She woke on her back, turned, and stretched a little. The pain in her lower abdomen was gone. She felt better for some reason, the sleep had helped her relax and gain some control. Getting up and sitting on the side of the bed, she was momentarily startled for across the room, there were empty shackles on the floor- Rollie was gone.

 

Rollie Tyler was thinking about Angie. He knew she had been through so much and if there was anyway he could remedy the situation; he was going to do it now. He looked around as he watched the Loubars and Doctor Batham fawning over their creation. He did not want to know the ramifications of this cloning idea but he knew for him, it was an abomination. Life was a thing that you did not put a probe into, he told himself as he thought of his aborigine upbringing. He couldn’t fathom Victor Loubar trying this plan- even though he had despised the man, he did give him credit for an almost genius intelligence. It didn’t make sense to profit on his own clones and send them out to do his bidding. It reminded him of one of the classic sci-fi B movies Angie and he had worked on in the past few years when the cloning stuff had gotten so hot.

 

"Stop daydreaming, Tyler and get back to work!" Ursula shouted from across the room, "we have a timetable here."

 

"Yeah, right…" Rollie muttered, shaking his head as he set up the dry ice canisters below the adult size cloning unit they had brought into the room. He had set electrical trigger switches on each lid so that he could control them by remote as they filmed their little sales pitch for their buyers. He also would have to make-up Uri so that he looked like a ‘fresh’ Loubar clone just ready to come out of the adult artificial womb. Ursula and Uri had brought in many of Victor’s supplies and a GARP unit. He would need Angie to help him with some of the details and he wondered if she was awake and even more, if she was alright. She had scared him with her emotional outburst about not marrying him. He loved her so dearly, that his thoughts always returned to her and his work was just not his best.

 

The third trigger device sizzled and popped as it snapped back at him and a spark hit his fingers, causing him to jump and let out a small, surprised "damn it". Uri walked over and looked down at him, unimpressed.

 

"Tyler, I thought you were the best? You aren’t showing us that you have your mind on your work, here…get it together!" he told him, his Loubar likeness making Rollie cringe.

 

"I need Angie out here," Rollie replied, his voice snapping, "I could move faster with her."

 

Ursula walked over with one eyebrow raised, "and, you could try some little plan to ruin everything as well, right Tyler?"

 

"No, you have seen to everything there, Ursula," Rollie replied, coldly, "I just need Angie to help run and set these triggers and to help with the GARP unit and making Uri up, okay?"

 

"Fine, Uri- go get her. She might as well see how her part in all of this is progressing," Ursula told him, hands on hips and smiling at Rollie.

 

Rollie only gave her his disdain as he turned back around to the clone unit and shook his head. It would take a lot of special effects to get this overgrown steel coffin to look like something out of the next millennium.

 

Angie, after being given her clothes and some food, was brought out to the main room where everyone was working. She could see Rollie bent over some steel monstrosity and Doctor Batham huddled with Ursula over a workbench. Uri pushed her forward, and she stumbled slightly, still a little weak in the legs. Rollie was up in a flash, taking her under his arm.

 

"Watch it, Uri," Rollie warned him, "put your energy somewhere else. You’ve done enough to her."

 

Angie was stiff in his arms as he walked her slowly over to his work area. Ursula and the Doctor had not even turned around from their activity at the workbench.

 

"Ange, you okay?" Rollie asked her, turning her to face him as he held onto her shoulders.

 

"I’m fine, Rollie. Just let me go, okay? I can deal with this. You don’t have to play all protective, just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it," Angie replied, her voice cool and low.

 

Rollie frowned for Angie was still so lost to him. There was no spark in her eyes as she finally looked at him. He removed his hands from her shoulders and she promptly turned around and walked over to Ursula and the Doctor. Rollie hadn’t even attempted to go over and see the embryo they had created.

 

He followed Angie then as she came up to them. They turned to greet her at the same time and Ursula even moved over so that Angie could see. He could see her head bend as she looked down in their artificial womb set-up.

 

"So, what do you think of our Victor?" asked Ursula, beaming.

 

"It’s a fetus!" Angie exclaimed, her eyes widening and she turned back to see that Rollie was standing behind them all, his eyes looking at the floor, "how old is it now?"

 

"By normal human development, you would see this at approximately two months," the Doctor told her.

 

"Can Rollie see?" Angie asked, looking back at him, her eyes suddenly alive with emotion again.

 

"For a moment, then the two of you must get finished with the cloning chamber. We are behind schedule and must have the film available by the end of the day," Ursula told them.

 

Ursula stepped back further as the Doctor sighed and shook his head at the total interference of his work. Rollie moved forward slowly as Angie looked back down inside the womb. As Rollie came beside her, she took his hand and squeezed it tightly, "My God, Rollie, look at this!"

 

Rollie looked at the abomination, but it wasn’t that at all. He saw a very small embryo, with buds for legs and arms. He could see the large dots for eyes and the cord attached to the artificial blood source that they had created for the placenta. However, his anger was mounting and he turned around and bluntly said; "so this is our star?"

 

"No, Mr. Tyler," Ursula told him, pointing her gun at him and then gazing over to Uri, "your star is there. Get to work on him. This is wasting time."

 

"Fine, I’m ready. Angie, come on, I need your help with the GARP unit," he told her but she was pressed against the glass of the artificial womb, still staring at the fetus.

