Mindsiege (6 page)

“Which I’m going to go gather.” Seth was halfway out the door when he turned. “Jonas, did you give Lexi a tour of the facility?”

I raised an eyebrow. There was hidden meaning in that question. “Where exactly is this place?”

An arrogant smirk played at the edge of Jonas’s lips.

“As in the location? You don’t know where you are?” Jack cocked his head toward me.

Jonas interrupted. “The Program is located in a building between the UK Hospital complex and the College of Agriculture.”

That was the third mention of the College of Agriculture in one day. I couldn’t think of a single reason my dad would tour that college.

Jonas crossed his arms and studied me from his position beside Georgia. Could it be that there was something to establishing The Program next to the Ag College? The hospital… I understood. But the Ag—

It will all make sense soon, Lexi,
Jonas mindspoke to me.

My eyes darted to meet his, but before I could respond, Jack’s voice brought me out of my own thoughts. “Something’s bothering me. What, exactly, would get Georgia to use her telekinetic power?” He faced away from us. His palms were pressed against the door, his fingers spread wide.

Jonas and I traded guilty looks. We both glanced at Georgia, who had been moved to the same gurney I woke up on just hours before.

“Answer me,” Jack demanded, turning and looking at Jonas. Jack was obviously well aware that Georgia didn’t take her special ability or its resulting seizure lightly. He narrowed his gaze and cocked his head, analyzing something. “What happened to your neck?”

Blood along the two-inch cut just below his ear had dried into two streams running down behind the collar of his shirt.

Jonas touched the spot Jack was staring at. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Who did that?” Jack’s face reddened. His eyes darted from Jonas to me. His hands balled into fists. He looked ready to defend Jonas to the death.

“I did,” I said challengingly. “And Georgia used her power to stop me from hurting him the way I wanted to.”

Both of them looked at me like I had sprouted devil horns. “Why would you slice his neck?” Jack asked.

I opened my mouth to speak, but remembered Jonas’s threat to harm Jack, and his attempt to drown me. A shiver moved through me at the thought of him—or anyone—inside my head making me do things against my will. I wanted him to stay out, but the idea that Jack thought I was lying about Jonas controlling my mind…

Jack stepped closer. “Why, Lexi?”

I ground my teeth. I wanted to scream at Jack. I wanted to tell him that Jonas was a jerk and that he was dangerous, but for some impossible-to-understand reason, I said nothing.

“It was my fault,” Jonas said. “Georgia and I found her at the Arboretum. The IIA was hot on her trail. We had to tranq her.”

“You tranqed her?” Jack paced.

“And then we brought her here. I didn’t know what else to do.” Jonas spoke like he was protecting me. I laughed under my breath.

Since I had known Jack, he’d been thoughtful, but sometimes secretive and standoffish. And overprotective at times. I wasn’t sure which Jack I was seeing today. His eyes burned into mine. “What happened to you staying out of sight?”

My blood heated at his accusatory tone. “I guess with all the voices inside my head, men in black suits chasing me, and the murder of the one person I had hoped would help me, I got a little sidetracked.”

His face softened. “I’m sorry about Marci.”

“Yeah? Me too,” I snapped, then redirected to Georgia. “Will Georgia be okay?” Her body lay motionless.

“She’ll be fine. But of the seven of us whose powers I’ve seen so far, she has the worst side effect.” Jack smoothed my hair away from my face and behind my ear. My skin tingled beneath his touch. “She’s the reason I didn’t want you to heal Addison. Just the thought of watching you suffer in that way… I couldn’t handle it.”

“But I don’t suffer in that way,” I said.

“Addison was the first person you healed. The
only
person so far… No one knew how your body would respond. We still don’t know enough.”

About many things. And we were obviously still getting to know each other, as well as the abilities each of us had. It blew my mind that I may have healed a little girl of injuries where doctors had failed. “How is Addison?”

He looked away from me. Swallowed hard. When his eyes met mine again, he said, “She’s awake.”

He could have punched me in the stomach and not have sucked the air from me as much as he did with those words—and my subsequent feelings of excitement and dread. I had succeeded, but what did that mean? “And?” I prompted. Could she talk? Could she walk? What does she remember?

