“Oh yeah, I forgot,” he huffed out, mocking his blunder. “It’s an expression I have. It means everything’s okay at my end. There’s just one little problem.”
“What’s that?” she asked with misgiving, turning to her partner standing to her right.
“I realized this morning that you hadn’t given me your address. It’ll be hard to pick you up if I don’t know where you live.”
“Yes I assume it will,” she continued on the same amusing tone. “But don’t worry about picking me up. My brother will give me a ride to your house, say around seven? He’ll be going the same way tonight. I imagine you live near the park?”
“Yes. 2335 Washington Drive. How nice of your brother. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“Oh he’s a charmer, all right,” she boasted as she shot a teasing wink at the man standing beside her who rolled his eyes in exasperation. “See you tonight’” She hung up the phone with a malicious grin. “It’s all set. 2335 Washington Drive. He wants to meet you so make it good. We don’t want him to smell a rat.”
“How do you want me?”
“Sheepish, but not too bashful. Don’t appear to be an authority in everything. Just a simple accountant for a highly distinguished firm in Los Angeles. You’re here on vacation.”
“Got it!”
“When did the boss say he’d be dropping by?”
“At your apartment tonight around eleven. We trust you’ll have Austin in your claws by then?” he speculated with a lusty grin.
“No sweat!” she reciprocated.
REAL WORLD
“Found anything?” asked Oscar as he stepped into the lab after being summoned by Rudy.
“Plenty. Follow me.” Rudy led the way to the morgue where he opened the frig’s drawer and slid out the tray upon which Steve’s corpse laid. He waited for Oscar to collect himself before flinging aside the blanket to expose the torso. “When the DNA matched I didn’t see any point in pushing the autopsy further aside from confirming the cause of death and determine the time when he was fitted with the left bionic arm. Then I decided to push the examination further and found much dissimilarity.”
“Such as,” Oscar asked, a bit baffled.
“If you look closely at his torso, you won’t find the scar that was left after his initial surgery, when I had to operate and replace that heart valve. That man’s heart is perfectly healthy. Hasn’t been touched surgically. Furthermore there are no vitallium components in his entire body.
Oscar’s head jerked up at the news. “How’s that possible?”
“Only one conclusion: that man’s not Steve.”
“But if the DNA matches…”
“I know. The only logical theory would a clone.”
Oscar’s brow wrinkled with deep incredulity. “You don’t honestly believe what you’re saying?”
“Can you provide a better explanation? The secret military has indeed been covertly experimenting with cloning.”
Oscar began walking off the excess of anguish. ”But Steve had a medical less than three weeks ago. Surely you would have noticed the changes?” he asked on an accusatory tone.
“I would. The switch, if ever there was one which I’m strongly leaning in favour of, must have occurred after his physical.”
“Rudy, how can this be?” Oscar shook his head dejectedly at the many security breaches that the impostor must have filtered through. “Do you realize how serious this is?”
“I’m very well aware of the implications. But it might help to know that this impostor couldn’t have infiltrated the OSI before June 11th.”
Oscar pinched the bridge of his nose, cringing at the thought of Steve perusing the notes on the top classified SRC Project. “He knows all the nuts and bolts of Project SRC. I even allowed him to take the documents home with him. Damn it!”
“You suspect he could have photographed the pages and sent it to his people?” Rudy surmised.
“Don’t you?” he shot back insolently. His glare melted into an apologetic look as he stepped up to Rudy to give him a friendly tap on the shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to vent my frustrations on you. Okay, let’s keep this under wraps. No one must know about this. We’ll proceed with the funeral arrangements as planned and bury the body. Meanwhile I’ll conduct my own little investigation, heedful not to make any waves. The NSB must not get word of this.”
“Anything you say, Oscar.”
“It’s bad enough we might have a human hybrid on our hands I wouldn’t want Hanson to get wind of a possible security breach.”
“But if Steve…I mean if this man forwarded the notes to his organization, don’t you think he’ll eventually discover the leak?”
“Let’s not put the cart before the horse. We’ll see how this plays out. For aught with know he might not have contacted his people before this accident.”
The scepticism written on both men’s faces dashed any hope of Oscar’s theory proving true.
