A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (21 page)

“Now what are we going to do?” Colin asked. “Should we—” he stopped. “Wait, she’s turning around. She’s coming back this way.”

I moved closer to the front window to see her better. “Come on, Allie. We’re right here. Come on.”

When she got close to our car, I opened the door and caught her eye. “Allie. Get in.”

She ducked down. “Sam? Is that you?”

“Yes. Now get in.”

She quickly got into the back seat, tossing her backpack on the floor. “Oh, my God. It’s you! It’s really you!” She hugged me, then sat back to look at me. “Did you hear my thoughts? I was trying every day! I didn’t think it would work.”

“Yes. I heard you. We can talk later. We need to go. Do you have the files with you?”

“No. I have to go get the flash drive. I’ll be really quick. You’ll still be here, right?”

“Yes, now go. Hurry! And leave your cell phone behind. We can’t have it tracking us.”

She left, not even noticing that Colin was up front. We watched as she walked quickly into the building.
 

Colin turned back to me. “Do you think we can trust her? I still don’t feel good about this. What if she’s working with her mom?”

“I can’t believe you’re saying that about our friend.”

“I’m just trying to be safe. She’s got connections with GlobalLife.”

“Her
mom
is part of GlobalLife. She’s not. And when I was in her head, I could sense that she was trying to help us. I can do that. I don’t know if I told you that before. But I can. I can feel what the person is feeling. I can even do that when I’m just reading minds. I can tell if someone’s sad or happy or angry or whatever.”

“Maybe we should take the flash drive and leave Allie here. She doesn’t need to come back with us, Sam.”

“She might be able to help us in other ways. We need time to talk to her. Maybe she knows stuff that’s not in those files. Stuff her mom told her.”

Colin checked his watch. “What’s taking her so long?”

“Here, she’s coming. I see her.”

“Sam, there’s a man with her. You see him?”

A large, middle-aged man was coming out of the building. He was walking right beside Allie.
 

Colin started the car. “We should get out of here. I don’t trust that guy. Something’s up.”

“Just wait.”
 

We watched them both get closer to our car. “Sam, let’s just go. I’m not letting that guy in the car.” Colin began pulling out into the street.
 

“No, just hold on.”
 

Allie was next to us now, waiting at the curb. The man continued to walk down the street. I opened the door and let Allie in.
 

“Why were you pulling away? Were you going to leave without me?”

“Who was that man you were with?” I asked her.

“What man?” She looked confused.

“The guy who walked out of the building with you. Did you know him?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This city is so crowded that people are always around me. I’m starting to not even notice anymore. He must live in my building. I didn’t even see him.”

We were now sitting in traffic. I leaned up front. “Let me know if you need me to check the map, Colin.”

“Colin?” Allie peered over the seat. “I didn’t even know that was you up there! I can’t believe this! So you guys have been together this whole time? But I thought—”

“No, not the whole time,” I said. “I can tell you later.”
 

Colin glanced back at her. “Good to see you again, Al.”

Allie tried to hug him from the back seat. “I’m so happy to see you guys!” The sincerity in her voice convinced me that she wasn’t part of some GlobalLife plot. She looked me over again. “Are you okay, Sam? Did they do anything to you? Or Colin?”

“No. Well, it’s kind of a long story. I don’t where to start.”

“Hey, did you two ever get married? Or was that just a story you made up?”

Colin laughed. “Just a story. Did you really think Sam would get married at 18?”

“Not really. But I know you guys love each other, so maybe.”

Colin and I kept quiet. I wasn’t ready to tell Allie about our breakup and apparently he wasn’t either.
 

“So what exactly did you read in those files, Allie?” I asked. “How much do you know?”

“I know that GlobalLife messed with your genes. And I know that you have powers, like mind-reading and really good hearing. And the file I saw had something in it about some guy. I can’t remember his name, but he’s just like you. They did something to his genes.”

“His name’s Erik. Your mom’s met him.”

“They held you guys at GlobalLife in Iceland, right? I saw some invitation on my mom’s computer. It was for some event announcing you two. Almost like you were a couple. In fact I think it even said something like the golden couple, whatever that means.”

