Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (34 page)

Lily’s stomach clenched. The idea they’d be less tested, instead of more, went against everything she’d learned as part of the program so long ago. The government didn’t stop when it had the information in hand, it pursued with vigor. If the two lines merged, they’d vie for ownership, not relinquish rights.

Roy’s logic didn’t work.

Maggie had said not to believe anything he said.

Keep going, Lily. There’s more here.

• • •

Cael and Maggie entered Kevin’s suite, an exact match of Lily and Matthew’s spaces, where a tied up Kevin, with duct tape over his mouth, sat beneath James’s towering form. Unlike the last time Cael had seen the man, the latest version had him wide awake and struggling against his bonds.

As soon as the door closed, and the privacy engaged, James ripped the tape off.

“What the fuck are you all doing? Let me go!” Kevin’s yell wouldn’t be heard by anyone.

“He’s been at this for a while,” James said with complete nonchalance.

Maggie sauntered up to Kevin. “Now that we have your attention, we’ll ask all the questions.” She thumped him on the top of his head with her paperwork and leaned down until eye to eye with him. “Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin.” Maggie rocked from foot to foot. “Let’s see now. How about you recap your relationship with Roy for us, shall we?”

“I’m not—”

“Oh, Kevin. But that’s not how this game is played. You see, we’re going to have a little fun if you don’t just spill those beans.”

Cael imagined Maggie gave him a wide smile.

“Go to hell.”

James yanked Kevin back by his forehead. “You really don’t want to talk to a lady like that.”

Maggie lifted her foot and stuck it on the seat in the middle of Kevin’s crotch.

A seethe broke through his teeth.

“Now, Kevin,” Maggie said. “Roy’s your partner, yes?”

“Go—”

Maggie made an adjustment to her posture.

Kevin sucked in air. “To—”

Another hip sway had Kevin tipping back in his chair beneath the force of Maggie’s foot. “Partners?”

“No.”

“Ah, now we’re talking.” She kept her foot in place.

“Roy’s the …” Kevin inhaled through his teeth. “… boss. He—”

“This is too easy, Maggie,” James said. “He’s giving it up too fast. I think he’s lying.”

“I’ve got my foot on his crotch. Pressure’s on.”

“Amp it up a little. Break something.” James gave her a nod, keeping Kevin’s neck bent backward.

James and Maggie could be very convincing when they worked together. At the same time, Cael hoped they’d push it a little so he could go find Lily and get out.

Maggie jumped on one foot.

Kevin cried out.

“Where’s Roy?” Cael said.

“Don’t … know.”

Maggie pulled back her leg and replaced it with a thump.

The screech from Kevin suggested she’d hit the right spot. “I don’t … know. Lab … probably.” His chest heaved with each word. “A million’s not worth … this … shit for a second time.”

“Let’s set him down and have a nice, professional conversation.” Maggie removed her foot as James released Kevin’s head. “Now … you’ve been interestingly absent for the last day, Kevin. Why’s that?”

“Roy calls the shots. When he wants me around, he calls me. When he doesn’t, he tells me to keep a low profile.”

“So the show when Lily arrived yesterday?”

“Just that. A show.” Kevin stretched his neck left and right. “He’s a man with a plan. Has had it for ages, years, I think. I’m just his assistant. That’s it. I never did anything he didn’t ask me to do, and usually that meant being in one place while he was in another.”

“An alibi.” Cael took a spot on the couch, leaving Kevin in the center with James and Maggie around him.
No wonder Roy is always one step ahead, and no one knows how.

“What’s this facility all about?” Maggie asked.

“What the fuck do I know? I was told to be here. I was told to make it look like Roy was being taken. I was told to remind Matthew what he’d lose if he so much as breathed a word about Roy’s shit. I was told to stay in my room unless otherwise called.” He shrugged within the bonds around him. “It’s what I do.”

Cael leaned forward. “You’re a lackey and nothing more?”

James snorted a laugh. “What were you doing in Montreal a month ago?”

Kevin’s head bobbled. “Same as always. Roy’s been on this fucking mission to find this girl for god knows how long. I’ve worked for him for three hundred and sixty-three days. He gets someone new on his birthday every year. I’m supposed to be free Thursday if I can keep the girl here and keep Matt out of Roy’s hair. Shit, this is not worth it. First Montreal and now here? Fuck this.”