PARALLEL WORLD
Amy and her ‘brother’ drove to Steve’s house and following small talk, the three parted ways with Amy and Steve heading toward a restaurant. Unbeknownst to them that each had their own people watching the other.
They clank glasses in toast of their meeting and each took sips of wine. Both pair of eyes peeked over the rim of their glasses but for different reasons. While Steve’s was fastened on the vision of loveliness before him, Amy’s gaze stole a glance over his shoulder at the agent sitting at the bar.
“Something wrong?” he asked puzzled by her wandering eye.
“No. Why do you ask?” she said rather awkwardly.
“Well your eyes keep roaming over my shoulder.”
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little nervous. You see, I was in a relationship with a possessive man and I’m still a bit edgy he might be following me,” she feigned convincingly.
“I see. Well don’t you worry none. If he bothers you, you tell me.”
“Thanks Steve. I feel safe with you, which is a situation I haven’t known for quite sometime with a man.”
“I’m glad to hear I have that effect on you,” he drawled with a glint in his eye as he took another sip of wine.
She caught another furtive glimpse at the man who, through a small nod of the head, conveyed the assurance that the coast was clear to proceed with the plan. She in turn responded with a discreet nod of her own. Seconds later he was seen tossing money onto the counter and quietly sneaking out the restaurant.
Her heart began pounding down her throat at the thought of her next move. Her courage was withering away with each single glance Steve would throw her way. She tried hard not to lock eyes with him, afraid his bewitching baby blues would drain the remaining oomph out of her. She was contracted to lure the prey into the trap and that’s what she intended to do.
All through dinner Amy strove to focus on the task at hand to avoid drowning into the blue pools gazing at her lovingly from across the table. It took all of her will power not to succumb to temptation, refusing to relinquish him control over her emotions.
Once dessert was over, Steve footed the bill and later took a trip to the men’s room leaving Amy alone at the table to carry out her orders. She discreetly pulled a small vial from her purse and loosened the lid, all the while keeping an eye on the men’s room door for any sign of Steve. She glanced around to spot any prying stare before dripping a few drops into Steve’s coffee cup.
Minutes later Steve returned to the table and to her relief he finished his coffee to the last drop before suggesting continuing their conversation in the privacy of his own home. He gently clasped her hand to led her out of the restaurant and over to the car where he gallantly opened the passenger door for her. As he rounded the front of the car to his side a sudden debilitating twinge prompted him to lean against the hood.
Amy quickly shed her triumphant grin to step into her character. “Steve, are you all right?” she asked with a seemingly genuine concern.
“Yeah, yeah I’m okay,” he breathed out. “Just a small twinge.” He continued over to the driver door and as he opened it, another powerful dizzy spell seized him.
Amy stepped out of the car and hurried over to his side. “Steve, something’s wrong. What is it?”
“I…I don’t know. My head is swimming and…” Barely had he taken a blurry glance at her that his whole world came crashing down. Amy swiftly grabbed a hold of him to prevent him from collapsing to the ground. With one hand she opened the door and settled him on the seat. She then moved him over to the passenger seat and sat behind the wheel. “I’m sorry it had to be this way Doctor Austin. You wouldn’t have come on your own. You’re very valuable to us and hope for your sake and mine that you’ll cooperate. I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt,” she said with legitimate feelings as she reached over to place a tender kiss on his cheek.
REAL WORLD
“Send him in,” Oscar told Callahan over the intercom. He stood from his chair and went to meet his visitor halfway. “Rudy, what’s up?”
“Same as before. A clone”
“A clone? You said that before and I scoffed at your theory.”
“That’s the only explanation, Oscar.”
“Rudy, this DNA testing. It’s not a hundred per cent accurate, is it?” Oscar presumed as he made his way to the bar to pour himself a cup of coffee.
“Well, no,” Rudy wavered, taken aback but Oscar’s question. “It hasn’t been fully tested, hence the reason why it has yet to be approved by a court of law.”
“So you’ll agree with me that your results may be invalid.”
