A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (30 page)

I heard gasps from the people who obviously had not heard the rumors yet.
 

“Now calm down. Everyone. Please.” Loflin tried to regain control of the meeting. “The technology is almost ready. We’re just running it through some final tests to make sure that it will perform exactly as promised.”

Wolcott spoke again. “I don’t believe a word of it. Just last week I was reading an article from some very prominent scientists. It said that this type of technology isn’t feasible in the human body. That it enters the cells and destroys them from within. Soon your vital organs shut down and you’re dead.”

More gasps and rumblings from the Founders filled the room.

“No! That’s not true.” Loflin raised his voice trying to be heard above the noise. “Those are all rumors. None of them are true.”

The Founders didn’t hear him. They were too busy talking amongst themselves.

“Hold on,” Wolcott yelled. “Everyone, listen up!” The mumbling ceased as Wolcott took control again. “I have an idea.” He paused to make sure everyone was listening. “If GlobalLife is so insistent that this technology works, and they’re so sure that it’s safe, then I say we have them try it on one of their own.”

Silence filled the room. I could almost hear Loflin’s heart beating out of his chest.
 

Wolcott continued. “And I would like to volunteer our first test subject. Ms. Eve Taylor.”

“No! Wait!” Eve cried out. “That’s not necessary! We already know the technology works! And it’s perfectly safe! Tell them, Alistor!”

“If that’s true, then you should have no objections to it, Ms. Taylor,” a man said.
 

“Yes. In fact, you should be honored to be one of the first recipients,” a woman added.

“You’ll be granted all of those abilities before we are,” another man chimed in. “Exceptional senses, extraordinary strength, telepathy. How could you possibly refuse such an offer? Unless there’s something you’re not telling us, Loflin.”

“No. Not at all. Eve would be happy to test the genes. We’ll do it right away.”

“But, Alistor,” Eve protested. “All of you, listen! I didn’t do anything you’re accusing me of. I’m innocent. I’m a Founder myself! I’m one of you. I’m—”

“You’re newly initiated,” a man said. “Obviously it was a poor choice on our part. Walter, make a note to remove her husband from our ranks as well.”

“Take her away,” Loflin ordered. Eve muttered something as she was being escorted out of the room.

“I want proof that it’s been done,” Wolcott demanded. “I want video of the procedure. Then I want to see that it’s working. I want to see her perform like Samantha did. The mind reading. The strength. I want to see all of it. Otherwise, I’m leaving this project and my money’s coming with me.”

“Now, just wait a minute,” Loflin urged, panic in his voice. “The abilities don’t show up that quickly. They need time to develop. You can’t expect—”

“I sure as hell can! I’ve invested millions in this.” Wolcott raised his voice. “And so has everyone else here. It’s our right to expect that you’ll deliver on what you promised. And if you don’t, we’ll take our money elsewhere.”

Clapping sounds filled the room.
 

“We’re tired of waiting,” a man said.
 

“We demand answers,” a woman called out.
 

“Everyone, please. May I have your attention,” Loflin yelled over the clapping. It eventually quieted. “I’ve heard your concerns and I assure you that we here at GlobalLife will do all that we can to address them. I thank you for your time today and your continued commitment to the project.” Loflin paused, expecting more questions or demands. The Founders kept quiet. “We’ll be in touch shortly to update you on the project. Thank you again. And good day.”

We heard people leaving the room and hanging up from the call. “Rachel, check that we’re disconnected, then take this phone out of here,” Loflin ordered. “When you’re done, come right back. We need to draft a memo to send up the corporate ladder.”
 

Rachel left the room. When she returned, we heard Loflin talking to Owens, who seemed to be the only other person in the room.

“Where the hell are those genes, Preston? We have to find them! We’re dead if we don’t!”

“Let me correct you there, Alistor.
You’re
dead if
you
don’t find them. I don’t work for GlobalLife. It’s not my job to find them. I’ve already helped you enough by finding out about Eve and bringing her here.”

“But when your men picked her up last night, where the hell were the genes? She’d just left the building! She had the vials with her! Where could they be?”

