Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (30 page)

A week
later, Tripple Laboratories had become a place of information sharing between
Lee, Dana, and Bearden. Previously locked doors were opened and an honest
dialogue between Dana and Bearden replaced their usual banter. They were both
grappling with the morality of Lee’s future hopes for the genetically altered
embryos. Especially since the biomer sheet wombs were allowing them to thrive
and the next phase, which involved cloning with gene alterations, was likely to
happen.

Bearden’s government
notes were now also part of the shared knowledge in the lab and today, he was
giving a demonstration to Dana of the work he had done with the catalyzing
agent.

“How did you
do that? Dana asked with an awe struck look on her face.

Bearden
blushed a little and held up the combination of biomer and fungal agent, so
they could both examine the phenomenon. The biomer began to wiggle and spread
out over the fungus, absorbing it while making covalent, molecular bonds.

“Fascinating,
isn’t it? And the really cool part is that once it is set into a final shape,
it senesces, and is regenerative if damaged. Could you imagine if we could
re-grow limbs that easy?”

“Well, it
isn’t too difficult to imagine, animals do it all the time,” Dana said. “Do you
know if the biomer will combine with human cells? I would love to test that.”

“Wow. I
think someone has been spending too much time with Lee Tripple. You are
starting to think like him,” Bearden replied.

“Or…maybe I
was hired
because
I think like him.”

Bearden raised
one eyebrow at her and set down the glass case holding the biomer.

“Well, I’ll
admit, that scares me a little.”

Dana laughed
out loud and Bearden grinned, feeling proud that he amused her. The clock on
the wall caught his eye.

“Oh, it’s
late! I have to go. There’s a weapons briefing with the general today…in a half
an hour. He leaned across the bench and kissed her on her forehead, then
hurried out, pausing at the door to glance back and give Dana one last smile.
She was momentarily stunned by the gesture.

“Go,” she
said, motioning him out of the room with her hands. “Don’t blow your cover.”

Bearden’s
face flashed guilt and discomfort. He was still reluctant to admit to himself
that he was a spy. Dana bit her lip as she watched him go, wishing she hadn’t
joked about his predicament. He was a good soldier and a great scientist. She
believed that Bearden would have never intentionally volunteered for what he
was doing. He just had rotten luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong
time.

Twenty-five
minutes later, Bearden arrived at the TRU Building and hurried into the first
floor conference room. Sitting around a large table were General Pike, Colonel
Talper, Colonel Cline, Major Magner, some soldiers from the weaponry unit,
Charisa the programmer and two of the lead biomachine handlers. Colonel Ganesh
was also there without his secretary, Sergeant Quinn, who had become somewhat
of a fixture at his side. Bearden was apparently the last at the meeting to
arrive, because as soon as he sat down, the general spoke.

“I’ve called
this meeting today to discuss the future of the weapons program involving the
biomer. Now we all know that this last month has hit us with a couple of snags
in the program. Lives have been lost and new safety precautions in our training
procedures have put us behind schedule. But I still believe that this
initiative can be a success.”

Bearden
scanned the room as the general made his little speech. Charisa was wide eyed
and looked frightened. Ganesh was like a stone. One of the handlers folded his
arms and sighed while the other rolled his eyes, and Mace looked as evil and
eager as ever.

“Now, in a
few minutes,” the general continued, “we will conference in the heads of
government, the director of the military, Alan Fitzhugh, and the regent of the
civil government, Alister Gowen. But before we do, I want updates from everyone
in this room on their progress with making the biomachines war-ready in under
six weeks. And they had better be positive reports.”

It seemed no
one in the room wanted to speak. Everyone traded glances with one another and a
few whispers broke out. Mace, Ganesh, and Pike all seemed to be looking at
Bearden, like he should have the magical answer. In a way, he did. He had been
charged last week with identifying all the separate sources of raw biomer
material in the botany genetics lab based on genetic similarity. Since Camden
had shared with General Pike his theory about biomer recognition occurring only
between units created from the same raw material, Bearden had naturally been
placed in charge of grouping the remainder of raw material into ‘families’.

