A Chosen Destiny (The Samantha Project Series #3) (31 page)

“That was Owens playing some kind of game with us,” Dave replied. “Either that or Rachel was right and he’s starting to lose his mind.”

“He must know that we’re aware that he has the genes, right?” Jack asked Dave.
 

“I don’t know, Jack. It’s possible that he doesn’t know about our involvement.”

We heard knocking on the door again. We practically jumped out of our seats, still rattled by Owens’ visit.
 

Dave glanced at his watch. “It’s Abigail.” He answered the door. As soon as she came in, he started to explain what had just happened with Owens. The rest of us got up to leave.
 

Jack stopped us. “Erik? Samantha? Abigail’s actually here to talk to you both about something.”
 

“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“Nothing’s wrong. We just need to talk. Let’s go downstairs.”

“Just talk here, Dad.” Erik sat down again. “Go ahead.”

“No. We need to talk to you two alone. Let’s go. This won’t take long.”

Erik and I followed Jack, Dave, and Abigail to the basement. Abigail started. “As you know, I’ve become somewhat of an expert on the alien genes. I’ve studied them for years. I’ve built models showing their effects on the human body.”

“Those models have been extremely accurate,” Dave said. “She predicted the abilities you would have as well as complications around those abilities. This was before she even met you two.”
 

“So you can tell us what will happen in the future?” Erik asked. “Will we get even more abilities?”

“I’m almost certain that you will get more abilities, but I don’t know what those are,” she replied. “The models I built work best when applied to a growing body, meaning childhood and adolescence. The adult body is harder to predict. You would think the opposite would be true but it’s not.”

“What are you trying to tell us?” I asked.

“Sam, none of us fully understand what these genes will do to you as you get older,” Dave said. “And knowing that, Abigail has been working on a project that you and Erik might be interested in learning more about.”

“It’s a procedure,” Abigail said. “A series of treatments to take the alien genes out of you. You’d be normal again.”

Abigail shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have used that term. You and Erik are completely normal. What I meant is that your genes would have only human nucleobases. No alien bases.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You can do that? Are you sure?”

“Not 100%, but my models have been correct thus far. I wouldn’t even suggest this if I wasn’t confident it could work.”

Erik was surprised as well. “So we wouldn’t have our abilities anymore? None of them?”
 

“That’s correct,” Abigail answered.
 

“But this doesn’t come without risk,” Jack warned. “The treatments could have unintended side effects. We can’t test this in any way other than in those models Abigail built. So we can’t be certain what will happen.”

“That’s why you both need to give this a lot of thought,” Dave added. “There’s no rush. You can decide months from now or even later.”

Erik and I sat there thinking about it. Minutes passed, then eventually Dave spoke. “Well if you have any questions, Abigail can—”

“I’ll do it,” I said, getting up. “I’ll do the treatments. When can we start?”

Dave came over to me. “Samantha, you need to think about this. Take some time to consider the risks.”

“I don’t need time. I’ve made my decision. I hate having this stuff in me. It’s ruined my life. It’s the reason my parents are dead.”

Dave led me to the side of the room to talk privately. “Honey, I want you to give this more thought. I know it sounds good. I was excited by the possibility, too. But then I thought of everything that could go wrong, and I want you to do the same.”

I told him I’d think about it just to appease him. But there was nothing to think about. I wanted the genes out of me.

Erik and I went upstairs. Colin and Brittany were watching TV in the living room.

“What did they want?” Brittany asked.

“They said we could get this alien crap out of us,” Erik said, sitting next to her. He didn’t seem at all enthusiastic about the news.

Brittany smiled. “Really? That’s awesome! Aren’t you guys excited?”

“It involves a series of treatments and the treatments have some risks,” I explained. “So they want us to think about it.”

“What kind of risks?” Colin asked me.

“They don’t know. Since it’s never been done and they can’t test it, we’d kind of just be hoping for the best. But Abigail built some models, and based on those, she thinks it could work.”

