The ReLife Project Collection

Chapter 4

"I believe we finally have the answer to our leadership problem and how to move our plans forward."

Krieger was the unofficial spokesman for the Tiger Cell of the Black Cross movement. In his mid-thirties, he was older than the other cell members and a veteran of various terrorist campaigns throughout the world. His initial terrorist training started at age 16. He joined the Chin Flay Liberation Front to fight against the central government in Mongolia. From there he moved on to the Andes Mountains to join and fight with several right-wing rebel groups. In twenty years as an insurgent and rebel, the cause always remained the same no matter where he was in the world. Overthrow puppet governments put in place by the World Council.

German-born, Krieger tried to project an upbeat attitude toward the Black Cross movement. This was important to keep the younger members in line, prevent desertions and promote the recruitment of new members. It also played a significant role in attracting world credits from people who hated the World Council anarchy. These donors wanted change but weren"t willing to get their hands dirty by fighting in an armed conflict against the Council"s forces.

What Krieger kept hidden was that he was getting tired of being a target. He had enough of being shot at, wounded, and living like a frightened puppy. Always looking over his shoulder and waiting to be sold out or discovered by a World Council employee or snitch wasn"t much of a life. He was getting too old for this crap and knew he was on borrowed time. Every other terrorist he befriended through the years was dead. They were either killed in conflict or blacklisted from the world credits program and succumbed to starvation or disease.

He promised himself that this would be his last campaign. If it failed, he would do something else regardless of how insignificant it might be. He might end up washing floors or dishes or some other menial task in the underground economy because he had no legitimate resume. Plus, there wasn"t a big demand for has-been terrorists.

The thought of living his remaining years as a flunky was repulsive, especially when he thought of the opportunity he wasted nineteen years earlier. His father, a wealthy executive in Zone 4, somehow bypassed the annual lottery and got Krieger a zone position. Being an over-energetic idealist at the time, Krieger rejected the offer and went on to become a full-time terrorist. In his opinion, accepting the zone position would be a silent vote for the World Council. At the time, it seemed like a perfectly sound decision to turn down the position. But now he looked back and mentally kicked himself in the ass for being so stupid.

Of course, the old man disowned Krieger. He would never get another opportunity to live in a quasi-capitalistic society. His chance at the "good life" evaporated into thin air like a wisp of smoke from his Cudis assault rifle.

"What do you mean, Krieger? What"s going on?” The questions came from an attractive young lady who joined the Tiger Cell less than three months earlier.

"I don"t know all the details yet, but we are being fed information about a Swiss company that has perfected human cloning. Our unknown source claims to have first-hand knowledge. Supposedly, a cloned human might be produced from a small cell sample taken from a corpse." Krieger purposely gave the group a vague explanation, so they thought the leak at the Swiss biotech company was communicating with someone higher up in the Black Cross organization. For his safety, he thought it best that no one in the Tiger Cell know that he was the contact person for the leak.

The group of twelve Tiger members sat silent for a couple of minutes digesting what Krieger said. Some of them pretended to understand the consequences of such a technological breakthrough. In reality, all of them were still confused by Krieger"s announcement. What difference could artificial beings have to the Black Cross and its goal of bringing down the World Council?

"Krieger, I may be a dunce but what does this development have to do with our cause?"

"You"re not a dunce, Trish." It was the same young lady who spoke up earlier.

"You just need time to think of what this innovative technology could mean to us. I"ve spent the last couple of days thinking about what we could do with this technology. The more I thought about it, the more possibilities I came up with. For example, what if our fallen comrades never die? We take their bodies and bring them back to fight again. Think of how your entire life as a Tiger would change. Instead of always being overly cautious, you could fight with reckless abandon knowing you couldn"t die."

"That"s pretty cool, Krieger, but do we know if the artificial clones would have the same dedication to our cause and want to fight? Do the replicants always come back with the same memories, ideas, and beliefs? Or do they come back as an empty slate that needs to be filled with new experiences and values? In other words, do they have to learn how to be human all over again?"

These insightful questions came from Ivan, the Croatian freedom fighter. He had the second-longest tenure in the Tiger Cell behind Krieger.

"Great questions, Ivan. Unfortunately, no one knows the answers yet. From what we know so far, the Swiss company has only brought back one animal. They have yet to attempt human cloning. Until a human replicant is produced no one will know the answer to your questions. So, in the meantime, we need to go about our business and wait to see if this technology is real and what value it has to our cause."

"How long is that going to take, Krieger?"

"I"m sorry Ivan, I don"t have that information. Our contact in the Swiss company is being very cautious with the frequency and amount of information she releases."

"So, our contact is a woman? Why is she feeding us information?"

"Trish, the contact is a woman, but I don"t know why she is cooperating with us. I"m sure someone knows why, but I don"t. She obviously has some sympathy for our cause or knows…" Krieger stopped, realizing his rambling wasn"t based on facts but rather speculation on his part.

"Guys, the bottom line is that I don"t know why she is giving us this information."

The group stopped asking questions when they realized Krieger couldn"t offer any more information. They broke into smaller groups to socialize and kick around wild guesses and theories about interacting with clones.

As Krieger meandered from one group to another, he was pleasantly surprised by what he heard. There were great ideas raised on how this technology might be used by Black Cross and the Tiger cell to achieve their ultimate goals. He had no idea some of the cell"s members were so creative.

One comment he overheard was that clones would be reborn without the micro-monitoring device lodged in their kidneys. It was such an obvious thought. So obvious that he overlooked it during the last couple of days as he thought through the ramifications of having access to a CR47 machine. What a wonderful alternative to having the microdevice surgically removed from the kidney. He still could see the scar from having this surgery done years before.

But he was more amazed that not one word was mentioned about using this technology to bring back leaders from history. The one thing most terrorist groups lacked was strong leadership from a dynamic, intelligent individual who could plan and motivate the membership to a point of frenzied loyalty. A mediocre leader always led movements to destruction. A strong leader created fanatics who followed him blindly as though they were following a god. That"s exactly what the Black Cross needed to overthrow the World Council; a human god.