A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (17 page)

“And, David, we’ll need Erik to try this, too,” Abigail continued. “Even though he hasn’t shown signs of having this power, we need to see if it’s possible.”

“Yes. I’ll talk to Jack when we get home.” Dave turned to the scientist. “Is there anything we should do to help Sam heal faster?”

“Not really. Although she should cut back on the telepathy. That takes brain energy and she needs that energy to heal her cells.”

Dave nudged me. “Got that, Sam? No talking to Erik. At least not with your mind.”

I nodded and got up. “Can we go now? I’ve had enough tests for one day.”

Dave didn’t seem to want to leave. “Would you like to join us for lunch, Abigail?”

“Oh, I wish I could, David, but I have too much work here.”
 

Dave seemed embarrassed. “Of course. You’re very busy. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Abigail placed her hand on his arm. “No. It was nice of you to ask. It’s just not a good time right now. But maybe dinner sometime.”

Dave beamed. “Yes. Absolutely. Dinner would be wonderful. I look forward to it.”

I felt like I was watching a couple of teenagers. The two of them couldn’t take their eyes off each other.
 

As we were leaving, Rachel raced up to Dave. “You can move into that house I told you about any time. Here are the directions. There’s a car there that you can use as well.”

“Thank you, Rachel. I’ll tell Jack. I’m hoping we can get out of there yet today.”

When Dave and I returned to Owens’ house, the whole upstairs was empty and quiet. We went to the basement and found everyone standing around the giant monitor on the wall. Owens’ image was on the screen. He looked very angry.
 

“Preston, is there a problem?” Dave asked.

“Where have you two been?” Owens demanded. “What’s going on there, Dave?”

“Nothing. Samantha and I were just upstairs. Why are you so angry, Preston?”

His face became red as he raised his voice. “Because I had a plane waiting. Do you know how much money that costs? And then that boy,” he pointed at Colin, “he just—just decides not to go? You! What’s your name?”

“His name is Colin,” Dave answered. “And yes, he decided not to go. Why are you getting so upset about this? Because of the money? He’s sorry for that, aren’t you, Colin?”

Colin looked at Owens. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
 

“Never mind that. I have another plane waiting. Dave, I want you to take him there right now. He’ll be in Minnesota by evening.”

I ran up to the screen. “No. Colin’s not going. He’s staying here.”

“Stay out of this Samantha!” Owens ordered. “That boy is going home. He leaves today and that’s final.”

I could sense Colin’s anger. “You can’t force me to go!”

Owens got closer to the camera, his face filling the monitor. “I sure as hell can! That’s my house you’re in. And you can’t stay there! I won’t allow it!”
 

“Then I’ll go stay somewhere else. I’ll leave right—”
 

“Okay, wait,” Jack intervened. “Let’s just hold on a minute here. What is this about, Preston? There’s no reason why Colin shouldn’t be able to stay here.”

Owens lowered his voice but was still irate. “That boy has no use being there. Samantha and Erik need to focus on their abilities. They need to focus on each other. Learn from each other. They are a couple, dammit!”

Erik and I looked at each other. “We’re not a couple,” I insisted, glancing at Colin. “Erik and I are just friends.”

“Say what you want, Samantha, but I saw you and Erik at GlobalLife. Carrying on the way you did.”

“That’s enough, Preston.” Dave stood up tall and approached the screen. “You heard Samantha. She and Erik are just friends. And I don’t like the way you’re speaking to her. Or the rest of us. Remember that we’re only here to help you locate the genes. That was our agreement. Nothing more. But I can see now that you’re taking this arrangement of ours too far. Living here was a bad idea. We’re moving out of this house.”

“You can’t leave!” Owens exclaimed. “The house you’re in is secure. Any other place you go isn’t safe. They’ll find Samantha and Erik. They’ll find all of you! The GlobalLife offices are less than an hour away!”

“Sorry, Preston. But it’s not your decision. If you still want Jack’s and my help in decrypting those files, we’ll do so. But you can’t tell us where to live.” Dave looked at Colin. “Or who we live with.”

