Redux (The Variant Series, #3)

by Jena Leigh

  Easier said than done, she thought.

  Li seemed amused by her lack of control as he began drawing a second vial. “The only explanation I can fathom for your predicament is this, Alex,” he said. “At some time in the past, before your ability had the chance to manifest, you were given the VX-1 serum. Someone intentionally stripped you of your natural ability.”

  “Wait,” said Declan, furrowing a brow in confusion. “You’re suggesting that she was given both of the serums Masterson created?”

  Alex shook her head. “I have no memory of being injected with either one.”

  Li shrugged and pressed a cotton swab against the puncture wound. Alex did as he instructed, pressing a finger against the white ball of fluff as the doctor placed a piece of tape across the crook of her elbow.

  “In all likelihood,” said Li, “someone close to you administered the VX-1 when you were still a small child. Considering your history, they probably meant it as a deterrent.”

  “A deterrent?” asked Declan.

  He nodded. “Against Samuel Masterson. Perhaps they believed that by stripping Alex of her Variant nature, they might render her useless in the eyes of her pursuer.”

  “That’s assuming Masterson only wanted her for her abilities,” said Declan. “By the time he went off the rails, he was just as powerful as Grayson when it came to predicting the future. He could have wanted to use her—or kill her—to prevent any number of things from happening.”

  “True,” said Li. “Either way, it didn’t put him off, did it? Masterson pursued Alexandra right up to the bitter end. Now the real question, Miss Parker, is when did your abilities first begin to manifest?”

  She’d wondered that herself on more than one occasion.

  Exploding two dozen computers in a wave of hurt and betrayal had made it obvious that something about her was different, but it wasn’t the first time she realized that something was… off.

  That began months before the incident in the computer lab.

  Static shocks that no longer hurt.

  Lights flickering with a rise in her emotions.

  Appliances on the fritz.

  Her cell phone constantly buzzing with interference during calls.

  Alex began counting back from her breakdown, slipping through the dog days of summer to the muggy warmth of spring, mentally assigning each of the odd occurrences she could recall to specific dates.

  Spring break. Sophomore year. The lake party.

  Alex sucked in a breath, her eyes widening in realization.

  That was the night Jessica Huffman had “accidentally” poured her vodka spiked red Kool-Aid down the front of Alex’s white babydoll dress.

  Mere seconds later, the portable generator powering the stereo and the lights down by the dock inexplicably cut out, plunging the party into darkness and leaving them with only the flickering illumination of the bonfire thirty feet away.

  It would be months before anything else happened, but that moment stood out. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

  That generator hadn’t just cut out. It had been fried. Thomas Martin took the generator from his dad’s toolshed with the intention of returning it after the party with no one the wiser. Instead, he spent the next three months of his life grounded. He’d complained about the fact, daily, to anyone who would listen.

  “This April,” she whispered, before catching herself and snapping her mouth closed again.

  It all starts now.

  “Well, then. I suppose that means there’s an Alex Parker in Bay View right now that’s in for a very big surprise.” Li smiled wide. “The timeframe for the VX-2’s activation is uncertain in light of the DNA alteration caused by the VX-1, but I suspect it wouldn’t take more than a few days. A week, at most.”

  As he spoke, Li gathered his supplies and the samples of Alex’s blood and went back into the lab.

  The door sealed tightly behind him. They watched through the picture window as Li placed the vials into a refrigerator, alongside his other samples. His voice reached them through a two-way speaker set into the wall below the glass partition. Li had probably overheard Declan’s warning to her, earlier.

  “So, what are you saying, exactly?” asked Alex.

  Li turned to face her through the window, pushing the white tails of his lab coat behind him as he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets.

  “I’m saying, pet, that I highly suspect the injection of the VX-2 serum will be administered sometime in the next week or two,” said Li.

  “If it hasn’t happened already,” Declan added in a whisper. He narrowed his eyes. “Wait a minute. What if it hasn’t happened already? I know we said our timeline was probably fixed, but what if it’s not? What if there’s still a chance to stop it from happening?”

  Declan’s suggestion drifted past Alex without fully sinking in. She was still caught on the endearment Li let slip.

  Her stomach tightened in worry and an icy fear gripped her chest.

  Alex clenched her hand into a fist. Was it just a fluke?

  But the way he talked. The way he moved. Could it be?

  The murmur of conversation had ceased.

  “Alex?” asked Declan. His hand came to rest on her shoulder once more. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Li’s face split into an unsettling grin. “What is it that gave me away, pet?”

  Alex could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears as a rush of adrenaline cascaded through her system. She bolted to her feet, Declan immediately following suit.

  She wanted to run. To fight. To do something in response to her sudden revelation.

  Instead she stood motionless as she recognized the soul staring back at her through the dark brown eyes of Dr. Li.

  How many times would he be able to trick her with a different face before she learned to recognize him behind his many masks?

  “Ah,” he said, walking closer to the partition. An Oxford accent crept into his voice. “So that’s it. Pet. You know, I must say, it really is the perfect name to have given my little pet project.”

