The Fair & Foul (Project Gene Assist Book 1) (33 page)

“I know all about what you've done. After killing hundreds, do you honestly think I would believe you incapable of killing one more just because you know how to bat your eyelashes?” His lips, still roughened from their encounter, curled back and showed his teeth.

Juliane glanced toward the barred door and back toward the elevator. Louis locked his hand around her wrist.

“I heard the rumors before, but I never wanted to believe them. I was so blind then, but I see everything perfectly now.”

“Let me go! You’re hurting me!” Juliane twisted in his grip.

“At least you aren’t trying to deny it anymore.”

“Deny what?” she exclaimed.

“I am talking about the night you and Dr. Dronigh murdered my wife. I'm talking about that factory and all those people you had executed. Or have you killed so often the events all blend together?”

She finally escaped his grasp and darted backward, massaging the blood back into her hand.

“I had nothing to do with either of those things.”

“Ah, that may not be an entirely accurate statement, my dear,” interrupted Alan over the speaker. "I’ll make a deal with both of you," Alan's voice echoed in the lobby. "Join me on the basement level, and I'll do my best to clear this whole business up in person. I'd come up there, but I don't exactly trust the company you've been keeping lately.

Juliane looked longingly at the exits. A storm crossed Louis's features.

"Afterward, I’ll even turn myself into the authorities for whatever transgressions I may be responsible for," Alan continued, "but you'll need to bring Juliane along to pass the elevator's biometric security.”

Juliane looked into Louis’s eyes as her vision blurred behind a well of tears.

“Louis, don't listen to him. We can still walk away. We just go out those doors and pretend none of this ever happened."

Louis glanced toward the entrance. It could have been made of stone for all the light that was able to pass through its doors. Faint sirens could be heard in the distance.

Juliane's wrist throbbed as Louis relaxed his grip. If she could only get him away from the immediate danger, she would explain the severed network and how it must have affected him. It might take him awhile to forgive her for the accidental impersonation, but at least they would be safe. "I have so much to tell you. You want to make the world a better place? We can do it"—she reached toward him—"together.”

“You have a deal, Alan.” Louis’s iron grip shackled her wrist again, and he dragged Juliane back toward the elevator shaft.

Louis released her wrist after the doors to the elevator closed behind them with such force that Juliane's back slammed into the elevator wall. At her grunt, Louis shot her a look of such disdain further words died on her tongue.

Juliane had never been on the lowest levels of the building. The space was filled with a raised platform and a series of thick cables and insulated piping. Damien and Eithan stood on the platform in front of the white and chrome tube. The video feed upstairs had only captured the single tube, but in this larger space, Juliane saw that there were several identical components scattered around the dais.

Conference chairs had been positioned on the ground level and were filled with the various board members. They must have made their way down during her unsuccessful escape attempt. Alan and Sarah flanked Durham, who was seated upright, his eyes glazed and unseeing. Juliane overheard Sarah tell Camille, "It was lucky we found him when we did. Something must have hit him during the initial panic."

Juliane rushed over to the stage’s edge in front of Damien. She tried to keep panic from flavoring her voice as she gestured for him to come closer. "The world has gone mad," she whispered. "You have to get everyone out of here before it is too late.”

Damien leaned down and whispered back, “Louis might have disrupted the video, but Eithan and I were able to hear everything. The situation will be under control in no time. Just don’t make any more sudden moves, and let this next part play itself out. We’ll be okay.”

Alan gestured to the other board members. “Why don’t you share with the group? You’ve got yourself a captive audience.”

“We had a deal, Alan,” Louis said with the monotone voice of a man defeated.

“That we did, and I am more than happy to complete my part, but why don’t we first allow Eithan to finish the presentation you so rudely interrupted?"

Juliane glanced back toward the elevator door. Sarah sneered at her; blue-white light danced along her arm as she brought a single finger up to her lips.

Eithan turned toward Damien, who shrugged and nodded toward the seated board.

“Er . . . Ah, well, yes, um, where was I?”