“And Cathy knows that you cured her brain injuries.”

I pulled back from him.

“Cathy doesn’t understand why we ran from Wellington. Or why we wouldn’t want to learn everything we could about where we came from and what we were created to do.”

Neither did Jonas, apparently. It seemed I was the only one who was constantly aware of the live embryos that were murdered in the process of creating the clones who survived. Three hundred fifty-one, to be exact, according to the anonymous email I’d received before Dad was murdered. Why would I want to learn from the monstrous doctors capable of such unethical experimentation? “Who else knows that I healed her?” I whispered. I suddenly felt claustrophobic. The walls were closing in, and I had nowhere to hide. My hands shook at my side. I tucked them in my armpits and backed further away from Jack.

“Roger Wellington, Seth, and of course Kyle and myself. And now you guys.”

“So, how is Addison, Jack?” Jonas asked from the chair beside Georgia. “Is she all right?”

“Well, she lost nearly two years of her life, so she’s confused, and Seth ordered an MRI and some other tests, but… yeah. She seemed… for lack of a better word… normal.” Jack smiled, relieved.

I wasn’t sure what I felt. As much as I hated that someone close to Jack had suffered, relief was not what I was feeling.

“How did Cathy react?” I asked Jack. “What’s her plan?” What I really wanted to know was what was
his
plan. Would he let his mother control him and his special abilities?

And where did that leave us—Jack and me? We were right back to where we were the moment we bulldozed our way from Wellington: me on the run and Jack taking care of Addison. I was sad to be gone from Wellington, distraught to consider leaving Jack, but nowhere near ready to sacrifice both of our lives for either. There had to be another way.

“I’m not sure. She claims that her intention was always to help us.”

Right. “Any word from your father?”

“Nope. None.”

Chapter Seven

“You didn’t tell him that I was inside your head,” Jonas said after Jack left to find Seth. “Why?”

“How are you so sure I didn’t?” I paced around the room inside The Program. Not giving him time to respond to my first question, I asked, “So, this is where Seth has been teaching you, Georgia, Jack, and Fred about how your DNA was altered?” Convenient for Seth, but not for Kyle or me. Jack had told me he Skyped early in the morning with Seth while I swam. And, as we were informed Friday night, The Program had now been moved to Wellington. Dad had expected me to apply to The Program, but something told me the application process was simply a formality.

Jonas nodded. His arms were crossed. He leaned a hip against the bed where Georgia lay.

“How long have you known you were cloned?” I asked.

“A while.”

Unsatisfied with his vague answer, I faced him. His dark brown eyes pinned me where I stood. “How long?” I demanded.

“Since birth.” He tilted his head side to side. “Well, since I could form and keep memories.”

I gasped, stared at Jonas. “Do you know who you were cloned from?”

He shrugged. “Never met him.”

“But you know who he is?” I thought of the newspaper article—the person of interest wanted in connection with Marci’s murder. The person from the College of Agriculture. My heart constricted a little.

“I know he’s a brilliant doctor somewhere. I don’t believe he knows about me.” Jonas pushed away from the bed where Georgia lay sleeping. “My turn. Jack tells us that you had no idea that you had been cloned from Sandra Whitmeyer.”

“Did he?” Jack hadn’t known until recently that I’d been cloned. Altered like him, yes, but not cloned.

“Don’t be obtuse, Sarah.” He stepped closer. The sound of my real first name coming from his lips sent an ice-cold chill down my spine. It was the name I’d said goodbye to when my father hid me away at boarding school several years ago. “Peter Roslin never told you what you were created to do? That Sandra Whitmeyer orchestrated your entire life?” He stood so close I could smell a hint of vanilla from his soap, masking the cigarette smoke on his clothes.

Backing away, I shook my head. Sometimes the anger at my father for not telling me ate me up inside like a cancer I couldn’t stop. Surely he knew how much danger I would be in if the wrong people found me. But what really kept me up at night and made my blood run cold was the thought that people like Sandra Whitmeyer and Cathy DeWeese had some sort of power to direct my life. That Cathy could put a fence around my school and treat me like a prisoner. That Sandra had some sort of god complex and altered my DNA in such a way as to serve her own master plan.

