The person before Snow definitely looked like Mace however something was of about him. It wasn't exactly him. Snow didn't remember Mace having a green eye. Snow cautiously walked up to the naked figure and then stopped. His mind was trying to grasp what he was seeing, any sense of it whatsoever, a hint. The door burst open and three fully armed soldiers came in, they literally pushed Snow away and surrounded Mace who gave them a hateful glare but didn't offer any resistance as one jammed a needle into his neck. Within seconds Mace was passed out on the ground, a blanket was wrapped around his lanky form and he was carried off.
"Well…" Snow whipped around to see Pallan behind him. "That's one way to introduce what I want you to do."
"That wa…Mace," the ex CIA agent gripped the edge of the desk to steady himself. Pallan walked up to him.
"We call them Ghosts," he explained, "they do indeed have the body and partially the mind of their former owners however they are not entirely them."
"Ghosts?"
"A delicate process that ended up in at least a hundred test Ghosts dead but…when we finally managed to get a good lock on the genetic code we were able to start speed growing them."
"Speed growing?"
"They are as you would say clones of a person, however nothing is perfect. The green eye that you saw on Mace was a common genetic mix, we take a piece of their skin, their blood, hair, anything that will help us try and perfect their former image. However things that we can't totally have control over, or haven't learned to have control over usually goes about itself."
"Cloning," Snow whispered, "cloning for what?"
Pallan gave him a sick smile. "Those people that you saw back there in the operation room are Ghosts as well, they are at first hidden from society, however after we succeed in having their full control we release them into society to perform the…meager tasks needed."
"What about relatives?" Snow growled. "Families, friends, what about them someone is bound to come forward."
"We have taken measures to make sure that they don't."
Snow didn't go on. He found this whole thing sick and twisted. He remembered seeing top agents disappearing for days, weeks on end before turning up again and when they did they weren't the same.
"I'm not taking part in this fucked up thing you've got going on here," Snow hissed.
Emilie looked at her watch. She was leaned up against the kitchen counter and her arms folded across her breast. It was close to one o'clock. She was supposed to be at the funeral thirty minutes ago. Emilie tapped her foot in frustration and impatience before trying Snow's cell phone again. It was turned off. Snow never turned his phone off. Emilie gave an exasperated sigh and grabbed her purse. She was definitely going to five Snow hell when he got home. As she slipped into her shoes the doorbell rang. If that was Snow she was going to give him such a slap that he was going to be black and blue for a month. The doorbell rang again and the person on the other side spoke.
"Downloader."
Emilie looked at her watch and noticed it was around this time a Downloader would be here.
A Downloader was the lowest of the low. Usually given to people just trying to get by or piss poor students who were in debt. Their job, like a paperboy/girl, was simple to deliver the news.
Emilie walked over and picked up her Slate, she could at least read something to get her mind off Snow. She opened the door and looked up. Emilie felt like the wind had been knocked out of her, her mind completely shut down so she couldn't think of what to do and her insides grew cold. She felt as if the whole temperature in the front hall had dramatically decreased.
"Ms. Warnock?"
The voice rang in her ears and she shuddered.
"Are you alright?"
Closet. Shotgun. Get it. She looked out the corner of her eye to see that the closet was wide open and noticed the outline of the hidden door which held the shotgun and a few casings. Without warning she opened the door and grabbed the loaded gun and pointed it directly at the Downloader. He let out a sharp yelp of surprise and immediately raised his hands in defense. Not letting his actions even slightly faze her from what she was doing she prepared the gun and was more than willing to shoot. Staring down the aim of the gun, she eyed Hydell.
"It's immoral!" Snow shouted.
"Completely needed," Pallan argued calmly, "the world's population has gone down almost half possibly even more. This needs to happen."
"You're talking about using them as guinea pigs in your fucked up experiments."
Pallan straightened. "We have them completely under control."
"With what?"
"A microchip, what they see we see, what they think we know ten seconds before the message can actually be processed."
"And you think that will hold them?"
"It has," Pallan answered quietly. "For the last nine years."
Snow stopped pacing and stared at Pallan with wide eyes.
"The…nine years?" he sputtered. Pallan nodded and he then motioned to the door. It open and there in the doorway stood a teenage girl, she was wearing a black hoodie, grey top and jeans.
"This," Pallan introduced, "is Darrian, the creator of the Ghosts and the leader of the Necropsy Project."
"Necropsy," Snow echoed.
"Another word for autopsy," Darrian replied, her voice was hollow and seemed to have no emotion too it. Her light grey eyes studied Snow.
"Darrian has been working with us for twelve years now, she has an IQ of 197 and has been very useful in past projects we have conducted here. Necropsy project is her first major one though."
"So you created them," Snow said grimly, it wasn't a question. Darrian nodded.
"Tell him how we do it," Pallan commanded quietly.
"We take a piece of their brain from their original body," Darrian explained, "we also take a piece of DNA in order to grow the body portion. As soon as we have a clearing of the brain's growth we then speed grow the body in a single month. The brain takes slightly longer, from past test speed growing a brain damages their mental capacity and can develop some mental illnesses as they progress through certain tests."