Rudy sighed in annoyance. “I see where you’re getting at, Oscar and the answer is no. In fact I did the test three times over to ensure its accuracy. That man is Steve. No doubt about it.” The ensuing silence that fell between them brought Rudy to feel genuine empathy for the man who doggedly refuted the notion of Steve as a traitor. “I know how you feel, Oscar. Believe me I do and I don’t want to think that Steve was…”
“HE WAS NOT!” Oscar slashed waspishly at Rudy with eyes ablaze with anger. “And don’t you dare spread the word that he was.”
“I haven’t told anyone about my findings.”
“What about Hanson?”
“I haven’t heard from him,” Rudy shrugged. “Have you?”
“No,” he said, storming past Rudy as he strode up to his desk. “And I see no reason why I should.”
“Oscar. The news of Steve’s death is bound to reach his desk. What do I do when he’ll ask for the autopsy report?”
“Make one up,” was all that Oscar could offer as an option. Rudy shook his head in disbelief. “Rudy, as far as everyone is concerned, Steve was a victim of foul play. I have gathered a team of investigators to shed light on how it happened and who is involved. I already have a lead.”
“Who?”
“Douglas Crane. He must have hired a professional gunman to do the job and we’re going to find him,” Oscar gnarled with gritted teeth and veins throbbing at his temples. “I swear they’ll pay dearly for what they did to Steve. Even if I have to kill him myself.”
“Oh Oscar. Careful, friend,” Rudy cautioned with a hand on Oscar’s shoulder. “Don’t go off half-cocked after a man who may not be responsible. You’ll hang.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing Rudy,” Oscar retorted peevishly with eyes mirroring a pool of hot embers burning deep within his soul.
PARALLEL WORLD
Steve moaned awake but found it difficult to surface completely with the crushing hangover applying formidable pressure on his eyelids. He tilted his head sideways hoping it would lessen the pain but to no avail. As he tried lifting his hand to his head he felt it pinned to the bed.
He prised open his eyes and looked down at his arms fastened to the bed by leather bands. He tried stretching his legs, which were in the same restraint. Blinking hard to clear the fog, he slowly established focus on his surrounding.
“Where am I?” he asked groggily to himself.
As if on cue an iron door slid open and in came an imposing shadow that Steve couldn’t quite make out.
“Well, we meet again, Steve.”
“Oscar,” Steve exclaimed.
“Long time no see.”
“Oscar, what’s going on here?” Steve slurred, the drug impeding his speech.
With a toss of the head Oscar summoned his men to leave the room. He waited for the door to close behind them before addressing his prisoner. “We have issued several invitations, all of which you declined. Given your obstinacy we had to resort to drastic measures.”
“What are you talking about?” Steve drawled, striving to collect his thoughts to make sense of his predicament.
“If I didn’t know you better I’d swear you had no knowledge of what I am referring to.”
“I don’t,” Steve swallowed. “Oscar, please, get me out of these contraptions. I can’t move.”
“I like to keep the odds in my favour, Doctor Austin.”
“Doctor? Oh no, I’m not…”
“Let’s get right down to business, shall we?” Oscar joined hands behind his back and began pacing around the examining table. “We know you and Doctor Wells have perfected the Big Wheel and that you have successfully completed journeys to parallel worlds. Am I correct?” Oscar’s icy tone suggested an order rather than a question.
“Why are you interested?”
“BECAUSE…,” Oscar barked out, then mellowed out, “because it was originally my pet project when I was Director at the OSI until you and Spencer stole it right from under me.”
“How’s that?” Steve continued to fish for information as to how Oscar came to switch over to the other side.
“You should know,” Oscar gnarled as he came to lean over Steve’s prone body with a menacing glare. “You and Spencer set me up.”
“Look I’m…I’m not who you think I am.”
“Is that so?” Oscar scoffed.
“Your Big Wheel, it does work and I’m the proof.” Oscar’s brow creased in puzzlement. “I’m Doctor Austin’s double from another universe. I was told he switched places with me. I’m stuck here while he’s roaming my earth as we speak.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Well I can’t fault you there. I’m having a hard time believing this merry-go-round is for real myself. But check my left arm.” Again with a deep quizzical frown, Oscar rounded the table to the left side and looked down at the arm.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Take a needle and jab it into my finger.”
“Why?”
“Doctor Austin had two bionic arms, right?”
“That is correct.”
“Well I only have one; the right. The left is flash and blood. Go ahead, poke my finger, but gently.”
