RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (56 page)

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.