some intel on the inside.

John had been busy obtaining weapons and communication equipment that the Black Ops team included on their wish list. The Captain of the team reused John's word "unobtainium" when describing some of the items but John located the equipment anyway. The Captain was impressed that John could acquire weapons that he could never get with any amount of paperwork or favors when he was an active government Black Ops commander. Information was certainly king in this high tech age.

Dodge and Linsey were gradually filling Bobby and Sarah in on what was going on. They strategically left out the part about Cyrus being a cold-blooded killer and crazed madman, they didn't want to scare them to death, just make them aware of a potential danger.

They told them to watch for any unusual behavior from people that might be around the house, like security system people working at a house next door or an exterminator that might be working in the neighbor's yard. They told them if they saw anything like that to let them know right away. They also told them to be especially wary of getting into cars with people that they didn't know well after school. Someone saying that their parents had called and there was an emergency and they needed to come with them right away. They made them understand that this was most likely a trap and to not go with anyone other than family. They were quite concerned that Cyrus would make a move soon and they feared he might abduct a family member to use as a bargaining chip.

At Alan's house, things were a bit different. He went old school, obtaining some old military equipment from several friends. All the doors and windows were now wired with charges, he warned Dodge and Linsey and the kids not to enter his house under any circumstances without him by their side. His friends all knew something was going on, but they just thought he had become paranoid due to Dodge's high profile position at ESS. It had been all over the news, and they just figured, he was protecting his property the best way he knew how. He didn't know enough about electronics to do that high tech stuff but he was an expert with old style military booby traps. Old sawed off shot guns, very thin filament wires, a few hand grenades and two modified cattle prods all carefully concealed throughout the house in strategic locations.

If anybody came in uninvited and managed to get out alive, they would no doubt be missing a few pieces. They would be easily tracked later by John through the hospital data bases as they would be seeking Restoration after leaving Alan's little fun house, not to mention leaving behind some rather large DNA samples.

Alan felt his plan to be very solid, he spent his days cleaning guns making his own ammo and getting generally prepared. He was working out and eating healthily in preparation for a war, it was the only way he knew. He realized that wars nowadays were fought more with technology than brawn but he had to go through his own process just in case, he had to be ready in case it did get physical. He wanted to have the upper hand if it came down to one on one combat.

Dodge asked his Dad to keep his visits to their house down to once a week or less. He didn't want the watchers to believe Alan was involved in any way. This way they would not see him as a threat or an asset of any kind and would hopefully leave him alone.

Across town at the compound Cyrus Slade stood before his main console in his office. In his hand he held yet another of his no frill's status reports. It read . . . ,

Kerrington Residence;

Condition: Normal

Behavior: Very guarded, heightened awareness of surroundings

Activity: Normal family activities, dinner out, sports participation. shopping

Surveillance: Outdoor line of sight only, Audio: none, Video: none (state of the art security preventing penetration in both autos and home)

Note: being very cautious, keeping tight tabs on children

Cyrus crumpled the paper in his fist and leaned back letting out a maniacal laugh. He felt the greatest satisfaction welling up inside his seemingly soulless interior. Cyrus had a secret, a dark secret, one that he kept to himself completely, not even Glitch knew of this evil plan that was nearly ready to be hatched. He threw the wad of paper down, that's it! He growled, as he mashed the report into the floor with a twisting, grinding motion, under the heel of his steel toed boot.  
"Dodge Kerrington, you think you're so clever! You think you're above everyone with your fancy security system! Your perfect life! Your perfect family! We'll see how smart you are when I'm cutting off your fingers one by one! We'll see what kind of man you are then! I'll crush you!" In his moment of anger he punched the monitor putting his fist all the way through it. He struggled for a moment to remove his hand before marching off to the lab, he had plenty of work to do.

Several hours passed, it was now the wee hours of the morning. Down in the labs Cyrus pressed the intercom button for the quarters of his best geneticist, Alice Covings. He found her several years earlier, after a two-month search, working at a laboratory in California on gene splicing experiments. He viewed her resume and decided it was she that possessed the exact skills he required.

She had a husband and children but it was of no consequence to Cyrus he simply didn't care. He ordered Glitch to hack into Alice's Lifecorder one evening while she and her husband were away from their home. Glitch made a copy of her life file before corrupting the data. That very night while Glitch was tampering with her Lifecorder two hooded men were beating her husband Mark violently in an alley just outside a movie theater. They staged a mugging gone wrong scenario. They murdered her and left her husband badly beaten. He managed to crawl back out of the alley and was found by a Passerby. The EMTs got her lifeless body to the hospital only to find that her life file that was stored at a local backup service was corrupted and useless.

The police raced to their home and kicked in their front door at the bequest of the injured husband who was still in the ER. He told them to get her Lifecorder from the bedside table. The police in confusion simply brought both hers and her husband's to be sure. They attempted to load the file up into a clone at about 65 minutes from the time of her death but it didn't work.

The doctors assumed the "after sixty minutes rule" as the cause for the clones insane behavior but it was actually the result of Glitch's handy work. The clone had to be euthanized immediately as a result. Losing her had ruined this man's life and broken his heart. Their children, Sally and Phillip, were growing up without their Mother, and now their Father had no zest for life. Little did he know that his wife was still alive and had become a captive and servant to Slade. Cyrus had implanted the small explosive device in her brain just as he had done to all of his subservient, with the exception of Glitch.

Alice answered the intercom call.

"Yes this is Alice?"  
"Slade here, I need you to come to the lab immediately."

Alice thought for a moment, did she dare mention that it was 3:30 in the morning? She decided that it wouldn't be wise.

"Yes Sir, I'll be there in twenty minutes."  
"Very good."

Cyrus's voice crackled eerily back through the old speaker. Why he insisted on using this old crappy intercom system was beyond anyone's best guess, but no one had the guts to ask him.

Alice arrived at lab no. 2 twenty minutes later as promised. In the middle of the lab, leaning over a table, stood Cyrus. His twisted figure to this day made her quiver with fear, she just never got used to his snarled face and angry demeanor. There was just something about this man that made everyone uneasy, you just never got used to his presence.

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

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

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

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

"What a freak!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 18 Across town at the Kerrington house everyone was sleeping soundly, feeling more secure and safe. They felt much better now knowing that their new security system was watching every aspect of their home. Bobby, Matt, and Toby were having a great time the last two weeks. The added personality of Toby was dynamic and they had become like the three amigos. Bobby and Matt always had a great time together but Toby was a fresh face with new ideas of things to do and that really added to their fun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh man! You scared me! He said" still whispering.

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

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

"Linsey, wake up." She sat up.

"What's going on?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Well we didn't exactly have this planned!"

"Would someone please tell me what is happening here, is he all right?" They filled her in as they transferred Toby to the kitchen chair and taped his ankles securely to the chair legs and taped his hands behind the back of the chair. Dodge took the medallion off from around Toby's neck and looked it over. It did seem to be more than just a piece of jewelry. It was some type of transmitter for sure.

Bobby grabbed the bag and started going through all Toby's things to see if there was anything else interesting that may be a clue to what this kid was up to. They got his pants and retrieved his wallet out of them. His student I.D. card read Toby Allan Lansing. Dodge got on Bobby's PC and searched for the name.

There it was, Toby Allan Lansing, Born to Robert and Alisha Lansing of Detroit Michigan on Feb 4th, 1989. Deceased on March 22nd, 2056. Hmm, apparently this kid was using the I.D. of a recently deceased man for a cover. Either that, or there were two Toby Allan Lansing's from Detroit, not likely, but possible, or maybe a Grandson named after his Grandfather.

He was waking up, soon they would have some answers. Toby lifted his head and looked around the room. Linsey had her hands on her hips, Bobby was sitting on the bed looking at the floor in disappointment while Dodge and Sarah stood there glaring at him with their arms crossed.  
"I guess I'm busted, huh?"  
"Do you mind telling us why you're wandering around our house in the middle of the night talking to someone on this ear piece and toting a loaded 9 mil around in your overnight bag?" said Dodge.

"I was checking in with my, well whatever he is, it doesn't really matter I'm a dead man anyway, what time is it?"  
"What? What are you talking about?" Demanded Dodge.  
"Yeah!" added Bobby, "I thought you were my friend man, what gives? Who are you?" Toby shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but what time is it PLEASE?"  
"It's 4:27" said Linsey. "Why is that so important to you?"  
"Because If I don't contact my handler between 6:00 and 6:15, I'll be dead for sure. I didn't know how long I had been knocked out. The ER will tell you that it was an aneurism in my brain but the truth is that my handler can detonate a tiny explosive charge in there that will kill me."

"Your handler?" said Dodge.  
"Oh, come on everyone knows you can be restored," said Bobby.  
"No, not in this case, I won't just be dead, I'll be permanently dead."

"What are you talking about Toby?" said Dodge.

"Okay, look, I was born in Michigan on February the fourth, 1989 to Robert and Alisha Lansing. As an adult I worked for a computer file backup company designing software for years, I was their senior software consultant. I have some really valuable computer skills. Skills that in the wrong hands can be used in a very dangerous way. I was going to retire before the holidays.

Some men grabbed me one night outside the office when I was working late. They had a body that looked just like me, a clone of me I guess. They put the body in my car and dowsed the inside with gasoline. That is the last thing I remember from my former life because they put a bag over my head and tossed me in the back of a van and took me away.

When I woke up again I was just a boy. They showed me news files and a picture of a car that looked like mine and told me the story of how I was killed at this railroad crossing. My family attempted to have me restored but my lifefile was corrupted at the back up company and my lifecorder malfunctioned in some weird way.

My family received a huge wrongful death settlement from LifeTech, buried my remains and moved on. The only way I would ever see my family again was to do everything they told me to do. They promised if I did exactly as I was told they would restore me later and claim that there was some crazy mix up at the Lifecenter with identities.

They would see to it that my family and I would be reunited and that my family could keep the settlement money from the lawsuit, you know mental distress, pain and suffering, that kind of thing. I really had no other choice, it was, do as told, or be erased. They made Dodge here out to be a really bad man posing as an ordinary family man, but I'm not buying it, from what I have seen, you're just a normal family."

Dodge was starting to understand what was happening.

"So they cloned you up and stopped your growth at about 15 years of age, then gave you this mission, which is to do what?"

"Well, I was supposed to plant some software into your new security system that would allow these guys to see and hear everything going on in your house, seems they are upset that they have no access now. Apparently they're looking for information about your work at ESS."

"Why should we believe you?" Asked Linsey, "And even if we did believe you, what are we supposed to do now?"  
"It doesn't really matter, when I don't check in they'll detonate the charge in my head and I'll be dead."

"Why were you going for that medallion around your neck when I zapped you?"  
"Oh, you noticed that huh? Well that is a panic button. If I hit that they are supposed to rescue me but I doubt that they would. Still I went for it because based on what they told me about Dodge I was pretty scared. If you people are anything like the others I have encountered then it's likely you would torture or kill me too. I figured they would either rescue me or detonate my head bomb, either way it would be better than torture. My family already believes that I am dead and they have money now so it would be easier for everyone that way."

This man's story was getting to Linsey's emotions a bit because she was beginning to believe him. Bobby was still sulking.

"Man I can't believe you lied to me, I thought you were such a good friend."  
"I'm sorry Bobby" Toby said, with a genuine tone of regret in his voice.  
"I sure do wish I had a friend like you when I was a kid for real. I was such a wall flower, everyone called me a geek, my childhood wasn't much fun at all. It wasn't until I became an adult that I learned to play basketball. I started going down to the gym between writing code to clear my head. I got really good at free throws and then starting running around a bit making shots on the move. When I was about 45 years old, I was invited to join an office team. I sucked bad, but I got better with time. I could shoot, but didn't understand any of the rules. I read books and watched games to teach myself all about the sport, and then my teammates taught me a lot of things too. Now that I got to be a kid again, I felt cool because I knew with you and Matt helping me I might have a chance to be on the team at school. I was so excited about it that I actually got lost in being a kid again for a while, foolish I guess. Now it's back to reality and here I am, an old man in a kid's body waiting for my head to explode."

Dodge thought for a minute.

"You mentioned a handler, who is this person that you're working for?"  
"Well, I don't really know exactly, they don't use their names in front of me, in fact they call each other numbers instead of names. They always talk about 'the big dog' or 'CS', I guess that is their boss they are referring to. They said that if I did a good job on this then I would get to meet him." Dodge stood up and motioned for Linsey to follow him.

"We'll be back in a few minutes. Bobby, Sarah, keep an eye on him, holler if he gives you any trouble."

They stepped out and went down the hall to their bedroom. Dodge wanted to call John for advice and Linsey agreed that it was a good idea. John was surprised at the timing of the call. He was awakened from a dead sound sleep. "What could possibly be going on at Fort Knox that would require a call at this hour?"

Dodge told John the whole story but in a nutshell, it was getting close to 6:00 a.m. and they had to make a choice. Should they help this guy? Should they allow him to check in with his handler and take the risk of him using a code word of some kind to warn them of the situation?

John and Dodge agreed that they should allow him to make the call. If he didn't they would know he had been discovered anyway. Even if he was lying about the tiny explosive charge being in his head, it was irrelevant because they could keep him locked up for at least most of the day before he was supposed to return to the house.

John had an idea so he told Dodge he would be over later that day with some cool stuff that would reveal whether or not this kid was telling the truth.

"Are there any birthdays in the household any time soon or an anniversary or anything like that?" Asked John.

"Well no, but my Dad's birthday is next week, why?"  
"I need to bring in a big box and I need an excuse to do that. I'll be there at about 10:00 a.m., I think you should go ahead and let Toby check in but keep the entire family home today. You shouldn't go out at all. Call Alan and have him come over. Tell him that you have something for him and you want him to come get it."  
"Okay, will do."

Dodge didn't really know what John was up to but he trusted him completely. They went back up to the room where Toby, Bobby, and Sarah were talking about everything that had happened.

"Mom, Dad, I believe Toby, I think he's telling the truth."  
"Well Sarah that is kind of you to want to believe him but at this point we need proof that he's telling the truth not just a feeling, okay?"

Dodge knew that Sarah was soft hearted like her Mother so he tried to let her down easy.  
"John's coming over and he says he'll be able to help us with that." Bobby looked a little worried.

"What's John going to do? You guys aren't going to hurt my friend, I mean Toby, are you?" Toby smiled, he was glad that Bobby still liked him, in spite of his befriending him under false pretenses.

Bobby still felt betrayed, but he believed that Toby was who he said he was, and that he had been forced into carrying out the orders of his handlers. Until now, Sarah and Bobby had been kept in the dark on some of the more dangerous aspects of what was going on, but now they were beginning to understand the true gravity of the situation.

They all continued talking with Toby right up until 6:00 a.m. At about five past the hour Dodge cut the tape off of Toby's right wrist and handed him the little ear piece that they found in the bag.  
"Okay, do what you have to. If you say anything stupid I'm gonna zap you again so don't try."

Dodge put the taser against the back of Toby's neck, all he had to do is push the button, and it be would 'lights out' all over again. Toby put the ear piece in and turned it on.

"T to 711, do you copy?" They could only hear one side of the conversation.  
"Package is ready but not delivered, waiting for the right time. Okay, T Out."

He removed the earpiece and turned it off.

"There it's done," he said, "I don't have to check in again until 3:00 p.m. Sometime after that I'm supposed to go to my house."

Dodge thought for a second.

"Where do you really go?"  
"Well, that house that you drop me off at, does have a man and woman there posing as my parents. I don't know who they really are, but they only take me there when I'm going to be picked up by you guys, or when I return. As soon as I get there, they put a bag over my head and put me in the van in the garage. Then they take me on a drive that last about ten minutes, where they pull inside a building. It smells different inside like, um, I don't know maybe, an old factory or machine shop or something, kind of like burnt oil."

Dodge thought for a minute.

"It might be one of the old factories on the north side, there were several buildings of that type within a ten minute drive that he could think of. "I'll have John check it out."

It was time for some breakfast so they moved Toby downstairs to the kitchen table and only retied his feet with some rope instead of tape. He didn't complain about being tied up, in fact he was glad just to be alive and he figured at least he got to eat a hot home cooked breakfast, well maybe.

Dodge was anxious for John to arrive to find out what he had up his sleeve. It felt a little weird now that they knew this boy was actually an old man who had lived a whole other life. This new information made Dodge wonder. "If they can clone people and load them up, why do they need anything from us?"

Dodge really hadn't seen anything like this coming, he certainly never thought they would use a mole in the body of a child to infiltrate his home, very diabolical minds.

Toby's undelivered package, was a hack to the Kerrington's new state of the art security system. It was designed to take over one of the unused I/O channels allowing Glitch direct access to the cameras, microphones, and other sensors, the hackers would have gained better access than anyone could imagine. The new access would be far superior to any equipment the tail could install that ran on tiny power cells.

John arrived with a huge box in hand and rang the front door bell. It was wrapped in brightly colored paper that said "Happy Birthday" all over it in bold lettering. He even stuck a big 'to/from' tag on the box that could be easily read by watchers if they had even the most basic skills and equipment.

The tag read; To: ALAN, From: John C. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out and some quick fact checking would validate that Alan's birthday was early next week.

Dodge opened the door.

"Hey Buddy, thought I'd bring Alan's gift over early, I'm not sure if I'll be here next week. I might be going to see Amanda, you know, try to patch things up."  
"Oh, sure, thanks. Come on in, you can watch the game with us." They closed the door and immediately went to work. John's decoy birthday box contained a portable magnetic resonance imaging machine better known as an MRI. This device could also be used as a lie detector.

MRI machines were still used in the medical world but they were greatly improved and even small enough to be very portable. They no longer required the very intense magnetic fields that they once had, instead, the makers improved the sensors so dramatically that the magnetic field could now be reduced to much more reasonable levels. You didn't have to ride inside the claustrophobia inducing tube anymore. On top of that, John purchased the lie detector app, so now he had two devices in one, and it was just what the doctor ordered for this situation.

John primarily used it to look inside microchips to determine what was inside of them, where the input output lines were and where the power pins were, it was sort of a way of snooping around inside your competitor's hardware and it could help you hack the software as well by providing clues.

Now they all had another thing they wanted to see the inside of, and that was, this kids head. He walked into the kitchen with the device.  
"Hello Toby, I'm John Calhoun."  
"Yes I know who you are, good to meet you, I just wish it was under different circumstances."  
"We all do," John said."

"They showed me pictures of you and Dodge and your families. Sorry about all this Mr. Calhoun, but they didn't give me much choice."  
"Yes I know, Dodge told me your story, unfortunately we don't trust anyone, so we're going to conduct a few tests here to see if you're telling the truth, fair enough?"

"Sure, I'm game for anything. At this point I'm just trying to stay alive." John began setting up a tripod on one side of Toby's head and put a thing on it that looked similar to a microphone but with a large square thing on the end of it. Then he moved to Toby's other side and set up an easel like thing and placed a large flat object on it that looked like a frosted mirror with wires attached to it. He connected a thin expensive looking notebook computer to the contraption, turned it on, then connected a box that looked like a guitar amp to the other part and connected the two together with several computer cables. He looked up at Toby and asked  
"You got anything metal on you?" Toby shook his head "no".  
"They took everything off me already when they searched me. The thing in my head might be metal, but that's it."

"All right, well, we're about to find out more about that right now. Okay, now don't move a muscle, hold perfectly still and hold your breath. He cycled the program and motioned for Dodge to come look at the screen.  
"You can breathe now Toby," said John.

The whole family crowded in behind to look at the images. It was a whole page of thumbnail size pictures of the inside of Toby's head.

One by one, John enlarged them to inspect them more closely. After viewing about twenty-five of them they spotted something. Very near to one of the major blood vessels was a tiny object. John quickly entered the coordinates of the object.  
"Toby," I need for you to sit still again and hold your breath for five seconds, don't even blink your eyes. Starting . . . now."

John cycled the program.

"Okay, we're done you can relax now." Toby took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh of relief.

"Can you see it?" He asked.  
"Yes, we did find something."

They began inspecting the new close up images of the object. Sure enough Toby was telling the truth. The object they found was a tiny explosive device. It didn't pack much punch, but it was powerful enough to burst the blood vessel that it was near. Just enough to kill a man, guaranteed.

This was the device that their boss installed in all of his people as a standard measure. Anyone that failed to follow orders would be terminated. Some had tried to flee thinking if they went far enough away that they would be out of range. That didn't help them because he was using the skyphone network to detonate the devices, there was no running from it.

Some tried to have them removed before he could detonate it but none succeeded. The Kerrington family was beginning to believe Toby's story and they even felt bad for him in this situation. Toby told them that his handlers at the house seemed to be very unhappy people that would probably love to escape but they simply couldn't, they were trapped doing this mad man's dirty work.

Some refused in the past and said, "kill me then," and that is exactly what they got. The boss, whoever he was, was a very twisted individual.

"All right Toby, you passed that test, you're obviously telling the truth about having a foreign object in your head, and it appears to be what you say it is. Now just keep being honest and everything will be just fine."

John worked for a few minutes loading the app for the lie detector test. He started by asking him basic questions that they already knew the answers to so that they could establish some baseline readings. Questions like, who is the president of the United States today? What is today's date?

"I want you to answer this next question with an emphatic YES," said John. "Have you ever been eaten by a dinosaur?" Toby answered with a convincing "YES."

The machine indicated that he was lying of course. They had succeeded in establishing a good baseline. They spent almost an hour asking him questions and he continued being truthful. John changed his focus to Toby's willingness to help them going forward.

"If given the chance, would you turn your back on your handlers and join our cause of protecting the trade secrets of ESS?"

Toby perked up a bit.

"Well yes of course I would! In a hot second! Can you stop this thing from going off in my head? I'll do anything you want if you can just get this thing out of my head."

The tester indicated he was telling the truth. John, Dodge, and Linsey stepped into the TV room for a quick meeting. It was unanimous, they would either get that thing out of Toby's head or find a way to disable it. They all stepped back into the kitchen to make Toby an offer.

"Toby, if we promise to do everything in our power to free you from your bondage to this group of criminals, would you agree to work with us?" asked Dodge. Toby immediately answered with a firm "YES". John nodded at Dodge to indicate that he was telling the truth.  
"Do you also promise to help us in our efforts to take down this band of criminals by doing whatever we ask of you?  
"Yes, of course!" Toby blurted out. "I'll do anything you want, all I want is to be free when this is all over with. I want to be back with my family. Tears began streaming down his face at the thought of being free."

John looked at Dodge and nodded again.

"He's telling the truth man, no doubt about it."  
"All right let's get this man untied," said Dodge, "I think he's had enough for one day."

As they were cutting the restraints off of his ankles, Toby began explaining to them that if he didn't succeed in getting the hack installed on the Kerrington's security console, that his handlers would likely kill him when he returned empty handed.

"Toby, have you heard any of the crew mention a man named Cyrus Slade?" Asked John.  
"No, not the name specifically, but I have heard the term  
"CS" a few times, I guess it could be the same guy."

John proposed an idea. He had a signal proof room at his house, it was lined with metal fabric that was grounded to prevent radio signals from entering the room. Toby should be safe if they could get him there prior to his next check in time of 3:00 p.m. Dodge liked that idea, but proposed that instead of protecting him by hiding him, they should use Toby as a double agent. They could assist Toby with installing the virus on the security system. Sure they were giving up their privacy again, but so what. As long as they all knew they were being watched they could play along. They would have to watch what they said and do their best at being a normal family, it wouldn't be easy but it would be worth it to save this man. They all agreed that this would buy them a lot more time, and besides, it was the right thing to do. They asked Toby again if he would do it, and he agreed that he would.

Back at the compound Cyrus was nearly exhausted. Dodge Kerrington's clone would not cooperate, and he insisted that he was not Dodge Kerrington at all. Instead he kept saying that he was Tim Shelton, a custodian from Seattle Washington. Cyrus now knew that the man was telling the truth all along. He was dead of course but not without plenty of pain and suffering during the process.

Alice had to leave the room after vomiting all over the place; that made Cyrus even more angry, not because it was gross, that didn't bother him at all, but instead because she was weak, he hated weak people. No matter now anyway, the clone was as dead as you can get. Slade was perplexed at the mix up, how could this be? how did the DNA get switched? how did the Lifefile get switched?

He was so eager to drain the information that he lusted for from the mind of Dodge Kerrington that he must have overlooked something in his haste. The DNA had to match the lifefile, otherwise the upload would have been impossible. He called Glitch on the intercom.

"Sir?" Glitches voice came through the old speaker.  
"Glitch, come down here to lab no. 2, I have something you may not want to see but I insist that you do." Glitch was hesitant but he knew he had to go down there to see what Slade insisted upon.

When he got there, Cyrus was standing in front of an old barber shop chair that had been modified for restraint. There, in the old chair, were the remains of a youth, or a pile of guts, skin, and bones depending on how good your imagination was. What Slade had done to him was horrific.

Cyrus liked using lasers for the first few hours of torture. Otherwise, his subjects bled to death way too soon for his questions to be answered. The lasers cauterized the blood vessels as he removed all of their appendages one by one. He could keep a person alive for almost two days if he chose to drag it out that long. In the end though, it always the same, a bloody mess.

"Look here Glitch, there was a man here just a few hours ago, a brave man. He was in a boy's body, but a man nonetheless." Glitch had to swallow hard and look away to keep the contents of his stomach down.  
"And why are you showing me this Sir?"  
"Because Glitch, this is supposed to be our illustrious friend, Mr. Dodge Kerrington, but this man held true to his story right up until he bled to death or had a cardiac arrest, I'm not sure which."

"He swore he was a custodian from Seattle Washington and that his name was Tim Shelton, and I think I believe him Glitch, I really do, I looked right into his eyes, well eye, just before he expired and he said one last time; I'm Tim, Tim Shelton."

"Okay, so, what am I supposed to do about it?" Cyrus got agitated by Glitch's lack of concern.  
"Well Glitch, what we have here is exactly that a GLITCH! I have to wonder if maybe YOU! are responsible for this little mix up here so maybe YOU! had better get CRACKIN!" Glitch realized he was in some serious hot water, so he went to work at the computer console immediately, after all he was the person responsible for the file downloads.

"Don't worry Mr. Slade, I'll get to the bottom of this in just a few minutes, there must be some logical explanation to why you ended up with the wrong DNA and a matching lifefile to go with it." Glitch was a master of the system and within minutes he completed a computer match up of the files.

"Well Sir, you see here is the problem, the man that you have here is nearly a dead ringer for Dodge Kerrington. The facial recognition software shows that if this boy had been allowed to fully develop into an adult clone he would look very much like Kerrington. The system has them switched for some reason, probably a file mix up that could only be resolved by the facial recognition software so it fell back on that."

"Do you think this was intentional? Could someone be onto us?" asked Slade. Glitch thought for a moment.  
"No Sir, I don't think that is the case. I have seen errors like this in the system before, the software has malfunctioned and crossed up the file identification numbers, it's a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

Both files end in similar numbers, so again, it fell back on facial recognition and they look so much alike that it got them switched. There have been reports of this happening when people were restored, they just don't catch it until the clone wakes up and doesn't recognize his family.

They pass it off at the life centers as a bad clone and then offer the family another clone free of charge. They keep it under wraps until they get it straightened out and then they offer to do the upload again once they have located the correct body and lifefile. It's a very good system but every system has a flaw, and in this case, we found it."

"Get it straightened out immediately Glitch, I want the DNA and the lifefile of Dodge Kerrington as soon as possible."  
"Yes Sir, I'll have it for you by this evening."  
"Good Glitch, very good, and get rid of these other clones of our useless custodian from Washington."

"Consider it done Sir" Glitch pushed away from the computer, he was done there, his own PC in his office was a much better machine and he had serious work to do. As he turned and looked at the mess in the chair and the other clone bodies lined up nearby he realized exactly what Slade had been planning to do.

Slade intended to torture Dodge Kerrington's Clones one at a time. Each of the clones was increasingly younger, there were five of them in all and the smallest one appeared to be about three years old. Of course the body didn't really matter much when you loaded an adult lifefile into it, the resulting clone acted and talked just like an adult. Any age body could feel pain and the mind could know fear, and that was all that mattered to Cyrus, no doubt his plan was to try different tactics with each attempt until he found the one thing that would make Dodge Kerrington spill the beans.

The clones were useless to him because they were of this custodian from Washington and only his file could be loaded into them. Now Glitch would have to locate the correct files and get the correct DNA profile so that Cyrus could start the process all over again. This would take several weeks to accomplish and it was a major setback for Cyrus. Glitch knew that this would make Cyrus even more hostile and difficult to deal with in the mean time.

He decided to be more careful in his dealings with Slade now, he had seen him like this before; when let down, he would start killing people until he got what he wanted.

Cyrus had no concerns about killing clones because no one could prove it anyway, he wouldn't have a problem with killing people all day long either if he could figure a way to cover it up. Now that Dodge Kerrington and John Calhoun were in the news so much, it made them nearly untouchable in Cyrus's mind. They were too popular now. They had too much press. He couldn't just grab them, that would raise too much suspicion and create a media circus, instead he would clone them and torture their clones until he got what he wanted.

It was brilliant and he could never be charged with murder for killing clones that nobody could prove ever existed. As Glitch made his way back up to his office, he saw one of the custodians.

"Hey, you there, what's your name?"  
"Bill Sir."  
"Well Bill, there is a small mess down in lab no. 2. You go round up two more of your buddies and get down there. I want it all cleaned up within the hour. There is one in the chair and four more lined up, burn them all. I want it spotless down there, and I'll be checking back later to see that it's done," said Glitch. He was shaking his finger at the man while giving him the orders.  
"Yes Sir, we'll take care of it." The man took off in a rush to fetch two of his fellow workers."

Back in his office Glitch checked the time, it was nearly 3:00 p.m. Toby should be checking in soon with an update and he was anxious to hear good news. They needed that feed from the Kerrington house, he needed something progressive to report to Cyrus before he went crazy and started killing again.

At 3:00 p.m. sharp Glitch's phone rang, he looked at the screen, it was Toby reporting in.  
"Yes" he answered.  
"The hacks' installed, we're in." The call was quick and concise with no pleasantries, just like Glitch liked it. He headed to Slade's office to give him the good news and to get his next instructions for Toby. Glitch no doubt would be praised for his idea to send Toby in as a teenage spy, and he felt victorious.

Chapter 19 Back at the Kerrington's Toby installed the hack on the security console while John observed.  
"Nice work Toby, I see you know what you're doing, not too many people in this world can do what you just did. Did you write this code?"  
"Oh no," replied Toby, "I'm pretty good at making things' work but I'm no software engineer. I overheard my handlers talking, apparently this was written by a guy they call Glitch."

The moment John heard that name he knew for sure that Cyrus Slade was behind this whole thing. During several of his late night hacking sessions he came across this individual. Everywhere his name turned up in crime, so did Cyrus Slade. It seems they enjoyed working together.

"Hey another thing I overheard that I didn't really think was that important until now" said Toby.  
"Yeah, I'm listening, go on."  
"I heard some people in the van one day, during one of my 'head in a sack rides', that Glitch was the only person working for CS that didn't have this bomb thing in his head. Seems the boss considered him as an equal or a comrade or something."

"Okay, good to know, that information may come in handy down the road."  
"So this guy that I've been working for, this CS, you think he's this Cyrus Slade fellow?"  
"Yes, now that you mentioned Glitch, I am almost certain that it's him because the two of them always work together."

John copied the virus from the microdrive that Toby was carrying and then Toby put it on the floor and smashed it. He picked up the pieces and threw them into the kitchen trash can.  
"Well I guess it's about time for me to go back, who's going to drop me off at the house?" The hack was nearly done configuring, and so they would have to stop talking openly very soon. John called out to everyone from the kitchen and they all came in.

"All right everyone, it's just about time for Toby to go back to his house. I have cleaned up everything here so that it can't be seen. According to the screen here we have about three minutes before we go live. Cyrus and his minions will be able to see everything going on in this house, full audio, video, the works. We can't talk about what's going on to one another after about one more minute, everybody ready?"

They nodded.

"Everybody act normal, and remember, if we talk about Toby later, he's a great kid that we all like," said Dodge. John put his hand on Toby's shoulder.

"See ya' Toby, don't worry Buddy, we'll help you get through this."  
"Thanks everybody," said Toby, "I hope to see you all again someday under much better circumstances."

John was monitoring the screen, ten seconds everyone, act natural. Sarah shrugged.  
"No problem, I just don't care if they watch me, whoopee doo." She went over to the fridge and got out a coke and started acting like nothing had happened.

"Hey Bobby did you and your new friend Toby do anything exciting last night?"

At that very moment Glitch was watching the monitor he had set up in Cyrus's office with great anticipation. The screen flickered and the live feed came up. Cyrus spun around.

"Is it working?" He almost sounded excited.

"Yes," answered Glitch, "It's working and look there's Toby, he pulled it off, he got the hack into the system. Now the very system that the Kerrington's believe is protecting them is working as a monitoring system for us." Cyrus chuckled in a maniacal way.

"Yes! I believe this will do. Nice work Glitch, your little troll Toby seems to have proven he's useful after all. I must admit I doubted that this would work, but I was wrong, this is an awesome upgrade."  
"Thank you Sir."  
"Oh, and Glitch, take care of that file mix up on Kerrington. I want that DNA right away, there is no time to waste in getting Kerrington's clones growing. Make sure it gets done, that will be all."

Glitch felt really good as he left the office, he knew Cyrus was elated with being able to see and hear everything going on in the Kerrington Home. Maybe he could observe Dodge and discover a hiding spot for sensitive material or maybe a safe filled with all the answers he needed, there must be some security breach within those walls that he could exploit. Glitch was sure that Cyrus would not rest until he had found it.

John went home to prepare a video briefing to bring everyone up to speed. He sent it out to the Black Ops team, the farm team, Allan, and several of his trusted buddies that were helping him from inside the pentagon. He knew that giving them information would bode well for them very soon, they needed more weapons and man power to bring down Cyrus.

The Kerrington's went on acting as natural as possible and took Toby to the house, where his "stand in parents" were waiting. They said their goodbyes and told his parents that Toby was welcome to come back anytime and stay over with Bobby and that he was a nice young man.

Back at the Farm Jason was working nonstop to get the clones ready as quickly as possible. He had finally received an assistant thanks to John. One of the Black Ops team members had a sister that recently lost her job as a lab assistant to a well-known geneticist working on cures for cancer, her name was Caitlin Humphrey. The funding for their research had finally dried up completely and they all received notice that their jobs were ending a few weeks ago. John told this guy that he would pay her handsomely but that she had better be trustworthy and able to keep secrets better than a deaf mute. His friend promised that she was solid and he sent her over to the farm for an interview.

John interviewed her via video phone and then Jason interviewed her as well, she was perfect for the job. She came from a military family, so she was comfortable with carrying a gun and she was a true patriot. She expressed that she wanted to help thwart Cyrus's efforts just as soon as she heard about what he was plotting to do. She was a great help to Jason and now he was able to get a little more sleep.

When John received Jason's request two weeks earlier to get the ingredients for the pink goop, he made a trip to the bank to make a deposit as usual. His cousin at the pawn shop was able to help out in a way that surprised even John. Turns out he knew some guys involved in the sports world that managed to get their hands on the recipe for the stuff and now they were selling it to various trainers. They were using it much like the athletes used steroids many years ago. This new stuff was much safer as long as you didn't overdo it, you could bulk up and get stronger much faster than with the old methods.

John asked if he could purchase two 55 gallon drums of the stuff. There was a long pause on the other end.  
"Man you feeding an army or what?" John made up something fast.

"Well actually we're feeding it to horses that will be exported to countries that are still experiencing difficulties after the pandemic. Seems they can't get fuel for their tractors and other equipment over there for economic reasons and many of them have reverted to animal power for plowing fields and for heavy moving. We're experimenting with super horses that can do the job of three for the price of one."

It sounded ridiculous but the guy bought it.  
"All right, let's see, that's going to run you $128,232 dollars," he said.  
"No problem, I'll transfer the funds later today." Two weeks later a box truck showed up at the farm, the driver came in and did the paperwork and unloaded the truck, no questions asked.

Jason tried a small amount of it and was just fine 24 hours later. He and his new assistant Caitlin began feeding the clones intravenously with a mixture of the pink goop and several other nutritional supplements. First they had to get it into a state where the blood stream could accept it.

They used swine stomachs that they rigged in another suspension pod to get the mixture into a colloidal state so that it would transfer into the blood through the stomach linings. Once it crossed the blood barrier they could separate it out through a special filter and then inject it directly into the blood stream of the clones.

This new development in the method of absorption enhanced the effect way beyond ingesting the pink goop, now they had a super drug that yielded extreme results in the clone bodies. Coupled with electric impulses to the muscles on a regular basis to build strength and mass, it was a perfect formula for success. The clones were developing muscle mass like you would expect to see in a veteran body builder that had been on the old style steroids for months, not like the government issued clones that always looked very thin and sickly for the first week or so after being loaded.

Jason sent some pictures to John's phone to show off his accomplishment. John was amazed and couldn't wait to show Dodge. Dodge's clone would be ready for loading in just two more days, while John's was just about two days behind Dodge's so it wouldn't be long now. Jason and Caitlin would not be loading up the rest of the family as they were only reserved in case the family members were killed. They Needed Dodge and John's clones now to help them with taking down Cyrus and his crew. The upload console was nearly finished and should be ready just in time for Loading Dodge's clone in two days. Dodge had been walking Jason through circuit board repairs via video conferencing and it was working quite well.

Back at Toby's house, he and his substitute parents were about to head out to the van for their trip to the compound. Toby noticed that neither of them seemed to be very happy this evening. Just as they were about to put the bag over his head Toby got up the nerve to speak to the woman.

"Am I the only one that doesn't want to be here?" The woman stopped what she was doing and looked at Toby.

"Do you think any of us really want to be here? We're all here because the boss man and his buddy put the things in our head and we all know what happens if we don't do as we're told." Toby saw an opportunity to continue the conversation.

"Has anyone ever got away, you know, I mean in one piece?"  
"Well if they did we sure never have heard about it." Toby smiled a little and shook his head in disbelief.  
"So what's your story young man?" She asked.  
"Well I'm actually a 68 year old man. I never thought that I would end up in a boy's body again that's for sure. It's weird to be young again when you know what it's like to be older."

"Wow, I'll bet that is strange; so what are the Kerrington's like?" She asked.  
"Well they're really nice, I guess Cyrus just wants at them for the knowledge that Dodge has about ESS." He noticed her demeanor changed suddenly.

"Where did you hear the name Cyrus?" Toby had accidently said his name.

"Well, you guys were talking one night, you know, the night we stayed here because I was going to play basketball in the morning, so that I could meet Bobby, don't you remember?"

"Oh yeah" she nodded.  
"Well you and  
"DAD", were talking in the other room there and the walls are pretty thin in this place." Toby did the air quotes thing with his fingers when he said Dad. It seemed likely to her that they probably did slip and say Cyrus's name at some point. She thought it was funny that Toby was joking about the  
"Dad" thing.

"So you gonna call me Mom?" she asked, and she did the air quote thing with her fingers too. Toby laughed.

"Sure if you want a 68 year old man calling you Mom, then, yeah, I will."

Toby looked around at the man who was in the kitchen now gathering up a few things to take with them.

"You know I don't even know your names."  
"Well" she said, I guess I could tell you my first name, no harm in that" she reached out her hand to Toby and they shook hands.

"I'm Cheyenne and that's Todd in there."

Todd looked up.

"Hey Mom you're not supposed to be giving out our names, jeeze."  
"Oh just relax Todd, there's no harm in telling our first names. Besides we know everything about Toby here and he doesn't know anything about us. It's not like we have seniority on him, we're all just gonna die anyways!" Todd slammed a bottle down on the counter and shot Cheyenne dirty look.

"Just get ready to go! Man, I gotta do everything around here, it's startin to seem like a real marriage!"

Toby and Cheyenne looked at each other and grinned.  
"So Cheyenne what would you say if I told you that there might be a way out of this job without losing our heads?" She smacked the table. "Shut up! are you serious? Tell me, I gotta know." Toby had to think fast.

"Well back in my days at MIT we did this experiment with radio frequency shielding. You see if you put a radio antenna into an all metal enclosure and then you ground the enclosure to earth ground the radio waves can't get out and none can get in either. You see these things in our heads, they work on radio signals right?"  
"Well yeah, I guess" said Cheyenne.  
"So if we were to get inside of something completely metal, like a van, only it couldn't have any windows, or even a metal building with no windows then Cyrus couldn't kill us so long as we stayed in a place like that."

"So wait, what you're saying is, we would have to stay in there for the rest of our lives?"  
"Well I don't know," Toby shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, just for a while, until Cyrus gets killed or caught or something. Maybe we could find someone that knows how to take these things out. They put them in there so maybe they're not all that hard to get out."  
"Well let's talk about it more when Todd's not around."

Todd was just coming back in from the garage.

"All right you two let's go, we have to get back to the compound now." They went out to the garage and got in the van and Cheyenne picked up the bag, but Toby took it from her and put it on his head himself. Cheyenne laughed at him because of the way he did it. He sighed from under the bag.

"All right, I'm ready, let's go."

Cheyenne and Alice were pretty good friends. They weren't supposed to fraternize, but they did anyway. They discovered the guards were terrible at their jobs on their floor. They would leave their post frequently, sleep on the job, and take longer than necessary bathroom breaks. Cyrus was so obsessed with John Calhoun and Dodge Kerrington that he was letting some of the details slip down to Glitch, and everyone knew that Glitch was only in it for the money; he didn't care about what was going on in the dorms at night.

Cheyenne and Alice would occasionally get together for a bowl of ice cream and watch TV together on Alice's computer. That night when they got together, Cheyenne told Alice about Toby and what he had said to her about the metal box and how it would keep you alive if you stayed in it. This got Alice thinking, there were old ovens in the compound from back when it was a foundry. One was especially large and the entire thing was made of metal. She wondered how long they could stay in there if they had food and water. Maybe they could just go live in the oven. It was a silly thought and they laughed about it but in their situation it sounded like a form of freedom.

In Slades office, one floor above the dorms, he and Glitch were having a meeting. They were watching the Kerrington family getting ready for bed. Cyrus was still in a fairly good mood as his new found invasion of privacy was fueling his creativity. He was trying to concoct his next malicious move. He paced the floor with his hands behind his back.  
"Let's see," he said, "We have complete control of the systems in the house and we have a mole. That is this Toby fellow that can get in there from time to time as Bobby's friend. How can we get more information about the systems that Dodge has developed at ESS? Glitch, tell Toby that the next time he gets into the house I want him to spend some time in this room." Cyrus was pointing to one of the video squares on the large monitor in front of him. The video feed was that of Dodge's office. Cyrus went on; every good engineer that is really bent on success brings his work home with him, even when it's against company policy. Tell Toby to poke around in Dodge's desk and his computer files to see if he can come up with anything that Dodge might have brought home to work on."

The next morning Glitch called for Toby to be brought up to his office. Toby was quite nervous about having to go up there, he had never been and he didn't know what to expect. He was escorted into Glitch's office, the door was closed behind him and it sounded as though it was locked, he couldn't help but to get a lump in his throat. This situation reminded him of a time when he found himself in the principal's office in grade school; lesson learned, don't put snakes in Mrs. Johnson's desk! He was certainly hoping this situation ended better than the prior one.

Glitch was leafing through a document and looked up over it at Toby.  
"You did a good job at the Kerrington's, if you keep doing as you're told you will earn promotions and eventually your freedom." Toby wanted to laugh at him because he knew that was complete bull shit, but he didn't, instead he acted interested by just nodding in agreement. "Good, I will," he said.

"Now the next task at hand is to get into Mr. Kerrington's office and obtain anything you can from the desk, files, or the computer regarding Kerrington's work at ESS, are you up for it?"  
"Yes Sir, I'm confident that I can get something. They trust me completely and after all they think I am just a harmless friend of their son's, they'll never suspect a thing."

"Okay, good, go back to your room now, I'll send the man that is acting as your Father to fetch you in the morning. You will be going back to the house again with him and the woman. You will be there for three or four days this time."  
"Yes Sir."

He left Glitch's office and couldn't help but to smile on the inside, he already had the perfect plan to really screw things up for Slade and this idiot Glitch, what a moron, the scrawny little dude dressed like a pimp from the eighties, weird little geek, and his whole face was tattooed in little ones and zeros, what a freak!

As he was walking back down to the dorms he continued to think about a plan. He had no doubt that John and Dodge could come up with a great trojan horse, all they had to do is copy some fairly useless data onto a microdrive in Dodges office, along with a virus capable of getting into Cyrus's systems. Toby would go into the office and get the microdrive while Cyrus and Glitch observed. He would bring it back to them and when they plugged it in and copied it to their system they would be screwed. He couldn't wait to get outside the compound so that he could share this idea with Dodge and John.

Glitch worked late that night on his PC in his office. It took him several hours but he straightened out the mess with the switched DNA and lifefile caused by the buggy LifeTech serial number generator and facial recognition software. What he didn't know, was that John Calhoun was the real reason files were getting moved around, John also knew about the software problem and exploited it to fool Glitch.

Glitch downloaded Dodge's lifefile again and double checked it against the DNA file to make sure everything matched. He took the DNA signature and loaded it back into the other side of the software to do a search. The results came back as Dodge Joseph Kerrington, of Noblesville Indiana; this time they had Dodge Kerrington's correct files for sure.

He put in a request for the actual physical DNA sample and then hacked the database to create a replacement clone request. He changed a legitimate request form made out by a licensed technician, to request Dodge Kerrington's file number and clone storage bin. The change would result in Dodge's file and sample being sent to the lab instead of those items for the original person. Glitch had a man on the inside that he paid on a regular basis to do this for him. He sent his man a message that consisted of a thirty two digit file name, and nothing more, it was the only information needed.

The next morning Todd came to meet Toby at his room, they were heading out to the house again, they made some small talk as they walked down to the vehicle bay from the second floor dorm halls. They got in the van and Todd handed Toby the bag.

"You know the drill."

Toby put the bag over his head and sighed. The door went up and they drove out, heading to the house that they pretended to live in.

This time they would be staying there for a full three days, minimum. Toby was anxious to get there. He planned to work on Cheyenne more during this stay. He was hoping to convince her and Todd to work with him to get their freedom back. He wasn't sure yet if Todd could be trusted, but he had a good feeling about Cheyenne, she seemed all right.

When he realized that they had arrived at the house, he took the bag off his head. Todd looked back and him.

"What are you doing man? put that back on!" Toby glared at him.

"Hey genius! Don't you realize that when Bobby and his family pick me up and drop me off, I don't have a bag on my head! God you moron, I know where the house is, it's the compound that you're protecting."

Todd hadn't really thought about it, and felt pretty stupid now, he didn't know what to say.

"Just do what I say!" He said.  
"Fine DAD! I'm sorry, you gonna ground me now, give me a break man, I'm old enough to be your grandfather!"

As they walked in the back door Todd was muttering about getting stuck with the grumpy old man's clone with a smart mouth. Cheyenne stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and focused intently on what Todd was saying in an effort to catch up.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Todd sat down and began reading the digipaper without a word.

"Oh, we were just discussing how I needed to work on my attitude a little, anyway, what-cha doin in there?"

"Well, I thought since we're all going to be stuck here as a make shift family, maybe I would actually cook us a meal that we could sit here and eat together."

Todd looked over the top of the digipaper.

"What are you, freakin Mary Poppins?"

"I think he meant more like June Cleaver," added Toby.

Cheyenne still looked confused.  
"It's from an old TV show where you would be the old fashioned house wife, home all day cooking and cleaning and planting flowers," said Toby.  
"Oh, okay, I get it," said Cheyenne, "Yes, I guess that's who I am, or at least sometimes I wish. It's been so long since I felt like a person ya know, just always eating whatever we can get at the compound, not having a home, this might be nice."  
"Sure why not, I'll help you," said Toby, as he pushed up his sleeves and went into the kitchen.

Todd didn't really care for the plan at first but then the aroma of something that smelled really good cooking began filling the house. He poked his head into the kitchen.

"Man that smells really good!"  
"Come on Todd I have a job for you," said Cheyenne, as she handed him some plates with silverware on top.

Todd just stood there for a moment seemingly paralyzed by the thought of setting the table, then he shrugged his shoulders and got to the task. Apparently the smell of a home cooked meal had hazed his otherwise asinine attitude.

Toby made up a gallon jug of iced tea and was pouring each of them a glass when Cheyenne announced it was ready and placed a large plate of fried pork chops in the center of the table. Todd was already sitting down and had tucked a paper towel into the neck of his shirt, had both hands on the table in front of him with a knife in one fist and a fork in the other both standing straight up in his hands.

Toby stood there and looked at him.

"Well that's just about what I expected you to look like at a dinner table."

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Todd.

Toby and Cheyenne laughed. The man had zero manners but really didn't know it, completely oblivious. Todd tried to defend himself as Toby and Cheyenne were sitting down.

"Hey come on you guys I set the table didn't I?"  
"Yes you did Todd, Thank you," Cheyenne said as she patted him on the arm while sitting down.

The mashed potatoes were instant and the gravy was from a pouch, but the pork chops were great. It really was pretty good, and it was the closest thing to a home cooked meal any of them had in a long time. Their bellies were all full and none of them wanted to get up, so they just sat at the table talking for a while.

They were about to get up when Todd pulled a skyphone out of his pocket and slid it over in front of Toby.

"This is for you. Glitch gave it to me in the hall before I came to get you earlier. He said it was for company business only, after all, what 16-year-old boy doesn't have a phone these days. If it rings, you had better answer it, Glitch is short on patience."

Toby didn't know what to say.  
"Okay, thanks."

He got up and started clearing off the dishes and Cheyenne got up to help him. Of course Todd just sort of wandered off without offering to help, which was what Cheyenne and Toby expected. It was good that they had that meal together though, it was like the icebreaker that Toby needed to get in tighter with Todd.

Within Cyrus's ranks most people kept to themselves, they were afraid if they talked too much they might be talking to a snitch that would rat them out to Cyrus. It didn't take much for Cyrus to call you in on the plastic and push that button.

Now that they were out at the house on remote assignment, they relaxed a little, and it almost seemed like being a normal person. Toby went to his room and wrapped the phone tightly in a shirt and then a pair of pants and stuffed them in his overnight bag, he couldn't take any chances that it might also be a listening device. He knew that he and Dodge would need to talk on the ride back to the Kerrington's house.

Back at the Kerrington house everyone was trying to not think about being observed, they were just acting normal. John sent a message to Dodge with a picture of Dodge's clone attached. When Dodge and Linsey went for a walk later that night he showed her the picture. Linsey was quite the jokester.

"When all of this is over with, I just want to spend a little time alone with you and you," she said. Dodge got it and snickered.

"Hey that works both ways, you have a clone now too ya know."  
"Oh, that's right. Great!" She said.

The next morning Bobby called Toby, he figured he should act natural and that would be the best cover you could get. "Hey Toby, what are you doing today?"  
"Oh, just watching some TV."  
"You wanna come over and hang out today, maybe even spend the night?" Sure, that would be great, let me ask my Mom."

"Mom," he yelled, even though Cheyenne was sitting right across from him. "Can I go over to Bobby's?" Cheyenne answered.

"Yes dear, that's fine."  
"Bobby wants to know if I can stay all night too."  
"Yes, that would be all right."  
"Okay, my Mom said yes."  
"Okay, want my Dad and me to come pick you up, say, in about an hour?"  
"That would be great, I'll be ready."

Toby ended the call.

"I'm in," he said. "They're coming by to get me in an hour."  
"Good job," Todd said, without looking up from his digipaper. It was less sarcastic than usual. "Apparently Todd was starting to warm up to him a bit. Maybe he could get both of them to cooperate with him soon. It was still too soon to tell them what he was really up to though. He would have to work on them more when he returned."

Across town Dodge was thinking about what he could say to Toby when they picked him up. He had to be careful about what was said and where. He had to say everything that needed to be said during the car ride and he had to be careful about tails with directional mics that might be able to pick up on a conversation even on the move.

The vehicles were cleaned of all bugs during the security system upgrade but he would have to scan again himself to be sure. He went to the security console and checked out the view of the garage. The Volvo and the Minivan could be seen into quite well where they sat, but the GTO had dark window tint, and a huge glare on the windshield from the garage lights. He could easily get into the Goat, scan it and no one at Cyrus's compound would be the wiser.

He went upstairs and got the scanner out of his bed side table drawer and doubled a hot rod magazine up over it as he lifted it out. It just looked like he was getting a magazine out of his drawer. He went to the bathroom for a few minutes because there were no cameras in there, after all it was a security system that they had installed not the hackers, so there were plenty of dead spots for privacy.

He stayed in the bathroom for about fifteen minutes reading the magazine on the toilet. He didn't need to use the restroom but he figured as long as I'm in here using it as cover I might as well read my magazine. He slipped the scanner in his pocket and then left the magazine in the bathroom. He went down to the kitchen and grabbed a water out of the fridge. He found himself getting better at his awareness of being watched all the time without it making him nervous.

It was about time to go so he went out to the garage and wiped down the windows of the GTO with some cleaner and dried them real good. He wiped the dust off the rest of the car with a soft towel and then popped the hood and checked the oil, and brake fluid. He got in the car and pulled out the scanner and went over it just as fast as he could, it only took about thirty seconds, not enough time to even raise a thought.

The GTO was clean so he and Bobby could talk to Toby on the way back with no worries about being overheard. He went back inside to find Bobby. They left in the GTO and headed for Toby's house. "Fake house." On the way Bobby begged his Dad to punch it at a light. Dodge looked in his rear view and there was a Taxi right behind him. He laughed inside a bit. "Wouldn't it be great if the Taxi behind him was one of Cyrus's tails."

He looked at Bobby.

"Yeah, why not, put your seat belt on, we're gonna have some fun." The light changed and Dodge tromped it. The old goat launched off the line so hard that it nearly lifted the front wheels off the ground. They were close to their ramp onto the bypass around the city and it was a straight shot on so he didn't let up. He was going through the gears and watching the tach. He could see Bobby out of his peripheral vision grinning from ear to ear.

