Two of the men who had helped restrain me approached the bed and I wrapped my fingers around the metal bar I’d been tied to. I swung it at his head and as he fell to the ground, I pushed it into the second man’s chest. The door opened and Parker and the third man I didn’t know ran into the hallway, shouting for guards.
Those guards wouldn’t kill me. They would tranquilize me, and Parker would attempt to restrain me again and reprogram me.
I was the sole survivor of decades of his life’s work, his sick and perverse mission to create life when it shouldn’t exist and to control that life in far sicker and more perverse ways. But Parker made the mistake of housing his experiment in a body that was human then trying to convince me I was just a machine.
He’d overlooked something though. Realizing I loved Saige convinced me I had to be more than a machine, a computer with an organic casing. Because computers don’t love. I’d experienced so many other normal emotions since waking up in Parker’s building where he housed The Genesis Project: fear, hate, anger, revulsion. But it took falling in love to make me realize Parker hadn’t built a machine after all. He’d genetically engineered a different kind of human, but that didn’t make me a cyborg as Cade had once claimed.
And there was no way to unlearn something like that. He could reprogram the coding for those chips all he wanted, but he hadn’t been able to figure out how to get one of us to survive without an organic brain and that’s why I’d failed as his robot, why his projects would always fail.
People can’t be controlled.
I’d removed the straps from my ankles and waited by the open door, gripping the bloody metal tube in my hands. From a different hallway, I heard footsteps running toward this room so I stepped quietly into the hall and took slow, careful steps toward the exit. As those heavy footsteps behind me got closer, I ducked into a dark room to wait.
I listened as they stopped to talk about me.
“He must be hiding in one of these rooms. He’s most likely not armed. Shoot on sight then once he’s out, we’ll drag him to the back.”
“He killed Martin and Fischer with just a metal support from beneath the cot.”
“And killing him is a last resort. Now go.”
Neither of those voices had been Parker’s. That coward had most likely left the building.
I stood still, inhumanly still, in the shadows of that dark room as I listened to their footsteps slowly echoing down the hallway. They were trying to walk quietly as they stopped to search each room, but I could hear them and I knew exactly where each man walked or waited. The entire time I’d been freeing myself and hiding from the men who’d come to sedate me and haul me back to Hell, the buzzing in my mind continued with an endless stream of directives to stand down, not to harm the men coming for me, to cooperate with the Project.
My personal favorite was the signal that tried to convince me I was malfunctioning and Parker was trying to help me.
I finally heard those footsteps outside the door of my room. I wrapped my fingers tightly around the metal pipe and as soon as one last tentative step brought him into my line of sight, I swung it at his head and the cracking, splitting noise that followed as he slumped to the ground assured me the man was dead.
Shouting from the hallway alerted the others about my hiding place and that one of their colleagues had just been killed. Before that day, I’d never killed anyone because it had been my choice. I still didn’t think I’d been left much choice. I had to escape and find Saige, even if she hated me now and wanted me as far away from her as possible. I had to at least try to protect her.
I pulled the body of the guard farther inside the room and quickly disarmed him so I would have something more effective to fight back with than a piece of metal support from beneath a cot. The gun he’d been holding only had tranquilizers in it, but the pistol in the holster by his side was loaded and I pressed myself against the wall by the door where no one could see me. I could do nothing but wait again.
A man’s voice finally called out to me. “Drake, are you receiving the messages?”
Did he really think I’d be so stupid as to answer him right now?
“You’re killing innocent people, Drake. This needs to stop.”
No, you assholes forced me to kill innocent people. There was nothing innocent about The Genesis Project or anyone who worked for this corporation.
“Let’s just let Dr. Parker finish his scan and make a few adjustments,” the man continued. As he talked, I heard the careful steps of another guard coming closer to my room. I held the pistol from the dead guard firmly in both hands and twisted around the edge of the doorway, glimpsing the closest guard and immediately calculating where I needed to fire to put a bullet through his brain.
The guard’s body jerked backwards and fell to the floor. The man who had been talking to me yelled at me as that buzzing in my mind grew louder. I ducked behind the safety of the wall as the tranquilizer dart whizzed past me. I had no reason to hope it wouldn’t be effective: they knew my weight and metabolism and had probably calculated years ago exactly how much sedative would be required to knock me out in case I malfunctioned.
I’d counted four more men in the hallway. I had no way of knowing how many more were waiting in different hallways or outside of this building, which meant I needed to find an alternate escape route other than the door leading outside with the conspicuous red EXIT sign hanging above it.
Trying to access an attic and then the roof by going through the ceiling wasn’t an option since there were no tiles I could easily move. It sounded like the men in the hallway were retreating, perhaps to wait behind their own wall as we prepared to outwait the other in a deadly standoff.
Dying wasn’t an option.
I was getting out of this building and finding Saige and bringing her anywhere she might have a chance to live.
And then I realized I had an advantage over the men who wanted to sedate me and haul me back to Parker’s lab to torture the human out of me.
