Ky

Anger filled me as I marched up to the beaten down house that had homed the Marilyns. I heard a child sobbing quietly on the side of the street as the androids held them there for my inspection. I felt myself recoil as my infrared vision fixed on the three clones kneeling down on the wet and dirty street.

Everything about a clone registered as a human to my enhanced vision. If I clued into the V-World, I could even get my visor to fill in the blanks around me, and see a living model of what they really looked like. I knew they would have glossy golden blond hair, pale sun-kissed skin, and bright hooded blue eyes. In many ways, they looked human too, despite being carbon copies of a long lost icon.

But I reminded himself that they weren’t. Couldn’t be. They were just defective, sniveling clones. The infrared vision made it easy, in a way. Because with it I could also see the cold metallic chip that marked their wrist, identifying them as a clone. Copies. Not real.

“There’s only three. I thought only one was missing,” I grit out too Arjas, the man that had been in charge of rounding up Haskell’s Marilyns. “Where are the other two?”

I couldn’t believe it. If I returned without even one Marilyn, I just knew I would have to face my father’s disappointment. It had been a big task I had been given, and I could not let myself fail so soon.

Arjas sounded nervous as he replied, “The other clone, 441, is accounted for in another district. It seems it did not return home before curfew.”

I pursed my lips. Better, but that didn't erase that there was still one missing.

“And 350?”

Arjas sounded even more nervous now. “Well, Edden, Sir, there is something you should probably see. She ran when the ‘droids were rounding them up and well… follow me.”

I grunted my reply but followed as I heard Arjas’s boots sloshing through the water. He brought us past the clones, a sniffling sound still coming from one of them. I avoided even looking their way as I passed, keeping my head forward.

“Coward,” I heard one of them mutter. This voice hadn’t been small or childish, but older. Near my age, most likely. I stiffened. These were the clones that had lived with that monster.

The one responsible for why I couldn't see.

Of course one of them would try to ruin the recall too. Bloody Marilyns.

But after a pause, I continued. There was no point in letting them rile me up. I had bigger things to worry about than a loose-lipped clone.

We went up a beaten down cement staircase. I nearly tripped on the lip of the uneven stone but righted myself without any blunder. Though my visor helped, the mockery of sight that it created wasn't perfect.

We entered the building, the rank, humid scent assaulting my nostrils. It smelled like mold and decay even stronger in here, and clone or not I wasn’t sure how anything could live in such squalor.

It was dark inside, with few heat signatures to guide me as the cool damp walls held little heat. Arjas seemed to sense this, pausing to help me. Annoyed, I shrugged him off, tapping the switch on the side of my visor. I felt it hum against my skin, and slowly, a blueprint map filled my vision, overlaying the structure of the home so that I could navigate it without bumping into a wall. If I had been home, I wouldn't have needed it, but being down in the Drowning part of the city threw off my senses.

I could see the structure of an upwards stair to my right, but Arjas stepped around it, leading to the back. The water there had seeped into the ground of the house, and the scent of mold intensified, irritating my nose. We stepped into a hallway, the doors to various apartments hanging open in neglect and disuse. It was cooler here, the walls turning a soft pinkish orange at the top where my infrared false color palette detected a small heat signature. Down here had been too cold and unlivable, the Marilyns electing to live in the higher apartments.

He led me to the back, where a dark room sat with its door hanging open. The water thickened as if the source of the dampness was coming from up ahead. Arjas stepped aside at the entrance to the room, wadding through another pool of water. I stepped inside, looking around confused as the map formed around me. It was an old utility room, unused water tanks from a century before sitting rusted and useless. It was hard for me to make anything out, even with the V-World blueprint to guide me.

I heard Arjas step into the room.

“Over here, Sir,” he said from the left side of the room. I walked over, my foot catching on a long metal pipe that was laying on the ground.

I turned my head from side to side. A little icon floated over everything, labeling them. There were the tanks, then the pipes leading to the units. Then a thicker one, which was at my feet.

Arjas filled in the details I was missing.

“That pipe there on the floor. It used to lead to the sewers. Over here—” his voice dropped as he pointed to a dark blotch on the wall. Whatever had been there, was cold “—there's a large hole here. She must have pried them apart, or maybe another one of them did a long time ago in case they had to run. Either way, this leads right to the Old Sewer system."

I cursed. That wasn’t good.

“Where does it go?” But I was already zooming out on the V-World map in my head, rising up above myself to look down on the lower city of New Atlantis. I could see the Old Sewer's systems labeled and drawn out. The details were vague, not considered important to whoever had constructed the map. But it told me what I needed.

“Nevermind. I know where she is.” There was only one place the Marilyn could have gone without drowning, anyway.

“Sir?” Arjas sounded unsure as I turned and marched off, eager to get out of the cold dreary building. The ECCO soldier rushed along behind me.

“Stay here and make sure no more of them get away. I will find 350 on my own.”

As I stepped outside, I was relieved as the soft heat signatures returned to me, mapping out a clear outline of the world around me. I turned to my com.

“Are you sure about that? She could be anywhere. Its best to sent androids after her…” Arjas interrupted me before I could give out my order.

“And have her slip away again?” I growled, and Arjas promptly swallowed his next protest. He knew he had fucked up.

Turning from Arjas, I pressed the com on. I gave out my orders, “All units to continue executing their missions. One security team to be sent to the Lower Hollywood Market. That is a command.”

I called my drone car and activated a squad of androids to head towards the Market. The one right by the Great City Lake. That explained why we hadn’t been able to track her. Water always messed with our radar, and the damn clone knew it.

But she wouldn’t outsmart me. She could only run for so long.