Chapter One: Pages 21-23

“Well let’s just get you home and get you cleaned up.” Melody said with an unusual happy voice.

It was almost dark when we arrived at my house. We pulled into the garage and immediately went into the house. I asked Melody to get me a towel and a change of clothes so I could clean up. Leaving Sylvia and I alone in the kitchen.

“I can’t believe this, Jennings has changed the memory of people. We’ve got to do something to stop him.” Sylvia said.

“I know, he told me in the control room. From what he said he was doing some rearranging to everyone. This changes everything now.” I replied. “Well I’ve got to get a few things together without Melody spotting me. Keep her busy when she comes back and I’m going to “get a shower”.

“Alright but make it quick, this whole thing is giving me the creeps.” Sylvia remarked as I left the room. I immediately bumped into my wife.

“Hi Honey, I’m going to get a shower now, would you fix me something to eat I’m starved?” I asked. I felt guilty lying to my wife, but I couldn’t rock the boat. The last thing I needed was her thinking I was crazy.

“Sure, coming right up honey.” She replied with a kiss on my cheek.

I watched as she turned the corner into the kitchen and made way to my home office. I found my overnight bag and threw the project disk, a few manuals and my gun. I rushed from there to the bedroom, grabbed a few clothes and raided my money sock.

This would get me by for a while, but not forever.

I ran in the bathroom and stuck my bag in the closet. I turned on the water and disrobed quickly. No sooner that I jumped in the shower, the bathroom door flung open.

“Get out of there Frank, she called them, they’re on the way now.” Sylvia shouted.

I jumped out of the shower and walked across to get my towel. I wrapped up and ran out the door.

“Melody, what are you doing?” I asked. “I’m your husband.”

“I heard you two Frank, you’re planning to do something to Mr. Jennings. She’s a rebel and you’re working with her.” Melody cried.

“No honey, you’ve got it wrong.” I responded.

“We’ve got no time Frank, we’ve got to go.” Sylvia shouted.

“Frank, don’t go with her, they’ll kill you.” Melody cried out.
“You just don’t understand Melody.” I said.

I threw on some clothes, grabbed my bag and we raced out the door. We hopped in the SUV and I looked at Melody as she cried for me not to leave. She didn’t understand that what I was doing was for her. I just hope I wouldn’t fail.

We pulled out of the driveway and sped away. In the rearview mirror we watched two police cars and a van pull into our subdivision.

“I hope we’ve got a big enough lead.” I said. “I know a short cut up here we can take too”

I jumped off the main road onto a dirt rd named salt mill. This road ran straight from here to I-80 and cut thirty or more minutes off the drive time. I glanced at Sylvia, she was trying not to show it, but speeding down a dirt road wasn’t her cup of tea.

“Colorado here we come.” I said with a smile. Sylvia just smirked back and said. “Do you know where were going?”

“Well I know how to get to Boulder if that’s what you’re asking. Where Ash Street is I don’t know, but you can tell me when we get there.” I replied.

“Well you’ve done you’re homework Mr. Cole.” Sylvia responded.

“I’ve followed your work for sometime, but what I really want to know is what is on that disk?” I asked.

“I already told you pretty much everything that I know. It took me days just to decrypt the disk. There’s a lot of information on it. It’s basically a shadow copy of the entire Tri-tech hard drive.” Sylvia replied. “The only other thing I read was part of the super soldier project. That’s when I found the plans to use the CU crystal.”

“So what are these super soldiers?” I asked.

“Well the ones we saw in the elevator are what they call Charlie’s. They look just like a human and have special abilities. Charlie’s are just being used to guard installations and protect Mr. Jennings. What time is it? She asked.

“Almost five o’clock.” I answered. “Puts us at your house in about 8 hours.”

“Then Jennings has started the second phase.” She replied.

“The second phase?” I asked.

“After they have made 200 Charlie’s, the program is set to replace individuals in key positions with super soldiers. This way he has hands on control of them and the positions they hold. He’s replacing over 500 people with duplicates over the next 5 days. They call the men, Alpha’s and the women betties.” Sylvia answered.

I reacted by hitting the steering wheel in frustration and uttering a few foul words.

“That’s really all I know, I do know that the program has 12 phases to complete before it’s finished.” Sylvia finished. “What happens then, is anyone’s guess.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” I said in disbelief.

“I had no idea it was happening today Frank. All I knew was a few pieces and I knew if I told anyone Tri-tech would kill me. I’ve been acting like nothing was going on, but apparently Jennings knew I took the information. I just pray that they didn’t find them.” She replied.

“Them, you said there was one disk.” I said.

“Well I broke it up into four disk and hid them in separate places before I left to go out of town.” Sylvia replied.

“At least we have something going for us.” I replied.

The end of Chapter One.