Finally,
Bearden took the cue and stood up. He knew that whatever he said would be taken
for fact and he had a feeling that Ganesh wished him to speak out against the
success of the project.

“I have
discovered in the lab, four separate sources of the biomer. If each biomachine
can be categorized into one of these four ‘families’, then the likelihood of
recognition between them is reduced…by how much, I cannot say,” Bearden said.

General Pike
and Major Magner smiled at each other and Ganesh scrunched his eyebrows at him.

“But,”
Bearden continued, “This diagnosis is based on the assumption that recognition
only occurs in families. It could be something species based, in which case
recognition will occur one hundred percent of the time.”

Ganesh
smiled at this answer.

“You will
test both of these scenarios in the coming weeks, Sergeant Leitner,” General
Pike ordered.

“Yes, sir,”
Bearden said and sat down.

Charisa was
the next to stand and Mace gave her a threatening look.

“I…um…” she
hesitated, distracted by Mace but then cleared her throat and looked straight
at Colonel Ganesh. “I just wanted to report that I have developed a signal
amplifier for the handlers. My hope is that the extra power will override the
biomachines desire to ignore their programming.” Charisa held her breath and
waited for a response. Mace Magner had given her a direct order not to focus on
the amplifiers but she felt sure that someone in this room would stand by her
decision.

“You were
told to focus on the programming glitches and not work on amplifiers. How dare
you stand there flaunting your disobedience!
”
Mace
yelled.

“What
amplifiers?” Colonel Cline asked, seemingly interested. “And why wasn’t this
option brought to our attention?” He directed his second question to Mace who
was fuming.

“Amplifiers
are unnecessary and too costly. The biomachines are programmed to recognize and
eliminate danger…handlers are guides, not battle strategists. Amplifying controls
puts the human element back in the forefront and will make the biomachines less
efficient at their job,” Mace said.

“Sounds like
it may be more than that, Major, from your tone,” Colonel Cline said.

Mace
grumbled to himself deciding how to respond. General Pike let him off the hook,
even though he would have liked to know about the amplifiers earlier, too.

“Charisa,
thank you for the update. We will take your development under advisement as a
back up to the programming. How are those glitches, by the way?” Pike asked.

“Sir, there
are no glitches. I have triple and even quadruple checked the work,” she
replied.

“Well, maybe
you are just missing it!” Mace said. “Sir, I suggest we let some other
programmers look at the work.”

“I agree.
Charisa, assign the top people on your team to look for errors,” the general
said.

Charisa
nodded and sat down, biting her lip so she wouldn’t start crying. Cline and
Talper broke off into a private whispered conversation as Pike looked around
the room waiting for anyone else to offer information. No one did. Ganesh had
fixed his eyes on Charisa. The obvious restraint in her expression led him to
think she might know more than she let on. He had received a letter from her
two weeks ago requesting a meeting with him that he had purposely ignored, but
now, seeing her in person, deeply conflicted, he began to reconsider. Ganesh
decided he would have Maeve reach out to her. With her abilities, she could
make quite the ally.

The phone in
the center of the table rang, bringing everyone’s attention back to General
Pike.

“Ahh, the
director and the regent,” he said and hit a button so everyone could hear.

“Hello,
General Pike, Gentleman, Ladies.” The voice of the director came booming
through the speakers.

“Hello,
Director Fitzhugh,” the group said in an uneven chorus.

“Director,
Regent,” General Pike said, assuming command of the conversation. “I have some
updates on the biomachine initiative that I think you will be most pleased
with.”

“That is
welcome news, however, a decision regarding the future of the program has
already been made,” the regent said.

“Oh?” said
General Pike.
 
The whole room
suddenly became very alert.