When he got onto I-465 he let off the throttle and glanced at the Speedo, they were clocking at 120 mph at just over a quarter mile from the stop light, not bad for a street legal car on 100 octane. He let off the gas and hit the brakes hard to slow it down.  
"Woo-hoo, that was Awesome! This thing will flat out get it!" Yelled Bobby.  
"Yeah, Pretty good huh?"

They both calmed down and looked at each other.  
"DON'T TELL MOM!" They said in unison, then they both started laughing.  
"When are you gonna teach me how to drive like that?"

"Well let's see, you're going to that racing school here in about two weeks, you're gonna learn a lot more there than I could ever teach you, all I know is how to run the gears in a straight line."  
"I know Dad, but I want you to teach me how to drive this one."

Dodge was touched by his son's desire to have a "Rite of Passage" moment with him. He promised Bobby that they would go to the old drag strip on the south side for Bobby to give it a try when he got back from the racing academy.

Chapter 20 They arrived at Toby's a little early due to Dodge's heavy foot on the trip over. Dodge goosed the throttle a couple of times as they pulled up the drive and hit the horn just enough to make one chirp. Toby looked out the window.

"Kerrington's here and he drove his toy."

Todd looked up over his digipaper.

"Was that his car I just heard?"

"Yip," said Toby.

Suddenly Todd was interested. He got up and looked out the window.  
"Holy shit! Why didn't you tell me Kerrington had a bad ass car? Man that is sweet! I gotta go check this thing out that must be what about a 70 or so?"

Toby was thrilled that Todd was so interested in the car, maybe this would be a way to get him to like Dodge, a.k.a. "the enemy." If he started liking Kerrington then it might be easier to turn him against Cyrus.

Within just a few minutes Todd and Dodge were talking about gear ratios, manual trans. vs. autos, fuel quality, what all he had done to it, where he found it. They had the hood up looking around the engine compartment. They talked for almost an hour about the car. Todd thanked Dodge for being such a good sport and Dodge said he would bring him a microdrive with all the Restoration pictures and videos on it so that he could see the details of the whole process the car had been through.

Dodge, Bobby, and Toby headed back to the Kerrington's. As soon as they got out of the driveway Toby started telling Dodge about confirming that it was Cyrus Slade they were dealing with and having met Cyrus's computer genius "Glitch." He went on to tell them how Glitch had instructed him to snoop around in his office to get information about ESS. He shared his idea with Dodge about planting a contaminated microdrive for him to swipe and take back to Glitch. Maybe they could take down Cyrus's computer system that way.

Dodge and Bobby agreed that it was a brilliant idea. Dodge called John on the way and told him the idea, he also agreed that it was the perfect opportunity and said that he would start building the trojan horse program right away. He already had one but it would need some adjustments to do the job.

While he had Dodge on the phone, he told him about switching the files at LifeTech to protect Dodge and his family. He had also placed a tracker tag on the file.  
"Dodge, I think you should know that someone at the compound figured it out and now they have the right file" said John.  
"This means that they must have cloned you and found out that they had the wrong DNA and the wrong lifefile. It also means they now have the right one and it's only a matter of time before they get new clones grown, load you up, and begin asking questions."

Dodge was concerned.

"How much time do we have?"  
"Well only about two or three weeks I would guess, I'm sure Cyrus has no ethics at all against torturing a man in a child's body."  
"Yeah, you're right, I hadn't thought about that. I guess I assumed he would grow a full adult clone, but I guess a child can talk just as well as an adult."  
"That's exactly right," said John, "but there's one thing he won't be expecting. I deleted the last few years of your file, well at least the best I could calculate. I used a formula that includes overall lifefile size, occupation, education, life events, stress, all sorts of factors, to break down the file into segments that represent days, months, and years. Once you know the segments and their calculated likely sizes, all you have to do is delete the end of the file to trim some years off of it. He can torture your clone and get some information and he will think you're lying about not knowing more. Knowing how diabolical guy is, I would guess he has multiple clones to load up so that he can torture you in many different ways. He won't stop until he finds your weak points and exploits them."

"Well that's comforting John thanks," said Dodge.

"Hey, I'm just doin my job bro."

"Yeah I know, I'm just razzing you."

"He'll have to reload the same file over and over again into each clone until he has used them all up. Hopefully by then, it will be too late and we'll take him down. If he figures out that we're aware of him, chances are he'll act just like a cornered rat, very dangerous."

"We're getting close to the house now so I gotta go, but please send me the file to put on my computer. I'll copy it to a microdrive and let the watchers see me put it in my hiding place. When Toby checks in they'll tell him how to get it and when he does they'll think they have us. When he takes it back to them, they'll get nothing but older versions of our software and design files that will be useless to them. Of course they won't know about the Trojan horse that came with it!"

"All right sounds good," said John, "I'll send it to you just as soon as I can get it tweaked for the application, how long will Toby be there?"  
"Until about 4:00 p.m. tomorrow."  
"Damn, not much time, looks light an all nighter. No worries though, I'll make sure this thing gives old Cyrus exactly what he needs, a new perspective."

They hung up and Dodge filled Toby and Bobby in as quickly as he could, they were almost to the house, and once there, they couldn't speak of it anymore, they would just have to wing it if they hit any snags. Hopefully, all would go as planned.

Dodge updated Linsey, every chance he got, sometimes in the bathroom, sometimes In the car while driving. Linsey updated Sarah while in the car or at the pool, anytime they had a high level of privacy. So far so good, the hackers seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they were being out played at their own game, a game that was getting increasingly dangerous to play.

Dodge was taking a lot more time off work lately. Everyone including his boss, his acquaintances, and even Cyrus, believed it was due to his new found wealth. None of them were wise to the fact that Dodge was fighting for his survival and for that of his family as well. Cyrus Slade had become an expert at killing people off for his own diabolical purposes while making it look like a legitimate accident that no one, not even CSI's would dispute. They would have to be very sharp to beat him at this game.

It was Friday night, and despite their plight, Dodge decided that they should try to relax and act like it. When Linsey and Sarah saw them walking in with Toby they were relieved to see that he was still alive. Just a few days ago, they had learned that he was basically a walking time bomb that Cyrus could terminate at any time. What a cruel situation to be in, when immortality was now the norm.

They all decided to go out for pizza and a movie. It was like really sticking it to Cyrus whenever they went out. Cyrus had to mobilize a lot of people to keep up with them. When they got to the mall, the pizza place was really packed, so they left and went to another pizza place four miles away that was known for live comic acts suitable for the family. They had a great time and Dodge could tell by watching Toby that he was having the best time he had in ages.

"It must have been hell having to work for Cyrus Slade" he thought. They took their time eating and listening to the comics, and they enjoyed some much needed laughter that took their minds off their situation for a little while.

After leaving the pizza place, they went back to the mall to see a movie. There was a new Star Wars movie showing and they decided on that one. It was hard to believe that they were still making those movies. It was now the longest running movie series in history. The box sets now had something like thirty movies in them spanning more than 75 years. It was great, they just kept adding more to the story.

They were all to full from eating pizza to get movie food so they just got their tickets and went on in. The movie was fantastic, and the visual effects and sound were outstanding, just as expected.

The movie ended and it certainly served as a healthy distraction from the reality of being watched back at home. They got home, piled out of the minivan, and went inside. Tomorrow was Saturday and everyone was talking about sleeping in and having a big breakfast followed by lying around until afternoon. One by one they all filed off to their rooms. Sarah went to her room and fell asleep reading a digibook. Dodge and Linsey went to their room and watched the news and one of their favorite shows, "Friday Nights." They fell asleep somewhere in the middle of it. It was a different story in Bobby's room. They weren't tired, so he and Toby stayed up watching old movies.

Normally Bobby would have objected to watching the old stuff, but since he knew Toby was actually an old man, he understood now why he would prefer watching the older shows. It was a really old movie starring a gritty actor named "Clint Eastwood." He was a tough New York City cop and he was quite good with a gun. Bobby hadn't watched any of his movies before, but thought that he kind of liked this Clint guy, he was pretty cool as Dirty Harry, a real tough no nonsense cop that didn't talk much. He loved it when Harry pulled out that big 357 magnum hand gun and said, "Go ahead punk, make my day!"

It was different now with Toby since Bobby knew he wasn't really a kid, it was like having a sleep over with your uncle. Toby was doing a great job though of acting like a kid. Bobby supposed he had to do his best to convince the hackers that he was doing his job. Somewhere in the middle of the second movie, they both drifted off.

Dodge woke up in the middle of the night. He wanted to check his phone but he couldn't because it would raise suspicion with Cyrus's crew. He had shut off the ringer on his phone and all the lights too, and turned it face down on the bedside table. He didn't want any visible signs on his phone if John should call in the middle of the night. It was difficult but he would have to wait until morning to check it.

Much to his surprise, he slept very soundly the rest of that night, and didn't wake up again until 10:20 a.m., he must have been really tired, and badly needed the sleep. As soon as he woke up, he grabbed his phone and went downstairs to the kitchen. He wanted to look at it but didn't want to seem to anxious. Linsey and Sarah were up fixing some breakfast and the coffee was nearly done. Dodge said good morning and sat down for a minute. He poured a cup of coffee before grabbing the digipaper and plopping down to read it at the kitchen table. He started reading the headlines and picked up his phone to check his messages.

Sure enough John had left a message: Hey, Dodge, I waited to call you until daybreak just in case your phone was on and could be seen, just being careful, anyway, been up all night and I've got it done. Take your phone somewhere private, open the message I sent you, and you'll see an attachment called "contacts2." Save this message to your mem. card, go to the settings menu and select "import contact list" then select "browse" and go to the mem. card and select the "Contacts2" file. When prompted "are you sure you want to replace your contact list with Contacts2?" select "yes."

"When the time is right, go to your office. One of the cameras has a great view of your monitor so the watchers will see what you're doing and that's just fine. Link up your phone with your PC and then run a backup file of your phone contact list to your PC, just like you would any other time.

When you do this, you're actually infecting your computer but don't worry that's part of the plan. Leave the office and return some time later in the day and open some of the old useless files that we discussed. If you still have that secret hiding place then access it so that the watchers can see you do it and easily instruct Toby later on how to get to it. Be obvious about saving the files to a particular microdrive and then place it back in the hiding place and leave the office. That's it buddy, I have to go, I'm exhausted.

When Dodge hung up, he realized once again that John was simply a genius, there were no two ways about it, not only was John the best programmer he had ever seen, he was also good at this cloak and dagger stuff, amazing. Just as he ended the call, Toby and Bobby came bounding in like boys that age always do. They all had breakfast together then Bobby and Toby went out to shoot some hoops. Everyone, even the boys, were doing a great job of acting natural.

Cyrus and his crew had no idea what carnage was about to descend upon them. Dodge took his sweet time reading the paper, drinking more coffee, milling about the house, and checking the security system, just as any engineer would. He took his sweet time but did finally go to the restroom when his coffee consumption caught up with him and he took care of the contact file as John had instructed while he was in there.

John had obviously hacked his phone and purposely infected it with a file that would do Cyrus in, but it was carefully masked within the contact file. Loading that new contact list file onto his office PC was going to infect it. Connecting a microdrive to the infected PC would then infect the microdrive. Then, at some point, Toby would steal that drive just as planned. Cyrus would think he was stealing high-tech ESS files that would reveal the vulnerabilities of the LifeTech system, but instead Cyrus would be falling directly into a carefully laid trap.

Once they successfully infected the computers within the compound they would have created their own invasion of privacy, the hunter becomes the hunted! After finishing his coffee he decided he would go out for a few minutes and shoot some baskets with the boys. They were glad he came and they all had a good time making bets on who could make the shot from the furthest away. Dodge hired a contractor to remove the old basketball goal, while Bobby was still recovering from Restoration, and had them install a brand-new one at the very back of the drive where it turned to go into the detached garage. That placed it far enough away from the street to prevent any more accidents.

He had fun and got rid of some stress at that same time. He was beginning to get tired and the timing was good to get to his task.

"Well, you young men have fun, I've got some computer work to catch up on." Toby and Bobby got what he was saying and knew that Dodge was going to bait the trap.

Dodge went up to his office and turned on his computer. He set his phone to sync and opened his phonebook software on the PC and set it to sync and hit start. It only took about a minute for the little icon to turn green and it displayed "successful sync" He closed out the window on the PC and on his phone and slipped his phone back into his pocket.

John went into a lot of detail about selecting contact files and moving them but that was because he didn't know what method Dodge typically used to do backups. Dodge simply did the sync method which moved the infected contact list to his PC just as John instructed. This was the one time he was actually hoping that the watchers were actually watching. If they weren't then he was just wasting his time.

He got up and went downstairs to get a coke, he thought a little segue between backing up the phone list, and messing around with the

important files, might provide a natural gap, leaving the hackers less suspicious of foul play.

He took his time putting a coke over ice in a big glass and then took a lengthy restroom break. He read his car magazine again while in the restroom. He went back to his office and locked the door behind him and retrieved the key from over the window sill.  
"Man, I sure hate giving my hiding spot away!" He took the key and opened his desk drawer, pulled out the fire safe and unlocked it. There were plenty of digital lock safes available today but he liked the old keyed lock, it just seemed to have nostalgic character.

He dug around in the box until he found a bright orange drive that he knew had some older design files on it, both for the LifeTech, and the Medic-Star systems. He loaded it up and opened several files and then acted as if though he was intently studying them. He used his touch pen to draw several little red circles around areas of the schematic and a corresponding area on the circuit board layout file. He launched a sticky note program in the editor and attached it to the red circles on the drawings and then typed a message in the box. "Discovered security breach potential at these points, vulnerability due to poor shielding on the communications bus, must revise on next design change for Gen 3 release."

"There, that should keep them busy for a while." Neither Cyrus or Glitch were electronics engineers, they did have a good bit of knowledge but nothing like Dodge. He chuckled to himself. "Should I add a flux capacitor to the schematic." He remembered the old movie that John loved so much from the 1980's about the kid that had the time travel DeLorean car and the wacky professor with the wild hair.

He continued to look over the files for about another 45 minutes just to make it look legit. He made a few more notes about voltage levels and upgrading components. Things that they had actually already done for future releases, it looked very official.

He saved the files back to the orange drive and then removed it and put it in the safe, while doing so he spotted the blue drive with the GTO files on it so he grabbed it out, and a bag of pistachios that he had stowed in there also. He locked the fire safe and the desk then returned the key to the top of the window sill. He went back to his PC and opened a file folder named "old favs" and clicked on one of his favorite things to watch when he was all by himself, classic cartoons from the 60's.

Dodge leaned back and put his feet up on his desk as Tom and Jerry began playing on the PC. He sat there and enjoyed the show while he munched on his stash of pistachios. How much more natural than this, can you get? He wondered if the watchers were enjoying Tom and Jerry as well, that funny little mouse, what a hoot! They just didn't make good stuff like that anymore.

He ran out of nuts and his coke was just about all gone so he turned off the PC and left the office turning off the light on the way out. Now he just had to wait and see if the watchers would take the bait.

He went downstairs and turned on the TV to catch some sports highlights. He watched it for about twenty minutes and then decided to wash the car. He pulled the GTO out in the drive and got everything out. The boys saw what he was doing and offered to help.  
Just a few minutes into it Toby's phone rang. He half way dried his hands on his pants and answered the phone while walking to the other side of the driveway. It was Glitch.  
"Hello Toby," Glitch's creepy voice came through the phone more slowly than normal.  
"Hi Dad," said Toby, to provide cover. Glitch got it and continued. "Mr. Kerrington has a key hidden in his office over the window sill. In his desk is a strong box that it fits. In that box is an orange microdrive. I want the contents of that drive."

"Okay Dad," he said, "I'll clean it up as soon as I get home I promise." Pretending that his room was messy and he was in trouble. Toby heard a "click". Glitch had hung up without saying goodbye or anything. "Weird little dude."   
"Okay, bye," Toby said, as if Glitch was still on the line. Toby came back and started washing the car again and explained that his Dad had called and complained about him leaving his room a mess. They all played along just in case Toby's phone was bugged, they couldn't be too careful.

A few minutes later Toby began holding his stomach.

"Hey guys I don't feel so good, I think I had better go to the bathroom."  
"All right," Bobby said, "If you still don't feel good, just go lie down in my room, I'll be up when we get done washing the car."  
"Okay," he said.

He went inside and looked around to make sure nobody was watching him. Linsey and Sarah went to the store and wouldn't be back for a while. Dodge and Bobby wouldn't check on him because they knew exactly what he was doing and certainly didn't want to spoil it. He still had to act like he was worried about getting caught just to sell it to the watchers back at the compound.

He went into the office and grabbed the keys off the window sill, it was on the second one that he checked. He ran over to the desk and turned the PC on, it only took him a few minutes to hack the password. He used the key, unlocked the safe and got the orange drive. He stuck it in the first port and then laid his phone down on the desk and began a sync. He opened the drive contents on the screen and highlighted everything in the drive and then selected send to, wireless devices, site survey, he located his phone from the list and hit execute.

It only took about one minute to copy all the orange drive contents onto his phone. He put everything away and closed out the windows on the PC and shut it down. He returned the keys above the sill and left the room. They had done it, he thought, all he had to do was get this file on his phone back to Glitch and the take down could begin.

Meanwhile back at the compound Glitch was watching, we have done it, he thought, we'll soon have more information about the LifeTech hardware.

Toby went to Bobby's room and lay down. He actually was a little tired after playing ball, washing the car, and stealing secrets. He awoke to Bobby standing over him.  
"Hey Toby, wake up man, you feeling better?"  
"Oh, Sorry. I just closed my eyes for a minute and boom, out."  
"Oh, that's all right, you must have been tired, you feeling better?"  
"Yes, I am thanks"  
"Come on," said Bobby, "Let's go downstairs and have a burger, Dad's fixing them on the grill."

Bobby, Dodge, and Toby sat around the patio table and had some burgers hot off the grill. It was a sunny day and it was perfect for eating outside. They wanted to talk about the plan but couldn't until the ride back to Toby's house. Toby was anxious to ask about the drive contents and to tell them how Todd and Cheyenne might be easy to recruit to their side. Pretty much everyone except Glitch was a prisoner in their situation and they all hated what they were doing but simply had no choice.

After filling up on burgers, chips and dip, they all went into the TV room to relax and watch sports highlights. Their bellies were full so they got lazy and laid around until time to take Toby home.

They all piled into the GTO for the ride back to Toby's  
"Don't worry about my phone, it's wrapped up good in my bag just like it was on the way here," said Toby. I copied the orange drive contents is that good? Dodge smiled.

"Yeah that was the bait, I guess they really are watching."  
"Okay, listen guys," said Toby, "I really need to talk about this and we only have a few minutes. I think we can flip Cheyenne and Todd. Cheyenne likes me and we talk a lot. Todd is absolutely nuts about you because of this kick ass car. I don't know too much about either of them yet, but Cheyenne and I got into a conversation about the head bombs and about getting inside something metal to survive, and she asked a lot of questions. I think, pretty much everyone hates Cyrus, and would jump at the chance to escape if they had somewhere safe to go where their heads wouldn't go bang. If I could get a bunch of them on board could you find a place for us to go, you know, like when it all comes to a head and you guys take down Glitch and Cyrus, maybe we could make a run for it?"  
"Sure," said Dodge, "But that's going to be tricky to figure out."

"If we managed to get into a metal container, we could wait there until the battle was over. Once Cyrus is taken out of power, we could be certain that the death signal wasn't being transmitted. After that we could go to the doctors to get these things out of our heads."

Dodge was listening intently, and was impressed with Toby's idea.

"Well, I see where you're going with this, and if we can time everything just right, something like that might just work. If we attack just moments after most of his people have disappeared, he wouldn't even know you guys were gone. He would find out when he began putting out orders while still under attack, that plan would also keep him from properly defending himself and the compound. Be very careful Toby, if anyone that you talk to were to go to Cyrus or Glitch, out of some twisted sense of loyalty, then the whole thing could fall apart on us, and we could all end up dead."

Dodge knew that his family was safe due to the clones being grown at the farm, but he held back from telling Toby, just in case he were found out at some point, he could be tortured into telling everything.

Bobby had an idea.

"What if you wrapped your head in tin foil or window screen or something like that?" Dodge chuckled.

"Well Son, that's pretty close to the right idea, and that's what most people think will work, but it won't work because the signal can still get in through the neck hole, where you can't put the foil, high frequency will travel through walls, glass, and even your body."

"Wow," said Bobby, "I didn't realize it was that powerful."  
"Yes radio waves can permeate just about anything. In fact it's good that you mentioned that Bobby, Toby is there any place at the compound that you can think of that is solid metal construction? Something that if you got inside of it you would be completely surrounded my metal, no windows, no doors, no openings at all?"

"Yeah there are some old ovens on the lower floor and I think they're all metal. They're stripped out you know, the wiring is gone, and the heaters are gone, but the shell is still there. They do have some openings in them though like for air and gas to go in and big metal doors for putting things inside them."

"All right that's good to know, if you get a chance to check them out a little closer look at the doors and see how tightly they close. Make a note of the holes in them and how large they are and where. Try to get an idea of which one is the tightest with the least openings in it and let me know how large it is."

"Okay, I can do that, we're allowed to go in them, some people actually hang out in them and play cards and stuff, they're big enough to park a dang bus inside. Some people go in them to sing because it echoes so well in there."

"That's good, we might be able to save some of these people and have some living witnesses to testify against Cyrus and Glitch when this is all over with."

Dodge and Bobby dropped Toby off at the house around 4:00 p.m. as planned. Todd and Cheyenne were inside watching a documentary about the pandemic of 2027. When Toby went in he was surprised to see them getting along so well. Todd looked up at Toby when he came in.  
"Heads up," said Toby as he tossed Todd the blue micro drive. He looked at the label on it.  
"All right! GTO stuff!"

He jumped up and went to the next room to look at the GTO restoration files on his PC. Toby plopped down where Todd had been sitting, threw his leg over the arm of the big puffy chair and looked at Cheyenne with a smile.

"Miss me?" He asked.

Cheyenne was watching TV and didn't turn to look at him.

"You know I did, Todd isn't much company ya know. I've had better conversations with rocks."

"Yeah, I know, but I think deep down inside he's probably okay." Cheyenne nodded in sarcastic agreement.

"So, you know that conversation we had about the metal box thing and the whole head bomb thing?"  
"Yeah, what about it?" Replied Cheyenne.  
"Well, you know those big old ovens down on the main floor of the factory?"  
"Oh, my god! You read my mind, me and my friend Alice . . ." She stopped short, realizing she might be saying too much.

"Alice? Is she the one that does the genetic stuff for Cyrus?" Asked Toby.  
"Yeah, that's her." Cheyenne said quietly.  
"I didn't know you two were friends." Cheyenne leaned forward to see if Todd was still engrossed in the GTO stuff on the PC in the other room.

"Well I'm not really supposed to be, she said in a softer voice. I probably shouldn't have said . . ."

"It's okay Cheyenne, don't worry, I won't say a word to anyone."  
"You promise?"  
"Yes of course."  
"All right. Sometimes Alice and I sneak at night and hang out in her room and watch old TV shows on her PC and sometimes we have ice cream or pop corn or something. The guards are really sloppy at night. I mean seriously sometimes they are gone for fifteen minutes to the commode or they fall asleep at their post."

"Really? Wow," said Toby, "Go on."  
"Well the other night we started talking about what you said, you know, getting inside the metal box, we thought the ovens down there in the old factory would be perfect. We were thinking of just locking ourselves in there forever."  
"Cheyenne that's brilliant!"  
"What? No, Toby of course not, we couldn't live in there, we were just kidding, Cyrus would get us eventually, I mean, we wouldn't have food or water."

"Yeah you're right, but it was a fun thought" Toby played it off, but he believed it might be feasible, he would investigate this more another time.

They went back to watching the documentary again for a while and Toby began telling Cheyenne what the pandemic was really like. He was a middle-aged man when it had happened so he actually experienced it firsthand. Cheyenne and Todd were just small children at that time and could barely remember anything about it.

They watched the rest of it and talked about it until they got tired and turned in for the night. Todd was still going through the GTO pictures and video files when Toby went by to go up to bed. He lay awake in bed for a while working on his plan, if they could get most of the people to agree to it, they could go inside one of those ovens to survive.

If planned carefully, they could go in right before John and Dodge and then the Black Ops team would burst into the compound and do what they do best. Toby and his friends could seal themselves inside the oven somehow. They would have to devise a way to lock it from the inside so that Cyrus's men couldn't get to them in the amount of time they had available. They would need air but couldn't tolerate a hole where a signal could get through or where a grenade or poison gas could be tossed in. He would have to talk to John and Dodge about how to keep the radio signals out.

Dodge said that holes were no good and the doors had to fit tightly. Just how tightly he didn't really know, only John or Dodge could tell him that. Normally he wouldn't care to go to the compound, but now he found himself anxious to return so that he could check out the ovens more closely.

The next morning Todd woke Toby up early.  
"Hey man, get up and get ready, Glitch called, we gotta go to the compound. He wants to talk to you about what you got from Kerrington's office, by the way, what did you get?"

"Oh, it wasn't much really, just some old files, I don't think it will do Cyrus much good but maybe it will get me some points."  
"Good," said Todd, "I kind of like ole Dodge. I don't really want to see him get hurt or nothing like that ya know?"  
"Yeah I know what you mean, they seem like a real nice family, I hope Cyrus doesn't kill all of them over some trade secret that he wants."  
"Yeah I know," Todd said, as he left the room.

Toby could see that Todd was starting to care about these people. He was beginning to feel better about approaching him, but it was still a little too soon. They ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast to save time and headed out to the van. Just the two of them were going this time, Cheyenne would be staying behind at the house.

When they got in the van, Toby didn't put the bag on right away, he waited until they got out on the road a little ways, and then slipped it on. Todd never said a word about it. As they were driving Toby decided to get up his nerve and say something to Todd.

"Hey man, have you ever heard about the wrapping your head in tin foil thing."  
"Huh?" Todd said, "what for?"  
"You know to block out radio signals."  
"Oh yeah, I did hear about some guys doing that because they thought aliens or the government was trying to read their minds or something, that's pretty damn funny, if you ask me."

"Well I heard that it might actually work if Cyrus was planning to kill a person, you know, they could wrap foil around their head and then the thing in your head wouldn't go off."  
"What? Man, no, that sounds like it wouldn't work."  
"Yeah that's what I thought too," said Toby.  
"Who told you that nonsense?"  
"Oh just me and some guys talking at the compound one day down by the ovens, I really shouldn't say."  
"Oh, yeah, I understand man, just day dreaming about a way out, we all do that."

Toby thought for a moment.

"I don't think that would work because you would have to cut your head off and then wrap it in foil and then, well, that wouldn't be so productive." Todd busted out laughing.

"Man, you're a funny dude, you know that? You really make me laugh sometimes.  
"Well, I'm just trying to keep my sanity in a bad situation."  
"Yeah man, we're pretty screwed, really no way out of this short of old Cyrus dropping dead. That might not even work, I heard he's got a dead man switch on the bomb in the head program."  
"What?"  
"Yeah you know, he has a heart monitor on him, if his heart stops the program pops everyone in the list. See that way, if any of us got the bright idea to snuff him out then we all die with him. Toby was surprised.

"Really?"  
"Well, it's just a rumor but it sounds too smart to be some made up thing."  
"Yeah, I agree that is pretty clever."

"You know I was thinking, the foil thing won't work but what if you got your whole body inside a metal box of some kind that had no openings at all, just solid metal?" "Yeah," Todd agreed, that might work. Hey, Dodge is a really smart guy, ask him. Don't blow your cover, just find another way to ask. Tell him it's for a science fair project or something."  
"Hey that's a good idea. I'll ask him next time I'm at their house."

They arrived at the compound and pulled inside. Toby took the bag off his head and got out, and they both went up to Glitch's office. They were called in after only a short wait.

"Toby, good to see you, have you obtained something for us?" Asked Glitch. Toby pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Glitch.  
"The file is on the mem card."  
"Yes, very nice. Did Mr. Kerrington or any of his family members say anything that might be of interest to us?"  
"No Sir."  
"All right Toby, that will be all, you're free to do whatever you like around the compound for the next two days and then you'll be going back with Todd to the house. I'll have Todd return your phone later today. Did you provide Bobby with your new phone number?"

"Yes Sir I did."  
"Good. Did he suggest that they might be having you over again sometime soon?"  
"Well, No Sir, they didn't, I think it might seem more normal now for me to have him over to my place, at least once, you know, just kind of normal for it to happen that way Sir."

Toby thought he might have stepped over the line there but to his surprise Glitch seemed to be thinking about what he said.  
"Okay, very good Toby, if that is what is necessary, then so be it, however the ultimate goal is to get you back in their house as soon as possible. If that requires taking turns then we'll play along. Todd, be sure you and Cheyenne are ready to play the role of parents in the home, make sure the house is fully furnished. The Kerrington's are great assets and as you know, in our line of work, asset management is very important. You may stay here tonight if you like, but then return to the house sometime tomorrow, it's best that you return sooner to get the house ready for your guest."

Todd and Toby left the office and went down to the kitchen area to get some early lunch, the cereal they had for breakfast didn't stick with them too long. They made some sandwiches and sat down to eat with several other guys that were there on their break. Toby was about half way through when he saw Alice come in. Todd was telling two of his buddies about the GTO so Toby decided to join Alice who was sitting alone.

"Hey Alice is this seat taken?"  
"Oh, no, go ahead, have a seat."  
"Thanks, I'm Toby by the way, I'm not really a kid, well I guess I am, I don't know it's confusing." Alice laughed.

"That's right you're the guy Cheyenne told me about. So you're like 70 going on 16 right?" Toby felt his face turning red, he felt like a teenager talking to a pretty girl that was older than him. His brain was 68 but it was soaking in the hormones of his teenage body. "What a mess!"

"Yeah people shouldn't mess around so much with Mother Nature huh?" Toby said, in an effort to get back in the conversation.  
"Yes I agree, more than ever now that I find myself here in this weird place."  
"Yeah, it's weird all right," said Toby.  
"Hey I wanted to ask you about something. Cheyenne talked to me about the whole living in an oven thing." Alice put her hand over her eyes, and laughed.  
"Oh my god, I can't believe she told you that, now I feel like the kid here." Toby leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice.

"Actually I have an idea that came from that. See I got my hands on a PC for a few hours and I did some research. If you get inside an all metal box of some kind and it's all sealed up with no windows or doors, then no radio signals can get in or out. Your head won't go boom, pretty cool, huh?"

"Well, it's an interesting thought I guess," said Alice.  
"Hey, I'm just saying, that if the situation did arise, and we thought some numb nuts might push a little button to ruin our day, the best place to be is inside one of those ovens. I think when I finish this sandwich and chips, I'll be going down to take a closer look at them to see which one I plan on jumpin in when that moment comes, you in?"  
"Sure, I'd love to join you. I don't have anywhere else I gotta be today, so it's a date."

Chapter 21 Back at the farm it was time. Dodge's clone was ready to load and had been for over two days but Jason was still waiting on the order to load him up. John had been working on and off for the last several weeks. He was trying to get the LifeCorders ready to do something no one had ever tried before.

They had verified that each person's implant chip had the ability to receive as well as transmit. Cyrus and his team had obviously been successful in loading something into an existing person for a short period of time. They weren't sure exactly what it was but it was controlling the victim for sure. This was done in order to clean out their bank accounts. What had John so baffled, was the fact that no one had ever been able to load up a clone with anything other than that person's own thoughts and memories, so how in the world could Cyrus and his team be controlling these people.

John believed that he had finally figured it out. Cyrus was hijacking their target individual's lifefile and DNA. Once they had these items, they could clone him and then load him up with as little or as much of his lifefile as they wanted. They could cut off the last couple years of a person's life for example by only uploading a calculated percentage of the total file and dump the rest.

Once they had him loaded up they would simply trick the clone into believing that they were government agents or some kind of cyber vigilantes. They would convince the clone that some bad people, or even his own family, had hijacked his life and that he, the clone, was in fact the original person. They would tell the clone that these criminals had taken over his family and his money, basically his whole life.

They would convince him that he should get them back by taking back his money, leaving them high and dry by transferring all of his funds to an off shore account where he could go and live out his life without these losers. His original would be in the nut house or in prison for whatever they could pin on him, but the clone, still believing wholeheartedly that he was in fact the original, would be living it up in some foreign country like a king.

John figured this was the only way, it had to be a lifefile created on a tangent life line that was being layered into the victim to control them by merging their thoughts and feelings while they slept. The victim would awaken one morning with a new awareness that seemed to come from out of the blue but was completely understood and in harmony with what they wanted or at least what they thought they wanted.

There would be no tangible reason to resist the new feeling and the plan at hand. That would be like arguing with yourself on a point that you already agree with. The diabolical genius behind this crazy scam had to be Cyrus Slade.

John supposed that this could be done without losing the soul. It would be similar to twins splitting at a cellular level in the womb. Once the genetically matched mind was awakened it was like another child had been born of the same zygote. Instead of the soul splitting into two in the womb it was just happening later in the life cycle and the soul would apparently honor the division. It seemed as if God had set the laws of the universe in motion and then removed his hand. For some reason it was happening, and he didn't seem to intervene.

This research was helping him to understand how Cyrus was controlling his victims, or at least is was his best guess based on the facts. John decided that he would order Jason to load his clone first. John didn't have children and he didn't have a wife. If it didn't work and he lost his mind then it would not impact so many people. He couldn't ask Dodge to take that risk, what if the clone didn't work right for some reason, it would be a disaster for his family. John called Jason and placed the order for that night.

The concept was simple, each day the two John's, the original and the clone, would live two parallel lives with a completely separate set of events. At night when they slept the LifeCorders would receive their lifefiles. Those two files transferred into a central server Jason had running at the farm. After the lifefiles were saved they became merged by an interlace program that John developed. The newly merged file would be uploaded back into both the sleeping John's before they awoke. If everything went as planned the real John would wake up and have a complete memory of everything he experienced plus he would also have the complete experience of the clone for that same day. Vice Versa when the clone awakened he would awaken as the complete John Calhoun, with all of his memories, skills, attributes, and he would understand where he was and his task at hand. They would be completely aware of each other and would have all the same opinions, knowledge, and goals. Each morning they would awaken having the others total experience of the prior day as memories in addition to their own. Two separate bodies with one like mind.

Just before he lay down he called Dodge and let him know. Dodge was grateful for John trying it first but he was also very concerned for his friend, what if it didn't work, he loved him like a brother and didn't want to lose him. Dodge reassured him that clones had gone wrong before and when they did, they simply grew another clone and reloaded their file, they might lose a day or two of the memories, but that would be the worst case scenario.

Still, Dodge worried, he wasn't one to pray much, but he did that night. It was 11 pm, John went to bed in preparation for a very new and strange possibility in the morning.

Back at the compound, it was the perfect time for Toby to go find Alice for their investigative trip to the ovens, they had tried to go earlier, but there were too many people hanging out in the ovens. They didn't want to be looking around and taking pictures of things with that many witnesses around. He approached corridor "C" of the dorm floor and looked down towards the guard station as he walked on past. The guard was on duty but was looking restless at his post. He took a little stroll down corridor "B" and then circled back to "C" a few minutes later and looked again. The guard was gone. He walked up the hall as quickly as he could and knocked on Alice's door. She opened it very quickly.

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

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

Alice smiled and said, "boooring."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I wonder how many people have tried that?" Said Alice.
Toby said, "Probably everyone."

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

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

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

"I've always been attracted to older men."

He let out a single laugh.

"I've always been attracted to older women."

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

"Well then it's perfect, we're both older than the other."

Toby thought for a second.

"You're right we are. How strange is that?" He said.

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

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

"Miss Covings, are you there?"

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

"Yes Sir, I up, just a minute please."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just then Caitlin leaned in.

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

"Don't be embarrassed John, I raised you from a baby. I feel like a Mother now."

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

"Wow," he said.

Jason said, "I know right? Isn't it amazing?"

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

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

"Don't I have to eat the pink stuff for a few days?"

Caitlin shook her head and smiled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Okay, here goes."

Jason pulled out his phone.

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

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

They all busted out laughing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cyrus thought about it for a moment, he did remember making his settings that way on the lab computer and her story sounded plausible, Kerrington's file was the only one accessed and it was not top secret material anyway. Glitch pondered on her explanation.

"All-right Miss Covings, your answer will suffice, but in the future you must inform me immediately of such an occurrence. Should this happen again, we'll not be so tolerant. I'll review my settings on the lab computers to improve our security, maybe add a timeout that closes the page if it's left in that state. That will be all Miss Covings."  
"Thank you Sir."

As Alice left Glitch's office she broke out in a massive sweat, any longer in there and she would have probably passed out. She had no idea that Glitch was watching log in records so carefully. Apparently her story was a possible scenario even though she made it up the best she could. She had nothing and had to think fast. Glitch had been down in the lab earlier that day and was logged in on the PC station. Apparently he thought her suggested chain of events were plausible. She got lucky this time, next time she would have to be more prepared.

She went back to her room to freshen up relieved that she had avoided a potentially deadly situation. If Glitch had been even somewhat convinced that she had logged in using his credentials she would have found herself standing on a sheet of plastic in Slade's office for sure. She wished she could go hide in that metal oven with Toby right now and never come out again, safe and sound in a metal box that Cyrus's death signal couldn't penetrate.

Toby woke up late, quite tired from a night that brought forth a twist in life that he never would have imagined. He felt better than he had in a long time. "Damned good" was the only words he could think of. He hadn't had that much sex in years. He felt a little guilty about it like he had tainted the memory of his wife. He loved her so much and he had been faithful to her their entire marriage of 52 years. Sure he had looked at other women and he had even wondered what several of them might have been like but he never strayed.

She was a special lady, she was raised right and she was loyal to her man in every way. He hoped that if she could somehow see him that she would forgive him for last night. He also felt a little guilty for thinking about her a couple of times while he was with Alice, it just didn't seem right but it was unavoidable, after all he had been with his beloved Emily for 52 years, she was all he knew.

He thought about telling Alice to forget it, it was just too weird, but then he remembered how he felt last night while they were together, it was unbelievable, it was talking without words, no it was more like dancing, or maybe both, like they melted together, really good stuff. He thought about it some more while he shaved. He decided to see where it went, he had his entire life in front of him all over again now, immortality could get awfully lonely if you lived in the past, besides nothing in his new life would ever diminish what he had with his sweet Emily.

He showered and dressed then headed down to the kitchen area to see if Alice might be down there. He looked around for a while but didn't find her, he worried that maybe she had regrets from the night before and might avoid him now. No matter, if that was the case then so be it, either way it was one of the best nights of his life and he would never forget it.

He knew that he and Todd would have to leave soon so he went down to the ovens again to poke around a bit more. He wanted to see if there was anything important that he might have missed. It all looked about the same but he reviewed each aspect of the room just to be sure.

He started wondering how they might secure that room in an emergency. How would they keep someone from breaching the metal walls and allowing Cyrus's death signal in. He studied the heavy metal doors for nearly five minutes. There was a latch on the outside that was quite impressive, too bad it wasn't on the inside; it was apparently made this way to be closed from the outside because it was an oven of course and there would never be anyone inside there. The outside latch was intact but had been defeated with two long bolts that went all the way through the door with washers and nuts on the inside. The two bolts kept the outside latch from being movable. Obviously at some time during its use as a paint booth someone was concerned about getting locked inside so they did this to the door for safety purposes. No one wants to spend an entire night locked in a paint booth right?

But now he was trying to figure out how they could do just that. If John and Dodge could organize this take down at the compound that would be great, but what about all the people there that Cyrus would sacrifice immediately upon word of an attack to eliminate the possibility of them testifying against him. This was a very likely scenario.

Toby thought that if they could get enough people informed to come into this oven in the event of an attack on the compound then they could save those people. Cyrus would transmit the signal and think that he had killed them all. But they would be safe in the protective metal walls of the oven, but how would they lock it from the inside?

As he inspected the doors, he realized that the doors were held shut by rods that passed through the interiors of the two doors. They couldn't be seen from either the inside or the outside. The massive handle on the outside was mounted on a shaft that was obviously connected to a cam inside that moved the rods. The shaft passed through the door and had a large washer and nut on the inside that held it together. The movement of the handle was defeated by the two bolts that protruded on the outside of the door only allowing the handle to move slightly. He moved it back and forth as far as it would go while looking at the inside of the door where he could see the nut moving. He could hear the rods moving up and down slightly inside the door each time moved the handle.

He looked at the bottom door sill and the top door sill and realized that there were holes in both locations for the rods to pass into. This was a really well built set of solid metal doors that would be extremely tough to get open when closed securely. They were about eight feet tall and the rods were about an inch in diameter so busting it down would be nearly impossible.

The problem remained, that being, you couldn't lock it from the inside. He sat down on one of the paint buckets and thought about the mechanism for a while. In his former life he had several jobs that required mechanical skills when he was young and he was a fairly good mechanic. Suddenly he realized it, the nut! It was on the inside and it also moved when you moved the handle on the outside.

If he had a wrench that fit that nut then he could easily turn the handle to the locked position from the inside, but what good would that do? The people on the outside still had the handle and they could easily open it. He went back to the outside of the door to look at the handle more closely. Just as he did he startled a guard that was walking by.

"Hey what are you up to there?" He asked.  
"Oh, well, hi there," he looked at the guard's badge, "Ron, I was told that one of these old ovens had some paint stuff in it. One of the maintenance guys sent me down here to look for some brushes." "Oh, okay, that's fine, but why were you looking at that door like that?"  
"Well, it's just built so well you know, and then I started thinking, is this door gonna swing shut and trap me in there? I got all paranoid and really starting looking at it you know, cause then I was really worried that I might die in there or something."

The security guard laughed.

"You're funny man! You should be a stand up, that's hilarious. Look that handle is fixed there where it can't even move." The guard jiggled the handle to demonstrate, "relax man, you're not gonna get locked in there and die." Toby smiled.

"Yeah I guess you're right, I just think stupid stuff like that sometimes."  
"I'd say, so did you find any?"  
"Any what?"  
"Paint brushes, you said you were looking for them."

"Oh, right, no I didn't, but I'm still looking. He wanted a large wrench too, said they needed to shut off the water to the commodes up there on three. They're painting, I guess they gotta take one of the toilettes out or something." The guard tried to help.

"Well there are some tools back here, let's see if there's any wrenches. What's he need, like a pipe wrench?" Toby thought. "Um, yeah exactly, for the valve, it's one of those big ones and it's rusted."

Toby had noticed the maintenance guys working on the men's room up on three. There was some water damage and so one guy was painting a patched area and two others were working on replacing the ruptured pipe. The guard led him behind the ovens and down a long dark hall that required the use of the guard's flashlight. He led him into a maintenance room and turned on a LED light that continued to flicker even after being on for a while.

The dirty old room had obviously been the maintenance room at one time but was now filled mostly with junk and miscellaneous tools lying all around on the benches. The rusty old tool box was in disarray but in spite of being a mess there was a good amount of tools still in it. Toby spotted a large pipe wrench and picked it up.

"This should do," he said.

They turned off the light and walked back out to the oven area.  
"Thanks again Ron, I appreciate the help."  
"No problem man, good luck finding the brushes."  
"Thanks, I'm going to keep looking in this oven, it was a paint booth for a while and there's lots of paint stuff in there." "Do you need light?"  
"Nah, I think the lights work in here," he reached in and flipped the switch.

"Yip, they work just fine."

"What's your name? asked the Guard.

"Toby."

"Nice meeting you Toby, have a good night," he said, as he went on his way.  
"You too Ron, thanks."  
"Wow these guards are so nice they're almost useless. Then again they're just like the rest of us, prisoners in this place with the possibility of losing their lives."

He tried out the wrench on the nut inside the oven door. He could turn the nut and he could see the handle move on the outside of the door and hear the rods moving. He went outside and looked at the big lever type handle. It had a large nut on it that held it on. He looked around to see if anyone was in the area. The guard was long gone and not another soul was down there.

Lots of people came down there at night but at mid-day it was usually deserted. He adjusted the pipe wrench to fit the nut on the handle. It was tight and he had to really put his weight into it to break it loose. Once loose, it came off easily with just his fingers. It was a stainless steel assembly so it had no rust on it at all and it was in nice shape. The nut was off but the handle was stuck on the shaft. He had experience with things built like this and he knew that one good whack with a big hammer would probably make it fall right off.

He looked around, still nobody, so he reared back and gave the handle a good whack with the pipe wrench; sure enough, it came right off. Once removed he could see that the shaft was fitted to the handle with a woodruff key way and it was a straight shaft, not tapered, without the woodruff key the handle would just spin on the shaft and be totally useless. This was an ideal situation he thought to himself.

He went back into the paint booth looking for something to pry the little metal woodruff key from the round shaft. In the paint cabinet he found a paint can opener and used that and the wrench to strike it knocking the key out of the shaft. He replaced the handle and the nut and tightened it pretty well. He moved the handle back and forth but it didn't move the heavy rods for the lock at all. Just as he had hoped, without the key way the handle simply spun on the shaft. You couldn't really tell though because the handle had only very limited movement due to the two defeating bolts on either side of it that had been added.

He put the wrench on the inside nut and he could still move the rods by turning the nut on the inside of the door, problem solved! The heavy metal doors could now be locked from the inside and couldn't be operated from the outside at all. Anyone attempting to do so would need a lot of time to figure out what was going on with the door.

He went back inside the oven and looked around more. There were a few holes here and there and the gaps around the door that were filled with an orange rubber seal of some kind that was discolored from years of intense heat. He was sure that it would need to be covered with metal somehow, still quite a challenge. He would have to consult with John and Dodge next time he saw them.

He grabbed a can of light-colored paint from the cabinet and the wrench. He turned off the lights and headed upstairs to level three. He figured he had better go ahead and give the maintenance men the stuff just to cover his story. He noticed there were two more pipe wrenches in the old maintenance room so getting another one later wouldn't be a problem.

He went up to the third floor and offered the items to one of the workers. The guy just looked at him funny.

"What's this for?" He asked.

"Well, I was down stairs on the main floor and there was a medium build guy, about like me, he said you guys needed this stuff and he asked me if I could bring it up since I was headed this way."  
"Oh, must have been the morning shift, just set it down there, thanks." As Toby walked away, he felt proud of what he had accomplished that morning, the oven plan was shaping up nicely.

Chapter 22 At the Kerrington house everyone was acting as normal as they possibly could. Dodge had been going to work for the past several days at regular time and returning home on schedule as well. He had taken a lot of time off and it had caught up with him at work. He was struggling a bit to get caught up, but was making progress. He tried to focus this morning but he knew that John had been loaded up at the farm last night and he was anxiously waiting on the call that everything was okay. John had just ended his call with Jason, Caitlin, and JC, and was now calling Dodge. When Dodge saw the caller id, he was instantly relieved. He answered.

"Hey buddy, how are you this morning?"

"Well my friend I am completely weirded out right now because I just spoke to myself!"  
"Wow, weird huh?"  
"Yes, I had not even thought of that until it happened." "Do you remember anything yet? I mean, from the farm?"  
"No, not really I was only awake for a few seconds for that test they always perform when they load someone up, you know the one where they ask you a few questions to make sure you're in there."  
"Oh, yeah, I know what you mean," said Dodge.  
"So did you? I mean the other . . ." John interrupted, "confusing isn't it?"  
"We took a vote and we decided that I'm going to go by John and my clone is going by JC."  
"Ah, okay, that does help," agreed Dodge, "It was getting a little tricky there. So does JC seem like he's all there and healthy, no issues?"  
"Yeah we had a nice conversation. I was all there for sure."

Dodge was trying to get his head around this, he thought that it would work but now that it had happened it was really making him stop in his tracks for a minute.  
"Hey ya know Dodge old buddy, in just two days you're going to be in the same boat."  
"Yeah, you're right, it's that time, isn't it?"

"Hey Buddy, what should we call your clone, DK?" They both laughed.

"Nah, it doesn't sound good like your initials, we'll have to come up with something else."  
"All right Buddy, we'll figure something out. You have a good day at work and we'll talk later. I've got to get back to work on mapping out the compound in more detail so we can finish this with Cyrus."  
"Okay my friend, I'll talk at ya later."

As Dodge ended the call he realized that his regular job was beginning to stand in the way now of his safety and the safety of his family and even the futures of about 80 people that were working for Slade, or rather slaving for Slade. Neither he nor John really knew how extensive Cyrus's network had become but it was already too big.

They knew that there were about 70 people at the compound all the time. They were basically prisoners there and they were never allowed outside the walls. There were also roughly 20 or so mules, tails, watchers, and the like, that Slade did let out but only for a few days at a time to carry out specific task, like Todd, Cheyenne, and blue car man.

The Black Ops team succeeded in tracking some messages in and out of the compound that were secret in nature and very well encrypted, none of which stopped in local servers. This certainly raised concerns that Cyrus might have remote operations scattered all over the place and even when they did take down the compound other activities might continue.

This was something that would have to be addressed after the take down when John could get his hands on Cyrus's systems. That depended on taking Cyrus down with precision in one fell swoop. Not leaving him any time to fragg his drives or launch some sort of data wipe virus to cover his tracks would be wise.

Dodge went back to work, he had a lot to do and he still needed to visit with Tim before the end of the day. When he finally made it to see his boss he found Tim standing in the middle of his large office with a putter, concentrating intently over a ball that he was about to strike. About two years earlier Tim had requested the carpet replaced in his office with a very specific color and texture of green. Of course it was very similar to the grass of a golf green. He had the maintenance crew remove the old carpet and cut three holes in the floor for plastic cups, the exact same kind as those used on golf courses. He hired a contractor to come in and create several subtle humps in the floor. When the carpet crew arrived a few days later the foreman insisted that his men should level the badly warped floor before they installed the new carpet. John laughed.

"No I'm a golfer, you see this is my green, I just paid $3200 to have those humps installed." Dodge waited as Tim sank his putt and then rapped his knuckles on the door frame.  
"Nice putt my friend! This is why you always beat me."

Tim looked up.

"Ah my good man Dodge, how are you? I haven't been seeing much of you since your big windfall."  
"Yeah I know," said Dodge, "It's been crazy but a good kind of crazy. Linsey is having a great time shopping for cars and planning great things for Bobby and Sarah. Now that cost is not an issue they're looking at more choices for college. You know Tim there is something that I would like to talk with you about, how about we go hit nine holes?" Tim's face lit up.

"Hell yeah! Let's go."  
"All right, I'll meet you at the club in about a half hour or so."

Dodge went back down to his office, shut everything off and locked the door as he went out. He liked his job but he needed more time now to dedicate to protecting his family and getting this Cyrus character put away. It had to be finished and they had to be the ones to strike. He had this gut feeling if they didn't act soon Cyrus would act first and they couldn't afford for that to happen.

He jumped in the GTO, fired it up and headed for the club. He liked driving the car and he liked driving it fast. What's the point in having a hot rod if you can't get out and run it once in a while. He used to get it out for a drive but he would just putter around in it. Not now, life was too short, he felt like he wanted to go fast again, like he did when he was younger. He didn't know why, it didn't make any sense because with Restoration as a means of immortality he didn't need to feel like you only live once or that fun had to be indulged in at all cost while you still can. He knew that he would probably live forever, but still he had this urge like a wild horse that had been pent up for too long in the stable. He needed to run just as fast as he could, and he did.

He arrived at the club a few minutes before Tim so he decided to hit a bucket of balls to warm up. It had been a while since he played and he thought that it might do him some good. He started teeing them up and hitting them hard. For some reason he felt stronger than usual or his swing was more fluid. He couldn't put his finger on it but tonight was special for some reason, everything felt right and aligned. Tim arrived at the driving range with a cart and watched Dodge hitting a few balls.

"Hey Buddy," he hollered, "Nice ball!" Dodge had just hit a really long one and Tim was impressed.  
"You been practicing in secret on me?" Tim said as Dodge loaded his clubs onto the cart.  
"No, of course not, I just feel good today, you know, loose or something."

They went and hit the first tee. Dodge smoked one right down the middle of the fairway about 295.

"Whoa, what's gotten into you? I haven't seen you hit one that far in a while."  
"Yeah, I know, I guess I just feel confident today." On the way to the second tee, Dodge decided it was time to tell Tim what was on his mind.

"Hey Tim, I really need to talk to you about something."  
"Sure," Tim said, "Anything, what is it my friend?"  
"Well as you know I'm pretty well set financially now and in just about four more years I should qualify for my bonus if I choose to retire."  
"Yeah, that's right."  
"Well I was wondering if it would jeopardize my job in any way if I were to take an extended leave of absence." Tim looked at him for a minute.

"Everything okay pal? I mean with you and Linsey?"  
"Oh, yeah, absolutely man, better than ever, it's just we've both been working so hard at being everything to everyone. You know how hard I worked on this LifeTech project for so long. I think it just sort of burned us out mentally and physically."

"Well sure Dodge, if you need to take some time I don't think that will be an issue. You've worked hard for many years and you deserve a break. I've noticed how much you've taken Ross Middleton under your wing in these last couple of years are you grooming him to run things in your absence?"

"Yes that is exactly what I've been doing but this was a lot sooner than I planned, do you think he's ready to handle things?"  
"Don't worry about that I think he's ready and I'll take extra interest in what is going on in your department to make sure he doesn't make any major blunders, okay. Now look, I can get this approved but you will have to go see our company physician. I would suggest that you tell him you're mentally stressed, that is the best way to get it approved.

He will send you to one of two psychologists, but no worries because I know them both. Once you know which one he's sending you to, give me a call and I'll take care of everything. You will have a thirty minute appointment, in and out, and you'll get your leave approved, I promise. You should easily get 90 days, no problem."  
"Wow Tim, thanks man, I feel so much better."  
"All right Buddy let's play some more golf, okay?" He slapped Dodge on the back and by the time they had arrived at the next tee Dodge felt even better than he did on the first tee. He split the fairway with another long one.

