I didn’t know how long we stayed like that before we finally settled in, and I fell asleep with my head tucked in the crook of his shoulder.
~~~~~
“What the hell, Lexi?”
The sound of Jonas’s voice made me jump. I lifted my head to see him rushing at us.
Jack looked down at me. He was disoriented, as was I. Just waking up, and it being just barely past dawn, made Jonas’s yelling seem all that more harsh.
I shifted so that I could climb down off of the rock. Jack followed. I smiled when I saw how tousled Jack’s clothes were. You should tuck your shirt in.
After glancing down, Jack returned the grin.
As Jonas got closer, I could sense anger coming off of him in waves. Jack stuck out a hand to slow him. “Hey. Take it easy.”
“Take it easy?” Jonas’s chest rose and fell in fast movement. “I just got off the phone with Seth.”
I crossed my arms across my chest. “Yes, and he told you that your lovely mother sent me another video.”
Jack turned on me.
“What? I was getting to it. I can only confess one thing at a time.” I glared at Jonas. Nice job, idiot.
“Just because the two of you seem to have made up doesn’t mean you get a get-out-of-jail-free card. You should have told us about this the minute you saw us yesterday.”
“When? Before or after you drugged and kidnapped me? If I’m in jail, it’s because you guys”—I pointed at the two of them—“put me there.”
At that, Jonas’s lips lifted in a grin.
Asshole, I directed at Jonas. Then to Jack, Or would you have liked for me to have stopped our “make-up” session?
Jack tilted his head side to side, weighing the choices. “What was on this video? Would it give us a hint as to why someone might be going after Lexi?”
“The opposite, really.” I placed a hand on Jack’s arm. “First, are we okay?”
He wrapped an arm around my neck and leaned in to kiss my hair. We’re more than okay. “How much are you still hiding, though?”
Jonas rubbed his hands across his face. A low growl escaped.
“I’m not hiding anything else on purpose. The video Jonas is referring to just happened. Ten minutes before you stuck me with a needle.”
“So, spill it,” Jack ordered.
My jaw hardened slightly. “It would be better if I showed you. It’s on my computer. I think everyone needs to see it.”
Jonas led the way, and Jack held my hand as we hiked the short distance back to camp.
When we got back to the campsite, I dug through my backpack, pulled out the laptop, and handed it to Jonas. “It’s a good thing I had this with me when you decided to kidnap me.”
The weight of a hundred elephants sat on my chest as the group crowded around my laptop, watching the video Sandra sent me. I stood in the back, gnawing on my cuticles.
Jack pulled my hand away from my mouth and slipped his fingers into mine, tugging me closer to him. I’m sorry. This is what you were dealing with when I drugged you and packed you up for a day of hiking?
It’s okay. I squeezed his hand. I tried not to think about the fact that my boyfriend felt the need to drug me in order to get me out of town to talk to him. In a way, he probably saved me from myself in the process. Besides, we probably needed to fight it out to get back on track. Stubbornness never got us anywhere.
It’s not okay. We’re supposed to help each other.
And we will. Starting again, now, I mindspoke.
Jack’s facial expression turned grim when we got to the part where Sandra explained that she had produced a clone of Dani.
He turned to me. Does she realize what she’s done?
I had no idea how to answer Jack’s question. The hate in my heart was growing with each interaction I had with Sandra, or Maya, or with anyone who had contributed to the operation that the IIA was seemingly funding.
“Why is she doing this?” Briana asked, staring straight ahead, when the video ended.
Kyle stood and kicked one of the backpacks. His face reddened. “She can’t get away with this.”
Dia and Lin, who shared a log directly in front of the laptop, remained extremely quiet.
Jonas was in deep thought across from me. “I saw the incubators in the first video she sent. I couldn’t remember where I had seen those before, but now I remember.”
“Yeah? Where?” Jack prompted.
