“Oh, honey.” She reached for me.
I stepped back, and Ariane touched my arm, staying my retreat, her fingers cool, light, and reassuring against my skin, like a washcloth on your forehead when you have a fever.
My mom frowned, and Ariane dropped her hand.
“Things weren’t good at home,” my mom said. “You know that. We’d agreed to stay together until you were both out of high school, but with Quinn graduating, it was only getting worse.”
Much like this conversation. The fact that my parents hadn’t had the best relationship was not news to me. Learning that they’d had some kind of cold, factual agreement, with a timeline and everything, was.
“It was as if once he could see the light at the end of the tunnel, it only made him angrier that he was in the tunnel in the first place,” she said. “I was going to take you with me, but you were so determined to follow in Quinn’s footsteps and your father wasn’t going to give up without a fight.…”
“So you’re saying it was my fault,” I said, fighting a swell of fury and hurt, even though I’d suspected that same thing all along.
“No!” she said, shocked. “I didn’t want to take you from your home, to make you miserable.” She paused. “And I didn’t want to make you hate me more than you already did.”
She had a point; back then, that was exactly what I would have done: hated her and done my best to make her regret taking me away from my chance to make my dad proud of me. It was only after she’d left that I’d realized the absolute futility of that quest.
“How did Dr. Laughlin find you?” Ariane asked, once more redirecting the conversation. I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or frustrated.
“I had GTX on my resume, but it was just the regular assistant job that I’d been told to use as a cover when I started working there. But Dr. Laughlin…he knew somehow. They all spy on each other.” She shuddered.
“What about Emerson St. John? The third competitor? You’ve met him,” Ariane said.
My mom shook her head. “No. Laughlin isn’t interested in his approach. He’s trying to use some kind of viral delivery system to effect changes within a human system.”
Huh?
To my surprise, Ariane nodded. “Rewriting the existing human code rather than trying to combine human and alien DNA to create a new entity.”
“Something like that. Laughlin doesn’t consider him a threat in the trials, so I don’t know much about him.”
“So, now you work with Laughlin’s hybrids?” I asked.
“Sort of.”
“What are they like?” Ariane asked softly. And I realized then we were talking about the closest thing she had to family on this world, maybe on any world, which somehow took a lot of the fuel out of my anger. My mom had lied to me, and my dad was a jerk, but I had them. They existed, providing a solid connection.
My mom shuddered. “They are…not human.”
“Neither am I,” Ariane said.
“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “Before, it was better. The four who survived the start of adolescence—two from each of the last test groups—they were mostly quiet. Submissive, distant. They seemed to live more inside their own heads than out in the world. But that wasn’t enough. Jacobs, Laughlin, they’re trying to find the balance between independent thought and obedience, between humanity and all the accelerated benefits of your…other people.” She shook her head. “They need someone who can take direction and think for herself. Even the best plans can’t account for every variable. If a mission doesn’t go according to the specifications, they need an operative who can still get the job done.”
“And Laughlin’s hybrids can do all of that,” I said.
“Not exactly. Not all of them.” She grimaced. “When Johnson…when Ford took over for Johnson, things changed. The bond between them has always been intense. They should have been competitors, but it’s something in their genetic makeup from the alien side. They thrive in a communal environment. The survival rate increased dramatically once Laughlin realized that.” She glanced at Ariane, as if searching for some sign of the same in her. Or perhaps recognizing that it was a miracle she’d survived alone, isolated in her tiny cell. “But the consequence is that they’re more like one entity with separate bodies. They’re networked through their telepathy. When Johnson was in control, it was all right, but Ford is leading now. They don’t blend as well as one-oh…as Ariane. They stand out too much. And Ford doesn’t care. They make people uncomfortable, and they seem to enjoy it.” She lifted her hands helplessly. “I’ve done my best but—”
“Your role is to help humanize them,” Ariane said.
“Technically, I’m a consultant. But yes. They didn’t have the upbringing you did. They are lacking in human cultural references and experiences. Laughlin wanted to minimize emotional attachment. They were raised without caregivers, other than for their physical needs. The idea, I guess, was that they would find it easier to follow orders without the complication of feelings. But the trouble is, now they don’t relate to humans except as order-givers. Laughlin realized that would put them at a disadvantage during the trials, especially when compared to others who are more conversant in human conventions, more relatable.” She dropped her gaze to the floor, avoiding Ariane’s eyes. “He wanted to know what GTX had done to promote those qualities.” She paused. “I tried. I did. But with Ford…they hate us so much.”
“Are you surprised?” Ariane asked with an edge. So maybe she wasn’t as okay with what had been done to her as she outwardly seemed to be.
“We were only trying to—”
“—completely disregard the ethical considerations of creating a life simply as a means to an end? Or how about the right of another living creature to exist unmolested and free of pain?” Ariane asked.
Yep, definitely not as okay with it as she seemed. I looped an arm over her shoulder, and she stiffened at first and then relaxed into my side.
My mom shook her head. “You’re probably right. That’s why you need to go. They’re clever. Sneaky, even. Unless Dr. Laughlin has given them strict orders, they will pursue their own…interests.” She lifted her hand to her throat, as if imagining fingers wrapped around it. Or if these other hybrids shared Ariane’s telekinesis, they wouldn’t even have to use their hands. “As I said, they’re not supposed to come here anymore, but—”
“That’s why you thought Ariane was Ford,” I said, finally getting the last piece of the puzzle. “What does she have against you? Other than being human and one of her captors, I mean?”
My mom winced, but she didn’t argue. “Johnson, the one who was in charge before Ford. She was…eliminated. She couldn’t adjust to the strain of outside life. She’d respond to thoughts instead of what people said. She’d forget to move things with her hands instead of using her abilities. She was too distant, too removed from the outside world.” Mara gave a helpless sigh. “She was attracting too much attention to the others at school.”
“School?” I asked in disbelief. “You sent them to school?”
“I had to do something,” she said defensively. “It’s fine. They have a cover story. They’ve been ‘diagnosed’ with a genetic condition that affects their appearance and their behavior.”
I rolled my eyes. As if that was the real issue here.