“We had a private compound in Arecibo on the other side of the island from the lab. I lived there, and when I was old enough, I taught the younger ones. They sent them over from the lab when they were old enough. Even though we weren’t like other people, Dr. Soter and the team thought it was best to have us live normal lives — education, careers, families — but I stayed there until…”
She gave a shrug. “Dr. Soter was with me, on the far side of the island, when the lab was destroyed. It looked like a natural disaster, but he knew better. We were a secret project—‘deep black,’ they call it. Someone in the government found out about us — someone who wasn’t supposed to know — and decided it was better to make us disappear. Dr. Soter knew they would be looking for us, so we scattered. Later on, when we realized that you had survived, we decided I should stay close to you, keep you safe if anyone ever figured out who and what you were, and when you were old enough, tell you the truth.”
Jenna listened without interrupting, but when Mercy fell silent, she said, “That’s not what I meant. I was wondering how you got on that helicopter. If you were in contact with Soter all along, then you must have known what was happening.”
“It was too dangerous to stay in contact with him. When you told me that someone had tried to kill you, I knew, but there was no way to make contact. When the helicopter showed up at the safe house looking for you, Dr. Soter recognized me. That was the first time we’d spoken in ten years.”
“But you must have known what was going on. You just let me stumble around on my own. You could have told me everything back home, before I went on that wild goose chase in the Everglades.”
Mercy frowned. “Jenna, it’s difficult to explain. There’s still a lot you don’t know. And if I had told you all of this, would you have believed me?”
Jenna didn’t allow herself to speculate on what her reaction might have been. Even now, after everything she had experienced, everything she had done, it was a lot to swallow. Yet, as crazy as it sounded, it also felt like the truth. “Did you always know that it was Noah who destroyed the lab and took me?”
Mercy nodded sadly.
“And yet you…you were with him?”
“Noah was a good man, Jenna. I believe he deeply regretted what happened that night. That’s why he saved you. And why I always trusted him.”
Jenna wondered whether Mercy knew that it was Cray and his partner who had killed Noah, but there was something else that she was even more curious about. “Did he know who you really were?”
“I think he must have wondered about our resemblance. He may have suspected that we were related, but I don’t think he knew the particulars about what was going on at the lab. If he had…well, I don’t know if he would have been so quick to save you that night. A lot of people would call us ‘abominations.’”
Jenna sighed. “What are we, Mercy? Cort told me that the…the clones…are doing terrible things, trying to start a world war. Is this all part of Soter’s plan?”
“It most certainly is not,” a voice intoned from behind Mercy. Dr. Soter stood in the aisle, leaning heavily on his cane. “And I would caution you against believing anything that man told you. The government needs a scapegoat, someone to blame for their own ineptitude. They have chosen you and your brothers and sisters.”
The response rang hollow. If the government needed someone to blame, there were much easier targets than a group of alleged clones cooked up from a recipe beamed in from another galaxy. Nevertheless, Jenna could tell from Soter’s expression — his body language and his eye movements — that he believed it to be true. Mad scientist or not, he wasn’t lying to her about any of it.
“If you were working with the government, why did they turn on you?”
Soter smiled patiently. “Politics. The project was begun under the auspices of the Office of National Estimates, which was a division of the Central Intelligence Agency. Our funding was deeply buried in the black budget, and as the years passed, few within the agency, and no one in the administration, knew what we were doing. I can only surmise that someone learned about our research and found it politically expedient to erase all traces of the program.”
“Do you still have contacts in the government? People who could protect us and set the record straight?”
“Yes…and no. We had to be discreet. Our genetic research has been at a virtual standstill, but we have done our best to monitor the progress of the children in hopes that there would be a breakthrough. Just the opposite has happened, and now the government means to finish what they started fifteen years ago. My contacts cannot risk taking direct action.”
“But something is happening. Someone intentionally released the SARS virus in China. And I think Cort was telling the truth about the cyber-attack.” She thought back to what else she had been told. “He showed me pictures of two people — Kelli Foster and Jarrod Chu. Are they…?”
Soter’s expression was that of a parent refusing to believe reports of his child’s delinquency, but his answer was reserved. “Kelli and Jarrod were from Generation Six, cultivated in 1984. By that time, we had refined our approach. They were an almost perfect match to the genome code we received in the transmission, particularly Kelli, since the original message was coded for XX chromosomes.”
“Cort said they have disappeared.”
Soter drew in a breath. “You have to understand, Jenna. The children aren’t my agents. It was always my intention that their lives be as normal as possible. After the attack, we had cut all lines of communication, and when the children still in my care reached maturity, they were mainstreamed in secret. Kelli and Jarrod were two such. They pursued their personal goals and interests, and that led to important positions in civil service. For their safety and my own, I have kept a distance.”
Jenna saw his eyes flicker ever so slightly to the side. Now he was lying, though she didn’t need to be a human lie detector to catch it. “You’ve been keeping tabs on everyone, even me.”
Before he could protest, she continued. “Your men — Cray and the other guy — were there just minutes after someone tried to kill me. You knew the hit was coming down, and you sent them to rescue me. Did you also tell them to kill Noah? Payback for what happened at the lab?”
Mercy gasped in surprise at this news, but Soter just sagged, defeated. “I knew. I was alerted to the government’s intention to hunt down and kill my children. I warned those that I could, but the only way to protect you was direct intervention. I am sorry that your…that Mr. Flood was caught in the crossfire, so to speak. I bore him no ill will.”
Soter was either telling the truth or learning how to control his response better. Jenna chose to believe the former. Nevertheless, there were a lot of gaps in his story. If the destruction of the lab had driven him and the others underground, then how was it that he had a veritable army at his disposal — manpower, firepower, helicopters and executive jets? Someone was funding him, and she saw no evidence that it was not a foreign government as Cort had claimed.
“So what happens next?” Jenna asked. “Where are we going?”
“Back where it all began, my dear. There is still much that you need to be told. And I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I would prefer to explain it when we reach our destination.”
Jenna shook her head. “If you want my help, start talking now.”