Read Online Mirrored Man: The Rob Tyler Chronicles Book 1 by GJ Fortier - Free Book Online Page B

the professor had to intervene and
assure Jimmy that none of it was even remotely true. As far as he
knew.
    June glanced around her at the Gummy Bears
on the floor. “We’d better get the place cleaned up. We don't wanna
make a bad first impression.”
    Don stood up and walked over to her desk,
leaning in to look at the monitor. “You make a very cute
couple.”
    “I know. But she's a one-man woman. And
Brad's a little jealous.”
    “They must've had a late night.”
    “They're supposed to be on a reserve. No
matter how nice it is for them in here ,” June lamented.
    “Well, maybe today's visit will get that
ball rolling,” Don offered. “Besides, you still haven't gotten word
back about where Paris and Charlie are going.”
    June looked to the monitor on her left and
scanned the camera around in the other paddock that mirrored the
one that housed Angelina and Brad. The false vegetation and
natural-looking terrain sometimes made spotting the chimps
difficult, but after a few moments she found them near the
artificial stream eating their breakfast of fruit and nuts. She
glanced at the middle screen, where Angelina was beginning to stir,
and then back. Zooming in on the females, she found it amazing that
they appeared to be exactly alike, down to the smallest detail.
Chimps all look the same to most people, but to a trained eye they
are as different as one human is from the next. Even identical
twins have subtle differences in weight and hair color, but not
these two. They were identical, despite the fact that Tiong claimed
he could tell the difference between them. The fact that the four
could not be placed together broke June's heart, but this one
unexplained side effect of the experiment made that impossible.
    “Let's hope so,” June said, as she thought
of something that her parents had always told her when she grew
impatient: It's all in Gods timing.

5 The Blind
     
     
    AS GREG TURNED INTO the Lightning Quik
Mart, Kitchens asked, “What's the matter? You need gas?” He glanced
at the SUV’s gauges.
    “No, sir. This is it.”
    “This is what?”
    “The duck blind.”
    Kitchens peered over his glasses at the
young officer, wondering if this was Greg’s idea of a joke, then at
the unlikely site of a classified DOD project.
    It was a convenience store.
    “The Lightning Quik Mart is the duck blind,”
Kitchens said incredulously.
    Greg couldn't contain a chuckle. “Yes, sir.
Pretty good, huh?”
    The parking lot was full of vehicles. There
were three semi trucks. One was a tanker delivering fuel to the
store, its bright green tractor and sparkling silver tank trailer
bearing the green logo of the Mathis Oil Company. Another was
parked close to the building, its rear doors facing the highway.
The third, with a white cab and trailer emblazoned with the red
Lightning Quik Mart forked lightning bolt logo, was backed up to
the front door where its driver was unloading wares. There were
cars parked next to the gas pumps, more in front of the store, and
another at the far end of the lot.
    “You gotta be kiddin' me,” Kitchens said, as
another delivery truck pulled up next to the store.
    As the two got out of the truck and started
toward the front door, the senator asked, rather dryly, “Does it
turn a profit?”
    Ignoring the quip, Greg explained, “All of
the trucks are ours.”
    “Well, they need mufflers,” Kitchens
complained over the noise of the engines. “And, they're not at all
concerned about the price of fuel, now are they?”
    “How y'all doin' this mornin'?” A short,
burly man with several days’ growth of beard was wearing a green
shirt and matching baseball cap bearing the Mathis Oil Company
logo.
    “Hi, Charlie,” Greg answered, playing his
role as Lightning Quik Mart's Regional Vice President of Marketing.
The cover allowed him to park at the store for days at a time
without arousing suspicion, and he had an office in the back.
Leaning in close to the senator, he whispered, “He’s