Dues of Mortality (50 page)

Simonton
stalled, pulling at his neck. “Beaumont is convinced that the
government has plans for cloning technology; big plans—the kind
that make the advent of the atomic bomb look like a software upgrade.
He was always complaining that the biotechs were getting massive
taxpayer funding for creating a new system of warfare. It was
something that nobody would see coming until it was too late, and
there was no one left to tell—at least no one who’d be on
their side. He had no proof, of course, and he knew no one important
would be willing to listen. He'd be disgraced as a kook. So he took
matters into his own hands. He formed an
uneasy
alliance
with the only other people he knew would
listen—listen and
act
.”

“
What
do you mean,
act
?
”

“
I
mean...” Simonton put up his fists and popped his fingers
open—a modern day hand signal for the bombings that were
becoming all too familiar... “
act
in a way that would bring the
biotechs crumbling down.”

“
Mothafu...”
Xavier almost said. “Beaumont’s a terrorist?”

“
He
wouldn’t say so,” Simonton answered.

Glenda
was dumbstruck. She pressed her hands in praying fashion, against the
sides of her mouth. “I have family in Michigan that voted for
him.” She shook her head hard and then looked straight at
Simonton. “Okay, I think I understand. But what I still don’t
know is how you managed to get
me
involved. Why am
I
the one Wallace is trying to kill?”

Simonton
grit his teeth. “Because he’s a lying, double-crossing
sack of shit!” he hollered. “Part of the deal was that
you were
not
to be harmed!”

“
Peter,
for God’s sake! What are you talking about?” Glenda
exploded. She had had it with the guessing game.

Simonton
backed away from her. He looked so poltroon, as to be ill.
“Glen...I...” His lips quivered but nothing came of it.
He wanted to say it now.
Really say it
, if for no other reason
than to relieve the physical weight of it from his chest. But God
help him...
he just couldn't
.

In
one bolting action, Xavier sprang to his feet and pulled the chair
from between his legs in such a way as to make Simonton think he
would bash him with it. Indeed, the thought had crossed Xavier’s
mind when the truth finally dawned on him. It wasn’t until
Simonton threw a glance past him, as if to say, “You tell her,”
that Xavier was sure he was right.

“
You
miserable sack,” Xavier snarled. He glowered
at
Simonton like a caged gorilla at its keeper.

Simonton
buried his head in his hands and hunkered for the storm.

“
That's
what's been bothering me about
all this,” Xavier said. “The close calls when the deck is
so stacked against us. We haven’t been getting lucky at all.
That’s why she’s still alive. Any one of them could’ve
killed her on sight.” He turned to Glenda, but wanted to tear
Simonton's throat out. “Wallace hasn’t been trying to
kill you. He’s been trying to
clone
you!”

Glenda
went lightheaded. “What?”

“
Malcolm
Block...the guy from the alley...and even Jones, the cop; he could’ve
killed you, too, but it’s not what they wanted. Remember what
Kelmer said? They had to have a quality source of host DNA, a well
they could go back to in order to create a viable clone. They were
trying to get
pieces
of you,
samples
.
They just wanted to mutilate you.” Xavier traded glances
between Glenda and Simonton. “It was all part of the deal. In
exchange for blabbing on Beaumont, the man of
steel
,
here, gets a cloned duplicate of himself to leave in the plane
wreckage, to insure it would pass all DNA scans, no questions.”
He paused. “And another clone of
you
.
One that he could have all to himself and manipulate any way he
wanted.”

“
That’s
not true,” Simonton protested, snapping Xavier a bladed look.
He then turned to Glenda moony-eyed. “I mean, it is, but...but
not the way he’s saying it. Wallace told me all he needed was a
little DNA.”

“
Oh
yeah, a real sweetheart deal,” Xavier shouted. “I bet all
you had to do was pop a blue pill and squeeze off a couple of rounds
into a cup while she has to give up a pint of blood and an ear...or a
finger!” Xavier's left hand curled to a fist and his right
levitated toward the gun in his waistband. Simonton was well on his
way to a fist or a bullet or both.

“
He
said it wouldn’t be violent,” Simonton insisted. “He
promised he could get what was needed humanely!”

“
There's
nothing humane about what they did to her, you twisted
son-of-a-bitch!” Xavier pulled his gun and leveled it at
Simonton's head. “I should kill you right now!”

Simonton
raised his hands and broke into an instant sweat. “
Please!
I swear he told me all he needed was a few ounces of blood! He
assured me it would be painless! I would never have agreed to
anything else!”

“
Painless,”
Glenda repeated. She felt faint. “That's what Block said to me
in my apartment.”

Xavier
looked thoughtful. “Didn't you say the police said something
about finding drugs on him?” he asked Glenda. He never took his
eyes off Simonton.

“
Yes,
several doses of H-ball.”

“
And
a hyposhot; the safer way of administering the drug without fear of
overdosing.”

“
Yes,
but how...”

“
Hyposhots
are still a syringe like any other; they can be used to draw as well
as inject and have an adjustable capacity. Block could have knocked
you unconscious and taken more than enough blood to produce a clone.
Then he could have
switched
out the vials and injected you with a shot of H-ball. And because
hyposhots are programmable smart needles he wouldn't have had much of
a problem
using the
same injection site; so that when you reported it the police would
dismiss you as some fool experimenting with drugs...maybe even
conclude that you hallucinated the whole damn thing.”

Glenda
looked nauseated. “
Peter is
that true?” she asked.

