Midtown

twenty four

KP

"Welcome back sir."

"It's been a while since I've seen you in person." KP saw Julie at her side desk as he came down the stairs. He put his hand to the white wall for the scanner to read his print. The clear glass door opened after accepting his prints. He looked around seeing the large lab room. The main monitor on the wall had a satellite image of some land they've been monitoring. Nothing has changed since he was last here.

"Would you like to undergo your testing?" Julie turned to him with a wand. Whenever they are gone for an extended amount of time, they have to get a physical exam and exposure readings done.

"Not this time. If leaving the air in Midtown was that bad, I would've already fallen."

"You sure you don't want to get checked out? You've been exposed to so much in that town, not too mentioned the combat, your system could be harmed in the long run." She told him.

"You should know if I'm here, it's not simply for a home visit. One of the posts have been damaged and I need supplies and to hurry back. I don't have time for screening." He told her.

He went to the glass door of his work space and put his hand to the glass to scan in. Everything seemed to be as he left it. It's been a year since he last came here to also work on the post since Nathen seemed so persistent to get out. He pressed the button on the wall for his work station to open. The computer came out of his standing desk and all his old formulas and tools laid out on the table. They barely made it out of this one. He wonders if he'll ever be able to get him without needing to simply take his life. If he has information, he needs him alive for that.

"I figured since you've come this far, you'd at least have a little time to make sure what you're doing is worth it." Julie said flipping her long rainbow colored hair and turned back to her computer.

"What do you mean? You know something don't you?" She only gets this sassy with him when she has information.

"I've been waiting for the day you needed to come back here. I couldn't mention it over the phone with all the hacking and line crossing that's been going on. But Walker went out searching for something new a while back when he stumbled onto one of the Mediterranean islands." She pulled up an image on her home screen.

"You mean Nathen's home grounds?" KP walked over to her station.

"I don't believe it was the one they're inhabiting, but he did find links to them there."

"Such as?"

"I don't know. He never made it back." She said and took down the photo.

"Walker was our best researcher. What do you mean he never made it back?"

"When he called to update, he told me the land was empty, but was frequently used for experimenting. There were remains of countless failed drones and bomb shells-"

"How does this relate to me holding Nathen down? Did he find anything relating to his power or his hidden components or connections?"

"He didn't find any of that."

"So what then? Walker wasn't that strong, but he wasn't an idiot. He had to have given you something before he was taken out." KP told her. Then she turned back to her computer and pulled up another file.

"Did you know that Nathen has a twin?" She turned to KP.

"A twin? He has an older sister not a twin."

"Then what do we have here?" She pressed the play button. Through a slightly grainy footage, KP saw someone walking up towards the camera. The person looked just like Nathen if he had a tan and wasn't in Midtown.

"Walker always had a hidden recorder playing; showing us live footage of everything. But as soon as he got to this island, the sound was cut and the video wasn't stable. Then, it finally just stopped after this person came up to him." She said. The video went black.

"This whole time, I thought something seemed off. Nathen couldn't be this careless. This person. This is the real Nathen. And the one here is-"

"A clone." Julie finished his sentence. She pulled up another file with Nathen's info.

"The real Nathen has never left the islands. But because he needed information on our labs, he needed a way to be here, without being here."

It all started making sense to KP. A clone. Not a twin. But an identical lookalike. Such a great replica of the actual person to be able to deceive everyone. KP gripped the back of Julie's chair.  

"So, he's managed to create a clone? They have that makeshift excuse of an android attacking me when they've been creating clones?"

"We're not sure, but Nathen may be the only one."

"You haven't sent anyone else to help Walker?" KP asked.

"Doesn't this place seem a lot emptier? We sent Rob and Brittney to find him. We still believe he's alive. Nathen likely took him in. But they haven't found him or any traces of anything Walker reported."

"So what are we going to do? We don't have any evidence other than this video of Walker going black. How certain are we that he isn't just a clone too? You know, this is one of the things I needed to confirm being tested over there. And here is the answer. An identical walking, talking, and killing being. Making me waste my time on the wrong target."

"Well, hang on KP. The last thing he would try to do is create an army of himself. One was risky enough. If he tried to take his identity, he'd never get it back. This one here in Midtown is likely the only one."

Julie made a point. A narcissist like him would never risk losing his title. But what does that say about the clone he made to come here?"

"Hang on. He wouldn't just send him here. There's a reason."

"Which brings me to my next screen." Julie pulled up on another screen showing her frequency signals. "You know that one faint signal we couldn't make out? We thought it was just a cell phone or broken GPS someone lost and never fixed? Well, we believe it's actually apart of this Nathen here. Transmitting data to the real one."

"So he's been doing the research without actually doing research on me and this side of the world. You should have told me this when you found out. Even if I take down this Nathen, he wont have what I'm looking for. Identical clone or not, he can't possess a gift. They are inherited, not created."

"We are fully aware of that. Assuming anyone comes back alive, they should be checking in on that with the Nathen there. But this Nathen here can still be of value. He still knows what the real one knows. We can still use him."

"I have to hurry back. There's no telling how long He'll wait before he attacks again. That's right, what's the word on Grey? Does he know yet that one of his experiments have gotten loose?"

"It's been happening so regularly, I doubt he's even noticed that one of them hasn't come back. He's made many of them. Failed ones and good ones."

"Well this is definitely a good one. She's strong just like the rumors said."

"We have almost nothing on his lab. You'd have to go there to get any information on the androids. Maybe he has a way of bringing them back. We have to wait and see if he puts out a missing person report. But that would qualify for investigation which he has been successfully dodging for years."

"Alright I get it. Be on my guard. I always am anyway. I'll send a detailed report of everything that's been going on and what I've used when I get back."

"I'll see to it that Dr. Pim sees it. He used the word 'remarkable' with the last report you submitted."

"So far, I'm the only one that has been able to use everything in real time." KP's father created this lab and expects nothing short of phenomenal to ever be used. In order to keep creating, they have to keep experimenting. And in order to keep experimenting, they need new material. As soon as he can get Nathen, the sooner they can keep moving forward producing and stop him from plotting what'll ruin their works.

"But before I go back, I need to do one thing."