“We have
moved your initiative to a ‘Plan B’ scenario,” the regent continued. “Ground
troops from other units are being placed on call for combat.”

“You
promised me more time!” Pike boomed.

“And you
will still get it. Finish out your developments and if your program is solid
and error proof in five weeks or less, we will change our plans again. For now,
everyone should just keep doing what
they
are doing.
We’ll be in touch.”

Pike picked
up the phone so the room could no longer hear them.

“And if it
isn’t perfected by the end of the time frame?” Pike asked in as low a voice as
he could, after he turned his back to the group.

“If it
isn’t, your unit will be shut down and the basements filled with cement. We’ve
seen the security footage and we are not happy,” the director replied.

Pike ended
the call and turned back to the confused looking group.

“Well, you
heard them. Let’s all get back to work. There is a lot at stake here,” Pike
said, ending the meeting.

“Mace, you
stay behind.”

Bearden and
Ganesh, not meaning to, exchanged a look of worry, then exited the room going
in separate directions.

“We have to
move now with the test drop in Tyrine,” General Pike said when the room was
clear.

“Okay. I’ll
get Sergeant Leitner to identify unrelated biomachines, starting today.”

“How long
will that take?”

“An hour…a
day…I don’t know,” Mace said.

“Let’s start
with the Phase two Units and when you find the ideal pair for the trial attack,
get Charisa to put those amplifiers on the controls.”

“Are you
sure about…
”

“Yes. I’m
sure. I don’t understand what your problem is with that girl but you need to
get over it. Unless there is something you aren’t telling me.”

“I just
don’t trust her, sir. Why were there no security cameras on her office during
that disaster? And who was that nurse with them that Luke talked about?”

“Look, we’ve
beefed up security down there as much as we can and I have good people looking
for this ‘nurse’ of yours. But let’s let them handle it. I need you to make
sure our test drop with the biomachines goes down exactly the way it’s supposed
to. Our unit depends on it,” General Pike said. “So let go of your
preoccupation with Charisa and do what you’re told.”

“Right…What
do you mean, ‘our unit depends on it’? Are you saying that we are going to get
shut down? Is that what they said to you privately on the phone a few minutes
ago?” Mace asked.

“Just make
sure those biomachines work as they were intended and let me worry about the
director and the regent,” Pike answered.

“Yes, sir,” Mace said and left to find Sergeant Leitner.

The next
night, Camden Riles was escorted to the supper club for his first weekly dinner
with Lee Tripple. He could have gone the week before, but Lee was unable to
leave his lab work at that particular time. Camden felt put off by it, but he
was still eager to see his friend and discuss with him the strange meetings
with Rhys Krell. And, it would be nice to see Enira. When he called for the
elevator, his military escort stepped back. The doors opened and the attendant
was surprised to see him there.

“Ahh,
Professor Riles. What a pleasure. Come on in and I’ll take you right up,” he
said.

“Thank you,
Clarence, it’s good to see you, too,” Camden said and stepped inside.

“Dr. Tripple
is already here. I’m sure he will be most pleased to see you, sir.”

Camden
stepped off the lift to gaze at the beautiful and finely dressed Enira. She had
her hands outstretched as soon as the doors opened. Camden took her delicate
hands in his and leaned in to greet her with a kiss on the cheek, their
customary public greeting. Enira was smiling from ear to ear, but Camden saw
that she was fighting back tears.

“Professor,
it is so great to see you back here.” She took his arm and squeezed in close to
his side.

“It’s great
to be back, Enira. I trust all is well with you, and the club.”

“As well as
can be expected…under the circumstances,” Enira said looking into Camden’s face
with such seriousness that he realized she was trying to tell him something.
Camden glanced around the club and saw a few unfamiliar faces and realized her
intention. He patted her arm with his free hand and nodded so she knew he
understood. The club was no longer a place where matters of utmost privacy
could be discussed. That was okay for tonight. What Camden wanted to discuss
was no matter of secrecy.