“This is suicide, Dave! You know that, don’t you? You won’t last a minute out there on your own! And Samantha and Erik will be in GlobalLife’s custody within a day. Maybe even less.”

“That’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Dave said calmly. “Now I think we’re done here.”

Owens was fuming. “You’re making a huge mistake, Dave! One that will have dire consequences!”

Dave turned and walked upstairs. The rest of us followed. We could still hear Owens shouting when we got to the kitchen.

“I hope you have a plan, Dave,” Jack said.
 

Dave gave him a look to keep quiet as he pointed to the listening devices. We walked quietly into the side bedroom, where we could talk without being overheard. Dave told everyone about the house Rachel had waiting for us. We started packing our stuff. Within the hour, we were out of there.

The new place was an old house, similar to the one we’d just left. But it had a much brighter feel to it because we were free from Owens’ constant watch. There were only three bedrooms in the new house, so Brittany and I stayed in one, Colin and Dave in another, and Jack and Erik in the remaining one. There were farm fields on all sides, just like the house where Jack and Erik had lived back in Texas. Jack smiled when he saw the place because it looked so similar to his former home.

After I unpacked, I went out back and found Colin sitting on the porch steps. “What are you doing out here? It’s cold.” I sat down next to him.
 

“I was just thinking about what Owens said.”

“About you going back to Minnesota? Don’t listen to Owens. You need to be here.”

“Not about that. I was thinking of what he said about you and Erik. He seems convinced that you two are a couple.”

“He’s a crazy old man. Erik and I are not a couple. I want to be with you. I know we’re not dating right now, but I want this to work out. I love you, Colin. I don’t love Erik.”
 

“Um, Sam?”
 

I turned to find Erik standing right behind me inside the house with only the screen door between us. I was sure he’d heard everything I’d said.

I quickly got up, turning to face him. “Erik. I didn’t know you were there. Did you need something?”

“Abigail is here. I’m supposed to try that mind control thing. She wanted you to sit in. I’ll tell her you’re busy.” I could hear the sadness in Erik’s voice. I knew he still had hope that I might go back to him, especially since Colin and I weren’t technically dating. He turned away and left.

I sat back down next to Colin.
 

“He still loves you.” Colin stared out at the open fields.
 

“Erik? He does not. He never has. I told you, we’re just friends.”

“Erik and I have already talked about this, Sam. He’s not giving up on you.”

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter what he thinks. You’re my future, Colin. Not him.”

“And what if we don’t get back together?”

“Don’t say that. It’s too soon.” I paused. “And if we don’t get back together, I guess I’ll be alone the rest of my life.”

Colin didn’t respond. I knew he didn’t believe it. It would take more time before he would accept that Erik and I were no longer involved.
 

As we got up to go inside, I felt dizzy and had to sit back down.
 

“. . . running out of . . . need to listen. Can you . . .
 
Sam?”

A voice was in my head but I could only hear a few words. And I didn’t recognize the voice. It was too faint.

“Sam, is something wrong?” Colin was beside me.
 

I listened for the voice again, but it was gone. “No, it’s nothing.”

When I went back inside, Erik was working with Abigail on mind transference. He tried getting into Jack’s head but couldn’t. Erik hadn’t told anyone besides me how he’d already been in Brittany’s head. I almost told Abigail that myself but didn’t, knowing it would make Erik angry.
 

Before going to bed, I decided I had to talk to Erik about what he’d overheard earlier.
“Erik, are you listening? It’s Sam.”

He answered almost immediately.
“I thought you said no mind-talking.”

“Yeah, well, I need to now.”

“So you get to decide when we do this? You’re such a hypocrite, Sam.”

“Hey, don’t be mad at me. I didn’t know you were listening today. I’m sorry you heard all that.”

“Why? I needed to hear it. So you don’t love me. Good to know.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you. I just don’t love you that way.”

“Whatever that means.”

“We’re friends, Erik. Close friends. But I love Colin. You have to understand that.”

“I get it, Sam. You want me to move on. But if it doesn’t work out with him, don’t come running back to me. This is it. This is your last chance. So tell me, are you really choosing him?”

I hesitated, then finally answered.
“Yes.”