“The previous lab, in Alabama. These machines were delivered just before we moved to Kentucky. Sandra and a lab tech unpacked one of them. They obsessed over it for several days. Then, the day we were to leave for Kentucky, I overheard her tell some guys to send them all somewhere…” Jonas’s voice died off.
“You don’t remember where?” A fire erupted in the pit of my stomach. I had to know where Sandra and John had run to. Where they were growing clones and manipulating the DNA and minds of humans. I had to stop them.
Jonas’s eyes darted from side to side. His head angled toward the ground. “It was a person’s name. But she made it sound like a place.” He combed his hands through his hair, making it stick up in places.
“Maya, or something,” Dia said. Everyone jerked their heads in her direction.
“Oh, look everyone, she speaks,” Georgia said from her place against a tree.
Fred elbowed her. “Be nice.”
“You’re saying Sandra sent these machines to Lexi’s clone twin?” Jack asked.
That didn’t make sense.
Dia, who was nothing like her clone twin Briana, didn’t look anyone in the eye. She wrung her hands. “I remember them talking about Maya around the same time that these machines arrived. I even heard a lab tech refer to them as Project Maya—or something that sounded close.”
“She’s right.” Jonas circled the group. “It was close. Mia… Maria… Maya… Myra. That’s it. She said, ‘Send them to Myra.’”
“Who is Myra?” Kyle asked from his spot by the campfire. He had been trying to get the fire going again so that we could eat breakfast. The way he stoked it, though, it was like he was stabbing a wild animal about to attack.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember anything else,” Jonas said. “Sandra acted like she kept me in the loop about a lot of things, but she really didn’t.”
“Well, we should eat if we’re going to do some training exercises before we head back to school.” Kyle’s voice was hoarse, like he was fighting back rage. He dug through his pack, pulling out some granola bars and packs of instant coffee. He shoved some things back in before turning away from the group.
“I’m going to get you that tea I promised.” Jack kissed the side of my head and went in search of the supplies he’d brought.
I approached Kyle from behind and put my arms around him. “I know it hurts.”
He grabbed hold of one of my arms and clung to it while his body shook slightly. “I should have been able to save Dani.”
I squeezed tighter. “You couldn’t. You would have if you could’ve, but you couldn’t.”
He stepped forward and out of my embrace. Wiping his face with his sleeves, he went back to busying himself with the fire. We were both drowning, each in our own grief and anger.
And on top of that, I couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that this camping trip had torn me away from something important I should have been doing back at school. All I had learned was that there seemed to be another person—another clone maybe—whose name was awfully close to Maya, my evil clone twin.
Something didn’t add up.
Before I could think more about it, Georgia and Briana approached me. Georgia spoke first. “What do you know about Dia and Lin?”
“I know they were victims of Sandra, the way we all have been.”
Briana spied Dia and Lin as they helped make coffee for Fred and Jonas. Lin laughed at something Jonas said. “They just seem a little too reserved for my liking. It’s like they’re hiding something.”
I laughe
d. Weren’t we all guilty of being reserved? Of keeping our thoughts to ourselves? “Guys, I’m the most non-trusting person in this group”—I glanced sideways at Georgia—“well, except for possibly Georgia.”
“Ha ha.” She smiled at me.
I continued, “But I trust Dia and Lin. They’ve been locked up inside a lab their entire lives. I’m sure they don’t know what to make of all this. And they totally helped me when I was inside The Farm.” Well, Lin had. Dia hadn’t trusted me then, but I thought we’d moved past that after I’d helped Georgia remove their trackers.
That seemed to appease Georgia and Briana. They continued to discuss, but I tuned them out as I took in the others. That was when I noticed that Jonas and Jack had disappeared.
I scanned the campsite, and when I didn’t see them, I headed off in the direction of the stream where Jack and I had talked earlier.
The sun was up now, hanging low in the sky and filtering through the trees overhead. We had camped out at the bottom of the gorge. To leave, we would be hiking mostly uphill today.
As I rounded a large tree toward the clearing by the brook, I heard their voices. I ducked back behind the tree, and cleared my head in the hope that they wouldn’t hear my thoughts.