Colin cleared his throat and muttered something to himself.

“Let’s not talk about that,” I said quietly to Allie.
 

She gave me a strange look but moved on. “So you escaped from that place?”
 

“Yeah. Colin and Dave were in Iceland, too. And Erik’s dad, Jack. And now we’re all here in New York together.”

“The file I saw mentioned some girl, too. Do you know who she is?”

“She’s my sister. My twin sister.”

“No way! Your parents had another kid and didn’t tell you?”

“They didn’t know about her. It’ll take me hours to catch you up on everything, Allie.”

“How were you able to get those files?” Colin asked.

“About a week ago I was at school and I forgot a book that I needed for class. I went home to get it and found my mom there. But she was in the shower. She’d probably been working out at the gym in our building. Anyway, I noticed her laptop sitting there. She always has her computer locked with a password. But that day, she had it sitting there with all the files showing. I saw a folder labeled ‘Samantha,’ so I clicked on it. And there were all these files inside it. Tons of them. They were all locked except for a few that she had open. That’s when I learned all this stuff about Sam.”

“How did you not get caught?” I asked her.

“I loaded the files on a flash drive while my mom was still in the shower. Then I went back to school. She didn’t even know I was there.” She paused. “Why are you guys living around here? The GlobalLife office is so close. You could get caught, Sam. Of all the places to hide out, why here?”

I wasn’t sure how much to tell her. “We just need to get something done and then we’ll leave.”

“Are you trying to get the alien genes?”
 

“How do you know about those, Allie?”

“It was in your file. Don’t worry. It’s weird and all to think that’s inside you, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m not freaked out by it.”

“Well, yeah, we’re trying to get the genes. We don’t want GlobalLife to have them.”

“Me, either. That’s why I contacted you. I think I can help.”

“What do you mean you can help?” I asked Allie.

“I’ll get my mom to tell me where they are.”

“Your mom would never tell you that.”

“Maybe not, but I can still get information out of her. Stuff that might help. I can’t believe she’s involved in this. I feel sick just thinking about it. It’s like I don’t even know who she is. I’m so mad at her, Sam. I’ll do whatever I can to help you stop this thing.”

“We can’t do this on our own, Allie. There’s a whole group of people who’ve been working on this for years. This is way bigger than us.”

“But I want to help, so whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.” Allie paused. “I’m really sorry, Sam, for everything my mom did to you.”

“She didn’t do anything to me,” I lied. I didn’t think Allie needed to know what had gone on between her mother and me at the GlobalLife facility in Iceland.

I spent the next hour in the car trying to explain the basics of what had happened since I was first captured by GlobalLife back in Minnesota. Soon we were back at the house. I dreaded going inside. Everyone would be there waiting to lecture Colin and me.
 

“Allie, they didn’t know you were coming, so just let me explain before you say anything, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” She grabbed her stuff and we went up to the house.

Dave and Jack were waiting at the door. “Samantha, where the hell have you been?” Dave yelled at me. He was really angry. More angry than I’d ever seen him. He almost fell over when he saw Allie. “And what is
she
doing here? Samantha! You know her mother is involved with—”

“GlobalLife. Yes. I can explain. I’ve been hearing Allie’s thoughts, Uncle Dave. She told me about these GlobalLife files she took off her mom’s computer. I had to get the files from her. They might tell us where the alien genes are.”

“Wait a minute! This is Eve’s daughter?” Jack’s face turned red. “And you brought her here?”

Their reaction was even worse than I’d anticipated. “Okay, just calm down. Uncle Dave, you’ve known Allie for years. She’s not part of this. She just wants to help.”

“Let me see your backpack.” Jack reached for it. “And where are these files?”

Allie handed him her backpack and fumbled through her purse for the flash drive. Dave disappeared into his room and came back with a metal wandlike device. Jack held up the backpack as Dave ran the device along all sides of it. Then he went over to Allie and waved the device up, down, and around her and her purse.
 

“She’s clean,” Dave said to Jack. “No tracking devices on her.”

