Mindspeak (32 page)

I turned on my heels, reached for a
tissue for the inevitable nosebleed, and began sifting through the mess of
papers and notebooks on my desk. Underneath the pile, I found the puzzle box
dad had sent me.

I opened the compartment I had
found previously. Empty. Like I had left it.

The arms of the starfish wouldn’t
budge. I pushed around different areas of the wood and shook the box. Maybe I
was wrong. Maybe there wasn’t a second compartment.

“Lexi, honey? What are you doing?”
Dani asked.

“Shit!” Briana yelled.

I whirled around. Briana banged on
the keys of her computer hard.

“What is it?” Kyle asked.

“The stupid internet is down again.”

I walked the three steps to stand
over her. “What do you mean? It’s been down?”

“Yeah, I’ve been having trouble
with my connection all night. Why can’t this stupid school get Wi-Fi in the
dorms?” She wiggled the wireless card on the side of her computer.

Kyle sat up. “My phone has no
service.” He punched around on his iPhone.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
No service. What was going on?

“I’ll catch you guys later.” I
grabbed my bag and the puzzle box, and blew out of the room.

~~~~

It was ten minutes until ten p.m.—curfew.
I had to find Jack.

I pushed open the side door of the
dorm. A man in a dark uniform blocked my path.

“Sorry miss. But no one is allowed
to leave the dorms tonight.”

What the… I backed up a step. “Who
are you?” My eyes roamed over the six-foot obstacle in front of me.

He wore a navy uniform, covering
his slightly protruding belly. A badge across his right breast read “SECURITY.”
Around his waist was a utility belt carrying a nightstick, a taser, and a
flashlight. A walkie-talkie buzzed on his right hip. His crooked smile creeped
me out as he looked down on me.

“Just extra security, miss.”

“Curfew isn’t for another ten
minutes.” I made a move to walk around him, but he mirrored my action,
continuing to block my path. It was clear I would not get around this buff man
twice my size with muscle strength.

“I have my orders. No one is to
leave the dorm this close to curfew.”

Why the need for extra security
when Wellington was gated and fenced already? I strained to look around him. I
saw no one else. The campus appeared quiet.

Jack? I’ve got trouble
.

Nothing. Where was he? The uneasy
feeling started in my legs, weakening me at the knees. I rubbed the spot over
my heart where my panic picked up in intensity.

Jack, where are you?

“Look, Mr…” I glanced at his
nametag. “Mr. Kakowski, I need to run to the library for a book. I’ll be exactly
ten minutes. I’ll be back before curfew.”

“Sorry, miss. You’re going to turn
around and head right back inside.” This time his tone was more severe and
quite belittling.

I felt the heat of my anger spread
to my sweaty palms. I curled my fingers into fists.
Thank you, Mr. Kakowski,
for your dedicated service to this school. I feel so much safer with you here.
But you are going to let me pass. You won’t try to stop me or find me. And if
you remember this for some reason, you will not tell anyone about it because
you know you’ll be fired and humiliated for allowing a little girl to get past
you.

I skirted around Mr. Kakowski
slowly, keeping my body facing him. I backed away, and when he stood at his
post once more, staring straight ahead like a British Buckingham Palace guard,
I ran.

I jogged along the shadows of the
buildings and the trees, making my way toward the stable and blotting my nose
as I went. The campus was dark except for path lighting along sidewalks,
security lamps in the parking lots off to the distance, and lights from two
buildings—the library, which should be closing any minute, and the art building
where preparations for the art gala were underway.

Approaching the art building, voices
startled me. I backed up into darkness next to the building and watched for the
people attached to the voices to appear.

A man and a woman materialized
around the corner—Dr. Wellington and Cathy DeWeese.

Strange combination
.

Their voices got louder, and my heart
beat wildly out of control.

“You’ll announce the new rules
surrounding The Program tomorrow night? At the gala?” Cathy asked.

“Yes,” Dr. Wellington said. “Security
is in place. Staff is ready.”

“Are the necessary parents or legal
guardians on board? Signatures in place?” Dr. Wellington asked.

“All but two.” Cathy’s lips
tightened into a straight line. “But it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about Jack? Is he on board?”
Dr. Wellington jiggled the change in his pocket as he walked.

“Jack will be ready by tomorrow
night when the announcement is made. He received some bad news tonight. He has
no choice but to join our cause.”

“Good. And the girl?”

The girl? Me, maybe?

“She’ll fall in line.”

Fall in line with what?

“Last I checked, she hadn’t
submitted her application for The Program. How do you know she’ll join our new
and improved program voluntarily?”

“Because, R.W., she’s in love with
my son, and she now knows she was created for this. Her father’s killing was unexpected,
but it will motivate her. In the end, she’ll do it for him.”

R.W.? Kyle was texting Dr. Wellington?

“Have you had any more contact with
the IIA?” Dr. Wellington asked.

“Of course not.” Cathy stopped and turned
toward Dr. Wellington. “You know you could have saved us all this trouble had
you just told us you had Sandra Whitmeyer’s replica living right under your
nose.”

A bone-chilling grin spread across
Dr. Wellington’s face. “The Program was carefully planned out long before you
ever got involved. Timing is everything.”

“You think the IIA killed Peter?”
Cathy asked.

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it
past them. But I just can’t figure out why they would want him dead.”