"So how long does it take?"
"The brain takes a month and a quarter to grow, halfway through the growth process we merge both body and brain and combine the two, making sure that there is a secure connection with the body from the brain before allowing both parts to fully mature."
"And when does the microchip come in?"
"At the end," Pallan answered before Darrian had the chance. "When everything is perfect then we insert the chip, we let the Ghost rest for five days allowing full connection to the brain and making sure that the brain responds correctly before allowing it to walk."
"And where do you keep them?" Snow asked.
Pallan smiled. "That is on a need-to-know basis, we don't just tell anyone."
"Right, yet you tell anyone how you grow Ghosts here right smack dab in the middle downtown."
Pallan bristled he was about to respond when his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and answered it. Snow took this time to check his own phone and saw that there were five missed calls each from home. Then it hit him; hard. Today was supposed to be Emilie's father's funeral. He looked at his watch and saw that it was thirty past one.
"Shit," he muttered.
"Snow," Pallan said closing his phone, "you might want to turn yours on."
Snow did as Pallan suggested and immediately his phone rang. It was from the police station. Snow looked at Pallan who nodded, inviting him to answer it, he looked at Darrian who looked like she didn't really care what he did. He answered.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Snow this it Captain Trabrun," the captain said.
"Captain."
"There has been a disturbance that Emilie had caused it involved a Downloader."
Snow's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped.
"Well…I think that she should tell you what happened."
There was a rustle and then Emilie's frantic voice came on.
"Snow, he was there, I don't know how he found the house but he was there." She definitely sounded scared.
"Emilie listen, who was there?"
"Hydell."
Snow frowned and then looked up at Pallan who gave him a single look as if to say isn't it obvious? A Ghost, they had turned Hydell into a Ghost.
"Listen Emilie," Snow said, he knew that he had to calm her down, "that wasn't Hydell it was something completely different. It was a Ghost."
There was an uncomfortable pause.
"A ghost?"
"A Ghost as in genetically cloning possibly ever single inmate on MS-One in order to do…plans with them. Hydell must have passed all the tests and was free to go around in society."
"Free to go around in society?" Emilie echoed slowly then blurted. "Are they fucking insane?!"
Snow felt his cheeks go hot as both Darrian and Pallan looked at him waiting for him to finish.
"I'll be down there, I'm leaving now."
Emilie agreed in a heartbeat and Snow cut the connection.
"I have to go."
"Understandable, be here tomorrow same time Rupert will lead you down here."
"I'm not coming back," Snow growled stalking out of the office. He heard Pallan follow him and Snow then heard something disturbing. Coughing, but it was a thick cough and it didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. He turned to see one of the F-22 victims stumble slightly, she then fell right back on her back and continued to cough violently until something horrifying happened. As she opened her mouth to release another cough, a geyser of blood shot out instead, it was so long that it nearly touched the ceiling then rained back down on her. Her clean white clothes were soaked in blood within seconds. Snow didn't know what to say. He walked up to the cell and stared, no mattered how horrifying that the scene was, he was fixated. Snow picked up the clipboard next to the cell and read it. Fuck, she even had kids.
"They get a second chance," Pallan said coming up from behind. Snow knew that he was talking about the Ghosts. Then he thought about the others tied upside down connected to an IV drip. They were Ghosts too. He placed the clipboard back on the hook and then walked out.
At the police station Snow was immediately led to where Emilie was being held. As soon as he stepped into the room Emilie launched herself at Snow. At first she slapped him for being late for the funeral but then a rush of emotions made her stop dead and she started to cry. After they finally calmed Emilie down, Captain Trabrun talked to Snow in private.
"She had a weapon," he said.
Snow pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll take care of it, thank you."
Snow turned back to Emilie who took a sip of coffee. She looked exhausted yet Snow knew that Emilie still had energy.
"They said that you threatened him," Snow said cautiously, he didn't want to set Emilie off.
"He was dressed like a Downloader," Emilie said in a hoarse whisper, "How did he find out where we lived?"
Snow then sat down. "Emilie you have to understand that wasn't actually Hydell, he's really dead remember? That was a clone."
Emilie looked at Snow as if he grew two heads. "A clone?"
"A Ghost technically."
Emilie took Snow's hand in hers and asked," Are you even listening to yourself?"
"That was the job offer," Snow explained, "to watch over Ghosts, I'm not sure how many but from the sounds of it, there are quite a few."
Emilie placed her head in her hands trying to comprehend what Snow was telling her.
"Trabrun said that you threatened him with a weapon," Snow prodded.
"A shotgun," Emilie clarified.
Snow immediately straightened. "A shotgun?!"
"Well you're never really home and when you are…your sleeping so," Emilie tried to find words to explain herself, "I bought a shotgun."
"Jesus Christ," Snow breathed. He ran a hand over his hair and let out a sigh.