Chapter Twenty-Six
“What?” Nanos rushed to his spiking heart rate as his brain analyzed the ramifications at hyper speed. “Beth is with Lamis-Odg?” His voice came out strangled. He’d asked the question in the first briefing after the Summit because it had to be voiced, but never in a hundred light-years had he expected it to be true.
If she worked for Lamis-Odg, Lamani had infiltrated Cyber Operations. Every mission, every agent, every protectee was in danger.
Brock’s curse indicated he’d reached the same conclusion.
Illumina glanced between the two of them. “Not exactly, but there’s more. A lot more. This is big. Very big.”
“Not exactly? Is she or isn’t she working with Lamis-Odg?” Carter asked.
“She is—but she doesn’t realize it.”
How could Beth be allied with the worst terrorist in history and not realize it? “I don’t know why I did those things,” her words replayed in his mind.
“She’s a sleeper clone.”
“What’s that?” Brock asked.
“In her brain, she has a microchip like a cyborg, but when hers is activated, it overrides directions from her cortex. She can’t control what she does.”
“I didn’t want to shoot you.”
Carter shook his head. “If she had a chip, we’d know it. Swain did a complete bioscan. He found nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Lamis-Odg has adapted cloaking technology at the micro level.”
If a huge spaceship could disappear with cloaking technology, why not something as tiny as a computer chip? It made perfect sense. Shit.
Illumina laced her fingers. “It gets worse.”
Worse than this? “Tell me.”
“She isn’t the only one. Lamani has a small army of sleeper clones, strategically assigned throughout the galaxy.”
Brock leaned forward. “That’s his secret weapon. Not a new MED, not a weapon of mass destruction, not a disease agent, but clones he can command to do his bidding.”
Illumina nodded. “I think so.” She scrunched a rueful face. “You ordered me to drop the Cornelius investigation, but he led me to the breakthrough.”
This wasn’t the first time an agent had disobeyed orders—and produced results because of it. You had to adapt to the situation. Carter narrowed his eyes. “Cornelius? You’re saying Vincere’s aide was a clone?”
“Yes. His official bio had stated he had a deceased twin brother. When I analyzed their DNA sequence, I discovered they weren’t zygomatic doubles, but progenitor and clone.”
“That’s pretty much Beth’s story,” Carter said.
“That’s what made me suspicious.” She nodded. “Their backgrounds were too similar to be a coincidence. Cornelius’s parents refused to talk to me, but I hacked into their PerComm records and discovered they had been approached by Clo-Ventures—not the other way around. A company rep had contacted them with his ‘condolences’ over their son’s death and offered a way to ease their grief. The O’Sheas reported the same thing. They hadn’t considered cloning Liza until Clo-Ventures planted the idea.
“I broke through the firewall and accessed Clo-Ventures and ReGenCo’s databases. They work hand in hand. When a person of strategic importance dies and the body is placed in cryostorage, ReGenCo notifies Clo-Ventures, who presents the family with the option of cloning. During gestation, the chip is embedded in the clone’s brain. They’re born, released into society, and act normally until the programming is activated.” Illumina tapped into her PerComm. “I’m sending you both a complete list of the sleeper clones.”
Carter scrolled through the list in his head. Son. Of. A. Bitch. He recognized many of the names: AOP ambassadors, planetary officials, high-ranking members of the military, spouses and family members of key individuals—and Beth O’Shea, daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the galaxy, and Cornelius, aide to the AOP Secretary General.
“Now we know why Cornelius attacked Mikala,” Brock said.
Carter frowned. “I’m not so sure. Beth said she tripped. What if falling in front of the blast wasn’t an accident? What if she was supposed to take the hit? What if the programming kicked in and forced her in front of Mikala?”
“What would be the point?”
“I think the attempted kidnapping was a dress rehearsal for the big show,” Carter guessed. “Lamani was testing his control over the clones before their debut.”
“But why wait? Why not kidnap Mikala when he had the chance?”
