Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 (36 page)

“Now,” Rob said.

They trotted over and wasted no time jumping
in. Rob looked at the ignition and his heart sank. “Where’re the
keys?”

“What now?” June asked, and then they heard
a low, threatening growl from the back of the car.

Rob looked into the mirror. The rear seat
had been removed, and crouched in the trunk was the largest pit
bull he had ever seen, with teeth bared, ears flat, and saliva
pouring from its mouth as it glared at the back of his head.
“June—”

“Aww, c’mere baby,” she crooned.

He looked over in horror. She had turned in
her seat and was beckoning to the dog with an outstretched hand.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?”

The dog barked wildly and lunged at Rob.
June intercepted, grabbing the dog’s collar. “No, no, baby. He’s
our friend. It’s okay.”

Rob, finding the door handle missing, was
half way out the window when June grabbed his pant leg. Thinking it
was the pit, he kicked wildly, nearly falling backward and causing
June to recoil. “Oh crap!” he cried.

“Wait, Rob. Look,” she said.

He stopped squirming and looked back into
the car. The monstrous dog was licking June’s face, its stub of a
tail wagging happily. “What did you do?”

“He just wanted to be sure that you weren’t
trying to hurt me.” She scratched the mutt's chest.

“Do you know this dog?” Rob asked,
confused.

“I do now.”

Rob slowly settled himself into the seat
again, and then, hearing the pit let out a low growl, froze.

June smiled. “Oh, don’t worry. He won’t hurt
you.”

Rob didn’t know if she was talking to him or
to the dog as he forced his nerves to settle. “We still have a
little problem,” he said as he considered hot-wiring the car.

“No problem,” June said as he heard some
jingling.

He looked over and saw a set of keys
dangling from the dog’s collar. Looking to June, he asked. “Would
you—?”

“Oh, sure.” She removed the keys and handed
them over.

“The Lord sure does work in mysterious
ways,” he said as he started the car.

EDDIE WAS STARTLED
awake as the
general came back through the door into her office. He was lying on
the leather couch where he had been since early that morning when
he was escorted there by base security. The headache that had
subsided enough to allow him some much-needed sleep was just
beginning to make another appearance as he rubbed the sleep from
his eyes. He touched his bandaged forehead, which proved unwise,
and he winced in pain as a result. Glancing at his watch, he was
surprised to find that it was 7:43 p.m.

He took a moment to familiarize himself once
again with his surroundings. The office was large. He guessed that
it was twenty by thirty, its walls covered with cherry-colored wood
paneling. There were a number of prints, photographs, and
certificates decorating the walls, typical of what would be
expected in the office of a high-ranking officer. The desk was
centered on the room’s only window, which was full of bright
sunshine as it faced west in the waning hours of the summer
evening. The surface of the desk was sparsely decorated, with a
model of a B-2 Stealth bomber being the dominant feature. Before
it, near the edge, was a green marble and brass nameplate that read
“Brigadier General Paulette J. Stillman, Base Commander.” Behind
the model was a laptop computer just to the right of center. Next
to it was a white, triangular, well-used ashtray bearing the red,
white, and blue CINZANO logo. On the corner of the desk was an
oddly generic-looking lamp that was switched off. Bookcases flanked
the window behind the desk.

The burgundy leather couch that Eddie was
now sitting up on was facing the desk, directly in the center of
the room, flanked by two matching Queen Anne chairs, one on each
side, with matching dark, wooden pedestal ash trays between each
and the couch. Behind Eddie and to the left of the door was an
eight-foot maple table with only a speaker phone at its center,
surrounded by six more of the Queen Anne's. In the opposite corner
was a nearly six-foot-tall rubber tree plant.

The general had given strict orders that
Eddie was to remain inside the room until she returned. She
emphasized the point by posting two guards outside the door.
Stillman was frustrated with the special agent’s stubborn
insistence that he couldn't provide her with any information
pertaining to the truck or its contents, or even why it was in
Georgia for that matter. It had taken her most of the day to work
her way up through the red tape to find out who
could
release Eddie from his silence. When she reached the top, she was
intimidated by just how high up this went.

