Gene Drifters: The Clone Soldier Chronicles-Book III (12 page)

                                                                                     
10

“MY NAME IS CHAD YAC,” he said…after, when they were
slipping into Hawaiian shirts, and in his case, khaki shorts. He was suddenly
unhappy that she was wearing only a shirt in front of the guards, so he handed
her a pair of his black drawstring pants.

“YAC…as in
yeast artificial chromosomes
?” Gimlet was
not surprised at this bit of news. She’d known immediately he was a clone soldier,
with the melting combination of a Magic Mike and Thor. She accepted his offer
of what looked like pajama pants, although they were rather long on her, and
needed to be rolled up. Chad was a good head taller than Gimlet.

“Yes, as in yeast artificial chromosomes, the package for
genetic assembly, and the dearest baby of the WME former human cloning program.
Does that surprise you, Gimlet Nampeyo?” Chad could not take his eyes off of
her. She was the type of woman who made draw-string pants and a Hawaiian shirt
look breathtaking.

He noticed her bare feet and handed her a pair of red
flip-flops, though they were too large. They were going for the tourist look;
if they wanted to get away from the guards and over to Lanai they’d need the
tourist look. Once at Lanai, they had to pick up his clone mate Jason at the
R&R, with or without a completely regenerated hand, and contact Dorian
about the whole clone soldier killing thing. Chad wanted to delay the shipment
for several days to come up with a better escape plan for his clone family.

But things had become slowed by their unaccounted for
reaction to each other. He was as shocked as she was. It was like they had
known each other all their lives, were just meant to be a pair. Even their
Hawaiian shirts matched; they had that same red background with giant white
hibiscus all over, the classic aloha shirt.

“No, I’m not surprised. I mean, I knew right away you were a
clone soldier. But you hardly have a serial killer mentality. What set are you
from? Where were you produced?” Gimlet was immediately sorry for her tactless
wording. Her dad, Dorian was also a clone, and technically speaking she was
half clone, if that was how the geneticists defined it.

“I was
produced
, as you so tactfully word it, at
Pyongyang, in the only facility not destroyed by
your
mother. It was a
small experimental facility geared towards designer clone production. We were
to be sold as inducible security units.” Chad had not meant to get down to
business so quickly. He wanted to understand more about Gimlet first, spend months
exploring every single inch of her body. Even now he made sure they were always
touching. He never wanted to
not
be touching her. He did not understand
how she could be the daughter of his worst enemy, Dina Nampeyo.

Of course, Gimlet read his thoughts.

“I don’t share my mother’s obsession, Chad. Even Dad is
tired of Mom’s single-minded clone soldier
elimination mission
. We both
wish she’d let it go. She just can’t seem to forgive the death of her father, my
grandfather Jordan Nampeyo, at the hands of the clone soldiers. I think even he
would be ashamed of her. From what I’ve seen, some of the clone soldiers are no
longer even dangerous. I mean, you seem different.” Gimlet smiled and blushed.

“Yes, I am different, Gimlet Nampeyo. And so are my twenty remaining
family members your mother purchased from Leo Songtain; that’s twenty-one,
including me, after one died from our failed attempt to hijack Roxanne Smoot’s
rig,” Chad said, while getting dressed.

 “What happened to the last one? Was he or she captured?”
Gimlet asked.

“Roxanne’s co-pilot, that huge dog bit his arm off. He bled
to death in the tunnel before we could get him to a regen unit,” Chad replied.

“It’s good you didn’t get into Roxanne’s control cab. It’s
security rigged, you know. If anyone enters without a security pass, the WME
initiates a satellite signal and the section is either sonic blasted, or ocean
purged. It’s their ultimate security control procedure. If your guy had gotten
in, you’d all be dead. Are there others besides your group?” Gimlet asked.

“No, just my original set; we’re made as triplets, identical
triplets. The rest are from different sets, but are still family. We were made
as inducible security units, unlike the others.” Chad packed his duffle,
gunned, and prepared to leave.

“How was that done?” Gimlet asked as she buttoned her shirt.

“The Koreans tried some new gene inserts into our
chromosomes, a set of slice and splice inserts at the germ line level, made to
grade the expression of certain proteins. We have what you’d call an inducible
promoter for what they commonly label the serial killer gene set, the
sk
genes. I’m what the scientists would refer to as an inducible
sk+/sk+
,”
Chad said as he cracked the door and checked for guards.

