Mindsiege (16 page)

“But he’s a clone.”

“That’s right.” She was unfazed by the scissors pointed at her neck.

“A clone of whom?” The picture of the person of interest from the newspaper article about Marci’s death came to mind.

She smiled. “Is that really want you want to ask me about? We don’t have time.”

“Why’d you do it? Why’d you clone humans?”

“That’s more like it. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

I stepped closer to her.
Hold her tighter, Jonas.

He gripped Sandra and the knife tighter. Sandra tilted her head, attempting to lean away from the blade. “Because I could,” she laughed. “Because I wanted to change things. I wanted to cure disease. Fight for world peace. I wanted control.”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Well, she would not control me.

“Have Jonas put the scissors down. You and I need to talk about some things before the people on the other side of that door break their way into here.”

“No. You can talk just fine where you are.”

She swallowed. “Okay. Have it your way, for now. I need you to join me, Sarah.”

“Join you?” I scoffed. “Join you where?”

“At the IIA. I can help you. Make your nosebleeds go away. You’ll never feel sick again when you heal someone. I can teach you about everything you were designed to do.”

An irrational laugh bubbled up out of my throat. “And what if I don’t want to learn from you? You’re not the only one making that promise. What if I don’t want anything to do with you or the IIA?”

“Then the IIA will continue with their plan to eliminate you and the other originals. And I will give them permission to do so.”

“Because you have that authority.”

“Yes, I do,” she said matter-of-factly. “I have complete authority over the Department of Human Cloning. I will simply inform the IIA that you have gone rogue, and you will be terminated.”

I looked at Jonas. There was something in the way he studied me.
You have something to say?

Don’t taunt her. She
will
kill you and the rest of the original clones.

Does that include you?

No. Remember that piece of metal I showed you? The one I took from Ty when we were in the underground facility?

Yes.

That’s called a tracker. I allowed her to insert one into the base of my brain. She can terminate me and any clone at that facility—flick us off like a light switch—any time she wishes—with the push of a button. She, or the agents who work for her, can also control our every movement because of that tracker.

Terminate? Would Sandra kill Jonas?
Why are you telling me this?
I asked. If Jonas was Sandra’s son, and here to free her from the coma, why would he risk telling me these things?

Because I need you. The clones need you. She knows it, but she wants control over you first. She can’t kill you with the push of a button. She’d have to murder you in a more… traditional sense.

That doesn’t explain why you would warn me. Whose side are you on?

I’m on the side that gets this tracker out of the back of my head and lets me live my own life. But I’m also on the side that will allow me to use my abilities without bowing down to a bunch of ruthless scientists. That’s what Dia was trying to tell you. Those of us who know Sandra know that we cannot cross her. But we also know there has to be a way out of the hold Sandra and the IIA have on us.

I walked two more steps and stared straight into Sandra’s green eyes. I stood close enough to hear her breathing, her pulse just slightly higher than normal. “What’s stopping me from killing you right now?” For a split second, a tiny bit of fear flashed over her face—her cheeks fell a fraction and the lines of her forehead twitched.

Her lips quirked. “You don’t have it in you. You and your friends need me. I have the cure for your ailments—which will only get worse, by the way. Why do you think you get those nosebleeds, Lexi? Because you’ve used some special power?” A laugh escaped her throat. “Those nosebleeds are a sign of a bigger… problem. Your dad knew this. We’d struck a deal just before his death.”

I narrowed my eyes. My nosebleeds had been worse recently, but I had assumed it was because I had used my mindspeaking ability more often. “You’re lying. My father would never negotiate with you.”

The turning of the lock on the door sounded behind me. In walked Jack, Bree, and Cathy.

Lexi, don’t give up control of my mind,
Jonas thought.
If you do, the IIA will just take control of me again. I’ve been trying to tell you that I’m on your side. That I wasn’t the one who tried to kill you.

I’m starting to believe you.

“What is going on here?” Cathy asked, interrupting Jonas and me.

Jack strode past Cathy and me. He grabbed Jonas by the shirt, then punched him. “What did you do to her?”

