The Missing Piece
Agent Weston was on his way back to the room where they had found the holding tanks. He had called control from his car, knowing they must not believe him. But... they seemed strangely agreeable. Was it his imagination? The conversation was still fresh in his mind...
"Control? This is Special Agent Jack Weston, at Belli Castle."
"What do you have to report, Agent Weston?"
"We've found something... Something I don't know what to do about."
"What have you found?"
"... Well, I'm not quite sure how to tell you this. You see... I know it sounds crazy, but... do you recall how that girl who first called to report to us... she said there were experiments going on here? Involving... cloning?"
There was a long silence. "Yes."
"Well... she was telling the truth. We've found what appear to be... human clones. Many of them. They're apparently being grown here or something. I need to know what to do. I've never dealt with something like this before."
Another long silence. He was expecting some doubting comment, or for the lady to tell him that such a thing was not possible.
"... I see. Let me talk with the sheriff about this."
She was gone for a minute or two, then her voice came on again.
"Agent Weston, orders from the sheriff are to kill these things you have found. Make sure none escape. If this gets out... it could explode. We're not prepared to deal with that kind of collateral damage. We would like you to bring back one of the bodies for examination."
She had told him this as if she believed him without a doubt. He could hardly believe it himself. Did they know something? … It didn't matter, he decided. Now was not the time to be considering such things.
There was something else he had to tell her. On his way to the car, he'd noticed the open tank. He passed by it once, not really paying attention to it. But now that he had passed it again, he knew... this is where that girl had come from. The tank was completely separate from all the others, in its own room, and it was larger than the other tanks as well. The glass, which on the other tanks sealed them shut, had slid open, the liquid drained. A red light shone above the tank, and three black tubes hung limply inside. And by now she was probably at the hospital. He told control about this.
Once more, a silence. Then, she spoke again. "Agent Weston... it is crucial that you find her. Find out where she was sent, and eliminate her. There is no choice. If she says anything- if anybody ever finds out about this, we could all be in danger. Is that clear?"
"What? How would I do that? Even if I did find her... I can't just walk into a hospital and kill one of the patients!"
"Don't worry about that. When you find her, call us. We'll arrange something."
Weston wasn't quite sure what she had meant by that, but it wasn't his place to question. When he was finished, he left the car, headed back to that ghastly room, passing by all the other "clones", strange mumbling people, completely white. How did he get mixed up in something like this? What did it all mean? And... could he really kill all of those people? Even if they were loathsome creations, were they human beings? Did they deserve to die? And that girl... she'd looked so helpless. Why was there nobody here? Nobody to help explain why or how they were performing such experiments... Were they all dead, like that girl on the phone had claimed? He could have sworn he'd heard somebody else in the halls earlier. But then again, maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. It tended to do that in a place like this one.