"What the hell is going on?" Thomas exclaimed.
Sophie looked from the passenger window to the front, gasping at what she saw; a dark cloud of smoke was rising out of a section of the cloning facility. Two red fire trucks, lights flashing, were parked outside the building and an ambulance was next to it.
"What's going on?" Sophie asked.
"No clue!"
He quickly parked the car and hurried out, Sophie following. There was a small group of people off to the side and Thomas made a beeline toward them.
"What's going on here?" he demanded when he was in earshot.
"We were hoping you could tell us, we're with the crime lab," one of the men said.
Thomas looked toward the black smoke still rising in the sky. "I just got here, I don't know anything."
"We have someone waiting in the ambulance, he said that he had something to tell you," the second man said.
"Thank you," Thomas responded.
He turned on his heel and marched toward the flaring lights, Sophie making sure to keep close. When the ambulance drivers saw Thomas approaching they opened the back of the ambulance and pulled out a gurney.
"Jake!" Sophie gasped when the mangled face came into view.
Jake cracked open one bloody eye and tried to take a deep breath. The oxygen tank next to him made a click sound as it pumped him oxygen.
"Thomas!" he croaked.
"What happened, Jake?" Thomas asked.
"It—it was Ali," Jake managed to say.
"Ali?" Sophie asked in fear, "What was she doing here?"
"She came with intentions to destroy the clones."
"Destroy them?"
"Yes, and she wasn't even affected by the noise," Jake said.
"No, of course not, her hearing hasn't recovered," Sophie said.
"So are all the clones destroyed?"
"No, she first broke the containers they were in and then attacked them. However, two of them managed to escape."
"Which two?"
"Numbers three and four," Jake replied.
Thomas's face went deathly pale. "No, not those two!"
"I'm sorry, sir, there was nothing we could do."
"What's so bad about clones three and four?" Sophie inquired.
"They were the ones at the most developed stage, and the most dangerous. They must be recovered at once!"
"There's something else," Jake said, "She was asking where the alien was."
"Hermes?" Sophie asked.
"What did you tell her?"
"I didn't say anything," Jake said.
Thomas nodded. "Good for you, then. And get well."
Jake nodded. "Thank you."
"Where is Hermes?" Sophie asked.
"The alien is in a cell located deep within the complex, mainly in case something like this happened and Ali broke free," Thomas said.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to check out the damages she caused," Thomas answered.
Sophie sighed in exasperation and followed after her brother. The police officers allowed both of them to slip under the tape and into the building. As they walked, Sophie took in the damages. It had seemed that Ali had blasted her way all the way through to her desired location, destroying everything in her path. They finally made it to the cloning room, what was left of the cloning room.
"My god," Thomas said.
The four containers that had held the clones of Ali were smashed open and their murky substance had spilled on the ground. Two copies of Ali were lying in the wreckage, their bodies riddled with bullet holes. However, the substance they had been encased in, and now was spilled around them, must have had some acidic resistance, as their blood didn't burn through the ground. Two other bodies, scientists, were nearby as well, with as much bullet holes as the clones.
"Where are the other two clones?" Thomas asked as two bruised scientists came into the room.
"We're doing our best to track them, but some of our systems are down."
"This is bad," Thomas said.
"What's wrong?" Sophie had to ask.
Thomas sighed and moved over to the remains of his chair and sat down. "The clones weren't fully complete yet. While we did manage to get them to resemble Ali, we were unable to put the control devices into their brains so that they would obey us."
"So they're loose, in the city, as absolute killing machines?" Sophie asked.
Thomas nodded grimly. "If we don't recover them soon, thousands are going to die."
"Where's Hermes?" Sophie asked.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because he might be able to help me save Ali."
"You can't be serious? Sophie, the only reason that alien never attacked you before was because Ali was there. If you go to him now, he would try to kill you!"
Sophie shook her head. "No, that's not true. He cares for Ali; he's all she has left. He'll do anything to help her."
"You can't know that."
"I can feel it. He won't hurt me."
"Look, you're my little sister; I care for you and I—"
"Oh please! If you cared for me like an older brother should, you'd have helped me when I was failing in high school or even college. You could have taken my feelings or desires into consideration when you sold Ali to Roberts. Any way you look at it, you haven't really been the role model of a brother that I've always wanted."
"I'm sorry."
"No, you're not, you could care less about what happened to me, as long as your Ali clones are okay, right?"
"That's not true," Thomas said.
The hurt in his eyes almost made it unbearable for Sophie, but she wasn't sure if it was a ruse, or if he really felt that way. She crossed her arms and looked down, not wanting to meet his eye.
"Fine," he said, "I'll take you to him."
Sophie looked up, slightly shocked that Thomas had complied, but she was grateful for it none the less. She followed him out of the destroyed lab and down a long hallway. This was the first time she was allowed this far into the building, before, she was only allowed in the rooms closer to the front of the building. She grew slightly apprehensive of the size of the building as they continued to move further and further into its bowls. Just then, she heard a sound. She couldn't be sure of what it was at the time, it had sounded only like a shoe scuffing the floor, but then she heard it again. She paused and tried to assess the sound.
"Sophie?" Thomas asked when he noticed that she had stopped following him.
She ignored him as the sound came again, this time, sounding like a squealing tire.
"Is that him?" she asked.
"Yes," Thomas said, "That's the alien."
Sophie bolted past her brother and flew down the hall, the cries growing louder as she ran.
"Sophie, wait!"
But Sophie ignored her brother and continued running, following the sound of screeches. She rounded a corner and came face to face with Hermes. The alien screeched and threw himself at the thick glass that caged him, his claws scraping across the surface.
"Be careful, Sophie, I don't think he recognizes you."
Hermes let out a deep hiss and backed away from the glass. He turned away slightly, but Sophie wasn't sure if he was still watching her. She decided to move closer, ignoring the protests from her brother, until she was inches from the glass. The alien regarded her with curiosity before stepping forward as well. When he was inches from the glass, he bared his teeth and a deep hiss rose up in his throat.
"Sophie," Thomas said in warning.
Hermes screeched and his second mouth shot out, smashing into the glass. Sophie jumped back in surprise.
"How do you get in?"
"No," Thomas said, "You're not going in there."
"Let me in!"
"No!"
"Thomas, I—"
"Did you not see what just happened? He tried to attack you!"
"He was just checking me out."
"Stop trying to make them sound good! They're mindless monsters with killer instincts."
Hermes screeched again and slammed his side into the glass, his claws raking across the surface.
"He heard you!" Sophie said.
"The glass is really thick, besides, it can't understand human speech," Thomas said.
"What makes you say that? How can you tell? You never met them in person, have you?"
"Look at it; it'll kill you if you go inside!"
"Let. Me. In." Sophie said.
Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, meeting his sister's gaze, but he dropped his arms a second later, sighing. "I don't want you getting hurt."
"You should have shown some of that concern for me a little earlier," Sophie said.
Thomas studied Sophie for a while longer. "Fine, come with me."
He led her to a side door, Hermes watching their every move.
"I'm going to have to spray him with liquid nitrogen," Thomas said, "That'll insure he won't overwhelm us when we open the door. And if he gives any sign that he's going to hurt you, I will give the order for him to be shot. Do you understand?"
Sophie didn't like the idea of Hermes getting hurt, but she nodded anyway. "Just do it."
Thomas nodded and pressed the red button by the door. There was a mechanical hiss as liquid nitrogen was sprayed into the confinement. Hermes screeched in pain and thrashed around. Thomas waited for the nitrogen to clear before opening the door and stepping back quickly.