“And if it doesn’t work, it could kill us,” Erik said.

Colin looked at Erik. “Are you serious?”
 

“I’m totally serious.” Erik locked his eyes on me. “And Sam’s already decided to do it.”
 

Colin grabbed my arm. “Wait. You’ve already decided to do this, Sam?”

I shot a look of disapproval at Erik. “Yes. I want these genes out of me. I’m willing to accept whatever risks come with that.”

Brittany looked worried. “Do you have to do the treatments now, Sam? Or can you wait?”
 

“I can wait, but I don’t want to. I’d rather start them right away.”

“Sam, we need to talk about this.” Colin got up. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

I sighed. “Okay, but I’m not changing my mind.”

We went to his room. He shut the door hard behind us.
 

“I thought we had an agreement here, Sam. You’d be open with me? Talk to me about stuff? And now here you go again making this huge decision without even asking my opinion.”

“We can talk about it, but it’s not your decision, Colin. I don’t know why you’re getting so mad about this.”

He threw his hands up in the air. “Because you could die, Sam! You heard what Erik said. And you don’t see him rushing to make a decision.”

“He’s known about the genes his whole life. He’s used to having these abilities. He doesn’t know any differently. But I do. I used to have a life. A life where I was safe and didn’t have to run and hide all the time. I just want to have that again.”
 

Colin pulled me into his arms. “I know you do. And I want you to have that, too. But not if it means losing you. You can’t rush into this, Sam.”

I pushed him away. “Don’t you get it, Colin? This procedure could give us a normal life. If I stay this way, we’ll always be living in secret. Always worrying. We’ll never go to college, never have a job. And you and I can, well, we can never have kids. I mean, if we wanted to some day. We couldn’t combine our genes that way. You know that, right?”

“I don’t care about that, Sam. Besides, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of nieces and nephews. You know my sisters. They’ll probably each have two or three kids.”
 

“Look what these genes are doing to me, Colin. I’ve already damaged my brain. What other damage is being done? We don’t even know. It’s just as great a risk to do nothing and keep this stuff in me than it is to get it out.”

“Is that true or are you just saying that?”

“Okay, I’m just guessing about that. But it’s true that nobody knows what will happen to Erik and me as we age. Even Abigail said that, and she’s studied the alien genes for years.”

“Sam, I want you to think about this some more. You can do this a year from now, right? Or two years? Is there a time limit?”

“No. I just really want this out of me so I can be normal again. So we can be a normal couple again. Go to the movies. Eat out at a restaurant. Go to the park. I want to do all the things we used to do.”

“I do, too. But if we never do those things again, I’m okay with that.”

I smiled at him. “How did I get so lucky finding you?”

His face got serious. “You’re not making this decision yet.”

“I’ve already made—”

He kissed me before I could finish. “Go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I went back to my room to find Brittany sitting on the bed crying.
 

“Brittany, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, quickly wiping the tears away.
 

“But you were crying. Was it Erik? Did he do something? Because if he did—”

“No. I was just thinking about you getting those treatments done to get rid of the alien genes. What if it kills you, Sam? You’re the only family I have left. You can’t leave me all alone.”

I went over and hugged her. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere. And I’ll think about the treatments some more, okay? Maybe I won’t have it done.”

“I asked Erik if he’s doing it, but he wouldn’t answer me. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him either. I think I love him, Sam.”

“Erik? Really?”

She looked offended. “Why are you reacting like that? Do you think I’m not good enough for him?”

“No. It’s not that at all. It’s just that you haven’t really acted like you think of him that way. At least not since we left Iceland.”

“Because I didn’t want to screw up what we had. I guess it’s stupid for me to say that I love him. He doesn’t feel the same way about me.”

“You said you guys made out the other night.”

“Yeah, well, he was probably imagining it was you the whole time.”

“It’s not like that, Brittany. He and I don’t think of each other that way anymore.”