So Roy
was
the reason behind the gig in Montreal and probably behind the child trafficking Wyatt had been following. Looking for Lily? Someone else? Leigh? How would he have known?

“Who were the other people with you in Montreal?” Cael asked.

“Mark Tartington and Jagger Delamar.”

Cael knew Mark Tartington had been Stuart’s cover name. “What was Jagger’s role?”

“I don’t know. He showed up sometimes when Roy left me to do something on my own. Like he didn’t trust me to get it done. I don’t think he trusts anyone.”

“Every time?” James asked.

Kevin rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe. Yes.”

Cael looked to James and to Maggie. In his mind, he formulated the same assumption they did. Jagger had been Roy’s cover for himself.
Had to have been.

“What does Roy want with the girl?” Maggie asked.

“What the hell do I know—” Maggie backhanded the left side of Kevin’s turned away face. His lip broke, spurting blood at the edge. “Shit! What was that for?”

“For lying. Three hundred and sixty-three days is a long time, and you’ve heard stuff. Now tell us what that stuff is,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m going to put a pair of high heels on, and we’ll take another pass at the lower extremities.”

Kevin squeezed his legs shut. “I hear stuff, but I don’t always get the details.”

“Give us the basics, and we’ll make sure you get a flight out of here.”

Even as Maggie said it, Cael thought about throttling her. He’d give Kevin no such service.

“Yeah, right,” Kevin said.

Cael chuckled. At least they agreed on something
.

“All’s I’ve gathered is Roy thinks this girl, this one girl, is going to save him somehow. He keeps talking all this DNA shit and wanting another chance at life. If he’s sick, he hasn’t acted like it or said. I’ve heard the words cloning, another two hundred years …”

Cael tapped his knee.
Could Roy be trying to clone himself? How would that even help?

“… but until a few weeks ago, I thought it was all bullshit, and then he finds this woman and flies her down here … to this insane asylum.”

“What about Matthew? What’s he got to do with it?” James asked.

Maggie marched into the kitchen, placed a few bottles of water on the island counter and returned with them. She handed one to Cael and James, opened another that she set to her side.

Kevin offered them another shrug. “He owns this facility. Roy’s got something on him about money. Money. Yeah, money. That’s about how he gets anything done.” A trickle of blood dripped down Kevin’s chin. “He digs deep, or has me dig deep to find what he needs to make a move. That new girl? The one he just brought here? He smiled a mile wide the whole time after she arrived. Thought he had it figured out with that kid, but she turned out not to be some sort of match for him. I don’t know, blood type, or something. So then he finds the other chick and tada! Three days before I can retire, I’m down here in the Bahamas stuck inside.”

Maggie leaned toward Kevin’s face. “You’ve been most helpful.” She lifted the water to his lips. “Here’s a treat for being such a good boy.”

Kevin drank, though much of the water dribbled down his chin. “What are you going to do with me?”

A coy smile broke on Maggie’s face. “Nothing. You’ll be free to go in about ten minutes.”

Two minutes later, Kevin’s head drooped to his chest.

“Well that was faster than expected,” Cael said.

“Gave him a little extra kick,” Maggie said. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinking?”

Cael looked to James. James to Cael. They both switched to Maggie.

“Geez, boys. C’mon. Roy’s been talking DNA. We know he was there ages ago. He’s on his last chance, but unlike Charley, he’s got no one to blend with. What would you do if that were you?”

As if a light switch flipped, Cael said, “I’d have been searching for a way to get my Mimic abilities back after I became a permanent human.”

“And he’s probably been searching forever. He knows who the important ones are. He’s been around as long as Charley, so he knows a lot, if not more than she ever did.” James nodded as if the answers had become clear to him. “Find the most powerful line of Mimics and get the DNA. But Lily’s—”

“Flawed,” Cael said. “He’d have known that, right? If he’d been there testing her? So what’s the next step?”

“Like I said before. A bit of a mixed drink. You know how humans use cord blood and stem cells to heal themselves? Maybe that’s what he needs. A baby’s goodies to reignite himself?” Maggie took a swig of her bottle of water. “If he hasn’t yet figured out Lily’s got problems on the baby front, he’s going to be very unpleasantly surprised.”

