The Rules

by Stacey Kade

  “So you say,” I pointed out.

  “You need more proof than last night?” she demanded. “I almost died.”

  I shrugged.

  Her mouth tightened. “You want to see her.”

  “Unless you can’t get me in,” I said.

  “I can get anything I want,” she fired back immediately.

  “Good. Let’s go. She had me fooled, and I want to see for myself.” I stood up, my heart beating way too fast. Would Rachel really go for this? Would it be this easy?

  “No,” she said, regarding me with suspicion.

  Damn.

  “You can’t just stroll into a secure facility, Zane,” she said with scorn. “It takes time.” She eyed me speculatively. “Tonight, maybe.”

  “Fine.” I sat back down easily, as if it didn’t matter to me. Maybe it really did take time. Or maybe Rachel just wanted to see me squirm. Either way, I didn’t care. As long as she got me in.

  “They’ve probably got her locked up in chains or something,” she said, testing me.

  I shrugged again. “Just want to see for myself.”

  “Oh, you’ll see,” she said with a dangerous smile. And I knew I had her for sure. Rachel wanted me to witness Ariane being treated like the bizarre science experiment she believed her to be. Now, whether Rachel could actually pull it off and get me inside GTX, that was a whole other issue and one I couldn’t control. I’d done my best and that would have to be enough. It had to be. I couldn’t just abandon Ariane. I’d given up and stopped fighting on far too many important things in my life already.

  “Mr. Erickson,” Rachel bellowed, in the direction of the nervous-looking man, “let’s go!”

  The man hastily scrawled his signature across one last piece of paper, scooped up his briefcase, and hurried after her.

  Once they were out the door I slumped back in my chair, the rush of adrenaline fading and the pain in my head returning.

  “What was that all about?” my dad called, startling me.

  I swiveled in my seat to see him at the desk, frowning after Rachel and her lackey.

  I hesitated. If I told him what I’d gotten Rachel to agree to, he’d probably be thrilled and insist on tagging along to GTX. Protecting his “in” to the company. And that would draw way more attention to us than I could afford. It might even stop the whole thing dead.

  I couldn’t take that chance.

  “Nothing,” I said finally. “Just Rachel being Rachel.”

  He nodded slowly, clearly skeptical. “Don’t mess this up for me, Zane,” he warned, pointing a finger at me.

  I nodded, maybe a little too quickly, and he turned away and went back into his office.

  I let out a slow breath. If and when my dad found out that I’d gone to GTX without him, he’d be furious. As in, an all-consuming make-my-life-hell kind of fury.

  So, in other words, he’d despise me only a little more than he normally did.

  Totally worth it.

  DR. JACOBS SIGHED LOUDLY when he saw me sitting on the edge of the cot, still not wearing my uniform.

  Hours had passed since Mark Tucker’s visit, I was pretty sure. The lights had grown brighter—the daytime setting—some time ago, so it was probably early Saturday morning by now. I hadn’t moved except to draw my knees up to my chest to combat the chill of the air system kicking into higher gear.

  “107, while I appreciate your determination, which will serve you well in future—” Jacobs began.

  “Were you telling the truth?” I asked, my voice raspy from disuse and lack of sleep. I’d been waiting for him, to ask this. “What you said to Mark, I mean. About my immune system and maybe saving people who are sick.” I hadn’t been able to shut off the thoughts circling in my brain.

  Dr. Jacobs stopped, and closed his mouth with an audible click. Then he gave a forced laugh. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that he managed to slip in here and talk to you.”

  I waited.

  He cocked his head to one side, eyeing me. “Would that make a difference to you?”

  Oh no, I wasn’t falling for that. “Is it true?” I persisted, my chest tight.

  “I have always been honest with you—”

  “If not particularly specific,” I shot back. That was always his loophole. I hadn’t forgotten who I was dealing with.

