Bardan was surprised.
Although he was involved with Lazarus's illegal Reticulan experiments of which the test subjects were bought from Reticulan traffickers, the nurse had described the glass capsule as being empty. Why was there a man in there since the last 24 hours?
Regardless, they'll have to kill him or sell him back into the market as a slave or in organ ice boxes in case he had witnessed incriminating things.
Bardan walked over and stood in front of his dead friend.
"We could have made a lot of money together, you and I."
Bardan lifted Lazarus's hand and intended to drop it dramatically but it suddenly snapped off. His eyes bulged out in surprise as he held the lifeless hand. But as a 60-year-old accountant with many shady dealings in his pocket, his domineering attitude immediately returned and then he tossed it away on the smooth grey resin-treated concrete and as if nothing happened.
"Instead, you were wasting your talents on trying to live forever rather than living it. In that respect, you were pretty f**king stupid."
Bardan remembered that Lazarus had always glazed his eyes upon his much younger, nubile wife whenever they went for dinner together. He had found out that they went to the same hotel occasionally and had set up a hidden camera in the ceiling over the bed.
When he showed Lazarus this, the bastard watched the footage on the laptop like he was watching an entertaining porn video while sipping a glass of wine. Lazarus stopped meeting up with his wife behind his back but he never forgot what Lazarus said after showing him the footage.
"Sorry."
...
"You were an arrogant p**ck too!"
Bardan kicked the corpse in the knee and the whole wheelchair shook, causing dust from the crushed knee and on the body to disperse in the air. Bardan and his men started coughing.
The way the body shook when he kicked it made it look like it was trying to take revenge in the afterlife. This made Bardan even angrier.
The corpse looked back at him with seemingly hate in its eye sockets.
"You f***ing a**hole" Bardan shouted and slapped its head like a professional wrestler.
*Crack*
The head landed heavily on the floor with a thud. It was no longer staring at Bardan.
Bardan smirked victoriously until he heard a sound behind him.
"Hieee!" He shrieked and ran to the back of his armed men.
*Whirring*
The capsule whirred as it inclined backwards at an angle while draining the water from it. Then it opened.
The men all tensed up and aimed their rifles at the opening of the capsule.
Two hands came out of it and gripped onto the sides of the capsule. Then a man pulled himself up.
"Yo." The man smiled provocatively. His eyes look sleepy as if he got out from a long sleep.
No one said anything as they were speechless. He stepped out of the capsule casually and fully nude.
"Good morning or is it the afternoon? Haha! ... What time is it?"
"Who are you and what were you doing in there!" The mercenary leader yelled.
The mystery man seemed too relaxed to be sold by the Reticulan traffickers.
Was he a friend of Lazarus or a volunteer who subjected himself to augmentation strengthening?
Although he was unarmed, that didn't make a bioweapon any less dangerous.
The man walked to the group.
"Stop right there! Or we'll shoot!"
"Huh."
His gaze scanned across the group until it settled on the plump man peeking behind a guy's shoulder.
"Bardannn." He called out Bardan's name like an old friend. "Don't you recognise me?"
"How the hell would I know who you are!" Bardan shouted angrily.
He was offended that his name was called out with familiarity. It was an obvious ploy. Everyone with a bit of knowledge would know who Bardan is. He's one of the best accountants in the world and has his own company that operates internationally.
"After I showed you pictures of my younger self, you always said how good looking I was... But then again you were a suck-up. A really good one."
Bardan's angry face was unchanged.
"Come on... Who I am should be obvious by now...? It's me. Galen."
"Do you take me for a fool! Lazarus is dead right in front of you!"
What kind of idiot would assume an identity of a dead person that was right in front of them! Any other story spun would be more convincing than this one.
'He really is a John Doe that signed up as a test subject for money'
The fact that he tried lying to his face while buck-naked pissed him off. The men had to put effort not to accidentally look down. It was extremely annoying.
"That's why your wife sneaked off your bed to sleep with me. She always liked smart men. And I was smarter than you."
Bardan felt an electric shock pass by his head. The familiarity, the mannerisms, it was like he was speaking to his old friend.
It was just like when they met a couple of days ago for tea, Lazarus was still stubborn when he was dying. He refused to give Bardan the inheritance and he had yet chosen anyone else.
"You? No, it can't be. Really?" Bardan's face went through a complex series of emotions while Lazarus' thin smile stretched across his face.
Now he saw that the man in front of him bared a strong resemblance.
"Lazarus? It's impossible!"
"But it is! Hahaha!"
"How?"
"I cloned myself."
"... You did it?"
"Yes."
One of the mercenary's eyebrows furrowed. He had a background in science and engineering which was important for assessing the values of the equipment here.
"But even if you did clone yourself. Your body should have the same lifespan of what was remaining in the DNA sample at the time you took it and it shouldn't have made you look younger. And you should look the same."