Blood Ties (26 page)

How scary was it that people could hate you that much, not for anything you’d done, just for how you were born?

For the first time it occurred to me that if my plan to rescue Theo didn’t work, RAGE would certainly kill him too. The weight of what Lewis and I were doing pressed heavily on my chest. This was real. And there was no turning back.

I stood up and went through the combat moves Lewis had taught me.

Theo’s face was in my head as I turned and lunged and kicked and punched the air.

He was the only other person in the world who carried this same accident of birth. This blood tie to another person. The one person who could truly understand how it felt.

I wondered where he was right now. What he was doing.

I wanted to be with him so much that it hurt.

Lewis came in about an hour later. He looked exhausted. He barked something angry in my direction, then quickly strode over and whispered in my ear.

‘We’re on. We’re going to D.C. tomorrow morning. You remember what you have to do?’

I nodded.

Lewis’s blue eyes crinkled into a smile. ‘You’re amazing,’ he said. ‘Don’t ever forget it.’

I spent a whole day in my room without talking to a single person. Mel came in with my lunch, then, later, my dinner. She tried to talk to me, but I didn’t want to speak to her. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. Not even Mum.

I just wanted to forget. Especially who I was and where I came from.

Mel turned up the next morning – Sunday – to collect me for her combat class.

I was still in bed. I hadn’t got to sleep until about four a.m. ‘I’m not going,’ I groaned, looking blearily up at her from my pillow.

‘Elijah says you have to.’ Mel walked towards me. Yesterday’s bruise had faded a little, but her face still looked swollen and sore.

I sat up crossly, the sheets tangled around my waist.

‘Who cares what he wants?’ Irritation itched at my skin like a rash.

Mel frowned. ‘You’ve got to take this opportunity to learn to fight. You may need it.’ She sat on the end of my bed. ‘Theo, I don’t know why Elijah wants you here, but I know
him
. He has a reason, believe me. He always has a reason.’

I stared at her face. ‘Does he have a reason for hitting you?’

Mel winced. She looked down at the sheets.

I was too angry to feel bad that I’d embarrassed her. I was fed up with caring about other people’s feelings.

‘He feels betrayed by me,’ Mel said quietly. ‘He thought I loved him. And now he knows I don’t. He hits me because he gets angry and he can’t stop himself. Then afterwards he feels guilty. Says he won’t do it again.’

‘That’s crap,’ I said.

‘I know.’ Mel gave a heavy sigh. ‘But I’m as trapped here as you are. We mustn’t give up, Theo. You have to keep fighting. Please. We’ll find a way out.’

I glared at her. ‘I’m still not going to your stupid combat class. And Elijah can’t make me. If he was going to hurt me he’d have done it by now.’

‘Right.’ Mel stood up. There was something deeply sad about the way she crossed the room, her head bowed and her hair just brushing the tips of the butterfly tattoo on her shoulder. As she reached my bedroom door it occurred to me that Elijah might hurt
her
if I didn’t show at the class.

Resentment tussled with guilt in my head.

‘Wait,’ I said. I threw back the sheets and got out of bed. I was in my sweatpants already. I reached out for a T-shirt. ‘I’m coming.’

Mel turned round. ‘Good.’ She smiled at me. ‘After all it’d be a shame to lose that six-pack.’

‘Ha ha,’ I said. ‘Very funny.’

I followed her down the corridor to the workout room. The usual assortment of beefy security guards and tired-looking scientists were gathered, waiting for Mel. Or maybe it was the scientists who were the beefy ones and the guards who looked tired. How would I know? How could I know anything for sure any more?

We started the warm-up and I let my body go through the moves it knew so well by now. It was good to have something mindless to focus on. My head was too full of angry thoughts. Against Mum. Against Elijah. Against his – our – past.

As Mel organised us into pairs, most people took a swig of water. I watched my partner: male, slim – a scientist, I guessed – glugging at his bottle. The sight of the clear liquid seemed to clear my own head.

Just a few weeks ago I was a child, imagining my father was a brave soldier who had died for his country. Now I knew the truth. My fathers – both Elijah and my genetic father – were bullies and killers. They were my past. They were my present. How could they be anything other than my future?

