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Dr. Helmsby wrung his hands under sterilized water at the laboratory sink. He felt contaminated. No amount of washing his hands made them feel any cleaner. The filth clung deeper, to his inner core where soap and water couldn’t cleanse. Closing his eyes, he pictured Daniel and Morton leaving TransGenCorp. He feared that was the last time he’d see them alive.
The adjoining room door opened. A man in military fatigues stepped inside. He applauded Helmsby slowly and with a mocking grin.
“Nice work, Dr. Helmsby. Nancy gets to live another day. You have the DNA analysis and brain tissue we requested?”
Requested? Helmsby thought. You bastards demanded it at gunpoint.
The soldier folded his muscled arms. “Well?”
Nervously, Helmsby nodded. “Yes, yes. One second.”
He tore a long DNA chain printout from a printer. He picked up a small cooler filled with dry ice and two brain core tissue samples. He handed them to the armed soldier.
“When can I see Nancy?” Helmsby asked.
“Soon. Provided Kyle’s brain sample and DNA sequence maps are to Idris’ satisfaction.”
Angered, Helmsby pointed a finger and said, “They are exactly what he asked for.”
“Then you’ve nothing to worry about.”
“At least let me talk to her.”
The soldier tucked the cooler under his arm and turned to leave. “Soon.”
“What about Daniel and the others?”
“We’ll deal with them. We only want the cat. Dead or alive, it doesn’t really matter.”
“Why the cat?”
“Do you realize how many millions of people would pay thousands of dollars to own a talking cat?”
He’s more than just a cat.
“Idris sends his regards.”
Helmsby clamped his teeth on the tip of his tongue to refrain a sudden, hostile outburst. He wanted to extend his middle finger and shout, “Give him my regards, too!” But, he didn’t. He couldn’t. Not with him holding Nancy hostage. Hell, he was a prisoner himself. He couldn’t leave the military base or call to warn Daniel. Any action meant Nancy’s death and his.
He placed his hands atop a Formica table and leaned forward. For the second time that he ever remembered, he wept uncontrollably. He cursed himself for removing portions of Kyle’s brain. Had Idris’ soldiers not forced him by abducting Nancy, Helmsby would have died before he performed such an immense and appalling surgery.
After Margaret’s death, Nancy was all he had left, except science. He finally understood the importance of human bonding. It was sad that it had taken his wife’s death to open his heart and eyes. He had never been an emotionally caring father or husband. It pained him to be denied the opportunity to make up for lost time. For the first time in his life he realized he wasn’t worried about his personal welfare. He’d willingly sacrifice his life to save Nancy’s.
Redemption wasn’t alienated from him, however. Kyle still had some hope. During the surgery, Helmsby saturated the open brain tissue with annealing polymerases in hope of restoring the pocked gray matter the prions had destroyed. Something miraculous had occurred. Not only had Kyle healed faster than normal, but he had also gained some of his lost memories.
Helmsby added shifter-enhanced genetic material as a last effort for tissue regeneration to repair the biopsied sections he had removed. The guards questioned none of his actions since they weren’t scientists. It didn’t matter what solutions he put inside Kyle’s lobotomized brain. They simply viewed the additions as a part of the operational procedure.
In the operating room, Helmsby did whatever he pleased, except that the surgery didn’t please him. It crushed and sickened him. But, amazingly, Kyle remembered things he hadn’t formally acknowledged like the syringe and Idris doing experiments on him years earlier. Much to Helmsby’s satisfaction, the consequences of the surgery were a scientific miracle. What information Kyle might disclose potentially handicapped Idris.
***
Daniel’s cell phone rang. “Yes?”
“Hi, Daniel,” Julia said. “Is everything okay?”
“As best I can tell. No one followed me either direction. Where are you?”
“We’re at the Holiday Inn. Room 213.”
“I’ll be there soon.”
“Good. Please hurry. We don’t want to be alone. Did Morton indicate whether our apartment was being staked out?”
“No, but he acted concerned. He sensed they are coming.”
“I hope he’s going to be okay.”
“He’s a shifter, Julia. He’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.”
“He seemed pretty confident in handling himself.”
“It’s his male cat ego.”
“I should be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay. We’re watching the news, Dan. The clone did kill Godfrey. Lucas could never do that.”
“I know. Of course, I knew Godfrey would be targeted since he opposed everything Idris stood for. All the more reason to believe the clone killed him.”
“It’s sad.”
“It just makes matters more urgent. Norhaney died two years ago. Just one year after he freed us from Idris’ experimental killing ground. And now, Godfrey. We have fewer allies.”
Worry claimed Julia’s voice again. “Please hurry.”
“I am.”
***
A black van pulled into the donut shop parking lot. Three men stepped out and scanned the parking lot. Less than five minutes later, they found their tracer at the edge of the curb.
“They’re a lot smarter than you anticipated, Lucian,” a bulky soldier said.
Lucian, the clone, nodded. “They’ll have to be even smarter if they want to stay alive. It won’t take too much computer time to discover where they live.”