Sceptical and yet eager to confirm his suspicions, Oscar took a small needle on the tray and pricked Steve’s index finger with it. His eyes widened in shock at the drop of blood seeping out of the flesh.
“Convinced?” Steve quipped, hoping his captor would agree to set him free seeing how there was a mistaken identity.
“Where is Doctor Austin?”
“I told you. He’s somewhere in the other universe. My home earth. I’m stuck here and eager to get back where I came from. I didn’t ask to take that journey through space.” Steve snapped, then closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief at his description he considered far-fetched. “I can’t believe I just said that. This is a nightmare and nothing more,” he insisted to convince himself this cloud-cuckoo-land was merely a figment of his wild imagination.
“We’ll have to keep you here until we can settle this little confusion.”
“Oscar, what happened to you?” Steve’s straightforward question took the man aback to the point of muteness. “Haven’t we always been there for each other? I trust you implicitly and I seem to recall that you did me as well. How can you believe that I could have sold you out?” Steve’s cracking voice imbued with emotiveness reached deep within Oscar who, for a fleeting moment, wished himself back in time to when he and Steve were riding high as a team at the OSI. “Well?”
“I don’t wish to discuss it.”
“You don’t or you can’t. Your eyes are belying your true emotions, Oscar. You can’t deny them. I could always read you like a book, friend.”
The last heartfelt word slashed through him like a sword. He sucked in a silent deep breath to recover his composure and headed out of the lab in silence.
Outside the room, Oscar paused to gather his emotions splattered all over the place. ‘You can’t allow him to sway you from your goal, Oscar’’ he berated himself. ‘You need to keep focused on your objective.”
“What was that, boss?” asked a young man walking by.
“Euh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.” The boy nodded distrustfully and went on his way, casting a last dubious look behind at Oscar who headed the opposite way.
“Charlie!” Oscar shouted angrily as he slammed the door behind him, startling his associate working at his computer. “We took the wrong one!”
“What are you talking about?” Charlie shot back.
“Austin! He’s not the one we want. He’s…he’s,” Oscar couldn’t bring himself to expose the truth of the matter that his better judgement firmly refuted. “He’s, dammit! He’s an alternate from another universe.”
Charlie stood from his chair and removed his reading glasses. “What are you saying, Oscar?”
“I have proof that he’s not Doctor Austin. I jabbed a needle in his left index finger and drew blood. Now how’s that possible when he’s supposed to have a bionic limb?”
“Why do you say he’s an alternate?”
“Because he told me. Apparently he accidentally switched place with Doctor Austin as he went through the Big Wheel, which proves that it does work.”
“We had no doubt that they had succeeded in activating it but without Doctor Austin…”
“We can’t get our hands on it,” Oscar hissed with a scornful curl of the lip.
“Perhaps we could use him to get inside the main compound,” Charlie’s suggestion sparked a dash of hope in the man’s eyes. “I’m sure he has access to the Level 29.”
“Surely he must have,” Oscar agreed, rubbing his chin in deep concentration. “We can’t just let him go unsupervised. He’ll need a chaperone.”
“Why not ask Davy? He fits the part of a zealous young scientist eager to learn. And he’s one of our top agents. One wrong move from this alternate and he’s toast.”
“And if that happens than we ruin any chance we had to get our hands on that project.”
“We only need the notes; not the contraption itself. That we can easily build.”
“All right. I’ll talk to Davy. Brief him on his assignment and hope we do well this time,” Oscar snarled, wanting to sound commanding when in reality he was ravaged with concern on the safety of this stranger who called him friend.
Two hours later, Oscar made his way to a titanium-reinforced room where the prisoner was being held. A guard unbolted the twelve-inch door and they waited for the heavy weight to automatically pull open, after which Oscar slipped inside before it shut closed. “I’m sorry for the crude accommodations Mister Austin but understand that they were necessary under the circumstances.”
“I understand,” Steve scoffed.
“All right. You’re free to go.”
Steve shot Oscar a dubious look. “Why?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I still say, why?”
“Because you’re not the man we want, simple as that,” Oscar snapped with obvious exasperation.
Steve stepped up to him and stared at him pleadingly. “Come with me, Oscar. You don’t belong with this bunch,” he spoke with grave deliberation hoping to shake the very core of the decent human being concealed within the man.
