Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (33 page)

“Understood,
sir.”

“Have a good
evening, Agent Quinn,” Pike said.

“And you,
General,” Quinn said and left to return to his duty, shadowing Colonel Ganesh.

Two weeks later,
Sergeant Bearden Leitner had successfully identified two of the Phase Two
biomachines with completely dissimilar origins for Mace Magner. They tested
together without incident and Major Magner was ecstatic. It meant moving
forward with General Pike on their test drop in the small village of Maile, at
the Tyrinian border, where resistance recruiting and attack planning were known
to take place. The weaponry unit was rapidly running out of time to prove
itself a success and a small victory would put the program back on track. Mace
seemed pleased with Bearden for the first time since he demanded that he gain
him access to Tripple Laboratories; a task that Bearden had yet to accomplish.

Over at
Tripple Laboratories, Dana was waking up and getting ready to start her day. It
was 6:00 in the morning when she made her way out to the main lab. She was
surprised to see Bearden standing there with Lee, setting up rows and rows of
glass tubes. Even though Lee had a staff of lab technicians on standby through
the security hall to do this sort of thing, he had not called upon them since
Dana had been using the lab as sanctuary for the questionable murder she’d
committed. Lee half acknowledged her as she walked over to them.

“Good
morning, Dana,” Bearden said.

“You’re here
early,” she said.

“Yeah,
couldn’t sleep,”
Bearden
replied. He felt guilt every
time he looked at her. This had become the only place where he felt good
anymore and he didn’t want to lose that, but Mace would likely kill him or
destroy his career if he didn’t bring him an access code soon.

“What are
you doing, Lee?” Dana asked. “It looks like you are setting up the lab to test
more re-animation mixtures.”

“Exactly. I
have prepared mixtures 263 through 267.”

“When did
you find time to do that?” she asked.

“You and
Bearden have kept the embryos thriving and the biomer virus code takes time to
react,” Lee said. “Therefore, I had time.”

“Oh. So, I
guess Bear and I will be preparing tissue samples for testing today?”

“Not me. I
have to go to the unit soon. But I’ll help you get started,” Bearden said.

After they
finished labeling the tubes, they went back to Lab B, where the tissue samples
were kept. Lee had already set up a cart with large glass bowls filled with
bits of yellowing flesh in a clear fluid. As they wheeled it down the hall,
Dana asked Lee,

“Did you
ever find that missing vial of the virus code?”

“No. It
doesn’t make sense. Bearden was the only one with access to it and he walked
out through the scanner. It would have shown up if he had taken it,” Lee said.

Bearden
rolled his eyes. “Not to mention that I wouldn’t have taken it anyway. I
thought you trusted me.”

“Yes, but
it’s an insurable trust,” Lee stated. Dana giggled and the three went to work
placing samples in each labeled tube. It didn’t take them long, all working
together, and by 7:00 they were ready to start dropping the mixtures into the
tubes. Lee started with five tubes of the same type of genetically altered
flesh and tried out each mixture as a preliminary test. Dana and Bearden leaned
over the table to watch closely as he dropped 262, 263, 264, and 265 without
any change in the tissue. But then, he dropped in 266, and something remarkable
happened. The sample twitched. Dana, Bearden, and Lee all froze instinctively
and looked at each other in disbelief. No one breathed as Lee dropped more of
the mixture into the tube. The flesh moved again and began to gain a pinkish
color. Lee looked like he might shed a tear and Dana’s stomach twisted into a
knot. Her gut feelings of both excitement and dread seemed to be fighting each
other. Bearden, who had not seen this experiment before today, threw his hands
over his head and shouted. He was smiling. Dana was not. She knew what was
coming and if Bearden stopped “
whoo
hooing
” for a minute to think about it, he would too.

Lee was
quiet for a few minutes observing the tube of reanimated flesh. Then he looked
at Dana and said,

 
“Let’s proceed only with mixture 266. I
will be in lab B making another batch.”

“Congratulations,
Lee,” she said.

“
Aww
, I have to go now, but I will definitely be back
tonight,” Bearden said looking disappointed.

Dana turned
to him and sighed, thinking that she would miss him until he returned.

“Hmm…” she
said, looking slightly distracted at the pink wiggling cells once more. It
hadn’t occurred to her before, but the highlights of the past several weeks
were the days Bearden was here in the lab with her. Somehow, just his presence
made her life feel somewhat normal.

After Lee
mixed up his second batch of ‘266’, he went to his very private lab A, a room
he seldom visited and had still not shown Camden, much less Dana or Bearden. He
scanned a freezer shelf with labeled tissue samples from dead people, deciding
who would be the first lucky one to return to life. His eyes paused on a
container labeled “Rosa Lim Riles” and his mind replayed a conversation he’d
had with Camden five years earlier.

“I just
can’t do it anymore, Lee…hope. Can’t you see I’m exhausted?” Camden had said.

“But when I
get the code altered I can create a mixture that will bring them back to life,”
Lee said.

“And I
thought that’s what I wanted, but she just haunts me. I’m holding on to this
fantasy and you are feeding it, dammit! She’s never coming back and I need to
be able to function again. I can’t keep living like this. Do what you want in
your lab, I won’t try to stop you. Just not with my Rosa. I want her cells
destroyed today.”

