Gene Drifters: The Clone Soldier Chronicles-Book III (32 page)

“What is it? What do you want, who are you?” Leo could only
see one individual at the door, of maybe Israeli heritage; he seemed to be
carrying a sack over his shoulders.”

“Open up, Leo. I have Rose. She’s been shot by the Triad.”

All thoughts of Fiji or a chocolate wrap went out the window.
His beautiful pet had been shot! “Oh my god, is it serious? Here, I’ve buzzed
you in. Go directly to the third floor. It’s my personal hospital.” Leo offed
the vid and contacted his personal physicians and staff to be ready for
something serious, very serious. When Leo arrived at the hospital, using his
personal and direct lift, Michael Segev was already busy lifting a limp and
unconscious Rose onto the operating table. She was not breathing.

On a submersible outbound for Tokyo the real Roxanne
listened in on their open com, while Roxie-II watched on her new bot-com
tattoo, as she flew the short hover jet trip to New Zealand, to her very own
brand new organic farm. At Donner Pass, Dorian and Dina viewed the regen surgery
on their sat-coms, with some suggestions for enhanced surgical procedures provided
using the music code to Leo via Segev. Of course, it was routed through Hebden
Bridge so that the location could not be traced this time. At bubble-stop #5,
Gimlet and Chad heard everything, using her tattoo com, and at Shin Bet, the
baker placed a call to someone else, who said Segev had taken care of things,
and should return to base as quickly as possible for his next assignment…in
Mongolia.

During the seven hour regen surgery, and using Leo’s newest
formula,
Fast-act Stem-wads
®, Segev, and Leo made two coms, first from
Michael to Dorian to set up what would go down in #5, then from Leo to Ching
Shih, to finalize the monetary deal. Afterwards, while Rose was in postop, Leo
made a quick visit to Max’s safe vault to be sure it was empty. It was. Bitbuns
had done her job, and returned to Triad headquarters.

The Triad guard was sorry he’d shot Rose by mistake; he was
actually the dog trainer, and his favorites were Dobermans. Ching Shih said if
there was anything she could do, to let her know. But Rose’s fate was in the tiny
hands of Leo Songtain, who performed the surgery himself.

Thus, it was Segev who brought the large envelope from Leo
Songtain to Ching Shih at the Triad compound, this time using the front gate. Now
that Roxanne had escaped, the ransom deal would be off, but Ching Shih and her
Triad got Max’s car and track stocks from his vault, along with Leo’s shares of
Nutria-blend, Inc., thrown in as thanks for the info on Max’s misdeeds. The nutria-blend
stocks were small change for Leo. And if information on its possible toxicity
ever got out, the stock would be worthless anyway.

The nutria-blend stocks and Pauillac came with a sincere (for
Leo) note thanking Ching Shih for not killing his beloved Roxanne Smoot. This
made Shih laugh, because she was really thinking of inviting Roxanne to join
the Triad. She opened the entire case of wine and shared it with her
lieutenants that night, while playing another bingo card. She won the DIY
appendectomy kit.

Before Michael Segev left the Triad compound, he asked Shih
for three of the diamonds, big ones. He whispered the reason into Shih’s ear,
and she smiled and gave her consent. Both Michael and Shih agreed that the
Triad had to keep the entire thing under wraps. No one could know they now
owned stocks, so Segev suggested one of his bogus companies in the New Zealand
free zone. It was fronted with an amusement park,
Mafioso Adventure Land
.
Ching Shih liked it.

“Of course Leo has to think this was all Max’s doing, the
stolen formula, the attempt on Roxanne’s life, and the diamonds,” Segev told
Shih. “This plan makes me happy, because I never wanted to take a hit on her. The
deal with Max tasted bad from the beginning. I like Roxanne. Anyone who can get
something by the Triad has balls,” Shih laughed, showing that mouth of metal
that did not ruffle Michael Segev. He’d seen worse in #5, many times. But, he
was happy Shih was laughing, because when the Dragon Master was happy, the
Triad was happy.

Through that bogus Inc., the Triad used the stocks to gain secret
entry into the official WME markets, and was on its way to going legit as an official
Inc., even if they had a fake name. Later, after Rose revived, and after a vote
by the Triad lieutenants, the funds from the sale of the rest of the diamonds,
minus those three very large stones given to Segev, went into a special trust
for care and rehab of guard dogs.

