Time Storm Shockwave (8 page)

“It’s complicated. Part of it was true, especially living on the boat, only he wasn’t my grandfather. I will answer all of your questions.
I don’t want any more secrets.”

Mark clinched his jaw. Enough time passed that
her heart began to pound. Then he finally spoke, “You told me that you loved me, was that a lie too?”

The question took her by surprise. “No, absolutely not
; I do love you”—she assured him—“please don’t ever doubt that.” She searched his eyes before continuing, “I never expected to fall in love. Everything about our relationship is true.”

He felt
relieved that at least part of what he knew of her was real. The whole thing was so complicated that he wasn’t even sure where to start his questions.

“How did you get involved with the company in the first place?”

She took a deep breath and then looked away.

“Ashlyn
—” he moved closer and turned her face toward him “—you’re safe here with me, and I love you no matter what.”

She still didn’t answer.

“I need you to tell me,” he spoke more forcefully.

She pulled away slightly and
averted her eyes.

A little afraid of her answer now, he
asked, “Don’t you trust me?”

She met his eyes;
sadness filled hers. “Yes, I trust you.”

“Then talk to me,”
he implored.

She sat back and leaned her head onto his shoulder. Then she pulled her knees up close to herself and buried her face against him.

“I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to talk about this. I’ve never told anyone before.”

He put his free arm around her so that he could hold her tightly. This was strange indeed. She had seemed so strong and so composed for the short time that he had known her
. This behavior seemed completely out of character. He didn’t doubt her courage; she had not hesitated to risk her life to save him. However, now she was curled up against him as if she were a child.

“My biological parents put me up for adoption
—” she began slowly “—I never knew them.”

She didn’t look at him while she spoke, pushing her forehead
deeper against his neck. A confused expression covered his face, but it went unnoticed.

“The corporation adopted me.”

“What?” He had been trying not to interrupt, but he couldn’t help it, and he pulled back for a moment to look her in the eyes. “I didn’t know that could happen? What corporation?” He couldn’t connect her answer to his question.

“The same corporation
—” she hesitated “—the one that’s trying to kill you.”

He furrowed his brow.
“Why did they want you?”

“Experimentation,
” she answered flatly.

He opened his mouth a bit but
didn’t say anything right away. He couldn’t quite process the information. “I can’t understand how any judge would allow that to happen.”

She
shrugged and shook her head slightly. “I really don’t know—” she searched his eyes before continuing “—NP was based in Hawaii, but I pretty much lived in the lab. That’s why I couldn’t answer your questions about my childhood.”

“I can’t even imagine
—” he strained his mind to wrap it around the outlandish things she was saying “—“what’s NP?”

“
That’s what they called the company for short—” she hesitated before continuing “—they were experimenting with methods of activating dormant parts of the brain to create a human-computer interface.”

He felt ill at the implications of her story, especially when he considered that there might be a connection to the government.

She sat forward and let out a sigh. “I try not to think about it much.”

He put his hand on her back
. “I don’t even know what to say.”

She
smiled weakly, “You don’t have to say anything.” She stared at nothing. He waited patiently.

“They hooked me up to lots of machines and did tests—” she let out a long breath and met his eyes “—I guess I thought it was normal. Anyway, I didn’t know anything different.”

“This is all so bizarre but—” he gave her a reassuring half-smile “—it’s not your fault. You know that don’t you?”

“Maybe you should hear it all before you decide how you feel—” she wrung her hands together “—they genetically altered my brain with some kind of a retro virus. It created an interface, and then they taught me things by direct transfer.”

“They actually made it work?” He
could hardly believe what she was saying, but the evidence was too compelling. People were definitely trying to kill him to hide some mystery.

“I didn’t have to read or practice
—” she recoiled at her own words “—they programmed me, like a computer. They call it DMDT, Direct Mind Data Transfer.”

He raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

“I speak pretty much every modern language, and some not so modern. My brain is crowded with all sorts of trivial minutia about anything and everything, except I’m a little weak in science. They even taught me how to fight via computer link. I feel like a freak.”

“You’re not a freak!—”
he pressed his forehead “—it’s just a lot to take in all at once.”

“I wish I could feel that way
—” she looked away “—we can take a break if you want.”

“No—” he laughed mirthlessly “—I can handle it
, and I’m sure you need someone to talk to about all this.”

She nodded and tears clouded her eyes.
“You have no idea how true that is.”

“So why do you think they left out the sciences?”

She contemplated that for a moment. “I’m not talking about all science—” she furrowed her brow “—I know the basics, things that would be taught in any high school.”

He was silent.

She made a sweeping gesture with her hands. “Plus they gave me a lot of information about technology, but things like genetics and physics—” she shrugged “—they just left that out. It has always bothered me. That’s why I spend a lot of time reading informational books. I want to see what else they left out.”

“So you never went to school at all?”
he asked, amazed.

“Nope
,” she answered unhappily.

He studied her face
, and then he flashed a broad smile. “You know most people would love that, including me.”

