The Red Phoenix 12: Strength Comes in Numbers (27 page)

“Right you are, One. Both of you lie down on each of those beds,” said Chris, typing at the computer station, bringing up the title
RED PHOENIX CLONE XII
on the screen.

“For what purpose do you need us completed, Chris?” asked Two.

“To make you different,” Chris answered.

“To make us better?” asked Two.

“To make you perfect,” Chris responded.

“Is Dr. Sanders authorizing this, Chris?” asked One.

“If I had to guess, I’d say that Sanders is already dead,” Chris answered, typing. “There is no way I’m allowing awesome science to go to waste. Are you two ready to begin?”

One and Two lay down on the beds. Chris continued the procedure, typing fast, causing the glass covers to close over them.

“This better work, this better work,” he mumbled, nervous, wiping more sweat from his face, placing the blood samples into each of the ports at the sides of their beds, rushing back to the computer station and putting on his goggles.

Chris hit ENTER on his computer, starting the process. As before, there was a bright flash in the lab with loud revving throughout the room. He put up his hand, stunned by the glare of the illumination as he looked to his workstation.

On the monitor screens, he watched the skeletal graphics of One and Two as their transformation commenced. One screen stated
FACIAL
,
VOICE
and
HAIR CONVERSION
uploading, twenty-five percent
. Another screen stated
DNA
and
BONE STRUCTURE AUGMENTATION
uploading, forty-nine percent
. On a third screen, it stated
VOICE ALTERATION
completed
.

The bright light in the lab died down. Chris walked to their beds, pulling his goggles off as the procedure finished and their glass covers rose. Steam vapors billowed out of their capsules. He looked down at the clones that were spitting images of Kerry and Kirk, lying unconscious.

“I did it,” said Chris, touching Kerry’s clone’s face gently.

She awakened, gazing at him.

“Are we completed?” she asked.

“Oh, you’re more than completed,” Chris answered, amazed at her appearance, caressing her chin with his fingers. “You’re surreal.”

“How is my appearance, Chris?” asked Kirk’s clone, sitting up. “Do I look appropriate?”

“Kirk?” asked Chris, astonished at the striking resemblance to his son’s face, moving closer to him.

“Pardon me?” asked Kirk.

“Do you look appropriate?” asked Chris, placing his hands on either of his cheeks, laughing from joy.

The clones sat staring at Chris, watching his excitable behavior.

“You look unbelievable,” Chris responded as a tear rolled his cheek. “You both look absolutely fantastic,” he added, turning to Kerry’s clone, placing his hands on her cheeks again.

Kerry caressed his hand, closing her eyes, standing from the lab bed. Chris pulled her in, touching his lips to hers, kissing her, embracing her body, rubbing his hands around her back and shoulders as she ran her fingers through his hair then rubbed his chest.

Kirk’s clone stood back, watching them make out, and smiled.

“I take it you like the way Number Two turned out?” asked Kirk’s clone.

Chris and Kerry stopped kissing, breathing heavily, resting their foreheads against one another’s.

“From this moment, you are
Kerry
,” Chris stated, holding her in his arms. “Understand?”

“And you are my Chris,” she answered with a soft voice, looking into his eyes.

“And you are
Kirk
,” said Chris.

“Yes, father,” he replied, grinning. “Of course.”

“I’m never going to let either of you go again,” Chris promised in a serious tone.

“There will be no need,” said Kerry, embracing him. “We’re a family now.”

“Let’s get back to the others,” Chris stated.

Chris walked with Kerry, holding her hand, along with Kirk out of the main cloning lab and back into the living area of the A.I.s. The clones turned their heads at Chris and were speechless at the sight of Kerry and Kirk.

“Everyone, I have an announcement to make,” Chris stated.

The clones stood from their posts, gazing at them with their weapons.

“This is Kerry, previously known as Number Two,” he continued. “This is Kirk who you knew as Number One. They are my family. I want you all to help me guard them.”

“Of course we will, Chris,” Three replied with sincerity.

“With our lives,” Four added.

The clones moved nearer, taking a closer look at Kirk and Kerry.

“They are so beautiful,” Five stated, feeling Kerry’s brunette hair that rested on her shoulders.

“So human-like,” Six added, touching Kirk’s face.

“Well, now that you’re all impressed, it’s time to make a plan to get out of here,” Chris stated.

***

Harris flew around the dome of lightning again for another pass.

“See anything, Edwards?” asked Harris.

“Negative,” he answered. “Nothing but a crazy dome of lightning zapping down there.”

Suddenly, a streak of lightning struck each of the helicopters, causing them to jolt to the side roughly.

“Whoa!” cried Harris.

“What the hell was that?” asked the gunman.