The rest of the front nine went great, in fact it was so good that they decided to play all eighteen. They were both on fire but Dodge was finally giving Tim a run for his money. He even got a couple of strokes on him through the back nine but in the end Tim still beat him. It was his putting, that man had practiced so much in his office and had such a great touch with his short game that Dodge just couldn't quite get him.

Dodge messaged Linsey after the ninth hole to let her know they were going to play the back nine. She messaged back, "Have fun, see you tonight."

After the round they went to the 19th hole and had a beer. It tasted better today for some reason. On the drive home, the GTO was running great. It was a mild evening so he put the windows down to enjoy the cool night air. The car felt so powerful and smooth. He opened it up down the freeway for about ten miles with his favorite oldies playing, a mix of Maroon Five, Green Day, Creed, and some really old Pink Floyd tracks that his dad had turned him on to.

When he arrived at home, Linsey and the kids were sitting at the kitchen table playing a card game. They had some snacks and drinks and they were having a great time. They invited him to join in, it had been so long since he had even seen anyone playing a card game. Normally he would have declined but there was something about the idea of playing this old card game, something retro, the thought of something real that you could touch, something with texture instead of something digital on the game console. It was a strange day, it was almost like he had gone back in time.

That night, after they finished their game, he went down to the basement and called John. He told him that he was taking a leave from work to concentrate on getting this whole mess behind them so they could all have their lives back. John was thrilled because he needed the extra help. He reminded Dodge that tomorrow morning was going to be a special day for Dodge because when he awakened he would for the first time get a complete dose of his other self.

Everything that his clone had experienced so far would come rushing into his mind the moment he awoke. In all the busyness of everything that day he had forgotten that tomorrow morning was going to be different, the big "ah hah" moment.

When he got back upstairs to the kitchen, Linsey and the kids had already cleaned up and the kids were up to their rooms and would soon be getting ready for bed. He sat down at the table and he almost started to tell Linsey what John had said when he remembered they were on live CCTV and with Audio too. They were so accustomed to this situation that it seemed like part of their lives. He longed for their privacy but it just wasn't an option tonight.

"Hey babe," he said, "Let's go for a little walk." They went for a walk on the park path and they had a nice conversation. They kept their voice's low and they talked almost in a code now, they were getting very good at it.

He told her he was a little nervous about tonight, his clone had been loaded up earlier and had now experienced a half day at the farm, when he awoke in the morning he would be remembering and experiencing two days in his life in two different worlds, what a mind-blowing thing.

As always, Linsey was strong for him and she reassured him that he was in good hands, and after all, John did it first and he was just fine with no side effects. She was always there for him, he thought, she was truly a remarkable woman.

Out in corn country near the small town of Lapel two scientists were working diligently at their high tech jobs. No one in the little farm community was aware of the strange scientific things going on behind the weather beaten old doors of the run down dairy building at the farm. Inside it was a high tech menagerie of life support systems, tool rooms, laboratories and a complete arsenal of weapons that would impress even the hardest core militia man. It was surely the best kept secret in Indiana, and for good reason.

In the last 48 hours they learned that Cyrus Slade had weapons beyond their expectations. They didn't know the exact model, but an informant working for one of the Black Ops team members had through sources, which he couldn't divulge, learned that Cyrus obtained and installed a missile battery in one of the old storage silos at the foundry. The system had recently been brought online and was fully operational. If Cyrus were to learn of the sting operation that they were running against him, he would no doubt destroy the farm and the homes of both John and Dodge without even leaving the comfort of his office.

Dodges' clone loaded up with no errors and had been awake now for most of the day. He was the perfect physical specimen, strong, fast, and intelligent; he would no doubt be a huge asset for their cause. He was loaded with Dodge's complete lifefile that was up to date through the prior night. Now he was briefed regarding everything they found out about the missile capability which Cyrus possessed. With that complete, they began intense training for both John and Dodge. This was certainly going to be a new and interesting situation.

John and Dodge would not need to call one another for updates unless it was an emergency. Every night when they both went through their sleep cycles, their lifefiles would be interlaced into one. John and Dodge could talk to one another at the farm in great detail, sharing ideas, information, laying down the details of the plans for the attack. Each night when they slept their minds merged with that of their clones, it was amazing.

Jason and Caitlin were very excited for Dodge, he was about to go to sleep in Indy and when he awoke he would experience this phenomenon which only few others had ever known. They couldn't wait until morning to see what he experienced, it was ground breaking stuff and this was only the second time for them to try it. If it worked on Dodge as well as it did on John it would be a very good indication that their methods were reliable.

Earlier that day, back at the compound, Toby and Alice finally found one another in the kitchen just before lunch time. They sat and ate their lunch together but didn't talk about the events of the day yet because there were too many people around. When they finished eating, they went down to the oven where Toby told her everything that he had done to it, but not before hugging her and giving her a kiss.

He showed her how the doors could be locked now from the inside and couldn't be opened from the outside. She was impressed with his mechanical skills, and it seemed like it might work. She filled him in on what had gone on in the lab that night with Cyrus attempting to get information out of the poor custodian that he believed to be Dodge and how Glitch had nearly caught her red handed logging into things that she wasn't supposed to.

They both agreed they would have to be more careful. They decided they would go to his room for the night. They wasted no time sneaking past the guards and slipping in. She brought her PC and they watched some old shows together and talked about what it was like back then. Of course Toby was much older than her so he told her some stories of his childhood and teenage years from the 1980's.  
"Do you really think you can make that oven a safe haven for people if Cyrus transmits the death signal?" Asked Alice.  
"Well I don't know for sure, but it would have to at least increase our chances, I mean that big metal oven would have to be better than nothing. I just need to figure out how to fill the gaps around the doors and a few holes. If I get another opportunity to see John or Dodge before the take down, I'll ask them if there is an easy way to do it. I think we could round up as many people as we can trust and get them in there when the compound is under attack. I'm sure if Cyrus has a chance he will launch the kill sequence to destroy us all. Even if he didn't do it manually, he has the dead man's switch so that if he's killed the codes are launched automatically. He may be sick but ya gotta admit, he's smart!"

They talked for a little while longer and then drifted off to sleep on the little sofa in Toby's room. He woke up in the middle of the night and slipped out from under her. He put her feet up on the sofa and covered her up with a blanket, and went on to bed.

The next morning Dodge Kerrington woke up out of a dead sleep at 5:15 a.m. sharp, he sat straight up, gasping for air as if he had just come up out of water. He was covered in sweat and his heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode. As he sat up abruptly he let out a yell that scared Linsey half to death out of a sound sleep.

"What! What is it Dodge?" she gasped, Still trying to catch her own breath from being startled. Then she remembered that he must be experiencing the first memories of his new clone.  
"Just go back to sleep dear," he said, "I just a bad dream that's all." He lay there but he couldn't sleep after what he had just experienced. It was the most lucid dream experience he had ever had but he knew it wasn't really a dream at all. He remembered being loaded up at the farm, he had seen Caitlin and Jason and John and spent the entire day with them. He had been through a full workout, his body was so agile and strong. He watched several martial arts instructional videos and would begin intense training tomorrow morning. He took martial arts classes as a youth but this was much more serious.

They also studied the floor plans of the compound together and now Dodge had a full awareness and knowledge of it all. It was a very weird moment, it was like someone had taken a huge bucket of knowledge and experience from a very full day of life and just injected it right into his head, what a rush! It was amazing! But it would certainly take some getting used to. He was now aware of Cyrus having the armed missile silo and his ability to strike with it at will. It was truly a terrifying revelation.

At 7:00 a.m. he got up, he figured there was no point lying there awake just thinking about everything that he should be doing. He would be leaving work early today for an appointment with Doctor Erickson for a referral to one of the two psychologists that Tim told him about; hopefully he would get his leave of absence granted quickly. It was important for Dodge to get Ross up to speed at work before he took his leave. He wanted to end this thing with Cyrus and he wanted to do it right. He didn't want to be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life, but he also didn't want to let anyone down at ESS, especially Tim.

At the compound Alice had just woken up from a very sound sleep. The two times she fell asleep in Toby's arms she had felt so safe and content. Now she found herself on his tiny sofa, and in spite of being on a not so comfy piece of old furniture she had still slept better than she would have in her own bed. She was always afraid in that place when she went to sleep. There were some really creepy guys there that frightened her and she worried about them coming into her room while she slept. The locks were good but she had heard tell of some guards that were willing to sell keys.

There were some incidents before where one of the women accused two men of raping her; Cyrus had killed the accused with no investigation. As sick as he was he still would not tolerate anyone abusing another person in his organization. It was more of a sick jealousy really, if any abuse was going to take place it would be at his hands and none other. Just after the incident he called everyone down to the old foundry floor. The accused were brought before him.  
"This is what happens to you when you harm one of your fellow soldiers," said Slade. He grabbed them both by their necks. One in each hand lifting them completely off of their feet, tightening his grip until their faces turned blue and everyone could hear their necks snapping.

He was a freak of nature for sure, incredibly strong and seemingly incapable of feeling pain or fear or any emotion for that matter. Since that incident she slept much better, but never as good as when she was with Toby. Having him there made her feel safe. After she woke, she went in to wake Toby, but he was sleeping so soundly that she decided not to. She just slipped out and went back to her own room. She had to get ready for work and grab some breakfast. She was instructed to report to the lab today but didn't know why.

When she got to the lab there was a work order on a clip board lying on the bench. She picked it up, and saw that it was assigned to her. It was a detailed work order to begin monitoring Dodge Kerrington's new clones. They were already growing rapidly and the order included instructions for even faster acceleration to facilitate reaching the age of four, mature enough to speak clearly and basically experience full pain recognition.

She was horrified. At that moment she realized she would soon be forced to participate in the torture of a four-year-old boy with a middle-aged man's lifefile loaded into him. She went back and viewed the clones. There were five started and much to her dismay they all survived. They were now in suspension and were at about the two-year-old stage. It would be only a matter of days until they would be brought out of suspension, hyper nourished for twenty-four hours and then loaded one at a time.

One by one Cyrus would torture them to get as much information as he possibly could. He would torture them to death and then move onto the next one. In one case he had done this and succeeded by making the next clone in line witness the torture of the previous one, promising each one that they would get to live and be set free if they only cooperated.

Even when they did, he still killed them anyway. His promises were nothing but bold faced lies. She started feeling sick to her stomach and had to run for the restroom in the back of the lab. When she emerged from the restroom she sat and stared at the precious toddlers suspended in the liquid. They were all so perfect, so beautiful, how could anyone have such total disregard for human life?

Some greater power out there, maybe God, maybe some superior race had given us this life, and even gave us the gift of intelligence to discover these great ways to preserve life and create immortality. Yet that same power allowed people or things like Cyrus Slade to exist without intervention, it didn't make sense to her at all that a creator that made such wonderful and beautiful things also allowed such ugliness to coexist with them. Then she thought, that's why we have to fight back against evil on our own, apparently that's why we're here. I have GOT to do SOMETHING!

She racked her brain, how could she spare these children the pain of torture. Yes! She had it, she would simply ruin the process, she would keep it from working so that Cyrus had nothing to torture. But if she killed the clones she would feel like she had murdered them and wouldn't be any better than Cyrus.

Then she remembered something, the first time Cyrus tried this he had used the wrong file to load them up and then tortured them to death before he realized what had gone wrong. That error bought Dodge and John and their families some valuable time. It was not likely he would make that mistake again. What if Slade did have the right file this time and what if he tortured Dodge to the point where he cracked and told everything about the take down of the compound? If that happened, they would all be doomed. She had to sabotage this effort but how?

She did her work as ordered until lunch time, she wanted to talk to Toby, he was a really smart guy, maybe he would have an idea. When she went for lunch, he was waiting for her at the far corner table. He was already eating something so she made herself a sandwich and got a bowl of chili that someone had made a big pot of. It was a late lunch so most of the early crowd was gone and they nearly had the room to themselves. The remaining group was on the other side of the large room and they were very engrossed in their own conversation.

Alice kept her voice low and told Toby what was going on in the lab and how she needed to figure a way to scuttle the whole thing to buy Dodge and John and all of them more time.

Toby said "Why don't you finish that chili and take that sandwich to go." They left the kitchen and went down to the oven.

Toby checked the area as they went along to make sure there was no one around. When they got to the oven, they thought they could have some privacy, but when they went in, there was a couple inside kissing.  
"Whoops, sorry!" Toby said, as he backed out of the oven and closed the door.  
"Well, I guess we're not the only ones around here with those ideas, huh?"  
"I guess not" Alice said.

They went to a much smaller oven and slowly opened the door while looking in, it was vacant so they went on in and sat down on a bench made of a plank and two five-gallon buckets.  
"Well it's not the Hilton, but it'll do."  
"Okay, so they have these five clones and they're planning to load them up and get information out of them. Let's see, well, you could poison them."  
"No, no, Cyrus would suspect foul play and run tests. I would be blamed and you heard about what a speedy trial those accused rapists got."  
"Oh yeah," Toby said, "That wouldn't be good, it has to be absolutely untraceable back to you. Toby thought.

"Hey, I've heard that the LifeTech chip must be planted into the clone's brain within the first month of life, if that's true and you were to insert chips that are faulty it would be months before you would discover that those chips were no good, right?  
"Well, yes, you're right, but they would still say it was my fault. Cyrus would still blame me for it whether it was obvious sabotage or an apparent accident."  
"Who oversees the storage and handling of the chips?  
"Glitch keeps them in a locked cabinet in the lab. He gets them out and tests them before each clone is started. I do the chip placements in the embryos when they are developed enough for good placement."  
"Well it's simple then, all you have to do is figure out a way to ruin the chips that you've already implanted in the five clones and you'll have to also ruin the chips in the locked cabinet. See that way it looks like it was Glitch's fault and maybe, just maybe, Cyrus will kill him."

"Okay, but how can I do it? I mean, ruin chips that are already implanted and ruin the chips in the locked cabinet? It's a very secure storage cooler with a good fingerprint lock."  
"Maybe you don't need to get them out, if it's like most lab coolers I've seen, there is a hole on the side or top to put tubes and wires through for when you're conducting experiments that require measurements to be taken with outside equipment. If that hole is large enough you could just insert a probe into the cooler and turn on an attached Tesla Coil and watch it arc all over the interior of that cooler for about a minute. No precision electronic chip without serious static protection on it is going to survive that kind of an assault from high voltage static electricity."  
"That's a fairly good idea but what about the one's already in the clones?

"I'm pretty good with mechanical things and even electricity but I'm no biologist and certainly not a doctor. I have no idea what shocking those clones might do to the chips already in their brains."

"You know I could probably inject enough current into the brain to toast the chip. But even if the chip didn't toast the brain would sustain some damage and either way they would never think to test for that after the fact. I think Glitch would suspect the chips. Then he would go back and check the rest of the batch in the cooler. If even some of them were bad, he would blame it on the manufacturer or bad handling practices. The good news is, I have never touched those chips in the cooler, Glitch is the only one with access."

"Well then, it sounds like a plan" Toby said.  
"What about the security cams, there is one that covers the lab cooler."  
"Well come on, we've all seen those spy movies, there are really only two choices; you either take a still shot of the room from the same camera angle and slip it in front of the cam or steal some video from that same cam and create a video loop of the empty room, either one will work just fine."

"Well, I think the high tech route would be better because the cams are high resolution, I just don't think a cheesy photo dangling in front of it is going to fool anyone."  
"All right then Doc Alice, we can do it tonight if you have the moxie."  
"Yes young man, I do, we're on for tonight! After all Dodge is out there risking his life every day along with John and a whole crew of people that are trying to save us from Cyrus, it's the least we can do to contribute."

Toby was confident they could pull it off, and besides, they had to, he was scheduled to go back to the house with Todd and Cheyenne the day after tomorrow, Cheyenne needed his help to be a lookout. If they waited until he returned again it would be too late, Cyrus was planning to load up the clones and began interrogating them within the next week or so. They had only a small window of opportunity to get it done. They began laying out the finer points of how they would pull off their plan and cause Cyrus another unexpected set back.

Chapter 23 At ESS Dodge was working hard, he was focused on getting Ross Middleton completely invested in everything the team was doing. He needed his substitute to be sharp and ready to lead in his absence. He had not received the approval for his leave yet but by the way Tim talked it was all but guaranteed to go through. He had no idea of what was going on at the compound. As much as he wanted to, they just hadn't been able to get eyes and ears on the inside with an open com channel. They knew Toby was in there off and on but so far they had no way of securely communicating with him.

Traditional means were just too risky and would likely be detected resulting in Toby being terminated in the worst possible way. He thought about Toby often and hoped that he was all right. Bobby had tried calling him twice but only got his voice mail, his phone was secure, but obviously he didn't have a good signal or he couldn't answer it for some reason.

Dodge was excited about what was going on at the farm. He knew from his clone's memory that two of the Black Ops team members were already deployed to the farm and they would be working with JC and DC today on hand to hand combat skills in the morning and advanced weapons training in the afternoon. They had decided to call Dodge's clone DC to eliminate confusion.

It would be twelve hour training days for the next several weeks to get them as prepared as possible for anything they might need to know on the big day. There was not a planned day of attack on the compound yet, they were waiting for just the right moment and they had to be ready for it when it arrived.

Alan also wanted to be involved in the operation, in fact he wanted it so bad that he approached John about creating an alibi for him. They concocted a phony vacation for Alan to the Bahamas complete with a cruise and several Island stops. At his first Island stop they replaced him with a man that looked a lot like him and flew Alan back on a small private plane to the Anderson Indiana airport.

They got him out to the farm where he would spend his days assisting there in any way that he could. He had a great deal of combat experience and was a decorated war hero so he had plenty to contribute in the weapons and combat training area but he was willing to do pretty much anything, even cooking or mopping the floor. He didn't care how he contributed, and he just wanted to help.

Meanwhile they both had plenty of work to do during the day and they too would be contributing to their clone's knowledge every night. It was a two-way street, every night their minds became one, it was the most amazing thing they had ever experienced. Not only were they breaking new scientific ground with this but they were also building their own secret weapon to unleash against Cyrus and if all went well, he would never see it coming, it would be the take down of the decade.

Dodge was finishing up his day with several brief meetings at work with Tim and several of the department heads. They were discussing the launch of their next major product line. It would be a comprehensive approach to providing the most economical and reliable lifefile backup service ever offered. The two services currently available were clunky and riddled with vulnerabilities to hacker attacks not to mention generally poor customer service and not so user friendly web interfaces.

Their new plan would offer the absolute latest security measures and the most affordable rates thus far in the industry. The two existing companies were price gouging because they knew they had the corner on the market and people had no choice but to pay their overpriced fees. Now ESS would offer an alternative that would be better in every way and very affordable plus the web interface prototype was already much better than anything out there.

Across town John Calhoun was in his man cave working on his PC. He was diligently searching for files and building a database of everything he could find related to the individuals that Cyrus had captive. Toby had managed to slip a list to Bobby the last time he was at the house. It was not a complete list of everyone at the compound but it was over half of the people there.

Each one of these individuals had their lives stolen and taken over by Cyrus. Just like Alice, most of them had been murdered in such a way that their loved ones truly believed they were gone forever and they would never see them again, while others were simply missing persons, some presumed dead.

Meanwhile they were all still alive, stuck working for Cyrus in his make shift compound. It was dirty, dark, and dank. The only upgrades made to the facility were those required to prevent escape and utilitarian upgrades necessary to get the job done. Each of them had an explosive brain implant that meant certain death if they disobeyed or escaped from the compound. These people had very little contact with the outside world so they had little chance of contacting their families. If they did attempt it and were caught they would be killed for it.

As John went through each of their files, he felt emotional pain for their families. In many cases wives had buried their husbands and mourned for them, moving on they had remarried and had children with new mates. This was true for several men as well that believed their wives dead at the hands of some crazed murderers. How horrible it must have been for these prisoners of Cyrus's. They must have known their families had moved on and turned the pages in their lives without them. Even when they were liberated by Dodge and John and their Black Ops team, they would soon learn that the lives they once knew had been so derailed that they would never be able to get back what they had.

He noticed one man in particular that lost his wife to Cyrus's evil plot. His name was Vince Lombardi, same name as the famous football coach from nearly a century earlier. Vince's wife Cheyenne had been murdered outside a department store where she worked. She was leaving late that night after she and the assistant manager had locked up for the night. When she got to her car in the parking garage a man was waiting and he murdered her by strangling her. There were no witnesses and the only evidence at all to the crime was a security camera with a bad angle and a dirty lens.

One of Cyrus's men had carried out the crime and another had switched out her Lifecorder back at home while both she and her husband were at work. She was lying there dead for almost an hour before she was discovered, making it impossible for medics to get her to the hospital in time to be restored. Her husband even went on several talk shows after her death because he made statements to the media that he didn't believe that she was really dead. He insisted that there must be a government conspiracy to kill certain people faking their deaths and that his wife was still alive somewhere. He said he could "feel it" he knew she was still alive.

John studied Vince's web search history after Cheyenne's death. He had spent months conducting research in an effort to develop a conspiracy theory. Lately though Vince was researching it a lot less, as if he was beginning to give up on ever proving anything. It made John a little sad, he only hoped that they could free his wife from Cyrus in time to be reunited with Vince, before he gave up and moved on.

As it turned out Vince's wife Cheyenne was the very same Cheyenne that was posing as Toby's mother. She had gained enough trust from Cyrus that he was letting her out on assignments such as this one where she was posing as Todd's wife and Toby's Mother. No doubt she had a glimmer of hope that she might earn her freedom, but John knew from researching Slade's psychological profile that this would simply never be allowed to happen so long as Cyrus had control.

John felt his hatred begin to boil hotter for Cyrus. He imagined killing him with a big gun, blasting him through a large glass window in a tall office building, then watching him go on a very long fall to his ultimate messy death on the street below.

He leaned back in his chair and stared at the screen, folding his hands behind his head and looking at the frozen image of Cyrus. He was not an attractive man, he was dirty, disgusting and covered in blemishes and scars as if he had been through a war and somehow survived when he shouldn't have. His countenance gave off a disturbing vibe even in a still photo, he could only imagine how threatening he must seem in person. He sat there and stared at the image for a little while longer, and then said, Slade, my man, at some point it's just going to be you and me, and you're goin down you sack of shit!

He turned off the monitor and sat there silently in the dark, the only light was from the moon streaming in the window at the end of the gable. He reached down and removed his gun holster from his right side and tossed it up on the desk, he was tired of carrying it.

He quietly nursed his scotch and water for a few more minutes. He missed Amanda, he wanted to see her so badly but he didn't want to put her in harm's way, their reunion would have to wait. He closed his eyes and remembered the last time they were together. He remembered the thin wispy sun dress she had on. It was yellow and had narrow white lace on the sleeves, neck and hemline. He mused at how easily it dropped off of her lean athletic body and how little she had on under it. She smelled so good when she came close. He remembered how her mouth tasted as she began kissing him. Just then he heard a dog barking in the distance and he snapped out of it. "Damn, oh well, no point in getting all worked up for nothing." Soon this would all be over with and they would be reunited, he couldn't wait.

It was late and he was about to make his way over to the other side of the estate to turn in. He knew that Dodge must be about to turn in as well. Soon morning would bring another amazing discovery of everything they had experienced at the farm. He wondered what new martial arts skills and weapons training he would suddenly know when he awoke.

Back at the compound the work day for most was long done, but for Toby and Alice, it was just beginning. They had carefully planned their sabotage operation to be carried out in the lab that night. Toby would be the lookout and Alice would take care of everything in the lab.

They filled a bag with several smartly assembled devices made from parts they scavenged from the pieces of junk in the old maintenance room. It had turned out to be a nice little hide out that no one seemed to know about. As they ventured into it earlier they walked through several cob webs that had formed since Toby was there last. It was obvious that no one else had been in there since.

Alice was about to freak out by the time Toby finally got to the light switch. He only had a tiny flashlight to make their way down the long corridor and down the stairs to the little maintenance room but the battery died before Toby found the pull string for the light.

It was just an old LED work light that must have been fifty years old but it still worked in spite of the annoying flicker. It was as if one tiny part inside should have died but just refused to do so. He remembered the name on the lamp. "Solas Ray." Once their eyes adjusted it gave off adequate light to do their work.

They used old parts out of the equipment that was lying around on the benches and a few key items that Alice had swiped from the lab supply closet. They constructed a nice high voltage coil capable of throwing sparks about eighteen inches in all directions. It should be more than adequate to damage the chips and render them useless to Cyrus. They also found an i-phone 38X to use for a video interface to fool the security cam. Seeing the old i-phone made him think about all the old cell phone towers that had been taken down in the last 30 years, now that they had the satellite-based skyphone network, the line of sight stuff was old junk. He remembered his uncle made a killing from his salvage business when he landed the contract to take down hundreds of those old towers back in the thirties.

The old i-phone was archaic compared to the new skyphones but it was still adequate enough for what they were planning to do with it, the built in camera had good enough resolution to create the illusion of an empty lab on the security monitors upstairs.

Meanwhile they would be carrying out their attack on the chips in the cooler and in the brains of the Dodge clones. If all went well, Cyrus would be loading up Dodge clones that were completely incapable of speech or even cognitive thought; they would be utterly useless. They had everything they needed to do the job. They packed it all up into a backpack that Alice had and a duffle that Toby used as an overnight bag between the house and the compound. People were used to seeing them with these items so no one would suspect anything.

Toby took her hand.

"Now listen," he said, "my flashlight is dead. I'm going to turn off this light and we'll stand here for a while and relax, your eyes will adjust to the darkness. After a few minutes I'll lead us out. Trust me, it works, I learned this as a boy scout some seventy years ago. When you're going from a very dark place toward light you can find your way with almost no light at all, trust me." He reached up and turned out the light. They waited what seemed like ten minutes but it was only five.

"Okay, come on," he said. Holding her hand, he very slowly lead her toward the stairs and up four or five steps to the door at the top that opened up into the long corridor. As they emerged from the door Alice began to see he was right she could see a very faint light up ahead where the dim light from the foundry floor was streaming into the corridor.

"See" Toby said, it's because we were down there in total darkness for so long that our night vision kicked in.  
"Wow, Toby knew interesting things that she had never heard of." Alice was a very well educated scientist in her field but Toby seemed to know these very practical things that came in handy in a pinch.

They made it back to their favorite oven which was now vacant. They went inside and sat down on the make shift bench and began talking quietly. They were killing time so that they could strike at the right moment when nearly everyone would be asleep. Only a few guards would be milling about and a few security watchers manning the monitors upstairs.

They talked about what they might do if they ever escaped this nightmare they were living in. How much more they would appreciate life and the freedoms so many were taking for granted out in the free world.

On the other side of town in a beautiful estate house John Calhoun had turned in for the night, he was sound asleep, sunken down deeply into a cushy pillow top mattress. Just a few miles away Dodge Kerrington was sound asleep nestled in close to Linsey in their big bed. Out at the farm everyone had turned in and was now sound asleep. It was a different story though at the compound. Two rouge team members were up late, they had waited for a long time but now they were about to strike. Alice made her way up the corridor along the south wall of the compound to the labs with her backpack thrown over one shoulder just as she had done so many times before. She entered lab no. 2 and stayed just out of the sight of the camera near the doorway.

She slid a small stool out from underneath the desk as she put her backpack on the narrow table just inside the door. She pulled out the i-phone and plugged a small patch cable into the auxiliary port. She climbed up on the stool just under the camera and affixed the i-phone and a tiny holographic projector to the wall using some sticky putty. She turned it on and ran the auto alignment app on the phone. It took a scan of the room and auto aligned it for playback. She gritted her teeth as she hit the run icon in hope that it would work.

A perfect holographic image of the room popped up on the wall to the left of the camera. "Yes, this is going to work." She climbed back up and got ready to make the switch. She turned off the camera power and very quickly turned the camera towards the holographic image of the room on the wall and then turned it back on. It was only down for about one or two seconds, hopefully the security office wouldn't notice it. Now she could work anywhere in the lab without being seen.

She climbed down and went about the business of working on the lab cooler that contained the remaining chips in stock. Down the corridor Toby waited in the dark. He was the lookout, if anyone came along, he would run ahead of them to warn her. The Labs were on a dead end hallway so there was only one way in and one way out, or at least it seemed that way. Most people didn't know that there was one other way out. There was another corridor and more rooms on the other side of the wall accessible by a separate hallway. These were computer labs. The only connection between the two labs was the women's restroom which was shared by both the computer labs and the medical labs. Most people didn't know that little fact and for some reason the men's restrooms didn't pass through like the women's. Most of the security guards were men so they might not know about it. This was their preplanned escape route should they encounter security during the assault on the lab. They could slip through the women's restrooms and emerge on the computer lab's side. Those labs were large and connected to one another with pass through doors and multiple exits, it was a good plan.

Toby stood silently listening intently for footsteps. If he heard anyone coming, he was to go to the lab immediately to warn Alice and they would exit through the ladies room to the computer labs and slip away to the dorms. So far all was quite.

Up in the monitor room one of the security guards noticed the lighting looked a little different on the camera in lab no. 2.  
"Hey Bill," he said, "take a look at this cam feed, does is look weird to you?" Seeming annoyed, Bill turned and looked at the monitor.

"Yeah I think Gary turns the brightness down on them sometimes." He reached up and turned the brightness control all the way up.

"There," he said, "all fixed dumb ass." He laughed.

"Yeah right shit head, it still looks crappy, I think that camera is about to go out, wanna bet it goes out in the next couple days?"  
"Yeah, you're on, what we bettin for?"  
"Let's make it interesting, if it goes out in the next two days you owe me a cold six pack, if it doesn't I'm buying."  
"You're on man, it's a bet, cause I say there's nothing wrong with that cam dude, it's just Gary's been dinkin around with it that's all."

Downstairs Alice was hard at work right in front of that camera but no one was the wiser. The holographic image and the light colored wall as a backdrop were working perfectly. She located the access hole on the side of the lab cooler and inserted a high voltage probe that they had fashioned from some heavy gauge steel wire and some silicone tubing as an insulator. She positioned it just above the tray of chips by looking through the glass in front and then making adjustments until she got it just right. Once aligned she pulled a roll of duct tape from her back pack and taped the probe securely in place on the outside, hooked up the high voltage circuit and battery, and turned it on.

Instantly wild arcs of electricity began jumping around inside the cooler and flashes of light began dancing across the walls of the room. She looked up at the camera and realized these changes in lighting might be affecting the image upstairs. Up in the control room the monitor was brightening and dimming but lucky for her no one was watching it. Instead they were all playing cards. It was against the rules but because they kept the door to the room locked they never got caught.

They played cards in there every night. If someone knocked and presented the password to enter they simply covered up their table with a piece of cardboard cut to fit it and then leaned on it and set there drinks on it when they opened the door. Alice realized she needed to act fast so she grabbed a large elements chart off the wall and leaned it up against the front of the cooler to block the flashes of light.

Down the corridor Toby heard faint footsteps approaching. He could feel his heart rate begin to increase. He tried to control it but it was racing now. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer so he started down towards the lab and then stopped, listening intently. They had stopped and he heard a cough. Whoever it was they were no longer moving, just standing there, apparently around the corner at the end of the hall. Just then he heard.

"24 radio check". It was a guard that had paused there for a moment.  
"24 check, lab corridors secure, moving to south side."  
"Copy 24, out."

Toby stood still as a statue as he listened to the guards footsteps begin again and slowly go off into the distance until no longer audible. He let out an abrupt exhale of relief and wiped away the sweat that had begun to run down the side of his face. He moved back to his original position and felt his heart begin to slow down.

In the lab Alice was working quickly but carefully, in an effort to leave no trace of her presence behind. She had allowed the arcing to continue inside the cooler for about three minutes. She observed hundreds of arcs striking the chips and even jumping from chip to chip throughout the trays. She was confident that this would be sufficient. She turned off the voltage and removed the probe. She quickly put it all back in her pack and zipped it up. She replaced the chart back up on the wall and moved to the back of the lab where the clones were stored in suspension.

She pulled the power supply portion of the high voltage apparatus back out of her backpack and attached a different probe. She went to her work area and retrieved a long hypo needle in a sterile pack from a drawer below the work table. She quickly removed it from the packaging discarding the plunger into her back pack. She inserted a probe that Toby had made earlier in the maintenance room. It had a stiff wire with a small nail connected to it that reached down into the syringe making contact with the top of the metal needle from inside the barrel.

She went to the first clone and carefully inserted the needle into the brain cavity near to the implanted chip. Once in, she connected the high voltage supply and turned it on just like before in the cooler. She hated to do it but she knew that this little clone would never wake up and never have to experience horrible pain at the hands of Cyrus.

The clone's body was twitching slightly as the electrical current was flowing through the brain and undoubtedly the chip as well. The chip or the brain or likely both should sustain enough damage from this electrical current flowing that the clone should never wake up and never be of any use to Cyrus. She checked her watch for the ten-second mark, any longer and there might be noticeable tissue burning and damage that might be noticed during an autopsy.

She quickly moved the apparatus to the second clone and repeated the procedure. She moved along to each of them one by one. Down the hall Toby heard footsteps again, but this time they were different. They didn't sound like a big man, but instead more like a woman walking in heels with short strides that made clicks on the cement floor. "What female guard had he seen that wore heels?"   
"None" was the answer to that question. The steps were growing louder and they were coming that way for sure.

As he turned and began making his way towards the lab it dawned on him who it had to be, it was Glitch! Damn, not good, glitch was a little runt and Toby knew he could kick his ass but that would cause a full scale investigation. Why in the world the little weirdo wore those little pointy toed boots was beyond anyone's best guess, but right now Toby was glad he wore those instead of something quiet.

Glitch was smart, he wasn't like the Guards, most of whom were a little dense, or they just didn't care all that much to begin with. Glitch would call for back up immediately if he suspected anyone was messing around in the labs at this hour. If he made that call there would be a dozen guards down there and even slipping out through the computer labs would be difficult.

Toby slipped off his shoes very quickly so that he could run to the lab in his sock feet and not be heard. He got there fast and found Alice just beginning to work on the fifth and last clone. He came rushing in and just about scared her to death. She clutched her chest with both hands.

"Oh my god Toby, you scared me so bad!" She whispered.

"We have to go NOW!" Toby whispered, "Glitch is heading to the labs, I heard his pointy toed shoes clicking down the corridor."  
"Oh shit! We gotta get out of here fast," said Alice.  
"I'll get the i-phone off the wall." Toby said in a panicked whisper.

"Quick, give me that high voltage generator!" Alice removed it from the clone and handed it to Toby while jamming the rest of her stuff into her bag.  
"Just go out through the restroom and slip away. I'll take care of the camera and I'll be right behind you but you gotta go now. I don't want us to get caught together." She started to argue with him but realized he was right, they had to separate.

As Toby headed to the front of the lab Alice grabbed her back pack and quickly went to the back where she slipped into the women's restroom. She went out the other side and began making her way through the computer labs looking for a safe exit. Toby felt his heart racing, it was as if he couldn't move fast enough, like in one of those dreams where you're trying to run away from someone but you can't get any traction with your feet. He tried to stay calm, he knew he had about twenty seconds before Glitch got to the lab and he knew you could accomplish a lot in twenty seconds if you just stayed focused. He jumped up on the stool and stuck the high voltage probe into an air vent in the side of the camera and turned it on. Sparks began flying around inside the casing. As he held the probe with one hand, and the battery in his mouth, he reached over and yanked the i-phone, projector, and all, right off the wall and put it under his arm. He removed the probe, spun the camera around away from the wall, jumped off the stool, grabbed his shoes, kicked the stool under the desk and took off towards the women's restroom at the back of the lab. He was quite certain the high voltage took out the camera so no one could have seen him dashing to the back.

Just as he was stuffing his shoes and the equipment into his bag, he heard the door to the lab swing open. He very quietly opened the door to the women's restroom, just far enough to slip in and let it come to very softly so as not to make a sound. Now still in socked feet, he went out through the other side of the women's restroom into the computer labs. He knew he only had a few minutes to get out of there because the toasted camera had put out a good bit of smoke that Glitch would notice almost immediately.

He was pretty sure Glitch would insist on that camera being replaced tonight and there would be about five or six guys down there poking around in less than five minutes. He made his way almost all the way across the compound towards the dorms when he realized he still didn't have his shoes on. He had the bag too, and really didn't want to get caught with the stuff in it. He was fairly close to the dorms when he noticed some shadows moving along towards the end of the corridor and he figured some guards must have been told to do a walk through. On the other hand, it might only be the tech guys coming down to replace the camera, but either way he didn't want to be seen. No doubt Glitch was suspicious about the camera and anyone out of their rooms at this hour after such an event would be questioned and searched. He made a decision, he would head for the old maintenance room.

He made his way along the dark corridor until he almost couldn't see anymore. He stopped and removed his shoes from the bag and put them on. He would rather not go into that dark dirty old maintenance room in sock feet. He made his way on down to the end of the hall and down the narrow stairs. He waited for several minutes at the bottom for his eyes to adjust. He got into the bag and retrieved the i-phone, it had a great flashlight function on it so he turned it on and used it to locate the light switch string over the bench. He found it and gave it a yank.

The whole room lit up with the light from the old LED lamp. "Solas Ray to the rescue again." He figured he could stay down there until morning. No one ever came down there and it wasn't likely anyone would check there during a fairly routine security sweep. It was nearly 2:00 a.m. now, he only had about 5 hours to get through until the common areas would begin to fill up with people. After that he could easily slip to his dorm room and get cleaned up. He had to leave with Todd in the morning to return to the house.

He began looking around trying to see if there was a spot where he could get comfortable and maybe take a nap. It was damp down there and a little chilly but he was dressed fairly warm. He found an old desk chair that leaned way back and was pretty comfortable. He put his feet up on the table, crossed his arms and fell asleep. He woke up about once an hour because he wasn't very comfortable and he kept hearing noises in the pipes overhead. He didn't think any of those old pipes were still being used but sounds were traveling along them none the less. He woke up again at 6:45 a.m. and he just couldn't wait any longer. The cold had finally soaked into him and he was really feeling tired and hungry now.

He took the voltage probe and the i-phone out of his bag and stuck them in the back of the bottom drawer in the old rusty tool box. He noticed for the first time then that there was a water line on the side of it up about two feet. That must be why the old maintenance room was abandoned, it had a flooding problem. Oh well, it was dry enough to do what he needed for now. He turned off the light without looking up at it to preserve his night vision and then he stood there for about three minutes to let his eyes adjust. He made his way up and out to the end of the long narrow corridor.

He waited about ten feet back of the end of the corridor where it came out int0 the foundry floor area. There were a few people milling around down there sipping on coffee and a few here and there reading digipapers. It was the closest thing these people had to a court yard and many of them used it as just that every morning.

He didn't want anyone seeing him exiting from the corridor so he waited for just the right moment. He saw his opportunity and he walked out swiftly moving along the wall and then down along the ovens towards the stairs. He made good time and got safely to his room. Inside he quickly started the shower and undressed. He was looking forward to washing off the mustiness of the damp maintenance room. The water was usually quite hot and even though it never lasted as long as he would like, it would warm him up for sure. As he showered he wondered if Alice got in okay. He was quite confident that she would have because she got a much earlier start than he did and he nearly made it himself.

He dried off and got dressed as fast as he could. He knew Todd would be knocking on his door any minute and didn't want to leave with him until he laid eyes on Alice. He was beginning to have serious feelings for her and he just had to make sure she was okay before he left for the house on the outside.

He grabbed his overnight bag and took the remaining items out from the night before and replaced them with his clothing for the trip to the house. He quickly jotted a note on a sticky pad and slapped it on the door on the way out, it read. "Went down to kitchen." When he first met Todd he wouldn't have dared to do something like that, but now that they had gotten to know each other a little better, he felt that Todd would probably still question him but not report it.

He walked just as fast as he could to the kitchen. Sure enough Alice was there, she looked upset and she was looking around nervously until she spotted him. He smiled and he saw the look of relief on her face. No doubt she was tossing and turning all night wondering if he made it out. He went right over and sat down with her.  
"Oh my goodness," she said, "I'm so glad to see you." She kissed him on the cheek when no one was looking.

"I was so worried," he said.  
"Me too, I thought that Glitch caught you, I laid awake all night in my bed staring at the ceiling and crying thinking that this morning they would have you down on the foundry floor to do God knows what to you."  
"So what did you do about the camera?" She asked.  
"I jammed the high voltage probe into it and turned it on, I figured that would fry it pretty good. I yanked the i-phone down, kicked the stool under the desk and went to the back hall by the restroom. I was stuffing everything in my bag when I heard Glitch come in the lab door. I heard his shoes start clicking around in the lab but I didn't stick around, I slipped out through the women's restroom as quiet as a church mouse and cruised on out through the PC labs. I was making good time towards my room when I noticed some shadows moving up the hall towards the foundry floor area. I figured Glitch had called for a security sweep. I was a sitting duck all alone in the middle of the oven area holding that bag full of goodies in just my socks. I slipped into the corridor behind the ovens and put my shoes back on and went down to the old maintenance room for the night."

"Oh my god, you stayed in that dark creepy little room all night, that gives me the heebie jeebies."  
"Well I didn't have much choice, otherwise they would have caught me and searched my bag and I still had the probe and the i-phone and some hand tools in there. I would have been dead meat for sure. So anyway, I got through the night with only a few spider bites, do you think you got everything done on the clones that you needed to?"

"Well I'm not sure, the fifth clone only got about five seconds of juice before you came running in and scared me to death. The chips in the locked cooler are toast for sure, I zapped them really good. I'm not so confident about the clones though, especially number five. Maybe by the time Cyrus gets to number five, he will just give up and assume that they are all brain dead and not even try number five."

"Well let's hope so, we don't need Cyrus getting information out of Dodge, we need the element of surprise on our side when the team decides to make their strike. I'll be leaving here any minute, that is, just as soon as Todd finds me. I left him a note on my door, I hope he doesn't get too angry about my not being there in my room. When I get back to the house, I'm sure they'll send me back to the Kerrington's to snoop around some more. While I'm at the Kerrington's I'll update them on everything you and I have done in here the last couple of days. I think Dodge and John will be pleased. Oh, here comes Todd."

Toby had spotted him but Todd had not seen him yet and was still looking around as he stepped into the kitchen area. Toby gave Alice a real quick kiss, and smiled at her as he got up, he grabbed his egg sandwich and headed towards Todd.  
"Hey Todd" he said, smiling as he walked toward him.

"Sorry about the note Todd, I was starving and my clothes were still damp this morning. I had to wait a few minutes to get them dry enough to put on and that ran me late getting breakfast."

Todd didn't seem to upset but he hadn't really looked at Toby yet he was looking at Alice and a little grin had begun to form on his face. Toby didn't know it but Todd saw the two of them together just as Toby was getting up, and he was quite sure he caught the tail end, of what looked like a quick kiss. Just then Todd returned a little hello wave to Alice who had realized she was discovered and there would be no secret now about their relationship, they were busted.

Todd's small smile had morphed into a big smile and as they turned to walk away, Todd slapped Toby on the back.

"You dog! I saw the whole thing bro, just what have you been up too! Huh? Come on, wet clothes my ass, you've been cavorting with that little female up in here man, you're busted." Todd shoved Toby sideways with one hand as they walked along and Toby shoved him back.

"Come on man, cut me some slack, you're cool with this right? You're not gonna? . . ." Todd interrupted, "No way man, I wouldn't do that to you, in fact I'm kind of starting to like you Tobe, you're okay. I just thought you were an old fuddy duddy in a kids body and you were gonna be nothing but trouble, but you're actually pretty cool for an old dude."

Toby snorted out a laugh.

"Well I don't feel old, in fact until you brought it up, I sort of forgot that I wasn't just a kid, damn hormones, I guess."

Todd smiled.

"Yeah that must be kinda messed up, having to go through that crap again huh?"  
"Yeah it's messed up, but it's a lot easier the second time let me tell ya!"

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

"So is Tobe my new nick name now?"

"Yeah maybe, we'll see if it sticks."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todd looked at him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheyenne and Toby both started laughing.

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

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

"No, come back, come on, I'll leave it alone," then she laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few minutes later Bobby came back downstairs.  
"I asked Mom and she said it was fine, we don't have any plans so I'll call Toby, what time can he come over?" Dodge was reading the digipaper now and just answered out from behind it.

"Oh just whenever, see if they can drop him off and if not we'll go get him I guess."

Dodge was doing his best to act a little annoyed with it all just to seem like a normal parent that believed his kid's friends were coming over too often.  
"Thanks Dad" Bobby ran back upstairs as he called Toby. He told Toby what his Dad had said.

"Okay, I'll have my parents bring me over in about an hour." As soon as they ended the call Toby hopped up off his bed and went downstairs.

"Hey guys, I've been invited over to the Kerrington's again so I'll be able to snoop around more, any orders from Cyrus or Glitch about what I should be looking for?" Todd seemed impressed by his desire to do a good job.  
"Well, I did speak with Glitch this morning when I picked up your phone. He wants you to snoop around a bit in Dodge's files if you get the opportunity and specifically look for anything to do with John Calhoun, Dodge's friend. He seemed suspicious that John might be up to something."

Of course Toby knew that they were up to plenty and if Todd only knew what was coming he would be in an all out panic. But for now Toby had to keep it to himself.  
"Okay" Toby replied, "I'll see what I can dig up." Cheyenne got up and started putting on her shoes.  
"Where do you think you're goin?" asked Todd.  
"Well I thought I should take him over there, after all I am his mother and I need to meet Bobby's mother, you can't expect his parents to believe that we're Toby's parents if we don't act like parents."

Toby liked to sit there and watch the two of them spar, if he didn't know better he would swear they were really married. Cheyenne had ole Todd on the ropes pretty good with that argument.  
"Well what cha gonna drive smarty pants? I have the key to the van." Cheyenne whipped out a key fob and started dangling it in Todd's face and laughing.

"I gotta car, I gotta car," she chanted as she did a little dance.

"And it's out front," she said, as she continued to tease Todd with the key.

"What! When did this happen?"  
"It arrived this morning and the driver had a note for me. It said that I was doing a good job as a wife and mother and that I needed transportation to complete the part." Todd went to the window and looked out in the drive.  
"Man, I can't believe they got you nicer wheels than mine, unbelievable!"

They all went out to take a look. It was no BMW, but it was a respectable clean used Cadillac convertible, not bad. Todd felt diminished by the whole thing, after all he had been working for Cyrus twice as long as Cheyenne and all he had was an old van to drive.  
"Oh well" he thought, at least he would have his freedom someday and then he would have big money and he could get a brand new car and a brand new life.

"So, see Todd, I'm anxious to drive this thing and I need to meet Linsey, you know, to show that I'm a good concerned parent. A mother needs to know whom her teenage son is spending all of his time with."  
"All right, jeeze, take him over there, I can't blame you for wanting to drive it."  
"When I get back we'll go out and you can drive it" Cheyenne said.  
"All right, that sounds like fun," said Todd.  
"See ya squirt" Todd said as he rubbed Toby's head on the way back up the steps. Toby wanted to deck him for that but the neighbors were watching so he just acted stupid.

"Awe gee, thanks Dad, Love you Dad, can I have a hug?" Todd laughed but didn't even turn around.

"Go with your Mother and behave young man, I'll see you tomorrow."  
"Okay Dad, thanks, I'll be good!"

Toby knew that calling him Dad probably cut right through Todd like a knife so whenever Todd gave him a hard time he would call him Dad for fun. Toby grabbed his overnight bag and hopped into the caddy. Cheyenne was already behind the wheel fiddling with the radio trying to figure out all the fancy functions. She pushed the top down button and it retracted neatly into the trunk with the lid closing smoothly behind it.

"Wow, pretty cool, I like it." He could tell Cheyenne was really enjoying the opportunity to drive a car again. As they pulled away he wanted to tell Cheyenne everything about the night before but he feared this new car might be wired for sound and it would be best if they waited until he knew for sure it was safe. As they drove along they enjoyed the sound system and the sunshine, it was perfect convertible weather.

Toby told her that Alice wanted to see her and that she should go to the compound for a visit.  
"Oh, yeah, Romeo, so how's that going?" Toby still worried about being monitored just shrugged his shoulders. We're taking it slow, you know we both have our jobs to do and it's not like we can be alone at the compound anyway, it's probably best that we just remain friends."

Cheyenne could sense that he was holding back and caught onto the idea that Toby was being careful about what he said in the car.  
"All right, I'll probably go over there tomorrow with Todd and I'll drop in on her to cheer her up a bit. She's stuck inside all the time so she's probably a little depressed."  
"Yeah, that's a good idea" Toby said, and then he began fiddling with the radio.

Just before they arrived at the Kerrington's Toby said "I'll do my best to get info on John Calhoun for Cyrus. If you see Cyrus or Glitch, tell them they can count on me I'm their man, I'll get them what they need. So what are you going to say to Linsey?  
"Oh you know, the usual Mom stuff, like, oh look at the boys together, they're such good friends!"

Toby rolled his eyes and stuck his finger in his mouth like he was gagging himself so he could puke.  
"Oh jeeze, stop you're making me sick," he said.  
"Well I don't know, I guess I'll just let the conversation lead and I'll do my best and I won't stay too long okay?"  
"Yeah that sounds pretty good," said Toby.

When they arrived, Bobby was outside shooting some basketball in back by the garage. He didn't recognize the car so he started walking towards the front to see who it was. Toby jumped out then Bobby recognized him and motioned him back to the basketball goal. Cheyenne walked back by the basketball goal and asked if Bobby's mother was home.  
"Oh sure, I'll go get her for you." Bobby ran inside.

"Mo-om," he hollered just inside the kitchen door. "Mrs. Lansing is here to see you."

Linsey hollered back.  
"Who?"  
"Toby's Mom, you know, Mrs. Lansing?"  
"Oh right, I'll be right down, show her in."  
"Okay," he said, as he ran back out.

Toby had Cheyenne attempting to shoot some free throws.  
"Hey Mrs. Lansing, my Mom said to come on in there to the kitchen, she'll be right down." Toby had wanted to tell her in the car that the Kerrington's knew everything that was going on but he couldn't take the risk of the car being wired. He was trying to think of something, ah yes, he would fake an injury and ask for Cheyenne to come into the bathroom with him to take a look.

The bathrooms were safe zones, no cameras and no sound because it was actually their security system that Cyrus was using to monitor them. He had to fake it even for Bobby, he would just tell him later. When he made his next shot he grabbed his eye.

"Oh man, shoot, I got something in my eye." Bobby came over.

"Let me see. No I don't see anything in there."  
"Crap, it really hurts, I'd better go inside and look at it in the bathroom mirror, maybe wash it out, I'll be back in a minute."  
"All right." Bobby kept shooting around while Toby went inside with his hand over his eye.

Just inside the kitchen Cheyenne and Linsey were having a nice chat at the kitchen table.  
"What is it Toby?" Cheyenne asked.  
"Oh, I just got something in my eye and it's really bothering me. Can you come in here and take a look?" Cheyenne followed him into the bathroom just off the hall behind the kitchen. He pulled her inside and closed the door most of the way.

He took his hand down and said, "I don't have much time so here it is. I didn't want to talk in the car cause it might be wired. The Kerrington's know everything, they know the house is wired, they know they're being watched, they're going to help us take out Cyrus and free us all. I'm really trusting you here so you have to go with me on this. Me and Alice did some crazy stuff at the compound last night. We sabotaged Cyrus's clones of Dodge and if anyone finds out we're dead. Dodge and John have a plan to bring the whole thing down. Their entire families are in on it, if you tell we're all dead! I can trust you right? Are you in?"

Cheyenne's mouth was hanging open, she didn't know what to say.  
"Well?" Toby insisted, "What's it going to be? You gonna throw this entire family under the bus along with me and your best friend Alice?"  
"No, no! Of course not! I'm in, I'm just in shock."  
"All right, well I know for sure that Linsey's car is safe to talk in. If you can get in her car you will be okay to talk but leave your phone in your car. Pretend you need to get something out of your car and then dump the phone in the seat. Don't take any other objects with you that have been given to you by Glitch or anyone else at the compound, oh crap, you don't have your phone in here do you?"  
"No, I left it in my purse on the table out there."  
"Oh, phew, good, thank God, in fact before you say too much, have Linsey to scan you, your purse might be bugged, you can't be too careful. Tell her that you're in and that I told you that it was safe to talk to her, she will tell you everything else that you need to know. All right, let's go, we've been in here too long."

They both walked back out into the kitchen.  
"Oh, good" Linsey said, "Looks like the eye is okay."  
"Yes it's fine, I just got some dirt in it. Thanks Mom, I'm going back out with Bobby." He ran out the back door. "Yes! Mission accomplished."

While the ladies continued to talk, Cheyenne was plotting and listening trying to find a good place to inject the idea of going for a ride together.  
"Hey," Linsey said, "Did you see that O'Hare's in the mall is going out of business, they're having a 50% off sale today and tomorrow only. We should go."  
"I would love to, let's go, it'll be so much fun. I've been so busy working and taking Toby to all of his activities, between that and house work, I haven't had any me time. It would be great to go do something like that and you're the first person I've really connected with since moving here from Michigan."

"All right, let's go" Linsey said.  
"I'll call Dodge and let him know the boys and Sarah are here, he should be heading home from work in the next hour, the kids should be fine." They both got up and headed out to the back, and Linsey offered to drive.  
"I'll just move my car up out of the way" said Cheyenne. She hopped in and slipped her phone out of her purse and under her onto the seat, she pulled the car forward and got out. Linsey stuck her head out the van window.

"Hey boys, Cheyenne and I are going to a sale at the mall. Bobby, your father will be here soon don't go anywhere, your sister is inside, if you need anything call my sky."  
"Okay, bye." The boys were both having a good time shooting hoops and only paused long enough for a quick wave. Toby knew that this was the perfect opportunity for Cheyenne to connect with Linsey and he hoped that she would take advantage of it. The moment they left the driveway they began chatting about the sale. Cheyenne opened her purse and wrote a little note on a receipt she had and handed it to Linsey. It read, "Keep talking and scan me for bugs?" Linsey continued to drive and talk as she reached into the center console and pulled out the little scanner John had given them to check their cars. She turned it on and handed it to Cheyenne. Cheyenne began moving it all around herself and her purse and the general area.  
"You're clean," Linsey said, it would've gone off right away if you had anything on you, it's very sensitive. So how much do you know?"