“It sounds fancy. What was the final purpose?”

 “The Koreans wanted to see if they could control the
protein expression in our case, and thus control when we would be killers, when
those genes would be expressed or remain silent. They thought it would make us
more marketable as security units on the Blacks.” Chad went to the door to
listen for guards, then walked back to Gimlet and sat down next to her, handing
her a sonic and several knives.

“How did you find all this out? I mean, Dad told me where he
was made on Andros, they didn’t tell him anything. He was kept in a cell his
whole life, until he was eighteen and Mom helped him escape,” Gimlet said as
she stuffed the knives into her pants. She held the sonic in her left hand.

“When my group escaped from the lab, I took the lab logs
with me; I downloaded them to memory. I guess you could say we have total
recall, or maybe a photographic memory is a better way to describe it.” Chad
kissed her hand.

“When did all this happen? I’ve never heard about it, and we
have a fabulous archive at Donner Pass,” Gimlet asked, as she kissed Chad on
the neck. If they were not careful they’d be delayed again.

“It was back when the pumps shut down and our facility was
destroyed by the rising ocean waters. We were in a back area near an exit portal.
The portal was always locked but I guess the water caused a malfunction. Then all
the exits unlocked and we ran out. We hid in Tokyo near the port for a long
time, until we caught a freighter to South America. From there, we just sort of
hitched rides, until we got as far away as we could from the controllers. We
were a pretty sad lot at first, twenty-two, ten-year-old clones, with no
outside experience. It’s amazing we didn’t all die.” Chad took Gimlet’s face in
his hands and kissed it.

Gimlet sat back, like she had suddenly remembered something,
and said, “I know what happened, Chad. I remember Dad told me he unlocked your
cells so you wouldn’t all drown. I remember him telling me about that. He
hacked a sat-controller and released the locking controls. He said I should
never tell Mom because she’d be furious if she knew he’d saved you. But, how
did you control your killer instincts once you escaped?” Gimlet asked. She had
now disentangled herself from Chad, needing to more clearly understand his
story.

“It took several weeks for me to make up the list of
enhancers using those science logs, things we now have to avoid eating so those
killer genes are not turned on. But, we didn’t need to worry on
Deceit
Island
. Most of the substances that turned on our serial killer gene sets
were designer drugs, available only on the lab pharma markets and not found in
the normal environment. But some things are close enough, like one toxin found
in some plants. We have to avoid eating raw rhubarb.”

Chad got up and opened the door of his office again, glancing
out into the hallway. A group of guards found the shackled victim in Gimlet’s
cell, and had gathered outside of Chad’s office to discuss who would let the
boss know the prisoner had escaped. He turned back to her, told her to put her
hands behind her, grabbed a length of rope, and tied Gimlet’s arms loosely behind
her back. “Look terrified,” he instructed. Chad opened the door and barked at
the guards.

“I have her, you morons. Get back to your stations. I’ll be
keeping her with me for my own personal use, as you don’t seem able to guard an
unarmed scrawny female.” He slammed the door and untied her. Gimlet let out a
small terrified scream to sound convincing to the guards. The weasel-faced guard
was actually sorry for her. After the guards slinked off Gimlet asked,

“What made you decide on
Deceit
? That’s pretty
desolate, isn’t it?” Gimlet referred to the island where Chad’s set of clones had
been found and captured by Leo Songtain’s security forces.

“It was because it was so desolate. We never thought anyone
would look for us there. It’s about as far as you can go to get away from the
WME and from your rebels, especially from your mother. We just wanted to be
left alone; we wanted to exist and not be hunted or sold into slavery at the
clone auctions like the others. But your mother has made it so economically
attractive; now CEOs like Leo Songtain have set a bounty for clones. Where does
she get that kind of wealth, Gimlet Nampeyo?” Chad and Gimlet were sitting on
the sofa in his office, drinking Kona coffee, and munching on dinner food balls
du jour
.

She thought it was nice and warm, and that she would never
want to leave this room. But, she knew her mom would go ballistic when she
found out her only daughter was very definitely going to be seeing a lot of
this clone soldier, for a very long time. That thought made Chad smile. Gimlet
thought he had a fabulous smile.