Jonas pressed his fingers against his now-bloody lip. Chuckling, he said, “I guess I deserved that. But you’re making a mistake. I didn’t do the things you think I did.”

“You didn’t kiss her?”

That
was the thing he chose to punch him over?

“Well… I did do that,” he laughed. Jack lunged at him again, forcing him to take a step backward with his hands raised. “But I haven’t been controlling her. Not completely, and not alone, anyway.”

Cathy stood between the two adolescents and held Jack back. “Would you two stop it? Lexi, where’s Sandra? Did you bring her out of that coma?”

I turned a complete circle. Sandra had vanished. Still, only one door was open. “Where’s Bree?” My heart began beating at an uncontrollable rate. Something wasn’t right.

“Bree was here?” Jack asked.

The laughter from Jonas started out as a low chuckle from deep within his chest, but erupted into a hysterical fit. He braced himself against Sandra’s hospital bed.

I stared at Jonas, then turned quickly to Jack. I could barely get in a breath. “She came in with you,” I said in a barely audible whisper.

“No she didn’t. It was always just me, Kyle and Ca—”

I lunged at Jonas, punched him in the chest, and growled, “Why are you laughing? Tell me what just happened.” Although I was pretty sure I knew.

Jonas swallowed his laughter. He looked down into my eyes. “That wasn’t Bree. That was Dia. That was Sandra’s rescue party.”

Chapter Eighteen

“If that was Sandra’s rescue party, why are you still here?” I asked, noticing only then that all humor had vanished from Jonas’s face.

He walked across the room to the sink and grabbed a couple of paper towels from a dispenser, running water over them. His lip was starting to swell.

Cathy and Jack stared at the two of us, their mouths slightly agape.

Jonas leaned against the counter. He crossed one arm while dabbing his lip with paper towels in the other hand. I raised my brows at him in a will-you-freaking-answer-me way.

“It would appear they left me,” he said.

“They left you. Your own mother,”—I put air quotes around the word “mother”— “the crazy scientist who has toyed with our lives—the same mother who I’m feeling some severe feelings of hatred for right now—left you inside the school with people who no longer trust you and could easily justify killing you in self-defense for just standing there and breathing the same air we breathe. You’re telling me
she
left you?”

“Yes. Something tells me my lovely mother no longer believes I’m on her side. Or doesn’t care.” Jonas touched his lips gently. “Did you have to hit me?” he asked Jack, ignoring me.

Jack ran a hand through his hair. “You’re lucky I only hit you once. I should have—” He stopped himself mid-sentence, letting out a frustrated breath. He approached me and grabbed my elbow gently. “Did
you
bring Sandra out of her coma?”

“It would appear so.”

“Are you okay? You don’t feel sick?” Jack asked, studying me.

I shook my head. Should I tell him that Jonas actually helped me? Would he be happy about that, or would he punch Jonas again?

“This is a disaster. How could you let her leave?” Cathy asked. Her voice had an angry edge.

“Wasn’t like I was given a choice, Cathy,” I said. I found Jack’s eyes again. “I didn’t want to heal her. Not until I knew more about her. But…”

“She had no control over her actions,” Jonas said. “This was the work of The Farm. This is what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

I whipped around to face Jonas. “Oh, yeah? Well, your communication skills suck.”

“I’m going to go check with Security to see if they saw where Sandra went,” Cathy said.

I watched her leave, then directed my attention back to Jonas. “Start talking. How are we supposed to believe
you
—the son of that maniac of a woman?”

“Sandra is your… mother?” Jack asked, as if finally catching up.

Jonas nodded. “I couldn’t come out and tell you. Someone within the IIA would hear me. It wasn’t just you being controlled. Some cloned freak was inside my head, too. Ty, mostly.”

“But he’s not there now?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. I can tell without a doubt when someone or something is controlling me.”

“Something?” Jack asked.

Jonas turned around and lifted his hair to reveal a round scar at the base of his hairline. “A tracker was placed inside my head to give the IIA full access to my mind and body. Sandra and the IIA can manipulate me and track my every move.”