“You were in the process of telling us all about how you’ve found a way for us all to live forever,” Sarah said as she examined the nails on one hand.

“Right. Well, yes, I mean in theory. I still have some work to do, but it is promising.”

“And you need more volunteers for the next round of testing,” suggested Sarah.

“Precisely.” Eithan seemed much more at ease. Juliane glanced about. Everyone did.
How could they possibly think this was business as usual?
It was like watching drones.

“Assuming you are released for additional human testing,” supplied Camille.

“Of course,” Eithan responded.

“Isn’t that going to be somewhat of a more difficult problem for you now?” Sarah asked.

Snippets of forgotten conversation flashed in Juliane's memory like puzzle pieces. Juliane suddenly recalled the scratches on the floor in the room behind the wrecked electronics and pet boutique. “Your lab. It was bombed,” stated Juliane.

“You and Damien keep saying how smart that woman is, yet she is always the last to figure anything out,” laughed Sarah to a scowling Alan.

The smile slipped from Eithan’s face. “Yes, yes it was. It was one of a few sites. Luckily, I caught wind of a rumor that activists were targeting my work. I was able to get most of the critical projects out of harm's way, but even so, I have had to deal with significant setbacks.” Eithan glared at Louis. “All thanks to you I presume.”

Louis shrugged. “You were trying to play God. There were bound to be consequences." Eithan’s eyes bulged, and he scurried toward the steps, only to be held back by Damien.

“You aren’t above the law, Evans.”

“Nor are you.” Louis scanned the room, resting his gaze on Alan. “Nor is anyone in this room. I’ve had enough. Tell me why I came down here.”

“Whatever you say.” Alan laughed. "Where to being, where to being?" Alan said in a singsong voice. “You may want to have a seat.” Alan gestured toward an available chair. Sarah rolled it over, forcing her down into the cushion.

“I guess we should start back on the day of our first upgrade. You probably remember it as the day you and Juliane first . . . blacked out.

“I remember that day somewhat differently. Shortly after the procedure, Juliane here started mumbling about connecting with a bird, and the next thing we knew she was running out of the office talking about flying.”

Juliane felt heat rise on her cheeks. She remembered that initial disorientation combined with an exhilarating sense of freedom.

“Luckily, I was able to catch her and bring her back to the lab just before she was about to attack a random passerby.”

Alan began to pace around the room, before stopping to address Juliane directly. “I'll admit it. I began to worry. I grabbed you in a last-ditch effort to capture your attention, and you were back, only you didn’t seem to have any awareness of what you had just done. I realized later that when I reached for you, I did so with more than just my hands. I could sense your mind working. I could feel what you felt. I tried to pull back but was afraid I would only do more damage. Until that moment, I had no idea how fragile you were back then. You were desperate to connect with anything or anyone. But I also understood that I had seen only a fraction of your potential. You just needed a gentle hand to guide you.”

Juliane didn’t know what to make of Alan’s words. He had to be lying. She would never have lost control like that. She certainly wouldn't have forgotten about it.

“I worried that you might break if you knew what I had done. All that potential might be wasted, so I figured out how to wipe the memory away. It was surprisingly easy to do. Your subconscious must have wanted the memories gone as much as I did. I knew then what I had previously only suspected. We were destined to be together." Alan grinned, reaching out his hand. "I could have claimed you then," he said, dropping his arm back to his side. "Perhaps I should have, but there were other experiments needing my attention.”

"And the fact that I was with Louis at the time wasn't at all an issue," said Juliane.

"Of course it wasn't." Alan gestured toward Louis. “He never saw you as anything more than a casual distraction. Everyone could see that.”

“Louis loved me,” Juliane responded.

“You keep saying that, but did you ever hear those words from Louis? Even once? Did you ever ask his friends what he said to them about you?” Alan swung his arm toward Durham. "Because I did." Durham seemed to be frozen in place, oblivious to the exchange. A bead of drool began to descend from the corner of his mouth.

