Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)(75)

We continue walking through the pile. Gavin insists, in case there are any survivors. It doesn’t take long to figure out there aren’t any.

Suddenly, there’s laughter from my left, and I whirl around to see the holograph of Mother standing there. I didn’t even know Sector Three had holographic capabilities. I do a quick scan for the cameras and holograph projection unit and sigh when I see the shine of lenses in the upper right corner.

There it is.

Mother claps her hands in that slow way people do when they’re mocking you. One side of her mouth is twisted into a smile. It makes me shiver.

“Smart girl. Getting out of that tube alive. Not that I had any doubt you would.” She spreads her hands out. “Like your welcome gift, honey?” she says, with a little tinkling laugh that makes me want to shudder.

“What do you want, Mother?” I ask. I make sure my voice doesn’t reflect any of the outrage, guilt, or disgust I’m feeling. I keep it as emotionless as ice.

“Long life, beauty, power. A daughter that listens to me. You know. The basics,” she says.

Gavin snorts, but it’s filled with derision. Mother doesn’t even spare him a glance.

I glare at her. “Well, it appears you’ve got three of the four. Isn’t that enough?”

Mother lifts one of her shoulders. “In normal circumstances, I suppose. But I cannot let you leave with the Surface Dweller.”

“Why?”

“Because you are the Daughter of the People. The Citizens look up to you.”

This time I’m the one who snorts. “No one looks up to me, Mother. Especially now that you’ve told the whole city I’m a murderer.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “That is no one’s fault other than your own. No one told you to kill all those Citizens.”

“You know very well I didn’t kill Macie.”

“You don’t deny the others? I’m surprised.”

I don’t say anything. I only cross my arms over my chest.

She huffs out a breath. “Besides,” she says, “if you escape, what will prevent the others from trying to do the same? A society only functions if all the parts work together toward a common goal.”

“What goal? Yours? Where you experiment on your own people?”

Her face turns hard. “I’m making them better. I’m helping them rise above themselves.”

“Right. That’s why Nick killed Macie. Because he rose above himself.” I roll my eyes toward Gavin.

She spreads her hands out in front of her. “He was not an appropriate subject. I’ll admit that. His testosterone levels were too high. Occasionally, a subject’s response to Conditioning is … unpredictable.” She shrugs. “However, all great discoveries require sacrifices. And there is always collateral damage when ruling.”

“Is that what Macie was? All these people? Me? Collateral damage? How very forward thinking of you, Mother.” This time some of the disgust seeps through.

She must hear it, because her face becomes drawn and pinched and her eyes flash. “Sniveling little brat. I gave you the gift of being an Enforcer, spent precious time and resources on making you better than the rest—making you perfect—making you my own when you failed and this is how you treat me? Running off with the first man who crooks his finger?”

Gavin surges forward. “If you’re so perfect, why did you have to adopt Evie, huh? Why didn’t you just have your own daughter? Wouldn’t the child you created be more perfect than someone else’s? Can’t do it, can you? You infertile? Missing your girl parts? What?”

Mother’s face turns dark with rage, but I have to wonder if he’s right. Is Mother infertile? Is that why she adopted me instead of making her own child? Either way, now is not the time to pick a fight.

I push him back. It surprises me how hard it is to force him to stop. “Leave it alone! She can’t hurt me,” I say to him, then turn back to Mother. “Did you hear that, Mother? You can’t hurt me anymore. I’m not under your thumb anymore. I don’t care that I was an Enforcer. He doesn’t care. You can’t brainwash me and you can’t threaten me. I’ve made it this far. We’ll make it the rest of the way.”

Mother starts laughing and I stare at her, baffled.

“You think so, do you?” She smiles, and it gives me chills. “Well, then I guess you won’t worry that I’ve let you get this far. That I’ve known every move you’ve made and every move you will make. That I’m completely unconcerned about this little … escape attempt. That I know you will fail.”

Gavin and I exchange another look. “What are you talking about?” Gavin demands.

Again she ignores him. “Darling, you didn’t expect we’d just let an Enforcer walk out the door. You had to know there were fail-safes in place.”

“Fail-safes? What fail-safes?” I ask.

Mother smiles again. “Little tiny instructions set far inside that dense brain of yours. If you don’t turn Gavin over to us and do what we tell you to do, including being a good little girl and coupling, you’ll have no choice.”

“I won’t do it.”

“Yes, you will. Didn’t you hear me? You’ll have no choice.”

“I don’t understand.”