Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(16)

He’d said nothing to get me to stay when he found me at The Program. Neither had Seth, now that I thought about it. Seth was the one person who’d believed I belonged inside The Program from the first time he met me.

But now? Jack was willing to give up his life to return to Wellington? For what? To protect Addison?

Massaging the spot on my chest above my heart, I walked two blocks, wandering aimlessly from building to building within UK’s huge medical complex. When I finally looked up, I was standing in front of the Keiser-Boone Building. I prepared to climb the steps to the front entrance, but hesitated when I saw the police tape to the right of the building. I pulled out the newspaper article I had saved in my backpack and read. Marci’s body had been discovered outside this very building. And the police tape around a mulched landscape area proved it.

Marci had reported on the latest scientific and medical research coming out of the university, but something had spooked her after Dad was killed. She had been scared out of her mind the last time I saw her.

So, what brought her here?

And why was the Keiser-Boone Building my “gift” from Jonas?

The sign in front of the building read “Agricultural Science Center North—Administrative Offices.” I climbed the steps to the front entrance and stepped inside. The front hallway was typical of many campus office buildings: poorly lit, brown walls, and tiled flooring. The musky smell reminded me of my grandmother’s basement. At each end of the front hallway were double doors, the kind you find in hospitals, not in old brick buildings.

I walked toward the far doors, but stopped when they opened. Out came a man dressed in blue scrubs and a white lab coat. He passed me without a second glance.

I slipped through the doors, and found myself at the entrance of a large laboratory, lit with bright, fluorescent lighting. A long, glass partition separated me from a room filled with people doing exactly what one would expect people to be doing inside a scientific lab: peering through microscopes, studying computer screens, and taking notes and having conversations about what they were viewing through microscopes and on computer screens. I couldn’t hear any of the conversations going on through the glass partition. A couple of lab techs looked up from a conversation, stopping mid-sentence to stare at me. They traded glances before speaking again. One pulled a phone from her pocket and appeared to send a message before returning the phone back to her pocket.

I heard a chatter of voices when I reached a hallway in the center of the building. But the voices were strange. They didn’t come from the lab, but from inside my head. I heard them, but I couldn’t see who they came from.

I looked around, confused, and unable to make out the exact words I heard. I couldn’t feel Jack or Jonas inside my head. And I heard female voices as well as male voices. I ventured down the middle hallway. When I turned a corner, there was only one direction to go next: down.

The hallway behind me was empty. No one bothered to stop me. A part of me felt silly. This was a building for the study of farming, I thought.

I descended to the basement and encountered another set of doors. My jogging shoes squeaked on the tiled floor. I reached out and pulled on the metal handle, but the doors were locked. To their right was some sort of electronic panel, with a small screen and a red light moving back and forth.

“Dang it, Jonas,” I swore under my breath. “Why did you send me to this building? And what did Marci find here?”

Keep going, Lexi. You’re almost there.

I jumped at the sound of Jonas inside my head. Where are you? How is it you can mindspeak to me from so far away?

How do you know I’m far away?

I sighed. I was quickly tiring of Jonas. If I ran tomorrow, it would be because of this dark-haired, smoking man. But for today, I had to know whether what Dad and Marci found inside this building was why Jonas was inside my head now, and why Dad and Marci had been killed. I just hoped I didn’t get myself killed in the process. It would do me no good to stop the mind games if I ended up dead. I almost laughed out loud at my own master-of-the-obvious thought. What am I doing, here, Jonas?

Lexi, it’s time you saw more of what we are. You might not like it, but you cannot hide from it forever. You have a responsibility to learn and use your power.

Right. You’re crazy. You and what army is going to make me? The words sounded just as clichéd and childish inside my head.

I won’t need an army, Lexi. When you see what’s at the end of two more hallways, you’ll be begging me to help you understand everything I know about our very existence.

I’m at a dead end.

Approach the screen to the right. Look straight into it with your eyes open wide. Try not to blink.

This was insane. I wiped my hands on my jeans. Why was I even listening to him? I’m not doing this. I can’t. Why would my retinas even be recognized?

Because you are the clone of Sandra Whitmeyer.

Just hearing that woman’s name made me wince. You’re telling me that Sandra Whitmeyer was a part of whatever is going on in this building? The woman who’s been in a coma for who knows how long? And that even my retinas match hers?

More or less.

I let out a huge breath, puffing hair out of my face. “Okay. Here goes nothing. Or everything.” I positioned my head close to the security panel. Inside, a tiny mechanism with a faint red light moved across the screen, much like the inside of a photocopy machine.