  He ignored my slam. “—so, yes, the research is promising. But we need the funds from the military for additional work, and for that, we have to win at the trials. Trials you are not qualified for yet.”

  I didn’t even want to know what constituted being “qualified.”

  Shivering, I hugged my knees closer. If he was telling the truth about the research, then suddenly everything I wanted seemed so much smaller and insignificant. Who was I to put my dreams and wishes ahead of those who were just trying to survive?

  “But 107, the most important thing is for you to accept who you are, to live up to your potential. You are a miracle of human ingenuity and scientific development.” He sounded way too pleased with himself for his role in said miracle.

  Yuck.

  “You weren’t created for high school, dates, and football games,” he said with disdain.

  My mind instantly flashed back to those heated moments in Zane’s truck, and a blush spread across my face. How much had GTX seen?

  “You are meant for so much more,” Jacobs continued. “To use your skills, take down the enemy, save lives. This is who you are.”

  I stood up and crossed closer to the window wall. “You mean, someone who blindly follows orders, jumps at the command of whoever is holding my leash, and hurts or kills people without compunction, including other hybrids like me?” I asked. “That’s what you really mean, isn’t it?”

  His mouth tightened. “Mark talks too much.”

  “I assume it’s true, then.” I folded my arms.

  Jacobs waved away my words impatiently. “None of that matters right now. Everything I’m asking you to do at this moment is something you’ve done before.” He leaned closer to the wall and stared me down as if he could will me into action. “Change your clothes. Kill the mouse. Baby steps, 107. That’s all.”

  Yeah, and if I let him, he’d baby-step me right into Hell.

  I returned to my cot.

  He sighed. “You know I can make this painful for you.”

  I swallowed hard. I did know that. All too well. And it might not even be torture for torture’s sake, but simply more medical tests. Those were bad enough.

  He shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’re fighting this.”

  “Because fighting is the only thing I have left,” I snapped. Whatever pain he inflicted on me would still be less than what I’d feel the second I gave in.

  “If I opened the door to your room right now, where would you go?” he demanded. “Who would be looking for you? Who would be happy to see you?”

  His words struck deeper wounds than I glared at him. “The Rules—”

  “Oh yes, the Rules limited your life so severely.” He rolled his eyes. “Do you honestly believe that’s true? That if you’d suffered no such restrictions, your human life would be full of friends and loved ones?”

  I opened my mouth to argue.

  He tsked at me. “Do you think I don’t know how hard it was for you to blend in? To adjust, to fit in?”

  I felt the truth of his words sink in, but I shook my head. “Because I was afraid to stand out,” I protested. “I thought you were hunting me—”

  “That wasn’t the only reason, and you know it,” he said quietly. “You don’t belong in that world, and you must have felt that every day of the last ten years, whether you’re willing to admit it or not.”

  To my horror, my eyes welled with tears. “You should know; you made me this way,” I choked, my vision blurring.

  “I do know,” he said in an almost gentle tone. “And that’s why I’m telling you. You belong here with us, 107, doing what you were created to do.”
/>   Another tech appeared behind him, holding out what appeared to be a cell phone. Dr. Jacobs snapped off the intercom and turned to hear whatever the man had to say.

  I took the opportunity to twist around on my cot so Dr. Jacobs couldn’t see me blinking rapidly to keep from crying.

  My head was spinning, and I was so tired and suddenly unsure. Why was I resisting? My outside life was a lie. And he was right: there was nothing—and no one—to go back to. What was the point?

  I sniffled, trying to take a deep breath and clear my thoughts. My whole life I’d been caught between two sides—emotional against logical, human vs. other—warring inside me. And as I sat there, I realized that for the first time ever, they were dangerously close to agreeing.

  Surrender now, and survive to fight another day. If you push too hard, he might decide you’re not worth the effort, logic whispered.

  You could help people, my emotional side urged. Maybe not in the way he wants, but if you can save one person from what happened to the real Ariane Tucker…

  “No,” I whispered.

