Day 272 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 15.2 (1295 Words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 15.2

Over the next few days it became apparent what was going on and who had done what, or at least who had claimed to have done what. The George who had been shot by Mike, had recorded and saved the surveillance logs from the Freeze Room and uploaded them to an account held by himself on cloud storage. It was still uploading while he was out getting shot, it was still uploading while the police were combing the warehouse for clues, and it was still uploading when the site was being pulled apart by forensics once all the suspects and bodies had been removed. A small hand written note clued them into what was going on and how Detective George Samuels could get to the files and retrieve them for evidence.

They knew about the claims of time travel and the lies that Brian Prime had told, they even knew which Brian was which thanks to the Prime Naming Convention as well as the deliberate scarring undertaken by Ivan Two. The crimes they had committed were clear, even if there was no legal precedent for dealing with the multi dimensional aspects of it all. It was unbelievable on pretty much all levels and a call to the department of defence and the NSA were top of the list for actions as they realised that there was more to it that just madness. They had three sets of duplicates still alive and one with a dead duplicate, there was more than enough to go on to prove that something beyond the usual was going on here.

Joe Bell was sidelined almost immediately and removed from the case and given strict orders to discuss the details with no one. Each of the uniformed officers was taken and read their confidentiality and national security clauses of their contracts with their lawyers present, along with union reps and superiors by government lawyers and men in dark suits and glasses. Not one detail of the case was discussed out loud, only the matter of national security was discussed and the penalties for talking about it to anyone.

George was taken away for questioning along with the suspects, and they were all held in a facility they were taken to in silence in the middle of the night. George had started watching the videos and made copious notes before he was sequestered away, as was the captain he had been reporting to. No one in the precinct wanted to talk about the case, everyone who knew anything was taken for questioning and only some of those people returned with lips closed tighter than airtight.

Harold White Three, the one who belonged to this dimensional version of reality was also taken away for questioning and he had no idea what was going on or why. Instead he was asked about the contents of his vault, who the owners of certain numbered boxes were and details about his past and occasionally what his childhood was like. He had been given an edict by the Bank President to cooperate with the government's questions and when he asked he was repeatedly told that he was not under arrest, yet he was not permitted to leave.

He was the control for the questions they were posing to the much more nervous and easily rattled Harold White Prime who was also in their custody. They sampled DNA from all four duplicates they had and they cross referenced a number of questions and evaluations from each party to confirm exactly how identical they were.

Perfect matches each and every time.

Same too with the questions, each individual was kept in isolation and asked an endless series of questions and subjected to a raft of tests and control questions, but not once did the answers conflict, unless it was a random control or opinion question.

After almost a week of pouring over the video files, examining the equipment and interrogating the men they had in custody the inescapable conclusion was reached, they had a universe creation and dimensional travel device and possibly the greatest invention in modern history and they had no idea what to do with it or the people who were caught up in it.

“In the wrong hands it could be devastating.” Divisional Manager Kyle Stone was talking to the Deputy Director with the preliminary report on the device completed and on the table in front of them. It was marked initially as Top Secret and assigned a Special Access Program to cover the site, the materials and the individuals rounded up in the sweep of the site. The machine had been broken down and rebuilt at the same Black Site that the men were being held at, Brian Prime had extensive notes and documentation on how to assemble and reconfigure the machine in case anything happened to the Prime of himself, so that the Two, Three or Four version could pick up where he left off.

They had experimented with freezing time, locally and universally for a total of not greater than seven minutes and no more than three instances. The fear of creating a new universe and the flow on effects of that process meant they were not keen to 'time travel' or dimension jump to existing realities, but were content to stay with time freezing for the minute.

The death of the police officer who had been shot when attempting to break up the fight between Brian and Mike had been solved and closed. While Mike had no double in this reality thanks to the euthanasia process that Brian had invented, there was a record of him, he did exist on paper up until the point that Brian started erasing copies of him from existence. So he had been charged, convicted in absentia and the officers family and colleagues were given the closure they needed. The death of George Samuels Prime however, while committed by the same person using the same weapon was not officially logged or pursued because there was no way to do so. At least not easily, they did have a body that matched the records and DNA of George Samuels and if they wanted to keep him indefinitely in the Black Site they could have easily released the copy body and attach the conviction to Mike the same as the other officer had been done.

It was an option they had, and one they were not afraid to mention to George whenever they felt he was not cooperating or becoming too argumentative.

Brian Prime was an issue, he was dying of cancer rapidly and could be deceased in a matter of weeks according to the scans they got on site. The autopsy of Mike showed a similar number of tumours attacking he body all at once in multiple areas. Not perfectly replicated but close enough to Brian Prime to be concerning. The scans of the other travellers showed similar symptoms to the first and sickest ones. Ivan Two and Harold White had tumours in their infancy, and they would be in a similar situation as Brian Prime and Mike within a few months if the disease progressed normally. Ivan Prime was just beginning to show the symptoms and while the tumours had not arrived in any way that would show on the scans, he was showing all the precursor markers that meant he would be getting them within the same period of time the others would be getting sicker within.

Harold Three, named Three as Two was assigned to the owner of the disembodied fingers, showed no signs and had no idea what was going on and George Samuels, the surviving version from this very dimensional reality was also clear. His doppelgänger's corpse though had no such luck.