  Realization dawned in Declan’s expression. A swirling ball of violet lightning appeared above his palm. It sparkled and crackled as though unstable, and it was barely larger than a dime. The shield was dampening his abilities.

  “I wouldn’t.” Masterson pulled a gun from the cooler bag he’d laid on the counter the first time he stepped into his lab.

  He aimed the pistol at Alex through the glass partition.

  Declan hesitated.

  “He won’t shoot me,” said Alex, though she had to admit her confidence was more hope than certainty.

  “Try me,” Masterson said. “I don’t have to shoot to kill, you know.”

  Reluctantly, Declan allowed the orb to fizzle out.

  “Wouldn’t you know it,” said Masterson, still smiling. “All this time spent looking for a way to perfect the VX-2—to find a way to make it work on everyone so that I might get it to work on Li—and directly in the wake of my greatest breakthrough, you bring proof of my upcoming success right to me. Only a truly universal serum would be strong enough to reverse the effects of the VX-1. And now that I have your blood to work with, I can be certain of its efficacy.”

  The puzzle pieces slid rapidly into place and Alex found herself struggling to keep up.

  “So that I might get it to work on Li…”

  Masterson wasn’t just impersonating Li. Somehow, his consciousness was inside Li’s body.

  Alex’s hand flew to her mouth as a wave of nauseating realization came over her.

  “Oh my God,” she said. “The murders. All the Variants that have died in the last six months. It was you! You’re the Scientist!”

  Li pulled a face. “Such a ridiculous name, the Scientist. Leave it to today’s papers to saddle me with such an absurd moniker. Such a sad lack of imagination these days. Now Ripper. That was an excellent name. Those 19th century newsboys had a proper flair for the dramatic.”

  “The VX-2,
” said Alex, her throat dry. “You’ve perfected it?”

  Masterson just looked at her.

  If that was the case, he may have already used it on his host’s body. There was no telling how many abilities Masterson might already have absorbed.

  “No,” said Alex.

  She shook her head as though she could change this strange new reality simply by rejecting it.

  “No,” she repeated. “You were the one that told me to aim earlier. To go back to the beginning, before it all started. It doesn’t make any sense that you would…”

  Declan said her name in warning at the same time Masterson, delighted, said, “Thank you!”

  His gratitude took her by surprise.

  “For what?” she asked.

  “Well, now I know for certain that not only did I have a hand in your trip back to this time, but that merely by suggesting that you aim for our humble beginnings I will, inevitably, lead you to this precise moment in this precise place. So thank you, pet, for helping me to fill in two very important blanks.”

  Alex cursed under her breath. She needed to be more careful. The more he knew, the more danger she was in, and the more likely all this was to play out exactly the way Masterson wanted it to.

  “We can still stop this from happening,” said Declan, angrily. “We can find a way to keep Alex from ever coming back to this time.”

  Masterson laughed, regarding Declan with mock pity. “Oh, Declan. You of all people should know this by now, being the adopted son of one of the world’s greatest psychics! Time, as a whole, is fixed. Always has been, always will be. You might succeed in changing a few unimportant particulars, but the crucial events? Those you will never derail.”

  Declan’s hands were balled into fists at his sides. “You’re wrong.”

  “Tell me, Declan,” Masterson continued. “How many times has Jonathan sent you out on a job, only for you to discover that you were helpless to prevent the horrors he’d already seen from taking place?”

  “Shut up,” Declan growled.

  “How many times were you left to wait helplessly as a tragedy unfolded before your eyes? How many times were you forced to settle for simply mopping up the mess?”

  “We can still change this,” Declan said. “All of it. This will never happen. You will die in that crosswalk.”

  The thought chilled Alex to the core as she realized the enormity of what she’d done—of what she’d set in motion—by coming to the past.

  She’d saved the life of Samuel Masterson.

  She’d saved the life of her parents’ killer.

  Of the man who’d taken the lives of so many others and who seemed so bound and determined to manipulate her destiny.

  “Will I?” asked Masterson. “Here’s a thought experiment for you. Let’s assume, for a moment, that you’re right and I’m wrong. Will I really die in that crosswalk if you don’t show up to save me? What say you, pet? It all happened too fast for me to discern. I was left to watch the events unfold after the fact and through the fixed eyes of a few scattered traffic cameras but you were there. You saw it all for yourself. So tell me. Would that van have hit me if you hadn’t been there to rescue me that day?”

  Alex hesitated.

  Would the van have hit him if she hadn’t intervened? It was all such a blur, at this point. How could she know for certain?

  Frustrated, Masterson waved his gun hand in a circular motion as though attempting to summon her toward the correct answer. “Your friend was driving past that cross street in his pickup truck at the exact moment the van in question came barreling onto the main road, correct?”

  It had been. Aiden had needed to swerve to avoid being hit and the van had also swerved in response, moving into a different lane.

  Alex narrowed her eyes, still struggling to follow Masterson’s thinking.

