Chapter Forty-Seven

Lauren looked up from the desk as Jenna opened the door. A tall, good-looking young man in a dark business suit stood at her shoulder. He glanced at Jenna, his eyes widening as he took in her face.

She stepped into the room, and the door clicked shut behind her. Striding forward, she came to a halt in front of the desk.

“What do you want from me?”

Lauren smiled and turned to the young man. “What do you think, Mark? Is she a chip off the old block?”

His gaze hadn’t left her face, but now it slid over her, lingering on her breasts and running down the length of her legs. A shudder of revulsion trickled down Jenna’s spine, but she held it straight and kept her face expressionless.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it,” he replied in a clipped public school accent. “She’s beautiful.”

“And deadly, so keep your hands off. Now leave us. We have things to talk about.”

Jenna waited until the young man had left the room then stepped closer. “Do you have the medicine my father was giving me?”

“We have something better. I’ve had my best people working on it. This will suppress the toxin production while allowing you to keep the enhanced powers. You’d like that wouldn’t you? I saw the tape of you killing Lynch. It was truly magnificent.”

Jenna wasn’t sure she wanted to keep the powers, wasn’t sure she wanted to be different. But that could wait until later. “And do you have a cure, for anyone who’s been infected by me?”

“I wonder who you could be thinking about. Mr. Hockley perhaps? Just how close did you two get?”

“Mind your own business.”

Lauren laughed. “Yes, we have a cure, but you must have guessed that.”

“Why keep it secret from the doctor who interrogated me?”

“We had a different facility working on the cure. It doesn’t do to have your employees know too much. Though we did send Dr. Smith a dose of the antidote—he was a valuable employee. Unfortunately for Smith, your Mr. Hockley stole him away before he received it.”

“You’ll give me the cure and the medicine?”

“Yes.”

What was the catch? “And you’ll let me go?”

Lauren relaxed back in her chair as she considered Jenna. “Earlier, you asked what I wanted of you. Have you guessed what that is yet?”

Jenna shook her head but said nothing.

Lauren gestured to the chair opposite her. “Why don’t you sit down?”

“Am I going to need to?”

Lauren smiled again. “Perhaps.”

The word did nothing to ease her mind. Jenna took the seat opposite and tried to calm her nerves. Was Lauren—she really couldn’t think of her as “mother”—about to ask for something she wasn’t willing to give?

“What do you know of the Conclave?” Lauren asked.

The question came as a surprise, and Jenna blinked and gathered her thoughts. “Nothing much. Only what Luke told me. Before that, I’d never heard of it.”

“Well, perhaps we should start with a little background. There are three types of people involved in the Conclave. At the bottom are the employees like your father; they know nearly nothing of who and what they work for. Then there are the members who are recruited by other members. They know of the existence of the Conclave, they do what they’re told, and they gain certain benefits from membership.”

“Benefits like…?”

Lauren shrugged. “It could be anything, business advantages, political success. It really depends on what they want and how useful they can be. And finally, there are the founders. The people at the top. Neither the employees nor the members know of the existence of the founders, though I’m sure a lot of them suspect.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Lauren raised an eyebrow. “Obviously, you must realize I am one of the founders. I was brought up to believe in the Conclave, to accept it as my right. To do what was needed for the greater good of the organization.”

“How can you justify what was done to those villagers? How can you justify what you were going to do in London? