Rein whimpered, and her heart tore from her chest. All Ellyssa wanted was to run to his side and ease his pain. She couldn’t. She had to keep her emotions in check; she had to stay focused.
Straightening her back, she faced her father. “Stop it,” she said coolly.
The doctor nodded toward Aalexis, and her sister’s forehead smoothed. Rein stopped writhing, but soft sobs shook his shoulders. He stayed curled in a tight ball, hugging himself.
Ellyssa stared at her creator. The hatred he had always allowed flowered into a seething revulsion toward him. The strength of the sensation became a separate entity, taking its own shape within her.
She had to get Rein out, even if that meant she couldn’t go with him. It almost seemed justifiable—the creature being destroyed with the creator in a fiery hell. “Let him go, and I will stay.”
“How touching, but I am afraid that is impossible. You know as well as I do the dangers Renegades pose. Tainting the genetic pool. Devastating.”
“If you let him go, I will inform you where the camps are,” she said, her voice monotone. Her revealing the location of the Renegades was inconsequential, since none of them would be going anywhere.
Dr. Hirch’s grin widened. “Are you lying? How interesting. I hope I can erase the damage they have done to you.” Rubbing his hands together, he faced the door. “Besides, I do not need you. I had another source.”
Micah appeared, dragging Leland behind him. Her older brother gave Ellyssa an impassive glance before dropping the Renegades’ inside man at Dr. Hirch’s feet. Leland’s skull thudded against the linoleum, then rolled to the side, his dead eyes looking up at Ellyssa. Bits of bone showed through his smashed eye socket.
“Did you really think I would just let Leland leave, knowing all he knew?” he gloated. “Apparently, he did.” He shook his head, as if disappointed in his former assistant. “It is almost a shame. He was one of the best at his job. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be trusted. Not by me, nor by the Renegades. His devotion was not as strong as that of the others. Maybe due to the fact that he had seen firsthand what Aalexis is capable of.”
The doctor stared at the dead man for a moment before returning his attention to Ellyssa. “Your Renegade friends here in Chicago are all dead.”
Ellyssa carefully hid her horror. Had Leland betrayed Woody, too?
“Soon in Missouri, too,” Ellyssa’s creator finished.
Ellyssa studied him, trying to read his actions, but to no avail. The doctor was a great liar. He’d been dishonest with them all for years and years. With her gift rendered useless because of Xaver, she had no way of telling what was the truth and what was a lie.
Her father moved away from Xaver and stepped closer to Rein, who remained a crumpled in a ball. The doctor gazed at him, confidence rolling off him. She raised her hand and pushed, but nothing blocked her. Xaver’s shield was down.
Her father was opening them all up to her, apparently not seeing her as a threat with Aalexis, Micah, and Xaver at his side. Or maybe he assumed she’d not use her gift on him.
He had thought wrong.
While the doctor busied himself with his prideful thoughts, Ellyssa slipped into his mind. The action almost felt wrong, after the years of training she’d endured. She expected him to know, as if he could feel her crawl around inside his head. She plucked from him the information she sought.
The explosives remained a secret—Leland had been honorable in that aspect. But troops moved toward her newfound family in Missouri.
Ellyssa’s heart fell, but she remained stoic. Rein still had a chance. She opened herself up to all of them, plucking thoughts from their robotic minds. Just down the hall, she noticed a surprise for her father approaching.
Dr. Hirch held his hand out toward Ellyssa. “Now, if you will come with me, we can put this unpleasantness behind us.”
A smile played across Ellyssa’s face. “I think the unpleasantness is just about to begin, der Vater.”
A loud shot ricocheted through the room and Micah crumpled to the floor, his azure eyes glazed in death. Detective Angela Petersen edged around the door jamb, a P229 in her hands. That type of gun was assigned only to Gestapo, but the detective seemed to be very astute when it came to acquiring illegal firearms. She had a duffle bag full of them hidden away in her closet.
“Too bad you didn’t create one with the gift of precognition, isn’t it, Dr. Hirch?” Detective Petersen said as she stepped over Micah. She skirted along the wall, the barrel pointed at the doctor. She made a slight waving gesture at the doctor with her weapon. “Join your children.”
Dr. Hirch stared at his head of security, his mouth slack. Stunned shock shut down any logical thought processes on the doctor’s behalf. It took him a few seconds to regain his composure and his thoughts to settle into coherent images. He had to get back within the safety of Xaver’s shield before he unleashed Aalexis on the detective. With Detective Petersen’s firearm pointed at him, the sudden pain might cause her finger to twitch and his life to end.
Without giving his fallen son a second glance, he stepped closer to Xaver and Aalexis. “Xaver,” he said. The doctor’s thoughts were cut off from Ellyssa as Xaver’s shield rose in place.
Safely inside Xaver’s bubble, Dr. Hirch said, “You realize you will not make it out alive.” He had his hand held out in a silent command as he spoke.
“You give me too little credit,” she sneered, jabbing her gun into the air. “You and your precious ‘superior’ children. All of you think I’m so inferior. But it was I who found where your daughter ran to. It was I who uncovered an operation that’d been going on for decades.”
The detective glanced down at Micah. “I bet you never imagined, Doctor, how fragile your children are. They succumb to bullets, just like everyone else,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “You too, Ellyssa. Join your family.”
Ellyssa shook her head and stepped between Detective Petersen and Rein.
“Fine. You can be first. Ever since that day in the park, I’ve imagined this moment. Watching the life seeping from your ‘superior’ flesh.”
The detective took aim at Ellyssa as her father gave the signal. Xaver’s shield lowered. It seemed Aalexis gift couldn’t work within the protective safeguard. Thoughts rushed toward Ellyssa, but the one she was concerned with was the command to squeeze the trigger given by the detective’s brain. Ellyssa ducked. The air displacement lifted her hair as the bullet whizzed by. Her ears rang with the crack of the gunfire.
By the time Ellyssa righted herself, the detective was writhing on the floor as Rein had before. Detective Petersen screamed and screamed.
Within all the activity, red lights started to flash, and a bell rang loudly throughout the corridors. Fire alarms. Woody’s signal to Ellyssa that also served to save uninvolved workers. The countdown had begun.
Everything happened at once. The screams stopped, but the detective remained on the floor. Dr. Hirch appeared confused and unsure, human emotions shining through his usually-calm façade. Her sister glared at the detective, her forehead smooth. Xaver stood to the side, watching the doctor as if awaiting orders. The red lights continued to flash, and the piercing alarm reverberated through Ellyssa’s bones.
Reacting, Ellyssa grabbed the forgotten P229. She spun around and squeezed the trigger. The sound was lost within the racket, but a red teardrop spread down the white of her father’s lab coat. He looked down, then gazed at Ellyssa in surprise before he toppled to the ground.
A shrieking “NO” soared over the alarm; the next thing Ellyssa knew, heat exploded in her stomach, consuming her. Her jaw locked and she fell to the floor, completely incapacitated. Bringing her knees to her chin, she rolled to her side.