“Please, call me John.”
“Did you find my father’s journals in Sicily?”
“No.” The disappointment on his face was genuine.
“What did you hope to find in these journals?”
He glanced over his shoulder to the office door behind him. “Jack told me that you now know how you were… created.”
I nodded. Why couldn’t he just answer the question?
“What Jack didn’t tell you, because he didn’t know, was that your father didn’t know you were implanted in your mother’s womb until well after you were born.”
“What?” The room started a slow spin. “Dad didn’t know?”
“He knew about the clonings and the gene alterations, but your dad thought the embryos had been destroyed, like they were supposed to be. Before they became viable. Then the fire happened, and everyone scattered. Your parents were tricked.”
“Tricked? By whom? What do you mean?”
“Your mom went in for a routine in vitro fertilization because she had struggled to conceive. She came out pregnant. With you. Cathy and I have many theories on who was behind making sure the embryos reached hosts.”
Hosts? That made me sound like an alien. A parasite.
I walked slowly over to a chair and clung to the arm. My father wasn’t directly responsible for the freak that I was? Still, he was very much involved. “What are your theories? You think Sandra was responsible?”
“Maybe. Or the International Intelligence Agency. Maybe Sandra’s entire experiment got away from her. She could be mostly innocent in this. No one has talked to her since before the fire. Hell, I hadn’t spoken to your father since then.”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose.
John continued. “Your dad told me the night of the dinner. He planned to tell you the truth. About everything. But…”
“He was killed.”
He nodded.
“Why all the secrets? Why not tell Jack and me the truth sooner?”
“It was too risky. Your dad and I were very much involved with Sandra’s wild theories that she could enhance the genetic makeup of certain parts of the brain, and then with proper training, create human beings capable of… well… healing incurable diseases and injuries. We were on board with everything Sandra wanted to do. Until…”
“Until what?”
John rubbed his hand back and forth across his five o’clock shadow. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Until Sandra made a deal with the IIA. Your dad discovered correspondence between Sandra and an IIA agent. He was outraged. She had agreed to sell her research to them. And she secretly copied your dad and me on all correspondence, implicating us.”
“But you didn’t know what she was doing?” John shook his head. “What happened? What did the IIA do with this information?”
“I don’t know. Our labs were destroyed in a fire. Jack had just been born. Everyone went their separate ways in order to protect themselves. Cathy and I vowed to protect Jack at all costs. Your dad kept you hidden from me. From everyone. Not until I saw a picture of a young Sandra Whitmeyer in a newspaper…” John narrowed his gaze at me. “…that was actually you. That’s when I started to put things together. That’s how I found Wellington.”
Deep inside, I knew Dad loved me. He showed me over and over. So why had he kept everything from me? “Why are you telling me all of this now?”
“Your dad wanted you to live a long, healthy life and never have to come face to face with the future laid out before you now. Unfortunately, he also knew that was not the way it would be. That’s why he enrolled you here at Wellington, where there were enough people around you who knew the truth and could be trusted at the same time.”
“He was planning to move me. Do you know why?”
“No. Who told you that?” he asked, unable to hide his surprise.
I studied his face, a face so similar to Jack’s, only older. Mostly the eyes. The same electric blue that made you want to reveal your deepest secrets. However, John’s baldness kept me grounded in reality. This was not Jack. Though what he divulged to me made sense with everything I’d learned so far, I barely knew this person in front of me.
I thought of Marci. How scared she was the last time I saw her. “I can’t tell you that.” He nodded again. He was so different from his wife. A level of understanding passed over his face. “You knew about Jack from the beginning?” I asked.
“Yes and I knew you would turn up sooner or later. I just didn’t know where.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I knew you’d been created, just like the others. I just didn’t know whose child you had become.”
I gasped. “What others? What do you mean?” This must be what Marci was talking about. “How many?” My body tensed. How many clones were out there? Did they know? I thought of the person who’d gotten inside my head when I slept.
And of Briana. She didn’t know. She couldn’t.
“I’m not sure how many survived. And I don’t know what the IIA knows.” He rubbed his head, very similar to how Jack ran his fingers through his hair. “But your dad figured it out. And he documented everything he knew.”
“The journals,” I whispered.
John nodded. “That’s why finding these journals is so important. The journals contain the information your dad never got the chance to tell me. Including, hopefully, information that will lead to whoever killed him.”
“But why kill Dad?” I whispered, mostly to myself. Then realization hit. “Someone doesn’t want this information revealed. Maybe Dad had the journals with him.”
“The originals. Possibly.”
I cocked my head. Stared at the man before me with the same eyes as the boy on the other side of the door.
“Does Jack know all of this?”
“He does now. Unfortunately, what Sandra, your father, and I did all those years ago is who you are now. Only you can decide if you’re willing to accept it.”
“There are people who would have Jack and me use the powers Sandra gave us.”
“They’re amazing powers, Lexi. You and Jack have the ability to cure people of things no other person on earth can.”
But not without consequences, unfortunately.
