I placed the electrodes on my scalp and gave myself a sedative. I would sleep and the computer would map out the memories. It took several hours so it was best to do it overnight. I’d wake up in the morning snug in my own bed and I’d have a current backup. No worries. I wanted to make sure I had it up to date, the Yakuza job was tomorrow night.
I sat upright with a start. I dreamed I was drowning. Convulsions racked my body and I coughed up the nastiest stuff imaginable. I was not waking up in my bed, I was waking up in my clone lab. I knew I had just been cloned. I coughed and sputtered…trying vain to expel the remaining liquid. Jodie leaned over me smiling. She gave me a shot of strong antibiotics to prevent the pneumonia that new clones were sometimes prone to developing. My lungs had a wet feeling to them, maybe an indication that I wasn’t done hacking up the nutrient fluid that the clone was grown in. It usually took weeks to “dry out”.
I stared at her looking for familiar patterns in her freckles, scars (or lack of them) —signs that she had been cloned. If she had been cloned since my last backup and she was waking me up…not the other way around, meant something bad happened. Of course all the action happens after my last backup, and I spend a few days catching up. Jodie had recently acquired a scar (from my point of view) thanks to D.A. She disagreed with him (sticking up for me) and he was coming down off pain meds for his latest cybernetic upgrade. He backhanded her with a chrome plated hand. She made a small sound when it connected with her right eyebrow, the force of it turning her head. I was on my feet ready to throw myself at D.A., knowing it to be suicide. Jodie turned her head slowly, face slightly down. She glared at him from under her eyebrows, showing too little of her irises like they were taking cover in an inverted foxholes. I saw something there that I had never seen before and it chilled me to the bone. The only way I can describe it would be the hatred from an abused animal. A small trickle of blood ran down her face. I swore I would fix that son of a bitch… Maybe tinker with his chromosomes next time he was cloned, but I didn’t need to. Jodie did it with a knife later than night and later when his clone woke up he was none the wiser. He was more upset about needing to transfer the cybernetic enhancements from the corpse.
Jodie’s small scar was gone. She’s definitely been cloned. “Hey there…” she said softly.
“We were killed?” More of a statement than a question.
She adverted her eyes then nodded, “Me, you and the Comrade.” I fought down a grin. God, Anastasia HATED to be called that.
“Do we know what happened or who?” I asked.
“D.A. wants to talk to you but we think that the Yakuza caught wind of the man’s widow bidding on him too.”
I got up slowly. My legs were a little weak but I managed to get dressed and followed her in the main room. As I walked in I could feel the hostility in the air… I didn’t even have to glance at D.A. to know that he was staring me down. This was another one of our routines. The dominance and the guilt post mortem/post revival. Somehow it was my fault every time I bought the farm. Mostly this was D.A. being an asshole but part of it was genuine suspicion. In the past we have made a lot of money. Too much in fact to trust to any one person. Money, it turns out is a helluva motivation. For a long time there, I was the one that had access to most if not all of the data and the money. D.A. believed that if I were the only survivor I would take the money and run. Who knows, I may have. The temptation was there but the opportunity never presented itself. So in an effort to prolong my very existence I suggested that we double encrypt everything. Good theory… bad idea to bring up in front of everyone. The idea was squashed, as everyone wanted sole survivor access. I knew. I knew that if I were the only one holding the keys I would be killed and erased sooner or later. So I did in fact double encrypt everything. I just didn’t tell anyone. I used my own DNA and Jodie’s to lock access. If we weren’t both present, there were no money and digital copies for anyone else. The computerized vault was smart too. You couldn’t bring it a sample of blood and expect access. We had to be there and alive.
I glanced up at D.A. and there was murder in his eyes. “You fucked up techie… missed an alarm or something?”
“How do you figure that? I wasn’t the only one to die.”
“Yea but you were the only one that left a body behind. Anastasia here was blown to shit with the guard tower and Jodie; well you let her walk booby-trapped vault. She told me you had objections to us selling the man’s data to his wife and the Yaks. Maybe you tipped them off.”
“Maybe you can go fuck yourself.” How dare he suggest that I allow Jodi to be harmed.
