The Samantha Project

by Stephanie Karpinske

  “Who cares? You said you couldn’t sleep, right?” The music started and he turned it way up. Then he hurried back over to the kitchen and grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from a drawer.

  He scribbled something down and shoved it at me. “Tell me about the dream, but say it quietly, right into my ear.”

  “What? You’re being crazy.” I laughed at him, but the look on his face wasn’t joking. He was serious. I decided to go along with his odd request.

  I leaned over to Dave and explained the dream in detail, trying to talk just loud enough that he could hear me above the blaring holiday music. The dream was still fresh in my mind and I was able to retell the dialogue almost word for word.

  When I was done, Dave looked like he might get sick.

  “Uncle Dave, what’s wrong? You don’t look so good.”

  “Sam,” he said slowly in a whisper so faint that I could barely hear him. “That was no dream.”

  Dave ran to his room and came back with some folded-up sheets of paper. He took my hands and placed the papers between them. He looked at me in a way I had never seen before. It was as if the world were ending within minutes and he didn’t have enough time to warn me.

  “Uncle Dave, you’re frightening me. What’s going on?”

  “Shhhh. Keep your voice down,” he whispered. “Now listen to me. There are some very bad people around the perimeter of this cabin right now. I don’t know how close they are and I don’t know how many are out there. The entire cabin is bugged, even our bedrooms. They are listening to our every word. That’s why the music is on. They’ve blocked the cell phone signal so we can’t call anyone.”

  “What? Why?” I began scanning the room. Dave grabbed my arms, forcing me to look at him and see the seriousness in his eyes.

  “That dream you had was real, Sam. It happened just as you said, right outside the gas station today. The black sedan you thought you saw? The one you kept seeing at your house? I was in that car today while you were inside the store talking to the old lady. Earlier tonight, when you were sleeping, I was reliving the whole thing in my mind, and I guess you were able to latch onto my thoughts. You have abilities, Sam. This letter explains some of what I mean. Go in your room and read it. Every word. I wrote down as much as I could, but I didn’t have much time. I still don’t have much time because they’ll be here in a few hours.”

  “Who’s coming in a few hours? What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m asking—no begging—you to trust me, Sam. Please just read it.”

  I started to talk again but Dave put his finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet. He turned the music off.

  “I’m getting too tired for cards, Sam. Do you mind if I go to bed?”

  “Um, no. Go ahead,” I said, playing along. “I think I’ll go to my room and read a book.”

  We each headed to our rooms. I got back into bed and unfolded the papers Dave had given me. He had written me some type of letter. I could barely read his handwriting.

  Sam, first I want to say that I’m so sorry it has come to this. I truly thought you would live a normal life and never know about any of this. I love you like a daughter, Sam. I really do. So no matter what you think of me after you read this, please know that I never meant to cause harm to you or your parents. I thought I was doing good. I really did. But other people, bad people, tricked me. And that started a whole series of secrets that I had to keep from you and your parents. And it’s killed me to do that! For years, I’ve carried these secrets, and I would have carried them to the grave. But GlobalLife wouldn’t let that happen.

  I paused, already confused and angry at what I had read. So Dave had lied to me—to my parents—for all of these years? About what? And why? And what did GlobalLife have to do with it? I kept reading.

  Remember how I told you that the fertility procedure for your conception was done at my lab? Well, technically, it wasn’t my lab anymore. GlobalLife had bought my company by then and I was research director, as you already know. At the time, GlobalLife had been experimenting with genetic engineering in humans. It wasn’t just changing a certain gene but also programming the DNA the way you would program a computer. It was similar to the research I did back in grad school, but the research was done in mice, not humans. By inserting software into the cells of mice, I was able to stop the growth of precancerous cells, thus avoiding cancer. The idea is that you could do this with any disease. You just tell the damaged cells to stop growing or to fix themselves. It’s more complicated than that, but you get the idea. If it worked in humans, it would basically mean that diseases would no longer exist.