The day after Rose’s surgery, when everyone knew Rose would
make it, Chad, Gimlet, and Stephen sat in the tiny cottage on the level 1 zone
of bubble-stop #5; the one you enter right after going through that slime
security ooze. They’d just gotten off the com with Michael Segev, who had just
confirmed the plan with Dorian, using the music code. Because the rebels were
still in no-com mode from the security hack, all communications were now via
music, and through Segev, until further notice.

“You’ll be meeting Max at tunnel 3. Pass though this tunnel,
and then take the exit on the left, to level 4.” Stephen was sitting at his
kitchen table, drinking sea brine tea with Chad and Gimlet, while pouring over
the topo map of bubble-stop #5. The kitchen was dimly lit by a candle, but it
didn’t matter because they all had those glow in the dark eyes. Stephen ran a
perfect hand through his dark brown curly hair. Gimlet was still amazed at how
much he looked like Michael Segev. He had the same build, and dark curly hair,
but in Stephen’s case, the eyes were glowing pale blue, not amber like
Michael’s. She guessed Sebastian, the third original clone soldier in New
Zealand, must look fairly similar.

“Why such a round-about route, Stephen?” Gimlet asked this
question. She and Chad had just moved out of Stephen’s guest room and into a
small cottage of their own down the alley. She had trouble getting used to the
place at first. It was cramped, and the food was bland compared to Tokyo. But
she was with Chad, and her dad, Dorian told her it was only temporary; that she
and Chad would most likely be heading off to the Israel Free Zone once
everything blew over. She already had a job ready for her, at one of the Ben
Gurion organo-robotics labs. Chad would work in security. He’d be training with
Segev.

“I don’t want Max becoming alarmed until he reaches the
lower levels. The lower level citizens need calm; they get upset quite easily.
You haven’t been there yet, but Chad has. He knows what I mean. He’ll show you
before you leave here,” Stephen made a vid of the map and drew a line,
detailing the route Chad should take.

“You keep the map. I can memorize it. Do you have other
copies?” Chad asked, as he got up to get some food balls from the refrigerator.
It took Gimlet a while to get used to eating food balls for dinner. In Tokyo
she’d had her pick of just about anything; at night she still had sashimi
dreams.

“This is the only map of bubble-stop #5. We keep the lower
levels secret. You’ve been down there now, so you know why. Of course, the
other three original clones also know about it. Dorian seems to think they will
be useful someday, that the #5ers will rise. I’m not so sure, but we continue
to train them. What with the flash freeze and cloning misfits, and now the Uns,
as the WME calls them, we have quite a population down there. We keep building
out all the time. It’s getting harder to mask the expansion.” Stephen rolled
the map up after Chad memorized it, and slid it back into the wall safe.

“How far do you want me to go with Max? I can lead him in all
the way, or let him wander in, whichever you prefer,” Chad said. Chad had not
been concerned with the lower levels; they brought no surprises for him. He had
experienced so much worse when they’d cloned and conditioned him back at that
facility, before he escaped. But, he had not been able to explain the lower
levels to Gimlet yet. She did not have his experiences with the weird; she had
only lived for two weeks in the resident-only cottage level of zone 1.

There were 5 levels to bubble-stop #5. Most visitors, both
the culling patrols and philanthropists, only got as far as level 1, and rarely
into the residents-only regions. Visitors usually only went to the main meeting
hall, right after the security gate. Some didn’t even go that far, preferring
to leave their rig load hauls or charitable gifts in front of the first security
gate.

Stephen had taken Chad all over the levels, so he could help
assess security, and assign his clone family to guard duty tasks, something
they as clone soldiers, would be very good at. Stephen wanted Chad to stay as
chief of security, but Dorian had interceded. Gimlet’s mom, Dina did not want
her daughter to live in bubble-stop #5. So Jason would be head of security, and
each of the newly arrived clones would have some job as a guard. Everyone was
happy with the arrangement. It gave them jobs, and everyone in #5 had to work, except
those in the lowest level; those in training.

Gimlet remembered the look on Chad’s face after his full
tour. “How was it, Chad? Did you tour all 5 levels? Tell me about them,” Gimlet
had said when he returned.

