alive and able to control the harvesters so completely. As far as I
knew, none of them ever questioned an order she gave. Yet, they all had
similar powers. They were her equals in a sense. What hold did she have over
them? And if we broke that hold, what would happen?
I needed more
information and the only way to do that was to play along with what she wanted.
But right now I
needed to get Jace’s anger under control before he did something we would later
regret.
I stood on the
tips of my toes and kissed him. I felt him resist it at first but he soon
melted under my touch. His anger seemed to diffuse as my lips played against
his.
“I need you,” I
whispered against his lips hoping he understood I would need his help to escape
Lucena’s control. A rash mistake on his part could kill us all.
“My my, I suppose
I really should give the two of you some time to yourselves after such a long
separation,” Lucena said from the other end of the hallway, watching us.
I knew she would
be able to hear us even from that distance with her enhanced hearing. It was
one reason I had tried to be cryptic with what I said to Jace.
I took hold of
Jace’s hand again as we continued to walk down the corridor together to see
what other horrors Lucena had waiting for us.
Chapter 11
The corridor of
the sub-basement was sterile in appearance and smell. The stench of freshly
bleached floors filled the air around us. The walls and ceiling were painted
white and a white tiled floor lay beneath our feet. Recessed lights made the
hallway blinding with their brightness reflected against all the white.
A series of steel
doors with touchpad locks at their center ran along the length of each wall.
“This is where we
keep the test subjects,” Lucena said indicating the doors as she walked down
the hallway in front of us. “We have to keep them locked up until their
conversion into harvesters is complete.”
“What are you
testing them for?” I asked.
Lucena stopped and
turned towards us. “They’re the ones Jace has been rounding up for me.
They’re just like you. They each have certain special abilities.”
“That night by the
barrier you said you gave Jace the ability to use my DNA coding to give him
precognition to find me. Is that how you found the others? Did you use their genetic
code?”
Lucena smiled,
pleased by my own deduction. “Yes.”
“But how could you
have the gene sequence of complete strangers?”
“They aren’t
strangers to me,” Lucena cocked her head like she thought I should have figured
this part out on my own by now. “I helped bring them into this world. If it
wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t exist anyway. So, if you think about it, they’re
lives have always belonged to me.”
Then I
understood. “They’re all from your fertility clinic?”
“Yes, their
parents came to me for help.”
“What did you do
to us?” I asked. “How did you give us our abilities?”
“I didn’t give you anything,” Lucena replied. “I simply helped you all unlock your
potential.”
“But how? And
why?”
“A long time ago I
found a set of inactive genes in the human genome which were unique in each
person I tested. I designed a set of nanites which were supposed to activate
those genes but I ended up having to place them inside the egg before
fertilization so they could be incorporated directly into the chromosomal DNA
during replication. Unfortunately, the nanites didn’t activate the genes like
I had hoped. At least I didn’t think so until I realized the nanites had
simply gone dormant for some reason. When I engineered Jace, I was able to
design his biorhythms to basically wake the nanites up and do what they were
designed to do.”
“Is that why my
mother told you to stay out of our lives? She found out you used me as one of
your test subjects.”
“You’re mother
simply didn’t share the same vision for the human race as I
knew, none of them ever questioned an order she gave. Yet, they all had
similar powers. They were her equals in a sense. What hold did she have over
them? And if we broke that hold, what would happen?
I needed more
information and the only way to do that was to play along with what she wanted.
But right now I
needed to get Jace’s anger under control before he did something we would later
regret.
I stood on the
tips of my toes and kissed him. I felt him resist it at first but he soon
melted under my touch. His anger seemed to diffuse as my lips played against
his.
“I need you,” I
whispered against his lips hoping he understood I would need his help to escape
Lucena’s control. A rash mistake on his part could kill us all.
“My my, I suppose
I really should give the two of you some time to yourselves after such a long
separation,” Lucena said from the other end of the hallway, watching us.
I knew she would
be able to hear us even from that distance with her enhanced hearing. It was
one reason I had tried to be cryptic with what I said to Jace.
I took hold of
Jace’s hand again as we continued to walk down the corridor together to see
what other horrors Lucena had waiting for us.
Chapter 11
The corridor of
the sub-basement was sterile in appearance and smell. The stench of freshly
bleached floors filled the air around us. The walls and ceiling were painted
white and a white tiled floor lay beneath our feet. Recessed lights made the
hallway blinding with their brightness reflected against all the white.
A series of steel
doors with touchpad locks at their center ran along the length of each wall.
“This is where we
keep the test subjects,” Lucena said indicating the doors as she walked down
the hallway in front of us. “We have to keep them locked up until their
conversion into harvesters is complete.”
“What are you
testing them for?” I asked.
Lucena stopped and
turned towards us. “They’re the ones Jace has been rounding up for me.
They’re just like you. They each have certain special abilities.”
“That night by the
barrier you said you gave Jace the ability to use my DNA coding to give him
precognition to find me. Is that how you found the others? Did you use their genetic
code?”
Lucena smiled,
pleased by my own deduction. “Yes.”
“But how could you
have the gene sequence of complete strangers?”
“They aren’t
strangers to me,” Lucena cocked her head like she thought I should have figured
this part out on my own by now. “I helped bring them into this world. If it
wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t exist anyway. So, if you think about it, they’re
lives have always belonged to me.”
Then I
understood. “They’re all from your fertility clinic?”
“Yes, their
parents came to me for help.”
“What did you do
to us?” I asked. “How did you give us our abilities?”
“I didn’t give you anything,” Lucena replied. “I simply helped you all unlock your
potential.”
“But how? And
why?”
“A long time ago I
found a set of inactive genes in the human genome which were unique in each
person I tested. I designed a set of nanites which were supposed to activate
those genes but I ended up having to place them inside the egg before
fertilization so they could be incorporated directly into the chromosomal DNA
during replication. Unfortunately, the nanites didn’t activate the genes like
I had hoped. At least I didn’t think so until I realized the nanites had
simply gone dormant for some reason. When I engineered Jace, I was able to
design his biorhythms to basically wake the nanites up and do what they were
designed to do.”
“Is that why my
mother told you to stay out of our lives? She found out you used me as one of
your test subjects.”
“You’re mother
simply didn’t share the same vision for the human race as I
Similar Books
