He flipped the phone shut and tossed a pile of folders displaying the names of his
creations
on his desk.
Leland peeked over the monitor, his eyes glimmering with curiosity. “Well?”
Needing to calm himself, George waited a moment before he answered, “It seems Ellyssa has found friends.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone has found her.”
“Has she been harmed?”
A tic found residence in George’s jaw. He fought to maintain control. “They do not know.”
“What do they know?”
The doctor felt the last of his patience dwindling away. “There was some sort of altercation.”
Leland leaned back in the computer chair, resting his arms behind his head. His fingers disappeared into his thick locks. “Renegades?”
The doctor nodded.
“Maybe she got away.”
“Detective Petersen does not think so.” Thoughtful, George’s brow knitted together as he pulled Aalexis’ file over to him.
He opened the folder to the blank-face stare of his youngest. What was going on with them? First, one escaped and now another was growing defiant. He needed to finish his work before anything else went wrong.
“I have something to show you.” Leland’s voice broke into George’s thoughts.
Still holding Aalexis’ file, the doctor stalked to Leland’s computer. “This had better be good.”
“It’s even better than good.” The young man scrolled through the file menu of recent tapings until
Subject 67-Ahron
was highlighted. He double-clicked and hit the play button, then slowed the frames down.
Ahron stood at one end of a bulletproof chamber, his platinum hair glowing iridescent under the overhead lights. Thirteen meters away, an AR-15 rested on a tripod, bolted into the floor and targeted on his chest. The bolt slid back and ejected a shell casing when the rifle fired. While a small wisp of smoke dissipated in the air, the speaker boomed. The boy completely disappeared as the bullet passed through and drilled a hole in the target behind him. Ahron returned, solid, unharmed.
With his cursor, Leland moved a slide bar down, sectioning each second into tenths. “Count from the moment he disappears until he reappears.”
As the frames ticked by, George counted. “Seventeen.”
“Yes, three-tenths longer than before. Now, watch this.” He went back to the previous screen and clicked on Xaver’s file. Same setup as Ahron’s, Xaver also stood at one end of the chamber, his young face appearing bored. Again, an echo of the rifle boomed from the speakers, right after smoke appeared. The bullet fell to the ground a meter away from Xaver.
Leland spun around and faced his mentor. “I’ve been measuring every test. The time increases, even if it is minutely. You were right.”
Pride lifted George’s spirits, a smile pulling the corners of his mouth. His cause was not lost; his prodigies’ powers were growing. He would get Ellyssa back. He just needed to exert patience and not forget his self-control. His plans would come to fruition, a perfect creation born.
The smile on his face grew.
He could only imagine the manic expression his assistant must be witnessing. Blinking, he turned away and concentrated on his composure. If he was to be the bringer of greatness, he had to keep his sentiments in check.
“Their powers are growing,” George said, managing to keep his voice level. “Tomorrow, I want you to start new instructions. I want Ahron to stay invisible longer. Xaver needs to extend his energy shield to protect others.”
“What? Who would we use as guinea pigs?”
Emotions under control, George leveled his eyes on Leland’s. “There are imperfects at your disposal.”
“I-I can’t do that.”
“Of course you can.” George clapped the assistant on the shoulder. “The outcome is worth the sacrifice.” He paused for a moment as he tossed Aalexis’file on Leland’s desk. “The test results show no indication of any type of breakdown in emotional responses.”
“Maybe pubertal changes,” Leland suggested, his voice distant.
“I tested for the possibility.” George paced back to his desk. “Nothing, but there is one thing.”
“What?”
“Aalexis is a very powerful, intelligent teenager. Superior to all others The Center has created thus far. And she knows it. I would say it was more of a God complex incomparable to all the others. She feels we are wasting her time and her talent on batteries of tests. She feels she has already proven herself.” He shrugged. “The tests are useless on her.”
Leland’s eyebrows thrust upward. “Great. A thirteen-year-old narcissist.”
A hint of a smile played across Dr. Hirch’s lips. “Yes.”
“It could lead to dangerous consequences.”
