Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (31 page)

Lee stood up
from the table when he saw Camden. The men greeted each other with slight
hesitation. Even though they were both happy to see one another, the last time
they were face to face had been upsetting for them both. Camden had forgiven
Lee for his blatant insensitivity in regards to Ari’s death and hoped it
wouldn’t put a damper on the conversation this evening. A minute after Camden
was seated, a glass of his favorite scotch was served to him along with a plate
of freshly shelled nuts and cheese.

“It’s good
to be back,” he said and raised his glass to Lee.

“Yes. I
agree,” Lee said and sipped his tea. “But be careful, Cam, these walls have
ears.”

“Oh good,
you know about that.”

With Lee not
being one for small talk and Camden just happy to be relaxing in a familiar
atmosphere, they sat in comfortable silence for a while. After they ate a fine
dinner, they began their conversation, jumping right into the topic that had
been occupying Camden’s mind for over a week. He would not talk about Rhys or
the space travel project here with spies lurking, but he could share an
outlandish idea with his peer.

“Lee, I want
to talk with you about the brain’s perception of time.”

“Oh? How do
you mean?”

“Assuming
time does not exist, but even so, we understand it as being linear, I’ve been
considering that the events we perceive in life to be sequential, may not be at
all,” Camden said.

“Interesting
idea. So in that respect, this conversation could have already taken place, but
our minds are only perceiving it here, in this present moment,” Lee replied.

“Exactly.
And possibly, everything that has ever happened, or ever will happen, takes
place in one instant, but its just too much information for our brains to take
in, in that instant. Like a pebble dropping into a lake, the splash it makes
represents every event and all things in a person’s life, but our brains need
to absorb the splash by rippling outward. So the ripples moving out from the
splash are giving us the information a little at a time. Our minds can then
experience each event in a sequence. As we move away from the initial splash,
the ripples expand, and each expansion represents our collected memories, our
past.”

“Okay, so
you are wondering why the brain prevents us from seeing the whole splash as
opposed to trickling the information,” Lee replied.

“Well, I
guess, but that’s just the thing. Maybe there are some who can see the whole
splash, or can jump from ripple to ripple. So that things in the future are
recognized to them, as memories; seeing life out of sequence.”

“So, it
would seem, in your wild theory, that those using only a small part of their
brain, which is considered normal, would perceive life in a sequential order.
But if someone had the ability to use a larger portion, or even a different
part of the brain, life in sequence could become life in chaos. Perhaps with
insanity,” Lee said, and then sat quietly, staring at the wall thinking of how
this odd idea could be tested in his lab.

While Lee
was contemplating and mumbling to himself, Camden was impressed at how quickly
Lee related his idea to clinically crazy and thought about Rhys and his
scribbled pictures. They roughly resembled his own drawing of the space-bending
machine he’d dreamed up. How Rhys had recognized it, recalling it from a dream,
knowing Camden’s drawing was flawed. And the things he said haunted Camden,
‘the killer’ and ‘then the monsters come’.
 
He had been to see Rhys everyday since Quinn swiped his
drawings and his words were always the same. Even Terry had become fascinated
with the consistency of his message to Camden.

Enira broke
the silence at their table. “Is everything alright, Gentlemen?” she asked
softly, placing her hand on Camden’s shoulder. Camden put his hand on hers and
looked up and smiled. Lee scowled at this gesture, wondering if this was their
normal behavior and he had just never noticed it before.

“Everything
is fine, Enira, and dinner was excellent,” Camden replied. “We were just having
a moment of silent reflection, but I can see from your expression that it must
be time for me to go. Did you get a call?”

“I did,” she
replied. “This must be so hard for you, to not have your freedom…” She bit her
tongue and quickly glanced around realizing she shouldn’t have said that.
Camden laughed out loud, stood, and kissed her hand. He did not care if his
situation was known, that was for Mace and the general to worry about. He turned
to Lee who was looking quite rumpled.

“Always a
pleasure, my friend,” Camden said to him, holding out his hand. Lee stood and
shook it.

“And never a
dull conversation,” Lee replied. “Until next week, then.”

Camden
nodded and Enira walked arm in arm with him to the elevator.

