Authors: Heather Sunseri
He stopped sifting through the pile
of documents and placed his hands on either side of my face. “You have to. I
would never forgive myself if something happened to you because of me.”
“Why the extra security tonight at
the dorms?” Not because of the car accident last week, I suspected.
Jack played with the tag of some
blanket in the back of Seth’s truck.
“Wellington is the new home to The
Program.”
I cocked my head. “You still haven’t
told me what that means. Will the students who are eligible and interested in
studying cutting edge science and medicine, get to do it here? Isn’t that a
good thing?”
“Lexi, do you know how many
students are currently enrolled in The Program?”
I shook my head. I was told very
little about The Program other than I had to apply. It was the precursor to
being admitted to the premed program of my choice. I’d been told it was held on
the University of Kentucky’s campus. I knew Seth was involved. I knew he could
teach me about my personal genetic manipulation. Now I also knew Cathy DeWeese
was involved.
“Four.” He ran both hands through
his hair. “Until tomorrow night.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. Listen to me. You have to leave.
There are too many people who know that you and I were cloned. I have a
horrible feeling about all this. Your dad was killed because he was trying to
move you. He planned to hide you from them. They need you, Lexi. And if you don’t
comply with their wants peacefully, they will force you.”
“What do you mean, they need me?”
“You can heal diseases and injuries
of the brain. That’s what you were designed to do.”
“No, I can’t. I’ve never done that.”
I shook my head quickly as I spoke. I thought of my grandmother’s brain and of
Addison. “But that’s why you came here, wasn’t it? That’s why you found me.
That’s why you watched me for a year.” My voice barely climbed past a whisper.
“Oh, Lexi.” He reached for my hand
and intertwined his fingers with mine. “I thought… You have no idea how sorry I
am. That’s why I got all this. I want to make things right.” His furrowed brows
cast a shadow over his eyes—eyes that were nearly black here in the dark.
Anguish passed over his face.
“Your mom said you got bad news
tonight. That you’d be on board with The Program once you processed that news.”
I scooted closer to him and slid my fingers under his chin. I lifted, forcing
him to look at me. “Does the bad news have anything to do with Addison?”
Jack’s eyes glassed over, but
almost as quickly, he blinked the moisture away. “How do you know about her?”
“I saw you with her. At the hospital
today.” I looked at my watch. 11:17. “I was there. Seth told me about her
accident and her injuries.” I squeezed his hand tighter. “Why are you telling
me to run when you think I could help her? Heal her even?”
He ran his fingers down my face. “I’m
scared, Lexi. I’ve seen your nosebleeds. I’ve practically felt your headaches
each time I’ve taken your pain away. I know how sick I get when I heal a simple
broken arm. I don’t want to know what kind of pain and illness you’ll suffer after
healing something as severe as brain damage. I don’t want this for you. Not
anymore.”
He took a deep breath and
continued. “When I first met you, I thought I could convince you that our
genetic makeup was a good thing. That we could use what Sandra did to us for
good, but I realize now that I’m the naïve one. You have to go. I won’t be
responsible for forcing you to do something that goes against what you have
grown to believe. And I don’t want anything happening to you.”
Jack’s eyes pleaded with me. My heart
broke at the prospect of leaving him behind to bear the consequences of Sandra’s
experiment alone. “Come with me. Please, Jack. I can’t do this alone.”
He grabbed one of my hands and
cradled it in his. “I can’t,” he whispered. “I promised Cathy.”
“What do you mean? You don’t owe
her anything.”
“Yes, I do. They planned to take Addison
off life support Sunday unless I agreed to stay here at Wellington. I owe Addison.
There has to be another way to heal her.”
Cathy DeWeese was a monster. “Then
I’ll stay, too. I’ll do this for you. I’ll heal Addison, then we’ll both run.
Together.” What was I saying? Could I do this and live with the consequences?
What if I failed and did Addison more harm?
“No!” He ran a hand through his
hair. “Don’t you get it? I don’t want you to stay. You can’t heal Addison at
the cost of your own life.”