“You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m going to allow you to send her in there as bait again. Lexi and I will disappear before we’ll take on your crazy mother again.”
“What if Sandra is growing super-powered healers, Jack? What if we could cure the diseases that are killing so many these days? Lexi doesn’t want to hear this, but even if Sandra is the devil herself, what she’s creating could be a good thing. Can you imagine the possibilities?”
“But you’re suggesting that Lexi is the missing link to Sandra’s entire mission to create the perfect healer.”
“I’m not suggesting that. Sandra is the one who claimed Lexi is the key. And now she’ll do anything to get Lexi to come willingly to her. That’s why she’s sending Maya in with empty threats. That’s why she’s antagonizing her with video evidence of who killed her father, with images of a clone of Dani. Sandra could have killed Lexi when she had her inside The Farm, but she didn’t.”
“No, she didn’t. Instead, she killed Lexi’s best friend, and your clone twin, right in front of her.” I didn’t have to see Jack to know his face was growing red and that he was grabbing the back of his neck in frustration.
“What I was going to say is that, instead of killing her, it seems like she’s provoking her. Trying to get her to seek revenge. Don’t you see it? Sandra can clone anyone she wants. All she needs is a DNA sample, which she can get from a simple strand of hair. No, Sandra specifically chose to clone Dani because she’s someone Lexi has loved and lost.”
I peeked around the tree. Jack opened and closed his hands into fists. He was taking in Jonas’s words. Jack knew Jonas was right, and I knew Jonas was right—Sandra was provoking me. She was adding gasoline to an already stoked fire. What none of them realized was that I didn’t need provoking. From the moment I saw Dani’s lit-up neurons go dark, revenge had settled into my heart.
Until recently, I just didn’t know how I would get it.
~~~~~
We were halfway back up the gorge before the group began making chitchat again. Prior to that, the forest had been eerily quiet. I’d heard every twig crack beneath the foot of each hiker, oftentimes causing me to flinch for no apparent reason. We single-filed up the path. Jack and I brought up the rear.
I racked my brain for possible locations for top-secret laboratories. I didn’t think Sandra could continue to hide what she was doing at large research universities the way she had at the University of Kentucky and Auburn University. Sure, she could argue to the universities that she was simply researching diseases and DNA patterns. And that might have sufficed at UK, where, from what I had witnessed, she wasn’t actually growing human lab rats. But now that she was doing the unspeakable to human life, I had no doubt she had moved to a remote location under high security.
But where?
I think you’re right.
I jumped at the sound of Jonas’s mindspeak. I had left my mind open.
I’m thinking she’s left the country, Jonas joined in.
Did you ever live outside the country with her before? I stared at the back of Jonas’s head. He was helping Briana climb up a small embankment.
Not that I remember.
Jack and I came to the same embankment. Placing a hand on my waist, he guided me up.
“Thanks.” I glanced at our group, a line of hikers. Kyle, Lin, and Dia were getting a bit ahead of us. I wanted to tell them to slow down and stick together.
I realized that it had been smart for us to get away from school. Jack and I had been able to clear the air. We had all bonded as a group. Even if we didn’t all fully trust one another, we had definitely grown closer. It was a start. And after re-watching Sandra’s video this morning, there was no doubt in my mind that we were all struggling in our own ways with the truth of what we were—and with our feelings toward those who had created us.
Jack was just starting to climb the embankment behind me when bark shattered above my head, followed quickly by a popping sound echoing through the forest.
I ducked, and my breath caught.
Jack barked, “Get down.”
In front of me, Jonas pulled a gun from his waistband—a gun I hadn’t realized he had. He pointed Briana toward some trees. “Go that way. Hide.”
“No. Not without you.” Briana spoke in a loud whisper. Her eyes widened in crazed panic.
Jonas’s face hardened, then he ran gentle fingers down her cheek. “God, you’re infuriating.” He ducked his head and looked back at Jack and me.