She was a handsome woman in her late
forties, standing five foot eight, with shoulder length, strawberry
blonde hair that Eddie correctly suspected was just out of
regulation. She was wearing desert fatigues and an intense scowl as
she sat glaring at the special agent. She tossed the cap that she
had been carrying, adorned with a single star, on the desk. She
studied Eddie for the briefest of moments, and then picked up the
phone. “Senator? Yes, ma'am.” She shoved the receiver in Eddie's
direction.

“Hello?” His voice was barely audible.
Clearing his throat, he repeated the greeting. “Hello?”

Eddie listened politely to the statement of
concern and remorse offered by the woman on the other end of the
phone. “Yes, ma'am,” he said. “Thank you, Madam Senator.”

Stillman sat back in her chair and stared
unblinking at Eddie as she listened to the one-sided
conversation.

“But Senator, I'm compromised. I'm too close
to the victims. I think you would be better served if—” He paused
as the senator interrupted him. “Senator, one member of my team is
dead and two are missing. I'm sure Colonel Talbot and his team can
conduct—” Another interruption. He sighed. “Understood.” He set the
phone back on the desk.

Stillman replaced the receiver in its cradle
and sat back with her arms folded in front of her, giving Eddie an
expectant look.

“She's ordered me to take lead on the
investigation,” he said disdainfully. He closed his eyes and began
massaging his temples, taking care not to touch the bandaged
area.

Stillman was dumbfounded. These were not the
results she was looking for. “Not until I get the results of the
ballistics analysis,” she said, still scowling.

Eddie pulled his Beretta from under his
jacket, ejected the clip and placed them on the desk.

She watched him skeptically. “And even then,
you can count on Talbot being there every step of the way.”

“It seems I don't have any choice in the
matter, since my team is …” He paused in contemplation, then
started again. “Since my team is short.” He looked up at Stillman.
“Believe me, General, I don't like this any more than you do.”

Stillman frowned. “I assume she authorized
you to bring me up to speed.”

“She did.”

She sat forward and smiled slightly. “I'm
all ears.”

Eddie explained what he could, but Kingsley
had ordered him to keep certain details of the project to himself.
When he was through, he thought the general might burst a blood
vessel.

“You mean to tell me that there is an entire
laboratory under
my
base, being supplied with men and
material
from
my base, and I wasn't considered worthy enough
to be in the loop?” She barely contained her outrage.

Eddie held up his hands in apology. “Don't
shoot the messenger. It wasn't my idea.”

The general couldn't help a smirk at the
man's deadpan delivery. But anger flashed as she stood and stabbed
the intercom button. “Lieutenant, I want my squadron commanders in
my office thirty minutes ago.” She snapped her finger angrily off
the button. “Somebody on this base knew what was going on and when
I find out who it was …” She let the sentence trail off as she
stared threateningly at Eddie.

Eddie stared back, expressionless and
unimpressed.

A thought came to the general.
Perez is
just a pawn in this game. He has suffered a loss, and all I’m doing
is focusing my anger on him.
“I'm sorry about your agents.
Especially Turner,” she offered sincerely.

Eddie nodded.

Coming nearer in an effort to defuse their
time bomb of a conversation, she sat on the edge of the desk. “Just
what, in God's name, are they doing down there that's so dang
secretive? Building a flying saucer?”

Eddie was stone faced. “A cloning
experiment.”

There was a brief period of stunned silence
before she repeated the words. “A cloning experiment?”

Eddie simply nodded again.

“What? Like mice and sheep?”

“No, General.”

“What then?”

“A man.”

“You're telling me that you've been cloning
people on my base?”

Eddie held his hands up again. “Not we. I'm
just supervising security.”

“Well, how many clones are you keeping
secure down there?”

“None, now.”

“The truck,” she stated.

Eddie nodded.

Her expression changed to shocked amazement.
“How many?”

“One clone and its donor.”

“Where are they now?”

He shrugged. “Not sure.”

“You’re not sure? What do you mean?”

“They got separated.”

“Cut to the chase,” she demanded.