“What are you saying?” I didn’t
understand. “Healing someone might make me sick, but I’ll get over it. Like you
do.”
“I almost died when I healed too
much too fast. I refuse to take that chance with you.” The anguish on Jack’s
face about did me in.
“Whether I stay or not, heal or not,
is my choice.”
“Yes it is,” he breathed. “But you’d
be making a mistake on both accounts.”
“Your mom thinks I’ll stay and, in
her words, ‘fall in line’ because…” Heat crept across my face.
“Of me.”
Yes, because of you.
I wasn’t
sure Cathy was wrong.
I love hearing your voice inside
my head. You and I are connected in a way that we can never share with Cathy or
anyone. They would use it against us.
They already are.
I leaned
my forehead against his.
We stayed there for several
minutes. There had to be a way out for both of us.
“Do you have a set of all this?” I
gestured to the documents between us.
“Yes. My father made a set for us
both.”
“Your father?”
“Yes. I don’t fully understand it
all, but apparently, he had no idea that Cathy was involved with The Program
until recently. Your dad brought much of this to light, and he’s had his investigator
looking into Cathy’s background.”
Suddenly, a light flashed over us.
We jerked our heads, looked out the window in the direction of moving lights.
Flashlights.
“Get down,” Jack pushed my
shoulder. We stretched our legs out and lay flat. Jack handed me the corner of
a blanket. “Here, take this.”
We shook out the dark-colored
blanket, spreading it so that it covered our bodies.
Both of us fought to breathe
shallow and remain still.
Nightwatchmen, you think?
Jack curled his fingers around my
hand.
Yes.
You think they’re looking for
us?
I don’t know.
Jack rubbed
his thumb back and forth across my hand.
Jack, I’m scared. The guard in
front of the dorm freaked me out earlier. All I could think about was getting
to you.
Minutes passed. Jack peeked from
beneath the blanket. After he sat up, he lifted the blanket off me. “Whoever it
was is gone.” He lay back down on his side, facing me. He cupped my cheek with
his. “I only want you safe. And happy.”
I just want you.
I swallowed
the lump in my throat.
“How did you find out about Addison?”
“Marci texted me Sandra’s last
known address. It was at the hospital. I was looking for her when I saw you
sitting by Addison’s bed. Seth stopped me before I found Sandra.”
“I’ve never met Sandra. Seth is
very protective of his sister. He has security in place and receives a text or
page anytime someone asks about her.”
That explained why Seth found me
before I found Sandra at the hospital. Why the precautions? I thought back to
my conversation with John DeWeese. How Dad discovered she was involved with the
IIA. “Why did your father have documents made for us? Why is he willing to help
me?”
“I think he was living in some sort
of denial up until he saw your picture. He thought all of this had just gone
away. Then he discovered you. When he saw Peter Roslin for the first time in
eighteen years, he knew he had to tell me the truth. The whole truth.”
I wished someone had thought to
tell me the whole truth before now. “So what does he hope will happen now?”
“I think he wants to honor your dad’s
wishes and send you away from here. He’d like your dad’s journals though. He
thinks your dad was trying to get the truth out before he was killed.”
I sat up suddenly. “Crap, that
reminds me. I think I know where the journals might be.” I dug in my bag and
pulled out the puzzle box. “I think the answer is hidden in here somehow.”
I showed Jack how one compartment
opened. He took the box, twisted and turned it several times looking for
another compartment. Finally, I grabbed the box and slammed it into the sidewall
of the vehicle, splitting the wood in several places.
Out fell two small pieces of paper,
rolled into tiny cylinders. One with a string of letters, numbers, and symbols—
a
password.
The other—keystrokes: Ctrl + Alt + *.
“Does this make sense to you?” Jack
asked.
“I think so. But I won’t know
without a computer.” I glanced at Jack. For the first time all night, he didn’t
look fearful or lost, but more… hopeful.
If I could find Dad’s journals,
maybe I’d find more information about The Program, Sandra, and why Dad was
going to remove me from Wellington before I ever started The Program.
