Reversion (The Narrows of Time Series Book 3) by Jay J. Falconer Read Free Book Online Page B

like string cheese.
    “Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Bruno said with a grimace on his face.
    The video ended thirty-three seconds later and hung on the last frame. Both men remained silent, eyes focused on the final image of a cactus torn apart in the attack.
    “Did you notice anything strange?” Kleezebee asked, breaking the quiet in the room.
    Bruno shook his head.
    “None of them were armed. The general gunned down unarmed men,” Kleezebee said.
    “That ain’t right, I tell ya, regardless of the intel.”
    “I agree,” Kleezebee added, fiddling with the video controls on his computer. His heartbeat calmed and his logic took over. “Let me see if I can zoom in a bit. There’s something I want to check.”
    He restarted the video, then paused it when one of the intruders’ face was centered on the display. He highlighted the middle of the screen with the video software’s crop handles, then tightened the camera’s focal point. He clicked the Z key on the keyboard several times until the distorted face of the bald intruder was large enough to fill the highlighted area.
    “Now we adjust for pixilation and let the software render the man’s face,” Kleezebee said, clicking a few more keystrokes, “and bingo.”
    The professor’s jaw dropped open.
    So did Bruno’s. “Lucas? How can that be?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Where’s his hair? Jesus, he’s as bald as me.”
    Kleezebee laughed, though he didn’t want to give the bloody circumstances. But sometimes, horrific situations can be softened with some levity. He and Bruno had certainly seen their share of death and destruction during their space travels before the crash landing on Earth in the 60s. They used to talk about it behind closed doors, but not anymore. They’d seen too much over their lifetimes, becoming desensitized to the mayhem and gore. Mostly for self-preservation, but also to keep logic in control.
    “It’s obviously not our Lucas. I saw him earlier today. Hair and all,” Kleezebee said.
    “No extraneous bullet holes?”
    “None that I could see.”
    “That’s good news. I would miss that kid and his off-color humor. He’s definitely one of a kind. Well, two of a kind now, apparently.”
    “I think you’d miss his mother’s fudge bars more.”
    “They are to die for,” Bruno said, rubbing his hanging belly. “I do have a bit of a sweet tooth.”
    “So that’s what you call it?”
    Bruno shrugged. “Hey, what’s a man to do?”
    “I’ve got the same problem, and I’m not one of you, so what does that tell ya?”
    “That every species loves chocolate. Synthetic or not.”
    “You’ve got that right, brother.”
    Bruno laughed, then his face ran stiff. “Do you think Lucas has something to do with all of this?”
    “Maybe. But this could simply be the result of a software malfunction,” Kleezebee said, letting the video advance a few more frames. He paused the recording again, then centered and zoomed in on a different intruder’s face. This person had long red hair, but the same face. He ran through the same procedure a few more times, showing close-ups of a one-armed man and three others with cheek scars. All of them resembled Lucas. Kleezebee brought his elbows up to rest them on the desk, then dropped his head into his hands, trying to make sense of what he’d just seen.
    “What the hell is going on, DL? How can they all be Lucas? Or versions of him?” Bruno said.
    “I don’t know. Something’s not right here.”
    “Clones?”
    “No, definitely not. Human cloning technology doesn’t exist, even in our time.”
    “Is it possible one of our facilities was breached? Someone may have obtained a working supply of our BioTex, then used it to create an army of replicas.”
    Kleezebee shook his head. “That seems unlikely. Especially since we segregate the BioTex from its activating enzyme and randomly move them to different locations every few days.”
    “And you and I are the only ones who know the