“Because of the impact of doing it in front of an audience of thousands—to create terror and wreak chaos. My hunch? If we compare the instigators in the tiers to the list of clones, I’ll bet we find some matches.” He looked at Illumina. “Can you prove Lamis-Odg is behind this?” He didn’t doubt her assessment, but he needed evidence.
She nodded. “I’ve documented the money trail. Lamis-Odg did a fair job of covering up, of laundering credits, but I located Clo-Ventures and ReGenCo’s original incorporation documents and traced the initial funding to Lamani. The account was closed years ago, but nothing is ever erased from cyberspace—not from me, anyway.”
“Illumina, you scare me—in a good way,” he said.
“Thank you.” She flashed a cheeky grin, but then sobered.
It didn’t take empathic ability to recognize she had more bad news. “What else?”
She fluttered a wing. “Most individuals in cryostorage at ReGenCo died of natural causes or disease. A few were victims of accident or homicide, but the ones who were cloned had been targeted by Lamis-Odg. Their records contained a special notation. Lamani had ordered their deaths so clones could be substituted.” She paused. “Carter…Liza O’Shea was targeted. Her death was no accident.”
“He killed her so he could place Beth with one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the galaxy.”
“I’m afraid so. It appears as though he hired someone to push her into the gorge.”
He squeezed his hand into a fist. The horror of it… “We need to move on this fast. We must locate every single clone and bring them in. Who knows what they’re programmed to do and when?”
Solia had been right. Beth was a victim, a pawn; Lamani had used her and the others. But, although she hadn’t intended to hurt anybody, he couldn’t let her go free, because she was still a threat.
A horrible thought slammed into him. “When Lamani didn’t need Cornelius anymore, Cornelius died.”
“Self-destruct programming?” Brock caught the drift.
“Without accessing the chip’s actual code, I couldn’t say for sure, but it’s possible,” Illumina said.
Beth had kidnapped Mikala and Vincere, but Cy-Ops had rescued them and arrested her. Did the terrorist have other plans for her, or had she outlived her usefulness? Would Lamani terminate her life?
Carter recalled how coldly he’d interrogated her. He wished he could go back and hold her, reassure her everything would be fine, that he would fix it. She could die, and he couldn’t do a damn thing to prevent it. “We’re always two steps behind that bastard.” He slammed his fist onto the console. “If only the chip could be extracted, but if it can’t be seen on medscans—”
“I might be able to,” Illumina said. “Well, not extract it, but I can try to integrate into the coding and try to switch it off and neutralize it.”
“If there is a self-destruct code, your integration wouldn’t trigger it, would it?” Brock asked. “Lamani went to great lengths to create and program his clones, to conceal the chip. He might have put in a failsafe.”
“That’s a risk,” she admitted. “I’d be very careful, but I can’t guarantee if I enter the coding it won’t trigger a destruct sequence.”
Do nothing, and Beth could die. Try to alter the programming, and she could die. “What are the odds?”
Illumina lifted her shoulders. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Does it place you in any danger?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. If I trigger the destruct sequence, I think I can get out before it affects me. I want to do this,” she said.
“Dale won’t like it,” he warned. The cyborg was Illumina’s husband.
She wrinkled her nose. “Dale won’t know until it’s all done. Besides, he doesn’t consult with me before he accepts a mission.”
“We must do it,” Brock said quietly.
“It will have to be Beth’s decision,” Carter said. “She has to be informed of the risks.” So much uncertainty, but what other options did they have? “We have to shut down Clo-Ventures and ReGenCo. Deprogram the other sleeper clones. Lamani has produced his last clone.”
“We can’t destroy the facilities,” Brock said.
He shook his head. “No, the clones, even the ones who’ve been chipped, are innocent. Also, it would devastate the families. This calls for diplomacy. I’ll notify the AOP to approach the families, tell them their clones in the gestation tanks will need to be deprogrammed, and the bodies in the cryotanks have to be moved to a new facility. I’ll talk to Vincere. On this, I think he’ll be very cooperative.”