 

"Angie?"

 

She finally turned around, and he could see she was overwrought with emotions she couldn’t understand herself after seeing the Loubars’ creation. He took her hand and pulled her away from the workbench then, firmly guiding her over to the adult womb.

 

"Come on, get yourself together- Angie. We have got to get out of this place, do you understand me?" Rollie told her, holding her arms and slightly shaking her.

 

"Yes," she said, in a hiss. Her eyes were reddened as she grabbed the remote that had been Loubar’s equipment and started to check Rollie’s trigger responses. Rollie took in a deep breath and shook his head. They worked silently except when a verbal comment was needed. The GARP unit was initialized to make a mask of Uri’s face and create the clone face, a slimy version with distinguishable features so that on film, it could be recognized as Loubar’s. Angie had it in final form and they closed the unit for the finalization process. Over the next two hours, it would solidify and become pliable for masking. With down time now, Rollie and Angie were placed back in the holding room. Rollie was not cuffed this time but he returned to the area and sat, putting his head down on his knees that he had brought up against his chest. Angie sat looking across the room at him, on the bed.

 

"Rollie?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"I’m sorry about before…"

 

"Ange, don’t worry about it. It’s been said."

 

"No, Rol- I would like you to understand…"

 

"Well, better wait until you understand it better…"

 

"What?" Angie got up and walked over to him then. Her voice was elevated and unnerved.

 

"I said, you’d better wait until you understand it better," he repeated, looking up at her finally. His hands had been between his knees and he was fidgeting with something hidden.

 

"What are you doing," she asked, her voice lowering as she could see he had something that he was hiding from the camera.

 

She sounded like the old Angie and he smiled suddenly, taking one hand out and pulled her over to him. With her face close to his, he kissed her slowly. He felt her start to get rigid but his hand touched her face and guided her head down on his chest in an effort for her to see what he had hidden and at the same time, look as if they were in a tight embrace for the camera.

 

"Oh," she whispered, her eyes taking in the repaired PDA. The casing was still shot but the electronics had been repaired, obviously during the time outside while Rollie was working on the clone unit special effects.

 

"You see," he told her in her ear, "we are going to get out of here. We are going to get someone here, you hear me?"

 

Angie looked at him then, her face to his as he put the PDA down on the floor under his legs and took her face in both of his hands, "Rollie, I do love you…"

 

"But?"

 

"I love you, please don’t ask me for anything more right now," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

 

"That you love me is enough," he replied, "I’m sorry if you thought I was pushing you…"

 

"Get me out of here," she interjected, not wanting to pursue the rest of what he was trying to say, "Get me out of here."

 

He kissed her softly as she relaxed and held on to him then. She turned her back to the camera and by doing so, created the block he needed to work on sending out a location beacon. Once established, he put the PDA in his pants pocket. They both made a silent prayer that Mira would get this location. Uri had told Rollie that he changed the vectors when he interrupted the signal going out on the PDA before and they had sent Mira on a wild goose chase through the city.

 

"You got a backup plan?" Angie asked him after a good fifteen minutes of sending the beacon out.

 

"Ah, well- I have rigged the dry ice to come off with much more of a cloud at the beginning. I have played with the clone womb as well. We can lock Uri inside the bloody thing during the cloud formation."

 

"Hmm, a beginning, what about Ursula and her gun?" Angie asked, thinking further ahead.

 

"I think the old standard rush ploy here," Rollie told her, looking down at the top of her head and felt her tighten in his arms.

 

"She’ll kill you if she can," Angie told him, looking up at him, "and then, there’s the doctor."

 

"I was hoping you would be over at his bench by then, threatening the disconnection of his artificial womb, or something…" Rollie told her, smiling.

 

"You mean kill the baby?" Angie started to pull away from him and Rollie quickly pushed her back against his chest, holding her tightly.

 

"Angie, that’s not a baby. It’s a freak show creation. It isn’t really a part of you, they told you it wasn’t like a normal embryo." Rollie told her as she tried to push away from him.

 

"It is a part of me!" she whimpered, "it was inside of me…"

 

"They put it there, love. God didn’t create it. It’s Loubar’s genes! Don’t look at this like you are any part of this now, Angie please!" Rollie was begging her to understand and realize what she was so emotionally torn with inside her.

 

"They are going to get suspicious if you keep this up," he said, warning her and she stopped suddenly and relaxed.

 

"Alright, yeah- I can do this…"she said, taking a deep breath.

 

Rollie looked at her and she shook her head, "Rollie, I’m going to need to see a shrink after this…"

 

"You and me both, sister…" he told her, mimicking James Cagney. She smiled at that and together they stood up and went over to the bed to get some sleep. They only had an hour before the mask would be finished and Uri would be back for them. Rollie hoped that Uri had been so busy outside that he hadn’t been monitoring for any signals going out, still thinking the PDA was ruined. With that in mind, he fell asleep deeply, his body craving the rest.

 

They were abruptly startled from their sleep by the door slamming against the wall and Uri stepped into the room.

 

"Get up, you two. Is that all you think about?" he asked them as he surveyed them together on the bed.

 

Angie frowned and moved over so that Rollie could get up from behind her and stand. He walked forward with Angie following him out the door. It would begin soon. Even if it went badly, there would be an end to this nightmare.