"Well not too much, I just know that you know, Toby just told me as much as he could in the bathroom back there, he didn't really have anything in his eye."

"So he was talking to you in there about this?"  
"Yes, he told me all about you guys trying to take out Cyrus. I want out of this thing too. If there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it. I don't want to die and I have that same charge in my brain that Toby has. He told me about Dodge's clone and how they're loading him up to get information out of him.

"Tell your friends not to worry Cheyenne, our team hacked the LifeTech database. There's a program running that reloads the same lifefile every night onto the LifeTech server. This file is an old one, back before Dodge knew what was going on entirely with the cloning program. It's old enough that it will be useless to Cyrus. The clones he's creating and torturing, don't really have the answers he's after."

"So did my friends risk their lives for nothing last night?"  
"No of course not, they did a good thing, the longer they can stall Cyrus from realizing that we're a step ahead of him, the longer we'll all live and the more likely we'll succeed in taking him down. If Cyrus does get another clone of Dodge loaded up successfully, at some point he's going to discover that the file is old and that he has been deceived. Once he knows his cover is blown, he'll go crazy scuttling the entire operation. We don't want that. So no, your friends aren't wasting their time, they did a very brave thing that bought all of us more time."

Linsey considered telling her about the virus that Toby had already carried back to Glitch on the microdrive, but decided to hold back on that one, it was still too soon to trust her completely. They went on talking as they headed to the store, it really was a good sale.

On the way back they talked more and Linsey reassured her that John and Dodge were doing everything they could to resolve the whole thing as quickly as possible. Linsey didn't mention the farm or the clones they had there, it was too risky, Cheyenne could be discovered and tortured into telling these things.  
"What about this guy Todd, is he on board with this?"  
"No, not yet, Toby and I are gradually working on him and he does seem to be coming around."

As they arrived back at the house Cheyenne asked, "Can I have this scanner?"  
"Sure, I can get another one from John, just don't get caught with it! If you think you might, then destroy it somehow, okay?"  
"Sure I can do that, and don't worry, I'll be very careful, my life depends on it, if I get caught with anything like this that they don't recognize, I'm dead."

She slipped the scanner into her purse with intentions of using it later on her phone and around the house.  
"Be careful, there could even be cameras, and if that's the case you will have to do your checking in a very subtle way. You might try just walking around with it in your pocket first to see if it goes off anywhere in the house. It has a switch on one end, you can select light or beep for the indicator, that's it."

They pulled into the drive only to discover that the boys had gone inside and left the basketballs in the way, typical for teenage boys. Linsey parked outside and they both went in. Cheyenne said goodbye to Toby and told him to behave and be a gracious house guest.

All the way back to the house she blasted the radio and enjoyed the top down weather. Even amidst all this pleasant much needed distraction, thoughts of her messed up life of servitude to Cyrus Slade were brewing in the back of her mind. She had to figure a way to talk to Todd, she had to convince him somehow that Cyrus would never deliver on his promise of freedom, even for those that put in their time. There was simply no way he would let anyone go, they could grow a conscience or a sense of civic duty, and decide to come forward to testify against him later. She didn't know how or when but she knew that at some point she would have to talk to him about it.

When she arrived at the house, Todd was on the front porch drinking a glass of iced tea reading the sports section of the daily-digital. Cheyenne got out of the car carrying several bags of clothing that she had bought at O'Hare's. Todd was flabbergasted.

"How did you get money to go shopping?" She grinned.

"Came with the car."  
"No way, are you serious?"  
"Yes, the driver handed me a sealed envelope when he delivered the car this morning. I opened it and there was a note inside. It said to get whatever you need to play the part, get close to Linsey, report to Glitch."

"Unbelievable! I have never been given cash money for anything. That is plain nuts."  
"Oh well, what say we go for a spin in the caddy? You can drive just like I promised."  
"Hey that does sound like fun, I'll get my shoes and put on a clean shirt. God I still can't believe they gave you cash, jeeze!"

Todd was still muttering about the money as he went inside to get ready. Cheyenne laughed and went back down to the caddy with the scanner. She wanted to know if the car was safe to talk in. She wrapped the scanner up in a towel and turned it on so that it would beep if it detected anything. She turned the radio on to mask the sound in case it went off. She began wiping the interior down as if doing a quick once over dusting job. It let out a little beep when she got near the rear view mirror. She went over the whole interior just to be sure there weren't any more of them.

She slipped the scanner back into her purse with the cloth and then sat in the driver's seat and began fiddling with the side mirror adjustment and the seat adjustments like she just couldn't quite get it right. Then she began adjusting the rearview cam mirror, she could see the wires going to it from the top of the windshield and there was a little plug there. She reached up as if to adjust it one final time and got a real good grip on it. Then she acted as if she had something in her teeth and was leaning forward to inspect her mouth more closely, but in reality she was pulling herself forward with her full weight on the mirror. It broke off and she let out a little scream and dropped it. It was dangling from the wires. She leaned back in the seat and covered her face with both of her hands and said.

"Oh my god, I broke the damn mirror off. Shit, they're gonna kill me!"

In her mind she was laughing but on the outside she had tears running down her face. Her plan worked, the mirror snapped off and when Todd got in he would either insist on fixing it or removing it for now. That was her plan, removing it for now. Once the wires were disconnected she was quite sure the thing would be dead and they would have their privacy.

She got out of the driver's seat just as Todd came bounding down the front steps to the drive. She still had some tears running down her face.  
"What's wrong?"  
"You're not going to believe what I did, go look at the mirror." They both got in the car and Todd saw the mirror dangling by the wires.  
"How the hell did you break the mirror off!"  
"Well I was adjusting everything you know and then I was looking at my makeup and I leaned forward a little and it just snapped off, it just wasn't on there very good."  
"Jeeze! That's like probably a $500 mirror, look, it's even got the rear view and side cams built in and everything, now what?"  
"I don't know I was hoping you could fix it or something."

Todd leaned forward and turned his head sideways trying to look up behind the mounting bracket.

"Nope," he said, "this thing is toast. Maybe some real good epoxy of some kind, but it's not gonna get fixed tonight."  
"Well can you tape it up or something so it's not swinging around?"  
"Yeah I had better do something with it, otherwise it might break the windshield or damage these wires it's hanging from. Ah, he said, I see a little plug here, we can just unplug it for now and I'll see if I can fix it up later in the house."

"Oh, okay, I'm really sorry, it was an accident, you know it just broke so easily." Todd looked at her and shook his head.

"Remind me to never loan you my new car if I'm ever lucky enough to get one." He pulled a pocket knife out and pried the locking tab back on the small electrical plug, unplugged the wires and handed her the mirror.

"Here put this is the glove box. Now let's take this baby out for a spin. For god's sake, stop crying, people are going to think I'm a huge dick or something and I made you cry."  
"Oh, sorry, I'll fix my makeup while you drive." Todd smirked.

"If you use the mirror on the back of the visor, try not to snap it off, okay?" She started laughing.

"Don't make me laugh, I can't fix my face if I'm laughing."

As Todd backed out she reached into her purse and got the little scanner in the cloth. She pretended to wipe off the visor mirror so she could use it but she was really checking to see if her little plot had killed the bug. Sure enough, nothing was detected in that area. She laid the cloth alongside the mirror in her lap, dead as can be. Ha, one point for her, zero for Glitch. She opened the glove box and tossed the mirror in and shut it.  
"Goodbye Cyrus, tonight is mine, free at last!"

Todd was really enjoying the caddy, they took it out on the highway and he opened it up. It was no GTO but it did have plenty of zip for an electric car. It was no slouch in the handling department either, it had the really good silicon airless tires and the high tech electromagnetic suspension. Cheyenne seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as he was. Todd was glad to see she wasn't frightened by the speed, he was afraid she might complain and insist that he slow down but when he looked over at her she was smiling with her hand out the window sailing it up and down in the wind. After a few minutes of enjoying the speed he slowed down, he didn't want to get pulled over and ruin his reputation with Cyrus, everyone was expected to fly under the radar.

Back at the compound a young lady had summoned Glitch to her workstation. She was a watcher. Her job was to watch the person she was assigned to until further notice.

Glitch had about twenty such people in a large room adjacent to his offices. Their jobs were simple, watch the watchers, watch the errand boys, watch whatever or whomever we tell you to watch and watch them for as long as we say. If you see anything unusual or anything that you believe would be of special interest to the boss then you summon Glitch.

Glitch had seen the light come on for cubicle number 14.  
"Odd" Number 14 had never called him for anything before, must be something good. He was beginning to think that she had her own private plan to NEVER call him for ANYTHING no matter what.

He got up and walked out of his office and over to the large common area and then to cubicle 14, he didn't know their names just their cubicle numbers.

"Yes 14 what is it?"  
"Well Sir, sorry to bother you but I thought you should see this. We had eyes and ears in the caddy at the Lansing house but it has been disabled."  
"Really, was it intentional?"  
"Oh, no, I don't think so Sir, here, I'll run a playback, it's self explanatory."

She played the video of Cheyenne breaking the mirror off and then you could see Todd getting in the car and the whole thing playing out. It goes to static when Todd unplugs the mirror unit from the car. Glitch stood there and rubbed his chin for a moment.  
"Thank you 14. Let me know if Todd is successful in repairing the unit. If it's not back on by tomorrow afternoon please inform me."  
"Yes Sir, I will."  
"In the mean time continue to monitor them by any other means available."

Glitch walked quietly back to his office not thinking too much about it. He had seen equipment failures many times in the past. Besides Toby was right where Glitch wanted him to be and they had plenty of eyes and ears on him at the Kerrington house. What Todd and Cheyenne were doing in their spare time was of no concern to Glitch, he just didn't care.

Chapter 25 A few miles away in his lab, John labored all day digging into every detail of the lives of each person on the list. He, like Dodge, was angry, he felt belittled by Cyrus for what he had done to help ESS. It made him sick to think that any part of their phenomenal accomplishments could be attributed to the evil doings of Cyrus Slade. Unfortunately as the day went on he discovered more mounting evidence that proved Slade and his associates were indeed instrumental in aiding ESS with the acquisition of several very large government research grants.

Cyrus and several individuals in high places, even some in the president's staff, were involved. Cyrus had used the most powerful tool in the history of human existence, "Greed." Money talks and Cyrus had obtained plenty of talking power. He had robbed countless billionaires of their fortunes by hijacking their minds and causing them to freely give him their money. He took that money and invested heavily in hedge funds and investment strategies that had gained some influence over individuals and even entire corporations in one way or another. Inside trading, illegal gambling, corporate takeovers and it all added up now to over ten trillion dollars in net worth. Cyrus could buy and sell politicians, and just about anyone else, all day long. He was closer to reaching his goals than John would have predicted just a few days ago. He had influence in several ways over the President of the United States. If he gained complete control of this office, his momentum would be quite difficult to stop.

John was especially concerned now because he had found connections to people within the pentagon. The head of the Black Ops team and several of their members had ties to the pentagon in one way or another. He worried that there could be a mole in their midst. Or maybe a friend of a friend and word could leak out to the wrong ears and get back to Cyrus.

John had a program running now called "3 degrees." It was a software suite that he developed while at RockTight Security. It was never released outside of RockTight and the project was scuttled for budgetary reasons prior to completion. John finished it on his own time at home and never shared it with anyone. It was truly one of his greatest accomplishments yet it remained his secret.

It took years to develop and it was based on some original work that a team started many years ago under the guidance of a rouge Microsoft engineer, it was never completed by that team either. It used a unique algorithm that could find and exploit unusual connections between individuals based on all kinds of personal patterns, phone calls, traveling habits, eating habits, right down to the kind of coffee you drank or your favorite toothpaste flavor, almost anything you could think of.

You would simply enter two or more names into the program and between one and ten key words and then start it. The program would create long lists of names and words and then it would keep rearranging the names and words over and over again hundreds of thousands of times until it had made a connection somehow between the two people using the key words you provided at the start. Sometimes it would spit out useless information but if it did you could simply try again.

It sounds silly when someone tries to explain it, but when you see it working it makes sense. He had ran it several times now and he had recognized two of the names on one of the resulting list from door placards at the pentagon. He remembered the names from when he worked there on the security project years ago.

John had a near photographic memory. He remembered the unusual last name of Jamblauski from the office door nearest to the elevator going down to the basement there in the Pentagon. A bottleneck would form at the small elevators on days when they had a lot of meetings in the conference rooms down there. A short line would form just outside the elevators so people would mill around there for a few minutes and socialize while they waited.

He remembered it because several times when he was stuck there, he would look at the door placard and try to pronounce it in his head. It was quite unforgettable really, it was probably nothing but he would certainly check into it in more depth tomorrow. He had been working for many hours and his eyes were burning, it was time for a break.

Back in the caddy Todd and Cheyenne were still enjoying the night air. Todd had started heading back to the house when Cheyenne noticed.

"Hey, where are you going?"  
"Well I thought we should get back."  
"No, come on," Cheyenne said, "I still have almost two hundred dollars, we could go get dinner and catch a movie."  
"What? How much money did you get in that envelope?"  
"Well only three hundred but the store we went to was having a going out of business sale. Linsey had a frequent shopper card with a bunch of points on it, she gave me her points, so I ended up getting eighty percent off my clothes. I got what I needed and we have enough left over for a night on the town." Todd looked concerned.  
"Hey I know what you're thinking, but listen, I have it on good authority that the only eyes and ears on us tonight were in that mirror that I broke. When you removed it from the wire up there we got unleashed!"  
"How in the world could you possibly know that?"  
"Well let's just say I have a friend on the inside that works on the cars, and that friend told me about the mirror."  
"So you broke the mirror on purpose?"  
"No, of course not. But once it was in the glove box I just felt, I don't know, liberated I guess. Like I haven't felt in a long time."  
"Yeah, I guess I kind of feel it too now that you've told me. So, you're sure we're off the map right now?"  
"Well we're probably not completely off the map, I'm sure they still have GPS on us but I don't think they're gonna pop our heads or anything. They need us right now to keep Toby on the inside at the Kerrington's, they're not gonna risk losing that mole by knocking off his fake parents."

Todd thought about it for a minute.

"All right, let's go get a big juicy steak!" They drove around for a bit and picked out a nice steak house. They had a big dinner with all the trimmings sparing no expense, after all, it was on Slade. After stuffing themselves near to the point of misery, they went to a nearby movie theater where they decided to see the latest James Bond movie, "Dying to Live." It was action packed and in tune with the Bond tradition, complete with fast cars, plenty of guns, a super bad villain, and of course a beautiful woman. The title and theme were right in line with the new era of potential immortality and the villain was attempting to control it all just like Slade. As always Bond overcame all obstacles and got the girl at the end.

They had a great time and came out smiling, laughing and acting like kids. They drove home talking about how good the food was and their favorite parts of the movie. When they got to the house it was getting pretty late and even though they had fun, they still didn't spend all the money.

They made their way inside and turned on the TV to watch the news. Cheyenne headed to the kitchen.

"Hey you want a beer?" She yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, sounds good."

They started watching the news and got disgusted with the stupidity of the stories. There were a lot of important things going on in the world but the local news insisted on reporting things like, petty crimes and violence, or someone stole some downtown street signs again.

Todd turned it off and started talking to Cheyenne in a very personable way.

"So, what's the deal with your friend Alice and old man boy, they got something happening or what?" Todd was being unusually nice today so she figured this might be an inroad to connecting with him.  
"I don't have the full skinny but Alice made a comment that Toby said he was attracted to younger women and then Alice said she was attracted to older men so they made a good match."

Todd snorted.

"Yeah right, that's makes about no sense at all. He's like barely seventeen if that and She's what, maybe twenty-four or so?"  
"No, no, silly, you see on the inside Toby is like a total of seventy some years old and since Alice is just twenty something it works, see?"

"Mmm, no not really."

"He does have the body of a young man, which by the way doesn't hurt, but that is not what she really wants. You see there is no way she would be interested in any boy that age, it would just be weird, but see Toby is just trapped in that body."

Todd snorted again and almost shot beer out of his nose.

"Oh that's rich darling, now let's turn the tables. What if I was involved with a sixteen-year-old girl that was restored and I said, but no, no, it's not like that, she's actually a hundred years old, she's just a sweet old lady trapped in this firm smoking hot body of this teen age girl, it's totally okay right?"

"Ugh! Men are such pigs! You know, you guys are just pigs." Todd was laughing. "Yeah, I know, that's why Toby is thinking, Yes! I'm ancient and I'm gonna be having sex with these young women that are a fourth my age." He got up and went into the kitchen to get them both another beer.

"Come on," she said as he returned to the room, "Be serious, don't you see anything sweet in this situation?"  
"Well you know, I guess Tobe is kind of a special old dude. He does have something about him that makes him seem a lot more mature than any other sixteen-year-old guy that you're gonna meet. This new age of clones is gonna turn the dating scene upside down, let me tell you. They're going to have to change the laws too. You can't go around locking people up for having relationships with under aged people unless they are actually under aged."

"Wow," said Cheyenne, "I didn't know the Todd could have such a deep thought."  
"That is a pretty deep thought isn't it?"  
"Yeah, and you know, I'm glad we're talking like this, I've discovered the man behind the digipaper. He has feelings and thoughts just like everyone else."  
"Hey, come on, I just keep to myself because I'm trying to do a good job and I don't want to get distracted by relationships. My head not exploding kind of depends on it you know."  
"Well, I'll be right back Mr. work ethics, I want to get out of these jeans and into my sweat pants."  
"All right I'll meet you back here in five for more enlightening con-ver-say-she-own."

Cheyenne returned in a long cotton night shirt, cut off sweats and ankle socks, Todd came back in the most faded stained holey sweat pants that she had ever seen.  
"Wow, Todd, I think your sweats need Restoration" she said and laughed. "I think you need to rush them to the nearest life center while there is still time."  
"Okay, very funny, ha ha, ya know they're super comfortable like an old pair of sneakers or jeans and they have good luck. You know, I watch ball games while wearing these and when I do my team is more likely to win."  
"Oh my god, that is so stupid!"

Todd laughed.

"Okay, look the truth is I just like them and I'm a cheap ass okay.

So shoot me I like saving my money that's all."  
"Oh yeah what-cha savin for?"  
"Well," Todd got a serious look, then he took a big long drink of his beer. "I think I want a house of my own and I want to have a garage and in that garage I would like to spend my evenings restoring an old muscle car. Then when I get it all done, I'll drive around town in it looking cool with some pretty girl riding shotgun. She has to be a smart girl that knows all about cars and we'll talk about what might be wrong with it if it isn't running right and maybe what we could do to it next."

"Sounds good, maybe it'll come true."  
"Nah, not likely, it's more likely that I'll make a mistake somewhere in all this mess and old Slade will pop my number and it will be game over."

Cheyenne said "Hold that thought" and she jumped up and went into the kitchen to get some chips, she didn't know that Todd was coming in behind her a moment later to get a snack.

Just as she came back out with a plate full of chips and dip there Todd was with six empty beer bottles between his fingers. They ran right into each other and the chips went flying and the beer bottles were coming out from between his fingers and they were doing everything they could to not end up in a pile on the floor. They didn't go down but when the dancing stopped she had him pinned up against the wall in the little hallway with chip dip on his chest. Her feet were on the other side of the hall against the wall and the only thing keeping her from falling was the firm grip Todd had on both of her elbows. Both of their hearts were racing from the scare. There was broken glass all around her bare feet and even though her instincts told her to step forward, she couldn't without stepping in the glass.

"Don't move Todd said, I got ya" he had on his tennis shoes so he picked her up and headed for the sofa to set her down. She started laughing and so did he because it was such a mess. Todd's whole front was covered in dip and now she had it all over her too. He got her to the sofa and was about to set her down.  
"He was so big and strong. He whisked her right up into his arms like it was nothing."

She whispered, "Please don't." Todd halted half way down and then straightened back up.

"Please don't what? I was going to put you down?"  
"I know," she whispered, "please don't put me down."

He looked into her eyes and he saw something in there that he hadn't seen in a very long time, and then she kissed him. It was just a tiny kiss, not sloppy at all, just a gentle kiss on his bottom lip, but it was enough to make his IQ drop to a number somewhere between 10 and 20. He knew exactly what was going to happen next but he couldn't stop it even if he had wanted to. He carried her to her bed.

The next morning when she awoke she rolled over and Todd was gone. She could hear him downstairs doing something. She thought about what they had done. Her first thought was that it felt so good to be in his arms, she saw a side of him that she had never seen. She thought Todd was just a dumb jock, a real knuckle dragger, a guy who would pretty much ignore a woman's needs due to being the self-absorbed egomaniac type.

Boy was she wrong, he was a fantastic lover, totally open, a real listener. He knew everything she wanted to feel, and it took her by surprise. She never dreamed a guy like Todd could be so deep and so attentive. On the other hand she felt terrible guilt, like the adulteress who betrayed her husband's trust. She decided two years ago, when she realized what had been done to her, that she would be faithful to her husband no matter what. Now she had failed Vince, she had slept with another man. She always hoped that if she ever got out of this mess that they could be reunited and now she didn't know if he could ever forgive her. How could she even tell him something so horrific? Maybe it was knowing that he had found a new lover that made her weak. Most women would be angry over it and she was, but at Cyrus not Vince.

She knew that he believed her to be dead, it wasn't his fault, he was just lonely. She cried for at least five minutes but didn't really completely understand her own emotions. She concluded that it must be because she had held on for so long and now that she slept with Todd it was as if she finally accepted that her former life was gone.

She got up and went to the bathroom to wash her face and put her hair back in a pony. She headed downstairs to see what Todd was doing. When she entered the kitchen, Todd was taking a pan of scrambled eggs from the laserwave to the table. The table was set with plates and cups and he had poured two glasses of juice, cooked some bacon, and was about to come up to get her. He stopped moving when he saw her standing in the door.

"'Good Morning, do you want coffee?" He asked rather quietly.  
"Yes, thank you." He started pouring her a cup.

"Look, Todd . . ."  
"No don't," he interrupted, "don't say anything yet, I have something I want to say first, please sit down." They both sat down then he reached over and took her hand.  
"Just let me say what I want and don't say anything till I'm done, okay?" Cheyenne nodded in agreement.  
"What happened last night was wonderful . . . , but I know you're married to Vince and you still love him and probably always will, and ya know, I should have been more of a gentlemen and just put you in your bed and covered you up and got out of there, but, you . . . , you were just so beautiful in that moment, it just took my breath away and it's been so long since I uh . . . , but I'm not making excuses, I know what I did wasn't cool and anyway I just want you to know that I totally respect you and it won't happen again, I promise."

She looked at him and smiled while fighting back the tears in her eyes.  
"I started it you know, and I'm just as responsible if not more. It takes two to tango and I was way too willing. Look, it just happened, let's not beat ourselves up over it. Let's just forget about it and not talk about it anymore. Just so you know, there are two kinds of gentlemen, there are those that put you to bed and cover you up and leave you all alone in spite of your needs, and there are those that take you to bed and selflessly tend to your every desire, before getting up to fix you a wonderful breakfast the next morning, all the while, vowing to never tell anyone, not a soul."

He nodded in agreement then she squeezed his hand and they quietly ate their breakfast. As they sat in silence, now more than ever Cheyenne wondered about Todd's past, where was he from? What brought him to this place and these circumstances? He knew so much about her but she knew almost nothing about him. He was so quiet about his past that no one really knew him. She saw something in him last night and again this morning, something good, something different. She wondered if in time she might get to know him more. "Maybe it would be nice if it happened again."

At the compound Glitch was awakened by the intercom.

"Glitch, come to my office," Cyrus's voice had an urgency to it. Glitch had to peel his saggy face off the desk. He had fallen asleep while watching the camera feeds at the Kerrington's. He got nothing at all from them, and they were the most typical boring family on the planet. Glitch was convinced that Dodge was just an average engineer and family man with nothing really to offer their organization. Why Cyrus was so hell bent on getting him there without killing him off in the free world, was really beyond him.

Toby was just hanging out there and as far as Glitch could tell, he wasn't accomplishing much of anything by staying overnight there again to have fun with Bobby. What Glitch didn't know was that Toby had obtained more information from Dodge's PC. He didn't know because he had slept right through it while drooling on his desk. Glitch went down to the kitchen to get a cup of hot coffee before returning to the upper floor and entering Cyrus's office.  
"You rang Sir?" Glitch was the only person who dared to ignore Cyrus long enough to get a cup of coffee. Cyrus would kill most people for such a lack of respect but Glitch didn't seem to care or have any genuine fear of him. For some reason, Cyrus seemed to respect that.

Glitch made his way over to one of the chairs to the side of Cyrus's desk as Cyrus spun around in his chair and turned on a large monitor on the adjacent wall.  
"Did you see what our boy Toby did last night?" "No Sir, I monitored him for about five or six hours after which I turned in."  
"Ah yes, I did notice the pattern from your keyboard still in your face there, sleep well?"  
"Uh, yeah, I did fall asleep at my desk while watching and because I just woke up a moment ago I have not had an opportunity to review the recording to see what I might have missed."  
"Well if you're finally awake, take a look at this."

Cyrus was always annoyed with people for requiring sleep, he never slept because his distorted DNA rendered him incapable of sleep, so because he didn't understand the need for it, he chalked it up as laziness.

Cyrus switched his PC feed to the large monitor.

"Looks like around 2:00 a.m., while the family, AND YOU, were sleeping, our man Toby was hard at work in Dodge's study. It appears that he managed to get most of the files from those Microdrives. The ones which our clever engineer had hidden in his desk. Our men missed these items years ago when they broke in and took Kerrington's PC. Now we should have some interesting files that will help us identify the vulnerabilities of the LifeTech system. We must crack the higher security levels of the system to get complete control of our friends in Washington. As soon as Toby returns, I want you to get these files from him and begin going through them."

"Absolutely Sir, that's great news, I'll get on it immediately." As he got up to leave the office Cyrus added.

"Glitch, don't let me down on this we're on a strict schedule here and we're running out of time with Dodge and John Calhoun too, we must obtain what they know very soon, understood?"  
"Yes Sir, I'll get you what you need."

Glitch moved quickly down the hall, he was awake now for sure, nothing excited him more than hacking into someone's personal files and finding some dirt, or some tidy little tech secret that was not meant for his eyes. It was like stealing a tasty little snack from a hungry child, and it really warmed his little blackened heart.

Chapter 26 At the Kerrington's they were all up, had already finished breakfast, and were in full motion. Linsey and Sarah had plans to go to the mall to begin some early Christmas shopping and put a few things in lay away. Not so much because they needed to make payments on it, they had plenty of money to pay for it, but more because Bobby and Dodge were experts at finding their gifts prior to wrapping or guessing their gifts before they opened them, so it was better to keep them elsewhere for as long as possible.

It was a challenge for all of them to hide their gifts and successfully make it until Christmas Eve before the receiver could either find it, or correctly guess what it was that you had gotten for them. This would be the first year that they had enough money to get everyone what they really wanted, it was like an irresistible cornucopia of shopping, a girl's dream come true.

Dodge, Bobby, and Toby were all heading to the club. They were going to have fun but there was certainly an ulterior motive. They knew that out there no one could easily monitor anything being said. They intended to exchange a good deal of information and strategy with Toby in an effort to increase their intelligence gathering within the compound.

They had also arranged to "accidently" run into John on the third hole and then stay with him to finish out an entire eighteen holes of golf. By the time they completed the round many questions would be answered and some good plans laid. The watchers just saw a normal family doing normal summer time activities, they were completely unaware of the incredible plot being formed against Cyrus, a plot that if executed correctly, would actually liberate the watchers from the very jobs that they were doing.

Linsey and Sarah were on their way to the mall. John was already at the golf course finishing off a bucket of balls, and Dodge and the boy's were gearing up to go to the course. They had all the golf clubs out in the driveway and they were loading balls and tees into their bags. Dodge got out his old clubs to lend to Toby who was now checking them over and practice swinging them just off to the side of the drive way. He told Dodge and Bobby in a low voice that he used to golf. They were watching him swing the club, he had a great swing, it would be interesting to see if he could still hit a ball all these years later.

They loaded everything in the Volvo and headed for the course. On the way to the club Bobby was telling Toby about how excited he was that Matt and his family would be home this Friday from their vacation, just one day before Bobby was scheduled to leave for Racing School. He couldn't wait, it was going to be so much fun. They had a great Friday night bash planned and he wanted Toby to come too. They were going to Retro-cade, then a movie, and then back to Bobby's house, where they would be staying up half the night, playing video games and stuffing their faces with junk food.

Bobby was anxious to see Matt but at the same time a little worried about not being able to tell him what was going on in their lives. They had been friends since kindergarten and had grown up together. They had a connection as strong as any brothers could ever have and he wished that he could tell him everything. They arrived at the club and piled out. They all got their bags out of the trunk and went up to get checked in. Meanwhile, John was stepping onto the first tee. It was a beautiful day and they were about to fine tune their plan, they were all anxious to get it done.

He hit a long one right down the left side and it wound up in a bunker, he shook his head and headed to his cart. Dodge and the boys were having a blast. The club wasn't too busy for a nice day and there were only two singles ahead of them between their group and John. He waited on the second tee and let the golfer directly behind him play on through. He hit two balls off the second tee and then took his sweet time finding one of them and allowed the second single to catch up to him. He waved him on through and then took his time playing out the two balls. By the time he stepped up on the third tee Dodge and company had arrived at the 2nd green behind him. He made it obvious that he had noticed them by waving and then hit three balls off the third tee before driving back to talk to them.

"Hi guys, how are you doing today?" They were all glad to see him.  
"Why don't we all play together? He suggested," and they agreed as planned. They moved around the course playing as a foursome. It was a fairly windy day which was perfect. Windy conditions made it all but impossible to eaves drop on people with directional mics. It was safe for them to talk freely.

John pretended to be giving golf tips and instructions while they discussed their plan of attack on the compound. Toby told him and Dodge about his oven plan and wanted to know how to seal the doors and anything else that might allow a signal in.

They explained to him that metal screen could be used over holes so long as it was attached well all around its edges to the metal surfaces of the oven. The door gaps could be filled with either screen or even better metal duct tape could be applied to bridge the gaps between the doors and the metal frames. Not only would it be a signal blocker but it was also incredibly strong and even if Cyrus and his men did figure out the door latch the tape would still hold the door closed as if it had been welded shut.

This surprised Toby but he knew these guys were engineers so he believed them. John had explained that it was just like a cardboard box that was taped shut with packing tape, if you didn't have a knife and couldn't get at it with something then it was surprisingly strong.

Toby brought them up to speed on everything he and Alice had been through with the sabotage of Dodge's clones and nearly being caught by Glitch. Toby was surprised to learn that John had sabotaged Dodge's lifefile in the LifeTech database so that they were nearly useless anyway. However, the second set of files that Cyrus had obtained were genuine, but they were shortened so that the last few months of his memories were missing.

All the knowledge of the current events was missing so that Cyrus would have no clue that Dodge and John were aware of his plans. He would however have access to some of Dodge's knowledge of the LifeTech systems and their vulnerabilities that he so desperately wanted. John figured that even if Cyrus did succeed in getting a clone to talk on the second time around he would still need at least two or three weeks to piece it all together and develop the software necessary to exploit the LifeTech system in the way that he desired.

They told Toby how Cyrus had reached as far as Washington already and had begun controlling and influencing many people in high places. It would be important to save as many people in the compound as possible to testify against Cyrus and identify those in high places that were working with Cyrus. The more high level people they could take down the better. They needed people with impressive credentials to come out and testify to the high tech degree of Cyrus's operation and the depth of his reach.

They needed people that could drop names and get people in high places that were working with Cyrus toppled from their lofty positions and brought to justice. Toby also told them all about Cheyenne and Todd and how Cheyenne especially was on the verge of turning against Cyrus and that she could be an incredible asset for their cause. It was certainly coming together nicely and their team was expanding to include an increasing number of Cyrus's people. If Toby, Cheyenne, and Alice could get more people on board with them, it would be much easier to take control of the compound.

John gave Toby a handful of ball point pens that were rather random in brand and color.  
"What's this Toby asked?"  
"They're bugs, you just leave them lying around here and there. They can't be detected like Cyrus's bugs either, we did something very stealthy with these. These devices record for up to four hours and then when the environment has been completely silent for over an hour they'll send the entire audio file in less than one second. It hyper compresses the file crunching it down to a tiny size that can be transmitted very quickly. These bugs only transmit a few times a day and the transmission burst is so short that it cannot be detected by normal means.

Toby agreed to plant them anywhere that he could. John also gave him a modified server patch cable that contained the inner workings of a skyphone hidden inside the cable along its length. He explained to Toby that he had done plenty of research on two of Cyrus's errand boys and discovered that these guys had been sent out to the local computer store on several occasions and had purchased this exact model of cable. From this model of cable John knew the series of servers that Glitch was using in the compound. These server rooms were filled with large racks with hundreds of cables patching them together.

Toby's assignment was to take this special cable and get it planted in the server room. He needed to plug one end into one of the unused ports and leave the other end loose, tucking it in behind other cables. It needed at least one end plugged in to get power and access to the entire network within the compound.

With the cable installed, John would have full access to virtually everything on those servers and anything controlled by the computers within the network. It would only be a matter of time before John would have complete remote control of the entire system.

The skyphone built into that cable would provide John the back door he needed to disable the firewalls that Glitch had in place. Once he opened a port that Glitch was unaware of, it would be only a matter of minutes until every camera, every microphone, and every PC, would be wide open for John's use. Now the watched, would become the watchers and the prey would become the predator.

JC and DC, along with Jason, Alan, and Caitlin, would be monitoring everything going on in the compound right from their PCs at the farm. It was a brilliant plan, carefully crafted for success. John had placed all the necessary items into an empty sports drink bottle and handed it to Toby out on the golf course. He pretended to take a drink from it, just in case they were being watched, and then he dropped it into his golf bag for retrieving later.

On the back nine, Toby began getting his swing back. In his prior life he had golfed right up until he was nabbed by Cyrus's men. Within a few months he was in this new body and now he found himself on a golf course with no physical limitations, it was great.

He wound up paring four holes on the back nine. Being able to swing so freely was strange and it actually caused him some problems at first. He had spent so many years adjusting his swing as he became less flexible and now he had to go back to the swing of his youth. They all had a decent round and they had successfully exchanged information and tools needed to further the attack on Cyrus and his computer systems. They said goodbye to John and headed back to the house.

Dodge did a quick sweep in the car to make sure it was still safe for conversation. On the way back to the house they reviewed the plan with Toby regarding the latest data that he had "stolen" in the middle of the night. No doubt when he returned Glitch would be excited to get his hands on those files right away.

If possible, Toby was to get down to the server room within the next three days to install the fake server cable with the built in communications hardware in it. While in Cyrus's office he should drop a pen off anywhere he could without being seen or use it if needed and leave it. It was a good plan, it was slick and if executed without detection it would be yet another perfectly crafted nail in the coffin of Cyrus Slade's plans.

When they returned to the house the girls had already been home for a while and they were going over the pictures in their phones of everything that they had scoped out at the stores. They were so excited already about Christmas, it was going to be epic, especially if Cyrus was locked up by then so that everyone could enjoy the holidays.

It was almost time for Toby to return home so Linsey gave Cheyenne a call, they had swapped skyphone numbers now just like two Moms would. Cheyenne answered and said she would come right over to get Toby. On the way over to the Kerrington's she scanned the Cadillac again to make sure it was still safe to talk. She needed to talk to Toby and find out everything she could before they got back to their house.

She intentionally drove through a few mud puddles and chuck holes here and there after a rain the day before, now the caddy needed a wash. The nearest carwash was a good bit out of the way on the trip home. This would yield an extra twenty minutes of talk time. When she pulled in, they were all outside on the front porch talking about all the things they had done.

Toby would have enjoyed staying another night so that he could be there for the big Friday party that Matt and Bobby would be having but he needed to get back and take care of business at the compound. He enjoyed spending time with Bobby but he was more like an uncle than a friend. He looked Bobby's age, but his brain and life experiences made him much older and more mature than Bobby and Matt so he felt a little funny about being at a party with just kids. It was odd to him though that sometimes he felt like a teenager again and even thought like one sometimes. He attributed it to the effects of hormones on the brain, that must be why teenagers act the way they do, they're not really that dense, it's just those dang hormones! "Who can think straight with these things coursing through their veins?" He laughed at himself inside a little as he thought back about his first experience of teenage years. "Man, what a mess I was!"
He was glad to see Cheyenne and couldn't wait to tell her about his new assignment. They said goodbye and Toby wished Bobby good luck at the Racing academy, "BE CAREFUL" and he would see him just as soon as he got back. They got in the caddy and headed to the house.

The minute they left the drive Toby began telling Cheyenne everything that John and Dodge had planned and how they were going to pull it off. Cheyenne told Toby that Todd had acted differently toward her this weekend and that she believed he was warming up to her and Toby. She didn't dare tell Toby what had really happened, after asking Todd to keep it just between them, and besides, she was a little embarrassed.

She told him all about the mirror in the car and how Todd went along with leaving it disconnected. Then how they went out on the town in the caddy and ate a big meal on Cyrus's dime and saw the new Bond movie and then went back to the house and talked for hours before falling asleep on the couch together with the TV on. Toby was amazed, he couldn't believe that Todd had acted that way, he was usually so militant and not interested in social things at all. Toby could sense that Cheyenne was leaving something out and he suspected that it might be of the romantic nature but he decided not to ask. This was a good thing for sure, whether it went any further or not, didn't really matter, it was still good, and maybe they could win Todd over and add him to the team. Either way if anything did happen between the two of them he was sure Todd would spill the beans later.

It was late in the day now and everyone at the farm was tired and hungry. They all gathered into the kitchen for their evening meal slash final meeting of the day. JC and DC looked like professional athletes now. Their chiseled bodies were getting stronger and more defined daily. They had each put on a lot of muscle mass by strenuous training every morning and they were eating a perfect diet that Caitlin designed for them to do just that. They were both a good bit taller than their surrogates and Jason explained that they were also being given human growth hormones to make them bigger and stronger than their originals.

They were well-versed in several disciplines of martial arts now and some combat style defense techniques as well. They didn't have time to learn everything but they were learning what Alan and the Black Ops team felt they would need to handle the guards at the compound. Their days included weapons practice every day and situation simulations training to prepare their minds for snap decisions in critical situations. It was like being at boot camp but actually wanting to be there. The speed of their progression was in direct relation to their desire to reach their goals. This is something that Alan had said one day at dinner and everyone thought it was absolutely profound, even the Black Ops guys were impressed with the comment and agreed it must be true because they had never seen anyone progress as quickly as JC and DC. It was surely attributable to their raging desire to crush Cyrus Slade and free all those enslaved by this evil tyrant of a man.

Every morning Dodge and John awoke to their minds filled with fighting sequences, weapons training, and practice simulations of taking over the compound. Likewise every morning DC and JC awoke at the farm with full knowledge of everything happening back in Indy and all the plans being carried out within and without the compound. It was just a matter of time now, things were falling into place as planned, the cards were stacked against Cyrus Slade and his time of facing justice was drawing near.

Soon the team would unleash the fury of their carefully crafted plan on the compound. The Black Ops team Captain came up with the name for the operation. They always did their best to come up with a label that sounded deadly. He dubbed it Operation Black Ice. He said the idea for Black Ice was based on a dangerous road condition he once experienced by the same name. It was treacherous and you never saw it coming. Everyone liked it and so "Black Ice" it would be.

Back at the compound Alice was in her room trying to relax in spite of her nerves being maxed out. She spent most of the day down in Lab No. 2 tending to the clones of Dodge Kerrington. They were nearly ready to load and Cyrus was getting impatient. He was way behind schedule and he needed every detail of the LifeTech system that he could possibly wring out of Dodge. Cyrus had successfully controlled the minds of many billionaires causing them to relinquish their life savings to him on numerous occasions but what no one knew with the exception of himself and Glitch was that they had killed forty-seven others attempting the same trick. They covered up their deaths by various means, drug overdoses, suicides, heart failure, old age, you name it. Some of them had been successfully restored which also acted as a suitable cover up. There was a whole lot less investigation into a near death than there was a complete one with no hope of Restoration. Cyrus didn't care that some were restored. They had no recollection of the attempt to hijack their minds so it made no difference to him. He didn't care if they lived or died, he just needed their money as a means to an end.

Now he needed to control world leaders and people of great influence. He needed to perfect the method of control so that it would work flawlessly every time. A president accidently killed by the procedure designed and intended to only gain control of him was useless to Slade. What good is a dead robot?

Presidents and other powerful world leaders had to be above scrutiny in their mental stability. They couldn't be running around telling people that someone had hijacked their brains and were forcing them to say and do things outside of their will. First of all, no one would believe them, but secondly they would likely be removed from office and sent off to the funny farm. A powerful world leader removed from office due to mental illness would also be useless.

There was only one man he believed had the answers to why his prior methods were not reliable and that was Dodge Kerrington. Cyrus knew that he had the correct file this time and now the clones were developed enough to load them up. Soon he would have the answers that would allow him to perfect his system. Now he just had a short wait, but it would seem like forever. He had to wait for Alice to sleep so that she could be fresh in the morning to assist him with the loading of the clones. Why everyone had to sleep eight hours was beyond him when people could clearly get by on four or five hours, or maybe none. Too bad everyone couldn't just do without it like him. While he waited, he had plenty of work he could do scouring the World Wide Web building his list of new potential targets.

In Alice's dorm room there was the delicious smell of popcorn being popped over a lab burner and she had turned on her PC to watch some old TV shows. Just then the intercom speaker in her room made that eerie buzz. She went over and pushed the button.

"Yes?"  
"Miss Covings, this is Cyrus, report to Lab 2 at 7:00 a.m. and do be well rested and ready for a full day's work."  
"Yes Sir" she answered and released the button with a jerk as if to be sarcastic to him. She knew what he was going to do.

She knew Dodge would be loaded up tomorrow morning and the questioning would begin. But it would turn into torture and death very quickly. She lost her appetite and couldn't eat the popcorn. She didn't even want to watch her TV shows. She suddenly felt all alone again like she did before she met Toby. She needed him now so badly, she wished he was there. She threw out the popcorn and turned off her PC and went to bed early just hoping to get some sleep.

She was quite sure that the clones wouldn't be able to speak but that wouldn't stop Cyrus from brutally killing them slowly and methodically. It didn't really matter, she thought, maybe they would be brain dead enough to not even wake up, not feel a thing, that was her hope.

Chapter 27 At Toby's house Todd and Cheyenne were watching the news and laughing at some of the ridiculous stories.  
"Must be another slow news day" Toby said, as he entered the room and plopped down in a chair with a coke.  
"Hey Toby, did you have a good time at the Kerrington's?" And more importantly did you get any information?" asked Todd  
"Oh yeah, I had a great time and we went for a fast ride in the GTO. We all went golfing and I had an absolute blast. Bobby invited me to his party tonight but I didn't want to go. Even though I look like a kid, I feel awkward going to a party with a bunch of sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys. Bobby had this party because he's leaving for racing academy tomorrow morning, pretty cool stuff. Hey I did get some more information, but frankly it's just useless crap that I got off Dodge's PC, you know, just something to toss to Glitch to keep him off my case."

Todd's mouth dropped open and he grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. Even Cheyenne was surprised at how brazen Toby was being with him. Todd sat forward toward Toby in a very attentive way.

"Hey come on, what's up? I thought we had an understanding that you were going to get something good that would make Glitch happy, and what about my freedom; I mean our freedom, all of us. It depends on doing a good job so this psycho doesn't punch our number and pop our heads, right?"

Toby turned the temperature selector on his coke to ice, popped the safety tab, flipped out the straw, and took a long drink.

"Well this is how I see it. I think the Kerrington's are just about the nicest people on the planet. I think they are honest hard-working people that deserve everything they have and I believe when Cyrus is done with them he will kill them all and won't even have a second thought about it. I figured I would string ole Cyrus and that scrawny little Glitch along as long as possible. I'm having a great time hanging out with the Kerrington's, I'm eating good and golfing at an awesome club. By the way I pared four holes today because in my prior life I was a really good golfer. So basically I think we should just enjoy this whole ride as long as possible because when Cyrus is done with each of us he's going to kill us."

"When you think about it he already has, he killed all of us off in our actual lives and has ruined any future we might have in those situations. I mean come on, Cheyenne over here has a husband out there that won't wait on her to come back from the dead forever, soon he will accept the fact that it doesn't matter if the whole thing is a government conspiracy or not, she aint comin back man!"

Cheyenne gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

Toby paused and looked at her.

"You're such a lovely lady and I really like you, but you're going to have to accept this, I'm sorry. This is the hard truth for all of us." Todd was getting agitated.

"Don't say that to her! That's hurtful. You know she loves Vince! And Vince love's her! This is just crap Toby, don't say these things!"

Toby and Cheyenne were both a little surprised at Todd's sharp reaction.  
"You're right Todd."

"I'm sorry Cheyenne, it is possible that you and Vince could be reunited some day. I was being insensitive."

Cheyenne and Todd looked at each other and then Todd looked at the floor. He couldn't look at her, he knew it wasn't likely at all, he just didn't want to see her hurting.  
"Look you guys, I don't want to live like this, but I don't want to die like this either," said Toby.  
"I just figured that if I string things out by not giving Glitch too much, and give him just enough that he believes he's making progress, then I can prolong the inevitable for the Kerrington's and for us too."

Todd leaned back and crossed his arms and looked out the window.  
"So you really think Cyrus will kill all of us?" He said. Toby leaned forward and set his coke down on the coffee table.

"Yes I do. In fact I can't see any reason why he wouldn't. From the pure logic point of view on which he operates, he would have to kill us. Anything less would be foolish. Besides, like I said before, he has already killed us. All of our friends and relatives believe we're dead and have moved on, to the world we're dead. Even if we all escaped tomorrow how could we rebuild our old lives?"

"You have a point I guess," Todd said, "but what else can we do?" Toby sensed an opportunity in the tone of his voice. He took a chance and decided to just lay it out.  
"Well, what if I told you that this old man has a plan? It's a plan that would only work if everyone in this room right here were all in one hundred percent."

Toby could feel Cheyenne glaring at him but he didn't look at her, he was focused only on Todd.  
"Why are you only looking at me man? Why not look at her?"  
"Because I've always been very good at reading people and I think She's a yes and I know I'm a yes, so the vote comes down to you and that's how I see it."

Toby looked at Cheyenne.

"Am I right?"

Cheyenne looked at Todd. He was looking at her waiting for her answer. She was a little bit perturbed at Toby right now but she knew they were running out of time and she saw what he was trying to do.  
"Well, I guess if it was up to me, I would always be looking for a way out. I don't ever see myself being loyal to Cyrus. I mean, come on, he has bombs in our heads. We're not employees, we're just prisoners in our own bodies."

Todd crossed his arms again and looked out the window.  
"I don't know, I would like my freedom too but Cyrus has done a lot for me."

Toby realized just then that Todd's situation was different from his or Cheyenne's. He must have agreed to this.  
"You know, we're all in this together and something just dawned on me. You know our history but we don't know yours, what's your story? We're all friends here, aren't we? You can tell us."

Todd jumped up.

"I need a beer, anyone else want one?"  
"Yeah I'll take one," said Cheyenne.

Toby was never much of a beer drinker, but he figured if drinking a beer with Todd would get him to tell his story, then fine.  
"Sure, I'll have one too, thanks."

Todd went into the kitchen and brought back three beers and passed them out.

"All right, so you want my story? Okay, but you're probably not gonna like it, it's kind of depressing."  
"Try us," said Toby.  
"Okay, well, my parents died in the pandemic like so many others. I ended up in an orphanage that was overwhelmed with homeless children just like me. We were being quickly placed in foster homes or adopted out to pretty much anyone that would take us and with very little if any paperwork or background checks. Sometimes a small donation from a family would do and there would be no paperwork at all, especially if you had any history of trouble."

People wanted to take us in but mostly for the government checks they would receive as compensation. The staff was simply overwhelmed and had little choice in the matter. I was about six years old I guess and I went to a family that had an abusive father, well not toward us kids so much but more toward the mother.

She was a sweet lady but sometimes she said too much. If she could have just bit her tongue a little more she might have been all right but he made it hard to be quiet. He was such an idiot that no one could tolerate him. He was on something, wasn't alcohol, I don't really know what it was but whenever he ran out of it he got violent.

Sometimes at night they would fight and he would knock her around a bit. It bothered me but I had always tolerated it because he never really hurt her too bad. One night when I was about fourteen or fifteen it got especially bad. He was different that night and he was roughing her up pretty good. One of my little siblings that was also adopted, this little girl named Liz, got in the way and said, "Stop hurting my mommy." He called her a little meddling bitch, and then he slapped her so hard that she fell back and rolled down the stairs. The fall broke her leg.

When I came out of my room to see what was going on he was heading down the stairs yelling at her telling her he would really give her something to cry about. Something inside me snapped, I went back into my room and got my ball bat. I came out with it and he was just getting to the bottom of the stairs where Liz lay with a broken leg and I thought he was going to kill her.

The adrenaline kicked in and I came hauling down the stairs wielding that bat. I was a rather big kid for my age and he knew when he saw me coming he was in for it. He tried to run out the back but he didn't make it, looking back on it, I wish he had and never came back. I beat him to death with that bat in the kitchen just inside the back door.

When I finally stopped hitting him, the whole family was standing in the kitchen looking at me. I didn't really intend to kill him but I was afraid to stop hitting him. I thought they would turn me in but Mother walked over and gently took the bloody bat from my hands. She just hugged me and said "Thank you." Then all my siblings gathered around me and hugged me and they all said "thank you." Little Liz saw the whole thing from where she lay at the bottom of the stairs still writhing in pain. I went back to her and carefully picked her up in my arms. Her little leg was broken in two places. She was sobbing and shaking from the pain. She said, "Thank you Todd, you saved me from him. You're my hero, I love you so much!" The poor little thing had never known anything other than yelling and fighting and violence, it broke my heart.

We got her out to the car and I drove her and her mother to the hospital. I wasn't really old enough to drive but I had driven many times already when he was too messed up to get us home. The doctors put a cast on her little leg and they said it would heal just fine.

When her mother and I got home I didn't know what to expect. I thought I might have to call the police and turn myself in. I went into the kitchen and he was gone, the blood was gone, and everything was cleaned up, the whole house was neat and clean and all the kids were watching TV and eating poPCorn like nothing happened.

I went out to the back yard and all the kids followed me without saying a word. There was a man-sized patch of freshly turned topsoil out there with rocks all around it in a nice oval. We all just stood there and looked at it and then I looked at the next oldest girl standing right by me, her name was Viola. She looked at me and said, "We're planting some flowers here tomorrow, we hoped you wouldn't mind. Since you're the man of the house now, I guess we should've asked first."  
It was obvious that the old devil was under that pile of dirt in a shallow grave. I don't know how they got him out there, I guess they all just worked together and dragged him out the back door and buried him. I looked at her and I said, "Sure, flowers are nice."

We all went back inside and watched TV and ate popcorn until bedtime. The next day they walked down to the store and got several packets of seeds and planted a bunch of flowers out there over him, the kind that comes up every year. We never spoke of it again. He was on disability basically due to his drug habit, and he didn't have any family that we knew of so no one missed him. His checks just kept coming.

A year later I heard a man yelling at his wife on my walk home from the grocery. She ran out of the house to get away from him and ran right past me. As she did I saw she had a black eye that looked to be a few days old and her nose was bleeding. Seeing that brought back all those bad memories. He came blasting out the front door screaming profanities at her while in hot pursuit. He was obviously very drunk so as he came past me I tripped him and watched him plant his face right into the sidewalk.

It took him a while to get up and when he did his face was busted up real bad and his nose was sideways, a real bloody mess. He called me something and took a drunken swing at me then fell down again and passed out. I laughed at him and then I stepped over him and went on home.

The next day when I got up and went outside there were two officers waiting for me. They arrested me on suspicion for the murder of this man. I told them my story and I was pretty sure that he wasn't dead when I left the scene. Later when they showed me the photos he had a big knife sticking out of his back. I guess his wife or someone else that really hated him must have stuck him with it after I went on my way.

There were some people that saw what I did to him and they knew where I lived so I was the best suspect. They had no real evidence and since I was under aged I got assault charges that stuck instead of murder and I ended up in Juvenile detention for a five-year stay. About a year into it I got an offer from Slade. Well not him in person, instead it was one of the guards. He approached me and two other boys there. He said if we wanted our freedom to meet him just outside the maintenance room at 1:00 a.m.

Two of us showed up and he escorted us out to a van and put bags over our heads. He took us to what is now the compound. At that time it was still being converted into what it is now. He took us into a room where we met Glitch. Glitch offered us a deal from Cyrus, ten years of service in exchange for our freedom from Juvy plus two million in untraceable cash at the completion of our service. After that we would be set free and never required to do anything for him again.

I now know that they used clones and faked our deaths in a fire at Juvy three months later. We both agreed to the deal and signed a little card that we have never seen since. Glitch took the cards and said he would return shortly. We waited for over an hour and then a woman came in and said that it would be a few more minutes and asked if we would like a coke or a coffee while we waited. We both took her up on her offer and she returned a few minutes later with our drinks.

That's the last thing either of us remembered, and they obviously drugged our drinks. We both woke up the next morning in a hospital like area there in the compound, which is now Lab No. 1. We had bandages around our heads. We asked what had been done to us and they told us that they had installed a chip in our heads similar to the LifeTech chip to monitor our whereabouts.

It wasn't until later that we learned the chips were actually cranial charges. If we ran off or disappeared or even disobeyed an order, Cyrus could simply terminate us and it would just look like we had a brain hemorrhage and died of natural causes. He also conveniently ruined our lifefile so that we couldn't be restored even if someone did find us in time. They took us back to Juvy and three months later there was a fire in the night and we were whisked out the back and then to the compound to never be seen again.