I hated them both.

We started on the slow-motion attacking and blocking moves. I stared at my partner. He
was
a scientist. I was sure of it. He had thin arms and greying hair and a slightly timid expression.

I snarled at him, letting all the hate inside me well up. Then I edged closer, punching within a few centimetres of his face.

‘Ready to speed up?’ Mel’s voice sounded far away.

Hate was pumping through my veins. I moved faster. Closer to the man in front of me.

Hadn’t Elijah said he was fifteen when he found out that his father was a cold-blooded murderer? How ironic that I should be the same age.
No.
I gritted my teeth. That was no accident. It was part of Elijah’s plan. Part of his stupid experiment to see how alike we were.

I moved even closer, slashing and jabbing and kicking for all I was worth. All I could hear now was the blood pounding in my head.

Hate was in my genes. It
was
my genes. It was who I was.

‘Theo.’ A hand gripped my arm. ‘Theo. Stop.’

I was so flooded with adrenalin I couldn’t focus properly. Then the room rushed back into view. I was panting, completely out of breath, my fist less than a centimetre away from my partner’s face. He was backed completely against the wall, his eyes staring, terrified, into mine.

‘Stop.’ Mel’s voice was sharp. Insistent.

It was her hand on my arm. Her strength stopping me from punching the man in front of me.

‘This isn’t real, Theo,’ Mel whispered urgently. ‘This man hasn’t hurt you. Let it go.’

Suddenly all the fight went out of me. My whole body released.

‘Nothing’s real.’ I turned on her. ‘Nothing’s real now.’

I tore away and strode out of the exercise room, only barely aware of the hushed voices and pale faces behind me.

As I marched down the corridor I thought of Mum. I wondered how much of Elijah’s past she had known. How she could have agreed to him cloning himself. It was sick. He was sick.

I was sick.

‘Theo!’ Mel was calling out. I could hear her footsteps behind me. I broke into a run. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. I only knew that I didn’t want to speak to her. Didn’t want to speak to anyone. Didn’t want to go back to my room and be alone with my thoughts.

I dived left and right and right and left. As I ran I tore off my cap and chucked it down a corridor going in the opposite direction. I hoped this would throw Mel off my tracks. After a few minutes I stopped and leaned against the wall, panting. I looked back the way I’d come. No sign of Mel.

I knew I should feel guilty. She would be worried about me. She might even get into trouble again if Elijah discovered I’d run away. It struck me that if Elijah knew how much attention I’d drawn to myself in that combat class today, I would never be allowed out of my room again.

Who cared?

Screw Mel.

Screw Elijah.

Screw everybody.

I looked round me. I wasn’t far from Elijah’s private rooms. I had no idea if he was there or not. I didn’t care. I was going to go in there and find out about the Hermes Project. Find out why I was here. Maybe even find a way out of the compound. Well, why not? I’d escaped from school, hadn’t I?

I strode towards Elijah’s rooms.

I’m Theo Glassman.

I need no one.

It was liberating. I didn’t care about anyone any more. I didn’t even care what happened to me. I reached Elijah’s door. I didn’t look round to see if anyone was watching. I stood in front of the iris-recognition pad and let the bar of light stroke my face.

The door opened.

The room was empty.

I headed straight for the desk and switched on the computer. The screen took a couple of seconds to flash into view. I dragged the mouse so the cursor was over the Hermes Project file. Clicked.

Password required

I stared at the box on the screen.

Crap.
What would Elijah choose as a password? I tried his name. No. I tried mine and Rachel’s – both our real and code names. I tried Mel.

Nothing.

I looked round the room, my frustration building. Everything was as it had been before. Just the two closed doors leading to the bedroom and bathroom, the sofas and TV and the holographic wall panel, its leafy trees swaying in imaginary sunshine.

I thumped my fist against the desk
.

Bastard.
I gripped the computer with both hands. Lifted it off the desk. If I couldn’t see inside it I was going to smash it to pieces. Who cared about the consequences. If Elijah was going to hurt me, let him.

Let him freaking well try.

I raised the computer higher, pulling against its wires, tugging it towards the edge of the desk.

‘What are you doing?’ A child’s voice.

