The entire car was silent in anticipation. “What did he say?” I asked.
“He said there was only one thing that Malcolm could do to impress him. And that was to win the Nobel Prize for creating a genetically perfect human.” Genevieve’s voice grew thick. Did she have feelings for our father? “And then he laughed in his son’s face and said, ‘But that will never happen, will it, Malcolm?’” She cleared her throat. “I think that was the day everything good inside of him shattered. All hope, all sensitivity for others, gone with that single, thoughtless sentence from a dying, selfish old man.”
Adriana kicked at Marcus’s seat. “Look what you’ve done. You’re taking us to him.”
“Shut up!” Marcus yelled.
“Wait.” Adriana said. “Who cloned you in the first place?”
Genevieve pursed her lips and gave Adriana sad smile. “Remember how I told you about Gene’s interest in cross-breeding? He also enjoyed genetic sequencing. Like father, like son.”
My grandfather had cloned my biological mother. Then my father had tricked her and impregnated her. I was related to Adriana, the girl I’d just had sex with. My twin brother betrayed me. My reality spun, a million miles an hour.
My fists clenched and I shoved Marcus’s seat from behind. It hit the back of Marcus’s head. “Why are you doing this?” I said through gritted teeth.
Marcus slammed hard on the brakes, and even from the back I could see his jaw flex. Here we go. Marcus and I jumped out of the car. The attack was sudden, my entire right side compressed as I hit the asphalt. Marcus’s fist connected with my temple and sent shooting pains throughout my entire skull. My teeth rattled.
The car doors opened and Adriana screamed while I fought through waves of blurred vision and nausea.
Then a voice rang out, crystal-clear and familiar, although I’d only heard it for the first time moments ago. My mother’s voice, except I didn’t hear it with my ears. I could hear her voice inside my head.
“Kalan. Surrender to him. You can’t defeat him right now, and he’s willing to kill you if you don’t. You’re more powerful than him, I know you are. You don’t know your strengths yet, do you?”
Marcus’s shoe made contact with my ribs with a wet crack. Jolts of white-hot fire burned through my torso. Adriana screamed, and from the dark corner of my eye, I saw her jump on Marcus’s back.
The world tipped on its side and everything went black.
#
When I awoke, the pain had dissipated. I was in pitch darkness where I bounced and lurched back and forth on my side. The trunk? It had to be. There was still a chemical new-car smell that itched in my throat.
Within moments, the car rolled to a stop and the engine turned off. A beat later, sunlight assaulted my senses as the trunk door opened and Marcus reached in to grasp my arm and yank me out. I toppled out of the car and fell on my knees, stones biting into my kneecaps. I ignored the pain and forced myself to my feet. Adriana cried out as she rushed around the side of the car, her eyes wide as she wrapped her arms protectively around me.
Marcus flashed us a mocking smile. “Bumpy ride?”
I didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. Instead, I focused my attention on Adriana. “Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?”
She shook her head as tears streamed down her face. “No. I’m fine. But I thought… I didn’t know if you were okay, and—” Her voice pinched off in her throat. I held her tight while Marcus watched, his lip curved upward.
Genevieve got out of the car, her eyes blazing.
Had she spoken to me telepathically? Or did I imagine it?
With the way she studied us right now, suspicion obvious in her narrowed, watchful gaze, I couldn’t be sure.
I glanced around. We were parked in front of a massive silver and grey building with reflective windows that gave the whole edifice the appearance of a twelve story-high mirror. The sign on the outside of the building said EROS.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Marcus smirked. “We’re at Daddy’s place.”
Genomic research began with the Human Genome Project (HGP), the international research effort that determined the DNA sequence of the entire reference human genome, completed in April 2003.
-National Human Genome Research Institute
CHAPTER TEN
KALAN KANE
I pulled Adriana as close to me as humanly possibly as we followed Marcus into the atrium of the massive corporate structure. The inside of the building mimicked the exterior, with the lobby area vaulted all the way up. Floor-to-ceiling windows made the interior as bright as broad daylight. Each floor was visible, the walkways glassed-in. People moved about on the various floors in their white lab coats, scurrying in and out of hallways and rooms like scuttling insects.
A woman at a reception desk was the first to see us, and a glimmer of an unidentifiable emotion passed over her face, right before she composed herself and flashed a gracious smile.
“Hello and welcome to Eros. Dr. Bellamy is waiting for you.”
I swallowed. Dr. Bellamy. My father.
The woman pressed a button on her headset as her fingers rapidly tapped a telephone keypad. “Dr. Bellamy’s visitors have arrived.”
Not even two seconds later, four security guards strode up wearing head-to-toe gunmetal grey uniforms that consisted of bulletproof body armour, cargo pants, and a gun belt that contained an ASP, various black leather pockets for gadgets and then the most obvious and terrifying gadget of them all, a Glock handgun.
I shivered. Adriana stared at the formidable men, as did Marcus, who observed their approach with smug satisfaction. Beyond Marcus was my mother, whose flashing eyes and shallow breaths clearly displayed exactly how she was feeling.