“You can call me just Gimlet. Dad gets the gold vouchers for
Mom’s missions. He hacks into CEO accounts using the satellites; sat-hacks, we
call them. He takes small amounts of gold vouchers from many different accounts
at a time. It’s how the rebels have managed to exist so far. We couldn’t exist
without Dad’s special abilities. But he usually only does it for crucial
things, like rescuing a group of mutants in need of a hiding place, or sending
supplies to a rebel base in need of medicines…except when Mom is concerned. He
has never been able to refuse her a request. I think he feels guilty about Grandpa
Jordan’s death; it’s like he could have prevented it or something. I know it
drives him crazy. He takes huge risks to get the gold vouchers to keep up her
clone killing crusade. Plus, he
is
a clone so he doesn’t exactly agree
with her philosophy. It’s why I left for University. I couldn’t stand the
hypocrisy. I love Mom and Dad, but I don’t plan to go back to the rebels after
University. I have other places I call home.”

“You mean with Eldridge and Roxanne Smoot. Yes, I read that
in your profile, how you spent the early part of your life in their rig in,
where, New Mexico; is that right, just Gimlet?”

“Gimlet, call me Gimlet. Yeah, on the haul from Denver to
Albuquerque; it was so simple back then. I wish I could go back there. But
that’s all gone now. They hovertram everything underground on that route now,
using robot drivers. Very few human-driven land tracks remain in existence
anymore; it’s too hot for humans. They just have the underwater and underground
tunnels now, and Eldridge thinks that will go to robotics pretty soon, too. I
don’t know what Roxanne and Eldridge will do at that point. With robot rig haul
outsourcing, there won’t be a need for the bubble-stops anymore. Eldridge and
Roxanne won’t be able to make a living. Sorry, I’m rambling. Why am I here? Why
did you kidnap me?” Gimlet asked.

“Will you help us, Gimlet? We only have three days before
that shipment to your mother arrives in Las Vegas. Your mom will kill off my
people if I can’t stop her. It’s why I kidnapped you.

“Do the pirates know this?”

“No, they think you’re an exchange for the gold voucher
ransom from Leo Songtain, as trade for Roxanne Smoot. They want to use the
funds to buy a piece of the R&R market on Lanai, as a hedge for their
future security. They know their days are numbered,” Chad said, sipping his
coffee.

“Is this about that worker efficiency protocol?” Gimlet
asked.

 “Yes, there’s been word from the Inc., that #3 will go
robotic first, as part of some worker productivity protocol. The pirates wanted
to snatch Roxanne, but that turned out to be impossible. Jacking a rig is
definitely a no go, especially one guarded by a flesh-eating dog. Plus, now you
tell me we would have all been vaporized by the tunnel security. So you were
our next move, Gimlet. I told them you’d bring a huge ransom stash in exchange
for Roxanne.” Chad gave Gimlet an apologetic look.

“What can I do?” she asked.

 “Can you open that bot-com tattoo with Dorian? Will your dad
help us?” Chad asked, looking desperate.

“I’m not sure he’d go against Mom for twenty-one clone
soldiers. Sorry, but that’s how she thinks, and no, I don’t agree with her. I
think humans are humans, even if they are cloned.”

“What about a delay, can he delay the shipment?”

 “Dad could hack into one of those satellites, do a
sat-hack, and delay the shipment’s arrival. It would give you some time to come
up with a better plan. I will ask him. I think he’ll agree to it.”

“Great, let’s try it,” Chad replied.

 “But how will you deal with the pirates once they learn
you’ve cheated them out of the ransom gold?” Gimlet asked.

“I was hoping your dad would do one of his magical sat-hacks.
Do you think he’d come up with some consolation prize for those pirates?”

“Maybe, but why can’t they just get the chits legally, maybe
do extra work or something?” Gimlet asked.

“Believe me they tried the temp routine. Everyone has.
You’ve seen the ads all over; work on consignment for those supposed
eco-political joints. You know, stand on the corner for 14 hours a day, get a
million signatures on the petition
du jour
, and after a month you can
make enough to buy a sandwich. I’ve seen those poor gullible workers on the
street corners all over the planet. Many end up starving. The #3ers aren’t
stupid; they know how the worker stratification system operates,” Chad replied
as he checked the door again, for eavesdropping pirates. After he saw that no
one remained outside his office, he sat back on the sofa and continued.