He abruptly cut off his thoughts so I couldn’t hear them.
I was left in silence.

The rest of the week was eerily quiet. We had no communication from Owens, but Jack and Dave continued to work on decrypting the files he gave them. It wasn’t going well. As soon as they got through one layer of security, they’d find another.
 

I tried to rest my mind all week, not even mind-talking with Erik. Brittany and I had nothing to do, leaving us time to talk and hang out together. She still wouldn’t tell me about her time at GlobalLife. But Erik said she was confiding in him, so at least she was talking about it with someone.
 

Colin spent the week with Aiden, a young guy from the rebel group, who prepped him for his encounter with The Academy girl. In the evenings, Colin and I hung out and watched TV with Erik and Brittany. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t get any kind of romantic response from Colin. He was definitely playing hard to get and taking this just-friends agreement seriously.

On Sunday night, we had a big family meeting. “It’s been an interesting week,” Jack said. “We’ve heard nothing from Preston, which makes me very worried. I’m certain he’s looking for us. And because we could be followed at any time, none of you are to leave the house without telling Dave or me.” Jack looked directly at me, thinking I might run off again.
 

Dave got up to speak. “This week, Colin will be taking the car in the afternoons so he can meet with Emily.” Dave held up a large headshot of a girl with long, straight brown hair and a beautiful face. She had deep blue eyes and a warm, pretty smile surrounded by dimples. She was not at all what I expected. For some reason, I’d pictured a mean-looking girl with harsh features. This girl had delicate features and looked really nice.

“Can I see that?” Brittany grabbed the photo from Dave. “Wow. She’s really pretty.”

“Let me see.” Erik took the photo from Brittany. “Damn, she’s hot! Nice assignment you got there, Colin.”
 

“So what else do you have to tell us?” I asked Dave, trying to move on from Emily.
 

“You and Erik will spend the week working on mind transference with Abigail and her assistant.” Dave smiled just thinking about Abigail. We all stared at him and his cheeks turned red. “Yes, well, um, Sam, if you have even the smallest headache, tell them. Same for you, Erik. But the practice sessions should cause no harm. Abigail explained that the damage occurs when you try to control someone you don’t know well while under stress. Like when you controlled that police officer, Sam.”

“What about the alien genes? Are we any closer to finding out where GlobalLife is storing them?” I asked Dave.

“Unfortunately, no. Jack and I haven’t been able to get past all the layers of security in those files Owens gave us. But we’re getting closer. We think if we find the—”

Dave stopped when we heard a knock on the door. We all sat in silence as the knocking continued. It was late at night. Only a few people knew we were there. And they would always let us know when they’d be coming over.
 

The knocking stopped. Dave signaled for everyone to keep quiet.

The knocking began again, then a voice yelled from outside. “Is anyone in there?”

Erik jumped up, instantly recognizing the voice. He opened the door to find Rachel, shivering from the cold. “I didn’t think you’d ever answer. Hi, Erik. Hi, everyone.”

“What are you doing here?” Dave asked. “And at such a late hour?”

“Owens sent me,” she replied casually.

“What?” we all said, practically in unison.

She smiled. “Relax. He knows you’re staying here. But he won’t bother you. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on you.”

“How did he know we were here?” Erik asked.

“I told him. I had to. I need to make him trust me. And he would have found out eventually. He was in the process of hiring someone to track you down before I volunteered. Wouldn’t you rather have me be his spy than someone else?”

“Still, you could have told us,” Jack said. “Should we be expecting other surprise visits from you? Or Owens?”

Rachel took a seat next to Colin. “Surprise visits? I left a message that I was stopping by tonight. I left it on that secure cell phone we gave Colin to use so he can call that girl.”

Everyone looked at Colin. “Oh, sorry. I wasn’t checking it.”

“Anyway, I had some updates to share with everyone.”

Jack sat down. “Go ahead. We were pretty much done here.”

“Well, so far, my new position at GlobalLife has been going well. I’ve been able to meet some high-up people there who I think might have access to the alien genetic material. But it could be a while before I get any information from them. After all, I don’t have a close relationship with anyone there like I did with Drew.”