One guard with deeply etched crows-feet and a heavy uni-brow spoke to us with a mechanical voice. “This way.”
Marcus gestured to follow, with a glib wave of his hand. I wanted nothing more than to punch him in the side of the head. Instead, I mouthed the words fuck you to him. Marcus smiled and winked.
Guards surrounded us in the elevator, even keeping Marcus at arm’s length. The elevator whizzed up to the fifth floor and we were prodded to exit. We were led down a long, brightly lit corridor with various labs on either side. Finally, we came to the double doors of a large corner office.
We filed in, one by one, the guards watching our every move. A man sat behind a massive wooden computer desk. He had grey hair and a freckled, pale complexion. He smiled. His two front teeth had a huge gap between them.
“Welcome! Genevieve, it’s so nice to see you again. I trust my guards have kept you feeling safe here?” His voice was soft and gentle, his English accent highly pronounced.
Genevieve responded immediately. “Malcolm. I should have known you would find us eventually. There are no limits to the lengths you will go to achieve your goal, is there?”
“Genevieve. I am so sorry to learn you have lived a life of suffering.” Malcolm stood to greet us. He was tall and fit for his age, his body morphology similar to Marcus and me. He stopped directly in front of Genevieve.
She held Malcolm’s gaze with a steely expression. “I’ve contemplated suicide over the years, but I was afraid you would have dug me up and used my corpse for genetic material.”
This elicited a burst of laughter from Malcolm, his laugh quiet but choppy and staggered, almost like a coughing fit. “You know me all too well.”
He placed a hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “Well done, Marcus. Well done, indeed.”
“Thank you,” Marcus said.
Malcolm continued to survey each and every one of us. Next, he looked Tait over from head to toe but didn’t acknowledge him. Then he approached me and Adriana. “This must be Kalan and Adriana. I am so delighted to finally meet the two of you. You are both exactly what I expected, although Kalan, you are much more handsome than I would have expected in someone with Achromia.”
“What do you want with us?” I asked.
Malcolm peered into my eyes, as if examining their strange silver quality. He stepped back and responded, “You will find out soon enough. Please, do have some patience with this process, for I have had to patiently wait for you.”
Then he spoke to Adriana. “Miss Sinclair. Fabulous. Remarkable. Just as expected, you have all of the markers of the genetic atavism,” he said as he stared. “Blue-green eyes. Extra-long torso to accommodate the vestigial rib. Fascinating.” His expression changed. “I’m sorry about your sister’s passing. So unfortunate.”
Her face and neck flushed red. “Don’t talk about my sister.”
Malcolm’s furry grey eyebrows met in the middle, like caterpillars crawling together. “Modern medicine is so ill-equipped to cope with profoundly diverse biology. Although, I suppose considering the unlikely expression of your particular genome, one can hardly expect otherwise.”
I lurched toward him, my fists clenched and ready, but the guards had too tight of a hold.
“A quick question, Adriana and Kalan,” Malcolm said, refusing to acknowledge my hostility. “Does it tingle or burn when you come into contact with saliva, tears, or bodily fluids?”
My breath caught. How would he know such a thing? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, lying. I hoped he wouldn’t notice my racing heart rate.
Adriana’s nostrils flared. “No.”
“Hmm. Curious,” Malcolm wrote something down in the chart. “I would have expected with the high levels of energy in your combined mitochondria, any contact of bodily fluids would have been rather notable. Perhaps you’ve never had the opportunity to see. Oh, well, it’s a simple enough test to run you both through.”
“Are you responsible for my sister’s body mysteriously going missing from the morgue at GenMed in Colorado, only to return shortly after, as if it had never happened at all?” Adriana asked.
Malcolm observed her with a pinched mouth, his cheeks hollowed. “No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Why did I get the distinct impression he was lying? Was it the way he looked? The way he sounded?
“Are you going to tell us what you want?” Genevieve asked.
Malcolm sauntered around behind his desk once again. “In time, Genevieve. In time.” He picked up the phone on his desk.
“Our guests are here. Are their quarters ready for them?” Malcolm said into the receiver. “Excellent.” He hung up, motioned to the guards while addressing us as a group. “I’m certain you are all rather weary after today’s events, so I’ve ensured your rooms are ready. I will be available for questions later.”
The guards herded us toward the door.
“Malcolm, I thought you said I didn’t need to go—” Marcus stopped speaking when he saw Malcolm’s dark glare.
This is my father.
Malcolm didn’t even respond to Marcus. “All of them.”
Immediately, Marcus held up his hand, the gesture he’d used in the abandoned hotel right before he crushed everyone’s throats. A strange electrical snap rang through the air and I involuntarily blinked.
When I opened my eyes, Marcus’s hands were strung up behind his back, wrapped in something that looked like a pulsating form, gelatinous in the interior, a clear membrane on the outside. The whole thing throbbed, and with every pulse, Marcus stiffened, as if he was being electrocuted. Was this some kind of Taser?
My heart pounded a staccato beat.