The doctor shook his head. “Not at all. She is obedient to me. We just need to find something to challenge her. Something beyond her current capabilities.”
“Like what?”
“So far, everything she has done has been in a controlled environment without extraneous variables. We need to see how well she manipulates matter while under pressure.”
15
The monitor lit up, illuminating the small workspace at the desk. A blinking command told the user to enter a password. After checking over her shoulder, Ellyssa slipped the flash drive she used for lessons into the USB port and entered a sequence of symbols. In less than a minute, the command hardcoded into the system and opened a backdoor. A list of files popped onto the screen
.
She scrolled through the list until she found Dr. Hirch’s file. She clicked “open” and another list of subject numbers, from fifteen to seventy-six, came into view
.
Seventy-six? There was a seventy-six?
Ellyssa clicked on a random file and a colored photo of a female baby downloaded onto the screen. The face of what should have been a cherub was completely deformed. One eye drooped below the other, and the mouth and nose slanted strangely to the side. Two stubs stuck out from the side of the ribcage, resembling unformed nubs on a fetus. Its tiny feet were twisted inward. The baby had been terminated a couple of weeks ago
.
Ellyssa clicked back to the subject numbers and scrolled to number twenty. A black and white photo of a female dressed in a hospital gown appeared. Her eyes were widened in horror and a silent scream was forever plastered on the digital face
.
Frowning, Ellyssa wondered what had happened to her. She double-clicked the file next to the picture and read about a young female known as Subject 20, Ida. The emotional breakdown after she had lit test subjects on fire with nothing more than a thought. Ordinary citizens had been used for testing. The subject couldn’t handle the guilt
.
Guilt…the word floated in Ellyssa’s head as she followed the link offered at the side, and read Dr. Hirch’s notes. According to the doctor, Ida was less than a savory soldier. She was weak and ineffective. Her IQ was average. Her ability to start fires was on a hit-and-miss basis. She’d been terminated.
Guilt?
“Hey?”
The doctor’s voice hovered along the edges of Ellyssa’s daydream. She flipped around to Doc’s wide smile. Her lips twitched in response.
“I brought you some lunch.” He held a red tray.
“Thank you, Doc. I am hungry.” She crossed her legs and positioned the tray on the crook of her knees. A slice of bread, a blob of peanut butter, and a small glass of milk.
“Please, call me Mathew. It’d be nice to have someone refer to me by my real name.” He looked apologetic at the food. “I know it’s not much.”
The scent of garlic clung to her caregiver’s clothes. He smelled wonderful. She thought about talking to the doctor about his lunch so she could steal the image, but that would be intrusive. And, for some unforeseen reason, doing so seemed wrong. The images she’d already picked from him had been, overall, helpful, and goodness thrummed inside him.
Ellyssa liked the doctor, which was completely foreign in her limited experience with emotions. She hadn’t ever liked anyone before. Including her father and her siblings. Even stranger, she also trusted the doctor after all he’d done for her.
The emotions she’d kept guarded her entire life were finally free to roam. No worries about being discovered, about being punished.
“It is fine, thank you.”
Mouth watering like an open floodgate, she swabbed peanut butter onto the bread and took a bite, then washed the stickiness down with warm milk made from a powder mix.
“The others will come around. They’re just a little shocked to learn you came from The Center.”
She nodded while she took another bite.
“I was hoping we could talk.”
Ellyssa stopped chewing and swallowed the bread in one lump.
Mathew sat on the edge of her cot, clamping his hands together. “I know it’s hard to trust. But there are some things we need to know.”
“Like what?”
He looked away. “I’ve been trying to understand.” His gaze swept back to her. “Can you describe the man who called to you?”
She placed her bread on the plate. “I really did not see much of him. The
Gestapo
brought him to The Center. I was intrigued. I had never seen anyone with dark hair before. He looked fit, but dirty. He wore a dark short-sleeved shirt and camo pants, like you and Rein, and all the others I have seen, wear.”
“What did you mean by him calling you?”
Ellyssa had known, eventually, someone was going to ask her. How could she explain without giving herself away? She might trust the doctor, but not enough to reveal her secret.