Juliane glanced at Louis.
Alan's a liar,
she wanted to scream.
It hadn't been like that.

Louis remained silent. Sarah threw back her head and cackled. Juliane wished she could blast them all away. A machine hummed over in the corner of the room, and she felt a surge of energy.

“You’ve still not been able to get a hold of that temper of yours. Sarah? Would you mind?”

Sarah walked over to the machine, which had to be a generator of some sort, and punched a button. The humming ceased, and Juliane felt her energy drain from her body as if her body were a sieve.

Juliane felt sickened to her stomach. The person prancing about the room was some twisted caricature of her former colleague. It had to be the madness Camille warned them about. She attempted to meet Damien’s gaze; whatever Damien was planning, she wished he would get on with it.

“So where were we?” Alan glanced at Sarah, who rolled her eyes. “Ah, yes. The factory.” Alan strolled over to Juliane.

Juliane felt her blood crystallize. She was so tired of whatever game Alan was playing. All she wanted was to leave this room and continue the work that had been so promising an hour ago. She looked longingly toward the elevator door.

The humor left Alan’s voice. “For this next part, Juliane, I am sorry. I preferred you never knew.”

He left her side, returning to the center of the room. “As many of you know, Juliane here chose to set up her center of operations in a region of the world that had less than ideal working conditions.” He paused, and several of the other board members bobbed their heads like marionettes.

“Recently, she was notified of the tragic ending of a simple line worker. A day after this tragic event, she came to me looking for a confident. A shoulder to cry on.“ Alan paused.

Juliane imagined that she possessed a quiver of poisoned darts.
That wasn't how it happened
.
How could anyone believe any of this?
The panic she felt earlier paled against her desire to find a way remove that smug expression from his face.

“There had been other messes, but this one felt different.”

Juliane fantasized about tying Alan to a post and burying him in the ground up to his neck only after dribbling honey all over his body.

“It didn’t take much convincing on her part before I was booked on the next flight out.” Juliane glanced toward the door. Death by ants was not nearly enough for a liar like him. Perhaps she would need to slice him up with a million paper cuts and then dose him with a spray of lemon juice.

“I arrived at dawn and met with the inspection committee. I originally had signed on for the trip, only in the role of a concerned friend, but within the first few minutes, it became clear that Juliane was not going to be satisfied with a few signatures on a report. She had made it clear that heads should roll.”

Juliane decided that being eaten alive by ants was too easy. No, Alan needed to truly wish for death before she was done with him. Perhaps it would be better to tie him to a post and remove each lung individually like the Vikings had done centuries before.

“As I was in discussions with the welcoming committee, I caught sight of a man scribbling on a notepad. I knew what would happen if the story got out, but I must not have been the only one to notice. Another team showed up. I assumed they were third-party inspectors. They told me to wait outside while they took care of the matter per Juliane's wishes.”

Even though Alan was twisting events, his words cut close to her darkest fear. Could the threats she made in the virtual world actually been the cause behind the massacre at the factory? The audio from the recording came tumbling back in her mind.

“Oh please God! Help me! There are bodies everywhere. Help me! Please!” She listened again to the popping sound in between the whispers. “ . . . to find me. You’ve got to do something. I can hear”—more pops and screams—“getting closer! Do something! Do something! Oh God! No!”

When she had listened to it the first time, she had thought the sounds of the screams would be permanently lodged in her brain. Could it be possible that she was in some way responsible for pulling the trigger?

No, Alan had to still be lying about everything. The Viking death would be too quick. The Persians had it right. She would lock him in a box and cover him with a combination of milk and honey. Flies would then visit, depositing their eggs. The larvae would then begin to devour him days later.

“An hour later, they brought me down to the factory floor. Her entire staff was there, and the people with me opened fire on them. It only took a few seconds to decimate the first rows. What could I do?" Alan shrugged.

"It was one of those moments where you have to decide whether you want to do the wrong thing and live or the right thing and die. I’ll have to live with my decision for the remainder of life, but up until today, thanks to my kindness, Juliane wasn't going to have to."