John added, “There are also people who would stop at nothing to destroy you and all evidence of your existence. Whoever killed your dad probably thought he… or she… was destroying the original journals and, of course, the information living inside your dad’s head would be gone forever.”
The information wasn’t gone forever. I now knew exactly where Dad had duplicated that information. Could I stay alive long enough to access it?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I raced into my dorm room and tossed my bag on my bed. Dani, Kyle and Bree all looked up from their spots, deep into some sort of study session.
“Oh. Hi,” I said, stopping to analyze the three of them.
Dani sat in some strange yoga position, a book on the floor in front of her. Bree leaned against Dani’s bed, her legs stretched out in front with a laptop across her thighs. Kyle lay on top of Dani’s bed and tossed a Nerf football overhead.
Why couldn’t they’ve studied anywhere else but my room tonight?
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes earlier that day, I would never have suspected he knew about Dad’s journals. Or that he was keeping secrets from us.
“Hi, yourself,” Dani said. “Where’ve you been?”
I shifted from one foot to the other. I just wanted to find the puzzle box and a private spot to access Dad’s website. “Um… talking to my new guardians.”
Kyle stopped tossing the ball and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “You get in trouble?”
“No, you?” I answered, though being reprimanded for leaving campus should have been the least of my concerns right then.
“Why would either of you get in trouble?” Briana asked.
My body tensed. My eyes p
leaded with Kyle. Briana would rat me out for sure, and I’d have an ankle bracelet by nine a.m. Being lectured was one thing, but having that metal clamped around my leg would not be pleasant.
“Oh, it was nothing. Don’t worry that pretty little head.” Kyle tickled her ear, then tossed the ball in the air again.
I let out a breath. “I’d love to chat, but you guys look like you’re in the middle of a study session. And I really need to do something before curfew.”
Briana narrowed her gaze at me, then glanced over her shoulder at Kyle.
Let it go, Briana. Kyle and I are not in trouble. You have studying to do. You better get back to it.
Briana went back to making notes on her computer.
I turned on my heels, reached for a tissue for the inevitable nosebleed, and began sifting through the mess of papers and notebooks on my desk. Underneath the pile, I found the puzzle box dad had sent me.
I opened the compartment I had found previously. Empty. Like I had left it.
The arms of the starfish wouldn’t budge. I pushed around different areas of the wood and shook the box. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there wasn’t a second compartment.
“Lexi, honey? What are you doing?” Dani asked.
“Shit!” Briana yelled.
I whirled around. Briana banged on the keys of her computer hard.
“What is it?” Kyle asked.
“The stupid internet is down again.”
I walked the three steps to stand over her. “What do you mean? It’s been down?”
“Yeah, I’ve been having trouble with my connection all night. Why can’t this stupid school get Wi-Fi in the dorms?” She wiggled the wireless card on the side of her computer.
Kyle sat up. “My phone has no service.” He punched around on his iPhone.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. No service. What was going on?
“I’ll catch you guys later.” I grabbed my bag and the puzzle box, and blew out of the room.
~~~~
It was ten minutes until ten p.m.—curfew. I had to find Jack.
I pushed open the side door of the dorm. A man in a dark uniform blocked my path.
“Sorry miss. But no one is allowed to leave the dorms tonight.”
What the… I backed up a step. “Who are you?” My eyes roamed over the six-foot obstacle in front of me.
He wore a navy uniform, covering his slightly protruding belly. A badge across his right breast read “SECURITY.” Around his waist was a utility belt carrying a nightstick, a taser, and a flashlight. A walkie-talkie buzzed on his right hip. His crooked smile creeped me out as he looked down on me.
“Just extra security, miss.”
“Curfew isn’t for another ten minutes.” I made a move to walk around him, but he mirrored my action, continuing to block my path. It was clear I would not get around this buff man twice my size with muscle strength.
“I have my orders. No one is to leave the dorm this close to curfew.”
Why the need for extra security when Wellington was gated and fenced already? I strained to look around him. I saw no one else. The campus appeared quiet.
Jack? I’ve got trouble.
Nothing. Where was he? The uneasy feeling started in my legs, weakening me at the knees. I rubbed the spot over my heart where my panic picked up in intensity.
Jack, where are you?
“Look, Mr…” I glanced at his nametag. “Mr. Kakowski, I need to run to the library for a book. I’ll be exactly ten minutes. I’ll be back before curfew.”
“Sorry, miss. You’re going to turn around and head right back inside.” This time his tone was more severe and quite belittling.
I felt the heat of my anger spread to my sweaty palms. I curled my fingers into fists. Thank you, Mr. Kakowski, for your dedicated service to this school. I feel so much safer with you here. But you are going to let me pass. You won’t try to stop me or find me. And if you remember this for some reason, you will not tell anyone about it because you know you’ll be fired and humiliated for allowing a little girl to get past you.
I skirted around Mr. Kakowski slowly, keeping my body facing him. I backed away, and when he stood at his post once more, staring straight ahead like a British Buckingham Palace guard, I ran.