~~~~

A cool wind whipped through the
barn, stirring up dust and straw. I crouched in a dark corner of an empty stall
across from Cherriana.

My mind reeled. Did I hear Cathy
right? Was she happy about Dad’s death? Did Jack know what kind of controlling,
cold woman raised him? Dr. Wellington had known who I was all along? John
DeWeese seemed to have my best interests in mind. Did he know who he was
married to?

Jack, where are you?
I buried
my face in my hands. Was Cathy involved with the IIA?

I’m here.

I raised my head. Swiped at the
tears burning my cheeks.

Back of the barn
, he continued.
Where are you
?

I scrambled to my feet, throwing my
backpack over my shoulder, and peeked around the stall door. He was right
there. I gasped. He turned in a complete circle at the opening to the barn.

I steadied myself against the stall
door, causing it to bang into the barn wall. Jack faced me. My feet remained
cemented to the dirt floor.

“Hi,” he said.

“Where’ve you been?” I asked. I
didn’t know whether to blurt out everything that was freaking me out, or give
him the chance to explain.

He sucked in a deep breath and
released it slowly. “That’s a long story. One I probably should share with you.”

Cherriana bobbed her head in the
stall across from me, nudging me toward Jack. He and I had so much to tell each
other. I could see pain and tension in the large “v” between his eyes.

My lip quivered. “Oh, Jack.” A sob
escaped my mouth. I slammed my hand over my mouth.

Jack dropped the things he held in
his hands and closed the distance between us.

Instinctively, I backed away. He
stopped, but he was only inches from me. Electricity surged between us.

“What is it?” His hands twitched.

He longed to touch me. I could feel
the pulse of electricity between us.

He reached for me, but I leaned
further away. It would be so easy to lose myself in him, let him hug my
problems away, but his mother… The temperature of my blood rose again. “I
think… no, I know... your mother…”

“That woman is not my mother,” Jack
all but growled through clenched teeth. He looked up to the rafters. When his
eyes found mine again, they softened. “Lexi, I am sorry.” He ran his hands
through his hair. “That woman has pretended to want me to stay away from you,
but all along, she knew I would lead her straight to you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It was something Seth told me. He
said my mom had a lot to gain from the success of The Program. The way she
wants The Program to be run.”

“What does that mean?”

“Mom thinks Seth is on her side.
That he is ready and willing to teach you and me—”

“And the others,” I added.

“Yes, and the others. But the
timing had to be right. And Seth has his own motives which I haven’t quite
figured out completely.”

“And that’s why you don’t trust
him?”

Jack nodded. “Not completely,
anyway.”

“I don’t think...” My voice
cracked. “I don’t think Cathy is very upset that my dad is dead.”

