Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(86)
Chapter Thirty-Four
I stopped. Refused to enter the room. “What is this?” You will not make me enter this room. You will tell me now what is inside.
“Your mind tricks won’t work on me. You will come with me now. When we’re done here, you’ll know who was responsible for your father’s death.” Sandra’s voice was one hundred percent calm, like she had no doubt I would follow. But when I hesitated, she added, “Come now if you want to keep Danielle from meeting the same fate as Ty.”
A shiver started at the top of my scalp, moved to the base of my neck, then traveled throughout my body. I had no idea why she was immune to my mindspeak. The woman before me truly was a descendent of the father of lies. Getting close to her was like getting drawn into a forest raging with an out-of-control fire with no chance of escape. She might not have been responsible for my dad’s death, but she had no problem killing those who got in her way.
Yet I couldn’t say no to her. She tempted me with things I desired so deeply, I couldn’t turn away. Sometimes a person had to move forward to find her way out of a scary place.
I walked the few steps through the door. It slid closed behind me, making me flinch.
The room was a semicircle. A larger lab than the one down the hall, but with fewer people rushing about. Sandra and I were separated from lab technicians by a glass wall. Beyond the partition, the techs were dressed in white protective suits, including blue surgical gloves and white hoods over their hair.
This was the DNA lab. I recognized the large machines around the room designed to analyze and store DNA and blood data. Like in the previous lab, the people were rushing about, packing up equipment and preparing to move. A few of the machines were on rolling carts ready to be transported.
“Dr. Whitmeyer.” A young African-American man approached. “The device is almost ready. We have customized it to your latest specifications. It will be ready in plenty of time for you to make the last truck out of here.”
“Thank you, Daniel. Is the main server ready for the switchover? I don’t want the tracker system down for even a second longer than absolutely necessary.”
“The server is ready. There will be very little down time. We’ll only need the hard drive with this last tracker synced to it. Once that’s plugged into the new server, you’ll be operational again.”
The muscles in my neck and shoulders tightened. It wouldn’t matter if I shot up the computers here with a machine gun; Sandra would just continue to manipulate the trackers from the next location. Unless I somehow got my hands on that hard drive—that would slow Sandra down a little while we removed Dani’s and Jonas’s trackers.
“This way, Sarah.” Sandra barely acknowledged the man’s instructions. She continued around the half-circle to another door. This door was equipped with another palm scan and finger prick.
The door opened. And my heart stopped when I saw John DeWeese. Sandra stepped behind me and gave me a shove inside.
“What took you so long?” he asked when he saw Sandra, then he looked at me. “I’m so thrilled you could join us, Sarah.”
Why did everyone insist on calling me by that name? I remained silent and just stared at the centerpiece of the room: an exam table of some sort with leather straps at both ends.
I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Jack, Jonas, and Addison chatted inside my mind about possible ways to get me out of the situation I was now in—a position I had put myself in. I barely listened as I watched Dr. DeWeese type on a keyboard, producing a graphic design of a tracker on a large retractable screen on the far wall. It rotated in different directions in 3-D. I drew in a labored breath. My hand clutched at my throat. Jonas! I finally mindspoke, letting him enter my mind fully.
It’s going to be okay, he whispered. Breathe. I promise I’m going to get you out of there.
What is it? Jack asked.
Don’t tell him that his father is here. It will kill him, I said, speaking only to Jonas. Jack would have to face this sooner or later, but later was better.
It’s your father, Jonas said.
Fine, don’t listen to me. It wasn’t like Jonas ever had before.
“Show her,” Sandra ordered Dr. DeWeese.
“Gladly.” Dr. DeWeese smiled.
A video played on the screen. A movie of my father, Sandra, and John when they were younger. They appeared happy. It reminded me of the picture Jack showed me the night he informed me I had been cloned. Images of the three of them. All smiling. Sandra looking up at the two men as if they were her heroes.
“Sarah,” Sandra began. “I once thought your father, John, and I would cure every disease and injury known to man. We would find a way to promise every human on this earth… well, those with the means…”—she smiled—“…the opportunity to live a long, healthy life.”
I watched the screen change from an image of the three scientists to pictures of brains, neural activity, and DNA mapping. It was picture after picture of their research. Pictures of the goat they cloned. And of Cheriana, Jack’s cloned horse at Wellington.
Sandra continued. “No one would ever question the intelligence of your father, John, or me. Nor would they doubt the intelligence of the original owners of the others’ DNA. What we did was study the most brilliant medical minds of our time. We studied my brain activity. Your father’s. John’s. And many others. We cloned those human beings multiple times, hoping for as many successes as possible. Then, within a control group, we enhanced parts of the DNA and brain that we felt would produce a sort of supernatural healer.”