The Similars (The Similars #1)(77)

“But you know about this,” I say.

“Of course I do.” She smiles. The look on her face sends shivers up and down my spine. “Run along, and I won’t have to inform Headmaster Ransom about you breaking curfew again.”

“I don’t care about curfew. What are you doing to them?”

“I won’t repeat myself, Emmaline. Go.” I don’t know what it is about her voice, but I worry she is going to hurt me.

That’s when it dawns on me. Maude had minutes to get to this room before I entered the building. And from the look of things, she knew exactly where she was going, what she was doing. She told me she would let me into the building, but she didn’t. She let the door shut before I got in. She played me.

But why? To come here to be hooked up to machines? It doesn’t make any sense. Unless she wanted me to see what was happening here. To see the truth.

“This is what Madison and Jake and Tessa were talking about,” I say, as a thought occurs to me. “The blood work. The appointments they had with you…” My thoughts spill out before I can stop them. “The Similars’ special properties. You know about them, don’t you? The Similars’ unique vital signs and what they mean. You’ve been tracking them. From the keys.”

“This is my third warning, Emmaline. I’ve reached the end of my patience.”

I barely hear her. I walk around the chairs, studying the motionless faces of the Similars. Are they in on this? Or are they unwilling participants? Did Maude play me so that I’d find out?

“You’re doing research,” I say, my voice breathless as I grab a bag of what appears to be Theodora’s blood. I’m not usually squeamish, but I have to fight the urge to gag. “Research that the Huxleys funded. Research to find out how their bodies work. Is that why Headmaster Ransom invited them to Darkwood in the first place?” It’s an epiphany. “Did Ransom admit the Similars so he could turn them into his own personal science experiment?”

“You are a very imaginative girl,” Fleischer says, her voice frighteningly even. “One who should go back to her room, and go to bed, and forget she ever saw any of this.”

Fear courses through me as I begin to comprehend what I’ve discovered and what Fleischer might do to keep me from telling anyone what I’ve seen.

My mind churns. I have to protect myself. “Don’t you want to hear what I think about it? The Similars are dangerous. Levi Gravelle attacked my best friend. If you can find out what makes them so…inhuman, I support your efforts one hundred percent.”

Fleischer studies me for a second. I can tell she’s trying to decide whether or not to believe me. “Bed, Emmaline. Now.”

I nod, not risking another word as I sprint out the door, down the hallway, past the elevator bank, and outside into the cool night.

The security guard watches me run out, offering a weak good night that I don’t return as I race back up the dirt path.

Fleischer is researching the Similars. Fleischer knows about their properties.

I’m sure of something else too: this was all Ransom’s doing. He’s been planning this research, whatever it is, since the Similars arrived. Before. This was all part of a greater plan. I am sure of it.

The next thing I know, I’m standing at the top of the fire escape outside Levi’s room as the wind needles me. I rap on his window, just like I did that night we searched Oliver’s room. And just like last time, he opens it for me, then holds out a hand. I take it, his warmth rippling through me as I notice he’s shirtless again too.

We’re alone. After all, Jago isn’t here. He’s back in that room in the research building with the others.

“Emma?” Levi asks. I squeeze his hands. He doesn’t let go. I don’t want him to.

I tell him everything.





Confessions


I tell him what I saw: his friends held hostage by Fleischer. I tell him about Oliver’s hologram, leaving out the part about Underwood and Gravelle being one and the same person. When the time is right, I will tell him that too. I also tell Levi about Pru, how she’s gone to Castor Island and is possibly being held there by Gravelle. She’s my roommate and one of the only people in the world I’d do anything for—and I need to help her.

Levi throws on a T-shirt and paces the room. I wish we could hold each other, support each other, but I remind myself about Theodora. He is with her, not me. Snap out of it, Emmaline. Focus.

“Maude and I discovered something when we found the holograms,” I tell him. “The keys have had GPS tracking for ages; the old keys were recording our vital signs too. Like our resting heart rates. Data that, if looked at carefully, would reveal your special attributes. I think Ransom knows. I think he’s taking advantage of the Similars with the Huxleys’ help. I think he’s conducting research on them, probably on some sick quest for enhancement or immortality… Levi? Are you listening to me?”

Levi nods. “I knew the others were going somewhere. I noticed Jago slip out a couple of nights, and then I started putting two and two together. But why wouldn’t Ransom want to study me?”

“I know why,” I say carefully. “Only five Similars are being studied because their originals are still alive.”

“And mine is dead,” Levi says.