The Birth of The Unity (sequel to Chronicle of Nautilus)

Chapter 18: Inside The Third World

"Damn it, I'm sorry," said frustrated Grover 113, sitting on a bed in a dim lit room.

"You should be," replied Grover 14, laying comfortably on a chair by the table. "You blew up the cover, you lost four people. And for what? To show that stupid Jason how tough you are? You've become careless."

"Does it matter what I did? It is all history now. What matters is that tomorrow they will come for you."

"I know."

"And what will you do?" the advanced copy asked nervously.

"I see three possibilities. The first two are lying, or saying the truth. The third option would be using half-truths. The mix always sounds more plausible and is more deceiving."

"Perhaps, we should switch again so I could fry their brains. Should have fried the captain once he figured me out in that corridor. If we took them out, the new copies would pose no problems. The bastards are tough, but I would crack them before they are born."

"So were you bullshitting me when you told that you wanted to make Adam follow you by his own choice?"

"Desperate times, require desperate means."

"You sound like a young idiot. Do not lose your cool over a few minor errors. You are frustrated because you have never lost before. Even if we lose a single battle, we might still win the war. You need to focus on entering the cloning chambers while I delay them. The final victory lays there." With a concerned stare, he poked at the clone, and added, "What the hell are you thinking saying to crack Adam before he's born? You think you got better brains for controlling the ship? Screw everyone else, but we need him unaffected."

"Guess you're right. I am so damn frustrated since stepping on that tile. And why the hell have you never told me about it? You only said that I should never enter the control room, cause they have a scanner. Damn it, if it was a simple scanner I would have passed right in, but it was some stupid DNA scanner. What is the point of using such sophisticated technology to spell only a name and a number? Argh!" He hit the bed with fists as hard as he could and in a sitting position, that hit was not that hard.

"You blame everyone but not yourself. It's my birthday me-eh, let me out, me-eh, should have kept you hidden in this room. You get your walks in the storage rooms. Had no need to socialize before, shouldn't go around making friends now."

"How can I win if I don't study my enemy?"

"You can study them from my eyes. I know you put that shit in me before I woke up. I remember seeing that stupid bald kid before I woke up."

"Wow, wow, hey, calm down. It's just a safety measure. Your previous self was quite an annoying bastard. Intelligent, yes. Mad, too. Some day you will become mad as well. I need to be safe then. I told you the stories. Try watching for horror movies in the library. None of the boogeymen would ever beat your old self. You read your logs, you know who the hell you are. We both are devils. So, how about we calm down and stop this argument where it is? Just remember if you start losing screws in your head, I will put them back in."

"How kind of you."

"Thanks." After a long awkward pause, Grover 113 said, "I know you've got a plan on how we can get out of this mess. So, what's the big idea?"

"The big idea is for you to stay hidden and avoid attention. Let me talk our way out of this. Your further intervention would only make matters worse."

"You sure you don't need no help?"

"You would help the most if you stopped playing the silly games and focused on the big objective. You haven't gotten any closer to the chambers during the time you spent with your puppets."