“Your offer comes a little too late, Steve. Besides you are his alternate. You have no knowledge of the feud that occurred between Dr. Austin and myself. How do you expect me to follow a complete stranger? I have everything I want right here.”
“Oscar Goldman is a decent man, not a traitor. I have no doubt that all the many different Steve Austin’s there are in the corridor of the space-time continuum share my view.”
“I am no traitor!” he scorned with a scorching glare. “I merely chose the side that provided more opportunities to birth great projects without the restrictions I too often encountered at the OSI. The Big Wheel was mine and yours…I mean Dr. Austin’s pet project. Then Spencer wormed his way into the pipeline and managed to sway Steve into working with him and drop me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how. What difference does it make?” he slashed with annoyance.
“Plenty. If your Steve Austin is like me he never would have sold you out.”
“Well he did.”
“I’d like to hear his version of the facts when he returns.”
Oscar cocked his head in puzzlement. “Do you expect him to return?”
“In theory he should. And when he does I’ll go back to where I’m from.”
“And I’ll stay where I am,” Oscar said coldly, tabling the discussion.
Steve shook his head in disbelief. “I really am having a nightmare. This is one spooky flick and I can’t walk out of it.”
Oscar crossed to the door and pressed a red button to alert the guard. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Why should I? What guarantee do I have that I won’t be shot on sight the second I step out of this building?”
“Don’t you trust me?” Oscar quipped.
“No,” Steve answered curtly. He returned to his cot and lay down. “I prefer taking my chances in here if you don’t mind extending your gracious hospitality?”
“Suit yourself,” Oscar relented, then turned around to let himself out. Once the door shut close he instructed his watchman to keep a vigil on the prisoner. “He’s bionic so don’t be a hero. You detect the slightest suspicious activity in there, you call me, you hear?”
“Yes sir.”
Oscar marched up to his office and yanked the phone off the hook. He began dialling a number then stopped in midway, curling his hand in a fist of rage at the thought of his last option. He huffed out a breath of anger and then proceeded to finish dialling.
“I’d like to speak to Dr. Rudy Wells, please.”
“May I ask who’s calling,” asked the courteous voice on the other end.
“Just say it’s a friend.”
“Right away, sir.” The secretary buzzed Rudy’s desk. “Dr. Wells, I have a call for you.”
“Who from?”
“The gentleman didn’t want to say his name. He just asked to tell you he was a friend.”
Rudy’s knitted his brow in deep mistrust. “Put him through.”
“Rudy?”
“Who is this?”
“Don’t you recognize me?” Oscar mocked, waiting for his grave voice to register with the scientist.
“Oscar? Is that you?”
“Long time no hear, hey friend?”
“Don’t you call me, friend,” Rudy hissed with veins throbbing at his neck. “Why are you calling me?”
“I have something that belongs to you, so to speak.”
“What?”
“Are you missing a partner by any chance?”
“Why you!” Rudy fumed. “What have you done to him?”
“Relax. Steve is fine. He’s being held at my new complex.”
“What do you want?”
“He told me he was Dr. Austin’s alternate from a parallel universe.”
“So?”
“So that means the Big Wheel works.” A silent reply confirmed his suspicions. “I gather by that silence that I hit the bull’s eye, didn’t I?” Oscar crowed triumphantly.
“So what if you did?” Rudy sassed back, annoyed by the arrogance spilling over the phone.
“I want to make a trade. Austin for the project files.”
“No deal.”
“Is that alternate’s life worth anything to you?”
“Not by a long shot,” Rudy hissed, hoping Oscar had missed the slight betraying tremor in his voice.
“I don’t believe you. You go to the park at the angle of Hayley and Pinewood in exactly thirty minutes. You sit on the bench across from the children’s playground. A man will hand you over a paper with your next set of instructions. And come alone. You are not to breathe a word to this to Spencer or the authorities. Do I make myself clear?” Oscar grounded out with an unyielding jaw.
Rudy closed his eyes and sighed despairingly as he conceded begrudgingly, “I’ll be there.”
“We’ll see you in thirty minutes,” he reiterated harshly followed by a sneer that raised Rudy’s ire.
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