“You can say that all you want, but I can tell that Erik isn’t over you. You two still have something together. And it’s obvious you’re attracted to each other.”

“I told you. We were made to be attracted to each other. But attraction isn’t love. What I have with Colin is love. What Erik and I had was different. I can’t describe it.”

Brittany didn’t seem to believe me. “So do you think Erik will ever like me in a girlfriend way?”

“I don’t know. But don’t rush it. Just take it slow. ”

“I will.” She got into bed. “Although he’s a really great kisser. I don’t know how long I can wait before doing that again.”

We slept almost until noon the next day. I was getting ready when I heard someone at the front door. It sounded like Rachel. I went out to check and ran right into Erik.

“What’s going on?” I asked him. “Why is Rachel here?”

“Beats me. But she doesn’t sound good.”

We found Rachel sitting at the kitchen table with Jack, Abigail, and Dave. Tears were running down her face. “I don’t know if I can be part of this anymore. Too many people are getting killed. I should have done something. I should have protected him better.”
 

“What happened?” I almost didn’t want to know. I couldn’t take another crisis.
 

Rachel wiped her tears. “GlobalLife killed Ridley, one of our best geneticists. You and Erik met him back in Iceland, remember?”

I nodded.

“He transferred down here to the New York facility last week. He requested the transfer saying he wanted to be closer to his family. But he was really just trying to help with the mission. He was determined to get this project stopped.”

“Did GlobalLife find out Ridley was working with us?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t know about that. But they found out what Ridley did. Before he left Iceland, he was able to destroy the DNA samples GlobalLife took from you and Erik. Even the reproductive material. When Ridley got to the New York facility, he was given access to the samples that were shipped here from Iceland a few weeks ago. And just last night, Ridley destroyed them. All of them. He reported the samples missing this morning, hoping they wouldn’t suspect him. It worked at first. But then Loflin called the Iceland facility for the other samples and found they were gone, too. He put the pieces together and knew it was Ridley. And that was it. Ridley never made it out of the building.”

Rachel’s crying began again. Retelling the story made her even more distraught.
 

I felt horrible about what they’d done to Ridley. But I was beyond grateful for what he’d done for Erik and me, destroying all those DNA samples.

I could see the relief on Dave’s face as well. “He’s a hero, Rachel. What he did took immense courage.”

Her crying slowed. “I know. And I know that GlobalLife is capable of doing things like this. I just can’t believe it happened to Ridley.”

Her comment made me think of all the people in my life that GlobalLife had killed. My parents. Brittany’s mom. Erik’s brother. Jack’s friend from Stanford. GlobalLife had left a trail of deaths and just continued on, leaving friends and loved ones to deal with the aftermath. They used their vast resources and powerful connections to keep their sins a secret. And those who didn’t cooperate got killed themselves.

“Now that the genetic material is gone, GlobalLife will put all their efforts into finding Sam and Erik,” Dave said. “Their project is over if they can’t get more genetic material from these two.”

Rachel’s tone turned urgent. “Yes, that’s why I raced over here this morning. You need to get out of this area. All of you. Jack, Dave, I know you’ve already discussed some options. But you can’t wait. You need to relocate as soon as possible.” She got up to leave.
 

“Before you go, Rachel, I wanted to tell you that Owens paid us a visit yesterday,” Dave said. “He acted like he knew nothing about our involvement with Eve. He retold the same story he told the Founders in the conference call the other day.”

“Yes. Preston has no idea that Sam was controlling Eve that night. That’s why he stuck with his story, blaming Eve for stealing the genes. He doesn’t know what really happened. I need to get back to work, but please, be careful. All of you.”

Rachel walked to the door. “Wait.” I raced over to her. “Have you heard anything about what happened to Allie’s mom? Do you know how she’s doing?”

“They put the genes in her right after the meeting. I haven’t heard how she’s doing, but you know the track record with these genes, Samantha. I’m sure she’s very sick.”

 
“What happens to Allie? Will GlobalLife come after her now?”