I wasn’t like any human that had lived before. Parker had designed me with a natural immunity to most bacteria and viruses and parasites and had somehow programmed my body to heal faster than it should be able to. And they’d never actually tested a sedative on me.
It was a gamble – a huge one – to hope that I could make it to the exit without the sedative having any effect on me at all, especially since Parker could have formulated one specifically for me. It wouldn’t have surprised me. But there was only one way out of this room, and at least four men blocked the hall to my left. I had to go to the right toward the door.
I took a deep breath and ran.
I heard movement at the end of the hallway followed by the pfft sounds of darts being expelled from their guns. The sharp sting of a needle bit into my thigh, but I didn’t slow down to remove it. The door was only fifty feet away.
“Drake!” the man yelled. “You’re on our property! There’s no getting out of here. Just stop before you get yourself killed!”
I don’t know what happened to the other dart. Perhaps it sank into the drywall or fell onto the floor and I just couldn’t hear it over the constant noise in my head. I fell into the horizontal silver bar and pushed the door open, and an ear-piercing alarm joined the racket in my mind.
As soon as I reached the yard outside of the building, I leaned against the bricks and pulled the dart from my leg, tossing it to the ground before sprinting toward the trees that lined the back of the property. Voices carried through the night air as more men tumbled from the building in an attempt to prevent me from escaping The Genesis Project. By now, the noise inside my head had grown to migraine-inducing pandemonium. Floodlights arced through the darkness as I continued to run.
If the sedative did have any effect on me, the adrenaline coursing through me helped to negate it because I ducked into the relative obscurity of the trees and lost the benefit of light from the Project’s headquarters. Unfortunately, Parker hadn’t designed me with
the ability to see in the dark. I guessed some things about creating life remained out of his abilities.
I glanced over my shoulder and from the direction of the Project’s grounds I could see thin beams of yellow light bobbing excitedly. They would follow me into the woods with flashlights and all I had was the Glock I’d taken from the guard. I needed to hide, and I needed to find a place quickly.
The soft rustling of pine needles beneath my shoes made me cringe, but I couldn’t stay still. They’d find me. I held my left hand out to feel along the rough texture of the tree trunks that guided me deeper into the heart of the forest. Behind me, the men’s voices and the sounds of their own feet disturbing the forest floor warned me to hurry.
And the entire time, that obnoxious buzzing in my head continued.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could make out indistinct shapes and finally recognized something I hoped would provide me with a defensible position. I tucked the pistol into my jeans and climbed the ladder into the tree stand. The small enclosure at the top of the ladder where hunters waited for deer to pass by offered me invisibility.
Dr. Mike Parker had wanted to create the ultimate lethal machine, and he’d succeeded.
I was ready to hunt.
Chapter 11
The rain fell in heavy sheets as I darted into a convenience store to make a phone call. I had to use a dead man’s cellphone, and I assumed by now they were tracking each man’s number just in case so they’d be able to pinpoint Cade’s location, but what choice did I have? They were likely monitoring his cellphone as well anyway, but I needed to get in touch with him, if he even answered his phone. I sent him a quick text message first so he’d know I was about to call him and it was really me and not someone just pretending to be me so they could find him. My text apologized for accusing him of being my lover inside that bar. I’d never told the truth to anyone, and I was sure he hadn’t gone around sharing that story.
The Project would always know exactly where I went because of those goddamn chips in my head, but if Cade and Saige had managed to evade them temporarily, they might survive for a few more days. But that was the problem: they’d never be able to hide from the Project and whatever governmental agencies they called in to find and murder a couple of people whose only crime had been knowing me. Their only chance for living had become synonymous with mine – we had to destroy them first.
The clerk behind the counter eyed me suspiciously as I shivered by the rack of chips so I grabbed a bag and tossed it on the counter, laying my soaked money beside it. He eyed those bills suspiciously, too, before finally ringing up the chips and picking up the two dollar bills by the corner.
“Keep the change,” I mumbled, snatching the bag from the counter and retreating to the short hallway that led to the restrooms.
I dialed Cade’s number and if I’d been the praying type, I would have offered a quick prayer that he actually answered.
Fortunately, I didn’t need prayer for Cade to accept my call.
I also didn’t even get a chance to say hi.
“Dude,” he hissed, “what the fuck?”
“Um…” I responded. How was I supposed to know what had him so pissed off? Asking Saige to find him? My disappearance? The fact that I was calling him in the first place?
He sighed and gave me a little more to work with than “What the fuck?”
“Why is the Project trying to get you to murder Saige and how are you calling me? Didn’t they bring you in?”
“Yeah,” I told him. “I escaped.”
“You escaped,” he repeated. He sounded both dumbfounded and skeptical.
“Yeah,” I said again. “They’re still sending constant orders, but I’m trying to ignore it. And I don’t have all day here. You know they’re listening to this and they’ve always been able to track me, but they know where you are now, too.”
“So why the hell are you calling me?” he snapped.
“Because you can’t just disappear, Cade. If you’re with her then I might as well join you and help you fight them.”