The look on
Camden’s face held such determination that Lee did not try to argue.

“I will,
Cam, today.”

“Thank you,
my friend.”

Lee’s eyes
moved away from Rosa’s cells, still perfectly preserved, and he grabbed Ari’s
container.

“He will be
first,” Lee told himself.
 
He took
Ari’s sample to the mixing room to defrost it.

“Leave the
dead in peace, Lee.” Camden’s words echoed in Lee’s head several hours later as
he carefully extracted stem cells from Ari’s brain sample.

“That’s just
not productive, Camden,” he said out loud, answering the voice in his head. Now
that he had found the right mixture, and, along with Dana and Bearden, had
developed a suitable womb environment, there was no reason not to move on.
 

Camden paced
back and forth in his room, waiting to be escorted to the supper club to meet
Lee. He was looking forward to having his favorite meal and telling Lee about
his progress with the space-bending machine. Two government nuclear physicists
had been brought in this week to consult with Camden, and a glimmer of
possibility had appeared in his mind.

To his
dismay, when he got to the supper club, he found that Lee was particularly
quiet. Camden had done all the talking so far, and though Lee seemed interested
in what he was saying, he was standoffish, even for him. This made Camden
wonder what he had done. Knowing that Lee wouldn’t talk about his work since
the club was still under General Pike’s watch, Camden kept his inquiries very
general.

“Lee, is
everything at the lab okay?”

“Yes. Yes,
it’s fine. It’s been an extremely productive week. My assistants and I have had
much to celebrate,” Lee said. Camden felt that familiar twinge of jealousy
toward Bearden and the girl, Dana, whom he had yet to meet.

“Anything
you can share?” Camden asked, unaccustomed to having to fish for information
from Lee.

“No. Not yet
anyway. I will tell you when the time is right,” Lee said and averted his eyes.

“Lee, what
have you done?” Camden suspected he’d accomplished something big, like finding
the magical combination for raising the dead, or something equally disturbing.
Nothing less would make him so distant. Camden was glad that Rosa’s tissue
samples did not exist anymore for him to use in his terrible experiments.

“You will
see soon enough, Cam. I think I’d like some tea,” Lee said, meaning to close
the topic for any further discussion. He looked all around the club and Enira,
who was standing close by, noticed him right away. She brought over a teapot
and her finest selection of teas. Camden watched her graceful movements, the
way her hair flowed down her back and how long her legs looked in the dress she
was wearing. He missed her, at least the physical part of her. She smiled at
him when she noticed his stare. He then turned his head back to study Lee’s
expression, which was a mixture of disapproval and self-satisfaction. The rest
of the evening was mostly filled with awkward silences and longing gazes
between Camden and Enira.

The next
morning, Camden and Aldretti went to the thirteenth floor to visit Rhys Krell.
He had been in the same mellow mood for a week now. Rita and Terry thought this
new private environment was a good change for him. He still shouted at Camden
from time to time, but was able to maintain some self-control. This was a good
thing for Camden because he had a new request of Rhys.

“Rita, I’d
like Rhys to accompany me today to the space travel division and look at the
progress of the prototype that he has helped inspire,” Camden said.

“I really
don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rita answered. “I know he’s had some good days
lately, but being pushed into that kind of environment may be too much.”

“What if I
dismiss all of the engineers and scientists? It will only be me, Aldretti,
Colonel Ganesh, and Sergeant Quinn; a very familiar group.”

Rhys was
walking around his small room, unbound, clapping his hands on the walls with no
expression on his face. Terry looked up from the book he was reading and shook
his head as Rhys walked by him.

“Oh, let him
go, Rita. It’s obvious he is feeling a bit trapped. Just bind his wrists and
bring a strong sedative for safe measure,” Terry said, clearly needing a break
from this room as well.

Camden
smiled at Terry. He wanted Rhys’s input, however obscure, before the prototype
build continued any further.

“I’ll come
back in an hour for you and Rhys, after I warn the colonel and clear the room,”
Camden said to Rita.

“I guess
we’ll be ready,” Rita replied.

In the old
interrogation wing, Luke was working on three things at once. He was re-writing
his self-destruct program, encoding a message to Charisa to let her know he was
in the TRU Building, and carelessly taking care of his normal programming
duties. He was so tired that he could barely see out of his irritated eyes and
his hands were shaky from the excessive amount of caffeine in his body. Luke
rushed through his three tasks and saved his sloppy work for Mace to take to
Charisa. It was only 10:00 in the morning when Luke finished and went to bed,
not caring about the consequence if Mace came to check on him.

Mace was not
thinking about Luke today, though. He was in General Pike’s office planning the
surprise attack on Tyrine. They would set out tonight with two handlers and the
two biomachines handpicked by Sergeant Bearden Leitner. So, little did Luke
know, he would also be getting the next two nights off, as well as the day he
was now stealing. This would put them behind on transferring the seventy-five
biomachines to their secret holding area, but General Pike and Major Magner
felt so confident that their attack would be a triumph that it didn’t matter.
At this time tomorrow, they would be in position to unleash their marvels on an
unsuspecting enemy.