I jogged along the shadows of the buildings and the trees, making my way toward the stable and blotting my nose as I went. The campus was dark except for path lighting along sidewalks, security lamps in the parking lots off to the distance, and lights from two buildings—the library, which should be closing any minute, and the art building where preparations for the art gala were underway.
Approaching the art building, voices startled me. I backed up into darkness next to the building and watched for the people attached to the voices to appear.
A man and a woman materialized around the corner—Dr. Wellington and Cathy DeWeese.
Strange combination.
Their voices got louder, and my heart beat wildly out of control.
“You’ll announce the new rules surrounding The Program tomorrow night? At the gala?” Cathy asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Wellington said. “Security is in place. Staff is ready.”
“Are the necessary parents or legal guardians on board? Signatures in place?” Dr. Wellington asked.
“All but two.” Cathy’s lips tightened into a straight line. “But it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“What about Jack? Is he on board?” Dr. Wellington jiggled the change in his pocket as he walked.
“Jack will be ready by tomorrow night when the announcement is made. He received some bad news tonight. He has no choice but to join our cause.”
“Good. And the girl?”
The girl? Me, maybe?
“She’ll fall in line.”
Fall in line with what?
“Last I checked, she hadn’t submitted her application for The Program. How do you know she’ll join our new and improved program voluntarily?”
“Because, R.W., she’s in love with my son, and she now knows she was created for this. Her father’s killing was unexpected, but it will motivate her. In the end, she’ll do it for him.”
R.W.? Kyle was texting Dr. Wellington?
“Have you had any more contact with the IIA?” Dr. Wellington asked.
“Of course not.” Cathy stopped and turned toward Dr. Wellington. “You know you could have saved us all this trouble had you just told us you had Sandra Whitmeyer’s replica living right under your nose.”
A bone-chilling grin spread across Dr. Wellington’s face. “The Program was carefully planned out long before you ever got involved. Timing is everything.”
“You think the IIA killed Peter?” Cathy asked.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past them. But I just can’t figure out why they would want him dead.”
~~~~
A cool wind whipped through the barn, stirring up dust and straw. I crouched in a dark corner of an empty stall across from Cherriana.
My mind reeled. Did I hear Cathy right? Was she happy about Dad’s death? Did Jack know what kind of controlling, cold woman raised him? Dr. Wellington had known who I was all along? John DeWeese seemed to have my best interests in mind. Did he know who he was married to?
Jack, where are you? I buried my face in my hands. Was Cathy involved with the IIA?
I’m here.
I raised my head. Swiped at the tears burning my cheeks.
Back of the barn, he continued. Where are you?
I scrambled to my feet, throwing my backpack over my shoulder, and peeked around the stall door. He was right there. I gasped. He turned in a complete circle at the opening to the barn.
I steadied myself against the stall door, causing it to bang into the barn wall. Jack faced me. My feet remained cemented to the dirt floor.
“Hi,” he said.
“Where’ve you been?” I asked. I didn’t know whether to blurt out everything that was freaking me out, or give him the chance to explain.
He sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly. “That’s a long story. One I probably should share with you.”
Cherriana bobbed her head in the stall across from me, nudging me toward Jack. He and I had so much to tell each other. I could see pain and tension in the large “v” between his eyes.
My lip quivered. “Oh, Jack.” A sob escaped my mouth. I slammed my hand over my mouth.
Jack dropped the things he held in his hands and closed the distance between us.
Instinctively, I backed away. He stopped, but he was only inches from me. Electricity surged between us.
“What is it?” His hands twitched.
He longed to touch me. I could feel the pulse of electricity between us.
He reached for me, but I leaned further away. It would be so easy to lose myself in him, let him hug my problems away, but his mother… The temperature of my blood rose again. “I think… no, I know... your mother…”
“That woman is not my mother,” Jack all but growled through clenched teeth. He looked up to the rafters. When his eyes found mine again, they softened. “Lexi, I am sorry.” He ran his hands through his hair. “That woman has pretended to want me to stay away from you, but all along, she knew I would lead her straight to you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It was something Seth told me. He said my mom had a lot to gain from the success of The Program. The way she wants The Program to be run.”
“What does that mean?”
“Mom thinks Seth is on her side. That he is ready and willing to teach you and me—”
“And the others,” I added.
“Yes, and the others. But the timing had to be right. And Seth has his own motives which I haven’t quite figured out completely.”
“And that’s why you don’t trust him?”
Jack nodded. “Not completely, anyway.”
“I don’t think...” My voice cracked. “I don’t think Cathy is very upset that my dad is dead.”
Jack’s hands clenched into fists. “Your father was going to move you, Lexi. You know that. Probably hide you forever. Cathy DeWeese was not about to let that happen.” He said his mother’s name like it was venom on his tongue. “I had no idea until now just how important The Program was to her. Cathy is all about control. The Program is her way of controlling us.”
Mindspeak Page 24