“Are you trying to tell me that someone was inside your head when you tried to make me kill myself? That someone else is trying to force me to kill Jack? That someone is inside your head now?”

Jonas faced me. His eyebrows further darkened his brown eyes. “Not exactly.” He swallowed hard, then looked away.

“What
are
you saying?” I crossed my arms, losing patience.

“Some of that was me. I was getting inside your head after your dad died. I wanted to know more about you, and Jack was being very secretive. And when I thought you would ignore what you were created to do, I tried to scare you into needing to find out more.”

Jack charged forward and stood in front of me. “It’s true then?” He grabbed Jonas by the neck. “You put our lives at risk?”

Jonas gagged. “No,” he squeaked out. “Let. Me. Explain.”

Jack, stop,
I pleaded.

No, he’ll answer to us, or he’ll find himself in his own sort of coma.

I touched Jack’s arm. His blue eyes were on me instantly like two thick storm clouds. The pain that shot out of them was like a knife to my heart. “Let him explain,” I pleaded. When Jack didn’t immediately let go, I pulled harder on his arm. “He did keep me from going unconscious while I fixed Sandra’s brain. We need to hear what he has to say.”

Jack let him go with a shove backwards. Jonas massaged his neck. “I wasn’t trying to kill either of you.”

“What were you trying to do?” Jack asked.

“The clones need Lexi. We need her to accept who she is and embrace her abilities. And you were just going to let her go.” Jonas was talking directly to Jack now. “You know she’s the key to our survival.”

I took in a breath, watching them both, but mostly Jack. “What’s he talking about, Jack? What’s he mean ‘She’s the key to our survival’?”

Jack stepped to me. He brushed the back of his hand down my face. “We know that Sandra altered our DNA to give us these supernatural abilities. My mother thinks Sandra also made sure that those abilities wouldn’t come without consequences.”

“You mean the nasty side effects?”

He nodded.

“What does that have to do with me and our survival?”

“Seth disagrees with Cathy. From conversations he’s had with his sister over the years, he thinks Sandra made sure your DNA was equipped with the ability to heal each of us. Seth doesn’t think Sandra planned on being separated from you. But your father hid you all these years.”

“Is this why your parents and Seth are now at Wellington? Did they know all this?”

“Probably. Cathy’s not really talking, still. And my father is nowhere to be found.”

As if on cue, Cathy stormed in. “Jack! Addison is gone.”

~~~~~

“Security cameras caught a female helping a child into the back of a sport utility.” Cathy paced. “Then she and a second female, a teen, climbed into the front seat. When I questioned the officers at the front gate, they claimed that I had left with Roger in my Mercedes at about the same time.”

“That’s Dia,” Jonas said. “She can make anyone believe they’re seeing whatever she wants them to see.”

“Who is Dia?” Jack asked.

“She’s an identical match to Briana.” I spoke with my eyes closed, massaging the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger.

“And you know this how?” Jack asked.

“I met her.” I looked down at my hands. Jack would never forgive me if I could have prevented Addison from being taken. “There are others, Jack. There’s one that looks like Bree, another like Jonas…” I inhaled deeply before squaring my shoulders and facing him. “And one like you.” I’d spent all week trying to forget what it looked like for Jack to hold Bree in his arms. Only it wasn’t Jack and Bree.

“And you’re just now telling me?”

“I couldn’t. My mind was restricted by Jonas… or whoever was invading me.”

Jack raised his hand. “We don’t have time for this right now.” He turned to Jonas. “Where will they take Addison?”

“I guess to The Farm. She’s the one that got away.”

What did
that
mean?

On the other side of the room, Cathy had slipped out. “Jack,” I pleaded. “We’ll get Addison back.”

“
We
won’t do anything.
I’ll
get her back. You’ll stay here. And you,” he said, pointing at Jonas. “You’re going to help me get into the IIA.”

Jack turned and walked out. He slammed the door, causing me to flinch. I stared after him. “He’ll need our help to break into that stupid facility.” My voice cracked. I started after him.