When Camden
and Aldretti returned to the thirteenth floor with Ganesh and Quinn, Rhys was
staring out of the triangle window audibly solving equations that only he could
see. Rita opened the door and squeezed by him. Rhys’s wrists were bound
together but he was holding a pencil in one hand and a pad of paper in the
other.

“Does he
know where he’s going?” Ganesh asked.

“Well, I
told him, but there’s really no way to be sure. He did want the paper though,
so that’s a good sign,” Rita said.

Quinn poked
his head in the door and looked around the room. “Where’s Terry?” he asked.

“He took a
few hours off,” Rita said. “Fine by me, he was starting to drive me nuts. Too
much time in close quarters.”

“Understandable,”
Camden said.

The group
made it to the space travel division without any trouble from Rhys. Rita stayed
right by his side with a syringe in her hand…just in case, and Aldretti walked
beside her. Camden brought him first to the drawing board. Rhys seemed
interested and started mumbling to himself. After ten minutes of this, Quinn
went over to the conference table and took out his notebook. The rest of the
group continued over to the prototype. Rhys dropped his pencil and paper and
his eyes grew wide. He reached out and touched the model machine, examining it
all over.

“This is
wrong,” he said slapping a piece of metal over and over. “This doesn’t come
until later. Crossbeams, red and blue, they come first. This is wrong. It goes
on top!” His voice was growing louder and Rita became tense. Camden was
frantically drawing and making notes. Rhys was quiet for a moment,
then
started looking around the room with sharp head
motions. He locked his eyes on Camden.

“I’ve had
this dream before,” he said. Camden stayed calm and just agreed with him,
having heard this statement several times by now. “You’re the killer.”

Then, he
leaned down and picked his pencil back up. He rolled it over and over in his
fingers.

“Rhys, are
you okay? Do you want to go back to your room now?” Rita asked in a gentle
voice.

“You’re the
killer,” he repeated under his breath.

Just then,
the door to the space travel wing opened and General Pike walked in. Seeing
Rhys Krell out of his cell was unexpected and a strange look appeared on his
face. Rhys turned frantic at the sight of the general. His hands shook and he
started yelling,

“It’s
you…you and me…at the end. I’ve had this dream before.”

“I’ll come
back later,” Pike said as he abruptly turned around and left, leaving Camden
and Ganesh extremely confused by his odd behavior. But, before they had time to
process the strangeness of General Pike’s quick exit, Rhys, with a sudden
movement, turned and charged at Quinn with the pencil raised in two hands.
Quinn, who heard the attack coming behind him, made a snap decision to not
fight back, for fear of blowing his cover. He held his breath and braced
himself. Ganesh and Rita ran after Rhys, who was inches away from Quinn and had
started screaming,

“You are a
bad, bad man!” He jammed the pencil into Quinn’s neck and at the same time,
Ganesh pounced on him and tackled him to the ground before he could put his
full force behind the stab. Rita jumped over Ganesh and plunged the sedative
filled syringe into Rhys’s arm. Ganesh held onto him until he was still. In the
meantime, Camden had rushed over to Quinn and yelled for Aldretti to find a
towel. Aldretti, a little stunned by all of the action, was taking too long, so
Camden pulled his suit jacket off and pulled his shirt over his head. He
pressed the shirt hard on Quinn’s neck, which was bleeding pretty badly. Rita,
armed with her basic medical kit came over to help Camden as he lifted Quinn
onto the conference table.

“I don’t
think he hit the artery,” she said, examining the wound.

“Get it out,
it really hurts,” Quinn said.

“Shut up,
Quinn and lay still,” Ganesh said. He was now also standing beside the table
with his hand on Quinn’s arm in a fatherly way. Aldretti, feeling useless,
wandered over and stood by Rhys, ready to grab him if he got up again.

“Ok, keep pressure
on, I’m going to pull it out,” Rita said to Camden.

“I’m ready,”
Camden said and Quinn squeezed his eyes shut. Rita yanked the pencil out of his
neck and quickly replaced Camden’s shirt with sterile cotton gauze. She pressed
hard and secured the wound with bandages and tape.

“Colonel,
please take him to the medical wing. That will need to be examined and
stitched. Camden, I’ll need your help getting Rhys back up to his room.”

“Of course,”
he said, feeling guilty about Quinn.

“Quinn, you
ok to walk?” Ganesh asked with real concern in his eyes. “You’ve lost fair
amount of blood.”

“I think so.
I didn’t realize a secretary’s job was so dangerous,” he said and sat up
slowly. Ganesh helped him off the table and put his arm around his back, so
Quinn could lean on him if he needed to.

Halfway to
the medical wing, Quinn got weak in the knees and fainted. Ganesh lifted him up
and carried him the rest of the way. When he came to, he looked up at Ganesh.

“Thank you,
Colonel…for saving my life,” Quinn said and closed his eyes again.

The doctor
in the medical wing insisted that Quinn stay for the rest of the day and the
night, so he could recover his blood loss. The doctor also wanted watch for
infection at the wound site. Ganesh stayed by his side for the rest of the day.