Yelich was waiting for him on the tarmac parking lot. He wore an arm in a sling. The other was free to smoke a lit cigarette. William finished his beer as he waited for the fans to stop spinning. He hated messing up his hair. The A.I chimed at him and the door opened automatically. William placed the finished bottle on a sticky table and disembarked. He shielded his eyes from the bright morning light as he stepped off the gyro. Two Programmed soldiers in full combat armour guarded Yelich, armed with Helter HEX .50 auto-cannons.
“About time you showed up,” said the scientist without preamble. “Do you know what the hell has been going on here? The shit show these fucking clones have unleashed? I’ve got a full-blown viral outbreak in the next town over and a cracked telepath holed up in the research labs. Does our glorious leader care? Can he stop brown nosing his bloody board and elitist friends for five minutes and get involved?”
“He’s busy keeping the company afloat. Soothing the ruffled feathers of our friends at the C.D.C and god knows how many other government departments,” replied William.
Yelich barked a bitter laugh. “We have a real crisis here, something which can’t simply be erased from people’s minds or bought with silver.”
“I’m here now. I came as soon as I could,” said William.
Yelich waited, hoping for an apology perhaps. William wasn’t going to give him one. “Inside. I need to get out of the cold.” Yelich stormed back to the front doors of the complex, his pet soldiers following closely behind.
“I hate this place,” grumbled William. “What’s the situation with my replacement?” he asked, catching up.
“He’s holed up somewhere on level four. We had him on camera going into the deprogrammed storage section. After that, he systematically destroyed each camera, rendering us blind. He could be anywhere on that floor.”
William suppressed a sigh. They travelled the long way, through the corporate offices. The desks had been pushed out of the way to help transport materials and equipment through this section easier. William saw blood stains on the carpet that had been missed by the cleaners. “Any of our people down there with him?”
“The staff escaped through the maintenance lift. It’s our only fast access down now after he destroyed elevators One and Two. The emergency stair well is still locked. We have teams guarding both egresses just in case he does try to move.”
“And the clones? How long have they been unattended?”
“Too long for some. Many are still brain dead. The kid had slipped about a dozen working clones under when we were side-tracked by the escapee and his antics up the road. So, for all we know there is a bunch of drooling lab-rats wandering around the basement, too, planning another fucking riot.”
William nodded. He felt a sense of unease being back here. Connor’s ability disgusted him and the mind tricks he employed on the kid made him feel dirty. “How did the riot start in the first place? I thought it would take longer than a few days for a mental block to wear off?”
Yelich puffed out a long stream of smoke. “From what I understand from your clone, it’s becoming harder and harder to hold him under. The Goose is constantly learning… adapting. It’s part of what makes him so useful.”
“Could you complete your research without him? That machine…”
“The Cornucopia?” interrupted Yelich. “It will in time. The problem is the interface between machine and man. It has a limited set of parameters so far. With all our advances, the brain still holds the most secrets. You haven’t outworn your usefulness, Boy.”
William gritted his teeth. “Oh, goodie.”
They descended to the level two common area. Banks of computers, glowing screens and whiteboards had been set up, acting as a command centre for the multiple emergencies Kemprex was in the midst of. Yelich pointed in the direction of some staff wearing full hazmat suits, his hand trailing cigarette smoke.
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“Don’t go anywhere near level three. It’s in full quarantine until we figure out how to deal with the viral outbreak in Chesterton. If we had access to the Goose, we could cook something up. Maybe a viral agent that eats other viruses…”
“Good to know,” said William.
“I want you to meet our man in charge of security, Dan Silver,” said Yelich.
Silver stood by the bank of screens, hands behind his back as his eyes flicked from point to point, searching. He turned around at the mention of his name. His skin was pale, and his cheeks seemed hollow. He looked starved and skeletal in the soft green glow.
“Another one. And this one has hair. At least it makes it easier to identify the two of you,” he said in a voice which skirted both anger and humour. “You’re here to put shit right?”
William nodded. “What have you tried so far?”
Silver blinked; his mouth stuck in a sneer of disgust. “What have we tried? A non-lethal purge of the level followed by a full sweep with a wet-team in tac-bio. No sign of the bald bastard. Not a bean. I’m this close to sealing the whole floor off and flooding it. Lift Three is held and guarded on this level. The slightest disturbance and they’re authorised to light it up with mini-ex.”
“You won’t find him unless he wants to be found,” said William, resisting an urge to play with his brand-new hair in front of the man. “And purging won’t work. He’ll just protect himself with a bubble of clean air. Did you trigger the fail safe?”
“He hooked himself up to a clone after the attempt on my life. He must have found it,” said Yelich.
Silver crossed his arms. “What do you propose? Any ideas?”
“To hunt a powerful telepath, you need another, more powerful telepath. I’ll go down there myself and finish him off. Then we can get the Goose onto working out a cure for the virus,” he said looking at Yelich.
The scientist flicked his cigarette across the room. “Just get it done. We’re running out of time, resources and options.”
Silver turned back to viewing the screens. “Need any backup?”
“No,” replied William.
“Good. Get a result.”
William turned and strode away, angry at the lack of respect he was receiving. Yelich chuckled to himself and lit another cigarette.
The maintenance elevator was on the opposite side of the facility, accessible from the research and development portion by means of long, lonely transportation tunnels. It kept the operational side of business separate from the egg-heads, its cover a logistics warehouse half a block over. William flew down an empty tunnel, suspended in the air by hands of telekinetic force pushing against the walls and floor. He slowed as he approached the armed cordon, wary of an itchy guard unloading a clip of exploding ammunition in his direction. A steel security door blocked his path. William flashed his R.F coded pass. The pad beeped and the door heaved itself open on burdened gears. A dozen armed security guards crowded the corridor beyond, weapons primed and pointed at the immobile elevator from the cover of constructed barricades. They all wore tactical-bio secure armour as a precaution.
A guard approached him. The triple silver chevron on his shoulder marked him as a sergeant. “They called ahead and said you were coming. Give us the word and we’ll unlock the lift.”
William shook his head. “Hold it at level One. I’ll drop down the shaft. That way he can’t just ride it back up should he overwhelm me.”
The sergeant nodded. “Understood. I’ll radio Control.”
William walked through the cordon; an odd, nervous smile fixed on his face. He had fought and bested telepaths before. This was different. He was up against someone with the same potential as him. The same tricks. The same memories. Could he beat himself in a fight? Had the clone surpassed him in strength?
“Fuck this building and all who sail within her...” he sighed to himself.
“What was that?”
“Open the doors. I’m ready,” said William waving at the sergeant.
William heard two locks release. The doors slid open. He peered down into the empty shaft. The open maw of midnight stared back, impenetrable and unknowable. “I’ll call control from down there if I’m successful.”
“Good luck, Sir,” replied the sergeant.
William leapt from the edge. He was immediately swallowed in darkness. As he fell, he guided his descent with arms of telekinesis. The last thing he needed was to knock himself out mid-fall. The arms slowed his rapid fall to a graceful a flight. He stopped at the level four doors. With a mental command, they opened, revealing the dimly lit research laboratories beyond. The non-essential power had been cut and the emergency lighting was running out of battery life. William floated through the door and landing on solid ground. His feelings of doubt expanded to fear. The clone could be anywhere down here. For all he knew he was walking into a trap.
William steeled himself. He was the original. He shouldn’t be scared of some discount version of himself. “Peek-a-boo, asshole. Daddy’s home…” he called