by L. B. Carter
Chapter Twelve
Reed snapped awake with a sharp inhale.
The furnishings—modern, clean, sparse like an Ikea store—were unfamiliar. The pair of teal eyes that leaned into his vision weren't.
"Rena?" he gasped.
She grinned. "I thought about pouring water on you to wake you up but figured you'd had enough of that. I know the feeling."
Reed winced. His brother's wide and horrified eyes and Val's red lips stretched wide in a scream, her fingers outstretched, flashed in his mind. "Yeah, I think I'll avoid any beaches for a while."
"Even pool parties? With girls in bikinis?" Sirena's eyes widened. "Woah, that's serious."
Reed appreciated that she was joking to make him feel more at ease. That was his usual M.O. But that last image was making it hard to swallow as he imagined Val in that damn blue bra stating that underwear was essentially a bikini.
"You know, I've had a similar thought." Rena's intense irises cut away. "I even considered never showering at one point."
"I hope you decided against that one." Reed raised a brow.
"Yep. I've learned I can't avoid water. I've had to overcome that fear to keep saving all your butts."
"What?"
She ticked off on her fingers. "First, Nor during the coastal storm at home, then Ace in the Seaway, and now you during a freak flash flood—you're welcome, by the way—which at first I was sure was BSTU's doing. Of course, they've corrected me."
"They?" Reed pushed himself into a seat on what appeared to be some kind of hybrid hospital bed-and-lounge. There was an IV poking into his inner arm, and he quickly inspected the bag. Saline. Nothing outright suspicious. Like he wanted more saltwater. But he had been dehydrated, admittedly. "Where am I?" Reed wasn't a fan of being in anyone else's hands, especially without his consent and double especially if they were pumping unknown things into his blood.
Rena's hand lifted to her neck, resting on her collarbone, and her mouth thinned into the closed line in which it used to permanently rest.
Tell me, he signed, using his hands to speak mutely. The IV tugged.
Her chest lifted in a sigh, and she raised her hand from her throat to sign back four letters that made Reed's heart sink. B-S-T-U.
He returned three letters. N-O-R?
Rena blinked a few times, mouth shrinking smaller, and she shook her head, palm settling back on her chest, fingers picking at her skin.
Reed's breath rushed out, and he lay back down. "You find one and lose another. Jesus, things just get more and more fun."
After a few nurses checked in on him, fucking fate decided to fling Professor Katheryn Tate back onstage from the wings. "Mr. Stanley?"
Reed found it amusing how many people knew him by the fake names he and Nor had adopted to go undercover for a week in one small town. "Oh, we're going formal now, Katie?" He winked. "You suggested first names when we spoke on the phone."
Katheryn Tate's head tilted in confusion, her shoulder-length thick blond hair sliding to one side.
Reed grinned. "Adam Waller, The Sunday Times," he said in a nasal voice. "Just wanted to ask you a few questions, see, about your award several years ago?"
Katheryn's eyes narrowed. "Indeed. Well then, Reed, there's no need to waste time on pleasantries, is there?"
Reed sobered, sitting up and leaning forward. "Just how I like it. Foreplay is just dillydallying. Let's get to the good stuff."
Katheryn seemed to struggle to restrain her motherly instinct to tell him to stop it. Val might not be Katheryn's daughter, but she was about the right age, which was how she slipped into that role so smoothly. Reed wasn't all that much older, probably a few years. He was flirting with cougar territory here.
"Reed, you are guilty of aiding and abetting the illegal removal of Boston Science and Technology University property from university grounds without authorization. I have been informed, by the specimen herself, henceforth known as Sirena at her behest, that you were not responsible for the plan's conception. Nevertheless, this is a serious offense, one that BSTU will not be dealing with lightly."
"I'm cool with spanking."
She smiled. It wasn't reassuring. "Whoever your accomplices were also need to face the repercussions of their crimes. If not, instead of being considered an accomplice, you could be facing taking the brunt of the blame. Now then. Tell me where your cohorts are, and we may be able to work out something with... less severe consequences."