I have never had much to go back to even if I did get free. I do think about little Liz and the rest of them from time to time but I don't know if I would ever go back, probably best to stay away, especially considering they're all witnesses to a murder that I committed. I was hoping to get my ten years in and get out with my two million but now I doubt it.

Cyrus gave us all nice things in the beginning but lately not so much. I mean I always have a little money in my pocket and I have wheels and I have a job but now I fear that when he's done with us he will terminate us all. Not because he doesn't want to pay us, but more because he doesn't want to allow anyone out free that might develop a conscience and start talking. Money doesn't mean anything to Cyrus, he only desires having it because it gives him power to bribe people. I was just young and naive at the time and didn't know what I was getting into. So that's my story and here I am."

"Wow Todd, I'm so sorry that you've had such a hard time in life," said Cheyenne. "I can see why you say that Cyrus has done so much for you. For a young man with nothing but bad luck, Cyrus and his offer of two million probably seemed like winning the lottery."  
"Yeah," added Toby, "you never had much of a chance at a normal life. You really got railroaded from the beginning, but what you did for your adopted family was very brave. You probably saved their lives."  
"Maybe, I don't know, I never saw them again after the day I was arrested. I hope they made it okay. Well now you know my story. Anyone want another beer?"  
"Sure," they both said in unison.

Todd went to the kitchen to get another round for all of them.  
"Hey," Toby said, "grab a bag of chips would ya?"  
"Will do," he hollered back from the kitchen.

Cheyenne leaned forward and whispered.

"What should we do, should we tell him?"  
"Yeah, I think we should, follow my lead, okay?"  
"All right."

Todd was just coming back with the beers and a bag of potato chips.  
"Thanks," said Toby. Okay Todd, are you ready for a revelation?"  
"Um, well, I guess so, what-cha got?"  
"Well judging by the character you've displayed by saving little Liz and saving that poor woman on the way home from the grocery from her drunken husband, I can't imagine you throwing me and Cheyenne here under the bus."

"Of course not, if you guys are in some kind of trouble tell me. I'll do anything I can to help."  
"Well here's the thing big guy it isn't just us it's Alice too and maybe a few others."  
"Oh, no. What's going on?"  
"Well before I say much more I have to tell you that if you help us it's going to make Cyrus very angry at you and the rest of us and he will probably kill us all. If you do this you're definitely not getting your two million. You see we have gotten ourselves into the same situation as little Liz did and now the big bully is gonna put a good beat down on us if we don't get some help. What do you say, will you help us?"

Todd looked at Cheyenne, he had already realized earlier that day that he had strong feelings for her. He didn't care that she still loved Vince and that Vince probably still loved her, in fact he admired it. It didn't matter if she got back with Vince someday and if he himself ended up with another woman, he would always care for Cheyenne, they would always have that one special night.

As he looked at her now, he realized that his feelings for her and the way he felt about Toby and the Kerrington's was more important than some lame deal he made with a criminal mad man as a naive youth. Glitch had sold him on the idea that society in general was bad and that Cyrus was going to free the oppressed just like him everywhere. "What a bunch of BS."

While it was true he had gotten a bad deal, having been framed for killing that man on the sidewalk, there were plenty of Cyrus's people that weren't so innocent. When he was in Juvy he met plenty of people that were bad news, they really had committed the crimes they were serving time for and some even bragged that they had done much worse but hadn't been caught for those things. He realized later that Cyrus was making deals with those people just the same as he did with him. Cyrus didn't want to free the people that were oppressed by society unjustly. He just needed disposable soldiers that no one would care to miss later if he had to kill them to protect himself.

Todd was staring at the floor in deep thought. He snapped out of it and looked up at Toby.

"All right I'm in," He said, "What kind of trouble are you guys in?" Toby let out a "yes! I knew that you were a good guy, I just knew it." Toby jumped up and shook Todd's hand.

"Welcome to the team," he said while he shook his hand vigorously.  
"Team?" Todd looked a little puzzled.  
"That's right this thing is big, and now with you on board, it's even bigger and better. See Cheyenne here has her friend on the inside, you know, Alice.

"Really? Alice is in this?

"She sure is. She works with Cyrus and Glitch on a daily basis, and of course there's me and Cheyenne. Now with you in, that's four of us on the inside plus everyone else."

Todd's eyebrows went up.

"Everyone else? Who's . . . ," Toby interrupted.

"Hold on. Hey Cheyenne, why don't you check around the place, you know, make sure no one else is in on this?"  
"Oh right, be right back," Cheyenne said as she jumped up to retrieve the little scanner.

"Really Dude? You're making a chick check the perimeter? Isn't that a man's job?"  
"Well you know she's just double checking I already checked earlier," he said with a smile. Cheyenne came back with the little scanner and started walking around the room, she wasn't getting anything at all.

"Looks like its clean," she said. As she started to set it down it let out one tiny beep. They all looked at each other and didn't say a word. Todd had figured out exactly what she was doing now and felt a little stupid for assuming Toby had sent her outside to snap some guy's neck in the bushes.

She went back around the room and didn't get a thing. She moved back to where it had let out the beep and it beeped again. She switched it to blink so that it would be silent. She was near the kitchen so she took the scanner in there. As soon as she did it began to blink slow and steady. There was something in the kitchen, she looked back at the guys and motioned for them to follow. They came into the kitchen with her and they moved around the room together. The light blinked faster and faster as she was nearing the door between the kitchen and the garage. Whatever it was must be in the garage.

She swung the door open and walked out but the blinking slowed, when she turned around the only thing that was there was a rug with several pair of shoes. She scanned all the shoes and when she got to Todd's boots the scanner light stayed on continuously. Without saying a word Todd picked up the boots and went over to the workbench where there was a large vise.

He turned on the old LED work light over the bench that made a weird chirp sound before only half of the LEDs snapped on brightening the area. He began inspecting the boot diligently and found a place in the side of the tread near the toe that looked like it had been re-glued. He figured the bug must have been inserted there in the rubber sole.

He opened up the vise and put the toe of the boot between the jaws and began cranking it down. Cheyenne had the scanner right by it and it was still lit solid. He continued cranking it down tighter until the toe of the boot was completely flat and the light was still on. He put everything he had into twisting the handle and they all heard a little pop come from the boot followed immediately by a tiny puff of smoke that smelled like burnt electronics and the light on the scanner went out. Then they all looked at each other and busted out laughing almost hysterically. Todd had smashed the boot so tightly that the little bug shorted out and stopped transmitting.

"Wow" Todd said.

"I had no idea that Cyrus was so into monitoring us."  
"Thank God you didn't have those boots on in the living room tonight" Toby said.  
"No kidding, we're going to have to be more careful from now on" said Cheyenne.

"We'll have to scan the room anytime we want to have a meeting to discuss things." Todd shook his head.

"Unbelievable, we got so lucky. Let's go back inside and you guys can finish filling me in on everything."

Cheyenne and Toby spent the next two hours telling Todd all the details of what they had been through already and what was planned next. He was astonished at how well they had all kept up this act and for so long too. He was glad to hear that Dodge and his family were the masterminds behind the plan to end Cyrus.

He told Toby that he knew exactly where they could get the extra wide metal duct tape that he needed to signal proof the oven. He also remembered that there was some old metal window screen down in the basement of the house. Toby could put that in the bottom of his overnight bag and carry it in easily. Guards rarely inspected bags but if they did he could simply say that it was for his dorm window to keep the mosquitoes out. They had bars over the windows for security reasons but no window screens. If you wanted air then you got bugs with it. The tape would be easier because it was already at the compound and would only need to be moved from one location to another.

"So Todd, are we going to the compound tomorrow?" Toby asked.  
"Yes, I got a call from Glitch earlier, I think he's anxious to see the content of those files that you copied from Dodge's office."  
"He won't like it, but it'll keep him busy for a really long time. Dodge instructed me on exactly which ones to copy. He said early on in the development stages they used a program that automatically attempted to re-design a base design until it was as compact and efficient as possible. He said this crazy software spit out almost nine hundred different versions of their base design and they were all totally useless. They had to start over and make each design change manually. Glitch would have all eight hundred and eighty-seven of these design files to sift through."

They all got another good laugh out of that and began to lay bets on how many of them Glitch would go through with a fine tooth comb before he realized he was pissing up a rope.

"By the way guys, Dodge told me the official name for what we're involved in. They decided on Operation Black Ice."

Todd's eyebrows went up.

"Operation Black Ice? That's tight. It even sounds cool when you say it. I feel like James Bond now, this is going to be epic. I think we might pull this off and now that there is hope I feel a lot better than I did just a few hours ago. We might all have a chance at having our own lives again." They all agreed that it would be, and they went on talking until it got very late.

At the compound Alice still tossed and turned. She had gone to bed early in hopes of drifting off to good dreams of better times but instead she could only lay there awake, wondering about what would happen tomorrow with the clones, she counted sheep, sang to herself, and tried to remember how good she felt when she was with Toby. After what seemed like a very long time, she finally drifted off.

At the Kerrington's, Dodge, Linsey and the kids had been asleep for well over an hour. Dodge received a message on his phone after dinner from Tim informing him that his leave of absence had been approved. He still needed to go in tomorrow to brief his sub and his team on what he expected for them to accomplish in his absence. The good news was such a relief, now he could focus solely on putting an end to Cyrus and his plot to destroy their family, not to mention most of the free world. He longed for new days when he and his family could have a normal life again without worrying about Cyrus Slade wrecking havoc on them.

Chapter 28 It was quite late now but John Calhoun was still up, working at his PC diligently, digging for information on each individual on the list. He was constructing a plan to eliminate as many of them as possible from the suspect list by utilizing his 3 degrees program. He had not yet received the good news about Todd, but soon he would learn of him joining them in their quest. He was happy to know they had Alice, Toby and Cheyenne. They had plenty of friends on the inside and could probably get a good number of them to join with them in the coming weeks. The more people they could save from Cyrus the easier it would be to take the compound when the moment came.

John began nodding off at his PC, after six or seven near mishaps of head butting the keyboard, he finally accepted the fact that he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He made the long walk back to the house, it was time to get some shut eye. Tomorrow morning should bring some very interesting knowledge from his day at the farm with DC.

Alan was having a great time with the clones at the farm. He saw that their combat skills were sharpening and their weapons handling was becoming second nature. When you spend a lot of time with one particular weapon it becomes almost like part of you and you don't want to be without it. At first you're concerned about shooting yourself but after it becomes an extension of you it no longer concerns you because that would be like a scorpion accidently stinging itself, it just doesn't happen. He knew that very feeling himself from carrying his M16 during his tours of duty in Iraq, it literally became like a part of you.

They had a vigorous workout and weight training session right after breakfast each day. It had a strange effect on Dodge and John back in Indy, they had both found themselves doing pushups, sit ups, and pull-ups every morning and evening. They both seemed to have the insatiable urge to work out and even run. John said it had to do with a chemical reaction in the brain that causes addiction to exercise. It's a well-known fact that this can happen to people and because their clones were training so hard it was now affecting their brains also, the shared experiences were causing the same chemical reaction for all of them. Dodge even found himself down in the basement more each day with a desire to shoot his guns. He was getting the feeling back of being comfortable with a gun in his hand.

Morning came way too soon for Alice. She had finally fallen asleep somewhere between two and three and now had to get up at six to be in the lab by seven. She got up and got ready as quickly as possible, putting her hair back in a pony and no makeup at all. Most of the women there didn't use it anyway. No one cared to look that good for the strange men that were there, and besides she would be in the lab all day working so what was the point. She was a natural blonde with green eyes and had plenty of natural beauty that didn't require much fixing up anyway. But like most women she still thought she needed it.

She made it down to the kitchen in time to grab some toaster pastries, a hot cup of coffee, and a sport drink to take with her to the lab. She arrived at ten till seven and sat down at her desk to eat. It was 6:58 as she was finishing up and in came Cyrus and Glitch. They were looking especially smug this morning and Glitch even had what could have been mistaken for a smile but only for a fleeting moment.

Glitch went straight to the back and began inspecting the suspension tanks, the clones, and all the hardware. He called for Alice who was just getting up and still wiping her mouth off from eating her breakfast so quickly. She went back to assist him in preparing the oldest clone for the file loading. Cyrus was fiddling with the uplink software, queuing the files and generally double checking everything. In just about one hour the first clone would awaken, or would it? And if it did what would it do, and what would it say if it could speak?

She was getting very nervous about the potential of Cyrus having a complete melt down over yet another failure. She wished Toby could be there, she felt so afraid now. She knew that Toby was coming today but she didn't know what time and even when he did get there he wouldn't be allowed in the lab while Cyrus or Glitch were around. In spite of her feelings she went through all the normal procedures just like she was trained to do back in school. They had emergency training that taught them how to stay focused and level headed in bad situations and now it was paying off.

Cyrus targeted her because she was one of the best in the field. It made her sick that her skills and many years of hard work and study were being wasted on this mad mans twisted endeavor to rule the world. She longed for research to cure disease and improve the cloning process for the free world to make the Restoration process as perfect and flawless as possible so that everyone could enjoy immortality. She had nothing in common with this mad man except work ethic. No one could say Cyrus was lazy but if they did he would surely kill them for suggesting it.

"Sir," Glitch said, "the clone is ready for the lifefile upload, would you like for us to proceed?"  
"Yes, load him up, I've got work to do," growled Cyrus.  
"Alice, Prepare a tray of surgical instruments for me immediately!" He ordered sharply.

As Glitch began the file loading process, Alice went to the back and began loading up a complete tray as if they were going into the O.R. to save someone's life. Even though she knew it would be just the opposite, still she did her job, exactly as she was trained. By the time she returned with the tray on a small cart the upload was nearly complete. Cyrus was so anxious he was wringing his hands with anticipation.

The console screen flashed the "complete" message and Glitch retracted the load probe. The clone was beginning to stir, its eyes popped open and it sat straight up and looked around. Cyrus leaned in closer.

"Hello Dodge Kerrington, do you know who I am?" The clone just stared at him and made a grunt noise but no audible words came out.  
"Cat got your tongue? That's right. You're in my house now. I'll be taking your restoration technology and using it for my own purposes. You've probably noticed that you're in a child's body. That's because I destroyed your other body. That's right you're dead to the world unless I restore you. You see, you've been in a little train accident, seems your car stalled on the tracks. You gonna stay dead unless you cooperate with me. If you give me what I want I'll restore you back to your family. So what's it gonna be, can we get this show on the road or do I have to resort to other means?"

He gestured to Alice to bring the tray of surgical instruments. The clone was looking confused and hadn't said a word. Cyrus grabbed one of the scalpels off the tray and with his free hand he yanked the strap on the clones arm down tight into the restraint of the chair causing substantial pain. He began moving the blade towards the clones hand and then in a quick movement he stuck it right through it and into the arm of the chair. The clone screamed in agony and lurched upward in an uncontrollable convulsion so violently that it head butted Cyrus right in the face.

Cyrus was jolted by the blow so hard that he fell backward off his stool and landed flat on his back on the tile floor pulling the entire tray of surgical instruments down on top of him, blood was gushing from his nostrils and a nasty slice opened up over his left eye from one of the scalpels landing on him. He jumped up and grabbed the clone by the throat and began squeezing the life out of its little body. Alice had taken several steps back and by the way the clone was acting she knew that it had no real intelligence, it had no thought going on in its brain, it was behaving more like a caged animal than a human being.

She was disgusted with Cyrus but at the same time very happy with the results of her and Toby's night of sabotage. Apparently their plan of electrocuting the brains of the clones had worked. It had either cooked the chip inside the brain or the brain itself. Regardless the clone was simply not capable of speaking. As of right now Cyrus believed he had been physically attacked by an angry Dodge that was using pure will power to resist him. He didn't understand that the clone was nearly a vegetable, incapable of speech. He was now in the process of killing the first clone, and would no doubt want to load the next one within the hour.  
"Glitch! Load up the next one, I'm going to break him!"

Glitch motioned to Alice and she began helping him load the next clone. She only hoped that they all had the same condition, but on the other hand she feared what Cyrus might do if they all failed to speak. Cyrus was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back muttering the sequence of events to himself that had led to this moment. He paused only long enough to grab a lab towel from the drawer of a nearby workstation to wipe the blood from his face. He had nearly been knocked unconscious by the frightened clone. "if only he had been" Alice thought.

Slade didn't understand where he had gone wrong, his torture always worked, no normal human being would keep silence under such duress. How was Dodge able to withstand such horrible pain and never utter even that first word? He flew out of the lab flinging the door so hard that it hit the wall shattering the glass out of the door. She was glad he was gone. "Maybe he would cool off and not be so frightening when he returned."

A few minutes later Cyrus's voice came over the lab intercom.  
"Glitch!" He said, with an impatient tone. Glitch hurried to the intercom.

"Yes Sir?"  
"I want you to load all of the remaining clones up and when they are all awake call me in my office."  
"Yes, Sir, will do."

Glitch returned to the clone they were working on.  
"I'll finish this one, you go ahead and prep the next one and just keep going until they're all done. I'll follow you with the uploading and the vitals sweeps."  
"Okay. What do you think Cyrus is going to do?" Asked Alice. Glitch wasn't too talkative a fellow. He didn't look up at her.

"If I had to guess, I'd say he'll torture each of these clones while the others watch. He's hoping that by the time he gets to the last one, maybe it will talk. The key to these things working is convincing the clone that his surrogate is dead. If a clone in this situation believes that his surrogate is still alive then he will be much less likely to talk. We find this phenomena to be much like a mother laying down her life for that of her children."

"What about the soul?"

"You mean P-Source?" said Glitch.

"Call it want you want, you know what it is."

"Yes, I've done extensive research. Source is transcendental. It doesn't matter how far away a clone is loaded from the surrogate. Source arrives and attaches. Those who believe in God say it's the soul. Us more scientific types believe it exists in a fourth dimension. It apparently splits in the womb when identical twins are formed. We have come to believe that Source views the awakening of a clone in the same way. It splits without losing any value, or intensity if you will. This sharing of source and like mindedness of the clones explains why they don't have the insatiable desire to live in tandem when they first awaken. If allowed to live on a tangent time line from their surrogate they develop the same instinct for self preservation.

Alice thought about this for a while as she worked on the next clone. She wondered if Cyrus had a backup plan in the event that he might be killed, a way of coming back. She thought it to be quite probable that he would have thought of this and would have a plan, it was a horrible thought but it seemed likely to her. She realized Glitch was right about the instinct thing, she would gladly try to kill Cyrus with her bare hands if he were doing this to her children right now. Dear God how she missed them, it brought tears to her eyes but she hid it from Glitch.

It took them three hours working at record pace to get all four of the clones loaded and alert. Alice could tell by the behavior differences of the last one that he was much more there and seemed to have some intelligence about him that the others lacked. She remembered on the night of the sabotage when Toby ran into the lab to warn her that the last clone only got a few seconds of electricity to the brain. This worried her. She believed that he may be cognitive enough to speak but with some brain damage that might cause him to be confused, he might start blurting out information and ruin everything that they had all worked so hard for.

She had to do something, she had to warn him somehow to keep quiet. She was waiting for an opportunity but hadn't gotten one yet. She needed for Glitch to leave the room but he wouldn't. She went back to her office area out of sight of the camera. She took a full sheet of paper and wrote  
"Your surrogate is alive, don't tell him anything!" She opened her lab coat up and taped it to her chest up high then zipped up her lab coat and went back out to the clones. She began checking each one of the clones vitals and brain activity.

When she got to the last one he was really looking her over and he was trying speak. She put her finger to her lips and "ssshed" him before he did. She leaned over and began checking his vitals and he whispered, "Hungry." She knew right then she was in trouble. This one could talk, but he was damaged for sure. She reached up and unzipped her lab coat and let it fall open so that he could see the note. He nodded but she wasn't so sure he really understood.

She waited for a moment while she checked everything out and then she zipped up her lab coat. She leaned back over him and looked into his eyes with a little flashlight. She turned and went back to her office to get a grip on her emotions. She removed the note from her chest and put it into the document vaporizer. All she could do is hope that he understood the gravity of the situation.

A moment later Glitch returned with a clip board in his hand and went right over to the lab cooler and unlocked it. He pulled out the stored chips and began reading the serial numbers with a jewelers loop. He was comparing the numbers on the chips to what appeared to be a shipping manifest from the company that made them. Glitch was pretty damn smart and he was already becoming suspicious that there was some problem with the system or the files or even the chips. Soon he would deduct that it was the chips that were bad and not the lifefiles or any of their procedures.

Glitch came out from the storage area and did a quick check of each clone. They were all awake and ready for Cyrus. He called Cyrus on the intercom as instructed and in less than five minutes Cyrus came blasting back in with almost as much enthusiasm as he displayed when he left earlier.  
"All right," he said, "let's do this!"

He went to the first clone and began an intensive line of questioning similar to his first attempt. As the interrogation dragged on neither that clone nor any of the others had any comment, not a peep. The torture began and he positioned the other three so that they could see it all. He had hopes that watching their carbon copies die in this manner would cause one of them to give him some information that he could use.

The other two clones didn't seem to care that their carbon copy was getting cut to pieces by a mad man but Alice could tell that the last one was feeling his pain; number five had all of his abilities to discern right from wrong and he knew this man was mad but he still lacked good speech ability and didn't really even know who he was.

It only took Cyrus about forty five minutes to finish off clone number two and then he moved to number three. Three did look a little frightened but it was more like the fright you see on a kids face when he has been caught passing a note or skipping class, not the kind of fright you would normally exhibit when you're about to be murdered.

He took more time with number four but could still not understand why or how Dodge Kerrington could take the torture that no other man could have ever endured. Alice could see that this unexpected development had caused Cyrus to become somewhat defeated. Cyrus in a fit of anger began destroying the lab. Alice and Glitch retreated to one corner while trays and lights went crashing about in every direction until Cyrus finally paused, somewhat exhausted both mentally and physically.

He grabbed the last clone by the neck picking him up off the table and holding his face inches from his own and demanding to know.

"What are you Dodge Kerrington? And what makes you so tough?"

Of course the clone didn't answer, either he couldn't or he just didn't have anything in his head. The Clone had already cut his own wrist but in the chaos no one saw him do it. His blood covered Cyrus's feet and the surrounding floor. As his last contribution he punched Cyrus right in the nose reopening the previously ruptured blood vessels. Cyrus in his anger reacted without thought and squeezed the clone's neck with all his might crushing it. Realizing his own folly Cyrus dropped the lifeless body onto the table and turned to Glitch and Alice who were still cowering from the vicious display of violence.

Cyrus walked over to them very quietly. He had a calmness about him in great contrast to his uncontrolled anger a mere few seconds earlier. His demeanor appeared defeated.

"I'll be retreating to my quarters now. The two of you will clean up this mess and right the damaged equipment, after which you will sever the heads from the bodies for examination, dispose of the bodies in the incinerator. Tomorrow we begin the investigation." The blood was still running from his badly broken nose.

"I demand to know what went wrong with these clones, no normal man can take that." He said as he left in a huff.

After Cyrus left Glitch and Alice stood there looking around. Glitch had his arms crossed and nudged a beaker across the floor a couple of feet while looking down at it like a disappointed child.

"Well," he said, "that went well. Get this cleaned up and let me know when you're done, I'll return to begin the investigation."  
"Wait," Alice said, "Cyrus said for you to . . ."  
"No!" Glitch interrupted angrily, "I don't do blood and guts my dear! Software and electronics is my thing. I'll send two maintenance workers to do the heavy lifting for you and I trust with their assistance you can take care of this."

With that he turned and clicked his little pointy boots right out of there and down the hall. Alice began picking a few things up but it was such a disaster she hardly knew where to start.

"Wow, did a bomb go off in here!" She turned around and there stood Toby. She ran into his arms.

"Oh I'm so glad you're here, I was so scared!" She told him what happened and they began cleaning the place up.

Alice had covered the clone's bodies with plastic sheets because she could hardly stand to see what had been done to them. Toby lifted one of the sheets and peeked under.

"Oh my god! what's wrong with that dude, ugh! If there is such a place as hell, I think Cyrus must already have reservations!"

"We can only hope." said Alice.

"So you want me to help you clean up in here?"  
"Glitch is sending two maintenance workers to help, but you can help me if you want. I'm supposed to cut off their heads and dispose of the rest but I don't think I can do it. I'll ask the two workers to do it."

They started setting up overturned tables and sweeping up glass. The maintenance workers came in a few minutes later.

"Damn, did the clones explode or what?

Toby let out a laugh which he quickly stifled because Alice was not amused.  
"Cyrus was conducting pain tolerance experiments on these clones and he got a little carried away," said Alice. He wants you to incinerate the bodies but first their heads need to be removed. When you're done put the heads in the lab cooler. Here's a scalpel and a bone saw, we'll clean up the rest."

They went right to work at it and didn't seem to mind, which was a relief on one hand and somewhat unnerving on the other.

Toby and Alice got out a hose and the mop bucket. There was a floor drain which made the job much easier, within an hour the majority of the mess was cleaned up. They were glad that the maintenance workers took care of the gruesome task. Alice drained and rinsed the suspension tanks and began disinfecting everything, while Toby helped her as much as he could in spite of not knowing much about the equipment.

The maintenance workers finished up and left with the bodies to take them down to the incinerator for disposal. Alice and Toby finished up, shut everything off and went up to the dorms to Toby's room. They each took a hot shower and felt much better after they got the blood and chemical residue washed off. They went down to the kitchen and made some sandwiches and poPCorn and took it back up to his room.

They had a good time talking and eating. Toby told her all about winning Todd over to their side and how great it was going to be when they were all free. They went to bed but couldn't sleep in spite of being exhausted. They had both been thinking about their next chance to be together for several days and now they were finally alone.

They got on the bed and continued with the necking session that they started earlier on the sofa, they were still learning what the other liked but there was no hurry. Alice jumped up off the bed.

"I'll be back," she said, and ran into the bathroom closing the door behind. Toby was no dummy, he had learned from a long life and many years of experience. When you're fooling around and your lady gets a grin like that and says, "I'll be back," that it can only be something good that is about to happen.

He got up and went over to the music player that she had on the nightstand and turned it on. He selected some soft music with the volume down low. He turned off all the lights except for a small lamp on the dresser. He lay back down on the bed and waited for her to come out.

When she finally did it was worth the wait. She had let down her wavy blonde hair. It was all combed out so silky and smooth. She kept it long and it was down well past her shoulders in length. She was wearing a little red see through number that left little to the imagination. It was super sexy and he couldn't believe how hot she looked. Her big green eyes were his favorite thing. They were so clear and bright. She seemed to look right into him with those eyes. He was already turned on because he knew they were going to have sex one way or another. That little red nighty put him over the top. He could feel his heart pounding in his head and his chest and he felt that old familiar pain. It was like he was back in high school again.

She playfully pushed him down on the bed and jumped on top. She teased him for what seemed like forever until it finally culminated with a little strip tease and a rather violent removal of his shorts and shirt, not to mention a few other crazy maneuvers he hadn't ever seen before.

His beloved wife from his prior life was a good lover and he had no complaints but this was off the map, he had never seen anything like this before, this chick was in uncharted territory! Toby had read of the extended male orgasm one time in a magazine while sitting in a doctor's office waiting room and he laughed out loud when he read it. He didn't believe that it was possible for a guy to have an experience similar to what a woman does but much to his surprise he was wrong. Alice was such a wild lover that she had caused him to experience the phenomenon and he nearly passed out. It was like a fantastic euphoric experience that somehow he managed to avoid through an entire lifetime in his first body, he marveled at how that was even possible. He actually fell sound asleep as soon as it was over with and didn't awaken for quite some time.

Alice laid her head on his chest. She felt so good when she was with him, like she never felt before with any man, not even her husband. Not that she had been around, she only had a few relationships before she married Mark, but this was different, Toby was special for some reason, she didn't know why and she didn't care to question it.

As she lay there almost asleep she thought about her prior life. She felt less guilty now about what they were doing because she was finally accepting that Mark was gone. He had moved on, finally convinced that she was dead, he had remarried. The woman he fell in love with seemed nice and she was playing the role of Mother to Alice's children, Sally and Phillip. Oh how she longed to hold them in her arms again, maybe someday, somehow, she would.

At first she hated Leila for being there with her husband and her children, she felt such anger, but as time passed she realized it was a good thing and Mark must love Leila very much. There was no doubt in her mind that he needed someone to help with the children. She was at peace with it now. She just wanted to get out of this thing alive so that she could see them again and hopefully start a new life with Toby. They were both asleep now, holding on to each other and feeling victorious in having dead ended Cyrus once again.

Chapter 29 In a private wash room adjacent to his office; Cyrus disrobed to clean himself up. Bathing for Cyrus was no easy task. His genetic abnormalities made him smart, fast, and strong, but they also caused him many physical problems as side effects. His skin would continuously ooze because it grew too fast and this caused it to peel and bleed weekly.

He couldn't wear clothing directly against his skin as it would stick badly and tear massive pieces of skin off his body when removed. Instead he had to cover his entire body wherever clothing made contact with a petroleum jelly like substance that he himself had developed. It was odorless so that he didn't smell too bad and it had a special blend of softeners and antibiotics in it that helped his skin to heal faster than it would otherwise.

On top of the layer of grease he had to wear body stockings made of a nylon material that would help hold the skin together while still letting some air in so that it could breathe. He simply couldn't sweat or there would be some very messy consequences with his skin so his entire leather suit that he wore exteriorly was air conditioned by a pack that he wore around his waist in the small of his back. It was powered by four rechargeable nuclium cells and forced the cold air through tiny capillaries built into the leather suite.

The cool air constantly flowed keeping his skin cool and preventing him from sweating. When in a situation like he was tonight there was no avoiding getting heated up, now he had a mess to contend with. Once the leather suite was removed, he had to remove the tubes that connected the AC unit to the pants and jacket. Then he had to remove both his solid waste bag and his liquid waste bag and replace them with new ones.

The tubes to each of the bags had to be sterilized and capped off for showering. After this he stood in front of the mirror and observed his badly displaced nose. His nerve endings were not normal and so he felt little if any pain as a result of the injury but it did piss him off. He reached up with both hands and inserted his index fingers into his nose. He began feeling around for the broken bones and gradually massaged them back into place.

It took a few minutes due to the swelling making it so difficult to feel around inside. Once he got his nose bones set fairly well, he removed his fingers to see if he could breath okay and he could but now the blood had begun to flow all over again from having disturbed the clots that had formed in his nose. He gave up on stopping the bleeding and decided to let it flow for a bit.

He dried his hands off and got some tape out of a nearby medicine cabinet. He put several pieces of waterproof medical tape on his nose to hold it in place. With that complete he leaned over the sink and blew out both nostrils as hard as he could to evacuate the clots and immediately packed his nostrils tightly with gauze. He couldn't breathe out of his nose now but at least the bleeding was stopped.

He had cooled off now and attempted to remove the body stockings from his skin. They were simply stuck much too well and removing them would tear large patches of skin away with the stockings. Whenever this situation occurred he would have to get in the shower allowing the moisture to loosen the stockings from his skin so that he could remove the garment without removing his skin with it. First though, he had another task that needed tending to, he had to change the power cell for his pacemaker.

He took a small knife from the vanity drawer and slit the body stocking around the edge of the circular device imbedded in his chest. Once the material was removed he could see the battery monitor lamp which showed a change battery status by flashing continuously at fast pace. He removed a small screwdriver from the vanity drawer and opened the battery compartment by removing two star head screws. He replaced one of the two batteries with a new one and flipped a small switch on the inside of the cavity to select the new battery as the primary source of power. He replaced the cover and got into the shower.

He would have liked to take hot showers but the hot water caused more sweating so he showered cold, after about fifteen minutes the stocking material began to come away from his skin more easily. Two hours later Cyrus emerged fully dressed and feeling better. Because of his condition he spent nearly all of his time fully clothed. He didn't sleep so lying in bed wasn't an issue. Sometimes he would sit in his recliner and watch TV and try to rest but his mind was always racing, another side effect of his corrupted DNA.

He turned on the TV and got a bottle of water from the cooler and set it on the small table by his chair. He went back into the wash room and carefully removed the gauss from his nostrils to find the bleeding had stopped. He sat down in his big chair and got comfortable just in time for the late news broadcast. He watched it every night just to see what opportunities might we waiting for him out in the world.

That same day out at the farm the clones continued with their martial arts, gun training, and research on the compound. They were also introduced to another area of the farm they had not previously seen. Jason took them to a barn behind the main dairy building and unveiled several military vehicles that John's uncle had purchased and stored. His uncle had kept them in good running order until his health began to fail a few years before he passed. His Uncle, like Grandpa Kerrington, didn't like the idea of Restoration and it was still fairly new when he passed away, so unfortunately he was gone.

The vehicles had been in this barn now for about fifteen years without being started or cared for much other than a smart trickle charger on each battery. They were covered up and kept out of the elements so they were in good shape but would need to be started and tested out. Their minds were going crazy now thinking about how they could use these new tools in their assault on the compound, it was a good day.

While Alice was busy in the lab with Cyrus and Glitch all day, Toby and Todd had gone down to the oven and looked around a bit more. Todd was already proving to be a great asset, he knew many of the people and he had been there longer than most. He was friendly with most of the guards and knew where everything was in the compound. He even had several ideas on how they could seal the oven from the inside when the time came to do so.

Todd took Toby to three different areas in the compound where he knew there was left over building materials stored. They found two cases of metal duct tape left over from the installation of the heat, ac, and ventilation systems for the labs, kitchen, and computer labs. Now they just had to move it from there to the oven. It came in fifty foot rolls so they did some calculations and discovered they only needed about six rolls, this would be a very easy problem to solve. Todd wanted to contribute to the effort in his own way so he spent the next three hours milling around in the compound looking busy and visiting with a few of his buddies that were either guards or maintenance workers. He had conversations with several of them and found himself scrutinizing them now in a way he never had before. Now he was viewing them only as "in" or "out." He was putting them in these categories in his mind of either being on his new side or his old side. He was imagining whether or not he could talk to them and get them to join their team at some point.

Throughout his day he also managed to drop off all six rolls of tape one at a time to the oven. He carried them one at a time out in the open in his hand. One of his guard buddies noticed him with three of the six rolls at different times. He laughed and said  
"Jeeze Todd, you gonna carry that stupid roll of tape around all day!" He just thought it was the same roll and assumed that Todd was gonna tape up some old broken thing at the house. Todd said, yeah I know, I've been meaning to put it in the van but I keep getting side tracked. As he walked away, he thought, sometimes the best way to hide something is to just leave it right out in the open.

He was observant every time he approached the ovens to be sure the same people were not still in the area. He went in each time and put the tape in the paint storage cabinet in an old paint can and put a rag in on top of it. He was surprised that Cyrus didn't have any cameras down in that area, but then again, there was nothing of any value down there and there were no computers or anything else that could be used to breach security.

The guards patrolled the area but only once or twice daily, and they were very sloppy about it. Everyone was so terrified of Cyrus that no one dared do anything wrong anyway. He had always terminated wrong doers in the past and now he had set a precedent that no one dared to test. It was very late now and he was exhausted, he went to his room and fell asleep reading a how to book about restoring antique gasoline powered hotrods.

The next morning Alice woke early knowing that she had to get up and face another long day. She knew Glitch and Cyrus would both be expecting results from the investigation into the dysfunctional clones. She would need to make some progress in order to keep Cyrus from killing several people, just to amuse himself.

As she tried to roll over she realized she was tangled in the sheets and Toby was laying on them. She gave it a hearty yank and got enough slack to get free, Toby let out a weird noise and went back to heavy breathing that was near to a snore. As she got up off the bed she nearly let out a little scream but managed to hold it in. She was painfully sore, the muscles in her legs and arms and the small of her back were all hurting. She giggled a little bit as she attempted to walk it off on the way to the shower. It had been years since she woke up after a wild night of sex with so many sore muscles, it must have been more physical than she realized while doing it. She took a hot shower to loosen up and was almost ready when Glitch's voice came over her intercom.  
"Miss Covings, are you up?" She went to the intercom and mashed the talk button.

"Yes Glitch, I am" she answered reluctantly into the thin vertical slits on the old brass plate.  
"I'll be there shortly," she added.  
"Yes," Glitch's voice crackled back, "see that you are, we have much to do."

She figured that would happen. Glitch wouldn't rest until he had answers about the clones not being so talkative while Cyrus was coercing them.

She finished getting ready and jumped on top of Toby and woke him up. She laid on top of him for a minute and then kissed his face all over. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her.

"Oh my god, that was some night huh?"  
"It sure was," she said, as she got up off of him and went to the mirror to fix her hair.

He got up and stretched and she saw him wince in the mirror.  
"Ouch! oh man, my back, damn, what did we do?"

Alice spun around, grabbed him and kissed him passionately.  
"I have to go stud, but I'll see you at lunch if you're down there."  
"Okay," he said as he continued to stretch his back and make awful faces. She hurried out the door and went down to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

She got to the lab by 6:45 a.m., way too early as far as she was concerned. She was relieved to find only Glitch inside when she arrived, she had no desire to listen to that lunatic Cyrus ranting this early in the morning. Glitch was already leaning over one of the more powerful microscopes examining the chip he had removed from the brain of clone number one. He motioned Alice over to look at it.

"Take a look at this Miss Covings and tell me what you see wrong with it." She was a little concerned that their sabotage might be obvious now under the microscope. She peered into the stereo optics of the powerful scope. Much to her surprise she was looking at a chip that appeared to be perfect.  
"I can't see anything wrong with this Glitch, it looks perfect."  
"Precisely!" Glitch exclaimed, "it's too perfect, so what went wrong?"  
"I tested this chip this morning by putting it into the simulator and I discovered the Input output segments are'nt active, the synchronization circuit has no frequency stabilization characteristics, and it draws zero current when power is applied, it's basically about as damaged as it can be.

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know yet but the tech docs suggest that the only possible reason for one of these chips to be this messed up is static damage. My report to Cyrus will state that the chips were faulty from the factory. Take my key to the lab cooler and pull out the other tray of chips that are in there. All five of these clones had chips implanted in them from that new lot. Run each of the remaining twenty five chips through the simulator and print out performance reports. Make sure the serial numbers are being presented by the chip to the simulator."

"Okay, do you think the test will reveal the cause?"

"No but I want to track these back to the manufacturer's data base to see if anyone else has had trouble with these. Of course these were stolen so I can't exactly call up their toll free support hotline. I'll hack their warranty database instead to see if there have been any other complaints or product returns from this production lot. I'll be back in three hours. See that it's complete with printed reports by then."

As soon as Glitch left Alice got right to it. She was hoping now that some of the chips were still good and she really hoped that no other customers had any troubles with that batch. Cyrus would surely blame Glitch and if they were all lucky Cyrus would completely lose it and kill him. She hated to see anyone have to die, but without that minion Glitch Cyrus would be much more easily defeated.

Three hours to the minute, Glitch returned. Cyrus was right alongside him talking as they came in.  
"Well Miss Covings," Cyrus said as he entered, "what have you concluded?"  
"Well Sir, Glitch actually got me going in the right direction. His theory was that the chips were so pristine in appearance that the malfunction must have been caused by static damage at some time prior to our installing them. Glitch was the only person to handle them and he's very well versed in all the proper protocols. It's very unlikely that he would damage them due to his experience with these items. It's more probable that they were damaged in transport from the factory to our lab. The thieves who sold us the chips may have mishandled them."

Cyrus turned to Glitch.

"Did you test these chips in the simulator prior to implanting them in these five clones?"

Glitch got that "oh shit" look on his face.  
"Um, well Sir, they came in the factory sealed package and the seal had not ever been broken, they were guaranteed tested and in anti-static packaging."  
"So that's a solid NO then?"

Cyrus was beginning to get agitated and it wasn't looking good for Glitch.  
"I apologize Sir, I only tested one. I should have conducted a random simulation on a few of them, but we were operating on a very truncated schedule at your request and . . ."

Cyrus spun around without warning and grabbed Glitch by the throat, lifting him off the ground with one hand while squeezing his neck so tight that Glitch could hardly speak. Alice started backing away for fear of what was about to happen when something did but not what she was expecting at all.

Electricity began shooting out of the center of Glitch's chest and into Cyrus's eyes and ears. His awful mess of hair raised up on his head and began to smoke. In a weird jerking motion he released Glitch and stepped back dropping to one knee. Glitch extended his hand towards Cyrus and continued to shoot electricity out of his chest that ran down his arm and off the tips of his fingers and all over Cyrus's body. Cyrus was down on both knees now and was leaning into the flow as if though he were leaning into a stiff wind.  
"Gliiiiitccchhhh!" He began screaming as if he might be in pain. "YOU, YOU! . . ." then Glitch gave a final thrust with his hand that picked Cyrus up off the floor and threw him back several feet crashing him violently into a cart knocking it over spilling the contents all over the lab floor. The flow stopped and Cyrus lay nearly motionless on the lab floor in a pile of broken glass and blood, his hair still smoking. Steam was coming out of the arm holes and pant legs of his air conditioned suite. Glitch pointed his finger at Cyrus.

"Don't you EVER! raise your hand to me in anger again! You know what I'm capable of Slade! I'm not one of your little flunkies that you can push around, I'm your equal and you know it!"

Glitch turned and began to leave but Cyrus jumped up and flew across the room with cat like agility in a single leap landing between Glitch and the door. He pointed his finger at Glitch.  
"You may have this power of high voltage that I cannot overcome, but be very careful little man, I can destroy you if I get angry enough!"  
"That's may be Cyrus, you probably could, but I promise it will take EVERYTHING you've got, ALL of it! You will DIE with me! If you choose that fate then you will never complete your mission to rule the world. Don't forget Slade, this is your twisted dream not mine! When this is over we split the money then you and I are done!"

With that Glitch quickly walked around Cyrus and out of the room. Cyrus looked at Alice who was trembling so violently that she was nearly rattling.  
"Miss Covings, do calm down now, I'm not going to harm you. I'll expect you to clean up this little mess that Glitch and I made. Don't mind him, he's just a deranged little man with a unique ability to control the electricity from his life support cell. If you really piss him off it comes out of him with a good bit of force, as you just witnessed. I have no doubt that in his haste he mishandled those chips and zapped them with his damned static!"

"Okay," said Alice, at a loss for any other words.

"From now on Alice you will be in charge of any implants that are to be done. Dispose of the remaining chips that he has handled, I have no doubt they are ruined as well. I don't have time for any more setbacks so Glitch gets to live for now. Besides, hackers with his level of talent are hard to find."

He started to leave but then turned and said . . . "And one more thing. You keep what you saw here today to yourself Miss Covings. Not a word to anyone, understood?"  
"Yes Sir Mr. Slade, not a word."

With that, Cyrus turned and rushed out of the lab in an angry huff down the hallway, banging the door against the wall again on his way out causing a few more small pieces of remaining glass to find their way onto the floor.

She began picking up the items off the floor from the tray they had knocked over. "Things were really coming apart in this place."

Who would have guessed that Glitch had any kind of power that could even come close to challenging Cyrus? She couldn't wait to tell the others about the craziness she had just seen. Screw keeping it to herself, this was good stuff! Besides, maybe John and Dodge could find a way to use some type of electricity against Cyrus when they hit the compound.

Out at the farm the morning had started off in the usual way with a good breakfast, and a meeting of sorts while still around the table. Their day was going to be different from usual and everyone was pretty stoked about their plan. Today they would be working on the three military vehicles that they had in their private arsenal out in the barn.

They would begin with an assessment of the engine and transmission components on each one and they would see if they could get them started up. Then they would inspect the tires, tracks, electrical, brakes, and anything else they deemed necessary. If they could use them with little repair then they would, otherwise John would acquire some newer vehicles as quickly as possible.

They would also be looking at their weapons options that they could add to these vehicles. They had two HMMWVs (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) with gun turrets and up armor, but no guns. These vehicles were made by A.M. General corporation. They also had an M-923 5 ton straight cargo truck. Great for driving right through gates or even walls.

The trucks were all more than fifty years old but they had been restored fifteen years ago to good working condition before being stored. John's uncle would start them once in a while and drive them around just to keep everything lubricated. He was a veteran himself and had a lot of appreciation for these old machines.

Now they planned to put them to good use and finally reap the fruits of his efforts. He would have never dreamed his toys would see action again. All the trucks had trickle chargers on the batteries and they had been plugged in most of the time except for a few months when John's aunt forgot to pay the separate electric bill and the power got shut off to the old dairy building.

They spent the morning draining and refilling the diesel tanks to get the moisture out and then they gave them a try. All three trucks ran and all three were drivable. The humvees would both need new tires though; they were dry rotted badly but for some reason the tires on the 5 ton were in great shape. They took one of the humvees out behind the farm and drove it through a small creek bed and a wooded area. It was an incredible machine. It would go over logs and large rocks with ease. They even drove over several small trees that were about three inches in diameter, knocking them down and snapping them off at the ground.

They all agreed that these vehicles would be better than anything they could get now as they were much heavier duty than the small military trucks available currently. The 5 ton was perfect for loading the entire Black Ops team into it for the drive into the compound. It had a canvas cover over the entire bed and would easily conceal the men and their weapons during the trip to Indy.

They spent the rest of the day selecting new weapons from a black market online military surplus site that John found. It had a front as a hardware website but if you knew the right key code and typed it into the parts search box you would be taken to the real site where you could buy almost anything with a simple wire transfer.

John went to the bank and made a deposit and soon his cousin at the pawn shop made some purchases for them. They got an old-fashioned 50 cal that Alan just had to have and they got a twin beam laser canon that had just come out about five years earlier. This one was supped up with some mods to the crystal tunnel gates and it could fire 200 pulses a second and penetrate steel up to one inch in thickness on full power.

The problem with these laser weapons still was the battery packs. Even with nuclium cells the batteries weighed over 200 pounds so it was not yet a foot soldier weapon. No problem for the humvee though, it would carry the weight just fine so they planned to mount it on the turret of one of the humvees. They wanted to get these items delivered as soon as possible and get them installed on the trucks. It was their goal to move on the compound in the next week.

While Alice was busy in the lab with the dueling misfits, Toby and Todd were busy smuggling items into the oven on a random basis while also making their rounds talking to all Todd's buddies. They were making a list all morning and now they had returned to Todd's room to go over it. As they went over the names and recalled everything, they could about each one they kept coming back to one major problem. If they recruited some of these people and they turned on them it could ruin everything. It would be a lot better if they waited until only a few hours before the attack on the compound, that way, if any of the people turned on them, maybe it wouldn't make much difference. Those that wanted to be saved could meet Toby and Todd somewhere down on the foundry floor and then they could herd them all into the oven to safety during the attack. If Cyrus transmitted his master destruct signal, it would have no effect on those inside the safety of the metal oven.

There was one man that Todd felt pretty strongly about talking to. He was the young man that Todd had been with at Juvy. He was recruited by Glitch the same night with Todd just outside the maintenance room and Glitch had driven them to the compound together. His name was Lance Haden, they were roommates at Juvy where he shared his story with Todd. His parents had been killed by looters that broke into their home after the pandemic had caused rioting and mass hysteria in their town.

His father had stuffed him up into the attic of their home one night in an effort to save him when looters began breaking in. They barricaded themselves in the back bedroom of the house as a last ditch effort but the looters were beating down the door of the room and his father knew they would likely be killed by these criminals that had been on a rampage across the country. His father had gone through more than six hundred rounds of ammo and killed more than seventy-five looters that were trying to come into their home.

It was seemingly the impenetrable house and had become a personal challenge for criminals to defeat him in his standoff. He had used hand grenades, modified shotguns, and several other crude homemade booby traps to kill those that did manage to get inside the house. He had to make one final stand in that bedroom and he had it planned out quite well. He knew that once inside they would most likely kill him in front of his wife. They had been yelling threats at the house for days promising to kill him and take turns raping his wife. He believed they would make good on their threats if he allowed them to get in so he had no intentions of being taken alive. He had constructed shape charges from several short pieces of large pipe that he would set off once they came through the door.

He told Lance to crawl through the attic and get to the other end of the house where he could escape out the attic window before the blast. Lance escaped out of the window as instructed and jumped off the roof into the snow behind the garage. A few seconds later he heard and felt the blast. It took out that entire end of the house launching debris at least three hundred feet into the air. Lance guessed that there were at least fifty looters in the house at the time of the blast and only about five or six ran out and several of them were badly injured or on fire. He hid in the large evergreens along the drive way until daybreak.

When he came out and surveyed the area in the morning, there were no looters to be found. The few that survived had moved on. He went back to what was left of the house thinking he should bury his parent's bodies but the fire after the blast had consumed what little was left of them and he couldn't positively identify anyone in that mess. The house was about half burned so he set the rest of the house on fire again and watched it burn to the ground.

He was sixteen years old at the time and all he had was a Honda dirt bike and some clothes and canned goods scavenged from the rubble of the house before he burned it down. He packed a few things that he found in the barn into a duffle along with a small tent and a few hand tools. He left on the dirt bike and began camping and working wherever he could find odd jobs. He worked every chance he got and he had saved up a good bit of money with plans to buy an old van to live in.

One night when he came back from working a part time job for a farmer in the area he discovered a man robbing his camp, the man grabbed his radio and fled and he gave chase tackling him to the ground. A fight ensued and the man pulled a knife and tried to stab him but Lance overpowered the man and stabbed him with the knife. The man was badly wounded but Lance left him to fend for himself, he hated this man with the hatred he had for the looters that murdered his parents.

The man managed to survive the attack due to a nice passerby taking him to the ER and after recovering from his injuries he testified against Lance in a police report. In a few days the police showed up and arrested Lance for attempted murder, unbelievable how messed up our legal system had become.

Lance got sentenced to Juvy and wound up being Todd's bunk mate for several months. They felt some comradery due to their circumstances landing both of them in this horrible place together in much the same way. They were both naive enough to fall for Glitch's offer to become soldiers against organized society based on their own thoughts that organized society was unfair and had dealt them both a bad hand.

He and Todd had talked recently about how they were just being used by Cyrus like so many others and they would likely be discarded when Cyrus was done with them. Lance agreed that freedom was looking increasingly unlikely. Todd felt strongly about talking to Lance and they agreed that it would be a fair risk to approach him since Todd knew him so well. The others were marginal and would have to be approached very carefully to feel them out before actually telling them anything. They spent the rest of the afternoon planning their strategy and plotting escape routes for different scenarios for the duration of Operation Black Ice.

At the Kerrington House in Indy Dodge was doing something he hadn't done in years. He was preparing Linsey a surprise dinner. He had not cooked in years but he did have one dish that he could prepare pretty well and it was coming back to him now that he was in the process of doing it. It was Linsey's favorite dish, Beef Wellington, and if it was done right it would just melt in your mouth.

They had tried the same dish at a few gourmet restaurants over the years on special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, but Linsey always said that his was better. He didn't really believe her but he knew his was fairly good, probably not really better, but she liked it when he made it just for her. She didn't know that he was doing this but when she came in he planned to tell her that it was a special time because Operation Black Ice was about to hit the compound and soon they would be free again to live their lives in peace.

He was setting up a table in the basement where they could have complete privacy from the cameras and microphones. He wanted to have a real conversation with his wife in their house without having to think about each and every thing they said. They were both very tired of the charade.

Linsey was at her water dancing class, Sarah had plans to be gone all evening and Bobby was at the driving academy. It would just be the two of them tonight for dinner. He heard Linsey come in upstairs so he lit the candles and went up to greet her.

What he saw when he got up to the kitchen was not at all what he expected, there stood two men with hand guns and they were already raising their guns towards him, there was no escape. He dove left in an effort to gain cover behind the island in the kitchen. Everything was in slow motion now, he flew through the air as he reached back and pulled the pistol out of the holster in the small of his back and before he hit the ground he had fired two rounds into the chest of the man that had just shot him.

He felt the intense burning sensation in his right side just above his waist. Diving left was the only thing that kept him from being hit directly in the stomach. As soon as he hit the floor a gas canister spewing something came rattling between the cabinets and spun to a stop by his head blasting the stuff right in his face. He jumped up but it was too late he had been gassed with a powerful sedative.

His clone's combat training at the farm had paid off. He knew that a month ago he wouldn't have reacted so swiftly and without really having to think about it. He fell on the floor and while there just before losing consciousness he saw something that he could hardly believe. The remaining man unzipped a body bag that was lying there near him and peeled it back. He could see himself lying there on the floor in a body bag.

They had brought a clone of him and they were planting it in his own home, they were faking his death just like Ron Simpson and so many others. This could only mean one thing, they were going to take him to Cyrus, he would be tortured for information while the world thought he was dead. He had to escape this but how? He couldn't move; he was paralyzed by the gas.

He tried with all his strength to move but his body just would not cooperate. How had Cyrus done this? How did he pull this off without the Black Ops team knowing it? Where were his watchers that should be keeping an eye on the house? He feared that Cyrus's men must have killed them all and now the house and his entire family were completely unprotected.

Back at the compound Cyrus Slade let out a hearty gut laugh. He was watching the whole thing intently on the monitors in his office. It was his plan B and no one knew of it except himself and the two men he had sent to carry it out. Not even Glitch knew that Cyrus had been secretly keeping a clone of Dodge in the hidden room behind his office. Cyrus had fooled everyone again, he was full of surprises this man, he didn't get to where he was in this world by being predictable.

Even though Dodge couldn't move he could see and hear everything that was going on. He could feel the wetness of the blood oozing from his side, it was flowing but he didn't believe it was serious enough that he would bleed to death. The bullet had only grazed him in the side just above his waste but it burned like hell.

The man that had shot him was lying on the floor and looked to be dead with two bullet holes in his chest. Dodge knew he was at an advantage during the shooting, no doubt they were instructed to bring him in alive, while Dodge had the luxury of shooting to kill. He had taken one of them out anyway and he was still convinced that Cyrus didn't know about his clone at the farm. It really didn't matter if he died right there in that kitchen. He was already living a double life and he had all of his memories and personality and everything else already in his clone at the farm.

