Your One & Only(54)

He licked his lips, feeling the cuts there, and when he shifted position, a sharp stab tore through his side. Gingerly he felt his ribs. They weren’t broken, but he knew he’d find dark, ugly bruises when he lifted his shirt.

His head pounded, and his wrist was in a cast. His back, where most of the blows from the Carsons had landed, throbbed with an ache that radiated into his limbs.

All in all, he was surprised it wasn’t worse.

The room was dark, and there was no clock to tell time. Sam and Althea had visited earlier. They’d visited often while he was hovering in and out of consciousness.

A form outlined by the moon perched on the windowsill across the room. Jack sat up in bed, avoiding leaning on his broken arm.

“Who’s there?” he said.

The figure pulled a banana from a bag on his shoulder and peeled it with showy deliberation. “Hello, brother,” he said, taking a bite.

All the aches in Jack’s body vanished at once. He took a long breath, steadying his pulse. Still his heart hammered in his ears.

“I’ve wondered where you were,” Jack managed to get out.

Jonah hopped down from the window, landing soundlessly on the tiled floors. His gray eyes, familiar yet unreadable, raked over Jack’s face.

“They sure did a number on you,” he said. “Sorry I wasn’t around. I had some things to take care of in Copan.” He finished the banana in two quick bites, then threw the peel out the window.

Althea had said her sisters were leaving for Copan in the morning to help the clones there. She said someone attacked them. She’d also told him she wasn’t going.

“That was you,” Jack said, his voice level. “You destroyed Copan.”

“They destroyed it themselves. I just helped them along.” Jonah wandered the room, opening a closet and peeking in the bathroom. He pulled out the drawer of a cabinet on the far wall and rifled through its contents. “Do they keep any Somnium here?”

“I don’t know.” Jack’s head throbbed. Seeing Jonah felt surreal, like he was in a dream. He looked just like Jack, his hair and eyes, his build. Jonah had a scar at his hairline, and the skin on one arm was twisted by old burns, but in every other way, they were identical.

Jonah moved on to another drawer. “The clones don’t dream, did you know that?” he said conversationally. “They kept altering their genetic code, and I guess they lost some things along the way. Somnium gives them hallucinations, like dreams while they’re awake. In small doses, I guess they find it pleasant, but give them enough, and it’s all weird visions and nightmares.” Jonah turned toward Jack with a genial smile. “They sure can wreck a place.” He returned to searching the cabinet, pulling out another drawer. “I tried Somnium once. Didn’t do anything for me. Turns out, it doesn’t work on humans because we already dream. That’s crazy, right? Not being able to dream.”

“I guess,” Jack said.

“Hey, there’s something I’ve been looking for. You ever hear them talk about something called the Ark?”

Jack shook his head. “What is it?”

Jonah shrugged. “A human thing. Doesn’t matter.” He found some tape and bandages in another drawer, and some vials of gold liquid that he opened and sniffed, trying to figure out what they were. He tucked it all inside his bag, then came to the foot of Jack’s bed. “I’m glad I found you,” he said. “I knew about you, but it took forever to finally get here. But this is good. We can work together. We have each other now.”

Jonah’s ease and confidence was an advantage. He’d clearly had time to plan this meeting, knew what it was he wanted. Jonah’s head wasn’t swirling with countless questions. Jack, bleary with pain and drugged sleep, had no idea where to start.

“Work together doing what?” he said thickly.

“Destroying them, of course.”

Jack shook his head. “Destroy who? The clones?”

“Yeah, who do you think? Look at you!” Jack’s cuts and bruises stung anew under Jonah’s sneer. He thought of the yellow barn, the cage and shackles, laboring in the fields, the Carsons stalking toward him. “You’re nothing here,” Jonah said. “They think they want a tenth clone, but it’ll never work for them. No, we’re too human for them. They forgot they’ve had three hundred years to change themselves, and now they think they’re perfect. They look at you—at us—and they’re terrified.”

“They’re not terrified of me.”

“Listen, Jack, I’ve thought about this. In us, they see everything they’ve lost, things they didn’t even know they lost. Sure, their mental tricks make them feel connected or whatever. But they don’t love each other. You know that, at least. When one of them dies, they burn the body and move on like it was nothing. And why shouldn’t they? They have countless replacements. If they don’t even value their own lives, how are we supposed to? They’re just . . . cheap copies.”

“It’s not like that,” Jack said. “They’re not all like that.”

Jonah shook his head. “I get it. You have that Althea clone. I’ll show you, she’s just like all the others.”

“Don’t go near her!”

“Hey, take it easy,” Jonah said, hands up in surrender. “I’m your brother, I care about you. Nobody else here does, including the Althea.”