An airy laugh told me what he thought of that idea before he actually told me what he thought of that idea. “Fight them? We’re all going to die. We can’t fight them.”
“Then I’d rather die trying to defend her,” I insisted. “Now meet me at the bar where you swore that guy was a woman.”
“Dude,” Cade warned. “Say that again and I’ll kill you myself when I see you.”
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me. “It would probably be faster. And it’s not like you slept with him.”
“You’re an asshole,” Cade said before he hung up on me. I smiled at the dead guard’s phone before tossing it in the trash. It didn’t take a genius for anyone who’d been listening to figure out how Cade had discovered that guy was really a guy.
Since I had no idea where he was or how long it would take him to get to the small-town bar in a backwoods area of Virginia, I took my time walking through the rain. I estimated I could reach the bar in about two hours on foot and spent most of the time cutting through woods in order to make it harder for anyone to catch up to me. That buzzing sound never stopped and the directives only changed slightly throughout the day.
Drake, you are now a fugitive. Don’t endanger more people. Stay where you are and let us take you back to The Genesis Project. You will not be harmed.
If Parker could have seen me flipping him off, I would have flipped off the pine trees surrounding me.
As the rain finally cleared and the early afternoon sun came out, the hot and humid summer of the east coast slammed into me like a linebacker. The messages had changed a little during that time, perhaps when Parker realized accusing me of being a fugitive – which I supposed was true now – hadn’t worked.
Drake, you are government property. If you return now, you will be exonerated for your actions this morning. It is imperative that you allow us to take you back to The Genesis Project immediately for your safety and everyone else’s.
This time, I did flip off the trees around me.
The small brown bar finally appeared before me and while I assumed I’d been followed, I quickly went inside anyway. I needed water and even though I didn’t recognize either of the two cars in the parking lot, I hoped Cade had arrived already. As soon as I stepped into the cool air-conditioned building, I spotted him in the corner.
And Saige sat beside him, staring absently at the glass in front of her.
I almost forgot to keep walking.
I slid into the booth beside Cade, careful to keep my distance from Saige, and he grunted at me as he shook his head. “One, you stink,” he said. “And two, why is the Project trying to kill her?”
I glanced in her direction and wished I hadn’t. She still wouldn’t lift her eyes to look at me and the way her fingers shook as she pulled the glass closer toward her made my heart threaten to quit beating, sparing Cade from having to kill me after all. I licked my lips and remembered how thirsty I was. A bored and tired waitress approached the booth and I asked for a glass of water. She rolled her eyes before walking away.
“I don’t know why they want her dead,” I admitted. “Maybe Parker just assumed I’d told her the truth or didn’t want to take the risk that I had.”
“Or maybe he just wanted to punish you for not being the perfect piece of equipment he thought you were,” Cade guessed.
I kept my eyes on the table and nodded. I’d thought that, too, but ultimately, all we really had were guesses.
“How’d he even find out?” Cade asked.
The waitress set a glass of water in front of me and I sipped at it. Of course I already suspected Ramirez had reported me and quite possibly had even lied about some of the details of my relationship to make sure the Project reacted quickly and violently. When I told Cade about the encounter with him at Saige’s apartment and my own suspicions, he interrupted me several times to curse out his former team member.
“Whatever happened to
loyalty among a team?” he finally spit out, although I was almost certain that was another rhetorical question.
“He might have felt like we betrayed him first by having Phillips transferred,” I argued. “And they both always hated me anyway.”
Cade waved in Saige’s direction and demanded, “So that makes killing innocent people ok?”
“You’ve known them both longer than I have,” I countered. “And neither of them cared that we killed the wrong people in Syria.”
Cade just grunted at me again in that way of his when I exasperated him. “I could almost see how they could justify what happened then. That doesn’t make it right, but they’ve been deployed in several long-term operations over there. I’m telling you: after a while, it messes with your head. But what the hell did she do?”
I stared at my glass of water and sighed. “Fell for the wrong guy,” I answered quietly.
“Are you?” she asked. Her voice startled me and I looked at her again, only this time, she glared back at me.
“Am I what?” I asked just as quietly.
“A guy,” she demanded. “You told me you weren’t even human. What are you then?”
Cade snorted so I punched his arm and he yelped then pointed a finger at me. “This is how you repay me for saving the woman you love? You are an asshole.”
I nodded at him. “Never said I wasn’t. And thank you. But it’s not funny and she has every right to ask.”
“Definitely not funny,” she muttered, playing with her own water glass again.
“What’s funny is that he told you that,” Cade said. “He is human. Look at him. What else would he be? When he woke up at the Project, they put all this shit in his head about him not being a real man and how he’s not human to convince him he’s different. Believe me: he’s no robot or anything.”
“You called me a cyborg,” I argued then wondered why I’d say something so stupid when the last thing Saige needed to hear right now is that the guy she’d fallen for and had been sleeping with was nothing more than an expensive government project gone wrong.
Genesis Rising (The Genesis Project Book 1) Page 8