Jack’s hands clenched into fists. “Your
father was going to move you, Lexi. You know that. Probably hide you forever. Cathy
DeWeese was not about to let that happen.” He said his mother’s name like it
was venom on his tongue. “I had no idea until now just how important The
Program was to her. Cathy is all about control. The Program is her way of controlling
us.”

“My father’s death kept me in place
at Wellington. And your parents are my new legal guardians.” Something wasn’t
adding up. Okay, lots of things didn’t add up.

He nodded. “And I basically handed
you to them on a silver platter. But I didn’t know.”

“What do you mean? Didn’t know
what?” Jack was speaking in circles.

“Cathy acted like she didn’t want
me near you, but in reality, she knew I would find you. I led her straight to
you. Father and I both did. She knew because of my father’s relationship with
Sandra, neither of us would be able to stay away from you.”

“She would have found me anyway. Roger
Wellington knew who I was. And if she was working with him—”

“Yeah, Father didn’t even know
until recently that Dr. Wellington was her brother.”

Every muscle along my spine
tightened. “What? Her brother?” So much didn’t make sense. “And who is Kyle to
Dr. Wellington?” Jack shrugged. “He calls Dr. Wellington R.W., which is what I
heard Cathy call him. You think Kyle might be another clone?”

“It’s possible.”

I hated with every part of my being
that my life had been orchestrated like a marionette. Our DNA and our fathers’
pasts threw Jack and me together. Jack needed me to heal that poor little girl
in the hospital room. Would he have studied me so long or come to Wellington if
it hadn’t been for Addison?

Something about the emotion
swirling in his eyes drew me toward him. I stepped closer.

He cocked his head. Looked so
unsure of himself. “Lexi, please don’t hold me or my father responsible for
whatever that woman has done.”

When I couldn’t take the distance
between us any longer, I launched myself into his arms. My arms circled his
neck. I buried my face into his chest, breathing in the scent of fabric
softener. “I’m so scared, Jack. Strange things are happening around here. I don’t
know who to trust. People close to you. To me. People want something from me
that I can’t give them. Or they want me dead. And I so want to put all of my
trust in you.”

He turned his head into the crook
of my neck and breathed in. “Shhh. We’re going to get through this. I’m going
to figure this out.” He steadied me with his hands on my hips. “We can’t stay
here, though. A night watchman will be around any minute. And the curfew—”

“There are armed guards at the
entrances of my dorm.”

“What?” he asked, surprised. “Come
on. We need to find a safer place.” After glancing over my shoulder, the length
of the barn behind me, he reached down and picked up the things he had dropped.
Then grabbing my hand, he pulled me forward.

“What’s in the bag?”

“Stuff for you.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Documents for a new identity.”

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

Passport. Driver’s license. High
school transcripts. Credit card. Birth certificate. Social security card.
Forty-five hundred dollars.

I inventoried the pile of documents
and cash in front of me. We sat in the back of a ridiculously-huge SUV, the
seats folded down, in the middle of the Wellington parking lot.

It was dark and eerily quiet. The
uneven sound of my own breaths added to my nervousness. I raised my head. Jack
stared back at me. The whites of his eyes glowed.

“Whose truck is this?” I asked.

“Seth’s. He let me borrow it to
come back here tonight.”

I nodded then reached for the
United States passport in front of me. I opened it. Thumbed the pages. Last
year’s school photo stared back at me. And the name: Sierra Richardson. “I don’t
know what to say.” Was he pushing me away?

“Tomorrow night security will be
tight, but enough cars will be going in and out that I think you’ll be able to
escape. Seth is going to drive you to the bus station in Cincinnati. From there
you’ll catch a bus to wherever you want to go.”

My breathing sped up. “Are you telling
me to leave?” I couldn’t hide the hurt in my voice.

Did Jack really think I would just
run for it? Leave him here? My grandmother? My friends? Turn my back on the
fact that Dad was murdered and that I was a human clone? Build a life on more secrets?