  I continued working on that technology when I started my company. When GlobalLife bought the company, they told me they would use their vast resources to bring that technology to life, in humans. But once I was working for them, they told me to abandon that research and work on other types of software that could be implanted into cells to do things like make muscles incredibly strong or make people forget seeing horrible events, such as a violent crime. GlobalLife was looking for ways to make better soldiers. At least that’s what they told me. And it made sense. Military contracts are worth trillions of dollars. This type of technology, which would basically allow a country to engineer the perfect soldier, would make GlobalLife the largest, richest corporation in the world. They had no interest in my cancer research, or any other disease prevention research. Their pharmaceutical division makes far too much money on drugs.

  So I used the technology to help YOU, Sam. It was my only chance to do something good with it. I programmed your cells to basically turn off any bad cells that would form in your body so that you would avoid most any illness or chronic disease. Even the common cold.

  I know what you’re thinking. How could I experiment on you like that? How could I do this without telling your parents?

  Well, that’s not the end of the story. Another team of researchers was working in the lab back then. They were visiting from the GlobalLife headquarters in Sweden. They said they were working on an experimental project. They took your embryo and made other enhancements to certain parts of your DNA. They gave you enhanced genes. That’s the reason you have extraordinary hearing and the ability to see things in your dreams—before, during, or even after they’ve happened. And that’s just the beginning, Sam. You have many more powerful abilities you don’t even know about yet. I don’t even know everything you’re capable of.

  GlobalLife owns these enhanced genes. They have a patent for them. They own the software associated with them. That means they own you! Or at least that’s their view.

  When I found out what they had done to you, your mom was already 3 months pregnant and both she and your dad were ecstatic about your arrival. What was I to do? Tell them this secret? I couldn’t do it, Sam. I just couldn’t do it. I can barely do it now. But I would rather have you hear this from me than from someone at GlobalLife.

  When I found out what had happened, I turned in my resignation. But GlobalLife wouldn’t accept it. They needed me. I’d written codes for them that were more advanced and sophisticated than they had ever seen. The codes I’d written were already being used to develop advanced artificial-intelligence programs. They said that if I left, they would take you away and hurt your parents and I couldn’t let that happen. So I stayed. As the years went by, I became even closer to you and your parents. GlobalLife took advantage of that, threatening to harm all of you if I didn’t do the research they ordered me to do. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. But I couldn’t let them do anything to you or your parents.

  As you got older, they started watching you more. Following you at school. Some of your teachers were GlobalLife employees, put there to observe you. A few months ago, GlobalLife tapped your phones and planted listening devices and cameras all over your house. Just recently they saw you starting to develop special abilities before they even had a chance to enable them. Your premonitions, your dreams. Your enhanced senses.

  You were a s
uccess, Sam. A success that would make them trillions of dollars. And they weren’t going to let their “successful experiment” just live a normal life. They think you’re their property. That you were simply on loan to your parents. And now they’re taking you back. Back to live in their lab for now. Who knows what they’ll do with you after that. You’ve got to get away, Sam!! You’ve got to let them turn on your abilities, and then you’ve got to run! Your abilities will help you do that.

  The letter ended abruptly. I sat on the bed unable to move. Must be another dream, I thought. I’ll wake up now to sparkling Christmas lights and snow outside my window. But it wasn’t a dream. I looked up to see Dave anxiously waiting at the door to my room.

  “Sam, I know it’s early, but I heard you up. Do you want to watch a movie?”

  Dave was giving me a signal with the movie invite and his face was begging me to cooperate. He needed to keep our voices from being heard by the bugs planted throughout the cabin. Playing music again might set off suspicion from our “audience.”

  “Sure. This bed isn’t very comfortable, so I keep waking up.”

  Dave showed relief that I was playing along. “Well, I’ll sleep there from now on and you can have my bed.” He knew that we wouldn’t be staying at the cabin another night, but the lie might convince our captors that I was still clueless about the day’s events.