A pang hit Cael’s heart at the mention of Lily’s fertility. “He’s going to blend with her so he keeps his memories, and then he’ll wait for the baby to be born and take from it.” Cael stood and launched himself toward the door. “If it works, he’s got another two hundred plus years.”

“If it doesn’t, he’s as simple as a human; but with Lily at his side, he’s got another fifty plus years to keep working at it. I don’t think I want to be a Mimic after two hundred and thirty-four years. Isn’t that enough?” Maggie asked.

“He’d have Lily at his side, too” James said. “No way she’d give up a baby. Tie her up to him with a big-assed bow.”

Cael thumped his forehead. “She’d never let it out of her sight. Play up the connection, get her to agree, or to force it upon her, and she’s putty in his hand, angry or not. It’s lose-lose for Lily, win-win for Roy.”

“Exactly.” Maggie tilted her bottle up at him. “If he’s got the sampling down, and the technique for injecting the genetics into others, then he’ll use it on himself. For all we know, he’s already made this happen with others. In fact, I’ll bet he has. No way he’d try this on himself first.”

“Who would he have tested this on?” James asked.

Cael shook his head. “No matter what, once we get out of here, we’re looking into it.”

“Even if the self-clone-regeneration shit doesn’t work, he still has Lily … prisoner for the rest of her life, at least until he can try again. And again. And again.”

“Except she can’t have kids. Ever. Period. That’s our only win for her, and there’s no way he knows that, or he’d have probably tried something with the next best thing.” Cael kicked at Kevin’s chair. “Leigh. A kid.”

“Go as Kevin.” James started unraveling the ropes around Kevin. “Find Roy and see what’s going on.”

“Why as Kevin?” Cael asked.

“Roy hired him. He’ll trust him to be discreet for at least one more day. Kevin will do whatever he’s asked for the next thirty-six hours, and as him, you can deal with whatever’s going on.”

“But if he’s supposed to stay here?” Cael asked.

“Desperate measures … let Roy know Cael’s here, and that he’s coming after him. That’ll tear his focus from whatever he’s doing.” James stood and gestured to Maggie. “And the two of us will go find out what Matthew’s hiding behind.” James released one knot. “You’ll want this shirt.”

“I’ll get my own.” Cael walked to the closet at the side. He’d seen one in Lily’s room, too. With a Kevin-appropriate shirt and slacks, he reappeared from within the closet with Kevin’s face. “Spot me?”

Maggie made him turn and spin. “You’re looking good there, sport. See you on the finish line.”

28

Roy had continued on with his over-her-head explanations of all the screens as Lily’s mind whirled with possibilities. Could he have been telling the truth? Could he believe the government would leave them alone? She didn’t even believe it.

Two steps ahead at all times.
Charley’s words played over and over in Lily’s mind. If Roy needed her, what could he have done to get her? Kidnap her niece. Befriend her. Commiserate with her. Everything he’d already accomplished.

He still thinks I can have kids, but I can’t.

He
thinks
I can.

But
I
can’t.

And I know it.

But he doesn’t.

“Roy?”

He stopped in his discussion of the information on the screen—which Lily had failed to understand anyway. “Yes, Lily?”

“If I were to agree to your … method …”

He straightened, a small jiggle to his body’s movement.

“Would it
really
stop everything? Would the government quit testing Mimics? Would they leave me and Leigh and my family alone?”

“Yes, absolutely.” He nodded at her. “If we do this now, which is the right time for both of us, they won’t be allowed to test you for nine months, and by this time next year, we’ll have the situation under our control.”

“But won’t they want to do it again and again?”

Roy shook his head. “You’d think, but no …”

Right, and as Cael says, I have a bridge over the Atlantic Ocean I want to sell you.

“This solution will stop them.”

No, no, that’s the exact
opposite
of what the government does. If you don’t succeed once, they try, try and try again until they break you. Been there. Done that.

“But, Lily, it has to be now. Today.”

“Why?” A shiver zinged up her spine.
Don’t we have tomorrow, too?

“Because, well …”

She’d have sworn Roy’s cheek pinked up.

“… I have a sample available … you know … to mix?” He pointed to her stomach.