I was genuinely surprised at how quick he moved. Someone his size should have been a lot slower. Before I even had time to react he was across the room and had my throat in a death grip. “You little motherfucker you don’t know how close you are to being taken out of this equation altogether.”
I couldn’t breathe; my vision was darkening at the edges. I futilely clawed at his metallic arms. My pulse pounded like a bomb in my head. I was fading out. This was it. I could feel my eyes bulging. Then it was over. He dropped me and I landed like a heap on the ground.
As I lied there wheezing for breath, all but sobbing I noted a glance between Jodie and D.A.. Something it said… was the bastard fucking her now? I rubbed my throat; it felt like it was on fire.
“So who do you think harvested my memories? I mean not that it really matters but if that’s the case, then they know what I know. They know of this place and anything we have talked about. In fact if you are done being a paranoid asshole, I suggest we leave.”
No, not fire, it felt as though my throat had been napalmed. He nearly killed me. And if he’s having sex with Jodie that could really complicate things. Fuck. Especially once she realized what I had done. I should tell her but now isn’t the time.
“Who the fuck do you think? Who would be upset that we were planning selling the DNA and data to both? You still haven’t explained why you would walk into a firefight and then not take care of yourself afterward—I saw it all. I think you rolled over on us. I think it was all a setup to put yourself on someone else’s payroll.”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me. Who the hell keeps this operation going? Who’s the one that could have taken the money and ran a long time ago? Who keeps bringing your ass back from the dead?”
“You want to start counting how many times each of us gets brought back? You have more lives than a cat.” D.A. snorted.
“Maybe.” I said, “But take everything else out of the picture. No matter how much I hate you, or no matter how much I am tempted by the money, I care about Jodie too much to betray her.”
Jodie reacted like I slapped her. She glared at me from the corner of her eyes, showing too much white. Her lips became thin lines. “Don’t start that again. You know I don’t love you and that isn’t something to discuss here and now.”
Was that contempt in her voice? I stared at her; her green eyes glittered and seemed to reflect some of the fire in her red hair. The fire in her heart… her passion was one of the things I loved most about her.
D.A. laughed. “Well now isn’t this all touching? You looking at her all doe-eyed and shit.” The smile faded. “Get your shit together and think about this: you are a fine red hair away (pausing for a chuckle) from being a liability. Pack quick nerd-boy, we leave in ten minutes.”
D.A.’s cell phone rang. He spoke into it a moment and then stared at me. Without taking his eyes off me he yelled. “Jodie! That was Anastasia. She said that cops just rolled up and entered the building; they have swat units with them. I guess we know who he sold out to.”
Jodie glanced at him then me, “D.A. we don’t know that…”
“They are coming! He’s been nothing but a problem, your problem. It’s time you dealt with him. You said it yourself, he’s a tool to be used when needed and then put away.” He flashed me an evil grin. “So put him away.”
At that moment the police busted through the door and deadly streams of lead spewed forth. Jodie dove behind the couch. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was standing out in the middle confused, unarmed. I had a very bad feeling about this; I had to tell her what I programmed the clone chamber to do. I may not get another chance. D.A. threw Jodie a shotgun. A sniper round hit a cop that was aiming an mp5 at me. Anastasia. I started running towards Jodie. Boom [chak-chak], boom [chak-chak], a cop’s ankle exploded. I slid behind the couch next to her.
“Hey, it’s me!”
She threw me a glance through narrowed eyes. “I know.”
“I have something to tell you.”
“Me too, but I am a little busy.” She muttered while reloading.
“I coded everything to your DNA and mine.”
She stared at me for a moment. D.A. screamed something, but I didn’t make it out. She mouthed something, but the deafening sound of automatic fire drowned out what she said. I leaned in close so she could pretty much scream in my ear.
“Woman.. was God’s second mistake.” she whispered, her breath tickling my ear.
You have to love a woman that can quote Nietzsche in a firefight—especially that quote. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her what the hell she was talking about when I felt the barrel of the shotgun under the same ear she had just tickled with her breath.
I barely had enough time to realize what was about to happen when she blew my brains out.