Earlier that
day, Ganesh sent a cryptic message to Maeve that only she would understand.
After his wife went to bed that night, he sat alone in his dark kitchen waiting
for her to arrive. He was going to ask for her help in finding out what Mace
and General Pike were up to, and he also needed her to get into Tripple
Laboratories. He had access codes from Camden to help her in. She would have to
go there anyway, to get Camden’s payment from the lady at the desk. He would
also confess to her that he was waging his own internal war against the Daxian
government by working to disable their biomachines. This was risky since
Maeve’s last assignment left Naja Pinure, an internal spy for Tyrine, dead. Not
that Maeve cared about the politics, she was strictly for hire, but it was
always a risk to admit to someone that you have turned into a traitor. Maeve
approached Ganesh in the darkness, ready to make her own traitorous confession.

The next
afternoon, Ganesh called for Sergeant Bearden Leitner. Bearden assumed he had a
message for him to pass on to Lee, which gave him a good excuse to spend
another evening at Tripple Laboratories. Sergeant Quinn answered Ganesh’s
office door, as usual, but Bearden was surprised to see Camden Riles sitting in
the office too.

“Ahh,
Sergeant Leitner, come in. How are you this afternoon?” Ganesh asked. He seemed
to be in a particularly pleasant mood today.

“I’m fine,
sir. Thanks for asking. Hello, Professor Riles,” he said. Bearden felt
uncomfortable in this group because he was still unsure about his feelings
toward Colonel Ganesh and he was afraid that his double dealings with Major
Magner were written all over his face. Not to mention, Camden Riles made him
nervous. The last time he saw him, at the press conference, he seemed a bit off
his rocker. So, Bearden just stood there waiting for instruction. He noticed
drawings spread out on Ganesh’s desk. They looked like they were done by a
child but Camden was studying them with the deepest interest. Maybe he
was
completely cracked up.

“I’ve got a
letter for you to deliver from our good friend Camden, here,” Ganesh said.
Camden looked up at Bearden and gave him a snide smile. Bearden walked over and
took the letter from Ganesh.

“Put it in
your pocket now,” he said, “Any chance you can make a special trip to see Lee
before your next scheduled shift?”

“Actually,
sir, I can go now. I’m finished here for the day and Dr. Tripple always has
plenty that needs to be done,” Bearden replied. Camden looked at him for a
moment with interest.
 
He wondered
what Lee was working on these days and felt a ping of jealousy that this young
sergeant knew and he didn’t.

“Ok then.
Great! That’s all, Sergeant,” Ganesh said. Bearden saluted and left, saying bye
to Quinn on his way out.

Bearden went
home first to change into civilian clothes and eat something before he went to
Tripple Laboratories. When he took off his jacket he was shocked to see his
name on the outside of the envelope Ganesh had given him. He thought it must
surely be a mistake. The envelope was thicker than usual and there it was,
clear as day, written on the outside.

For Sergeant Bearden Leitner Only

Unsure that
it was truly for him, he shrugged his shoulders and figured if it wasn’t, and
he read it, it would be an honest mistake. He opened the envelope to find a
second envelope, along with a letter addressed to him.

Sergeant Leitner,

It is of utmost importance that you deliver the sealed envelope to the
‘lady at the desk’ at Tripple Laboratories. Do Not Read It. And do not tell Dr.
Tripple about it. Tell the lady at the desk that it is from Camden Riles and
that it is urgent. Then walk away.

Professor Riles deeply appreciates that you allow for him to maintain
discreet correspondence with his colleagues.

Sincerely,

Colonel Samuel Ganesh

“Yeah right,
Professor Riles appreciates it,” Bearden said. He stared at the second sealed
envelope for a moment, his curiosity rising. “Nah, not worth it,” he said and
finished getting dressed.

When Bearden
arrived at Tripple Laboratories, he did exactly what was asked of him and the
lady at the desk seemed relieved and nervous at the same time to get a letter
from Camden. He passed through security and into the main lab to find it mostly
quiet and dark. The embryos pulsed inside of their biomer wombs all around the
tables and soft classical music was playing. He walked by and the faint orange
glow from heat lamps placed on the floors around them, gave them an eerie
appearance. They were getting so big.

He heard
noise coming from the surgical section of the lab and walked in to find Dana
sticking a needle in her arm.

“What are
you doing?” he asked.