Reed laughed, loud and long. "You're offering me a plea bargain? For a crime I didn't commit? Oh, that's rich." His eyes hardened on Katheryn. "Tell me, Katie, did you take out a contract with Green Solutions to have Sirena removed, illegally, from BSTU premises? Or—" He held up a finger when Katheryn pushed up her glasses and opened her mouth. "—were you aware of any such contract, perhaps organized by your own daughter or your student, Mark?"
Rena's eyes were bouncing back and forth between Reed and Katheryn. Reed imagined she just needed a bucket of popcorn to make the cartoon perfect. He could do with some popcorn himself, come to think.
Katheryn's lips thinned. "I do not know what you're talking about," she sniffed.
Reed waited, eying the professor, undecided about the validity of her statement. "So you're not using me as a scapegoat after things went wrong and your colleague found out you were double-crossing him and stealing his work for yourself?"
Katheryn flushed. "It's not his work! This specimen was my design."
Reed sat back on his hands, a smile playing on his mouth. "That vehement of a rebuttal sounds like guilt to me. Sound like it to you, Rena?"
Sirena looked flustered at being asked to have an opinion on the matter and gave a noncommittal shrug-nod combination.
"I think you are trying to excuse your actions by insinuating that I myself ordered them in the first place in secret." Katheryn's nose rose, and she clutched a clipboard tighter to the button up she wore.
Reed blinked, scratched his head. "So... stalemate? Well then, let's just call it even. No harm, no foul. Rena's here, and it's all good, and I'll just go on my merry way then, shall I?" He grinned and stood up, ignoring a rush of dizziness, ripping the IV from his arm and rubbing his palms together. "Which way is the exit? Unless you want to show me to your office to, ya know, seal our deal?" This was a perfect opportunity to separate Rena and Nor. Reed could tell him she didn't make it so he wouldn't come hunting for her. And Reed could separate himself from this mess, find Nor, and get back home to Father.
Katheryn floundered, uncertain what to do with his bravado. "What about your cohort?"
Reed shrugged, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "No idea where they are." Truth.
Rena let out a pained noise.
"But..." Katheryn adjusted the clipboard, then her glasses. "But were you not with them?"
"Yeah." Reed frowned. "You do know that people aren't stationary, right? I know that here at BSTU, y'all don't go far, shuffling from lab to bed, probably—and even then only to sleep, based on what I could tell of Ace's and Henley's love lives—but most, normal humans move around."
Katheryn's nostrils flared. "I am aware, thank you. Where did you last see them?"
"Ah, now that I can answer. Top of a water tower in the middle of a tsunami wave. Seiche flood, sorry." He made a speculative face. "Doubt you'll find them there now, though."
Reed wasn't entertaining the idea that the wave might've gotten them, too. He was certain they'd been fine when he'd let go. Val was a stubborn ass; she wouldn't go down. And Nor just loved life so much more than Reed did. He wouldn't have given up.
"I'd guess they're either walking east or they were picked up."
"Picked up?" Rena was as interested as Katheryn now. Whatever. She'd get over Nor, too.
Reed shrugged. "Could be any number of people, really." He lifted a finger. "Assuming it's not your guys—" He raised a brow at Katheryn who shook her head. "—then, Stew, Father, Tom or anyone else from my family's company, Lindy, the government...
"
"The government?" Katheryn stood taller, taking a step back like Reed had said something offensive.
"That's right. You people don't like them, do you?" Reed wiggled his fingers at Katheryn. "Spooky. I can assure you the government doesn't much like you either. And that was before two government agents went undercover at BSTU, one of them in your lab, disguised as your own daughter. If it makes you feel better, I don't like either one of you. So, I guess it's like a love triangle except full of hatred and loathing," Reed said pleasantly. "Best if we all just keep out of each other's way."
Katheryn's clipboard was dangling from her fingertips by the time Reed finished his soliloquy. "My daughter?"