The remaining man was removing Dodge's watch and wedding band and putting it on the lifeless clone. No doubt this was to fool authorities and his family into believing he had died right there in the kitchen. He watched completely helpless as the man got out a bottle of something liquid and went to the oven.

"Oh jeeze, the beef wellington, what a waste!"

The man opened the oven and looked inside.

"Damn, you sure know how to live, whatever this is it sure smells good. Oh well it's gonna be a burnt dinner now. Too bad you burned yourself up in a kitchen fire, you dumb shit." He said. He got out a skillet, put it up on the stove and filled it with cooking oil. He squirted some of the stuff he had brought with him, no doubt accelerant, all over the stove and the open oven door.

He came over and grabbed Dodge under the arms and drug him over by the door leading out to the garage. Don't worry you're gonna live, that bullet just grazed you. Mike wasn't so lucky, you're a good shot, but he still got out easy compared to what Slade's gonna do to you!

He went back and lit the contents of the skillet with a lighter and the fire began to spread quickly. The room was filling with smoke and the fire was growing fast all around the stove and hood. The man came back and drug him into the garage where there was another man waiting by the man door as a lookout. They had a small van inside the garage now and they tossed him in the back very quickly and sped out of the garage. "Where are they taking me?"

The kitchen fire was beginning to spread and the smoke had rendered the cameras completely useless now. Just then a small canister rolled in from the garage area but Cyrus didn't see it for the smoke that had already obscured his view. The canister put out even more smoke that filled the entire kitchen area and first floor of the house, then four more canisters came in through several different windows. The security system lost power and Cyrus's monitor went to static.

Cyrus was feeling victorious now, he shut off the monitor and sat there at his desk thinking. Soon his operatives from a secret location would be calling him to the safe house where Dodge would be bound in a chair ready for his interrogation. No more dealing with the useless clones down in the lab, now he had the real Dodge Kerrington, the one and only man that held the answers he sought, the knowledge would soon be his.

At the Kerrington's several Black Ops team members were inside the house now doing their magic. They had thrown in the extra smoke canisters to obscure the cameras and then they cut the power and the backup security system feed as well. The fire was contained to the stove and surrounding area but they had set off smoke bombs inside the house to make it look as if the entire house was ablaze.

The fire department was in route as expected but there were two men on engine 128 today that were not normally on a fire truck, they were members of the Black Ops team. The Chief in that precinct was a friend of the Black Ops team Captain. When JC saw on his monitor what was unfolding at the Kerrington's he sprang into action and made several calls. The fireman were briefed on what to do while in route. They would spray a little water in through the kitchen windows, go in, put out the small stove fire and discover the body of Dodge Kerrington inside. He would be pronounced dead at the scene from smoke inhalation. It was a good plan and it would buy them some time.

Cyrus got lucky and caught them off guard by striking during a shift change. It certainly wasn't by design because Cyrus was still oblivious to the team. The Black Ops team members made a critical mistake, there was supposed to be an overlap during the shift change but instead there was a gap. There would certainly be a review in the morning to determine where they failed and how to prevent it in the future.

Chapter 30 Dodge was now being transported across town in the small van. He had no idea where they were taking him but he was sure when they got there he wasn't going to like it much. He overheard the man in the passenger seat taking a call.  
"Yes Sir Mr. Slade, our ETA is inside ten minutes. We'll have him ready for you when you arrive, you can count on that Sir." His hands were tied in the back but he managed to roll over and there lying next to him was the man he had shot and killed in the kitchen.

He started thinking about death, he didn't want to, but his mind was racing around all the scenarios and it wasn't looking good. Surviving this situation was looking less likely by the minute.

"If I die tonight and my clone lives on as my replacement, will I go somewhere or nowhere? If my soul is split between myself and DC, does it meld back together if I die or does it stay separate once it has split off?

These questions had suddenly popped into his head now that he was in such a dire situation. These were things that he had not previously pondered, but once again he found himself doubting the ethical soundness of their so-called -key to immortality-. Maybe God was punishing him for delving into his business. Maybe they had gone too far. He just didn't know, there was no clear cut answer coming to his mind, but he knew one thing for sure, he was scared to death.

Within minutes they pulled into a garage and put the overhead door down. They pulled him out of the back of the van and started walking him towards the door to the house when he got a violent jab in his back that knocked him down and then he got a couple of swift kicks from a nice hard work boot, he heard his ribs crack. It hurt so bad he threw up all over the floor. It actually hurt worse than the gunshot wound.

The man was going to kick him again but his partner shoved him up against the wall.

"You jack ass, you're gonna kill him before Slade gets here!"  
"Calm down I'm done!" He said, as he walked by and spit on Dodge.

"That's for Mike you sack of shit! He was my friend!"

Dodge's ability to speak had returned.

"Yeah well then your loser friend Mike should have ducked moron!"

The man came back at Dodge for another kick but the other one stopped him again.

"That's enough, you leave him to Slade, and you shut up Kerrington! You've been enough trouble for tonight."  
"Fine, just drop me off anywhere ass hole, I promise I'll stay out of your hair!"  
"Shut UP!" He said as he pulled Dodge to his feet and shoved him through the door into the dark house in front of them.

Dodge felt himself being dragged to the floor followed by flashes of light, gunfire and a lot of commotion. He was shoved violently under a table, then more flashes and gunfire and then voices. Both of Cyrus's men had been gunned down by Black Ops team members already inside the house. They apparently followed them from his house to here and entered in from a back window all before Cyrus's men even got from the garage to inside.

Dodge was fighting to stay conscious, he had lost a lot of blood and was in excruciating pain due to the broken ribs. Being tossed around again like a rag doll had just about finished him off. They got him out to the garage and the cleaners went in. They located all the expended brass and removed several bullets from woodwork and drywall. They counted everything and knew exactly how many shots were fired. They loaded Cyrus's dead stooges into the little van and drove it out of the garage and down about eight blocks into a retention pond. It disappeared quickly beneath the murky water. Seconds later a black van arrived with the lights off and picked them up disappearing into the night.

Back at Cyrus's "so called" safe house, Dodge was out of it and could barely speak. The team loaded him into the van and quietly drove away. One of them jumped into the back with Dodge and applied pressure to his wound as they headed for the farm. The cleaners stayed behind for three more minutes to finish the wipe down and leave a nice note for Cyrus.

Across town a Black Ops team member intercepted Linsey at a gas station and told her to go home quickly, he said that their house only "looked" like it had burned and that the body inside wasn't really Dodge, just a clone planted by Cyrus. He told her not to worry, Dodge was fine and was with the Black Ops Team. He told her to play it up for the media and they would take care of everything else.

When she arrived home, she was already overcome with emotion anyway so it wasn't hard at all to have a good cry over the whole thing. She thought to herself that maybe Dodge really did die in there and that it was him but the team didn't want her breaking down and blowing the whole plan. She decided to just be strong, she knew either way she would still have Dodge back again.

When she arrived at the house, rescue workers and firemen were everywhere and the house was a mess. Then they brought out the Gurney with Dodge on it, when she saw him she really fell apart big time. Just the thought of him being in that body bag was just too much. Sarah had been called and she was just arriving home. Bobby had also been contacted at the driving school and was informed by his instructor that there had been an emergency. He called his mother right away and of course he was distraught over the whole thing too.

He and Sarah both knew that their Father had a clone already at the farm, but still, the thought of their Father dying in a fire was horrifying news. Bobby would have to return home early now to keep up appearances, acting as if there was no clone of his father at the farm. Otherwise, Cyrus would be tipped off by the lack of concern for a dead Father and a grieving Mother. What kind of a son stays at a race academy after his Father loses his life in a house fire. He would leave for home first thing in the morning, cutting his week of training short by one day. It didn't bother him much because the last day was really just a day to take the written test and say goodbyes to everyone you met there. The instructor reassured him that he could return someday when he felt able and finish the course if he still wanted to.

At the house the media was in full three ring circus mode while capturing all the gruesome details of the event and of course a more than delighted Cyrus was watching the breaking news in his office.

"Hello, I'm Brian Wilcox reporting live on the scene for News 21 at the home of Dodge Kerrington, the world renowned electronics engineer and scientist credited with the invention of several devices that have made our modern MedicStar systems a reality.

Some of you may recall that we did a story on Mr. Kerrington and his family a few months ago when their house was burglarized. Authorities believed the culprits might have been after trade secrets related to Mr. Kerrington's high level position at ESS, one of the engineering firms largely responsible for the success of the Medic-Star systems.

Authorities have not yet released any official statement as to the cause of this fire but they did say at this point it appears Mr. Kerrington was a victim of a kitchen fire that spread rapidly and that he was apparently overcome by the smoke while attempting to battle the blaze.

Mr. Dodge Kerrington the renowned Electronics Engineering Genius is apparently deceased at the age of forty-five. It's such a terrible loss for his family and friends, the scientific world, and of course, all of civilization in general. It truly is a tragedy that a man so involved with medical technology has been lost with no hope for Restoration. It seems that the fire and smoke were so intense that firefighters were unable to get his body out for quite some time.

When they got in and recovered his body he had been dead for more than forty-five minutes. His wife arrived here within just a minute or two and was able to positively identify her husband. They rushed him to the hospital where they were able to start his heart again but found no brain activity. This all took too much time causing them to exceed the one hour cut off by about fifteen minutes. Authorities ruled that it was simply too long for an attempt at Restoration, Brian Wilcox reporting live at the scene for news 21, back to you in the studio Alise."

Cyrus was delighted with himself, not too much brought him happiness like the site of his accomplishments on the local news. He shut it off and summoned Glitch and two armed guards. He told them to prepare a vehicle, they were going for a ride to one of the safe houses to question a person of interest.

Glitch was surprised for two reasons, one that Cyrus was even talking to him so soon after the lab incident? and two, why was Cyrus being nice enough to invite him on an excursion? It worried him a bit but he went along after stopping by his office to get his gun. He concealed it on his belt in a small holster that his jacket covered.

Five minutes later the four of them were heading to the safe house to begin the long awaited interrogation of the one and only real Dodge Kerrington. Glitch didn't understand why Cyrus was doing this now and why he didn't just do this to begin with. There must be a reason but he hadn't offered to share it and Glitch wasn't about to ask.

Meanwhile back at the compound Todd and Toby were on high alert. They had observed Glitch and Cyrus leaving together. Todd had never seen them both away from the compound at the same time. From their prior behavior, he assumed their security plan included the rule that one of them should always be there to keep an eye on things. Now they were both gone and they were together, it was very unusual.

With the both of them gone, it was the perfect time to install the cable in the server room. The plan was simple, Todd would go down to the server room with a six pack of beer that he had snuck in for just such an occasion. The guards never got out of the place and they definitely didn't get much beer or anything else good to speak of.

Todd knew that a cold six pack would be irresistible. While he and his guard buddy would be around the corner in the men's room sluggin down that beer, Toby would be busy in the server room without Cyrus or Glitch around to catch him.

The last time Toby saw John was at the golf course. He had given him a video looper hidden inside the drink bottle along with the other goodies. It was a small section of cable with a little snake bump in it that housed a tiny digital recording device. You simply unplug the video cable at the camera and place this small section of cable between the camera and the original connection. As soon as it was connected it would record one second of video and begin looping it over and over again until removed. It was simple but very effective.

As long as there wasn't anything moving in the field of the camera during that one second of recording then the looped video playing back after that would give the illusion of an empty room to the security guard watching the monitor, you could hold a full blown square dance party in there and that guard would never be the wiser. When Todd showed up at the server room he felt very lucky, the guard on duty was one of his friends. This guy was the meanest looking biggest toughest dude you would ever not want to meet, but once you got to know him you realized that Ronny was the most gentle and polite guy there was.

Ronny loved magic, he was always doing tricks for everyone, he wasn't very good at it which made it even more entertaining. Todd approached him in the corridor and Ronny saw him coming.  
"Hey Todd, old buddy old pal, what's shaken?"  
Todd pulled the six pack out.

"I was wondering how your magic is today, maybe you could make this disappear."

Ronny started laughing.

"Hell yeah I can bro! What's the occasion?"

"Let's go somewhere to drink this and I'll tell you all about it," said Todd.

"Sure Buddy, let's just slip into my office over here. I'm very confident that I can work some magic on that six pack. In fact I've made twelve packs disappear all by myself so with your help a six pack will be a cake walk."

They disappeared into Ronny's office, a.k.a., the men's room. Toby walked down the hall way with a cap on keeping his head down so the cams couldn't get a clear shot of his face. Once inside the door of the server room he observed a camera pointing down each of the four isles between the servers. He went to the first one but he couldn't reach the camera connection because it was up too high. He looked around for something to stand on. He found a three step folding stool behind the door. "Perfect." He grabbed it and put it right below the camera. He climbed up and got out the short section of cable and inspected it carefully.

He rehearsed it in his mind while doing practice hand movements at the same time. He would quickly disconnect the cable from the camera with his right hand while holding the jumper in his left. This would allow him to get it reconnected quickly with no fumbling around. He concentrated on exactly all the movements he would go through and then he went for it. It only took two seconds to disconnect and reconnect. He hoped that no one was looking at that particular monitor when it went black for two seconds. Just in case though, he went back out of the server room.

He knew from walking it off himself that it took exactly two minutes and twenty eight seconds for a guard to walk from the security room to the server room even at a brisk pace. He set his stop watch as he left the room. He went down to the end of the hall and around the corner into the dark. It was after regular working hours now and the offices were vacant and dark. He pulled a small mirror from his hip pocket and used it to peek around the corner. He figured if a guard was in the area the security office might send him instead of coming down themselves.

He waited a full four minutes. Plenty of time for someone to arrive if they had noticed the two seconds of dropped video feed; nobody showed. He headed back down the hall and into the server room again, he went down the first Isle and began looking for a good place to plug in the cable. Much to his surprise all the ports were filled. This was a problem that they had not anticipated. For some reason there were no left over ports on any of these servers or network switches. He couldn't just unplug something because that might cause someone's PC to stop working and then a tech or Glitch would be down there trying to fix it and find the device.

He looked at about three hundred ports, row after row, there were no unused ports. He needed to go to the next isle but that would require moving the camera loop device to the camera pointing down the next isle and starting all over again. He was about to abort the mission when he had an idea. He pulled the little mirror out of his hip pocket. There was a space between the server racks to allow some of the heat to escape through the vents on top of each row. He took off his sweat shirt and he was able to shove his arm through to the other side and run his fingers along the ports that were facing the next isle.

The rack ends were wider than the servers themselves and would block the view of his hand sticking through from the camera in the next isle. He put the mirror in his left hand and put his flashlight in his mouth. He put the cable in his right hand and stuck it through to the other side. He started moving along sideways on his knees looking and feeling for an empty port. After several minutes his finger finally fell into an empty hole. "Thank God!"

His whole body was beginning to cramp up from the awkward position he was in. He fished the cable through a little further with his right hand and turned his head sideways to shove both arms through just as far as he could. He was working blind now because his arms were barely long enough to manipulate the cable in his fingertips even with his head turned and his chest pressed firmly against the servers.

He struggled for several minutes turning the cable around a few degrees trying to get it aligned so that it would plug in. He had such a tight bend in the cable that it kept springing back on him before he could get it in far enough for it to lock. He was about to give up he heard the click. "Yes, it was in!"

He pulled his arms out and rested for a minute. He leaned back and arched his back to relax the muscles that had begun to cramp in his back and legs. Then he realized again how sore he was from the wild romp with Alice and he smiled at himself.

"She was something else!"

He reached through again to make sure the cable was routed smoothly in between the others so that it would blend in. He knew the loose end didn't need to be plugged in anywhere but it shouldn't be seen either. He pushed it into the middle of a large bundle of wires that passed through from one side of the rack to the other. There were several different colors of cables that had been used and it appeared fairly random. The black cable that John had provided blended in nicely as there were a lot of other black ones.

Looking for this thing would be like finding a needle in a haystack. It would not be discovered by eye, it would have to be someone who tracked it and knew exactly which port it was in. According to John that was not going to happen because he had encrypted it so well that not even a guy like Glitch would be able to trace it.

He put his sweat shirt back on and packed up his mirror and flashlight. He headed out but something wasn't right, he went back and looked around and then he realized his hat wasn't on his head, it was in between the server racks. "That would have been bad!" He retrieved his hat, put it on and headed out.

Just to be sure he looked around again and checked his pockets to make sure he didn't leave anything else. He got the stool back out and climbed up to retrieve the loop off the camera. He rehearsed it in his mind again just like before. He removed it and reconnected the cam in less than two seconds. He jumped down and put the stool back.  
"Phew! Smooth as silk."

He peeked out into the hall, the coast was clear so he exited calmly with his head down slightly. He went to the men's room where Todd and his friend should be and stuck his head in.

"Oh sorry," he said, and went right back out. That was the signal to Todd that he was done, mission complete.

The whole procedure had only taken about thirty minutes but it seemed more like an hour to Toby. Todd stayed and drank the rest of the beer with Ronny. They were having a good conversation and Todd was thinking he might be able to get Ronny on board with what they were doing.

Ronny had arrived there about six months after Todd and the two of them hit it off quite good from the beginning. Back then everyone thought they were all going to get out and be rich but since then they had all seen Cyrus kill off over half his force for one infraction or another. He would just recruit more people to take their places and he made examples of people early on that disobeyed.

Lately though, he had backed off the killing and that had some people spooked and wondering what would happen next. Everyone was so terrified of him that they pretty much towed the line. Todd and Ronny could easily be terminated if they got caught doing what they were doing right now. The thing was, they were both so well connected with all the other guards that whoever caught them would just wind up joining them.

Beer was a premium commodity in that place; a guard would probably let you start a small fire in Glitch's office if you gave him enough beer and a Cuban cigar. The beer was almost gone and Ronny had been away from his post a little too long so Todd made his move.  
"Hey man, you ever think about trying to get out of this gig?" Ronny was a little surprised at the question.

"Well, yeah I guess I have but I thought you were a lifer man, what gives?"  
"Well I don't know I was just thinking the other day that if there was a way to get this damn bomb outta my gourd, then I could blow this pop stand and go start a new life doing something cool."  
"Like what?" Ronny asked.  
"I don't know, maybe start my own custom hot rod shop, I've always loved old muscle cars."

Ronny looked at his finger nails and rubbed his thumbnail across the nail on his forefinger as if it had a snag on it.  
"Hmm, sounds like a fun thing to do, but uh, how do you propose a guy could get free and clear of this whole mess?"  
"I don't know exactly, let's go over to the server room and talk, don't want to get you in trouble you know."  
"Yeah good idea, I've been away a good while now."

Not five minutes after they went over there another guard stuck his head in.  
"Hey Ronny, just checkin on ya. Hey Todd," he said, and then he was gone.

They went back to their conversation. Ronny told him he would get out of there if he ever got the chance, maybe Todd would like an apprentice in his new hot rod business.

Todd said, "well Buddy let's make a pact, the first one of us that sees an opening comes and gets the other one and we go for it." Ronny smiled.

"It's a deal buddy," and they did a fist bump to seal the agreement.

"Well it's gettin late Pal, I gotta get up early tomorrow and head out to the house to play Daddy to Toby again." They both got a laugh out of that as Todd was leaving.

Out at the safe house Glitch and Cyrus had entered the garage and put the door down. The two guards went in first and discovered the situation and came back out to get them. Cyrus walked in and immediately began looking around for clues.

"Where in the hell was Dodge?" The prize that he had waited on for so long. Where were his men? He had sent two of his best guards to carry out this assignment. Not only were they trustworthy they were tough as nails. Nobody in their right minds would mess with those two gorillas.

Glitch went into the kitchen and saw the note and chuckled a little to himself. "Oh boy, this isn't going to be good! But he can't blame me for this one no way no how." He had kept this entire plan from Glitch so this was all on Cyrus, no one to blame but himself.

"Um, Cyrus, you might want to come in here and take a look at this."  
"What is it Glitch?" Cyrus snapped as he entered the room. Glitch just pointed to the note and then watched with restrained delight as Cyrus read it to himself. Glitch could see his lips moving to the very words he had just read himself, and then noticed a big vein starting to throb on Cyrus's forehead. What they didn't know was that the note was actually left there by the Black Ops Team Cleaners, not Cyrus's men. It read . . .

syris, we kwit! don't wast yur time on our head boms becauz we are alredy long gown. we aksidently killed yur buddy dodge so we chucked him in a dumbster and set it a fire. sorry yur hole rullin the world thing did no work out! ha ha p.s. see ya in hell!

Cyrus began to shake and convulse with anger.  
"Guard!" He yelled. One of the guards came running.

"Yes Sir," he said.  
"Do you know the men that I dispatched for this assignment today?"  
"I don't know Sir, what were there names?"  
"Their names?" Cyrus repeated. "Their names were 735 and 742, do you know them?"  
"Well Sir, I do know Brian, I mean 742, I know him Sir."  
"Is he a good man, can he be trusted?"  
"Oh, yes Sir . . ."

Before he could say another word Cyrus reached out and crushed his neck with one violent grasp that caused the veins to pop out even more in Cyrus's forehead.  
"You're a liar!" Cyrus screamed as he released him and his dead body hit the floor like a sack of flour.

The other guard had heard the commotion and came to see what was the matter. Cyrus looked at him as he entered.

"Did you know this man?"  
"Uh, well Sir, not very well." He knew him plenty well but had overheard part of what had been said already and just hoped to get out of this alive.  
"Good," Cyrus said, "Let this be an example to you, sometimes a man is known by the company he keeps. Did you know 735 and 742?"

The guard looked at Glitch and he nodded his head very slightly in a "no" motion to the guard.  
"Uh, no Sir," I didn't. He answered.  
"Good, check the perimeter, see if you can find any clues as to where these idiots 735 and 742 are off to. When you get done with that you can dispose of 718 here."  
"Yes Sir," he said as he ran from the room more out of fear than obedience.

Glitch stood there for a moment and looked at 718 lying there dead on the floor.  
"Ya know Cyrus, I happen to know that 718 was one of your best and most loyal guards."  
"So what are you saying Glitch, that I was wrong for killing him?"  
"Nooooo . . . , I wouldn't say that" Glitch said as he opened the fridge.  
"Wow," he said, "This is stocked really well," he turned his head around and looked at Cyrus.

"Want a sandwich?"  
"Are you making it?"  
"Um, sure I guess so," replied Glitch. I was gonna make me one anyway." He began recklessly tossing everything he wanted out of the fridge on to the island counter top behind him. Cyrus was yanking drawers clear out of the tracks onto the floor.

"Where did these idiots keep the bread?" He said. Glitch looked around.

"Try the little roll top thing by the flour can there, the one that says bread." Cyrus ripped the front of it clear off.

"Yip, here it is."

They were almost done throwing their sandwiches together when the guard came back in to report. He was surprised they were making food, it was out of character for these two. "Um, Sir, I have checked the perimeter and only found a few drops of blood just outside the garage door and some marks like something had been dragged a few feet across the garage floor. I can't say for certain it was a person, might have been an object instead. I went one block in each direction and there is no sign of the van they were driving."

"All right, well done, you want a big ole sandwich?"  
"Um, okay," he said. He started building one.  
"Yeah, we might as well eat this 735 and 742 sure aren't gonna be needing this stuff now," joked Cyrus. Cyrus was chewing a big mouth full of sandwich as he pulled out a modified skyphone from his pocket.  
"Let's see, destruct sequence." The keys were beeping as he entered a complex sequence. He paused and said, "and 735 dash 742, oh, whoops, don't want that, that kills everyone from 735 to 742!"

They all started laughing and spitting bits of sandwich all over.

"Oh my god!" Said Glitch, "you almost killed seven guys."  
"Okay let's see," said Cyrus, "back space that out and enter 735 comma 742 and enter. Okay, they're both dead. Those two idiots won't be writing any more stupid notes." They all three started laughing hysterically this time. The guard still had a mouth full of sandwich. He stopped chewing and talked out the corner of his mouth.

"Thank God you caught that I'm 739!" They all laughed even harder.  
"Big difference between a dash and a comma, huh?" Said Glitch.

Chapter 31 Out at the farm Dodge was lying on a table. He was being neatly patched up by Caitlin. John had acquired a new laser stitch 3000, the latest in wound repair technology. It utilized body soluble mesh and a spray resin that transformed into a flexible patch when hit with the laser. The repaired area was stronger than skin and cured instantly. The mesh contained antibiotics which were absorbed into the skin as the mesh dissolved during the healing process. It was a fantastic alternative to the old methods that used messy awkward mesh patches and resins that had to be hand mixed and then quickly applied. The new methods left little or no scars and healed faster. He had two broken ribs that required sonic bonding and several other scratches and bruises but nothing life threatening.

The two dead guards were being observed by Alan and Jason. John predicted that when Cyrus discovered the note he would likely detonate the charges in their brains. Sure enough they heard something and saw their heads jump up off the table when they went off. They were already dead so it made no difference but it confirmed that Cyrus knew Dodge was missing.

The Captain of the Black Ops team radioed in to Dodge about the funny note one of his men wrote and left for Cyrus. He explained about the intentional poor grammar used and they all got a good laugh out it.

While Dodge was lying on the table getting patched up he was looking directly at his own clone, what a mind blowing experience, he was having a conversation with himself. Alan was pretty freaked out by the whole thing too. It was strange looking at a younger, stronger , faster, version of your son while the original was sitting right there. His clone was extremely muscular and in better shape than Dodge had ever been in himself.

Caitlin explained that it was the steroid like substances and supplements they were feeding him and the extreme workout routines they were doing daily, not to mention the ridiculous amount of food the man was eating. Just then JC walked in with an announcement.

"Hey everybody, I have great news, our friend Toby on the inside has succeeded in placing the server tap, we're in!" A "hooray" came out of everyone in unison followed by a few fist pumps and one "Yes!"

"What exactly does that do for us?" Asked Caitlin.  
"Well for starters it's allowing me to run a very sophisticated Trojan horse program. This program is going to get into every aspect of their system and it's completely untraceable, or at least no one has cracked my cloaking code yet.

"I see, so we are spying on them now?"

"Bingo, you got it girl," said JC." He went on.

It'll use the open feed that Cyrus created to monitor Dodges home security system against him. Sort of a digital boomerang if you will. The hunter becomes the hunted but he doesn't even know it.

"So when can we get a look?" asked Dodge.

"I've got to configure some camera feeds, and I have the ball point pen bugs that Toby placed around the compound to link in. Those will provide audio.

"How long?"

"Probably just a day or two."

"Excellent, let us know just as soon as it's working."

"You got!" said JC as he left the room.

Dodge sat up on the table and started elaborating on their plan to the group.

"The next step is going after Cyrus's money. Even though Cyrus is not directly motivated by money he has amassed very large sums of it because he knows that with money he has the power to bribe people, obtain weapons, etc. If we take his money away, he will be nearly powerless. Once we have control of his funds we'll wire it out of his accounts into one hundred accounts that John has already created off shore. He wrote an automatic program that moves the money continuously from account to account using ten of the accounts at a time, it will be nearly impossible to pull back the funds, even for Glitch."

"Wow that's pretty impressive," said Jason, "How do you plan to take him down from there?"

"With those systems running we'll launch the physical attack on the compound and in the process save and free as many people as we can. I believe we're talking three or four days max and we'll be ready to go."

Everyone was shocked by the news that this whole thing could be over with in just a few short days. But at the same time they were relieved too, they had all spent weeks preparing and they were ready.

At the Kerrington's Linsey was getting a few things out of the house. She checked her gun before getting out of the car, she chambered a round and set the safety, she was a little frightened now and didn't want to take any chances, she felt her heart speeding up as she got out of the car.

The news crews were gone now and it was a real mess. Sarah was there with her now but Bobby wouldn't be there until morning. She and Sarah would be picking him up at the airport. Everyone was pretty stressed out over what happened and Linsey was still unsure about Dodge, that is the Dodge she had loved for years, she wondered if he was really dead? She knew there was another Dodge and it was really the same man with a different body, but it still seemed weird. It was no different than Bobby being restored, he was still Bobby, but it seemed so strange to her now that it was her husband.

She and Sarah gathered some clothing and a few personal items and then packed their suitcases for the stay at Alan's. The police posted a car there for the night to keep an eye on the house as the power was off and there was no security but they had left at daybreak. She knew the Black Ops team had eyes on them but it was still nerve racking because they were invisible, you just had to have faith that they were there. The kitchen windows were busted out from the firemen putting out the fire and there was still glass everywhere. Most of the damage was contained to the kitchen area and a little bit of smoke damage in the dining room, the smoke grenades produced tons of smoke but it was not staining like the smoke from the actual fire so the damage was minimal.

They were going to stay at Alan's house because after all he was on a cruise in the Islands, or at least that's what everyone thought. The Black Ops team would be watching over them the whole time as usual. As they were driving to Alan's house, Linsey's phone rang, it was a number she didn't know but she answered it anyway.

"Hello," she said.

"Hey Babe," Dodge's voice came through on the line.  
"Oh hello dear are you all right?"

"Am I talking to Dodge's clone?"   
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry I gave you a scare but I'm okay, I got out of the fire with just some minor bruises and I only got shot once."

"Maybe it's not his clone?"   
"What? Wait, is this Dodge? I mean, I know you're Dodge

but . . . ?"  
"Yes Babe this is the original, I'm alive, you still have two of me!"  
"Oh thank God! I'm so glad, I can't tell you how happy that makes me."

He went on to tell her the whole story and everything else that was going on. He reassured her that the whole thing would be over with soon. He told her to make arrangements for his funeral but to have the clone remains cremated and to tell the media that it was because the body was badly burned. She couldn't believe she had to go to her husband's funeral and drag her children through all that. Not only was he still alive, but there were two of him.

He made jokes with her about how much better his clone looked and that she might want to swap him out for a night or two when this was all over with, just to lighten the mood. Then he told her that he had checked out her clone in the lab and she was looking super hot. They got a good laugh out of the whole thing; he told her he loved her and not to worry she could call him anytime on the new number and that the phones were completely encrypted thanks to John.

That night Linsey slept great even though they were at Alan's and didn't get to sleep in their own beds, she didn't care, her man Dodge was alive and well and that was all that really mattered.

The next morning Toby and Alice had to say goodbye again as he and Todd were ordered to return to the house. Even though Toby hated to leave Alice he was glad to see the outside again. He was anxious to get back to the house and share everything that had happened with Cheyenne. He knew she must be dying to know what was going on all this time.

Toby couldn't wait to see Bobby, he had so much to share with him and ultimately the whole team. If everything continued as planned they would be through with this mess in a week or so. He and Todd didn't know about the sudden change of events that might accelerate the launching of the attack by several days. Less than a mile after leaving the compound Toby got out his scanner and checked the van, it was clean so it was safe to talk. He got out his phone.

"I'm gonna call John and find out what's going on," he said. Todd nodded in agreement with the idea, he was also anxious to know what they had missed the last two days.

John filled Toby in on all the events of the past two days and he congratulated him on the perfectly executed planting of the pens and more importantly the dummy server cable; this success was a crucial point for their operation.

When Toby got off of the phone, he filled Todd in on everything, they were both astonished at the brazen surprise attack that Cyrus had ordered on Dodge at the house. They too had the burning question in their minds.

"Why had Cyrus messed around with all the clones for so long? Why didn't he just grab Dodge from the beginning?"

Only Cyrus Slade knew the answer to that question and it was not likely he would be sharing that information any time soon. It was quite simple to him really. He had wanted to grab Dodge from the beginning but he wasn't really sure that Dodge was the true genius behind the LifeTech system. The real brains behind it might be Tim Stance, Dodge's boss, or even another person kept completely secret. The only way he could be sure was to try cloning Dodge and asking questions.

Tim Stance's file was very easily obtained. John Calhoun's file was more difficult but still quite obtainable. When he attempted to obtain Dodge's files he ran into difficulties at every turn. He got Glitch involved and only then was he able to get full access to Dodge's files. He still thought that Dodge might be a double, someone that maybe Tim or John had created as a front man to hide behind as a layer of protection. After all, what better way to make someone think they have the right guy than to put him in a high tower protected on every side.

When he finally began to do the cloning and load him up he ran into one road block after another. That was his answer, now he knew for sure who to grab. Someone out there was protecting Dodge in real time, not just appearing to protect him, but actually doing it, and doing it well. That is how he knew that Dodge was the real deal, he had to be, and that is why so many people were interfering with his plan at every turn.

Cyrus was once again sitting at his desk at the compound trying to think of what to do next. His original plan that he believed flawless had now been adjusted several times, he underestimated his opponents considerably.

His opposition had entered into a Chess match with him and he was determined to win. There were some questions nagging at him though and he needed answers before he could make an intelligent move. Did these protectors know who he was? Or were they just staving off any and all attacks upon Dodge Kerrington? If they did know who Cyrus Slade was, were they making counter moves against him specifically at every turn? Or was he just having a run of bad luck? He pondered on these points for quite some time but couldn't come to a solid conclusion for any of them.

He was disgusted with the current state of affairs for sure. His idiot guards had botched the abduction and killed the one person that he believed could give him the upper hand that he needed. Then in their stupidity and suicidal ignorance, they turned against him and ran off, but he would have killed them anyway so maybe they had some brains, not that it helped them, they were still dead.

He was watching the news feed now that Glitch had sent him late last night. It was a news story about a body found in a dumpster that had been set on fire at just about the right time the night before. The fire burned so hot that the body was reduced to nothing but ashes and bone fragments, it would be at least two days before authorities could positively identify the body if at all. Cyrus was reasonably convinced that the note left by the guards was a true statement. He had no reason to doubt that the idiots had in fact accidently killed Dodge. He was watching on camera when the whole thing went down in the kitchen at the Kerrington's. He had seen with his own two eyes as Dodge dove behind the island in the kitchen as he fired at his men and they fired back. Then he saw Dodge's feet protruding out and not moving for several minutes before his man moved him out from behind the island and started the fire. There was some blood and Dodge wasn't moving so it was very believable that he died on the way to the safe house. The idiots panicked and so they put him in that dumpster and torched it, just like the note said.

His only option to get the information that he wanted was to go back to the lab and get a good clone loaded up. He would have to spend some money and bribe the right people to get an untainted master lifefile for Dodge. Of course Dodge's PS2 was long gone so he would be a raving lunatic when he woke up and may not be manageable at all. He might prove impossible to question even with torture, but this was his only option regarding Dodge. If that didn't work then he might have to go after John Calhoun and Tim Stance, one of those two had answers, he was sure of it.

He would have to act fast to get Dodge's latest lifefile, now that he was deceased with no chance for Restoration his file would soon be permanently purged. He had to do something but what? He would meditate on it, maybe the stillness of the night would help him clear his head and by dawn he would know.

Back at the Farm JC was very busy, he was working like a dog on the details of the attack. John was very busy as well in Indy and also working on the finer points of their plan, they were communicating several times daily and attained single mindedness every night when they slept.

John was hard at work locking down every copy on every database of Dodge's files that he could find. He signed in and out of the systems in such a way that the work appeared to have been performed by government personnel as per protocol. Once in, he applied "deceased" locks on all files to prevent copy, download, tampering, etc. Once a file was locked it would be reviewed and automatically purged from the system 72 hours later. Cyrus didn't know it yet but his next step was already being thwarted.

At the farm, JC was watching twelve monitors with 4x multiplexers that split the screens into fourths. He effectively had forty eight video feeds in front of him to watch. The compound really was quite impressive in a way. The cameras were well positioned in areas where they should be and left out of the areas that didn't matter. No money was spent on anything that wasn't necessary. It was an old run down place with old worn floors and offices that had been converted into dorm rooms, labs, computer rooms, and a not so nice cafeteria for Cyrus's battalion of unwilling soldiers.

Funds were not wasted on anything like paint or carpet or fake plants like you might find in a bank or insurance office. It was strictly utilitarian right down to the very old outdated intercom that Slade liked to use so much. All the furniture in the whole place was outdated junk picked up at second hand stores, dumpsters, or alongside the road.

Slade's hijacked money was not wasted on luxury, instead the money was spent on things that Slade thought important to get the job done, like state of the art and beyond computer systems and plenty of security measures to protect it. Down on the main floor he had stationed four heavily armed robotic soldiers equipped with A.I. (artificial intelligence) tagged SUPER A.I.R.S. Remote Defense Systems equipped with the best laser cannons available.

At over twenty million dollars each they were not cheap and their high performance and quick maneuverability reflected the price tag. These weapons were certainly a force to be reckoned with during Black Ice. No one in the compound besides Cyrus and Glitch knew about them because they were each hidden behind vending machines down on the main floor ready to spring into action in the event of an attack.

If it were not for the cable that Toby slipped into the server room there would be no way John could have hacked into this high tech system. John was hopeful to hack the controls for the Super A.I.R.S. prior to the storming of the compound, but it was doubtful. The two programs that Toby had transported back to Glitch on Microdrives were like stealth bombs waiting to be detonated at John's fingertips. Once launched they would do significant damage to Cyrus's controls system. When the time was right he would launch the first virus which would change all of Cyrus and Glitch's passwords to highly encrypted alphanumeric and wildcard pass phrases five thousand characters long that John had generated with a program. These pass phrases were crackable by an expert with the right tools but it would take even the fastest system days to do it, days that Glitch would not have once the attack was launched.

The first attack would be on Cyrus's funds, while the second attack would be launched a bit later, it would disable every terminal in the compound and lock all the servers from access to anyone within the building, nothing would be able to bring it back on line again without the antidote that only John possessed.

Within ten minutes of the computer attacks the final wave of Operation Black Ice would begin, the physical attack on the compound that would bring Cyrus down. They would come into the compound from three entry points, the roof, a tunnel underneath used for drainage, and any doors or windows that Todd, Toby, and Alice could sabotage in advance. If none could be opened from the inside then the team would use a laser to cut them open as needed.

Toby would be given a ten minute window of warning to get as many people into the large oven as possible. They would lock it and not emerge until given the all clear. Only then could they be safe from the deadly signal that would detonate the charges in their brains.

Cyrus was plotting now, there had to be a rock solid logical next move. The one thing that would give him the power at the right moment over the exact right people. He simply had to get the answers about the LifeTech system now even if it had to get messy. Up until he had abducted Dodge he had flown under the radar undetected by authorities or anyone else, but now it was crunch time, it didn't really matter that much to him if he were exposed to some extent. If he saw the authorities coming, he would slip away via his escape plan and leave Glitch standing there with a whole bunch of dead bodies to take the rap for the whole mess.

The media would get it wrong anyway as they almost always do and the government would cover up anything that appeared to be a weakness in the security of the LifeTech system or any kind of shortcoming on their part. They had to protect the public's high opinion of the system and the government so that people would continue to use the services. Privatization of these services would likely bankrupt the federal government and that was not an acceptable scenario for the leaders of the free world.

Cyrus knew he had enough people on the inside to cover up a few deaths or some strange events with whatever means necessary. The only way he could be stopped was a full scale "blowing the lid off" kind of exposure that would create a media blitz against him and he just didn't see that happening. So with no real consequences to worry about Cyrus believed it was time for something drastic, something that would get true results, but what? He continued to meditate on his next move until it was nearly dawn.

The next morning Bobby was up early at his Grandpas house. Alan Kerrington was still at the farm under the cover of his Island cruise vacation. Linsey, Sarah, and Bobby were staying there while they made arrangements to get the fire damage repaired back at home. They were not in any real hurry as they knew the whole thing with Cyrus was about to come to a head and they were certainly not excited to go back to a home filled with cameras and listening devices to humor Slade. Alan's home was small but it was quiet, and they had their privacy. The Black Ops team Captain and one of his best men went into the house and defused and removed Alan's booby traps so that the family could safely use the house.

The entire area was heavily surveilled by extended members of the Black Ops team so they felt quite safe and could once again have an actual conversation without having to guard every word. The team had changed their policy regarding shift changes and were determined to prevent any additional breaches to their security net. Cyrus got through once already, they wouldn't let it happen again.

Bobby was up and had already made some coffee. He had tried coffee at the hospital and again at the racing academy and decided he liked it. Now he was up early every day to make it and he felt very grown up being the first one up. Linsey emerged from the guest room to make some breakfast and was glad to see the coffee already made. She started some eggs and bacon in the laserwave while she and Bobby talked about his experience at the racing academy.

Bobby was anxious this morning to get the day started because he was going to see Matt. He and Matt had not seen or talked to each other now for more than two weeks. Matt had been away to his relative's house out of state and then on to the Grand Canyon and several other exciting places. No doubt he would have some great stories and they could catch up all day but how could they have any fun with his Father deceased in a fire? Bobby had laid awake the night before pondering whether or not he should tell Matt the truth, if he didn't then he should be an emotional mess but he didn't feel up to the act. He was a little bit concerned for Matt's safety also, after all they were best friends, but then he reminded himself that it was his Father they were after, not him or his friends.

How do you tell your best friend that you've lost your father when you really haven't? Do you whip up some tears? He knew he needed to act sad but the truth was he didn't feel sad now. His father was very much alive, he was only faking his death until this thing was over. The experience of thinking about his father being dead and the thought of going through the motions of going to the funeral and the burial ceremony and everything really bothered him. It made him realize that even with Restoration some people were still dying, some were not able to be restored, it was disturbing to realize.

Breakfast was over and it was time to go. Linsey took Bobby to Matt's and went in with him to talk to her friend and neighbor Brenda McNeil. She was distraught and confused about what she should tell her friends and neighbors of so many years. She knew she couldn't tell them the whole truth because it could jeopardize everything that they had sacrificed for so long to protect. In the end, when it all came out, she only hoped that they would forgive her for lying about it.

They went up on the porch and rang the door bell and Brenda opened the door. Before Linsey could even say Hi, Brenda was out on the porch and had grabbed them both up in her arms squeezing them and breaking into a river of tears.

"I am so sorry for your loss!" She sobbed.  
"I don't know how you're getting through this, just let us know if there is anything at all that Bill and I can do." She had kissed Bobby's forehead and was now holding both of Linsey's hands.

"How rude of me, please come in and let's sit and talk for a while. Bobby Matt is in his room you can go right on up dear, he will be so happy to see you."

Neither Linsey nor Bobby expected such an emotional greeting, but they probably should have in such circumstances. Bobby went on up to see Matt.  
"Hey Buddy," he said, as he rapped his knuckles on the open bedroom door.  
"Hey Bro!" Matt said, as he got up and ran over to do their usual four step handshake He stopped short when he remembered about the fire, and then he hugged him instead.  
"I'm sorry Bobby, I really am, and I don't know what to say." Bobby didn't know either.

"It's okay," was all that he could get out.

He was a little choked up just thinking about it even being thought to be true even though he knew full well that his father was just fine at the farm. Then he noticed Matt was tearing up.

"God, I can't believe this, your Dad was the coolest, I was always a little jealous ya know."  
"What are you talking about Matt, your Dad is awesome, he's a great Father and he loves you." Matt was wiping away some tears now.

"Cut it out," Bobby said, "you're gonna get me started again and I can't do it anymore."  
"I'm sorry, it's just, I don't know, I don't do well with this kinda stuff."

Bobby couldn't take it, he just couldn't stand allowing his best friend in the world to grieve while he stood there and allowed it. He pulled a scanner from his pocket and turned in on.  
"What's that?" Matt asked, while still wiping tears away as quickly as they emerged.  
"Give me about three seconds and I'll tell you."

Bobby did a quick scan of the room and it was clean just as he had suspected it would be. He closed Matt's door and handed him the scanner.  
"Check it out," he said.  
"Okay, so what is it? And why were you waving it around my room?"  
"Well Buddy, it's a very long story, I'm going to fill you in but first let's do the hand shake." As they went through it Matt began to get control of his emotions, he knew something was up.

"Matt can I trust you with a secret that my very life may depend on?"  
"Of course, you know we've been through thick and thin man, I'd do anything for you bro, I would've shoved you out of the street that day if I could have gotten there faster!"  
"Yeah I know, I'm sorry I even asked the question."  
"Okay, well here's the deal . . ."  
Bobby went on for over an hour explaining to Matt everything that had happened. Matt was blown away by the whole thing and more than relieved that Dodge was alive. He felt a little silly for breaking down now that he knew the truth.

Meanwhile downstairs Linsey had been talking with Brenda over two glasses of iced tea and had now graduated to a glass of wine. Linsey had not been quite so informative, she was going along with the idea that Dodge was dead. She had become quite emotional playing the role just because the very thought of it made her so sad, it was easy to get emotional in spite of the truth.

Brenda wasn't helping matters with her emotions for Linsey's plight. Her sadness had touched Linsey and only added to the tears. Linsey was crying for three reasons, one because she lied to her friend and it caused her grief, two because just imagining the lie being real made her emotional, and three because she was so touched by her friend being so distraught for her sake.

They had finally gotten past the crying now and were just talking quietly about what the future might hold and about fixing the house, anything they could to put distance between themselves and the reality of it.

Bobby and Matt were still upstairs talking and they had moved on now to vacation stories of the Grand Canyon and Bobby's super exciting high speed adventures at the racing academy. He had learned so much in such a short time and couldn't wait until all of this was over so that he could get back to his new goal of racing professionally. They had covered g-forces, traction control, gear box configurations and gear ratios, proper handling techniques, high speed defensive moves, and then they went out and did it in real cars on a real track. It was the most fun he had ever had.

Matt agreed to study Mechanical Engineering in College with plans to become Bobby's Head Mechanic for his racing team some day. Bobby needed to get a few things from home to take back with them to Grandpa Kerrington's house so he and Matt went downstairs to talk to his Mother.

"Hey, Mom" Me and Matt want to go over to the house and get the things we talked about."  
"All right Son," she said, "just come right back, I don't want you over there too long, and don't go in the kitchen area at all, the insurance adjusters don't want that area disturbed until they have completed their review, okay?"  
"All right Mom," he said.

Bobby and Matt went out the side door of the kitchen into the garage. They walked over to Bobby's and went in through the front door using the key code. The power was still off but the front door had battery back up to unlock it in case of power outages. Once inside they could see that the walls were somewhat discolored from the smoke damage but only in the immediate area of the kitchen and the dining room.

They went upstairs and got a few things out of Bobby's room and put them in a bag. As they started back down the stairs they heard some glass break down the hall, it sounded like it came from Sarah's room. Matt said in almost a whisper.

"What was that?" Bobby put his finger to his lips in the "sshhh" gesture and pulled Matt into his parent's room.  
"I think someone just came in through my sister's window," he whispered. "Let's stay here for a second and see if they come this way."  
"Oh shit!" Matt whispered, "what are we going to do?" Bobby peeked around the door jamb very carefully and saw two men dressed in dark clothing carrying guns with silencers on them. They were working each of the rooms moving the opposite direction down the hall.

"Which one is the boy's room?" One of them said.

The other man motioned down the hall pointing to Bobby's room.

"You take the boy's room, I'll go through the office."

Bobby pulled his head back just as the other man glanced back towards him.

"Oh, man!" They're after ME now too! We gotta make a run for it."  
"Okay," Matt said, "which way?"  
"Let's go through the kitchen and out through the garage."  
"We can't without going toward that end of the balcony right at them," said Matt in a whisper.  
"Okay then, we'll jump over the hand rail of the balcony and onto the sofa below, that should buy us about a three or four second head start on them."  
"All right, let's just hope they're a lousy shot! I don't want to find out what Restoration feels like just yet."  
"Trust me my friend, if those guys shoot and kill us there won't likely be any Restoration." The two men were working the upstairs room by room, one had just entered Bobby's room now and was making all kinds noise ram sacking it looking for anything he could find while the second man went into the office.

"Let's go!" Bobby said, and off they went like a dart. They ran out onto the balcony that made a big "U" shape around the upstairs rooms. The two men heard them and ran out onto the balcony opposite of them.  
"Get'em!" The first man yelled. Bobby threw his duffel over the rail onto the sofa and jumped down right behind it. No sooner did he bounce to the floor, then Matt landed on the sofa right behind him and they both ran toward the kitchen. Cyrus's men had started running towards them and had passed the stairs never suspecting they would jump. They had to turn around and go back to the stairs, it bought the boys a few seconds but one of Cyrus's men still fired two shots that nearly took off their heads before they made it to the kitchen.

They wasted no time going through the kitchen and out to the garage. As soon as they got in the garage Bobby hit the overhead door button but there was no power, the door didn't go up. Matt, quick man, help me with this freezer. The shoved the deep freeze over in front of the house door to the garage and threw a few things on top. Just as they did Cyrus's men slammed into it hard and popped it open about 2 inches but not enough to get anything more than a hand through.

Bobby and Matt were trying to hold it but the two grown men on the other side were just too much for them. Bobby looked around and realized the half bath door adjacent to them swung out so he grabbed the door and swung it straight out wedging it against the freezer.  
"Let's go!" He said. The two of them ran out towards the man door on the other side of the garage that opened to the driveway and slung it open. As they headed out of it they saw two more men rounding the back corner of the house coming right at them. They did a fast 180 and went right back into the garage and locked the door.

They were trapped, they had nowhere to go. Bobby had to think fast.  
"What would his Dad do? What would Grandpa Kerrington do?" He could hear the bathroom door frame beginning to splinter as the two men continued slamming their bodies against the kitchen door and kicking it repeatedly. He could hear the other men now violently kicking the entry door that they tried to go out of just seconds earlier. It was metal and quite strong but it wouldn't hold forever.

It was as if everything stood still while his mind went through the choices they had.  
"Get in the GTO!"  
"What?"  
"Just GET IN!" Bobby hollered, as he ripped open the tool box drawer where his Father kept the keys. He grabbed them quickly and ran to the car. Matt had whipped the cover off of it and they both jumped in. As he was inserting the key into the ignition he noted the gear arrangement on the shift knob.

He mashed the clutch down and fired it up. The engine made an almost deafening roar inside the closed garage, as he slammed it into reverse, he hit the gas and dumped the clutch. The engine was screaming, the back end was wheel hopping and the burning rubber was filling the garage with smoke. The two men were falling through the kitchen door now as the bathroom door finally came off its frame allowing the freezer to slide out of the way. The man kicking the side door finally prevailed and was falling into the garage as the door frame ruptured inwards. He was still on the floor scrambling to get up only inches from the front tire.

Everything seem like slow motion. Bobby could feel his heart slamming the inside of his chest like a ten pound hammer as the adrenaline spiked in his veins to an all new level that he had never felt before. Just then he realized he had the accelerator all the way down and the car wasn't getting any traction on the slick coated cement floor.

He let up off the gas about half and the GTO got its footing. It rocketed back and through the wood garage door with so much force that large splintered pieces of it pelted the man that was getting up off the floor knocking him back down again. The other two men were attempting to fire at them now from their position across the garage. They were trying to get past the freezer while still tripping over the perilous remnants of the bathroom door and frame that were nearly impossible to navigate amidst the smoke, noise, and confusion.

Several feet outside the door Bobby realized that he had run over another man that was surprised by the exploding garage door and the speeding GTO. He was no doubt dead as Bobby had done a hole shot across him on the way out. He was trying to get control of the car now as it careened across the lawn in reverse and out into the street. It was difficult to control due to bouncing over two flower beds and a curb. They slammed into a rather expensive BMW jamming it up onto the sidewalk and into a small tree.

Cyrus's men were running across the garage firing wildly but missing terribly. Just then several silently fired Black Ops sniper rounds found their mark. The men in the garage dropped back onto the floor dead. Three seconds later several team members came through the house and into the garage. They quickly moved the bodies out of sight.

Bobby found first gear and dumped the clutch again but this time he let up off the gas to maintain traction and shot down the street like a bullet. Second gear yielded a fantastic burst of speed. He checked the rear view and saw two black vans and a little blue car making chase immediately.

A box truck backed into the driveway and up to the garage to obstruct the view just as several neighbors began to emerge from their homes to see what all the ruckus was about. Two more team members got out of the van wearing work boots and tool belts and began picking up the remnants of the door and tossing it into the truck. One of them waved to the neighbors.  
"Sorry for the noise folks, just putting in a new garage door."

Bobby and Matt were building a good lead on Cyrus's men, and just then Bobby thought, "Oh god I left Mom back there." He looked over at Matt who had now established a death grip on the dash board and the console.  
"Matt, quick man, take my phone and dial up my Mom." Matt was shaking so bad from the adrenaline rush he could barely navigate the phone.  
"Put it on speaker, I can't let go of this wheel!" His mother answered in a frantic tone.

"Oh my god, Bobby what is going on!"

"Mom, listen you and Brenda have to get out of there right now! Call the police, or run, do something, you can't stay there! They'll come for you next!" There was a pause on the other end and then her voice came back in a near whisper.
"Oh no Bobby, there's someone already in here, I have to go."

She ended the call.

"Mom! Mom! Hello! Shit!"  
"Hang on Matt!"

Bobby attempted to negotiate a high speed turn but the old Pontiac handled completely different from the oval track cars he had just been in two days ago. He side swiped two cars in the intersection and ended up doing a complete 180 and headed back towards Cyrus's men.  
"That's okay, I've got to go back!"

Just then one of Cyrus's cars caught up and glanced off the side of the GTO and slammed dead center a metal utility pole. Bobby looked over at them at impact and saw the driver slamming into the steering wheel and the passenger flying out through the windshield.  
"Jeeze!" He said, and then they took off again.

Back at the McNeil's Linsey Kerrington had pulled her gun from a conceal holster in the small of her back. She "sshhed" Brenda with a finger up to her lips. Brenda was completely flabbergasted by the gun and what they had just seen happen at the Kerrington's through the front window.

"What the hell are these people into?"

Linsey tapped her on the shoulder without looking at her and pointed under the table. Brenda got it and crawled under without a word.

Linsey had not taken her eyes off the hall way. She heard something down the hall right after they saw the GTO speed away with Cyrus's men running down the drive firing at it. She knew someone came in from back there and she had her weapon trained on the hallway intently. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. She moved her finger up and clicked the safety off, she had almost forgot, a deadly mistake. Everything was so different now in this moment than it was down in the basement when practicing. Everything was so amplified, even the safety clicking off sounded loud. She could hear the carpet squishing underneath a man's feet as he moved slowly up the hall towards her, a sound that would not normally be heard.

