RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) (59 page)

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
it’s 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.