ZERO (Complete)

Chapter Forty-Seven

Hacking into the hospital was fairly straightforward for Mr. Camouflage. He accessed the security footage at the exact timecode and found the room in which their mystery man was staying.

"You said you can tell how frequent he visits a Thai restaurant," Mauricio said. "Why don't we just hack into the security feeds of all the Thai restaurants and look for a match?"

"I was just using that as an example," Mr. Camouflage responded. "I have no idea if he likes Thai food."

"Oh."

"Come on, Mauricio," Cheryl said. "Let's let Cam work in peace."

"Fine. Anyone else want to get some fresh air with me?" Mauricio asked. "Maybe get some Thai food."

"Be careful," Mr. Camouflage said.

"Don't worry, we're just going to the roof. There shouldn't be any cameras up there."

Mauricio, Lauren, Lynn, and Cheryl went to where Maxim and Allie were resting.

"We're going to the roof for some fresh air if you want to join us," Mauricio asked.

"Maybe in a bit, but thanks for asking," Maxim said.

Soon after the four left, another person poked his head into their room. "Maxim, I think you should come see this," Arlon said.

Maxim rose to his feet and asked Allie if she wanted to join him. She wasn't interested. Instead, she was happy to continue laying on the bed.

Maxim walked down the hall and into the living room where the professor and Mr. Camo were. He was unsure what discovery they had made, but was eager to find out.

When Maxim entered the room, he saw Mr. Camouflage busy at work in the opposite corner of where Arlon and the Professor were.

"You find something?" he asked.

"I have good news and bad news," Arlon spoke softly.

Maxim leaned in with great interest. He looked over his shoulder at Mr. Camouflage, who appeared to be paying them no mind.

"We ran the blood through the database and it doesn't appear to have a match, which, honestly, isn't all that surprising. Based on this sample, we don't have any way to identify him."

"What's the good news," Maxim asked, still whispering.

"The good news is that the blood revealed something much different than anything we expected to find. This person, whoever he is, is likely a clone."

"A clone?" Maxim repeated. "Are you sure?"

"I'm almost certain."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well, that's not really the most exciting part," Arlon said. "Cloning technology has been around for some time although we haven't seen it with humans before. What makes this person's blood interesting is because his genes have been modified."

"What do you mean?" Maxim asked.

"He has been genetically altered. Most likely in utero."

"You can do that?"

"Apparently."

"And that's worth dying for?"

"We found something else," Arlon said. "It looks like the person who was the subject, or provided the somatic cell for our mystery man, had a very rare genetic disorder called Gitelman syndrome. Naturally, we would expect to find that same genetic marker in our mystery man. However, the marker is there, but it appears to have been modified. We did a search for all the people in the database with Gitelman syndrome and you'll never guess who came up."

"Tell me," Maxim said.

"Nas."

"Arthur Naslund? Does that mean he's still alive somewhere?" Maxim asked.

"The original Nas, maybe not. But the cloned Nas... he's out there and I believe he's the one responsible for The Shadow. Only a genius like him would be capable of pulling something like this off."

"So wait, let me see if I have this straight. This guy has this extremely rare condition known as Gitelman Syndrome, which he can only get if both parents are carriers of the gene. However, his parents don't have the gene, but are confirmed to be his biological parents. A mystery indeed. The only way for this man to have such a condition is that if a. the parents on his Electronic Health Records are not actually his biological parents and those records have been forged; or b. he's genes were altered in some way and the Gitelman was an unintended side effect. Have I got that right?"

"Those are the theories, unless you would like to share another one."

"So either he has been genetically modified, or he forged his records, in either case he is a person of interest."

"Correct," Arlon said. "But he's more than a person of interest. As a strange coincidence, another person happens to have this extremely rare condition – a one Arthur Naslund, who just so happens to have been the creator of AI and unleashed it into the world causing countless deaths and nearly collapsing humanity as we know it. Now, since Arthur Naslund has been missing and presumed dead, this other person with the same rare genetic condition becomes even that much more interesting. We have strong reason to believe a man of this genius-level intellect, means, and motive may be the very person who created The Shadow."

"Okay, so where do we find this mystery person?" Maxim asked.

"We're still working on that," Arlon said. He then pulled Maxim into another room where they could have a little more privacy.

Maxim, there are implications here that I'm sure are not lost on you. If Nas created this technology, then the secrets still live within Ethan. Ethan knows everything Nas does. With this information, we could create a powerful super human army."

"Why would we want to do that?" Maxim asked.

"When we take down The Shadow, the world is going to need a new system in place, a new leader. You are that person. This, with your cloned army, you could create the perfect super soldiers to ensure law and order. People don't trust robots or A.I. But a human figure made out of flesh and bone that's perfectly obedient. Now that's something people can get behind."

"I'm not so sure about that," Maxim said.

"If not for the cloned army, what about your child? Wouldn't you want them to grow up genetically optimized? I would have to assume that would give them a huge advantage in life. No diseases, perfect bone structure, super intelligence... the possibilities are endless."

"It's an interesting idea, but hardly ethical. And Ethan literally wrote the code of modern ethics. He's never just going to give up this information. In the wrong hands, this information could be dangerous. We don't want society to be filled with an entirely new race of super humans that are superior in every way."

"We don't?" Arlon asked. "Perhaps that's the next stage of evolution in our species. You could clone a person with superior genetics to start, and then start manipulating their DNA to optimize them for combat or intelligence or athletics, or all three. What's unethical about that?"

"You have to think big picture," Maxim said.

"Perhaps you're right," Arlon said.

"So far, this information is in the right hands," Maxim said. "Only me, you, and Ethan know about it, and we are all trustworthy."

"Indeed we are."