  “What, my dear?” Jacobs returned to the intercom, though he sounded distracted.

  I turned to face him. “No,” I said, raising my voice even as the sheer weight of hopelessness descended upon me. I still wanted a life of my choosing. I couldn’t change that, even if it would be better for me to forget it and do as I was told.

  Dr. Jacobs didn’t respond right away, more focused on the cell phone than my refusal.

  He looked up with a distant smile. “Well, clearly, more incentive will be required.”

  Incentive. I tensed. What did he mean by that? Nothing good.

  “Fortunately, I believe I’m in a position to get exactly what we need, and soon.” He waved the phone at me with an all-too-pleased expression.

  Panic lit up my insides. Who was on that phone? My fath…Mark Tucker? Zane?

  “Wait. Wait!” I shouted, lurching off the cot as though I could follow.

  But Dr. Jacobs ignored me and charged out of the observation room, into whatever lay beyond it, leaving only a gape-mouthed tech staring after him in his wake.

  I HADN’T BEEN SURE if Rachel would actually follow through on her promise to get me into GTX, even after I’d gotten her text midafternoon:

  Tonight. 9pm. Pick u up.

  But now, just moments from arriving at GTX, I had to admit that it seemed like she might really be intending to do exactly what she’d said.

  “I could have just met you there,” I said, resisting the urge to hold the handle above the door as Rachel took the turn onto the GTX campus a little too fast. Of course, driving myself would have meant sneaking the truck out too, which would have made things more difficult. But it might have been safer.

  “Are you kidding? I’m not missing a second of this,” she said with grim smile.

  Right. Being there to witness Ariane’s humiliation and my belated realization that I’d been completely and utterly wrong was the only reason Rachel was going along with this.

  I turned away and watched the light from the street disappear as we wound our way deeper into the heavily wooded GTX property. The company was backed up to a forest preserve, creating the illusion of a small city rising up out of nowhere.

  I’d been to GTX a few times on field trips in grade school, but tonight the sprawling complex looked even bigger than I remembered. Most of the lights were off, so it appeared to be this hulking indefinable mass barely detectable in the darkness. A sleeping monster.

  Rachel’s name and attitude got us past the guardhouse, to the parking garage, and into the main building, but when we crossed the expansive and fancy lobby—as in marble floors and a gold statue of Dr. Jacobs in a water fountain—to the elevator bank, we ran into trouble.

  Rachel passed up the two standard elevator doors for a smaller one on the far side. The entrance was guarded by only one guy behind a desk, though he was certainly big enough to be two. Dude was dressed in the standard black GTX security uniform, and it looked like they’d stitched together two uniforms to make his. The nameplate on the tiny-by-comparison desk indicated his name was Joey.

  I slowed down, but Rachel was not the slightest bit intimidated. She marched past him to stand in front of the elevator and then looked over at him with an impatient huff. “Push the button already.”

  Oh, boy.

  But the mountain named Joey seemed unconcerned. “That’s Dr. Jacobs’s private elevator.”

  “Yes, I know,” she said with exaggerated slowness. “Do you know who I am?”

  He shrugged one enormous shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. Dr. Jacobs doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

  “Call him,” she said, her hand on her hip. She’d changed for our nighttime adventure into jeans and a red tank top with a gold scarf tied around her neck. With her huge, expensive-looking bag slung over her shoulder and her toe-tapping impatience, she looked every inch the privileged granddaughter of the CEO.

  And still Joey wasn’t going for it. “No,” he said flatly.

  “Uh, Rachel, maybe we should just…” I began.

  She glared at me and then turned her attention back to Joey. “Call him. He’s expecting us.”

  “He’s what?” I asked, stunned.

  With a skeptical expression, Joey picked up the phone and punched a few buttons.

  “Your grandfather is expecting us?” I whispered.