She moved off slightly to one side behind a large tree plant waiting for him to emerge. The brim of a ball cap poked out and she could see the tip end of a gun. A half second later he entered quickly, scanned the room, saw her and turned to fire. She pulled the trigger not once but three times. It was like slow motion, she could almost see the slide coming back ejecting the shells as the bullets left the gun.

He never got the gun turned toward her. He was firing the fully automatic weapon but it was not even pointed at her, he just pulled the trigger as a reaction full well knowing that he was beat as he fell back and over the hand rail to the basement stairs. She heard his body roll the rest of the way down and then silence.

She was still frozen with fear and looking down the barrel of her gun as a small amount of smoke wafted from it. It seemed like a long time but it was only a half second. Then all hell broke loose when two more men came running in from the hall and two more in behind her. She emptied her gun wildly at the men entering from the hall as she dove under the table with Brenda and heard at least twenty more shots being fired, then silence.  
"You can come out now Ladies," a male voice said in a calm tone.

Linsey looked up from under the table where she and Brenda were huddled still quivering. There was a gloved hand extended to her. She peered out from under the table to see one of the Black Ops team members standing there offering assistance. She took his hand and came out from under the table to find four more men all dressed in black attire and body armor standing over the dead bodies of three more of Cyrus's men.

Linsey's phone was ringing. The Black Ops Captain answered it.

"ARE YOU GUYS OKAY? Matt's frantic voice came through the speaker.

"This is Captain Ned Hawkings of Black Ops Team Nine. No worries boys your Mothers are just fine, we have secured the McNeil home and the perimeter. What is your situation?"  
"We're being chased by three no make that two vehicles, a black van and a small blue sports car." Okay, you boys did the right thing. Do you think you can lose them?"  
"I don't know Sir maybe, I'll try."

"Listen son, look at your gas gauge, how much fuel do you have?" Bobby already knew he had three quarters of a tank. He had learned at the academy to constantly monitor the cars vitals.  
"I have three quarters of a tank." "Okay, son, that's good, I believe you will have enough fuel to make it to the farm if you can lose these guys in the next five minutes. I have two team vehicles in hot pursuit but it will be difficult for them to catch up to you at your current rate of speed and the fact that you have a good head start on my men. Bobby do you know where the farm is and how to get there?"  
"Yes Sir, Dad told me everything to do in an emergency, I have a map in my phone so I can use GPS."  
"Okay good, you focus on getting there in one piece and we'll help you in any way we can."  
"Thank you Sir."

Right then the little blue car pulled alongside the GTO as the passenger reached out to fire at them through the window.

Matt yelled, "Look out!"

Bobby slammed on the brakes and downshifted causing the blue car to pull ahead of them suddenly and the shooter completely missed them. Bobby swooped in behind them and put the accelerator to the floor slamming the blue car hard from behind. The much heavier Pontiac knocked the little blue car completely out of control and it spun out slamming into some tables and a news stand. Bobby sped off going through the gears and heading for the freeway.

There was no sign now of the black van or the blue car. The van apparently wasn't fast enough and got left far behind. The GTO was battered on every side.  
"Oh man Matt, your Dad is gonna crap when he sees this car!" Bobby took a quick assessment from the driver's seat as best he could. The car was in bad shape cosmetically but mechanically it was just fine.  
"Yeah, he might be a little upset."

Bobby was now quite impressed with the car. It was a lot heavier than the stock cars they had trained on at racing school but it was built like a tank and was really fast considering how heavy it was. He was getting used to it now and could power drift the turns and easily put the car into a slide and get it straight again with confidence. He handed his skyphone back to Matt.  
"Here Buddy get that map up on there for the farm, we gotta get there pronto before we pick up any more tails."

They slowed down to about 80 mph to avoid picking up any police. It was hard enough to blend in with the electric cars and all the taxis without the added attention of going way too fast. They figured Cyrus and Glitch probably had people monitoring police band and would be on to them again if tipped off by a traffic cop reporting a speeding vintage hot rod.

They were heading to the east side to get on I-465 North. They were cruising along now with no apparent problems when Bobby noticed a black van coming along the on ramp at a high rate of speed, it looked an awful lot like trouble, then he spotted the blue car again three cars behind the van. He hit the gas and the chase was on again.  
"Damn it! How did those ass holes find us? Matt, see if you can look around in the sky, do they have a chopper up there spotting for them?" Matt rubber necked around and looked out and up the best he could.

"Nope, I don't think so. Hey, you don't suppose they have the ability to pick us up on satellite imaging do ya?"  
"Good thinking Matt, that's got to be it, this GTO sticks out like a sore thumb around all these smaller newer cars."

Bobby had the GTO up to 125 mph now but the little blue car was holding its own pretty good. It was about two hundred yards back of them weaving in and out of traffic trying to catch them.  
"I don't know what that little car has it in man, but I gotta say that driver's got some balls to drive that light of a car at this speed, damn that thing is fast."

Bobby saw an opening in the center lane and nailed it to the floor taking the speed up to 140 mph. It was just about maxed out and the car was beginning to vibrate a little bit. He looked back and the blue car was losing ground fast. Bobby knew he couldn't maintain this kind of speed for long because he could see another cluster of thick traffic ahead about a mile up in front of them.  
"Matt dial up John Calhoun, tell him our situation and ask him if he can jam their sat com so we can get out to the farm without giving up the location. If we're not careful, we're going to lead Cyrus right to our headquarters."  
"Okay, Buddy, you got it" Matt began dialing, John picked up on the second ring.

"John, Matt here, Bobby's friend, we need some help we think they've got us on satellite imaging and we can't break free."  
"I'm glad you boys called, look here is what you need to do. Get a big truck between you and them where there is an exit available. At high speeds with little time to think you can take an exit when they are'nt expecting it and they won't be able to get off if they go too far past it. They'll have to rely on their eyes in the skies to pick back up on you later.

You have to go to a parking garage, a large one and ditch the GTO, but stay off the top level. I already have a lock on your skyphone and I'll load the nearest parking garages into the GPS. All you have to do is get off the interstate and back into the city. I'll guide you from there with the phone."

"Okay, you the man John, thanks!"  
"Did you hear all that?" Said Matt.  
"Yes, but damn it, I hate to ditch Dad's car."  
"I know but there's no other way, we'll just have to come back to get it later."  
"All right, I'll slow down and let the blue car catch up a bit. There's a cluster of slow traffic up here. I'll try to get him pinned into that mess and take an exit when he can't."

Bobby slowed down and then shot to the far left lane and then goosed the throttle to go around several slower cars. The little blue car was almost caught up but another car cut him off as he entered the fast lane to follow.  
"Perfect!" Bobby yelled. Matt looked back and laughed.

"Oh! That guy cut him off!"

Bobby checked the far right lane. There were three back to back semi trucks. The blue car was flashing his lights and weaving around behind the guy that cut him off. Bobby could see that the bewildered driver was speeding up and had turned on his signal to move over and let the blue car by. Bobby saw an exit coming up but it was too late, or was it?

He had noticed the switch on the console with a red finger guard over it. His Dad had always told him not to touch it when he was a kid. He never said what it was but now that Bobby had been to the academy he had learned about NOS and he knew it meant nitrous oxide gas and he knew exactly what it did, it was the "go juice." He saw the opportunity in his mind there was only a two or three second window to decide and he did.

"Hang on Matt" he said, and he flipped the switch and floored the accelerator. The frame of the old Goat let out a moan like it was in pain and then it lunged forward like a bat out of hell, pinning them back in the seats with a shocking amount of force. He cleared the forward semi then yanked the wheel to the right and crossed in front of him and into the safety lane, killed the NOS with a flick of the switch, slammed on the brakes and downshifted smoking all four tires in an attempt to reduce his speed enough to do something that Matt didn't expect.

"What are you doing man? Oh shit!"

"Hang on Buddy! We're goin off road!"

At nearly 80 Mph they left the highway, not for an exit ramp, not for a nice smooth piece of road off to the right. But instead for a bumpy tree filled area that formed a large triangle between two of the ramps and the main road. The GTO was air born and not just a little, it was at least six feet off the ground.  
"Hang on we're coming in!" Bobby yelled as they started coming back in for a landing. Matt didn't hear him because he was busy screaming and bracing himself with one hand on the roof of the car and the other on the dash. Bobby had a death grip on the steering wheel and was repeating.

"Please don't break! Please don't break!"

The old Goat came down hard in the grass and kicked up a huge cloud of dust and a slab of sod big enough to plant a small garden on. The force of the impact buckled the car's body and caused the rear window to blow right out. Bobby eased into the brakes the best he could while trying to stay in control. The ground was soft enough that it cushioned their landing some but it still hurt their tail bones. They were mowing down small trees and glancing off some larger ones that would have been devastating if hit squarely.

He managed to get the car back up onto another road. Matt looked out behind them, no sign of the little blue car. No doubt he was caught up in the mess of traffic and didn't realize where they went.

"Whoa, that was off the hook crazy! Said Bobby. Did we lose them?"  
"I think so. That was some good driving man, did you learn that stuff at the school?"  
"No way, that was just crazy there, I can't believe this thing held together. Now I know why Grandpa is always saying they don't build them like they used to."

They both busted out laughing and shared a high five.

The phone rang, it was John. Matt answered.

"Yello?" He switched it to speaker phone.  
"John here. Hey I see you're off the highway and still moving, did you lose them?"  
"Oh yeah! My man Bobby has some sick moves, he smoked them good!"  
"All right, go Bobby!

That's good work guys but you're not out of this just yet, you may have lost them for a few minutes but they'll be back on your tail very soon. We're fairly certain they're using satellite imaging to locate you. If so they'll easily find you again so we have to act fast.

"Okay, just tell us what to do," Said Matt.

There are three major parking garages in the area and we have a driver waiting for you at the busiest one. I already programmed the directions into your phone. Just hit go. When you get to the garage, go up to the fourth level and park the GTO in spot D123. Our driver is waiting for you in D129, see you at the farm boys, nice job."  
"We're on our way, thanks John, you're a lifesaver!"

Matt hung up the phone and hit the go icon on the screen and it loaded the map. It was only 3.4 miles away. Bobby noticed some vapor coming from under the hood. He checked the temp gauge, it was running a little hot. He must have busted the radiator or punctured a hose when they landed in the grass and drove though all those little trees.

Two minutes later they arrived at the garage and so far they had not seen anything that resembled Cyrus's men. The temp gauge was in the red now and the car was running bad. They wheeled into D123 and shut it down. A huge cloud of steam rolled out from under the hood. The old Goat let out what sounded like a groan and a long sigh that almost brought tears to Bobby's eyes. He had destroyed the GTO. Two men approached the car immediately.

"Come on boys we have to move!"

The doors were jammed shut due to the cars twisted frame so they slid out through the windows instead. They walked back to the car in D129 and started getting in when Matt suddenly went down on one knee and leaned against the car.  
"Matt, what's wrong?" Then Bobby noticed the blood soaked leg of Matt's jeans and the drops of blood he had left across the garage floor. One of the men quickly helped Matt up and into the car while another wiped up the blood very quickly with a towel that seemed to come from nowhere.  
"Get in! We have to go NOW!" one of them shouted.

They all got in and the driver sped away down the ramps to the ground level and out onto the road. Just as they turned out two black vans went speeding into the parking garage. They had narrowly escaped. Bobby's attention quickly turned to his friend in the back seat of the speeding car. Two of the men had already cut the leg of Matt's jeans from the ankle all the way up to his thigh to get at the wound.  
"Yip" one of them said, "Hit a small artery but he's going to be fine." The second man was making a tourniquet out of his belt and telescoping baton while the first man applied pressure.

Matt was looking a bit green around the gills but was still conscience.  
"I didn't even know I was bleeding, was it a bullet?"  
"Hard to say Son, looks like you either caught one or maybe a piece of one. It went right through, clean in and out, you'll live."  
"I felt something tear my jeans back at the house but I just thought that I had snagged them on something when we were trying to escape."

"That's how it is when the adrenaline's pumping, but when it wears off it hurts like hell. Here take two drops of this on your tongue. The man presented Matt with a small bottle of liquid. He opened the bottle and put two drops of it in his mouth. The other man handed him a bottle of water and he quickly took big slug of it to washed down the awful taste.

"So who are you guys?" Bobby asked.  
"We're part of the Black Ops team, well an extension of it really. We heard about what your Father and John were taking on and we volunteered. All total now there are over two hundred of us working on this. Most of us are just on standby but we're ready to go at a moment's notice if needed. Most of us worked for five different agencies that all had run-ins with Cyrus at one time or another. He has made fools out of most of us more than once, he's very tough to corner.

We didn't even know his name for a long time and we never even got close to catching him, but Dodge and John, now they have a chance. The government disbanded most of our teams as part of the most recent United Nations agreements. We had leads on what we now know as Cyrus but at the time we were not sure if all the different incidents were related.

Now we know that Cyrus was behind almost all of the strange situations where very wealthy and powerful men were stripped of everything and laid to waste. Cyrus even used his power to influence several world leaders into creating this last treaty that relaxed the security efforts of several governments including ours, that is why we lost our jobs.

Most of us got screwed out of our pensions and everything that we worked so hard for. After we got dumped by our government we began to communicate across teams. We decided to merge our teams together and pool our resources. That is when John began giving us projects from time to time and funding it privately.

We became a highly organized vigilante group. This is what we do now, and we're really glad we could help you boys out today. We'll get you safely to the farm don't worry."

The phone rang again in Matt's pocket, he was getting a little groggy now but he managed to get it out and hand it to Bobby.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey, John here, I see one of our teams scooped you up, and you're on the move, how's Matt?"  
"How did you know he was injured?"  
"I hijacked the security cams at the garage and I saw him go down on one knee there by the car, is he okay?"  
"Yeah, he's gonna be fine, thanks to the fast actions of your men."  
"Yeah, well they're damn good and they know how to handle themselves, so what happened to Matt?"

"Well it looks like he caught a bullet in his thigh, went right through though, they got it bandaged up and the bleeding is nearly stopped, so it looks like he's going to make it to the farm just fine."  
"Good, you'll get to see everyone there in a few. Hey, tell your Dad I'm sorry about his car, Cyrus's men set it on fire just a few minutes ago and left it to burn. I turned the sprinkler system on for level four right after they left. It isn't a total loss but the interior is partially burned up and you already know what the outside looks like. Soooo . . . , anyway . . . , it's gonna take some work to fix it."  
"Oh man, all right, well as much as I hate to do it, I'll tell him, thanks again John."

He hung up the phone and just sat back and took a deep breath and let it out real slow.  
"What a day, what an experience, what a rush. This was going to make a really good story for his children some day. He just hoped that the GTO could be fixed, he knew how much his Dad loved that car.

A few minutes later they arrived at the farm. They drove around to the back of the building as the overhead door went up in perfect timing, they drove inside and the door went down just as quickly. They all piled out and there stood his Father, both of him, wow, what a weird site. His Dad walked up quickly and hugged him.

"Thank God you're okay Son," he said with a little bit of quiver in his voice. Then his clone walked up and hugged him too.

"Good to see you Son, welcome to the farm."

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. An exact copy of his father standing right there only he was about four inches taller, very muscular and younger looking but it was most definitely a clone of his Dad.  
"Dad, I'm so sorry, I messed up the GTO, it's a wreck." Dodge immediately grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Son, it's just a car, it can be replaced, my only concern was for your safety, you and Matt. I'm glad you were in the GTO, it probably saved your life and it was worth it!"

They watched as two of the team loaded Matt on a Gurney that Caitlin had brought out to the garage area. She was already loosening the make shift bandage as they wheeled him away. As He and both Dodge's turned to walk that way there stood John's clone.  
"Wow John! Good to see the other you man!" JC laughed.

"Yeah, I just got off the phone with John in Indy and got an update on how we helped you out. My original is pretty smart but I'm the good looking one," he said. He flexed his muscles and laughed. "Hey call me JC okay, it eliminates a lot of confusion. John's on his way here too, so the whole motley crew will be together shortly."

Bobby couldn't believe that he was seeing this. Alan Kerrington came out into the garage area, he had heard that Bobby and Matt arrived safely. His Grandpa was young from restoration but on top of that, he was ripped. He had obviously been working out with DC and JC and he looked awesome.  
"Hey Bobby, thank God you made it here in one piece! Close call with those guys huh?"

He put his arm around Bobby's neck.

"Let's go get you something to drink and you can tell me all about it. I heard that you outran those guys hands down."

"Yeah we did okay."

"Okay? Shoot, stop being so humble, you humiliated those clowns! Hey, and don't worry, I talked to your Mother, the team got her back to my place along with your sister and the McNeil's, everything is going to be just fine, come on."

Bobby sat and talked with his Grandpa for a while in the kitchen. He told him how he and Matt outsmarted Cyrus's men at the house and how they got away from them in the garage and how he out drove them. He was enjoying the moment but he was also worried about Matt.  
"Hey" Alan said, "Let's go see how Matt's doing. You know that gal Caitlin is something else, he's in real good hands, and she's pretty too."

By the time they got down to the lab, Caitlin already had Matt's wound cleaned, laser fused and bandaged. Matt was sipping on a big glass of coke with lots of ice through a bendy straw and had two IVs hooked up to him. He was smiling when Bobby and Alan walked in.  
"Hey you look a lot better!" Bobby said.  
"Yeah I feel better too. Caitlin gave me this stuff here through this tube and I feel great, in fact I feel better than I did before I got shot."

Alan and Bobby started laughing, Matt was obviously high on whatever Caitlin had given him to relieve the pain. Scientist had developed non-addictive pain killers with zero side effects, so now practitioners could liberally relieve almost any pain until Restoration or healing was complete.

"You boys did a great job and it took a lot of guts to do it. I look at you both like men now. Matt, young man, get some rest and let that leg heal up. Come on Bobby, let's get out of here and let him be, I'll take you around here and show you all the stuff we've been working on." As they left Bobby pauses.

"Hey Caitlin, thanks for taking such good care of my best friend, I owe you one." She smiled.

"You're welcome Bobby, now be more careful out there."

As he and Alan turned the corner Bobby took one more quick look at Caitlin

"Does she have a younger sister?"

Alan laughed as he slapped him on the back and said . . .

"You dog!"

Chapter 32 Cyrus paced back and forth along a line of eight men that stood before him. He scratched his chin as he pondered upon which one to kill first. All of these men had let him down; they were all incompetent. Two boys had out ran, out maneuvered, and out witted the entire lot of them. How did they do it? How did they get out of that parking garage? He knew that young Bobby had just returned from racing school, was he that good of a driver already?

He also knew the Kerrington family had a history of tenacity because Alan Kerrington was quite the military hero. Dodge was no slouch either, maybe he had underestimated these people a bit. But still how did those boys get away so easily when they had eyes on that parking garage? They must have stolen another car or hitched a ride in the bed of truck or something. But if they did it was done very quickly because he had his men on site within one minute of the Pontiac pulling into that garage.

These people seemed to have nothing but good luck and he himself was having nothing but bad luck. Unless! Yes that must be it! They had outside help. Someone was helping this family or they were helping themselves but how. He had been watching them intently for months. There was nothing out of the ordinary, what could it be? Maybe he was losing his mind; maybe that electric shock that Glitch hit him with muddled his ability to think clearly. Maybe his mind just wasn't as sharp as it should be right now.

Still he had to punish someone for the mistakes that were made, he had two men confirmed killed in the car chase and six more men unaccounted for, were the missing men dead? Or did they go AWOL while out on assignment? He needed answers.

"You there." He said to the one on the far left.

"You are the Captain of this team, right?"  
"Yes Sir! I am."

He approached the man and stood face to face with him.  
"So 751, why shouldn't I break your incompetent neck right now and make an example of you here before these men?"

The Captain swallowed nervously. He had seen men try to talk their way out of these things with Cyrus before. He knew there was only one option that might save him.  
"I have absolutely no excuse Sir, I failed you and I deserve death. I only wish I could have lived to have another opportunity to capture Bobby Kerrington for you Sir. I'm sorry."

He looked at the ground expecting the worst and hoping for mercy. Cyrus was impressed with his fortitude and his lack of stupid excuses and groveling that most men did in these situations. He appreciated that this man had the stones to admit he failed and that he didn't blame any of his men as prior Captains had done. He paced back and forth two more passes and then stopped in front of 751 again.  
"Granted," he said, "you will have that opportunity to get him but on one condition and one condition only. All seven of these men standing here with you must pledge that they too will die if you don't get him next time." Cyrus looked down the line of men.  
"Those willing to die with their Captain will step forward and if even one man does not agree to this then your Captain will die now today, right here, right now, before your eyes. Well? What's it gonna be?"

Four of the men stepped forward almost immediately then the fifth and sixth just a second behind also stepped forward. "Well, okay then, looks like Captain 751 and his men are a unit that has solidarity if nothing else. You're all dismissed, be ready for action at a moment's notice!"

They all turned in unison and walked away in utter relief. Cyrus paced a few more times and then walked off toward his office. He had enough killing lately, and besides he couldn't kill all of them or he would have to do all the work himself. He needed to think, he needed to brew some new strategy. He had to figure out his next move and this time it had to be perfect. First Dodge had slipped through his fingers and now he was dead and he was of no use dead. Now the boy had slipped through his fingers as well, but at least he was still alive, or so it seemed. He had planned to use Bobby as leverage with the Mother. Any decent Mother would gladly give up any and all secrets she might hold to save her only Son from certain torture and death. But now he didn't have Bobby either. He must have fled to some distant relative's home for refuge. As he walked to his office, he decided that this must surely be the case. He would assign Glitch the task of finding all of Bobby's friends and relatives. Surely this way they could find the boy and reinstate their plan. He went to his office to detonate the cranial charges of the six missing men. He couldn't risk any of them talking if they had been taken alive.

As Cyrus disappeared into the darkness of the long corridor toward his office, Toby and Todd stepped out of the shadows. They had witnessed the entire ordeal with Cyrus and his men. They were surprised at the zero body count. It wasn't like Slade to leave everyone standing. They heard the whole thing and were relieved to know that Bobby and Matt had escaped Cyrus's clutches. They expected to hear word from the outside very soon. Surely this attempt on Bobby and Matt would result in Dodge and John accelerating the agenda. Operation Black Ice was surely coming sooner now and no doubt with a vengeance.

At the Calhoun residence, John was packing a bag in preparation for going to the farm. He had received word from the team of the need to accelerate Black Ice. The time had finally come. John was heading out to the farm where he could be totally committed to the management of the attack along with the rest of the team. They were planning to move on the compound in the next twenty-four hours, and there was a great deal of work to be done. He had already shipped his primary computer equipment out to the farm. He had to be stealthy about it because it was a large number of items that required a large container.

He contacted his cousin at the pawn shop again as usual by making one of his special deposits but this time the box only contained instructions. It was a very simple plan; get some new appliances including a rather large deep freezer. All of his equipment was packed into the old appliances. His cousin arranged a truck and had decals applied just like one of the local high end appliance store trucks. John made a list of the exact models he wanted and provided it to them with the instructions.

They rolled in and swapped out the new for the old and carried out all of John's key equipment needed for the job hidden inside the old appliances right under the watchful eye of Slade's men and they never suspected a thing. The team members posing as delivery men returned to their own warehouse where they removed all the decals from the truck. They changed their clothes and the license plates, then drove the now unmarked truck out to the farm.

John was now headed there himself under the disguise of a business trip to Vegas. The watchers assigned to him had been doubled now that Dodge was thought to be dead, no doubt Cyrus was targeting both John and Tim Stance as the next best information sources to abduct. Now that they were watching him like a hawk he had to be extra stealthy.

He contacted an old trusted friend out in Vegas that owed him a big favor. He made him promise that he would do exactly as he asked and to not ask any questions. He assured his friend that he would explain everything in about a week. His friend suspected there might be some trouble and agreed without any questions.

At the airport, another man with a very similar build and look to that of John's, boarded the airplane on first call. He was wearing cheap sunglasses, a cowboy hat, a black western shirt, cowboy boots, and blue jeans. He had a carryon bag with him that contained the usual things you need when you travel but it also contained a Nike golf hat, designer sunglasses, a business suite, dress shoes, a solid red tie, and blue dress shirt. John boarded that same plane moments later under the watchful eye of a man reading a newspaper in the boarding area; one of Cyrus's quiet but ever present watchers. The man had a tiny camera inside of his eyeglasses; he took a picture of John as he walked past which he promptly forwarded to a watcher in Nevada. John was wearing designer sunglasses, a business suite, dress shoes, a blue dress shirt, and a solid red tie. He had been alerted to the watcher's location by team members and was careful to turn his head away as he passed by the man to prevent him from getting a good picture of his face.

He also had a carryon bag containing the usual things he would need plus a cowboy hat, boots, blue jeans, a black western shirt, and some cheap sunglasses, in fact the items were an exact match to those worn by the man already on board. During the flight the two men both excused themselves for a few minutes to the restroom on board the plane taking their carryon bags. They both changed clothes while in the restrooms and then swapped seats when they returned. A clever switch had been made.

Several hours later at the airport in Nevada a watcher was waiting. He observed what appeared to be John Calhoun getting off the plane and meeting a driver that was holding a sign up that said Calhoun on it; the driver was sent by John's friend of course. He didn't snap a picture, there was no need, it was very obvious that this was the same man from the photo his counterpart sent to him earlier. The suit and Nike hat were unmistakable; his work done, he got up and left the terminal to follow the man he believed to be John Calhoun. Fifteen minutes later a stewardess woke up the last remaining passenger on the plane.

"Sir," she said, as she gently shook the man in the cowboy hat.

"We've landed Sir, it's time to disembark."  
"Sorry Ma'am," he said, as he got up slowly, "I guess I dozed off."

He tipped his hat in southern style to the nice lady as he stepped past her toward the exit.

John Calhoun exited the plane dressed as a cowboy. He burned the next two hours at one of the airport pubs where he was handily hit on by two stewardesses that like cowboys and one female pilot that claimed she loved horses. He had no idea that the cowboy look drew so much female attention. One big juicy burger and three beers later he boarded his return flight to Indianapolis under the fake identity of Bill Schneider. He settled into his seat and went right sleep with his hat down over his eyes. One nice long nap later the plane landed back in good ole Indiana.

He left the airport in an old pickup truck that his cousin dropped off earlier that day in the pay to park lot. Meanwhile back in Nevada John's friend was showing a complete stranger a real good time while pretending he was his good friend John Calhoun. He took him out on the town to several bars and two Casinos just as John had requested. He couldn't wait to hear the explanation for this one in a week or so.

One hour later John arrived at the farm; it was nearly midnight but everyone was still up working on the details of exactly how they would attack the compound. John walked in with his cowboy disguise on and everyone started laughing at him and calling him various names ranging from Tex to Partner, and finally, Cowboy Bob which Alan had to explain to everyone else who had never heard of Cowboy Bob because it was a hundred year old reference. John laughed along with them but couldn't wait to get the boots off, he said they were a little small and beginning to really hurt his feet.

After John changed they all gathered around two large tables that JC and DC had set up in part of the extra garage area. This was fast becoming their make shift command center because it was a large area where everyone could gather and it had plenty of electrical outlets for John's computer equipment. He had to move a few items around to his liking, but for the most part, they had it hooked up right.

Within the next twelve hours Linsey and Sarah would also be arriving at the Farm and would be staying there during the attack on the compound. They would be leaving the house separately to go shopping and that was when the team would be extracting them from their situation. Once out of the house the Black Ops team would be assisting both Linsey and Sarah in losing their watchers in unsuspecting ways so that they could be whisked out to the farm without being followed.

Even though the watchers would be reporting that they had lost track of the two women, it would quickly become irrelevant. Operation Black Ice would be well under way before anyone figured out why they were missing or how they had given Cyrus's men the slip. They continued working until about 1:00 a.m. when they decided it was time to get some sleep, after all, tomorrow was shaping up to be a very big day that would require everyone being well rested and sharp witted.

At the compound Toby and Todd were plotting out precisely how they would round people up once the attack began. They would be given as ten minute warning, but they felt that was only sufficient for them to get the people that were already in on the plan into the oven safely. As for the rest of the people, they would have to catch them at the right time in order to make them realize that they really needed to get in that oven if they wanted to live. The people that still didn't know what was coming really had only two options, stand with Cyrus and die alongside him during the fire fight, or die later when Cyrus transmitted his death signal, even if they managed to escape it during the onslaught, the head bombs would get them in the end.

The logic was simple, Cyrus would not allow a deserter to live. He also wouldn't let any0ne go on living if he managed to escape after the battle. He simply couldn't allow any lose ends. Anyone of these underlings could develop a very active conscience later and decide to testify against him. There was no way Cyrus would allow that to happen. If they alerted people in the compound too soon one of them might sound the alarm and ruin their crucial element of surprise. If they waited too long, there wouldn't be enough time to get people into the oven and many innocent people that hated Cyrus would perish for no good reason.

This was a very delicate situation that would require very precise handling. Cheyenne had been informed by Todd that this was all about to happen but she was stuck on the outside at the house. She wanted to come to the compound but was not allowed to show up unannounced. They were trying to think of a reason to get her to the compound but hadn't come up with anything. After some thought, Toby came up with an idea that they agreed might work.

The Caddy had a wheel out of balance and the rear view mirror had still not been fixed. Todd went down to the maintenance area where some of the vans and watcher cars got serviced. He spoke with the head mechanic and requested that the Caddy get looked at. The mechanic knew about the camera being broken but didn't let on to Todd that it was about to be called in for repair. Nobody really cared about the mirror, instead it was the non functioning camera and audio that Glitch wanted fixed. The mechanic moved it up on the list and sure enough Cheyenne got a message on her skyphone to bring the Caddy in the next day at 7:00 a.m.

Cheyenne was really excited about being in the compound with the rest of them when it all went down. Not only would she be there but she intended to help in any way she could. She felt it was the least she could do to repay Toby and the entire team for taking a chance on her. She hoped to meet Dodge and John when this was all over with so that she could personally thank them for saving her life.

It was very late now and every team member was down for the night. Some had fallen asleep quickly due to sheer exhaustion from the busy day they had put in preparing for the assault on the compound. Still others lay awake staring at the ceiling or their clock hoping to fall asleep soon but still too worked up to sleep.

Dodge and Linsey were reunited at the farm earlier that evening. They held each other for a long time and cried, and then they laughed, they were so glad to be together in a safe place. Linsey was emotionally exhausted and needed to be with her husband, she had been so strong now for so long but when he put his arms around her she broke down. She was so afraid for Bobby and Matt after witnessing their heroine escape from Cyrus's men at the house. Having to kill a man just about destroyed her emotionally, but her Motherly instinct and her training kicked in when she needed them the most.

She was already devastated at having to see her dead husband being carried out of their charred kitchen in a body bag, it was just too much, they were all ready for this whole thing to be over with. After their reunion she met his clone, DC, and they all got a good laugh when she hugged him for a long time and then felt his arms and shoulders with a big grin on her face. It was quite hilarious and the jokes went on for a while about who was bunking with whom tonight.

Now, down the hall, DC lay silently staring at the ceiling all alone. He had all the same feelings for Linsey that Dodge had for her, yet he had to lie there alone until morning. He longed for that time to come. He knew that the sooner he fell asleep the sooner he would wake up having remembered spending the entire night with Linsey just like Dodge was right now. When morning came, he too would share the memory. It was a strange feeling for both of them, there was no jealousy at all, it just wasn't like that. Instead it was a pure feeling of harmony that couldn't be explained.

The whole Surrogate and Clone situation had taken another humorous turn earlier that evening. Nearly everyone had witnessed JC and John getting into a heated debate about the plan of attack. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and just looked at them both while grinning. It was only then that both of them realized the humor in it.

John looked around at everyone.  
"Haven't any of you argued with yourself before?" The whole room erupted into laughter and then Dodge suggested that they both "sleep on it" which caused another wave of laughter. Everyone knew what happened when a clone and surrogate slept. It would be impossible for them to disagree in the morning.

Over the past several days, Alan and two of the Black Ops weapons experts had spent almost thirty hours each putting the finishing touches on the three military vehicles in their private arsenal. They were in very good working order now and all the guns were loaded, oiled and ready to go. It was down to just a few hours now, so Alan spent about two hours checking over things one last time to be sure he hadn't missed anything.

Before daylight they would be leaving to get into their positions for the attack later in the morning. John had obtained special permits for the vehicles to be on the road by hacking into a database of museum curators and finding that there was an armament show down in Tennessee the following weekend. He added their three vehicles to the list of those that would be traveling in the area to the show down south.

This clever move insured that there would be no trouble with law enforcement if they happened to get stopped on the way to Indy from Lapel. Their I.D. papers and permits would all check out as civilians transporting show pieces to the special event down south. Even the men in the back of the truck had permits to be there as actors posing as soldiers to bring realism to their exhibit.

Alan was drifting off to sleep now, looking forward to the action he was about to face. He couldn't wait to unleash some good old fashioned justice on Cyrus Slade and anyone that dared to stand with that bastard when they got there. He felt strong and he felt confident that when the smoke cleared they would be the victors.

Before the dawns early light, Alan and five members of the Black Ops team were piloting the two humvees and the five ton. The six men piloting the three trucks pulled into the warehouse four blocks west of the old foundry just as the sun was cresting the horizon. They radioed as they approached and an overhead door on the west side went up. They drove in and the door closed quickly behind their vehicles.

Inside they were greeted by eighteen men that had already arrived. The Captain of the Team was standing in front of a large digiboard speaking with a few of the men that had gathered. He was sipping on a steaming cup of black coffee. He paused when he spotted Alan Kerrington, he immediately approached Alan and saluted him in true military form. Alan reciprocated the gesture, after which they relaxed and shook hands.

"Hello Major Kerrington, it's a pleasure and an honor to see you again Sir" he said while still shaking Alan's hand vigorously. Some of the other men nearby paused to see what was going on.  
"Thank you again for your incredible service to our country and of course to my family, I just want to say I consider it an honor to serve alongside you today."  
"Thank you Captain, the pleasure is mine, I'm just glad to be here to help." Alan walked over to get a cup of coffee from the table on the far side of the room and one of the team members asked the Captain who Alan was.  
"That's a true American Hero there boys, his platoon was deployed into Iraq after 9/11. They got cut off from their support for six days. Alan and one other member of their platoon were the only ones left when it was over. They were under fire for twenty-six hours straight and took out fifty-eight enemy combatants between the two of them. When they finally walked out of it and back towards their own camp they had both sustained gunshot wounds. As a result his comrade almost didn't make it. Major Kerrington carried him on his back for the last twelve miles. That man was my Father. My Father would tell that story to me and my brother over and over and just shake his head in wonder. How did Alan carry him that far with a bullet in his own thigh? My Father died years later from lung cancer. Alan Kerrington came to the funeral. He's the only one left now from his platoon, got the purple heart alongside my Father for what they did. Alan knew they were talking about him so he went the other way and started looking at the trucks again.

He appreciated their thoughts but he didn't like talking about what happened in Iraq, it was just too painful to go back into those memories. He didn't even bring it up with his own family because it was in the past and he only did there what any man who loved his country would have done. He knew that he had a lot of luck and the good Lord above watching over him during that mess.

The rest of the team members had arrived now and were standing around in groups talking a bit and drinking coffee. It was almost 6:30 a.m., John and Dodge were just arriving in a black van and there were two more Black Ops vans behind them with the rest of the technical crew. The tech crew was those people that would not be actually going into the compound, they would be manning the command post running interference for those on the inside just in case any law enforcement personnel or emergency workers were to enter the perimeter or cause any problems.

Tech would have the ability to divert law enforcement, change traffic signals on command, hijack security cams, reroute fire trucks and ambulance runs, just about anything they might need that required a geek. They had already planned several elaborate diversions including two fires and one convenience store robbery just in case it was a slow day for law enforcement and they happened to be in the area.

Bobby volunteered to help watch monitors and bring drinks to anyone that needed one. Caitlin, Linsey, Sarah, Matt, and Jason were all back at the farm and would also be watching monitors. Each person had several team members assigned to them. They would watch their backs as best they could. All the team members had front and rear helmet cams. Those watching monitors were patched into their ear pieces. If there was any danger approaching them from behind, their spotter would warn them. They literally had eyes on the backs of their heads.

"Attention everyone," the Black Ops Team Captain was calling everyone to the command area.

"Please everyone, gather in. First I want to thank each of you for being here today, you're about to become part of history in the next few hours. Welcome to the final stage of Operation Black Ice."

Everyone started clapping and it went on for a few seconds until the Captain raised his hands to get them quiet again.  
"We appreciate your enthusiasm, now let's get down to business. This operation is very unique as it's the first ever covert operation to be carried out by 100% civilian forces. Our team that is assembled here today has many elite members and former military and law enforcement members within it but not one of us is still a government employee or a local law enforcement employee. For one reason or another all of our jobs were eliminated."

"Our government thought they didn't need our services any longer, we were considered outdated in a time of peace, in a time of high technology they thought that we as people were antiquated and that they could replace us with machines that could keep an eye on things. The trouble is the machines don't have a conscience and they can be easily reprogrammed by the likes of Cyrus Slade and his partner Glitch."

"What we're about to do here today will be the first of its kind but probably not the last. Let's hope our government will wake up and realize the danger we're all in and how insecure our country is and then reinstate the organizations that we need to protect our country. More than ever intellectual property has become the most valuable asset we as mankind possess and there will be ever increasing attempts to obtain total control over it."

"I would also like to mention that without Mr. Dodge Kerrington, and Mr. John Calhoun, none of this would be possible today, they have fathered this entire technology and Mr. Calhoun has single handedly financed this entire operation." Another short round of applause broke out.  
"All right everyone this is it, the final stage of Operation Black Ice is on! Everyone to your post, LETS MOVE OUT!"

As the group began to disperse, the Captain gave one more order.

"Everyone channel up on your com links, take your orders from your team leaders, you know what to do." Twenty-five men armed with old school M-16s and also modern LRPs (laser rifle repeaters) loaded up in the back of the five ton. They had been tagged Team Chaos, they would be the last to go in and lay waste to any combatants that remained to stand with Slade.

Alan, DC and JC, all loaded up in the lead humvee along with the team Captain, they were dubbed Team Talon. Their mission was to go in moving very quietly and moving as deep into the compound toward Cyrus and Glitch as possible in order to thwart any escape attempts. They had no desire to take Cyrus or Glitch alive but they had all agreed to do so if they surrendered completely without a fight.

The four Navy Seals loaded up in the second humvee, they were Team Tranquil and they would be going in first and followed by team Talon. Their mission was to open doors, snap a few necks if necessary and be very quiet doing it. They were to locate Toby, Todd, and Alice and assist them with getting as many people into the oven as possible. Two of them would go inside the oven with the group to protect them while the other two seals would take up sniper positions outside the oven somewhere on the foundry floor or rafters if possible to protect the oven from Cyrus and his men.

It was go time. John was busy at the main computer console opening up communications with Toby on the inside. They had kept this to minimum until now for fear of being detected but now it was almost irrelevant as the attack would be launched in a matter of minutes and any curious signal that might warrant an investigation would soon become less important in the midst of complete full scale attack.

They had to warn their people on the inside of the impending attack to allow them as much time as possible to get people into the oven. John loaded and started video feeds that two of the Black Ops team members had been working on for weeks. The feeds were a random variety of old recordings from the compound that they had digitally edited, cut, and merged into feeds that would seem like normal activities within the compound. These were now playing on all the monitors in the compounds main security office. To the guards watching these feeds they appeared to be live streaming video. Meanwhile the attack would be going on and they would never realize that the feeds were fakes until it was too late. The same feeds were sent to Cyrus and Glitch's offices just in case they might be watching the security cams.

Dodge was at the computer cluster next to John's. His job would be to guide both of their Clones, JC and DC, and Alan in and through the compound, he would be their helmet cam eyes and he would also be looking through the compound ahead of them by moving from camera to camera. He had been practicing with the cameras anytime he could squeeze it in and he had gotten fairly good at it.

Understanding the layout of the compound was important and he had it down really well. They also had a large video screen that displayed the various teams call names in color coded dots with their initials in the center of the dot. The dots were moving on the video screen that also displayed a graphical representation of the compound floor plan and levels so that Dodge could see each members exact position at a glance. It was a very helpful tool that would allow quick strategy decisions to be made by simply looking at the screen.

The trucks moved out of the warehouse single file and then split up as they neared the compound, the first wave had begun. John and one of the Captains right-hand men, "Temple," everyone called him "Temp," were at the main console.  
"Black Ice Teams radio check" Temp said into his headset."  
"Team Tranquil?"  
"Copy."  
"Team Chaos?"  
"Copy."  
"Team Talon?"  
"Copy."

This test was followed by each team Captain conducting the same test with each member. They each sounded off quickly. All coms were functional and everyone was wired with cams and health monitors. They were utilizing the latest stat patch, a dime sized round patch that was easily applied to the center of a person's chest via a peel and stick adhesive. It monitored all vitals of the individual and it transmitted the data to their com link which in turn forwarded it to John's console. He and Dodge could see at a glance what a person's vitals were looking like. This was a very valuable battle ground tool.

They were also utilizing John's latest masterpiece and today would be its debut. Each of the member's com links had been retrofitted with a miniaturized version of the Lifecorder device. It was live streaming from their implant to the com link and then to a database that John had running right there in the com center. If any member was killed in the course of the fight, they would be restored as quickly as possible. John was determined to have zero loss of team member life in today's operations.

Jason double checked each team member's life file to make sure they were secure and up to date prior to the launch. He also checked the status of their clones at the various storage facilities. All clones were accounted for and in adult state with good health.

John also hacked the LifeTech system well in advance and upgraded all the participants' status from C1 (civilian level one) to G6 (government level six). C1 was the standard level for a civilian. If you had this rating you could only be restored by showing up with a dead body that must be identified with either DNA or signed affidavit from next of kin and either a Lifecorder in hand or a file on record at one of the backup services with the user name and password as well, and only then could the Restoration proceed.

With a G6 level, a phone call from one of the right numbers, and the nearest Lifecenter staff would leap into action with no body or proof of death required. This was reserved for top level government officials and covert operatives only. John just helped himself to a few high level perks for his team. No way anyone was getting "dead" on his watch today.

The Tranquil team leader com line lit up.

"Team tranquil in place, ready for Black Ice, over".  
"Copy that Team Tranquil, you are green light for Black Ice, I repeat green light. Proceed at will."  
"Copy that Command, we're going in."

They chose Tranquil for their team name because they intended to make no noticeable disturbance inside the compound; they would be on the inside for the longest period of time between the three teams, first in, last out. The idea was for Tranquil to do as much damage to the internal communications network and security by taking out as many guards as possible before being detected, once detected it wouldn't matter how much noise they made, everyone would rush in.

"Inside radio check?"  
"Copy Inside, what's your position?"  
"In the dorms, 4 strong," replied Toby.  
"Copy that Inside, maintain position and standby for instruction."  
"Copy." Toby was using a vox talkie app. "Pretty slick."

The four of them were nervously waiting in Toby's dorm room. They knew it was about to start and they wanted to get to that oven. Cheyenne brought the caddy in a little early to be sure she got there before the team launched the attack.

If Cyrus got wind of anything going down, he would be sure to transmit the destruct code and everyone with a brain implant would drop dead. It was a true catch twenty-two for him though, if he sent the signal too soon he would have no one to defend the compound, if he waited too long a disgruntled captured soldier might talk.

At that moment Glitch was entering Cyrus's office.

"Sir, there is something that I thought you should know. It's not reason for alarm as of yet, but Linsey and Sarah Kerrington have gone missing. Bobby and Matt have not resurfaced yet either. It seems that the latest events at their fire damaged home and the following high speed chase have them spooked beyond return. I believe they have fled to a relative's house out of town in search of a safe haven. I have several operatives out scouting their nearest of kin and even their friends in an effort to find them. We've had surveillance at Alan Kerrington's place now for over twenty-four hours with no signs of them coming or going. It is possible that they could be there but it's not like them to stay home for that long with no sign of activity."

Cyrus looked up from a document he was reading and seemed a little concerned.

"Has Alan Kerrington returned from his vacation yet?"  
"No Sir, he's not due back for two more days, should I check on his whereabouts?"  
"Yes, do check on that, and also tell some of the men to check at Matt's house, the neighbor boy, maybe Bobby is staying there with him."  
"Yes Sir" Glitch said as he turned quickly and left Cyrus's office in hyper mode.

Cyrus was getting concerned, they had already bungled way too many things, it was getting serious now and he might have to do something drastic, but what? He needed to come up with something. He needed a new person of interest that could help him get the answers to the LifeTech system, obviously the Kerrington's were nearly played out.

He turned his eyes back to the document on his desk. In the upper right hand corner he was looking at the name there, he had made up his mind, this man would be his next target, maybe he could get more from this Tim Stance fellow, after all he was Dodge's boss, and even if he didn't actually know anything himself he should still have access to the files and information developed by Dodge and his team. He wouldn't likely be as knowledgeable as Dodge but he would prove to be useful no doubt.

Just to the west side of the compound behind a dumpster and some cardboard boxes sat an empty humvee with a camo net thrown over it. The four Navy seals had split up into two pairs. One of them was running a small laser glass cutter around in a circle very carefully on a small pane in the west entry door of the vehicle maintenance area. It was the really tough glass, extra thick, tempered, with the wires inside of it. Still it was no match for the special issue laser cutter that few operatives could get their hands on, definitely the right tool for the job.

Chapter 33 John had informed them that the area was currently vacant and would be a good entry point. With only a gentle tug the circle of glass came out attached to the suction cup in the center. He carefully peered in through the freshly cut hole with a small cam.

"It's clear," he said in a low voice. He reached in through the hole and carefully felt for the lock and opened the door.

They both slipped in very quickly closing the door silently behind them. On the alarm console in the security office a light came on for two seconds and went off. The guards were watching monitors and drinking coffee and didn't notice the momentary light. On the North side the other pair waited just outside another man door. Someone was approaching, the door swung open and a guard walked through while lighting a cigar. They were highly illegal but remained a perk of working for Slade, he smuggled them in just like John did, but certainly not of the same quality. As he exited the door he was struck hard and fast by one of the Seals right in the larynx. He never made a sound, he just grabbed his throat, fell to his knees, and then fell over gasping for air, he wasn't dead but he would be in a few more seconds from lack of oxygen.

The second seal grabbed him quickly dragging him behind an old storage locker where he tossed some boxes on top of him. Back at the door the first seal placed a thin magnetic strip over the striker plate on the door before it came to. They surveyed the area and then checked in.  
"Tranquil to command?"

John responded, "What's your position Tranquil?"  
"Just out man door north side, need a cam check, any hostiles?"  
"Copy Tranquil, stand by."

John quickly looked at three cams in the area. There were two guards in the next bay milling around talking.  
"Two guards in bay west of you Tranquil, stand by for my signal."  
"Copy, we go on your signal."

John watched intently as the guards continued standing around talking, repositioning themselves every few seconds. They turned their backs to the man door for a moment.  
"Go tranquil, I repeat, go now."

The two seals quickly slipped in through the door and ran behind some drums of cleaning solution.  
"Hold position tranquil."

One of the guards had heard the slight sound of the door coming to against the frame and turned to see what was going on. He saw nothing so they went back to their conversation and the two of them began walking away very slowly and continued to talk as they went. They slowly left the area unaware of the intruders.

"Command to Tranquil, all clear"  
"Copy that command."

One Seal came back on the radio as his partner went back to the door and applied a small magnet near the switch on the upper door frame. The door latch was defeated by the first piece he placed on the striker so it couldn't latch and the newly placed magnet would now prevent the indicator light from illuminating in the security office each time the door was opened.

"Tranquil to Command, North door defeated, enter at will."  
"Copy that Tranquil, nice work."

There were now four former Navy Seals inside the compound undetected and the North Man Door was disarmed and open for easy access.

John keyed the mic.

"Team Talon is a go, I repeat, team Talon is a go, use north door, open and disarmed."  
"Copy that command, Talon is a go."

John looked over at Dodge who was next to him and listening in on most of the radio chatter.  
"Hey bro, that's you in there kicking ass!" He said. Dodge smiled. "It's weird hearing my own voice over the com link from the inside, I'm already excited about waking up tomorrow morning with the full experience in my head."

"Command to inside?"  
"Inside," replied Toby.  
"Inside Proceed to safety, I repeat proceed to safety."  
"Copy that command, we're moving now."

Toby, Todd, Cheyenne, and Alice all walked out of Toby's room. As they moved down the hall together Todd was looking for his friends Ronny and Lance, he was certain Ronny would come along with very little coercing at all if they could just get lucky enough to see him. Lance might not be so easy but he still wanted to try.

He had already spoken to the other three and they agreed that they would approach Ronny if seen because Todd was so certain that he would join them immediately. As they descended to the second floor they met Ronny on the stairs. "Hey buddy, where you headin?" Ronny asked. Todd smiled and put his arm around Ronny's shoulder.

"Walk with us," he said.  
"Sure pal what's up?" Ronny asked as he started walking alongside of Todd.  
"What if I told you that we had a really good chance of getting free right here right now what would you say?" Ronny got a blank look.

"I'd say, where do I sign up for that?"  
"Well today's your lucky day bro because all you have to do is come with me and I'll show you our absolute best and only opportunity to get the hell out of this dump and it's right now."

Ronny stopped walking for a second.

"Dude, are you serious?" Todd went back to him.

"Yes I'm serious now come on or we're going to miss the bus!"  
"Whoa, man, what about the things in our heads?" Ronny was whispering now.  
"Don't worry we have that all taken care of, now come on, you know I wouldn't steer you wrong."  
"Okay," Ronny said, throwing up one hand.

"I trust you bro, let's go."

As they continued toward the oven on the main floor, Toby called command.

"Inside to command, we have a friendly with us, I repeat, friendly."  
"Copy that Inside."

John contacted Tranquil and Talon and informed them of the situation. Toby instructed Todd and Ronny to hang back a bit, five people all walking together might be too large a group and raise some suspicion. People in this place rarely had that many friends all together at any given moment.

At the command console John was ready to deploy yet another of his nasty little surprises for Cyrus and Glitch. The fake server cable that Toby had installed for John had gotten him into the system undetected. He had located Cyrus's money and hacked all of his accounts. Glitch was so good at what he did that even if John did manage to move all of Cyrus's money away into other accounts Glitch would simply reverse it. John had already found the tracer program that Glitch had designed and implemented within the system. It was quite a piece of work.

John was impressed and frankly a bit concerned about this one. It's always more difficult to attack a fortress than defend it. Glitch had built a boomerang hack that would automatically retrieve any stolen funds while at the same time create a trace and then clean out the offenders account. So the hunter becomes the hunted, el-reverse'o on them, quite clever.

John had to write several pages of code to defeat it, or at least in theory, there would be no testing it, only launching it. If it didn't work it wouldn't harm them any as the destination accounts currently had zero balances. The plan was to attack them on all fronts at the same time leaving Glitch and Cyrus so little time that they couldn't do much of anything to ward off the attack, if they got the money great, if not at least they could still take them out of power and maybe still get the funds later.

John had his cyber attack loaded and ready on a very powerful PC dedicated to only this task. He would wait until the last possible second, only when they were detected would he launch the cyber attack. Glitch had returned to his office and went to work on his PC looking for more leads on the Kerrington family relatives. John could see exactly what he was doing on his PC and was amazed at the agility and skill of this man. "Why a life of crime? What a waste of such great talent."

The com channel lit up.

"Team Talon to command, outside North Man Door."

"Copy that Talon, the area is clear for thirty seconds, you have two guards approaching the area via the East corridor, proceed with caution."  
"Copy that command, we're going in."

The three of them slipped in and behind the drums just as Tranquil had done. The two guards passed through the large area and out the corridor on the opposite side oblivious to the intruders. They were just walking along looking around a bit but not talking. They were conducting routine security beats just like they had a thousand times before.

After they passed and were out of ear shod, DC called it in.

"Talon in Clean, I repeat, in clean."  
"Copy that Talon." DC turned to Alan and JC.

"You guys' ready to kick some ass?"

Alan chambered a round and smiled big revealing a rather large chaw of tobacco in his cheek, I was born ready son, let's do this."

JC nodded and chambered a round also.

"What he said man, let's roll."

DC followed suit by flicking off the safety as they moved out and started working their way up the corridor in true military style. They were ducking into cubby holes and waving each other ahead silently with hand signals. DC couldn't help but think, "Where in the hell did Dad get chewing tobacco? Oh, well, it would be a good story later no doubt."

As they worked their way up the hall a guard came around the corner rather unexpected and nearly ran right into DC His training kicked in and he quickly disarmed the guard and put him into an inescapable head lock and began choking him out. As he was letting him slide to the ground at his feet he looked up to see Alan and JC with both of their weapons pointed at another guard who had popped out of a restroom door behind them seconds after the first one rounded the corner.

Alan was just taking his finger away from his mouth where he had finished giving the man the "sshhh" gesture. It was a good thing the man was coming out of the men's room instead of going in because he looked like he was about to wet himself. He had both of his hands up and was obviously very frightened. JC leaned in a little closer to the man.

"Do you want to live?" He asked in a low tone. He indicated "YES" with a vigorous nod.  
"What's your name son?" Alan asked.  
"Kevin."  
"Well Kevin, don't worry your friend there is not dead, only taking a little nap. We aren't here to kill people unless we have to, you understand that?" Kevin let out a long breath of relief but still had his hands raised.

"What took you guys so long? I've been in this shit hole for five years." Dodge moved closer to him.

"We're not who you probably think we are Kevin, we're not military or police, we're independent. Now if you want to live, you have to get to the second largest oven down on the foundry floor. That's your only chance to survive. That thing in your head will go off once Cyrus or Glitch discover we're in the compound."  
"I know where that is," he said nervously, "I can get there and I can take others with me too if you want."

"How do we know we can trust you son?" said Alan. The man gestured to his pocket as he still had his hands up.