"Quite the looker, assuming Valerie got the likeness right. I'd guess so based on your surprise. Makes sense. I can see where she gets it from." Reed winked.
Katheryn tripped backwards over the IV line Reed had discarded on the tiles. "What about my daughter?"
Reed waved his hands mysteriously like a magician. "Things are not always what they seem. And academics, I've learned throughout my career, don't ever take their eyes off their work. So how are they to notice that their daughter wasn't their daughter? Surprise! She was an impostor." Surprised him, too.
Katheryn recovered amazingly quickly for someone who had just learned her daughter was missing and the girl she thought was her own flesh-and-blood offspring was actually with the government—her institution's greatest enemy—who'd stolen the family genes then stolen Katheryn's most prized life's work.
Oh, and was probably coming back to steal it again.
"She'll be too late," Katheryn informed him with an upward tilt of her chin and a prim smile that befitted a librarian. Not the sexy kind. The boring kind who owned too many cats and actually liked to read. "If you won't give me their location..." She paused as if allowing Reed to interrupt.
Reed made like Rena and kept his lips sealed tight. Katheryn could wait forever. He was going to be even less amenable than herded cats.
"...then we'll simply have to go live with the story to lure them here."
"Story?"
Katheryn's eyes shifted to Rena, and her expression softened. It was almost loving, as if Rena were more her child than her biological daughter—or genetic daughter—whom she had ...misplaced. "It's time to share you with the world. The paper was accepted in the most prestigious journal a few days ago. I simply needed you here for the press release announcement. I'm not mad at you." She stretched out a hand as if to touch Rena but got no further. "You did well. By confirming your resilience in a natural scenario with dynamic environments, as well as testing compatibility with humans, you added robustness to the success of our results." Her smile lifted, and her eyes grew misty. "I'm so proud."
Of herself, no doubt. Reed's lip curled in disgust. "Why do you even need my cohort here? You've got what you wanted." Reed tipped his head at Rena, whose face expanded into a look of shock before twisting under the pain of betrayal.
Sorry, sweetheart. Reed shrugged. She was already there. BSTU would clearly go to the ends of the Earth to track her down again. They would care for her there; that was clear. Which had been the purpose of the contract. They were doing a better job than him. He wasn't keen on keeping her around anyway. She was like a broken rabbit's foot. Since the formation of the contract about her with Green Solutions, Reed's life had taken a nosedive. Also, there was no way Reed could get her out on his own; it had taken Val and Ace years to plan their escape. Nothing personal. She was just way too much hassle. He'd never been much of a Rena fan from the get-go. Nor had been the one adamant on not giving up on the specimen even before they knew she was the specimen. And then there was Nor. Reed felt no remorse for the severance if it meant keeping his brother.
Katheryn squinted. "It's a matter of principle."
Reed's brows shot up.
"We cannot let such behavior go—it presents a poor example for the other students. They might get similar ideas that they could get away with retaining and releasing BSTU property without punishment."
Reed laughed. "Expecting a mutiny? You know what they say when there's an overthrowing of the current leaders."
Her brows descended as she thought. "I don't believe I'm familiar with that idiom."
He waved a hand. "I just made it up. What it means is that the leaders aren't good leaders." One brow shot up.
Katheryn gave a tiny head shake as if to dispel such a ridiculous, unfathomable concept. "That's ludicrous. The students are privileged to be accepted at Boston Science and Technology University."
"To be accepted, maybe, but I think being here is another story. Why else would Henley and Ace peace the fuck out? Henley wasn't even trying to break Sirena out, just get herself out."
Katheryn's finger joints grew white on the clipboard. "That was a miscommunication of a clause on the offer contract all students sign when they accept, taken far too literally. They are students, after all. They have much to learn."
Reed snorted. "Please. I've heard those two. They're like human computers. They know way more than the rest of us. More than you, I'd wager. That's why you're nervous. If there were an uprising, you would crumble. You'd lose everything: your status—" His eyes shifted to Rena who kept hers downcast. "—your work, your slave labor," he snarled.
