Cloneward Bound

Cloneward Bound Read Free Page A

Book: Cloneward Bound Read Free
Author: M.E. Castle
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face—
Fisher’s
face!—on camera.
    “We here at Spot-Rite have been getting your spots right out for over ten years now,” Two was saying chirpily. It was an audition tape for a commercial. “And as long as there are spots to get out, we will continue to providethe best cleaning product available.” Two went on to talk about the newest Spot-Rite product—a cleaner that was nontoxic and edible, so parents wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning a counter with it and contaminating their food. He then had a three-person discussion about the product, with two sock puppets dressed as kittens. The puppets began to dance in the air to prerecorded music as Two sang a jingle.
    But the real kicker was when a third puppet—this one, a dog—came into the shot. Was Two operating a sock puppet with each hand and a
foot
? The clone’s talents and abilities were matched only by the insanity of the things he chose to use them for.
    Fisher’s eyes skated frantically to the stats posted below the video. For a moment, he thought he was going to pass out. The video had already gotten ten thousand views in three days. The first comment was: awwww so CUTE . the cats aren’t bad either loling.
    “See the time stamp in the bottom left corner?” Amanda said. Fisher just managed to nod. “This video was filmed three days ago, at eight fifty in the morning. When you were sitting in Ms. Snapper’s class
right in front of me
.”
    “You don’t understand—I mean, I don’t understand—I mean, there’s an explanation—” He wished he could argue logically, but he knew he sounded like he was having a panic attack with a duck call in his mouth.
    “Save it, Fisher.” She shook him once, hard. “I want the truth and nothing but the truth.”
    “Okay, okay.” He held up both hands in surrender. He knew that Amanda and Two had become close when the clone had been in school. Ever since Fisher had crawled from the ruins of TechX, Amanda had been watching him like a hawk, observing the way he acted and spoke. She looked like she was keeping a catalogue of every move he made in her hard drive of a brain. He couldn’t keep the truth from her, but maybe he could keep her from spreading it. “I’ll tell you the truth, but can we go somewhere else?”
    Amanda let Fisher go and pointed to the same supply closet Brody had threatened him with. Forcing images of the janitor’s mop bucket from his mind, Fisher nodded reluctantly.
    “In,” she said. Fisher checked to make sure the hall was clear, and they slipped into the closet.
    “Okay,” Amanda said, even more intimidating in the dim, harsh light of the closet’s tiny, uncovered lightbulb. “Who was sitting in class the day that video was filmed?”
    “Fisher,” Fisher said, a tiny squeak popping up into his throat. He swallowed. “Me.”
    “And who made that video?”
    “Fisher … Two.” Fisher clenched his eyes closed andgritted his teeth. Finally. He had said it. The secret was out.
    “Fisher, I just said you couldn’t have done both,” Amanda replied, leaning closer threateningly.
    “No, no,” he said, “not
too
like also.
Two
. The number two.”
    Amanda stared at him for a moment.
    “There’s more than one of you,” she said, completely deadpan.
    “Two, to be exact,” Fisher said, “and that’s what I call him. Two. I … made him. In my bedroom.” Amanda raised an eyebrow so high, it threatened to zip off her forehead and embed itself in the ceiling. Fisher sighed and, stuttering, told her the whole story of Two’s life: his mother’s Accelerated Growth Hormone, growing Two in a tank in his room, and the events leading up to the destruction of TechX Enterprises. He also told her about how Two had seen a Spot-Rite commercial on television the moment he “woke up” and become obsessed with the idea that the actress in it was his mother. The only thing he carefully left out was the fact that Dr. X had used an android looking exactly like Amanda to lure

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