“She obviously gave them to someone soon after she left the building. She must have had someone waiting in the alley to take the vials so she wouldn’t be caught with them.”

“How could she think she’d ever get away with this? Why would she even try something like this?”

“I can show you the flight records, Alistor. Eve had a private plane ready and waiting. The money from the deal was probably being wired to a foreign bank account. She was a rich woman prepared to start a new life somewhere. And if it weren’t for me, she’d probably be on a beach enjoying a cocktail right now.”

Loflin sighed. “Yes, Preston. I’m sorry to have discredited your role in all of this. You’ve helped me a great deal bringing Eve here last night. And you’re right. It’s not your responsibility to find the genes.”

“So I assume you’ll get the material into Eve yet today?”

“Yes. I’ll make sure it’s done within the hour. But you know it’s Samantha’s DNA she’s getting. It’s from the samples we took from her in Iceland. We’ve tweaked the software, hoping to lessen the chance of rejection, but I’m not hopeful it will work.”

“Speaking of Samantha, do you have any idea where she and Erik might be hiding out?” Owens asked.
 

“No. So far, our search has found nothing. It’s like they disappeared.”

“I’m sure you’ll find them. I need to get going. Tell Eve I send her my best.”

“Rachel, I need to get them started on Eve,” Loflin said. “We’ll have to meet later to work on the memo.”

We heard the listening device shut off. Dave turned off the speaker.
 

“Well, I guess we won’t have to worry about Eve anymore,” Erik snickered.

“Don’t make light of this, Erik,” Jack scolded. “We may not like Eve, but we don’t want her dead.”

“Owens sure played his part well during the meeting,” Dave said. “Do you think he was really having her followed?”

Jack considered it. “I think it’s a possibility. That would explain why his men were there waiting for her when she left the building. We’ll have to see if Rachel has any details to share.”
 

“Sam, Erik, we should get going.” Dave got up. “You two have another brain scan today. Abigail said we should make sure there wasn’t any damage from last night. Neither one of you had symptoms, right?

Erik glanced at me. Dave noticed. “What is it? Samantha, did something happen?”

I glared at Erik. “A minor headache. Nothing big.”
 

Dave didn’t believe me. “There’s no use lying about it, Samantha. The scans will tell us what happened.”

“Okay, it was a bad one. After I disconnected from Eve, the headache started and kept getting worse.”

Colin leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Not now,” I whispered back.

Dave sighed. “I don’t know why you feel the need to keep this a secret, Samantha. We’re only trying to keep you healthy.”

“Because you overreact like this,” I muttered.

We all headed to the rebel group house. Abigail was waiting for us. Out of the blue, she hugged Erik and me. Abigail had always been very businesslike around us, keeping her emotions in check. But today her emotions were front and center.

“I was so concerned last night when we lost contact with you.” Abigail looked like she might cry. “I’m so glad you’re both safe again. We all are.”
 

“Okay, well, we’ll be downstairs,” I said, feeling awkward.
 

Erik and I had our scans, then the doctor met with all of us to go over the results. “It’s not good, Samantha. You’ve done quite a bit of damage to this area.” He held up a diagram of the brain and circled a section. “And some of it may not heal. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Everyone’s eyes were on me. Brittany looked as though she thought I was going to die. Colin had his hand tight around mine.
 

Erik was angry. “I told you to let me help more, Sam! When we were in the car, I said if anything—”

“I wasn’t trying to do any damage. It just happened. And I feel fine now.”
 

“Controlling that woman for such an extended period of time was too much for you,” the doctor explained. “You should’ve given Erik control of her for more of the time. He suffered almost no damage from last night.”

Erik threw his hands up in the air. “See? I told you.”

I ignored him and focused on the doctor. “How long before this heals?”

“I’m not sure. We’ll check you again in a week. For now, you need to let it rest. That means no mind-reading and no mind-talking with Erik. And if you hear someone trying to contact you, like your friend did before, you need to block it.”

Dave looked at me to agree.