Or did any of them really have the ability to do these things—to imprison, to control? Could anyone truly control the life of another without permission? I could still walk out right now and not look back. I could choose my path. However, I’d always be looking over my shoulder for IIA agents; I still didn’t know how to get Jonas out of my head; and I’d miss Jack.

I’m amazed at your father’s level of irresponsibility.
Jonas’s voice snaked in and around my thoughts, bringing me back to a reality I had to face. The reality that Jonas—someone—could get inside my head and push my buttons.

“Don’t talk about my father,” I said through gritted teeth. “You don’t have the right.”

“Hmm.” The corners of Jonas’s lips lifted once again. “You don’t think so? That’s interesting. I think I have the right to talk about any of the doctors who did this to us.”

I studied him. Anger flared across his face, yet his voice remained calm. “You don’t like your abilities?” I asked.

“They come in handy sometimes.”

“Like when you want to control someone’s actions? Have someone do something against their will? Maybe even force someone to hurt themselves? Or someone else?”

“Yeah, like that.”

“What did you mean earlier? When you said it wasn’t you who tried to hurt Jack this morning.”

“Ahh.” He rubbed his chin back and forth with his finger. “I’m not under your control now, Lexi. And you can be sure I won’t be letting my guard down on my mind around you again any time soon.”

The muscles in my neck tensed. I knew Jonas could get inside my head. I had felt his presence, heard his voice, and even smelled the cigarette smoke. Now, I was supposed to believe that it wasn’t him? Just because he said so?

“She sure was willing to risk a lot to help you,” I said, nodding toward Georgia. Jonas’s eyes narrowed. He studied me, much like I studied him. “And Jack is quick to defend you,” I added. Jack was ready to trust Jonas to keep me safe, and he’d left me here with him now.

Jonas’s grin grew. “You
did
tell Jack about me, didn’t you? Why else would he defend me?”

I turned my gaze to a stain on the tile floor.

“He didn’t believe you,” Jonas said. He inched forward, leaning his face downward and forcing me to look at him.
Your thoughts betray you, Sarah.

In an unusual moment of confidence, I rotated my shoulders back and stepped right up to him—my five-foot-three-inch frame up next to his five-eleven or so. I looked up. Stared straight into his cold, brown eyes. “How’s your neck, by the way?”

That was when I saw it. Although slight and brief, I saw a flicker of fear in Jonas’s eyes as he touched his fingers to the two-inch slice the scalpel had left.

He wrapped his fingers around my arm, just above my elbow, and pulled me even closer. “You cut me.”

I couldn’t stop the sound of my shallow breathing, but forced a smile onto my lips as my eyes burned into his. “I didn’t cut you. You cut yourself.” I wanted to tell him that if he ever got inside my head again, I would do more than inflict a superficial wound on him. I wanted to tell him that two could play this game he started.

“You won this round, Lexi. But be careful.” He leaned in and whispered into my ear. His breath was hot on my neck. “You’re playing with fire. People who play with fire often get burned.”

His reference reminded me how he’d forced Kyle to stick his arm into the fire pit. I pulled away from him and grabbed my backpack off the floor. “That’s okay. Just so you know, if you burn anyone I love again, literally or metaphorically, the cut to your neck will go much deeper.”

I turned, and had almost made it to the door when he entered my head.
Lexi, I’m going to give you a little gift. Since your father failed you in so many ways, I’m going to show you a little piece of who you are meant to be.

I reached out and wrapped my fingers around the doorknob. My hesitation gave him the invitation he needed to continue.

What you’re looking for is in the Keiser-Boone Building.

Slowly, I faced him again. “How could you possibly know what I’m looking for?”

You’re not looking for the thing your dad discovered just before he was killed? And you’re not searching for the reason I’m inside your head now? You’ll find both inside the College of Agriculture admin building. The Keiser-Boone Building.

“I thought it
wasn’t
you inside my head.”

He laughed.
I never said I wasn’t inside your head. I only said that it wasn’t me who tried to hurt Jack.

~~~~~

The Program was located in a wing of a building near the hospital. Seth worked as a neurologist in the trauma unit of that very hospital, which was where I’d first laid eyes on the one and only Sandra Whitmeyer. Well, not exactly one and only—seeing as I was cloned from her DNA.