“Did you bring anything else?” Jack asked Allie. “Any other bags? A cell phone?”

“No. Nothing else.” I could see how uncomfortable Allie was, getting questioned by a man she’d never even met.

I stood beside Allie. “Jack, you didn’t even say hello to her. Allie, this is Jack. Jack, this is my friend, Allie. Now can you at least let her take her coat off and sit down?”

Jack moved out of her way. “Sorry, Allie. I’m just not a big fan of your mother.”

“Not many people are,” she said quietly. I took her coat and she sat down on the sofa.

Dave was still fuming. “Colin, how could you go along with this? And Sam, after that incident with the police officer, you should know not to go running off anymore.”

“Okay. I got it. It’s over now. And we have to take Allie back to Manhattan tomorrow, so we don’t have much time.”

“
We’re
not taking her back,” Jack said. “She’ll have to take the train. We can’t risk going into the city. There are too many cameras.”

Before I could protest, Allie spoke up. “I don’t mind the train.”

I took a seat next to Allie, annoyed at how Jack and Dave were treating her. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
 

Jack held up the flash drive. “So how many files are on here?”

“Tons. I don’t really know how many,” Allie said. “But I couldn’t open most of them.”

Jack looked at Dave. “We should be able to open them with that new decryption program. What about the GlobalLife built-in tracking mechanism?”

“The new software looks for that. I made that adjustment last week. Tested it just the other day. If it detects the tracker, the files will automatically be deleted. GlobalLife will never know we had them. It should work just like it did for the files Owens gave us.”

“Then should we get it running? It could take a while to get these files open.”

Dave looked at Colin, Allie, and me. “We’ll be right downstairs. You three stay put. We’ll be back shortly.”

Colin took out his cell phone. “I have a message from Emily. I need to go call her quick. I’ll be in my room.”

“Who’s Emily?” Allie asked.
 

I started to answer just as Erik came up from downstairs. He got a drink in the kitchen and didn’t even notice us sitting in the living room.

Allie grabbed my arm. “WHO—is—THAT? Sam, that has GOT to be the hottest guy I have ever seen in my entire life.”

“Erik? He’s the guy from the file. The one who’s like me.”

She kept her eyes glued on him. “Was he engineered that way? I mean, look at him!”

I laughed. “Yeah, I’ve seen him, Allie.”

“I’ve seriously never seen a guy that hot. Not even in a magazine. Or a movie.”

“Come on, Allie. Colin’s hot.”

“Yeah, but he’s like a brother to me. I don’t see him that way.”

Erik came into the living room. “Hey, Sam. Who’s this?”

“This is Allie. Allie, say hi.” I nudged her, but she was frozen in place, staring up at him. Allie never got that way around a guy. The guys were the ones who froze up around her.

“Hi. I’m Erik.” He held out his hand and Allie reached for it, still in a daze. Erik looked at me. “Is she all right?”

“Yeah. She’s fine. She’s just had a long day.”
 

Erik sat down next to her, leaning back and putting his arm up behind Allie. I thought she might pass out. Erik didn’t even notice.
 

“So she’s from the rebel group? Brittany said you were over at their place today.”

“Um, no,” I said, unsure how Brittany knew to make up a story for me. Had she overheard my plans for getting Allie? Or did Colin tell her what we were doing?
 

“Allie is the friend I told you about. My friend from Minnesota.”
 

“Allie. That name sounds familiar.” Erik took his arm down and sat up straight. “Wait, isn’t her mom—”

“Yes. Eve is her mom,” I confessed. “But, Erik, she’s not like Eve. So don’t freak out.”

Erik stood up. “That evil bitch, Eve, is her mom? That woman made our life hell!”

I got up and tried pushing him out of the room. “Erik, stop it! Don’t say that about her mother!”

Allie stayed seated and put her head down, ashamed of whatever her mother had done.

“Allie, don’t listen to him. Your mom didn’t do anything to us.”

“What are you talking about, Sam? She told you that this Allie girl was only your friend because of GlobalLife! And then that bitch just
had
to be the one to tell us about the pregnancy, knowing we didn’t want that. I can still see the look on her face.”