“That thing starting to shoot at us, Harris! I think we’re pissing it off flying around it!” yelled Edwards.

“I agree. It’s time to get out of here!” said Harris, moving his controllers to the right.

More lightning struck from the dome, flashing across the windshield, causing Harris to pull to the left.

“Yikes!” said Harris.

“Damn!” the gunman bawled. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

“Police Two! Police Two! Abort! I say again, abort! Environment is hostile. Do you copy? Abort!” said Harris into his headset.

“I copy, Captain, loud and clear,” said the pilot of Police Two over his radio. “Aborting now, sir.”

***

Richens and the crowd of emergency personnel and media marveled at the lightning show from their vantage point, “Oohing” at the bright pink, green and purple streaks that shot from the dome with increasing frequency.

“Harris, come in. This is Richens. It’s looking bad from here. You and Police Two need to pull out. I repeat, pull out. Do you copy?”

“Way ahead of you, Sheriff, we’re aborting now s—”

Suddenly, pink and green streaks of lightning fired from the dome, striking Police One and Police Two, causing both helicopters to explode, separating the propellers from the cabin and the tails to be blown in the opposite direction from the rest of the fiery pieces of rear fin, sliding cabin door, propellers and windshield as they flew aimlessly through the air until they descended to the ground below.

Richens and the crowd behind him were stunned with horrified faces as pieces of what was left of both helicopters hit the ground, some of them still engulfed in flames.

“No,” said Richens in a whispery voice in shock, watching more pieces of destroyed, burning helicopter hit the ground. “Harris. Edwards. No.”

The dome shot more lightning streaks that were bigger, louder, brighter and fiercer, nearly reaching Richens and the others.

“Whoa!” said Lieutenant Gills, rushing to Richens. “Sheriff? We need to pull these people back, sir!” he said sternly. “Like now, dammit!”

Richens’ face was stoic. He was speechless and lost in his state of defeat.

“Do you hear me?” said Gills in a sharp voice, grabbing Richens’ arm, making his eyes shift to Gills, forcing him back to reality.

“I sent Harris, Edwards and the others to their death, Gills,” said Richens, sounding sorrowful, his eyes dazed. “They blew up right in front of me.”

Gills stiffened his upper lip and turned to the crowd, firing his holstered pistol in the air.

“Okay. listen up! Everybody out of here! Sheriff’s orders! Everybody pull back! I said pull back! Clear the area now!” Gills commanded, waving his arms at the hordes of law enforcement, medical and media personnel, taking control of the scene.

The lightning grew more frightening in the background as flashes of pink, green and purple ripped through the air over their heads.

“Did you see that? That was twenty feet above our heads!” said a reporter, scared, hurrying into his news van.

The media vans started up and began to speed away, kicking up loose gravel on the roadside.

Suddenly, the dome of lightning was sucked into the facility like there was an enormous vacuum inside the building. A circular disk of bluish light flashed from the building, racing across the land like a heavy wind before a tumultuous noise sounded, sending a wave of unstoppable force out the front of the massive building, then the sides and then the rear of the facility, leveling everything in its path.

The main building of the Red Phoenix facility imploded as its towers broke apart, causing broken pieces of building wall with parts of the office space attached to hit the pavement, sending up massive clouds of dust and dirt, heaping enormous piles of wreckage and rubble to spread from where the front entrance was located. The transit system that was once wrapped in a pristine and futuristic manner around the attractive building was also buried under the collapsing government fortress.

The upsurge rolled speedily through the parking lot, causing the surrounding six-level administration towers to explode into thousands of pieces as they were taken away in the mighty land wave, throwing rows of parked vehicles out of its path, tearing them apart as it pushed on with its unrelenting power. The light posts that stood thirty-feet high near the building and the parking lot were ripped from the asphalt and thrown out of its way like they weighed nothing as the annihilating wave pushed on into the vast open space of the desert.

Richens stood watching the forty foot wave of destruction come right at him. He put his hands up to protect himself only to be taken up into the powerful upsurge, along with the other law enforcement personnel and vehicles. The medical and media vehicles that raced from the scene on the highway were also caught up in the speeding wave, lifting off the ground, thrown through the air then ripping apart as the wave pushed on, taking up trees, large boulders, weeds and dried grass in its wake.

***

At the far south side of the perimeter, Gough and his guards watched the atomic wave of dust, trees, shards of glass, and pieces of building come toward them as it increased in diameter by the second.

“God help us,” said Gough in disbelief, stunned at the cataclysmic land tsunami that sped towards them.

“Let’s get the freak out of here!” yelled another guard as they frenziedly loaded into a full-size van, trying to escape the area.

Gough didn’t move but stood watching the horrible fast-moving land storm approach at its incredible speed.