"May I?"  
"No, but I will," JC reached into the guard's jacket pocket and pulled out a key ring.  
"Okay, it's some keys, so what?" said JC.  
"Not just any keys, those keys open nearly everything in this place and they're all yours. Like I said guys, I've been here for five years. I am one of Cyrus's most trusted guards. Like many though I hate his guts and I can't wait to get this damned thing out of my head and get out of this wretched place. I haven't seen the sun except through a small window or from a dirty alley in over a year."

Alan was patting the man down now and removing several weapons that he had in various pockets and a knife from his left boot in addition to a rather large hand gun from his right side holster. DC pulled what looked like a marble from a pouch on his left hip.

"If you want to live you need to swallow this." The man reached out and took the small round object from DC.  
"What is it?"  
"It's a transponder. All of us have these viewers." He motioned to a pair of what looked like binoculars hanging from a strap around his neck.  
"When we view you though these you'll have a blue glow around you generated by that little ball there. That will keep you from being shot. It identifies you as a friendly."  
"Okay I'm game," he said. He motioned toward the water fountain on the wall a few feet away.

"Do you mind?"  
"No of course not." DC motioned for him to go ahead. The man went right over to it, popped the thing in his mouth and took a big drink washing it down. He stood back up straight.

"Now what?" Alan tossed his gun back to him.

"That's not loaded Son, so . . ."  
"Yeah, I figured as much."  
"Just make your way to the oven and don't be looking around or anything, just act natural. There will be a few people waiting there for you, go inside with the others."

Just then the first man started coming around.  
"Let's see what this one does." said Alan.

The guard jumped to his feet and reached for his now missing gun and then his radio.  
"What are you doing?" Alan asked.

JC said. "Hey man, do you want to live?"

The man lunged toward the fire alarm on the other side of the corridor as Alan pulled the nine mil from his thigh holster very quickly and put three rounds into him in mid air. He dropped to the floor with his hand out toward the lever coming up about six inches short of hitting it. Alan was standing there frozen with his hand still extended for a second as a little puff of smoke wafted from the tip of the silencer on his Glock.  
"Jeeze Alan way to smoke a guy man, you could have just tackled him or something."  
"Yeah I was thinking that myself just now. Sorry about that, just a reflex I guess."  
"Well okay, but don't kill all of them!"

They all turned and looked at the other guard.

"Sorry about your friend, we didn't intend to . . ."  
"No, no, don't apologize, I never liked him, he cheated at cards, a real douche bag, always kissing up to Cyrus."

He started walking away toward the foundry floor.  
"By the way," Dodge said, that thing you swallowed it's a little more than just a transponder, so don't get any ideas of changing your mind on the way pal, you won't make it."

The man turned and walked backwards for a few steps.

"Great! Now I got one in my head and my gut, I'm not surprised, not even a little." he continued to mutter as he turned back around and made his way down the corridor.

JC snickered at the man.

"Wow, that guy's had a bad five years!"

DC radioed it in to command to track the man with the newly deployed transponder. Dodge acknowledged and brought up his tracker on the screen. The instructions were concise, if he goes to the oven he lives, anywhere else, detonate the capsule.

Toby, and the inside crew had all arrived at the oven now and were inside formulating some tactics on the fly. The four Seals had also arrived. Two of them took up strategic sniper positioning in the rafters thirty feet above the foundry floor while the other two entered the oven and were involved in the conversation inside.

"Look," Toby said, "I think it would be fair to say that some of these people coming by here wouldn't come in if invited and may even report us immediately for fear of not reporting. I personally think that anyone coming by should be grabbed and forced in here. Once in we can disarm them if armed. Once we explain what's going on, I believe 95 percent of them are going to want what we're offering. Todd said that he agreed, and that as soon as they get them in they should pat them down to insure they have no communications devices or weapons. If they are uncooperative, they can be bound and gagged or they can be shot, their choice."

The two seals agreed to the strategy, they would be just inside the door ready for anyone coming in while Cheyenne and Todd stayed just outside the partially open doors to watch for people and motion them in. They needed witnesses and they wanted to save as many lives as they could, not to mention every person inside that oven would be one less person to stand and fight with Cyrus.

Halfway on the other side of the compound team Talon was carefully and methodically moving through each area in military fashion. They had encountered six more guards, killed two of them, and convinced four of them to surrender, take the capsule, and go to the oven. Alan had a great idea with the last two guards they encountered. He gave them extra capsules and instructed them to go disarm their best friends that were guards at gun point if necessary, it would be a lot less likely their friends would die that way.

The two guards agreed to it and one even asked for another capsule for his lady friend that he had met while in the compound. He promised she would cooperate because she talked about escaping all the time, and they had even attempted it one time and almost got caught.

Up in the rafters above the foundry floor the two seals were watching people approach from the North end of the foundry. They were viewing them through their smart vision visors. They could see several of the people in the area approaching that had the blue ring around their mid-section, the tell tale sign that they had taken the capsule and were either friendly or had surrendered, either way they were not to shoot them.

"Tranquil to Inside, two friendly's approaching from the North side, former guards, be advised."  
"Copy that Tranquil, we have eyes on them now."  
"Tranquil to command, are you seeing this?"  
"Copy that Tranquil, Operation Black Ice, so far, so good."  
"Copy that!"

The two guards arrived at the oven and came inside willingly and relinquished their already empty guns and disabled com links. A few minutes later more people began arriving at the oven, some had taken capsules and some had not. It seemed that some of the guards that had decided to surrender and hoped for freedom had rounded up other people that also wanted out and they were beginning to arrive in droves. It was like an exodus.

Just then a guard came out of the shipping office near the docks and just stood there in confusion as he watched people going toward the oven. He was watching but had not pulled out his radio yet.  
"Command to Tranquil, do you have eyes on the bogie at three o'clock?"  
"Copy that command, we have a bead on him."

Another guard that had already been convinced approached him and they started having a conversation.

The not so willing guard put his hand on his gun and just then one of the seals flipped his laser site over to visible spectrum. Both guards saw the red dot appear on his chest at the same time. He put his hands up and the other guard disarmed him, took his com link, and began walking him toward the oven. When they got there and came in, Todd realized it was Lance. He was relieved to see him safely in the oven. He went over to him and they talked for a minute and agreed to catch up when this mess was over with.

Suddenly three doors down at the smaller ovens, a door was flung open with a big bang as it hit the outside of the oven. A huge man stepped out, he was buckling his belt and tucking in his shirt tail. A second later a frightened disheveled looking woman ran out. She was crying and gathering her torn clothing up around herself. The man was Darius Rose, a hard man with a soft name that didn't fit him at all. It was obvious that Darius had just raped her. Under normal circumstances it would have gone completely undiscovered. Everyone was terrified of Darius, he was a relic of a man but incredibly strong for his age and he was "junk yard dog mean."

He carried an antique 357 magnum and took pride in his ability to use it. He dreamed of the day when he could use it on Cyrus Slade. He hated Slade more than anyone but not because Cyrus was evil and dastardly but much more because he wanted his job. With Cyrus out of his way he could have more fun doing his favorite things, raping, killing, stealing, and annoying every other living thing on the planet.

He was of course a complete idiot and could never fill Cyrus's shoes, not even close, but still he wanted to be the alpha dog. The terrified woman was running right toward them all now and tried to pass by but Todd reached out and snatched her right into the oven. Darius saw it and assumed he would be reported. He pulled his gun and fired three shots while running toward them but they had already darted in behind the metal door for cover. Before he could get to the oven a burst of laser shot out from the rafters piercing his skull dead square between the eyes.

He stopped and stood up straight as if it hadn't phased him, and while still aiming the gun in their general direction he looked around like he was thinking "where did that come from" then his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped dead by the oven door, smoke was coming out of both his ears and his feet were twitching like road kill that just wouldn't give up. The Seal up top had taken him out quickly and with great precision but it was too late, the shots had been fired. The sound of the 357 magnum carried and echoed through the corridors of the compound like a civil war cannon.

It was the unmistakable sound of large caliber gunshots that would not be ignored. One of the Seals said . . .  
"Oh shit!" over the com link.  
"Copy that Tranquil!" replied John.

Four more armed guards ran into the area as a result of the shots. Now all hell was about to break loose. The stealth mode of Operation Black Ice was over. Being quiet was no longer an option thanks to that clod Darius.

"Command to all teams, Launch full scale Black Ice, I repeat FULL SCALE!"  
"Copy that command, Team Chaos moving in!"

The other team leaders sounded off as well and the full scale attack was on. Just outside the vehicle maintenance bay Team Chaos had been waiting in the back of the M-923 5 ton and now they were moving toward the entrance and gaining speed.

John came over the com link.

"Command to Chaos, what's your ETA?"  
"Ten seconds or less, 35 mph, entering bay number two door."  
"Copy that Chaos"

"Command to all teams, clear bay area two! Incoming! I repeat, Incoming bay two!"

Several team members crossing that area moving toward the ovens with captives were forced to run out of the area as fast as they could.

Seconds later the 5-ton truck came crashing through the door blasting it into a mess of twisted debris.  
"Chaos to command, we're in."  
"Copy that Chaos, we have eyes on you now, proceed with clean sweep."

Two dozen guards were in a fire fight on the floor of the foundry with Team Chaos, but still, amidst the fight, one of them managed to call the security office on his com link. He reported the security breach on the foundry floor. "Negative 689, we have active surveillance on the foundry floor we see no hostile activity?"

The security office thought it was a hoax because they were viewing old video feed recorded several weeks earlier, everything appeared to be in order in the compound. There were just a few people were hanging out in and around the ovens talking. The security Captain sent three guards down to check out the bogus report.

John entered a launch code on his main PC and hit the enter key. Every PC and every cam feed in the compound suddenly went black, two seconds later they came back up with a message that surprised everyone including Glitch and Cyrus. Cyrus was typing a term into a powerful search tool that Glitch designed. He was looking for more information on Tim Stance when his screen suddenly went dark and came back only to greet him with a "happy birthday" jingle accompanied by a colorful banner and little cakes with legs that danced across the screen. It was the very same one that John had created for Dodge to use at ESS on Patti's birthday.

Cyrus lifted both of his hands off the keyboard as if touching it would make it worse, he knew they were screwed. He knew there had been a security breach of some kind but what was it?  
"What kind of a freak uses a happy birthday message for a hack attack?"

He knew it couldn't be the CIA or FBI or even the military for that matter, it must be a private joke of some kind, maybe Glitch was screwing with him. He hit his intercom button to call Glitch but before he could speak into it Glitch burst into his office.

"We've been hacked!" He said.  
"No shit Sherlock!" Cyrus screamed back at him.

Cyrus jumped up and pointed his finger at Glitch.

"Get back in your office and reverse this on whoever is doing it! Find them, I want them stripped of everything! I want them crushed, you hear me Glitch! Crush them!"

Glitch had only been gone from Slade's office for a few seconds when the intercom buzzed, it was the security office.  
"Mr. Slade Sir," a nervous voice came through the intercom. Cyrus mashed it so violently that he nearly broke the old metal box.

"What!" He barked.  
"There's a huge fire fight down on the foundry floor. We believe it's an internal skirmish between two groups of guards Sir."  
"Well, go get it under control you worthless idiots, I have bigger problems to deal with right now!"

As he turned away from the intercom, it dawned on him that this was almost certainly related to the computer hack. He went to his security monitor and started flipping through the cam feeds, but everything appeared normal. He raised Glitch on the intercom.

"Glitch what's going on down on the foundry floor?"  
"Sir, I just received notice of a disturbance, but my monitors aren't showing anything, I dispatched a team of ten heavily armed security officers from the office to go down and check it out, and the Captain sent three men about five minutes ago himself. I'll report shortly Sir."  
"All right, give me an update the second you find out what's going on."

Cyrus went to his bookcase and pulled out the fourth book from the right on the upper most shelf about half way. He stood back and the book case slid open. He went behind the shelf and it closed behind him. Cyrus had a lair within the lair. It was a safe room. Not even Glitch was privy to his hidden room behind the bookcase. He went to the table in the center of the room and turned on a small console where he typed in a 14-digit code. The monitor had four cam feeds, one of which was on the foundry floor.

Cyrus had his own hidden wireless cams in the compound for backup, he only had four of them but they were placed very well, one of which was at the far end of the foundry floor. There it was on the little screen in front of him, an all out fire fight. Guards running around and taking cover from what appeared to be elite forces but who could it be?

Then he saw something that really surprised him, a large military vehicle had crashed bay door number two of the maintenance area. "Okay maybe it's some kind of militia group, maybe he pissed off the wrong rich guy. Probably one of those fellows that he stripped of billions. They had assembled a small army and had come for him, and they were doing a damn good job of it too."

It wasn't looking too good for his crew, he decided that it was time to release the SUPER A.I.R.S. Remote Defense Systems, this would wreck havoc on the intruders for sure, no one could stand up against armored robot soldiers with laser cannons. He would launch the destruct code soon to kill all of his own soldiers. He had to keep them from being captured and interrogated, but not until they had fought on his behalf. The A.I.R.S. would take care of the remaining intruders with ease. He opened the destruct code window for the intra cranial charges and selected the "ALL" option. He set the countdown for ten minutes. This would give him just enough time to escape while his army fought on down below. By the time they reached his office he would be long gone. He entered the activation codes for the A.I.R.S and selected the "KILL ALL" level of operation and then added priority of "INTRUDERS." The A.I.R.S. could easily identify all noncombatants because Cyrus had linked the A.I.R.S. System to his numerical human I.D. system, the very one he used to kill individual soldiers by their number. With these settings the A.I.R.S. robots would kill everyone eventually but it would target the intruders first.

He went to a wardrobe in the far corner of the room and flung the doors open. Inside there was a complete arsenal of weapons both traditional and modern. He removed his full length black leather jacket throwing it over a chair at the workbench behind him. He strapped on two 45 autos with oversize clips across his chest and then put his coat back on. He selected a laser burst pistol and strapped it to his right thigh, covering it up with a flip of his coat. He lifted his left pant leg and strapped an 8-inch knife to his calf slipping his pant leg down over it.

The intercom on the table buzzed.

"Sir," Glitch's voice came through, sounding very shaky.

Cyrus pushed the little button on top the metal box.

"Yes Glitch what is it now?"  
"Sir, I hate to tell you this but, well, I have not been able to stop the hack, our systems are locked, and I just got a notice on my skyphone that our account balances are all zero, you know anything about that?"

Cyrus yanked his finger back from the button in shock. Who could have done this? He understood a small private army getting to the compound. Probably tailed one of his less skilled watchers, which was understandable, but his accounts? "Whoever was behind this was good, really good, and they were doing it all at once, unbelievable!" Of course he had back up accounts that even Glitch didn't know about, surely those were safe.

He mashed the button in on the box so hard that he caved it in.  
"Glitch!"  
"Yes?"  
"Go downstairs and help those guards out, they could use a man like you right now. Go electrocute those bastards!"

He let go of the button and leaned back letting out an evil laugh. He had just sent the man responsible for this security breach on a suicide mission, and it struck him funny, very funny.

"He hated to sacrifice such a great hacker but sometimes you just have to cut your losses."

"But Sir that would be suicide?"

Cyrus quickly moved back to the intercom box again like a giddy school boy doing a crank call and mashed the button.

"Yes Glitch, that's right, but sometimes you just have to cut your losses!"

He let off the button and laughed.

"Oh my god! what an idiot!"

"Okay, enough toying with the hired help, time to get back to work."

He went back to the wardrobe and retrieved a small case that contained a high capacity data drive. He disconnected the fiber optic cable that linked it to the main frame one floor down. It contained his entire life work and much of Glitch's. He would be losing Glitch today but not his work, he shackled it to his wrist with a digital titanium cuff set. It could only be disconnected by him unless someone cut off his hand.

He went to a narrow door at the back of the room but hesitated and looked back at the intercom box. He was thinking that Glitch might have one more stupid comment. He looked again. "Nope, guess not." He turned back to the door and punched in a code on the keypad to the right of it then placed his hand on the ID screen. He had to get to the helicopter to make his escape.

The door slid open rapidly followed by four bright flashes of light that were stunning. He was stepping back now. "No, more like flying back. What was happening? He had crashed through the table in the middle of the room splintering it to pieces before slamming into the wall behind it where he slid down to the floor.

He looked down at his chest, and it was smoldering and bleeding profusely. He had been shot but how? He looked up but couldn't believe what he was seeing. There in the light haze of the smoke stood a man that Cyrus Slade would have never guessed to be alive much less kicking his ass. It was Dodge Kerrington, the man himself, standing there in his inner sanctum larger than life, he was wielding a large laser rifle that was still glowing orange on the tip from having just been fired. He was solid muscle from head to toe and decked out in full black tactical gear donning several weapons strapped to various places on his body.  
"How the hell did he get so big?" He figured it out almost immediately.

"Well played Dodge Kerrington!"

Two more men had entered, it was JC, and Alan, the rest of team Talon. Cyrus had been down now for about two seconds. He reached for one of his pistols with his right hand, but Alan was faster and fired blowing off three of his fingers. He reached for another weapon with his left hand and JC shot him in the wrist, blowing his left hand completely off. The three of them stepped forward into the center of the room in front of Slade.

He leaned forward in a pathetic attempt to spit on them but DC kicked him right in the mouth knocking all of his front teeth out and smashing his head into the concrete wall. He was down on the floor, and he fell over but still managed an angry growl. The three men stood between him and his escape, they were heavily armed and he was out numbered, he had nowhere to go and he knew it.

"Get up!" DC yelled.

"GET UP!

Cyrus struggled to his feet and spit out a bunch of blood and a couple more teeth as he backed away. He was holding the stub where his left hand had been severed with what was left of his right hand, and bleeding profusely. "You know, I never expected you to be the one . . . , the one to do this to me Dodge Kerrington, you surprised me."

DC stared at him for a second, and said . . . ,  
"Thanks"

Then he opened fire.

Alan and JC immediately joined in as Cyrus backed up into the corner and took on the fire as they emptied their clips into him. He was still leaning against the wall when they stopped firing. He fell forward flat on his face dead. When he hit the floor, his bullet riddled body was severed in two through his mid-section. They had cut the man in half with gunfire.

It was one of the Black Ops Team members out at the farm that had figured out how to get them into Cyrus's inner lair. They were studying the blue prints of the compound one night comparing the prints to the video feeds of Cyrus's office. They hacked Cyrus's Web cams that he used to video conference with others in his organization. They could see from the video that his office was entirely too shallow for the original space that was there. The rooms on the other side of the wall from his office were too shallow as well. The team Captain ordered two members to scout the roof area just above Cyrus's office for any openings. As suspected they found the sliding roof panels that would allow Cyrus to escape in his helicopter.

Cyrus never expected death to be on the other side of that door. He thought he would have a clear path to escape. Now he lay on the floor as dead as a man can get. They would make sure no one moved his body out of there for well over an hour.

Chapter 34 Down on the foundry floor, the firefight had escalated into all out war. Glitch had ignored Cyrus's suggestions of suicidal actions and realized that his partner was no doubt escaping on his own with no intentions of saving anyone but himself. Glitch resorted to doing what he knew best, he sat down at his computer and went to work. He performed a master reset of the entire server system by sending the security Captain to the generator room to shut off the main power. He disabled the backup battery feed first so that it would go completely down. He inserted a special micro drive containing a master boot file into his best PC before the main server powered back up.

Within two minutes his fingers were flying like lightning across the keys. John couldn't see or do anything because Glitch's clever thinking to shut off the power had disabled the hidden com link cable in the server room. It relied on its power feed coming from the server port where Toby had plugged it in. The command center lost all video feeds and all control of systems within the compound for several minutes. They had to rely solely on the helmet cams and com links to guide their teams. The one good thing that came of the reset was that it killed the commands that Cyrus entered to deploy the A.I.R.S. system. As a result they remained harmless, still concealed behind the vending machines.

Down on the foundry floor, the fight raged on. Toby and Todd had herded as many people into the oven as were willing and many that were not. They closed the doors and Toby employed his genius plan of turning the handle from the inside using the large pipe wrench on the nut. The two seals in the rafters above had been taking on so much fire from Slades men below that they were forced to take cover behind a ventilation unit. They were pinned down there for several minutes before regaining control of the area in front of the oven.

During that time several guards attempted to open the door using the outside handle but it was useless due to Toby's prior work on it. It was locked up like a fortress. Todd, Toby and several volunteers were now busy taping the door cracks and other holes in the oven with the metal duct tape that Todd got for them. They finished with the doors and began spreading and taping the metal window screen over the air vents. It was absolutely crucial that they get it sealed well so that Cyrus's death signal couldn't get in.

Glitch decided to use manual controls to take full command of the A.I.R.S. Robots. He thought Cyrus was already long gone having escaped, but never dreamed he was dead. He figured the only way he was going to get out of there alive was to blast his way out with the remote control battle robots. Several team Chaos members were badly injured in the fire fight and were being taken out for medical attention now and at least eight had been killed. John had Restoration request placed within minutes at the surrounding life centers and their procedures were already underway. They would all be restored within the hour and reunited with their families by nightfall.

The A.I.R.S. gunships blasted through the vending machines and burst out into the foundry floor just seconds before Cyrus's death signal began transmitting. Unfortunately the signal came from the transmitter built into his escape helicopter which was programmed by his skyphone. The phone was obliterated by gunfire but Cyrus had already set the timer for the intra cranial charges prior to being gunned down, the death signal was about to be launched from the small helicopter sitting idle in Cyrus's escape bay. The man was dead, but part of his plan was still alive.

It was the strangest thing to see. All of Cyrus's remaining men dropped dead right where they were. Some were crouched down behind equipment and boxes, others were running across the foundry floor while firing, but every single one of them just dropped. All gunfire ceased, even from the robots as Glitch realized what had just happened. He sat in his office watching it happen through the eyes of the A.I.R.S. He only paused for a moment and then began firing again. Inside the oven, nobody knew what was happening, they could hear firing and some feint voices but that was it, the oven was heavily insulated so the sounds outside were very muffled.

Toby would have loved to communicate with John at command but his com link was dead now due to the sealed oven being radio signal proofed. The fact that their phones were also useless was certainly a good sign. The gun fire outside was less frequent now but seemed bigger. "There must be some big guns."

There were 74 people inside the oven waiting hopefully and nervously for good news. There were lab techs, auto mechanics, guards, watchers, maintenance workers, and even a geneticist name Alice. She had her arms around Toby holding on to him and she was a nervous wreck just like the rest of them.

Three floors above, in the secret room behind Cyrus's office, JC picked up the small case that was once attached to Cyrus's wrist. His hand was gone so, well, problem solved. JC found Slade's severed hand and used his finger tips on the digital lock to open up the case. He smiled when he looked inside.

"Hey guys check it out, a super drive, looks like a new project for me huh?"

DC came over and took a look.

"Nice, and I'll bet it has some very interesting information on it." JC closed it up and they went out through the book case passage and into Cyrus's office. They still had one more man to round up, Glitch.

They went down the corridor and found two guards dead just outside an office, no doubt the head bombs had gotten them too. There were no other doors that had guards posted so they figured this might well be Glitch's office.

Glitch saw them coming up the hall on his monitor and had taken evasive measures. Alan and DC stood back as JC kicked in the door and the two of them rushed in with JC right behind. Glitch was waiting behind the door and as they passed by he attempted to slip out the office door but ran right into JC who was just coming in behind the other two. JC grabbed him by the throat.

"Where do you think you're goin you little weasel?"

Glitch went for his side arm but JC was way ahead of him and had already taken it. Glitch realized that he was finished unless he could talk his way 0ut of it.

"Please don't kill me," he said, "I'll cooperate, I'll even help you get Cyrus, just don't kill me, I'll go peacefully I promise."

JC let go of him and holstered his side arm. DC and Alan were right beside them now.

Alan said, "We appreciate your offer to help us get your boss squirt but he's in two pieces up the hall there, what else ya got to offer us?"

Glitch knew he had no other bargaining cards so he immediately tried to run past JC to get out the door. JC reached out and snatched him up by the neck and shook him like a rag doll. As he did the electricity began to flow out of Glitch and through JC Just like it did before with Cyrus. He had to be very stressed for the power to come out. JC got it started for him and that was all he needed.

DC tried to help by pulling Glitch off of him but the electricity began flowing through him as well. JC and DC were in direct contact with Glitch and they were getting the worst of it. Alan only had one hand on DCs shoulder but he couldn't let go, it was just too powerful, they were all getting fried. Alan was doing everything he could to reach his thigh holstered nine mil but his body wasn't cooperating. JC and DC were completely incapacitated now and were hoping that Alan could do something. Glitch had arcs of electricity flowing steady now out of his chest and down his right arm into both JC and DC and he knew he had them down and out. He had now diverted some attention to Alan who was further away and still able to move a bit. He was reaching out toward Alan with his left hand and darts of electricity like small bolts of lightning were randomly hitting Alan every two or three seconds. Alan had his right hand on the nine mil but couldn't pull it. Every time he tried he received another disabling jolt of electricity. His right hand was still on DCs shoulder and he couldn't let go. He knew he had to shoot Glitch or they were all going to die.

He would have to do it in between arcs. He waited for the next dart of blue arcs to hit him. When it did he mustered all of his strength and pulled the nine mil as fast as he could. He put two rounds right into Glitch's chest where the power seemed to be coming from.

Glitch was badly wounded and the electricity was weakening. JC used the very last of his strength to pick Glitch up off the floor and slam him against the door frame as hard as he could.

"A little help here!" he yelled.

DC threw himself back as hard as he could and broke free of the flow. He pulled a ten inch knife from the sheath on his thigh and lunged forward jamming it into Glitch's right ear with so much force that it went all the way through his head pining him to the old wooden door frame of the office. Alan emptied the nine mil into Glitch as they all stepped away from him. The electricity subsided and Glitch went limp. His lifeless body was just hanging there on the knife through his head.

Alan caught JC as he collapsed and let him down easy into a desk chair. He didn't look so good, in fact none of them did, but JC got the worst of it. He was badly burned, even his hair was singed and it was still smoking.

"What in the world was that?" he said, "What kind of freak has electricity in him?"

DC checked for a pulse to confirm Glitch was dead then he went over to JC to look him over better. He was still talking but he wasn't making much sense and it seemed as though he might be blind in one eye. It was too soon to be sure. They all three sat there for a moment trying to catch their breath and get the feeling back in their arms and legs. DC shook his head.

"I think that little freak could have kicked Cyrus's ass. I never dreamed he'd be the one to nearly kill all of us!"

The other two nodded in agreement and they all started laughing. It was a moment of emotional release after a very stressful situation.

Alan called it in to command that Cyrus and Glitch were both dead and that they were coming down. With Glitch dead the A.I.R.S. robots were now motionless and were only seconds away from being completely destroyed by the team forces. The humvee with the turret mounted laser canon drove into bay two with the team Captain in the gunners seat. He opened fire on the A.I.R.S. robots blasting them to pieces.

All the guards outside of the oven were dead along with some unlucky innocents that didn't make it into the oven. These people were permanently deceased because they were all in servitude to Slade and had been deceased to the outside world. Once listed as deceased when abducted by Cyrus, their lifefiles were permanently terminated and Cyrus certainly didn't issue lifecorders. It was unfortunate but the team did their very best to save everyone, of course, like in any war effort, there were casualties.

The two seals came down out of the rafters and went outside where they informed everyone in the oven that it was over by yelling into an air vent. They told them to stay in there until they were sure the signal was knocked out. Within five minutes John had identified the signal and located the helicopter as the source and ordered the transmitter to be shut off. It used the skyphone network as the start up method but the final signal came from the helicopter's radio. John verified that the signal had ceased transmission and sent word to Toby through the air vent that it was safe to come out.

Toby and the two Seals cut the tape around the doors with their knives. Toby opened the oven from the inside with the wrench, and everyone walked out. All the teams and all the newly freed people poured out onto the floor of the foundry quietly. They were looking at one another and shaking hands. Some of them hugging and even a few tears from several of the women. Operation Black Ice was a huge success. Nearly everyone that wanted out survived and there were only seven men that still preferred to side with Cyrus. They were forced into the oven and placed into restraints until it was over. This handful of hardcore criminals had fallen for Cyrus's theories about society hook line and sinker, they were totally committed and now they would pay the price with hard prison time, maybe even the death penalty. Now that restoration existed, the death penalty only meant that you couldn't be restored when you died in prison, it was really no different from getting a life sentence.

JC, Alan, and DC arrived down on the foundry floor and were joining the group. They got JC a chair and a Gatorade, he still looked really bad but at least he could walk now and he was talking better. John summoned the authorities and the media after getting the all clear signal from each team Captain. The police, fire department, EMT's, and the National Guard, were all in route, it would also be a media blitz in a mere matter of minutes. There was no doubt DHS would be there soon and some of the less desired groups like the FBI and CIA. Nearly all the people at the command center were now arriving in two vans and would join the teams and everyone on the foundry floor. John climbed up on a mezzanine to address the motley crew.

"Attention everyone, I need your attention please, we only have a few minutes until the media and a whole lot of emergency personnel and police show up and Lord knows who else, so I'll make this as quick and to the point as possible."

"I'm John Calhoun, my best friend and partner in this masterpiece of liberation is down right in front here. Raise your hand Dodge, there he is folks, Dodge Kerrington. You may have heard of him, he's considered the father of Restoration by those in the inner circle. He led an elite team of experts for several years at ESS and was the key player in bringing us what is shaping up to be immortality." The whole place broke out into applause, some cheering, and several loud whistles.

"By the way, for those of you that don't already know, you all made history here today as part of what we call "Operation Black Ice." More applause and cheering ensued until John held up his hands for them to quiet down.  
"You see this was a 100% citizen manned and funded operation, the powers that be won't like that and we'll have a lot of explaining to do before they release any of us. We couldn't involve any government agencies in this because Cyrus had friends in high places, so it was too risky."

"Okay, now listen everyone, here is what we believe is going to happen."

One man in front yelled out. "Is Cyrus dead?"  
"Yes, he is. He's extremely dead and his body has been secured upstairs by two of our best. But listen, we only have a few moments so let's reserve all of the questions for later, I'm sure you will all be briefed and you will all be questioned thoroughly by the authorities, so please everyone, brace yourselves for a very long night. This isn't over yet. The dangerous part is over but now we all have a lot of explaining to do."

"Most of you that are standing here right now were forced into doing this, others were young and naive and were coerced into it without realizing what you were getting in to. Some of you have criminal records and may be detained for some prior crimes by the authorities but we'll do everything we can to help each of you by requesting reduced sentences, early release, and whatever else we can negotiate on your behalf. We'll point out to the authorities that you all volunteered to help and joined with us in the fight against Cyrus in this final hour."

"Glitch, Cyrus's mastermind hacker is also deceased at the hands of Team Talon our most dedicated trio. They are the fearless three that took down Cyrus and Glitch personally and you may see a resemblance as two of the members of Team Talon are my clone and Dodge's clone and the third member is Dodge's father Alan Kerrington, raise your hands guys so everyone can . . . , yes there they are, let's give them a round . . ."

The applause and cheering broke out again.  
"FYI everyone, they go by JC and DC, John's clone and Dodge's clone, we have to do that otherwise conversations get very confused." Everybody laughed, then one of the prisoners in restraints yelled, "Cyrus isn't dead! Don't believe it!" One of the bigger guards punched him in the back of the head really hard, knocking him out before he could say anything more. Then he looked around at the other six captives.

"The rest of you stay quiet. Go ahead Sir," he said, "that won't happen again."  
"Thank you! So in summary we'll be providing free legal services to each of you. Your results may vary but I think most of you will get out of this with the minimum, if any, time to serve and it certainly beats the alternative that Cyrus had planned for you. I also want to mention Toby, Todd, and Cheyenne, our inside help, we couldn't have made this work without them." Another round of applause ensued.

"Special thanks also to those three for masterminding the oven Idea which ultimately saved all of your lives from the death signal, which by the way did get transmitted killing many of the deceased you see lying around here. I should also mention the very brave Alice Cummings, don't let her petite frame and her sweet disposition fool you, this gal has guts! She was very instrumental along with her man Toby in performing several acts of sabotage from within that saved our lives on the outside." Everyone cheered and applauded, which embarrassed Alice, and that made Toby laugh.

As for the small explosive devices that Cyrus so generously placed in your brains, we'll also be picking up the tab for the medical procedures to get those removed, and we hope all of you will take advantage of that opportunity. We'll be opening up these two large overhead doors in a moment. Anyone that wishes to leave may do just that, and no, I am not talking about you six over there in the restraints, you fired upon us so you're going to prison, but we're not here now to restrain those of you that came along peacefully or even tried to help, if you want to leave you're free to go. Having said that, I strongly encourage you all to stay and take advantage of the medical procedure to get that pesky bomb out of your head, and the free legal services we're offering. Just because we took out Cyrus and Glitch here today does not mean that you're completely out of danger. One of their partners out there somewhere might transmit that signal again once they get word of the situation. If you go out that door, we can't guarantee that you won't drop dead later. So it's your choice, weigh your options and choose wisely.

Congratulations everyone today is the first day of the rest of your lives, potentially very long and fruitful lives. Anyone that still has any type of weapons or any illegal substances or anything you think might not fare well with the authorities, please place those items in the 55 gallon drums up here to your left by the overhead doors and then do your best to relax. When the police arrive they'll likely put restraints on each of us, maybe even me and this entire team of patriots that rescued you today. Don't panic though, just cooperate, do whatever they tell you to do and things will go much better for all of us that way. Thank you, and good luck to each of you."

In the distance they could hear Sirens now and they were getting closer. It would only be a minute or two now.

"Go ahead and raise those doors now DC" Dodge's clone walked along the front wall and pressed the door buttons for the two large overhead doors. The Sirens were growing louder as the police got closer. People were mingling and visiting now while they waited for the circus to arrive. John climbed down off the mezzanine and went out close to the doors with the rest of the team to wait for the arrival of the so called Calvary.

Chapter 35 DC had put the doors up as requested and now four of the people there with them that had been trapped in the compound walked right out and down the street in different directions. It was not a big surprise really to anyone, some of the people in Cyrus's service were bad characters to begin with and were facing some quite serious charges and prison terms. That was how Cyrus bribed them into his service in the first place, he offered them money and freedom from the authorities in exchange for their services. No doubt the seven men in restraints were facing the toughest penalties and now there would be a few more. Rounding the corner now was the largest entourage of emergency vehicles and police cars any of them had ever seen. The first wave was a group of six police cars followed by two fire trucks and four ambulances. Within a minute there were twenty more police cars, more ambulances, more fire trucks and a baker's dozen of dark colored cars and vans. Dodge looked at John,

"Jeeze John what did you tell them?"

He smiled.

"I told them that a team of nearly one hundred heavily armed vigilantes had just overthrown a powerful crime ring with ties to terrorism and national security threats and that there had been a massive shootout resulting in numerous deaths, gunshot wounds, and casualties of all kinds. Oh yeah, and that the place was on fire."

"Oh my god! Well I guess that would do it!"

Within minutes the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Center for Disease Control, National Guard, and a few others that refused to even Identify themselves, had all showed up and were lining up to inspect, question, interrogate, photograph, sample, test, and document everybody and just about everything they could get their grubby little paws on. Dodge had answered several questions right away that prompted a black eighteen wheeler truck to show up within the hour. It was obviously the FBI and they insisted that Dodge, John, JC, DC, and Alan all get on board.

They were escorted to an area inside the trailer appointed with all the amenities of a regular conference room in any high tech business center. They were sat down around a large table and were questioned in detail about how and why they had cloned themselves and who gave them the permission to do so and under what authority they carried out the actions of earlier that day. It went on for several hours after which they were all arrested, taken into custody and transferred to a holding area at an unknown facility in the downtown Indianapolis area.

The next morning they were allowed to see their families for about an hour. They brought them in on a black bus with no windows and pulled inside the building where they rode an elevator up several floors to the holding area. After being allowed to visit for a while the FBI and some other agents that offered no Identification asked if they could question the family members together with the team members. It was strictly voluntary but they did say that it would go a long way toward the spirit of cooperation. None of them had anything to hide and so they all agreed.

The questioning and explaining went on for three full days, it was tedious and repetitive but the accommodations were decent and they were certainly not interrogating them or mistreating them in any way. In the beginning they were somewhat hostile toward the team but now they were being more pleasant toward them and even seemed appreciative of all their work and what they had accomplished at the compound.

On the last day when the questions were all done and they were being allowed to return home, one of the nicer agents, a Mr. Brian Hillgrave, told Linsey and Dodge that he appreciated what their family and Mr. Calhoun had done for their country and their fellow citizens. He shook Dodge's hand and John's hand, and said, off the record, you guys are true American Heroes in my book! Those comments made Dodge and John feel really good.

"Thank you agent Hillgrave, that means a lot to us," he said.  
"We appreciate hearing that from you."

When Dodge and Linsey arrived at the house, Alan was already there with Sarah and Bobby. It was a media blitz, and they had to fight their way to the front door. They finally got in the house and they couldn't believe what they saw, their kitchen was completely repaired as if there had never been a fire. Matt and his parent's Bill and Brenda McNeil were over by the kitchen table with a nice spread of drinks and finger foods. Bill and Brenda came to greet Dodge and Linsey, they thanked them for what they had done and for watching out for Matt and protecting them from Cyrus and his men. The McNeil's had taken care of getting the house fixed for the Kerrington's and it looked just perfect, they did a wonderful job of it.

One of the police officers outside asked if he could come in for a moment to speak with Dodge. Once inside he explained to the Kerrington's that all the news crews out on the lawn had agreed to leave if Dodge would come out and give a statement and maybe a question and answer period, like a news conference. The officer said,  
"You know if you don't go out there they're just going to hang around half the night in anticipation and I'm gonna miss my dinner at home."

Dodge agreed to just go out there and get it over with. He stepped out on the front porch and was immediately surrounded by bright lights, cameras, and at least twenty reporters wielding microphones. He made a statement about everything that had happened but was careful to leave out details that he promised the authorities he would keep confidential until further notice. The questions went on for almost an hour and now they had turned repetitive, Dodge put up his hand and waved to all of them and said,

"Have a nice evening everyone, I'm exhausted so I'm going in to be with my family, God bless." He turned and went inside and closed the door while they were still shouting questions at him. It was easy to see they would never let it end so he did it for them.

In the following weeks John and Dodge appeared on the Harry Letterman show, the Tonight Show, Good Morning World, and several other popular talk shows before the interest gradually faded as things returned to a more normal life. JC never fully recovered from the electrical attack that he sustained while struggling with Glitch and so the decision was made to decommission John's clone permanently. Dodges' clone was returned to a state of suspension and reserved for future use should he be needed. Linsey and the kids now had clones in suspension in addition to their government issue.

Two weeks after the big take down every member of the team received a package via UPS delivery. The boxes contained black jackets with "Operation Black Ice" on the back, and then the date, September 19th 2056, followed by the complete list of all the team members names, 156 total, listed in alphabetical order and they added a  
special "thanks to" at the bottom to list Toby, Cheyenne, Todd, and Alice, who even though they were not official team members, they were extremely crucial to the success of the operation. Their last names were embroidered on the left breast pocket.

John retained both Jason and Caitlin at the farm as their personal lab assistants with ongoing plans for more testing and research in human and animal cloning. The Farm remained top secret, none of the authorities were ever told of it or made discovery of it. John's girlfriend returned from out of town and things were getting more serious between them, it seemed John had finally found the one.

Three months after the completion of Black Ice, Dodge got a call that surprised him, it was agent Hillgrave. Brian invited Dodge and John to come to the pentagon and of course they both agreed.

It was a cold blustery December day when they arrived in DC on a private jet. Agent Hillgrave met them on the tarmac.

"Good to see you fellas again, and I'm glad it's in a less stressful pretense."

They all agreed and got in out of the blowing snow and into the warm Crown Vic that was waiting.

At the Pentagon they sat in on a meeting with several heads of Home Land Security, White House Administration officials and few other that seemed to lack any ID. There was some briefing on Operation Black Ice and then several video clips of Cyrus's body on the floor in the room behind his office and some forensic terms and various points being made about the scene and what happened.

Then they moved on to Glitch's office and his body hanging there, his head nailed to the door frame with a huge knife. They presented what they believed happened based on their notes and the taped statements taken from Dodge, John, DC, and Alan. Statements made by JC had been stricken due to his condition at the time.

With that complete, they broke for a nice lunch in one of the dining rooms where they were allowed to talk casually and off the record with agents and some of the President's staff for over an hour. It was very nice and everyone was quite interested to see them and ask a few questions including personal stuff, off the subject, like sports and even their favorite restaurants and bars in Indy.

After lunch they returned to the briefing and watched detailed video and audio of the autopsies for both Cyrus and Glitch. Cyrus's body was a real mess even before they shot him up. Only about half of his organs worked properly, his plumbing was all messed up and so he had to wear bags to collect his waste, and use power cells to keep his heart and brain functioning.

He had several diseases that were eating away at him, and he was basically an experiment gone wrong from the beginning that should have been euthanized right away. But the good doctor let him live because he believed it to be in the name of science to continue experimenting with this badly disfigured and mentally deranged human being. It ended up costing the doctor and his wife their very lives and even the life of their other son that turned out for the most part normal, that being the Ron Simpson that worked with Dodge at ESS.

Cyrus was simply a deformed disaster with a demented soul and a very maniacal mind. Glitch was another story entirely. He had originally been a spy in the Queen's service in Great Britain, a real 007 type. His real name was Gerald Litch, no middle name. He was a master mind with computers as a young soldier in the British Army. His uniforms always displayed G. Litch on the breast pocket and so the nickname Glitch stuck. He was a disciplined soldier and upon his completion of his duty in the armed services he was offered a job in the British Secret Service which he gladly accepted.

Several years later there was a clash that ensued between the CIA and some rogue British secret service over an assassination attempt on the Prime Minister. Glitch was a highly trained computer expert, and though well trained in combat as well, he wasn't really cut out for front line action. He got caught in the middle of a fire fight and was shot up very badly on the Prime Ministers yacht. He went overboard and was presumed dead.

Slade was in the area working for both sides as an informant, a crooked double agent. No one knew too much about him other than he was a disfigured freak that they assumed had been blown up in some previous assignment and barely survived. He was in the process of escaping the mess when something got caught in the propeller of the small boat that he was using to flee the area, when he tried to free the prop he discovered it was Glitch that he had hit.

Cyrus dragged him up on board the little boat and took him back to his lab. He realized who he was and figured if he could save him he would become a very valuable asset that owed him his life. He managed to save Glitch but a good portion of his organs were destroyed and his heart was badly damaged. Cyrus kept him in a coma working on him off and on for three years. It was for selfish purposes, not human kindness, that Cyrus did this.

Cyrus knew Glitch had incredible computer and technical skills that would change his game plan entirely. Glitches' modified body was a marvel really, and he was more machine than man. He had multiple nuclium cells that fueled his body through some sort of a function similar to photosynthesis. He had to plug in weekly to keep the cells in good working order. Eating was not necessary but he still could eat if he wanted to. The autopsy revealed only a light diet mostly consisting of liquids. His body also contained what they were now calling a biodrive. They were still studying it but had not yet gained a full understanding of how it worked. They believed Cyrus had figured out how to clone brain matter in such a way as to make it for pure data storage only, no emotion or any glandular control, just pure memory. The tissue was where one of his kidneys should have been and there was something similar to wires connecting it to the base of his brain, only the wires were more biological than mechanical, more like a nerve trunk, grown from something that they had not identified yet.

They were completely baffled by the extreme advanced tissue structures in Glitch's body that Cyrus had no doubt developed. Cyrus as sick as he was had become a master physician and was a high level genius. The pentagon would continue to study and learn from their bodies for years to come. The hard drives and PC's recovered from the compound were all at the Pentagon now where they were being studied and scrutinized, one file at a time. There was one part of the puzzle though that the pentagon still didn't have and John was not about to tell them. It was the drive that Cyrus attempted to make off with that day, the one he had tethered to his wrist. It was in a nicely secured box so John gave it to one of men that chose to leave down on the foundry floor before the authorities arrived. John had studied his background and knew in advance that this man would not stick around to be questioned by the authorities. He was a Russian secret agent that was want by nearly every government in existence not to mention several private contract assassins. He was actually hiding out in the compound under the guise of working for Slade. He was using the situation to create a safe haven for himself. John slipped him a note when he emerged from the oven with the others. It included instructions that he gladly followed.

He instructed him to take the case to one particular bank and go to a particular teller that he described in detail.  
Walk up to the counter and say "John Calhoun would like to make a deposit, your fee will be wired." Give him the case and walk out. He will know what to do and you will be paid two million dollars for your trouble." He received a standard advertisement skyphone message a few days later that read, "New collectibles at the pawn shop. Come see what we have on sale." He knew this meant that his cousin received the case safely. Dodge and John both wanted to go see what was in it but they knew they were still being watched by authorities so it would have to wait. No doubt it contained some great dirt on Cyrus and probably others and lord only knew what else.

The other hanging detail was the funds that Cyrus had. No one had time to tally it before it was transferred to offshore bank accounts that John had set up but he knew it was in the trillions, it was still out there, undetected by the government, bouncing from one account to another. John covered his tracks very well and was excited about the idea of an anonymous donation that would soon wipe out the national debt.

It was a long day. Agent Hillgrave took them to their hotel and dropped them off for the night along with their security detail. The next morning he returned with a car and took them back to the Airport where a small jet was waiting for them on the Tarmac. Agent Hillgrave walked them to their plane and thanked them again for their outstanding service to their country and the world.

As they boarded, he said, "By the way gentlemen, don't leave the country without contacting us first, okay?"

Dodge and John looked at each other. Dodge turned to Hillgrave.

"You got it chief, thanks for the lift."

They boarded the plane and settled in for the flight home to Indianapolis. It was football season now and they both had season tickets for a game tomorrow with their families. The Indianapolis Colts were playing at home against their greatest rivals, the New England Patriots. Peyton Manning was back on the team and it was going to be epic for sure. It was expected to be a very good game and they couldn't wait to see it. On the flight home they watched the nightly world news. The featured story was about a group of rich play boys. It seemed the new fad was death games. The idea was to find the most exhilarating way to die and go out and do it.

John sold the patent for his compact mobile Lifecorder to the company that bought the remnants of Xbox, the outdated gaming system company from the turn of the century, and now it had found a new lease on life by offering to monitor and log Lifefiles in real time via the tiny wearable Lifecorder device.

The top story was covering a group of extreme skiers. They were being dropped off out of a chopper onto an impassable area of Mount Kilimanjaro. They would ski just as long as they could and then plummet to their deaths if they had the guts. For those that couldn't go through with it they could tap out by pulling the cord for a compact parachute that they were wearing. These wealthy thrill seekers had clones already waiting for them at exclusive private life centers paid for in advance. Their onboard personal mobile LifeCorders would record every memory to the very end.

The camera crew followed one young man to his death and then traveled to the life center for the wakening of his new clone. When his clone awoke, he sat straight up and said . . .

"Wow, what a rush! That was incredible!" Then he looked right into the camera and yelled, "Hello extreme sports fans! Let's go do it again!"

John turned off the TV and looked at Dodge.  
"If I had known a bunch of spoiled rich Brats were going to use my invention like that I would have just thrown it in the junk drawer out in the garage!"  
"No kidding, it's not like you needed the extra money!"  
"Man what a crazy world we're living in."

On another plane thousands of feet above Dodge and John traveling in the opposite direction was a wealthy oil man. He was watching the news out of Dallas Texas, his hometown. They just aired a short story about John's invention of the miniature lifecorder device and the same daredevils using it for extreme sports.

"Good evening everyone, I'm Jack Stevens filling in for Bob Grover this evening, in an unrelated story we go now to Alisha Hughes just outside of Houston, Alisha?"  
"Yes good evening Jack, and Good evening everyone, we're on the scene at what local authorities are calling a baffling discovery here in this dessert area outside Houston this evening."

"What you see behind me is a large trailer like the big rigs pull down the highway everyday full of goods going across the country to various stores and factories. This one is a little different because what authorities say they found inside this seemingly abandoned trailer earlier today were not your normal goods."

"Some children were playing outside this recently closed café earlier today when they decided they would break into what appeared to be an abandoned eighteen wheeler trailer, but when they got inside what they discovered surprised them. It seemed to be the remains of a man lying in what looked like a very old barber's chair or perhaps a dental office chair. The children said that the corpse appeared to be connected to some kind of life support machine with many tubes and bags attached to his now shriveled and decaying body. Directly in front of the corpse were a large computer console and monitor which were still functioning when the children entered the trailer. Let's go now to a recorded interview of thirteen-year-old Chris Bevins, one of the youths that entered the trailer.

"Well we got inside and we saw the man and we thought he was still alive but then we thought he was dead."

"What else did you see inside?  
"Um, well there were lots of batteries and wires and tubes and stuff and there was something running like a generator or a motor. Oh, and there were lots of computer things in racks with blinking lights and cables, and lots of electronics like in a lab or something."

"Can you describe the man?"  
"Well he was kind of an old looking white guy with lots of scars or burns on him like he was in an accident or something. He had dark hair and he was really dried up kinda like a raisin you know. He was just lying there in this old metal chair thing in a long black leather coat, looked like he just fell asleep there.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, he had a big gold ring on his right hand, it had weird shapes on it and some letters, CS I think, but that's all I remember."  
"All right, well thank you Chris, we appreciate you talking with us."

"Okay, you're welcome."

"Well everyone that was thirteen-year-old Chris Bevins a local resident here outside Houston. As you can see it's dark here now and some officials have arrived and tented off the trailer so that we can't see anything going on in there, seems like an awful lot of equipment rolling in here for one deceased person in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Here comes one of the officials from homeland security, let's see if we can get a statement.

Sir, excuse me Sir, can you tell us anything at all about the man inside the trailer?"  
"Yes, well at first we were concerned about this because we thought that this man might be a known cyber criminal that had escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico two months ago and so we were worried about national security. As it turns out that was not the case at all but instead this man has been on the FBI missing persons list for quite some time. We won't be releasing his name to the public right now because his family has requested their privacy and they'll be releasing a statement sometime later. It turns out that this very wealthy man was terminally ill and was highly involved in lifelike virtual reality games. He had a very rare cellular disorder that prevented him from being restored so he was facing total death. He disappeared about six months ago and apparently had come out here to spend his final days in solitude with his elaborate gaming system, that's about it."

"Thank you Mr. Sweeter."

"Thank you Alisha."

"Okay, that was Bob Sweeter with homeland security, he has now released the first statement here tonight regarding this strange discovery in this desert area just outside of Houston. Well there you have it folks, it's a bizarre one, this is Alisha Hughes for channel 9 news Houston, back to you in the studio Jack . . ."

"Okay, thank you Alisha, wow that is a bizarre one, thanks for watching us here at channel 9 news at 11, that's all for us today, we're on again at 6:00 a.m. with Randy and Kelly for Daybreak Addition featuring rush hour traffic coverage and your local weather, good night."

It was an interesting story but no matter because the man had missed the end of it, he was sound asleep with his hands folded across his stomach and his black cowboy hat down over his eyes.

Two weeks later the Kerrington's celebrated Christmas. It was by far the best one they had ever had. They had a great time trying to guess their gifts before they opened them and they were all able to get each other exactly what they wanted. But that wasn't really what made it so good, instead it was their new found appreciation for each other and all the things they had taken for granted in the past. Alan came over on Christmas Eve for a little get together that they always had and he read the Christmas story from the Bible which was a tradition in their family. When he finished, he handed the Bible to Dodge.

"This is my last year for this Son, I'm passing it on to you, next year your reading it." Dodge of course agreed to carry it on.

Two months later Dodge and Linsey received an invitation to a very special wedding ceremony. It was a double wedding. Toby and Alice would be joining Todd and Cheyenne in a dual wedding celebration. What wonderful news they thought, two great couples born out of such a bad situation. Both Alice and Cheyenne had been reacquainted with their former husbands and their children several weeks after Operation Black Ice and now they were once again involved in the lives of their children. Both of their mates had moved on but it was okay, they had new loved ones of their own now. It was a major news event with a lot of media surrounding it just as human interest stories usually are. John Calhoun and his gal Amanda were also planning a spring wedding and they were even planning to have a child together. Dodge and Linsey were so excited because they had already been asked to be the God parents for the baby.

When Dodge asked John why he decided to be a father at such an old age he just shrugged.  
"With restoration I can get restored after the baby is born and be a young father, besides we want what you and Linsey have, a great family."

Later that night as Dodge was lying in bed reflecting on everything that they had been through, he said a prayer. He thanked God for his family, his friends, his country, his success and for watching over all of them during their struggles with Cyrus Slade.

The next morning a truck arrived at the Kerrington's. It was a spotlessly clean truck pulling an equally pristine enclosed trailer. The driver walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Dodge opened the door and greeted the man.  
"Good Morning, you're right on time." Then he realized the man was Ben, the young man they had met at the hospital when Bobby was restored.

"Well, hello Ben, long time," said Dodge. "How is everything going for you?"  
"Very good Mr. Kerrington, thanks to you I applied for that internship and I got it, now I'm working part time for this delivery service while I complete my schooling. I'm on track to be an Electronics Engineer in just two more years."  
"That's fantastic Ben, Congratulations!"

"Thank you Sir."

I'll tell Bobby you were here and I'm sure he'd love to see you again, maybe go out for that burger."  
"That would be great, he can call me anytime, here's a digicard with my new info. I was so excited when I saw your name and address on my delivery schedule today. I just can't wait to see your face when I unload it."

They walked out together and Dodge watched as Ben unloaded the contents of the trailer very carefully at the end of the drive way. Dodge signed the digipad and Ben sent a copy of it to his skyphone.

"Enjoy it Sir, there's not another like it. It was good seeing you again."  
"Thanks, It's good seeing you too young man."

He watched as Ben drove away, then he turned and ran his hand down the side of his fully restored GTO.

"Welcome home Baby."

Thank you for reading Restoration. If you enjoyed it then please do post a review for this book on Amazon.

The feedback from my readers is very helpful and the number of reviews received is also very important.

I hope you enjoyed the first book in this Trilogy.

Watch for: Restoration 2, Revenge

Watch for: Restoration 3, Genesis

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