I also turned my head to look at Jack. He gripped a knife with his left hand, poised to attack.
“Go back,” Jonas quietly hissed. “There was a small cave opening a hundred feet back. Maybe we can fit in there while we figure out what to do.” Jonas reached out, grabbed Briana’s hand and guided her to pass him and follow us.
Shots rang out again, echoing through the trees, this time multiple shots in quick succession. They came from somewhere above us, and sounded like some sort of semi-automatic rifle.
My stomach lurched. The adrenaline running through me promoted a thought very new to me: as many times as I had turned down guns in the past, I wanted one now. I wanted to fire back at these shooters.
Jack held my hand as I climbed back down the embankment, but I looked up just in time to see Kyle duck behind a large tree, Lin clutching his chest. Dia screamed, then scrambled up the path to where Lin landed awkwardly against some tree roots.
A gasp escaped my throat, and I moved to climb back up.
“No,” Jonas said through gritted teeth. “You can’t help them.”
Jack reached around my waist and pulled me backward, then urged me ahead of him on the path. We ran the short distance until we found the small cave, and the four of us climbed in. It was roomier inside than it had looked from the outside.
Jack, we have to help them. My heart pounded wildly inside my head. I drilled my fist into my chest while trying to find my breath. What about Georgia and Fred?
We’re okay for now, Georgia mindspoke. We went down through some thick trees off the path. We’re hidden. Who do you think that is?
Jonas looked from Jack to me.
They’re here for me, aren’t they? I squared my shoulders, still breathing hard. I can’t let you guys take bullets for me.
Jack spun me around and placed a hand on each of my cheeks. “This is not your fault,” he whispered. “You hear me? We don’t even know what they want.”
Two quick shots were fired, and Jack’s eyes widened. His entire body shuddered, and then he crushed me close to his chest, holding me there.
The sound of fast-moving footsteps made us all stop breathing. I didn’t dare move from Jack’s embrace.
They’re coming your way, Georgia said.
&
nbsp; We hear them, Jonas answered her. Did you get a good look at them?
Yeah. There’re two of them. I’ve never seen them before. They’re young, early twenties maybe.
By the sounds of heavy hiking boots against the dry path, they were just outside the cave where we hid. I wished Briana could make us all disappear. It was theoretically possible for all we knew: Jonas thought she would eventually learn additional mind tricks, much like Addison.
We’re with Kyle now, Georgia reported. Then, with a quieter voice, she mindspoke: Dia and Lin are dead.
I gripped the fabric of Jack’s coat in my fists. My body shook as the effects of grief took immediate hold. Jack held me tighter, and I buried my face into his chest to suppress my sobs.
Why did everyone around me keep dying? I thought of the attorney who presumably lost her life because of information given to her by my father. Why would someone kill her? And what information did she hold that would make her killers come after me?
And then I knew.
Georgia—you, Fred, and Kyle try to keep going, Jonas instructed. Stay behind trees while they’re down here. We’ll let you know if they head back that way. Stay out of sight until you hear from us.
Briana sniffed quietly. I turned to find her in Jonas’s arms.
A voice spoke from outside the cave, and not far off by the sound of it. “Two of them are dead.” It was one of the shooters, and he sounded like he was on the phone. “I don’t know. The redhead, and Jack DeWeese I’m afraid… Couldn’t be helped. He got in the line of fire, and we couldn’t get a clean shot on Matthews… No, she disappeared with the Whitmeyer boy. I understand… Yes, sir, we’ll find her.”
“Well, what did he say?” asked the second shooter.
“We have to find the Matthews girl. We are not to return until she’s dead, or we don’t get paid.”
I looked to Jack with frantic eyes. They think you’re dead. They were obviously aiming at me.
Jonas squatted and searched silently through his pack. He pulled a piece of metal out and screwed it onto the end of his gun. A silencer. Next he lifted a second handgun and handed it to Briana, who examined the chamber. He stood and looked her in the eye, and after a silent exchange, she nodded.
Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3) Page 11