  “Did the truck’s presence on the road that afternoon affect the course of the van?” he asked. “If you and your friend hadn’t been present at that precise moment, would the van have taken the same path through traffic? Would it have passed through the crosswalk in the same place? Or would I have been spared, leaving the pedestrians behind me to meet an unfortunate fate, instead?”

  “I don’t… I don’t…” she stuttered.

  “You don’t know,” said Masterson. “Which is precisely my point. Even if you weren’t present at that exact moment—even if you never travel back to this point in time—there’s no guarantee that I would have been struck by that van.”

  “Ignore him, Alex,” said Declan. “He’s just trying to mess with your head.”

  Masterson arched a brow. “Merely giving the two of you something to think about.”

  Alex felt the tingle of electricity ripple across her skin in the place where Declan now gripped her wrist.

  “Time to go, Lex,” he said in a low voice.

  Fighting Masterson now was clearly not an option. But running away…

  “Yes, yes,” said Masterson, gesturing again toward his office door with the gun in his hand. “By all means, go. Run. Live to challenge me another day.”

  She could feel Declan bracing himself to move, but Masterson’s next words caused him to hesitate.

  “Just know that you can’t run from me forever, pet,” he said. “In fact, I do believe a trip to Bay View is in order. There’s a certain girl there I’ve been meaning to check in on. I have a very important gift to share with her.”

  Twenty-One

  No alarms sounded. No lights flashed. No agents marched through the halls in search of intruders. And still, the next four-and-a-half minutes proved to be some of the most nerve-racking of Alex Parker’s life.

  They didn’t run for the exit.

  They walked. Slowly. Silently. Lightly, so that their footfalls wouldn’t echo in the empty corridors. So that Trent’s illusion of invisibility would remain intact.

  He knew something was wrong the moment they rushed into the hall, but silenced them with a finger to his lips before motioning for them to follow.

  They waited twenty heart-pounding seconds for an elevator, only to be joined by a trio of Agency researchers in white lab coats. They held their breath as the elevator descended, pressed against the walls of the lift as they prayed they would go unnoticed.

  Declan’s grip on Alex’s arm felt tighter than the tourniquet Masterson had tied around it earlier.

  As the elevator drifted ever lower, Alex waited for the ear-shattering noise of a klaxon, the inevitable moment when the facility would go on lockdown and leave them trapped inside while armed agents scoured the building.

  The moment never came.

  Instead, they exited the elevator into the main floor lobby and carefully made their way past the security station and the guards who were more occupied with the agents coming in, than with the scant few exiting. Past the main desk. Through the gleaming, black marble lobby, and finally, breathlessly, back out into the cool air of morning.

  The second they made it across the street and slipped past the barrier of the EM shield, Declan grabbed Trent’s forearm with his free hand and they jumped.

  Alex dropped a good six inches through the air before landing with a stumble. It had been so long since she’d accompanied Declan on one of his jumps, that she’d forgotten about his peculiar habit of reappearing in the air, instead of on the ground.

  She fell to her knees in a patch of tall grass still wet with dew. The air was muggy and warm. High above the field, the sun was only beginning to rise.

  Alex instantly knew where they were.

  Declan had brought them to the grassy pasture that would one day serve as their training field in Bay View.

  Trent hadn’t managed to stick the landing, either. Instead, he’d fallen on his butt in a patch of weeds across from Alex and was now sprawled out on his back, propping himself up by his elbows. He let his head fall back and his eyes close, breathing heavily. His forehead was slick with sweat.

  Alex was amazed that he’d been able
to maintain his illusion of invisibility for so long. It was no wonder he was exhausted.

  Declan, meanwhile, was still on his feet and striding angrily toward a line of palmetto bushes at the outskirts of the field.

  She waited for him to stop. To turn. To begin shouting the inevitable, “I told you so” that she’d more than earned from him that morning.

  Instead Declan disappeared into the tree line and quickly vanished from sight.

  Alex thought about following him, but couldn’t muster the courage to move.

  It was just as well. Moments later, a series of roaring explosions sent a group of startled crows and seagulls fleeing into the pale pink skies.

  The spheres. Declan was using them to vent his anger.

  Trent made to get up and follow Declan into the woods, but hesitated when Alex placed a firm hand on his jacketed bicep. She shook her head.

  Four more blasts rocked the woods lining the pasture, causing the hairs on Alex’s arms to stand at attention, before another sound joined that of the crashing pines and disintegrating tree trunks—a roar that seemed to be comprised of part fury, part frustration.

  Trent stared, slack-jawed and nervous, toward the patch of forest where Declan had vanished, clearly too stunned to seek an explanation.

  As the silence of the morning returned, Alex dropped her head in her hands and rubbed tiredly at her face.

  It was safe to assume that Declan was furious with her right about now.

  It was also safe to say that he had every right to be.

  God, how stupid could she get?

  All the information that she’d given Masterson that morning about herself, about their future—and her blood! He now had everything he needed to come after her, and she’d just handed it to him on a silver platter.

  Alex had made it just that easy.

  She’d gotten the feeling, though, that even without the information he’d acquired from Alex that morning, Masterson would still have come for her. He would have found a way to inject her with the VX-2, even without her assistance.