Read Essentially Human for Free Online

her forehead. Or tear out hair. She hated formal reports, facing the long table full of military bureaucrats, coats heavy with medals, the same steel grey close-cropped haircuts, pasty white faces, thin lips. All staring at her. This meeting was premature.
    Three days ago, the Ballard crew turned up, Montgomery disappeared with the prisoner Harold simply called the clone. Drummond insisted she wasn’t a clone. He still labored to identify the odd strand chemical signature he’d found in her cell structure while his three assistants took over the rest of the lab, testing the Ballard sailors. Nothing had turned up unusual in the fifty three men and twelve women. They still could not remember where they had been, a black hole existed in their memories.
    Oddly enough, most seemed perfectly at peace with it and simply wanted to get back to work. She doubted most of them would see duty ever again. It wasn’t right, but it seemed likely they’d be considered security risks. Most would be shunted off to some clerk job or encouraged to resign, take up civilian life.
    She drew a deep breath, fighting not to blow it out with exasperation.
    She could give her report with eyes closed at this point. After only getting seven hours sleep out of the last seventy two, she’d likely just drift away if she tried it. But the idea of attempting the technique tempted her.
    Wonder how they’d react if I dropped off, mid-report?
    Picking up the coffee mug, she took a sip, then turned back to the keyboard to continue. “As you can see, we’ve covered the entire base three times. Agent Montgomery isn’t to be found. We’ve even searched the ashes of the three old furnaces and nothing has turned up. We have deduced the invasion force came from the River Elizabeth.”
    “How?” An admiral who likely hadn’t seen the deck of a ship in more than ten years zeroed in on her, a scowl on his face. Lafferty, she thought that was his name. She’d been introduced, but it had been a blur.
    “We aren’t certain, sir. Since it seems the depth of the river would rule out an actual submarine, we believe a sort of silent hovercraft with a stealth capability took advantage of a late season fog.”
    Silence greeted this supposition and she didn’t blame them. But nothing better came out of the dozens of progress reports she’d collected. It certainly held more feasibility then the idea of a flying saucer or a transporter from science fiction television.
    She detailed the blood and tissue tests on the Ballard sailors, answered what questions she could, passing the rest onto the assistant Drum sent with her.
    “Where is the chief medical officer on this case?” Lafferty barked. She could imagine him like one of those shepherds from the night Monty disappeared. It fit.
    “He continues the research into some anomalies from the prisoner.”
    “The suspected clone?” He snorted, derision obvious as he shifted his body, all but turning his back on her.
    She didn’t snap or throw the coffee mug at him, despite the temptation to do so. “Cloning of this sophistication isn’t possible at this time. Sir.”
    “According to your absent medical specialist.”
    “According to the leading scientists of our time, sir.”
    A head rose from the other end of the table. “Professor Bales, am I to infer from that statement that you have consulted with an outside source?”
    “No, not at all. I speak of conventional knowledge, according to the sources at the Homeland Research and Security Department.”
    That was too close. Of course, she’d done the research, using her underground sources. She wanted to find her boss as soon as possible. They didn’t need to know that.
    “What of the blood found in the cell? Definitively identified as Agent Montgomery’s?”
    “Yes, ma’am.” She addressed the matronly appearing woman partway down the table. “Not enough to consider him mortally wounded. The pillowcase is missing from the cot, we assume it was used to