Chapter 17: The Youth Are Revolting, Part 2

Deputy Chancellor Muholland faced the delegation from the Union of East Pacific States. They danced diplomatically around the possibility of a trade agreement. Fortunately, those countries respected age. Unfortunately, that respect didn't actually translate into any kind of advantage. Their reverence for age was counterbalanced by a hard-headed certainty the future belonged to the young. The aged were supposed to step aside and be founts of wisdom.

When his secretary knocked discreetly and indicated an agent from the Methuselahs was waiting outside, the D.C. had a hard time hiding his relief as he apologetically bowed the delegation out of his office. He told the secretary to make sure they had a full schedule for the next few days so he could catch his breath.

***

Joe followed D.C. Mulholland into his office, a very different room than Joe's. It spoke of ambition and political power.

"Welcome, sir."

"Please just call me Joe." He settled himself carefully in a chair. Mulholland closed the outer door, and sat in a chair he pulled over to face Joe's.

"Any news?" Mulholland leaned forward.

"It appears Trey has managed to disappear without a trace. I put some feelers out, but I need to be careful. The people who are going to be looking for him are just as careful as I am and I don't want to tip my hand. I think he had help disappearing. Now, I'm searching for the people who helped him rather than Trey himself. Do you have any ideas about who they might be?" Joe leaned back a little in the chair and held his cane in front of him.

"I can't say for certain. There are a number of criminal organizations who would have the resources to make someone vanish." He shook his head. "I can't think of why they would want to get involved. There is no monetary value in holding Trey. His value is purely political." Mulholland slumped in his seat as if he'd lost some air.

Joe waited silently without moving. The Deputy Chancellor was holding back. Joe was sure of it, and it had something to do with Trey. D.C. Mulholland showed no signs of revealing anything more, just slumped in his chair, looking defeated.

Joe excused himself as the secretary came pushing a cart with coffee. Maggie's timing wouldn't have been so far off.

As he rode the car back to the office, Joe considered what he'd been told. Nothing new, yet it solidified his hunch Trey was not an ordinary young man.

When he got back to his office, another Methuselah waited from him in the hall.

"Hello, Grant." Joe raised an eyebrow. "Slumming it now, are you?"

"You were visiting Deputy Chancellor Mulholland. Why?" Grant's voice was as cold as his eyes.

"I had some questions to ask him about a case."

"About a young man who appears to have vanished from a Youth Reserve." It was a statement not a question.

"He asked me to look into it. I was telling him I had no results from my search, and asking who might have profited from his disappearance. He couldn't say."

"It is my case. Stay out of it." Grant stood up. "Deputy Chancellor Mulholland made a mistake once. I want to be sure he doesn't repeat it."

"Why is this Trey so important? Mulholland wouldn't be the first retiree to have a late comer child."

"He isn't just a late comer. We have good reason to think the boy is a clone of Mulholland."

"The genetic tests..."

"Are inconclusive. He isn't genetically identical, but he is closer than he should be. We suspect Mulholland is behind the disappearance. I am sure further testing will show he is in need of a transplant. Trey would be the logical donor."

"Why not just do the testing?"

"He's a retiree. Mulholland has rights, and my certainty of his guilt is not evidence. He's being watched. Stay away from him, Joe." He turned and walked away.

A clone. Interesting. Especially since the lad is well into his teens, and no clone had ever survived past the age of ten. That suggested some intriguing possibilities. Grant always did show his cards too soon, though Joe wasn't about to underestimate him.

He went into his office and thought about clones, age and politics.