  “Of course,” Rachel said, exasperated. “How else did you think we were going to get where we needed to go? It’s classified or top secret or something. They’re not putting her up in a conference room with the accounting department.”

  Oh, this couldn’t be good. I’d envisioned sneaking in, maybe stealing a few minutes alone with Ariane, making sure she was okay. And for a moment or two I might have even entertained the fantasy of getting her out, like hiding her in a cart of laundry or something.

  (Okay, so clearly, escape plans are not my forte.)

  But a documented, official visit, one that other people would be aware of ? I wasn’t counting on that, and the ramifications that it would bring, mainly in the form of making my dad really, really pissed.

  Joey put the phone down with a loud clack, catching our attention. “Dr. Jacobs says you can go up,” he said with a frown.

  I kind of felt the same.

  Joey pushed a button and the doors opened, revealing an interior that looked more like something out of a fancy house than a corporation—heavy carpeting, shiny wood walls, and the smell of money.

  Rachel sailed ahead, and I followed slowly. Some part of me was screaming that I should just forget it and get out now. But I’d come this far, and another chance in the future seemed pretty damn unlikely. Rachel would lose interest, and I’d lose her as my access point.

  The doors closed silently, and we began moving upward with barely a jolt.

  The elevator doors opened onto hallway filled with more of the same luxury. Plush carpeting, polished wood walls, and artwork in gold frames.

  Rachel moved with confidence to the double doors at the end of the hall with me a step or two behind her.

  She pushed open the doors and stood back to let me in. A massive desk stood in front of a wall of windows overlooking the dark GTX park. Two smaller chairs huddled before it, similar to the “you’re in trouble” seats in the principal’s office. A leather couch sat on a thick Oriental rug. Dr. Jacobs was nowhere to be seen (except in the form of a portrait hanging over a well-stocked minibar).

  Rachel flopped onto the sofa and stretched out with a casual disregard for the expensive leather beneath her heels.

  “Now what?” I asked, stuffing my hands into my pockets and fighting the urge to pace.

  “We wait,” she said with a shrug.

  In the hallway, the elevator chimed and we both looked in that direction. Rachel sat up quickly and swiveled to sit in a more formal position.

  Heavily padded footsteps sounded for a few seconds before Dr. Jacobs pushed through the hal
f-open doors. He spotted his granddaughter immediately. “Rachel, sweetheart. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Then he looked at me, a curious, evaluating expression passing over his face. “You must be Zane.”

  “Yes, sir.” I stepped up and offered my hand.

  He shook it. “Jay Bradshaw’s youngest,” he said with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Does your father know you’re here?”

  I hesitated. “Not yet.”

  He laughed as if this were the funniest thing he’d heard all day.

  I winced. I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was missing something. This was way too easy.

  “So, what can I do for you on this fine evening?” he asked, sounding almost giddy as he moved to pour himself a drink.

  I hesitated. If Rachel was to be believed, it was not Ariane’s father who was primarily responsible for her existence and her capture tonight, but rather the man standing in front of me. Choosing the right words would be important.

  I fought against a swell of helplessness. This was so much more Quinn’s area, or my dad’s. “Well, uh, sir, I was hoping that it might be possible to—”

  “He’s in love with your pet,” Rachel interrupted with a mocking smile.

  I glared at her.

  “Well, you are.”

  I should have known that working with her was a bad idea.

  But Jacobs didn’t seem angry or annoyed. He paused with the glass on the way to his lips. “Really?” he asked, intrigued. “I was given to understand your interactions with her had their basis in a prank.” He leveled a look at Rachel, who shifted uncomfortably on the couch.

  “Yeah, in the beginning, but…” I paused, mindful of Rachel’s hawklike attention to my every word. “I’d just like to see her. Please,” I added.

  Rachel snorted.

  Dr. Jacobs put his glass down on the minibar, below the painting of himself wearing a stern but paternally fond expression. “Well, certainly. I’m glad she has friends.”