Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Sam watched, confused, his heart racing. Were they going to attempt to catch up with Autumn instead? But no, the road traveled in an alternate direction. The road would not intercept her escape.
And though Autumn was a target, he knew his own death would be more important to the program. So why had they turned away?
Sam stood alone on the small slip of shore, breathing harshly, still poised to fight, confused and suddenly unsteady as he watched them get in their trucks and turn back the way they’d come, their engines roaring and then disappearing completely. Movement above as a lone figure climbed slowly down the incline, his confusion increasing, though not his fear. “Morana,” he said when she’d made it to him.
She moved toward him, her leg dragging slightly, and he watched her warily.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” he said. He could, and he would, but he had no desire to do it.
“I’m not here to threaten you, Sam.” She let out a small laugh. “I’m well aware of my physical limitations.”
He looked up again, listening for the sound of engines coming back. He didn’t understand.
But apparently reading his mind, Morana said, “They fortified your body, Sam, but they fortified my mind. I never let them know how much, but between you and me, I’m smarter than all of them.” She glanced at the road above. “I intercepted the order once I received the alert that it had been sent. I’m sorry they got as close to you as they did. The text the members just got told them the target has changed. It isn’t you. Or Autumn Clancy.”
His brain buzzed with confusion. He was still primed to fight, prepared to die, and though his heart was slowing, his muscles were still held tight. “Who? What target?”
Morana just smiled, stopping a few feet from where he stood. “You won’t have to worry anymore, Sam. You’re scrubbed from all databases pertaining to the program. There’s no record that you were ever born.”
He struggled to understand. Morana had…deleted his existence? From the computers where his files were kept? “Dr. Swift knows I exist,” he said.
“He only knows your number, Sam, and your particular skills. Dr. Swift has been notified you’re dead. You followed the final command.”
He stared at her, confused. “Dr. Heathrow knows I’m not dead.” The man he’d once considered a father had put out the hit on him. And Autumn. He’d seen the email acknowledging receipt of the order. “Plus, he has paper files.”
She waved her hands. “Let the police find them. Let them see what they did to you. To us. There’s no way to attach that file to you, Samael. You are only subject number 1043.”
“Autumn—”
“When he learned you were with her, Dr. Heathrow took her betrayal personally. He wanted you both dead. She has nothing to worry about anymore either. The program doesn’t care about her. She was Dr. Heathrow’s subject, but she wasn’t one of theirs. Only you were.”
Subject. It was only Dr. Heathrow who’d wanted Autumn dead? Because it was his experiment she’d compromised. He’d considered her his property, and she’d proven herself ungovernable by him. She’d kept digging and digging, finding answers, finding Sam. It was coming together for him, piece by piece. But if all this was true, Dr. Heathrow had reason to try again, even if Morana had intercepted his order this time. “Dr. Heathrow—” he started again.
“Sam. Trust me.” She took a step closer, then another. A bird trilled somewhere close by, and Morana’s gaze moved in that direction and then back to Sam. She looked sad suddenly. Lost.
Her expression startled him because he’d never seen that depth of emotion on Morana’s face. He saw that she was pretty even despite the pallor of her skin and the way her left eye drooped just slightly. They’d done that to her when she was a teenager with some type of brain surgery or another. Sam remembered now. She gazed at him with something that almost looked like longing. But for what?
“I wanted things too, Sam, just like you. They made me a monster as well.”
He studied her. Yes, she would have been normal, just like he would have been. They’d stolen her body from her, her life, turned her into what she was, yet she too had managed to somehow hang on to some humanity despite their best efforts.
Morana reached in her pocket and brought out a handgun. Sam startled, bracing. But Morana brought it to her own head, the same way Amon had done in that schoolyard as he’d carried out the final command. She gave him a sad smile. “I used to think maybe we’d been made for each other. The two of us, cooked up in a lab. But…see, Sam, I’m not made for anyone. And though I broke the rules for you, I won’t break the final command.”