Malcolm spoke to his guards with a mechanical coldness. “Knock that one out.” An ASP came down on the back of Marcus’s head. He dropped to the floor like a rag doll. Malcolm observed his son’s prone body on the floor with utter indifference. “That’s for attempting escape.” He looked up and stared at the rest of us. “Let that be a lesson to all of you. Attempts to disarm my guards or escape will be met with the highest level of force necessary.” He pinned me with his gaze. “We are a state of the art laboratory, and we will not hesitate to ensure its security.”
I held Malcolm’s gaze as they led us away. He knew of our abilities and he was warning me not to use them. What exactly, did he know about us? How much of these abilities were actually traits that he had selected for us? Did he know things about me that I hadn’t even yet discovered?
On the walk to our assigned rooms, my mother’s voice entered my mind once again. “You’re here to be experimented on. We all are.” She glanced over at the guards dragging Marcus. “Marcus has no idea what he’s done. He thinks he’s allied himself with Malcolm. But Malcolm is allied with no one. He’s incapable of loyalty. The only thing he is committed to is his research. And his praises.”
“How did this happen?” I asked, without uttering a word. Adriana’s teal eyes were fixed on the two of us, her eyes narrowed. Could she tell we were communicating?
“Kalan, I loved your father once. That was at a time when I didn’t yet know who he was or what he was about. But by the time I figured it out, it was too late. I was already pregnant with you and Marcus.”
Her eyes shone in the harsh lights. “What are we, Marcus and I?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know her answer.
“I think you already know. You are an experiment. Started by Malcolm’s father, and carried out by Malcolm.” One tear zigzagged down Genevieve’s dirty cheek, leaving a pale stripe from her eye to chin. I felt a strange stab of sympathy for her. My mother.
The guards slowed to a stop when they reached the end of the hall where a floor-to-ceiling window looked out over a huge ravine. How big was this place? With stern looks, the guards pointed to four doors, two on one side of the hallway, two on the other.
“You, here,” said one guard, a huge man who was shaved bald. He opened the door and waited for Genevieve to enter. She went in without incident. Then it was Adriana’s turn. “Your room is here,” he said. Adriana glared at him and then turned to face me. The fierce look in her eyes made me cringe.
“We’ll figure this out,” I said as she walked through the doors. Once inside, her mouth opened as if she was about to respond, but the guard shut the door in her face.
Marcus roused and looked at the guards. His head jerked back and forth, his eyes darting about. He’d expected to be in charge.
“And you. In here,” a blond guard said to Marcus. He pointed at the door beside Adriana’s room.
Marcus stared. “You’ve got to be kidding. I brought them here.”
The guard was unfazed. “In. Now.”
Marcus struggled in his restraint. Despite the weapon appearing like it was stretchy, it was obviously inflexible. Marcus turned on his heel and attempted to run, but all four guards grabbed him, one by his hair and one by his collar, the other two by his sleeves. They yanked him so hard he almost lost his footing while the see-through weapon re-activated, a series of shocks jolting through his body. Then they shoved him into the room with such force he fell on his face. Blood pooled beneath him. They slammed the door and locked it from the outside. My mouth went dry.
The blond guard turned to me. “Are you going put up a fight like your brother?”
I shook my head no and went in. The guard shut the door behind me, and the metallic clink that followed told me that I, too, was locked in from the outside.
The room was a perfect square. White concrete blocks made up all four walls. There were no windows, the only light from two rows of humming fluorescents overhead. A bed was situated directly in the middle of the room, an ivory knit coverlet on top, like what you would find in a hospital. There was a small opening into a bathroom on the left, and a jut-out closet on the right. Beside the bed was a small wooden side table with a lamp. Underfoot, the flooring was gray, a stark contrast from the painted white concrete walls. The entire room was cold, but not because of the temperature. It was the icy sensation of being locked in this white and grey room, isolated and cut off from the outside world.
I focused and attempted to rea
ch out to my mother.
“Genevieve. Can you hear me?”
I waited for the sound of her voice inside my mind. After at least a minute my head began to throb, my blood pressure escalating with effort. Were my eyes hemorrhaging? “Mother?” A tinny squeal rang in my ear.
“She can’t hear you, Kalan. But I can.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
Was there anything my brother couldn’t do? “Marcus, what was that thing they used on you?”
It was almost as if I could hear Marcus sigh. “Malcolm knows about my abilities. He knows about you, too. He’s always known. He engineered us this way.”
My skin felt icy. “What was it? Some kind of Taser?”
“It appears to be, yes. It’s some kind of electrically conductive plastic or maybe something else. It locks my muscles up and I’m rendered physically useless. As useless as you.”
Even though his voice wasn’t being spoken out loud, I could hear the regret in my brother’s words. “I can’t help but think you deserve this, Marcus. If you’d left everything alone, continued to work with me, and trust me to find our mother, this never would have happened. But you couldn’t, could you? You can’t let go of the fact that life was unfair to us.”
After several minutes, Marcus finally replied. “It shouldn’t have been that way.”
My patience ran out. “I don’t care what it should have been like. There’s no guarantee life will be easy or good. Maybe you should ask our father if he selected traits that have made you so fucking self-absorbed and miserable!”
The Eve Genome Page 12