“Oh, hey,
Bearden, I uh…wasn’t expecting you. Just pretend you didn’t see this,” she
said.

“Well, too
late for that. What’s going on here?” he asked, looking at three empty blood
vials and a row of specimen containers lined up on the metal table in front of
her.

“Well, if
you must know, I’m supplying Lee with some new tissue and blood samples…for the
project.”

“What if he
ends up cloning you…with severely altered genes…are you alright with that?”

“It’s kind
of in the job description, Bear. If you’d had a proper interview you would know
that.”

“Maybe that
was in
your
job description, but
donating your own body to the lab…I think more people in the lobby that day
would have looked freaked out, if that was mentioned as a requirement in their
interviews.”

“You mean
like you are looking at me now?” Dana asked.

“Yes…I mean,
no…well, it is a little weird.”

“I am doing
what needs to be done. That’s all. And if you were seriously committed to this
lab, you would be rolling up your sleeve and drawing your own blood,” she said.

“I think
I’ll wait till I’m asked,” Bearden said and Dana laughed.

Just then,
Lee rushed in with his hair looking disheveled and fidgeting like he had ants
in his pants. Dana pulled the needle out of her arm and stood up.

“Lee, what’s
wrong?” she asked.

“Not wrong.
I’ve found it. The weakness. I can destroy it with gene interference. If the memory
capacity of the cells cannot function, it acts more elemental than biological,”
Lee said.

“That’s
incredible,” Bearden said assuming he was talking about the biomer.

“Yes. It is.
If I can harness the memory gene, isolate it, and bond it with human tissue…”

“Then memory
transfer of clones is possible! You won’t even be creating clones, you will
be…creating immortality!” Dana said. A chill ran through her body, and not the
good kind.

“Precisely.
Let’s get started,” Lee said.

“What? Now?
Just like that? Don’t you want to get a message started for Camden and Colonel
Ganesh? Do you realize you may have just saved humanity from the horrible
weapons that I am responsible for? I mean, just because you can maybe bring
people back from the dead, doesn’t mean we should let people die,” Bearden
said.

“But think
of the test subjects,” Lee mumbled. “No, no. Of course that isn’t a rational
idea.”

Dana crossed
her arms and tried not to look disgusted.

“How will
you disable the biomer? And what weapons?” she asked. Bearden answered first.

“There are
humanoid weapons, hundreds of them, built out of biomer, catalyzed to grow and
programmed to think,” he said. Dana’s mouth gaped open. “They are,
unfortunately, flawed. When two or more are together, they recognize each other,
we think, on a cellular level. When that happens, they ignore their programming
and just start killing. Already, there have been two tragic accidents at the
unit. Soldiers have died,” Bearden said.

“So, this is
your big ‘top secret’ stuff that you wouldn’t tell me before. Well, I’ll admit,
it is terrifying. And of course you feel responsible for those deaths,” Dana
said.

“Yes,”
Bearden softly replied.

“Well, this
explains a lot. You’ve been coming here to escape your guilt. Because you think
that helping Lee will give you some sort of redemption,” she accused.

“Maybe,” he
answered.

“So, how
does it work, Lee?” Dana asked.

“I can
infect the bonded biomer with a gene code that works like a virus, spreading to
all the cells, finding the memory transfer passageway and blocking it,
disabling it’s functionality,” Lee said, glad that Bearden and Dana had stopped
their yammering to pay attention to his breakthrough.

“Genius!”
Dana said.

“I know,”
Lee replied.

“This will
change everything at the unit. The biomachines can be controlled,” Bearden
said. Dana rubbed his arm and he smiled at her.

“Um…that
isn’t true,” Lee interrupted. “I have observed a second effect of the virus
code. Of course, much more testing needs to be done and maybe the links between
the genes can be broken…of course…that takes time and …”

“Lee!” Dana
cut him off. “What are you saying?”

“The virus
code breaks the bond to the fungus that acts as a promoter for the biomer
growth.”

“But the
growth has already taken place. Does it need the fungal material once it is in
its final form?” Bearden asked.

“Apparently,
yes. From what I’ve seen of it, the biomer is extremely adaptable, but when it
bonds, it changes. It becomes reliant on what it has bonded to. Take away the
bond and the biomer dies.”