  I followed Dave to the living room, taking the letter with me. He turned on the TV and started playing It’s a Wonderful Life. Then he grabbed the pad of paper and pen that he had used earlier. I’m so sorry, Sam. I can’t express it enough. I never wanted this for you. Really. You can’t think I was in on this. He was writing fast, making it hard to read his scribbled words. He handed the pad and pen to me so I could write back.

  I don’t know what to believe. But I know what you wrote in that letter can’t be real. Genetic engineering? DNA manipulation? People watching us? Listening in? Why are you making up these stories? Haven’t I been through enough already?!

  I was starting to wake up and realize that his letter was nonsense. I had no idea why he wrote it. Was he playing some game with me? And to what end? I shoved the pad of paper back at him.

  “This is real, Sam,” he spoke in a stern but hushed tone and grabbed my shoulders. I shivered as I looked up at him. His eyes were filled with terror. It was as if he feared that his life could end at any moment.

  He pulled me close so he could whisper. “You don’t know what they’re capable of. And I don’t have time to tell you. They gave me 24 hours to say goodbye to you, and we’re almost out of time. So I need you to listen to me.”

  My head was spinning. Was he lying? Was he mentally ill? Why was he doing this? The look in his face made me want to believe him, but what he was telling me was completely insane. I tried to calm him down.

  “Okay, now who is ‘they’ that you keep talking about?” I whispered.

  “The man in the black sedan that you saw in your dream? It’s Alden. Alden Worthings.” Dave continued to whisper. “The man who runs GlobalLife Genetics. You know how you’ve seen that black sedan at your house for weeks now? He’s had people watching you, keeping an eye on you to make sure I don’t take you and run. And I would have tried! I haven’t slept for weeks trying to find a way to get you out of here safely. But it’s no use. These people—they’re everywhere, Sam.”

  His tone was thick with defeat as he continued. “GlobalLife has infiltrated all places of power. They have people hidden in the local police, the state patrol, the local government, the state and federal governments. We wouldn’t have even made it out of the county. But you—” He looked up at me, his eyes showing a glimmer of optimism. “Soon you’ll have abilities. And you can use them to escape on your own. I’m sure of it.”

  I had no idea what he meant, and I was starting to doubt the whole story again. “Why did you wait so long? Why didn’t you do something sooner?”

  “I tried. A couple months ago, when I found out what they had planned for you. I swear, I was going to tell your parents and have them get you as far away as possible, off the grid, so GlobalLife would never find you. But then . . .”

  “What?” Looking at Dave again, I suddenly felt his fear like it was my own. Overwhelming panic washed over me and I didn’t know why. I just knew that it was bad.

  “Then what?” I whispered louder now, racing to get answers. “I know you, Dave. If you really thought I was in some type of danger, you would have told Mom and Dad.”

  Dave shook his head. “I tried, Sam. I told your Dad on Thanksgiving that I had to talk to him and your mom about you. I told him we would talk that Saturday. But I should have just told him that night! It was so stupid of me to wait! I didn’t know the house was bugged. I didn’t realize they were listening.”

  “I’m confused. I don’t know what— ”

  “You don’t understand how bad these people are, Sam.” He took a breath to calm his shaky hands, then began writing on the pad of paper again.

  They threatened me. Repeatedly. They told me to keep quiet. Act like everything was fine. And if I didn’t, they threatened to hurt the only people I cared about. Then they heard me talking to your dad on Thanksgiving. They knew I was about to tell your parents everything, so they showed me their threats were real. They PROVED their threats were real, Sam.

  He tapped the pen on the paper to emphasize the final statement. He looked up at me as though I was supposed to know what it meant. His face pleaded with me to figure it out.

  I grabbed the pen from him. I don’t know what that means!!! I tapped the pen back on the paper, just as Dave had done.