“
I
doubt he asked for too many details,” Xavier said. “After
Block failed Wallace got impatient, worrying about the vote. Then he
just kept on sending people after you with no luck. The more
desperate he got, the more unrestrained the attacks.”

“
Peter,
tell me you didn’t,” Glenda begged, knowing he wouldn’t.
“I can’t believe you would do something like this, make
me into one of those...
machines
!”

“
No,
Glen,” Simonton pleaded. “I never wanted some computer
controlled robot of you. The most it would have been is some
adjusting
of
your memories, you know, to...erase the mistakes I made with you—give
us a fresh start.” He sat down next to Glenda and tried to
touch her. She recoiled in odium.

“
I
told him I wanted a real person—one who could grow and learn,
and feel on its own,” he said. “I didn’t want to
manipulate you, Glen. I
wanted
the real thing. But since I
couldn’t have that I...” Simonton let go of the thought.
He’d run dry of palpable excuses now and couldn't even bear to
hear himself talk anymore. He sat down in abject shame.

To
his surprise, Xavier felt a stir of sympathy for Simonton. Imagine, a
man so in love with a woman he couldn't have that he’d settle
for a
cheap copy
of
her. And for the rest of his life.
He
suddenly wondered if he would have ruled out the option of
replicating Elana if he'd had it?
What if he could bring Momma
back? What if he could just talk to her again, have the chance to hug
her, to say he was sorry? Didn’t he long for those
opportunities?

Xavier
lowered the gun.

Shit
.
Why did people like Simonton always get their shot first? Why did
they
always have a
choice when everybody else just had to suffer with what fate had
thrown at them? At least, until the price came down?

“
Please,
forgive me, Glen,” Simonton said, welling with tears. “You
were all I had left.”

Glenda
strained to touch him, but her hands protested so that they shook.
“Peter, I...”

“
I
think she can forgive you,” Xavier said, “on the
condition that you start telling us
everything
...the
whole
truth.”

Simonton
looked bewildered. “What are you talking about? I just told you
everything.”

Xavier
aimed his gun at Simonton’s temple. “Don’t lie to
me again! You lie one more time and I’ll disintegrate your
fuckin' brains!”

Glenda
was flabbergasted. She trusted Xavier, implicitly but this point of
going off three-fourths cocked, without letting her in on it first,
was becoming an annoying habit. “Xavier, what...”

“
He’s
crazy, Glen!” Simonton said, ready to shit himself.

Xavier
rolled his finger over the gun's charger and it made that familiar
little whirring noise. “I want the truth!”

“
What
are you...?”

Xavier
fired a shot into the floor that left a football-sized crater in the
reinforced screed.

“
Jesus!”
Simonton shouted.

“
The
truth, goddammit!” Xavier demanded. “Right now!”

“
Xavier,
what are you doing?” Glenda asked him.

Xavier
reset the gun against Simonton's head. “You just accused a
United States Senator of being a terrorist,” he said to
Simonton. “The problem is that he wouldn’t be stupid
enough to tell you that, just because you had similar political
interests. There’s no way Beaumont would trust you with that
information unless...” Xavier’s eyes flared and he moved
the gun’s barrel, pressing it against Simonton’s
glistening cheek. “Unless
you
were involved.”

“
Y...you’re
crazy!” Simonton said.

Xavier
fired off another shot, this time, shattering a pallet in the corner.
“The truth!”

Simonton
was locked in a violent tremble. “All right! All right! Jesus
Christ, all right! I helped Beaumont finance the jobs through
Thaddeus Maguire!”

“
Who?”
Glenda asked, amazed there was more.

“
Thaddeus
Maguire,” Xavier answered. “The little rich bitch who
funded a bunch of Bio-eth terrorists. Supposedly, he even gave them
inside information on his father’s rich competitors with high
stakes in the biotechs...all just to piss off daddy.”

“
Beaumont
had business and political ties with Maguire's father, Chad,”
Simonton continued. “Though he may have found out about
Thaddeus's involvement with the group through his contacts in the
FBI. He may have even used those sources to keep the group's leader,
some guy named Ross, from getting caught in the first place, I don't
know. After the heat of Thaddeus Maguire's trial wore down, Beaumont
decided to reactivate Ross, but he still needed sources of
untraceable cash.”

“
And
that’s when he came to you. Who better to ask for help than
somebody who wanted to deal the biotechs out of the game more than he
did? Then there's your obvious talent for laundering money. And I
suppose with Beaumont being on the armed services committee, he could
easily connect the lobbyists to the line items in any bill before it
went up and he’d know where all the big checks were going.”

“
Who
knew he was the only senator in the country who actually read the
bills before they went to the floor. Now could you please point that
thing somewhere else?”

Xavier
lowered the gun, but with a look that told Simonton to keep going or
else.

Simonton
breathed a sigh of relief strong enough to blow over a fire-hydrant.
“Beaumont drew up a list of the firms that were contracted, and
then he sent it to me. I’d then send it off to Maguire along
with the necessary funds that were needed for the job.”

“
After
revising the list with a few Millenitech subsidiaries, I bet,”
Xavier said.

“
Fat
lot of good it did me,” Simonton replied. “I didn’t
have enough time to put anything more than a dent in Wallace’s
purse before it all fell apart. I was the only one who lost money on
the deal.”

“
And
when you thought you could make up the difference by ramrodding your
labor force, somebody up the chain got a sudden attack of conscience
and blew the whistle on your funny accounting practices.”

“
Fucking
unions.”