“Like setting
a caged animal loose in the wild. It can’t survive,” Dana said thoughtfully.

“Yes.
Exactly. So, your ‘catalyst’ is not actually a catalyst at all. The fungus and
the biomer develop a symbiotic relationship. The fact that growth is promoted
by the bonding of the two organisms is just a coincidence, but after the
initial bonding, neither the fungus or the biomer can survive without the
other,” Lee added.

“Hey, Bear,
are you okay?” Dana asked. Bearden was leaning against the table like he was
using it to steady himself. He looked frightened.

“Yeah, I
just need some water. I’ll be right back,” he said and left for the kitchen.
Lee hadn’t noticed anything strange about Bearden’s reaction and continued
explaining to Dana the details of the virus code. Dana listened, but wasn’t
fully committed to concentrating on what he was saying. She was wondering what
was going on in Bearden’s head and was tempted to follow him and find out.

Bearden sat
at the table in the kitchen with a glass of cold water, thinking about how he
would break this news to Major Magner. He was not going to be happy and Bearden
would suffer for it. His weapons program would be shut down, one way or the
other. After seeing those soldiers killed, he now wanted to grab the virus code
and run out of here, to disable all the biomachines while they were still
chained to their cement cells. But Major Magner would most certainly kill him
for that. He’d have to move into the lab with Dana and hide for the rest of his
life. But, Bearden still felt bound to his military duty and would continue to
do exactly what he was asked, by both his superiors, Major Magner and Colonel
Ganesh. Following orders was the only way he could keep his sanity in his
multiple liaison roles. It allowed him to not have to take real responsibility
for his actions. He sat alone with his thoughts for another ten minutes,
then
returned to the surgical area, where the conversation
between Lee and Dana was still going on.

Meanwhile,
Maeve Daire had entered the building fully disguised as a frumpy older woman
with graying hair and wrinkles. She was speaking with the lady at the desk in a
false voice. She pretended to be the head of a charitable organization, picking
up an extremely large donation that Camden Riles had made…anonymously. The lady
at the desk, having received word about this from Camden less than an hour ago,
in the letter delivered to her by Sergeant Leitner, had already begun making
arrangements for securing the funds. They were to come from a personal account
Camden had opened years ago at the urging of his wife Rosa, when they began to
gain extraordinary wealth. Rosa wanted to provide scholarship money to young
scientists for their research endeavors and Camden was happy to oblige her.
When she died, the account sat useless, until he struck up a friendship with
Lee Tripple, who was then probably the most famous scientist alive.

Their
friendship was easy since Camden was smart enough to understand the things Lee
talked about.
 
Lee also never spoke
of Rosa or showed the slightest sympathy for him, which helped Camden shut her
out of his mind. Camden was then able to turn his focus away from Rosa and onto
making Lee’s lab a thriving facility with a full staff, in addition to the lady
at the desk, who was already working for Lee. And in return, Camden was able to
function again.

Since the
lady at the desk had been loyal to Lee for so long, Camden placed her in charge
of the scholarship account, to continue fulfilling Rosa’s wish. In the years
since, he had never once touched the account or even inquired about the money
until today. Now, he was all but depleting the fund for a charity she’d never
even heard of. It was a suspicious move on Camden’s part, but she knew he
didn’t care about the money. While the lady at the desk worked to access the
funds, Maeve scanned the lobby for a visible entrance to Tripple Laboratories.

“Ma’am, the
funds are ready to be transferred,” the lady at the desk said. “Where would you
like them sent?”

“Actually,
due to the private nature of the donation, I will need the money in cash,”
Maeve answered.

“Oh, well,
that will be a little more difficult. I will have to go to the vault and pick
it up.”

“I’m in no
hurry, I will be happy to wait here for you,” Maeve said with a sweet smile.
The lady at the desk hesitated and scrutinized Maeve with her eyes. She glanced
again at the letter she received from Camden. “Completely anonymous,” it said,
“without question and with utmost urgency”. She had authenticated the
penmanship as well as the fingerprint Camden left on the letter by comparing it
to the security system in the building. Maeve remained outwardly patient while
she watched the lady at the desk wrestle with the thought of leaving the
building. Finally, she stood and placed her hand on a security panel that shut
off her computer system, picked up a brown case, and grabbed her jacket.