“Okay. I’ll let my brain rest. But what about the genes? Aren’t we going to try to get them from Owens? And what about the other—”

“Sam, stop,” Dave ordered. “Didn’t you hear the doctor? You’re going to take it easy.”

We went home. I rested all afternoon, even though I felt perfectly fine. At dinner everyone was quiet, as if talking would somehow further damage my brain. After a while, I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “Would someone please say something? Anything? It’s not like I’m dying. You could at least—”

There was a knock on the door. Nobody moved or spoke. We weren’t expecting anyone and people never showed up at the house unannounced. The knocking continued, followed by silence.
 

Dave got up just as the knocking started again. He looked at Jack. They both went into the living room.
 

“Is anyone home?” We heard a voice from outside. It sounded like an older man. Jack nodded to Dave. They both seemed to recognize the voice.
 

“Yes, we’re coming,” Dave called out. He opened the front door.

“Good to see you again, Dave.” It was Owens, wearing a long dark coat and a gray scarf. “It’s frigid out there. I was hoping for an early spring, but I don’t think we’re going to get it.”
 

Owens acted like the whole scene was perfectly normal, when it was anything but. We hadn’t seen Owens since leaving his house. Jack and Dave kept working on the files he gave them, but they hadn’t talked to him. And Owens wasn’t supposed to know where we were staying, even though we knew Rachel had told him our location in her pretend role as his spy.
 

“Nice place you have here. Rachel said you’d found a new house out in the country. Seems quite cozy.”
 

“Preston, what brings you by?” Dave played along, acting like Owens’ visit was no big deal.

Owens took off his coat and sat down. “I just wanted to express my sincere apologies for how I’ve acted toward all of you.” He noticed Erik and me sitting at the table in the other room. “Samantha, Erik. Please join us, will you?”

We went into the living room and sat down. Colin and Brittany came, too. Owens ignored them and continued talking. “I overstepped my boundaries before and I’m sorry for that. It was wrong of me to insist that you live in that house of mine. And I never meant to lose my temper like that, Dave. I was just concerned for the safety of Samantha and Erik. I felt like it was my fault they were captured by GlobalLife in Iceland. I wanted to ensure that it never happened again. I was only trying to protect them.”

Dave seemed surprised. “Well, that’s good to know, Preston. Was that all?”

Owens laughed. “Are you trying to get rid of me, Dave?” Dave didn’t answer. Owens got serious again. “Another reason I came by was to inform you that the last remaining samples of the alien genes were stolen last night from a vault at GBL Capital Management. I hadn’t even considered that’s where they’d be. But anyway, Eve Taylor took them and sold them to someone.”

We all pretended to believe the story. It seemed that Owens really didn’t know about our involvement with Eve. So maybe there wasn’t a mole in the rebel group. Maybe he really did think Eve was trying to steal the genes.
 

“I’ve been following Eve for several months now,” Owens explained. “I suspected she was up to something, and it turned out to be true. So the genes are out of GlobalLife’s hands, but unfortunately we don’t know who they ended up with.”

“That’s very concerning, Preston.” Dave continued to go along with the story.

“Yes, well, I’m telling you this because I no longer need you and Jack to keep working on those files. I assume that means you’ll be leaving here soon. If so, I wanted to tell you that my offer still stands. Samantha? Erik? My home in Switzerland is ready and waiting. I can fly you both there whenever you’re ready.”

“No, thanks,” Erik said. “I’m fine right here in America.”

“Yeah, same here,” I agreed.

Owens stood up. “Well, I guess that’s it then.” He put on his coat and scarf. “Jack, Dave, I wish you the best. And I sincerely hope that you can keep those two out of GlobalLife’s hands.”

Dave nodded. “We’ll do our best, Preston.”

Owens came over to Erik and me. “I’m so sorry it didn’t work out with you two. You really do make a wonderful couple.” He smiled. “The golden couple.”

I shivered when he said it. It was like the words had some hidden meaning. I tried to read his mind but couldn’t because he was wearing the brain wave scrambling device.
 

Owens finally left. Jack locked the door and watched to make sure Owens’ car was gone.

“What the hell was that?” Erik asked.