  He grabbed the pad of paper from my hands and tossed it, and the letter he had written me, into the burning fireplace.

  “What are you doing?” I got up. Dave grabbed me to get my attention.

  “Listen to me! The threat they used was your parents, Sam.” He spoke in a loud voice now. It was as if he had given up and no longer cared if they heard him. He wanted me to know the truth about these people, no matter what that meant for him.

  “They made good on their threats!” he yelled. “Do you understand now? Your parents’ deaths were not an accident!”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Capture

  Before I could respond, a small gray object shattered the glass in the window next to the front door. A second one quickly followed. Smoke came billowing out of the objects, filling the room with a dark haze. My eyes burned and I struggled to breathe. Dave tried to grab me but lost his grip and fell to the ground. I stumbled to find the sofa but could only find smoke.

  Within seconds, the front door came crashing down. A bright light shined like a laser beam through the smoky room. Where the door used to be, I could see two large figures in head-to-toe riot gear wearing large black helmets that covered their faces. The helmets had some type of breathing device that altered their speech and filtered whatever chemicals they had used to create the smoky air.

  “I can’t see her. Go to other side,” I heard the first man say to the other man, who had now moved closer to me.

  “What’s going on in there? Talk to me. Did you get her?” The voice was coming from a speaker on the shoulder of the man next to me.

  I froze, still unsure where I was in the room. A heavy hand pushed me to the floor. “Yeah, I got her,” I heard a voice say.

  When I hit the floor, I felt the pen I’d been using. I grabbed it and shoved it as hard as I could into the man’s foot but his boots were made of hard rubber and steel.

  I heard the other man laugh as he yanked me up by one arm. Before I could swing at him with my free arm, I felt a sting in my neck. It was a needle; soon a cold liquid quickly flowed through my veins. My body went numb and then the room went black.

  “So you just had to tell her about her parents.” Dr. Alden Worthings stood over Dave, who was lying in a sterile metal bed, tubes hooked up to his arms. “I see what you were trying to do. Make her hate us so she won’t cooperate in the
training. Well, we have other ways of making her cooperate. So why’d you tell her, Dave? Just had to relieve the guilt you’ve felt all these years?”

  Dave just listened as the sounds from beeping medical monitors filled the room.

  “Don’t worry. We aren’t going to kill you just yet. You’re too damn good at what you do. If we could just figure out a way to bottle your brain.” The man smiled to himself as he made a mental note to follow up on that idea later.

  “But until we’re able to do that, we’ll just have to keep you around a little longer.”

  “I’m done, Alden,” Dave mumbled, groggy from the medication. “I’m done doing your dirty work. You can’t control me now. I have nothing left. You took Stephen and Ellie from me. You took Sam. You took my software, my company. There’s nothing left to take. I’m done working for you.”

  “You think it’s that easy, Dave?” The man paced back and forth beside Dave’s bed, then stopped suddenly to look at him. “You know, you’re brilliant in some ways, yet so stupid in others. You see, we still need you. And if we need you, then we obviously have a way to keep you doing what we want you to do.”

  “And what could that possibly be?” Dave sat up to look at the man.

  “Let’s just say that Samantha isn’t as safe as you think she is. Sure, she’s proof that the technology works. But once we’ve shown her off at the meeting and get buy-in to move the project forward, we can simply take the technology and dispose of the . . . what should I call it . . . shell.”

  “That wouldn’t work. I know it wouldn’t. I’ve studied those scenarios many, many times. You have to keep the technology inside a living subject.”

  “Living subjects don’t have to be human, Dave. We can put the technology into a lab rat or a monkey.”

  “No, that wouldn’t work. It has to be human. It’s built for human DNA.” Dave was quickly trying to review his research in his head. Maybe he had missed something. Maybe there was a loophole somewhere. Maybe they could kill Sam. “If your theory is true, then why wouldn’t you just kill Sam now? Why wait?”