"They are very well compensated for their efforts; being here is for their own benefit, too. It's a symbiotic relationship."
"Oh, yeah. I bet. That's why your own daughter fled and left a spy in her place to try to stop what you were doing." Reed's chin dipped as his teeth snapped together.
"Well, she clearly believes in this work to some degree, doesn't she? Or else she would not have utilized DNA replacement to modify said spy. It is a sign of how successful our research is that this girl could go unnoticed. I'd call that a triumph, not a failure." Her eyes glinted behind her glasses.
"In fact, thank you for telling me about it. We will have to mention that successful mutation as proof that our results with Sirena are not an anomaly. All the more reason to bring her in."
Reed's mouth dropped. Shit. That had backfired. This woman was intelligent enough to flip that around on him. Whatever. He didn't care what happened to Val. She brought that on herself. Katheryn had her there.
Rena had jerked her head back up too, eyes wide and pleading.
Katheryn smiled at Reed's reaction. "I'll be sure to mention that you were the one to inform us of this additional case. Think she'll thank you?" The professor dared to attempt a wink back at Reed. It was unsuccessful as her lid merely twitched while her cheek cranked up toward her eye and then both blinked.
Reed was suitably insulted, regardless.
"I'll leave you two together to say your goodbyes." Her hair whipped as she whirled and vacated the room at a clip. "Someone will be in to collect Sirena shortly for hair and make-up before we go live."
"Don't say a word," Reed grumbled.
Rena mimed zipping and locking her lips. Her eyes, however, conveyed all the brimstone and fury she could muster at him. It reminded him of Val.
Man, he was losing his touch with women.
Chapter Thirteen
The door banged open, and Richard dashed in, sweating, his suit in disarray. He'd clearly run there—and that must be an irregular activity for him. "Director—"
"What?" both Val and her mom snapped.
Richard balked, eyes darting back and forth between the women.
Val folded her arms over her chest, challenging him with her stance.
"Please, go ahead, Richard," Marissa said, and Val sucked her cheeks in, biting on them to hold her tongue because the man was never going to spit it out if she got into an argument with her mom.
"The—well... It's Boston Science and—"
"What about BSTU?" Ace interrupted, standing abruptly and forcing Henley to tumble off his lap into a heap. Nor helped her up while Ace stared the poor assistant down.
"Well, they—"
"Are they here?"
Henley panicked, casting her gaze around.
"No, they—"
"Rena?" Nor said in a dangerous voice.
Richard didn't attempt to speak again and instead circled around Marissa, pulling a remote out of a drawer and flipping on a screen on the wall.
Val hurried to rip the map off the front of it. She'd taped it there when the news became too depressing. That was the trigger that convinced Val to do something drastic and proactive, instead of reactionary, about the current state of the country.
A newscaster was revealed sitting at a desk, reading something off a Teleprompter based on the flickering and slightly-off-screen angle of her eyes. Her mouth moved mutely.
Val slapped the remote out of Richard's trembling hand and cranked up the volume. Marissa's phone rang. Everyone ignored it to listen in.
"...with the scientists themselves who are the masterminds behind this new race of what has been dubbed a superhuman." The woman's brows shot up as far as they could go with all the Botox.
The phone continued to trill obnoxiously, so Val picked it up and slammed it back onto the receiver to shut it up.
"If you're just tuning in with us now, we are discussing the miraculous advance scientists at Boston Science and Technology University have revealed today regarding the fate of humankind." Her lilting voice emphasized every odd word for impact and paused dramatically frequently.
Val's irritation escalated as the newscaster drew the revelation out.
"One of the few universities left standing after the Higher Education Crash several years ago, BSTU in Boston, Massachusetts boasts some of the brightest minds in the country, who have for the last few years been impressing the public with their robotics. Their automatons can be seen in a few locations around the country.