I knew one thing for sure. I would
not be controlled by Cathy DeWeese.
“We can’t go back to the dorms
tonight. We have to assume they think we’re there, and not give security any
reason to suspect otherwise.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, we’re
going to sleep… where? Here?” I was suddenly shy.
The corners of his lips lifted in a
slight grin. “Yes. Don’t get any ideas. I’m a man of virtue.”
I giggled.
Just like that, Jack’s grin
evaporated, and his expression looked more serious.
Thank you.
For what?
I cocked my head.
For laughing in spite of all
that I’ve told you tonight. It helps.
I smiled.
Some really smart guy
once told me that if I couldn’t laugh through some of this shit, I’d cry.
“Let’s get some sleep,” he said.
I nodded, then turned and lay,
facing away from Jack. He pulled me closer to his body—my back to his chest—and
held me. His palm pressed flat against my stomach. His fingers eased just
beneath the hem of my shirt, rubbing bare skin.
I’m really going to miss you
.
I closed my eyes, squeezing them
until a single tear leaked out the side.
~~~~
A loud noise startled me awake.
My eyes sprang open. Where was I?
Seth’s truck. I lay still. Waiting
for the mystery sound to happen again.
Jack had a death grip on my waist.
I placed my hand over his. His skin was warm and soft.
Then I heard it again. At first, I
thought it was the familiar sound of the flick of a lighter, but this sound was
different. It didn’t sound nearly as loud as when I was still asleep.
Was I awake now, or was I dreaming?
I gently removed Jack’s arm and sat
up. The windows of the SUV were fogged up. But through the fog I saw a soft
glow. And then I didn’t.
Then it was there again. Each time
I heard a click, I saw orange light. Someone played with what looked like fire
outside the window.
Jack’s breathing remained constant.
I tried to match his even breathing to keep from waking him.
Come on out Lexi. I have
something to show you. You need to know the truth.
Truth.
I knew that voice.
Who was it? Definitely a boy. The window glowed orange again, like something
was on fire outside, and I thought of Dad. And the explosion.
Jack rolled over in his sleep. His
face was so peaceful there in the dark. I thought of all that he’d brought me
last night—the passport, money, all the documents I needed to go to college and
fade into a normal college kid’s life.
Oh, how I wanted to do exactly
that. Escape the messed up life I had here at Wellington and run from whatever
Cathy and Dr. Wellington had planned.
I leaned over and kissed him on the
cheek. My lips lingered a few seconds while I memorized his scent.
Whatever
happens, remember, I did it all for you.
Grabbing my backpack, I climbed
over the seat and out the door.
I followed the figure through the
dark, away from the parking lot. He clicked a flashlight on and off, producing
the same clicking sound that woke me moments before.
The cool moisture of the morning
dew evaporated, lifting with it the smells of grass and pavement. The soft glow
of sunshine appeared on the horizon just beyond the administration buildings.
It was early. The time of day I usually got up.
But why? I was supposed to be
somewhere else. Where?
Why couldn’t I see this boy’s face?
“Hey!” I reached for him, but missed. “Where are we going?” Why was I following
him? He promised truth.
We followed the sidewalk around the
side of the library and approached a building I knew well. The infirmary. Was I
sick? I touched my fingers to my temple. My head didn’t hurt. Though my mind
seemed a little fuzzy.
I wiggled my fingers in front of my
face. My arm wasn’t broken.
I stopped walking, considered a
broken arm, and thought of Jack.
Jack had fixed my arm.
I raised my head and stared at the
figure in front of me. “Come on Lexi. Just a little further. I can answer all
of your questions.”
“Who are you?”
He tilted his head to one side. “You
know who I am. I’m your friend.”
Lexi! Where are you?
Another
voice entered my head.
Jack? I’m in front of the
infirmary with… my friend. Jack, I think something’s wrong.
My stomach
tightened. I stared at the figure. His eyes came into focus, then disappeared
again. He was supposed to give me truth. That’s why I was here.