“He yelled in my head,
Kansas City
. I do not know how to explain it. I just came. I had to.”
The expression filling Mathew’s face was hard to read. Shocked surprise mixed with disbelief?
“It was Jeremy.” He looked down at the floor. “It had to be.” He pulled at the fingers of one hand.
“Jeremy?” The name rolled off Ellyssa’s tongue.
The doctor nodded as his face fell. “He had the ability to speak to you without vocal words. Only a few of us knew about his ability.”
Ellyssa’s face slackened and her jaw dropped, mimicking the shocked surprise Mathew’s face had held. Renegades had abilities? These skills were only supposed to be possible through genetic engineering. The Center would be very interested in these extra senses developing within inferior beings.
Ellyssa felt… She really couldn’t identify the sensation. Not good? Shameful? These people who’d helped her were lots of things, but not inferior. Her father had been wrong, wrong on so many accounts. Inferior beings couldn’t have developed a way of survival as these people had.
Averting his eyes, Mathew clamped his mouth closed as if he’d said too much. She could read the confusion on his face as he struggled between what he should and shouldn’t tell her. After a few seconds of silence, he straightened his spine and pulled his shoulders back as if he had come to a decision.
“What happened to him?” he asked.
“I think he was terminated,” Ellyssa said. “His voice…stopped.”
Sadness flowed into Mathew’s eyes. “I see.” He leaned close and touched her hand. “Thank you,” he whispered. There was a hitch in his voice.
A rolling sound hummed down the rocky ground of the corridor. “Let’s keep this between you and me for right now.” Standing, he replaced his previous smile as if nothing had transpired. Unlike before, it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s your lucky day,” he said as a female dressed in the same clothes as everyone else came in pushing a cart with a bowl on top. On the bottom shelf sat a pitcher with steam rising from it.
“We’re washing your hair.”
Ellyssa’s heart thumped pleasantly at the thought of being clean. She’d never imagined little things such as washing hair could bring such joy. It was a little silly, but she couldn’t stand the filth any longer. Her head felt like a thick, muddy tomb encased her scalp. She hurriedly gulped down the rest of her lunch while the doctor grabbed a bottle, towels, and a brush from the cabinets.
The female stared at Ellyssa, a small grin twitching at the corners of her full lips. She was tall, thin, and fit. Her eyes were crystal blue and her features were pleasing, with high cheekbones and a small chin. Waves of blond hair cascaded around her shoulders. An acceptable citizen, according to society’s standards.
Her manners weren’t up to par, though. “You look awful,” she said, her nose curled in disgust.
“I’m sure she appreciates your evaluation,” Mathew remarked as he placed the items on the cart.
“Hey, I call it as I see it.” The female smiled and took hesitant steps toward Ellyssa with her hand extended, as if trying to tame a small animal. “I’m sure you don’t remember me, you were pretty out of it, but I’m Trista. I helped you get settled onto your cot.”
Ellyssa eyed her offer of friendship warily.
The smile faltered. “It’s okay. I don’t have cooties.”
Ellyssa glanced at Mathew. He nodded encouragingly.
Trust
.
She shook her hand once, quickly releasing afterward. The gesture pleased the newcomer.
Beaming, Trista said, “I have something else for you.” She bounced to the cart and showed Ellyssa a pair of pants and a black shirt. Trista eyed the clothes, then Ellyssa. “I think they’ll fit. Good guess on my part.” She spun around. “You need any help?” she asked the doctor.
“I don’t think so. We got it covered.”
“Suit yourself. Bye, Ellyssa. It was nice to finally meet you.” Trista’s voice followed her out the door.
“Can you stand?” the doctor asked as he wheeled the chair over to the cart.
Afraid of getting sick like earlier, she eased onto her feet, faltered, and slowly stepped toward the chair. Her natural grace was gone. Her muscles felt strange and foreign, but at least they supported her.
Mathew smiled as she moved toward him. “I think it’s time for you to get some exercise,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “It’ll make you feel better. We’ll start on that tomorrow. Would you like that?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Have a seat,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’ll help you get started.”