She eyed him strangely. “I don’t think you would
really like it if you had it—” she cocked her head “—think about it, you live for discovery.”

He
considered that. “You’re probably right for the most part, but I can think of a few professors that I would have loved to never have dealt with.”

They both laughed at that
, and it seemed to ease the tension a bit.

They
sat quietly for a moment before she went back to the topic. “I’ve speculated about the science issue a few times, and I think that maybe they didn’t want me to know more about myself then they did. Besides, I didn’t need much science for what they wanted me to do.”

“Which was?”

She hesitated for what seemed an eternity. “They trained me to be an assassin.”

“Like
Dierdra,” he asked carefully.

She
studied his eyes. The fear of rejection was obvious, but he didn’t say anything, and so she continued, “They trained me to fit in with any culture, that way I could kill foreign dignitaries, or whoever else they wanted dead; black ops stuff.”  

The
black ops elements suggested that the Navy admiral had not been operating as a rogue, but as part of a government entity. The thought sickened him.

“Doesn’t sound like he was operating on his own,” he said
sadly.

“I do know that the government was their biggest funding source
—” she sighed “—makes you feel safe, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,”
he answered sarcastically.

“So why did they create
Dierdra
if you could do everything they wanted?”

Ashlyn
didn’t answer; instead, she suggested, “Let’s go up to the flybridge. I’m worried Dierdra will come back.”

He
agreed, and they changed location. He was certain that he had hit a nerve with his question.
I wonder how many people she has killed
. An involuntary shudder went through him.

Up on the flybridge they could see for miles, unobstructed
. It had been a great idea, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it himself.

The
water was unbelievably clear. The blue was so intense that it seemed almost make-believe. The weather had cleared, and the sea was now quiet and serene. It had been around 10:00 am. when they had fought Dierdra, it was now nearing sunset.

“I refused.”

“Refused?” He had forgotten his question.

“I refused to be an assassin
—” she met his eyes “—they wanted a trained monkey, to kill on command, without remorse.”

He took her hand in his and said,
“I’m glad.”

She let out a
long breath. They both sat down.

“I was their
big investment—” she paused “—I guess they had spent too much money on me to let me say no.”

“I don’t understand. If
Dierdra is your clone, why doesn’t she just say no as well?”

Ashlyn
shrugged, “I don‘t know. Maybe they tweaked her DNA somehow; took out the morality part.”

Mark was contemplating her words when another thought occurred to him, “Why didn’t they just start over with someone else?”

“I’m sorry, what do you mean?”

“Why didn’t they just find someone who would work as an assassin and program their brain with the DM… whatever you said?”

“DMDT”—she filled in the blank—“Direct Mind Data Transfer is DNA specific. It takes years, even with gene mapping to find someone who is compatible and will not reject the imprint proteins. It was easier to grow a clone at an accelerated rate than find another compatible person.”

He
hesitated before he asked, “So, I’m guessing you weren’t the only one they adopted?” 

She shook her head sadly. “I don’t know how many others because we were restricted from interacting with each other
, but I once saw some kind of a control room that I wasn’t supposed to see. They had monitors on at least fifty others, and I don’t know how many of those rooms there might have been. I suspect I was one of the only ones who lived there my whole life. Apparently, compatibility is very rare. At least that’s what Jonas seemed to think.”                  

“Who is Jonas?”

Her eyes misted, but she smiled from the memory. “He was the janitor at the lab. He used to talk to me every day, the only one who treated me like a real person. He is the one I lived on the boat with.”

She was quiet for a moment, but he just waited.

“He just took me one day. We hid on his boat for that year, and he showed me so many beautiful things, sea shells, and waterfalls—” she peered into the past “—and he taught me how to scuba dive. He was old, maybe fifty, I don’t know. He had gray hair and a beard. When you’re twelve, everyone looks old.”

“That’s true
—” Mark put his arm around her “—so what happened to him?”

She didn’t answer for a long time.

“Ashlyn?” he prompted.

“I’m sorry
—” her eyes revealed pain “—they killed him, and then took me back. He was the only person that I was ever close to.”

He put his other arm around her and pulled her close to him.

“I’m really okay, Mark. I didn’t know any other life—” she shrugged “—so I didn’t know what I was missing.”

H
e was somber for a moment, and then said softly, “I’m so sorry.”

She choked on
her next words a bit, “Now they are trying to kill you.”

He didn’
t say anything at first, and then the parallel nature of the situation hit him. “I won’t let that happen.”

Neither
of them spoke for a moment. Suddenly, she ruffled his hair and it lightened the mood considerably. He laughed, and then he kissed her.

“Ouch!”
she pulled back and touched her lip, smiling at the same time.

“I’m sorry, I forgot,”
he said, and then kissed her again. This time he was more careful.

“Okay, now you said they accelerated her growth
, and I don’t think I care about the science of it for the moment. How long ago did they clone you?”

“Well,
Dierdra is the last one and—”

“Wait,
last one
, there were more?”

“
—there were three, in alphabetical order. I suppose someone thought that was funny, or maybe was just compulsively organized. It was about five years ago.”