“There was an … incident.”

“An incident?”

He explained what happened, concluding with,
“I think we have the original. Bennett, Mathers, or Cook can tell
you for sure.”

“You think?” Stillman asked doubtfully.
“What about the other one? What about the clone?”

Eddie shrugged. “We have no idea.”

“What do you mean you have no idea?”

“There are three people missing, besides
Doctor Phillips and the … other … Tyler. We don’t know where they
are or why they’re missing. When we find
them
we’ll find
some answers.”

“Who’s looking for them? Talbot hasn’t
mentioned anything to me about a search.”

“The local LEOs are on that.”

“Who are they looking for?”

“Doctor June Phillips. She was tending to
the animals.”

“Who else?”

“The security chief, Sergeant
Covington.”

“Well that might answer a few things. He
must be on their trail.”

Eddie looked through the window at the sun
hanging low on the horizon, shrouded by clouds. “I need to know
more about your man Covington.”

“Talbot's people are working on that.”

“Good.”

Stillman followed Eddie's stare out the
window. “Well, we've got three dead and three missing. Who do you
think shot Captain Walsh?”

Eddie shrugged. “The only people in the
trailer who were armed were myself, Jo Turner, and Sergeant
Covington. My weapon hasn't been fired. Jo's Sig is missing and … I
have no idea about Covington. I'm betting the killer used Jo's gun.
Has your sergeant checked in?”

“I've never met Covington. I'd never even
heard his name until today. He transferred in a few weeks ago from
Elmendorf. And no, he hasn't checked in.”

“Well, that either makes him dead—”

“Or a suspect,” the general finished.

As they considered the grim prospect, Eddie
asked, “How are the others?”

“They're all alive. Mathers is seeing to
Bennett, that little—” she shook her head. “The little punk has a
broken arm. We took him to the base hospital. Cook ruptured his
spleen and needed surgery. We sent him up to Macon. The other one,
Tyler, has no apparent injuries, but he hasn't regained
consciousness. We're sending him over to Houston Medical Center for
an MRI.” She considered Eddie for a moment. “We do know one thing.
The crash was an accident.”

“What caused it?”

“A deer went through the windshield. That's
what killed the driver.”

Eddie took it in stride.

“Your M.E. and forensic scientist are at the
morgue. They arrived this afternoon.”

“Very well.”

“The NCIS director wants updates every four
hours. Talbot will keep me updated.”

Eddie nodded.

She wagged a threatening finger at him. “You
tell your people that if there's anything down there that's
hazardous or puts my people in danger—”

“To be on he safe side, why don't you keep
your people out of there and out of my way,” he interrupted.

She looked at him doubtfully. “Not on your
life.”

He shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

Stillman smirked. “How long will it be
before we can get that mess off the road and open it up again?”

“Depends on how good a job your colonel has
done.”

“
Now
, then.”

“I’ll let you know. I need a vehicle.”

“I'll call the motor pool and arrange
something. It'll be ready by the time you get there.” She then
added, “I’ll have Talbot redeploy to the complex. How do they get
in there?”

Eddie headed for the door. “I've got a
pretty good idea, but I was inside the truck. I couldn't see a
bloody thing, but the entrance shouldn't be too hard to find.”

“Oh. Special Agent Perez?”

Eddie turned in the doorway to face her.

“I want to see your Korean professor as soon
as possible.”

Eddie smiled and then nodded as he closed
the door.

Stillman sat behind her desk and removed a
pack of cigarettes from one of the drawers. She lit one and drew
hard. An evil smile grew on her face as she contemplated her
choices of remote bases. After all, she wanted the officer who was
responsible for supplying the facility to be as uncomfortable as
possible.

* * * * *

EDDIE ARRIVED BACK AT
the accident
scene and took a moment to survey the carnage. The sun had set as
he stood by the overturned trailer. He peered in and saw Air Force
personnel scouring every square centimeter of the now well-lit
space. Eddie tried hard to remember any details about the accident,
but through the fog of pain he could only vaguely remember hearing
shots as he struggled to regain consciousness.