I twisted round, almost dropping the computer in shock.

A little boy – maybe five or six years old – was standing just a metre away from me, in front of the holographic wall panel.

‘Who are you?’ For a second I was so freaked out I wondered if I was imagining him.

The little boy wrinkled his nose. ‘I’m Daniel,’ he said.

I stared at his face. It was even-featured – little snubby nose, olive skin, short dark hair, big, brown eyes. My heart skipped a beat. I knew this face.

I had been this face.

I set the computer back down on the desk.

‘How did you get in here?’ I said.

‘Through the magic wall.’

‘What?’ Okay, now I was in serious danger of losing it completely. Either another clone of Elijah was standing in front of me, actually talking about magic walls, or else I had flipped out to planet nut-job proportions.

Daniel pointed behind him to the holographic wall panel. Then he bent down and prodded at a little pad I hadn’t noticed at the base of the wall. The holographic panel slid silently open. A room was beyond it. I could just make out a low kids’ table and a few kids’ chairs set round it.

I stared. A magic wall. Leading to a hidden room.

Daniel stepped inside the room. He turned round and stuck his tongue out at me. Then he pressed something I couldn’t see on the wall beside his head. The holographic panel started closing in front of him.

No.
‘Wait! Stop!’ I walked towards him.

Daniel grinned.

The holographic panel slid shut in my face.

Lewis held out his hand, the fingers together, the palm flat and facing down. He glanced round. Franks was in the plane toilet. Simpson was asleep across the aisle.

‘Later, when I do this –’ he dipped his hand, pointing the fingers to the floor of the plane ‘– get down. As low as you can. Okay?’

I nodded. ‘Don’t worry,’ I whispered. ‘I know the signals.’

Lewis sat back, an anxious frown on his face.

‘Hey,’ I smiled. ‘Don’t forget this was my idea.’

Lewis didn’t look reassured. I knew he felt guilty about taking me into so much danger. The thought of what we were about to do – storm into Elijah’s heavily guarded compound, find Theo and Mel and escape with them – made my stomach churn.

I turned away and looked out of the window. The seat-belt signs had just come on and we were close to Washington D.C. now. The plane had taken off at about ten o’clock this morning, Sunday, but because of the five-hour time difference it was still, now, only midday, seven hours later.

The greens and browns of the fields below were giving way to rows of cream and white houses with brown roofs. From way up in the sky they looked like toy houses. It was hard to imagine real people living in them.

The sun glinted off the river flowing wide beneath us. I stared at the water, going over the plan in my head.
If
we got through the two sets of steel security doors, to the front of the building, and
if
Lewis managed to convince the guards to let us into the compound itself, then the attack would begin.

How it would work made no sense to me. There were only four of us. Me, Lewis, Simpson and Franks. How did RAGE think it was going to overpower Elijah’s entire complex with just three men? And me. Not that I would be a part of it. Before either side could shoot me, I had to somehow make my way to Mel’s room. Lewis had explained exactly where it was and what the number entry code was. He had told me to wait there for him. It sounded impossible.

Lewis left his seat and crossed over to where Simpson had just woken up from his doze.

I fingered the passport in my hands. It was the real thing. Franks had taken me back to my old house to fetch it. He had to break in because the whole place was shut up. It was weird being back there. It made me really miss Mum and Dad. My bedroom was a total mess. Clothes and shoes everywhere. It took a moment before I remembered why. Was it really only a couple of weeks since I was in here last, worrying myself sick about what I was going to wear to the school disco? It seemed laughable now.

‘Cabin doors to manual.’ The pilot’s drawling instruction made my heart skip a beat. We were about to land.

It was time.

We got through Dulles Airport security with no problem, which amazed me. I mean there were questions at the desk – Lewis and I pretended to be a half-brother and -sister – and we each had to have our photograph taken and our fingerprints digitally recorded. But all that was clearly standard procedure. None of the airport officials seemed in the slightest bit suspicious of any of us.

Lewis caught my look of surprise. ‘No criminal records,’ he explained quietly. ‘Except for some ancient assault charge on Franks.’ He lowered his head nearer mine. ‘RAGE are good at what they do. Don’t get careless.’