“I will take you to levels 2 and 3 next week, after this
thing with Max. Two is just the industrial level, for the factories and shops.
Oh, and for food production. I would never have thought they are so self-sufficient
here. But I guess they have to be,” Chad said.
“So level 2 just looks like outer industrial Tokyo, only smaller,” Gimlet
replied. “Yes, much smaller, although they do have quite a pet clone production
facility. I guess they cornered the market on that. I’m not sure anyone else
knows about it. They launder it through the Pet Clone Inc. in Denver.”

Chad then told Gimlet about level 3, the tech and research level,
where they captured and re-programmed millions of nano-drones. It was quite a
little espionage operation.

“So when are you going to tell me about levels 4 and 5? You
haven’t said a word about them yet,” Gimlet teased Chad. Finally, several days
ago, Chad told her about level 4. Level 4 held all those who were failed WME
experiments, those washed out from the flash freeze units, and any escaped
clones or mutants who could not make it in the outside world, because those
scientists messed up too many of their initial cloning trials. The mentally ill
who had been lucky enough to survive the culling squads were also safely hidden
within level 4. It was not a money-maker; but the citizens of bubble-stop #5
felt like it saved their souls.

After Chad described level 4 to Gimlet, she asked, “So then who
is in level 5, Chad?”

 “I think you should see those people for yourself, Gimlet.
But remember, there has to be a place like that. And Dorian feels they will be
our best hope for a future rebellion. He says the Uns…the #5ers will rise. We
train a group each month, and their numbers are decreasing. When we’ve trained
them all, I agree…the #5ers
will
rise.” It was all he would say for
several days, until he finally told her who lived within the lowest level of bubble-stop
#5.

The lowest level was, of course, the final destination for
Max Peabody.

Max naturally had no idea any of this had been planned for
him. He left the chopper dressed in what would be remembered as his charcoal
grey wool #42 suit, the one suggested to him by Bitbuns as appropriate for his business
trip into bubble-stop #5. It was an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, or maybe
it was planned by Bitbuns and Ching Shih. He would not remember when suit #42
was appropriate for wear, until it was far too late.

Max was inside the surface entry to bubble-stop #5, but no
one was there to meet him. After passing through an ancient metal gate, and descending
three flights of open grate stairs, with no apparent exit, he finally hit the
bottom, in front of a small door marked with a hand-written green exit sign. It
was unlocked, so Max pressed the opening bar, and pushed the door back, which
gave off the sound of fingernails scratching across a board room meeting white
board. He peered inside a bit, peeking around the door into the hallway. It was
dark, he was still alone, and now he was starting to feel ill again. Max began
to sweat, feel dizzy, and his vision blurred momentarily.

“I’ll be billing Leo big time for this stupid little jaunt. I
hate this place. Why couldn’t he send my assistant? My bot-com doesn’t even
work down here in this backwater hell hole. What if I run into one of them? Oh
god, I’m leaving. Forget this shit. I’ll go back to the pharma legal outfit in
New York; screw Leo Songtain!”

Max took out his useless bot-com, tried punching in his chopper
access code, and when it was obvious it would not send a signal, he turned to
start back up the stairs, when he finally heard someone approaching from down
the dimly lit, slime covered hallway.  

“Ah, Max, Leo’s legal snake. Welcome to bubble-stop #5. I
have your copy of the
Stem-wads
® formula.” Max had never met this guy,
but he looked large and dangerous, and his eyes glowed, which meant he was one
of those nasty clones.

“I’ll have to report you, you know. They’ll be coming to
pick you up, the culling patrols. We round your kind up and sell at auction as
security slaves. Clones should never run free. You’ll be put to good use. You
wait and see.” Max was a legal to the core; always start a negotiation on the
up side. He’d learned that during the last retreat on Fiji, even walked on hot
coals to prove he’d learned it; although Max still didn’t see what that had to
do with negotiation skills. Chad did not flinch.

“Here’s the copy of Leo’s formula, Max.” Chad Yac was not in
the mood for a pissing war with Leo Songtain’s legal. The fact that he’d sent
this guy into bubble-stop #5 meant he was on his way out at Stem-worm, Inc.
anyway. Leo Songtain would never send his principle legal into #5 alone unless
he wanted the guy dealt with. And he was the only individual left alive who was
involved in the toxic drink thing. Gimlet had been horrified when she found out
her big sis was targeted for a kill by Max. That was reason enough for Chad,
who would just as soon reach out one of his very capable hands and snap this
guy’s neck like a twig.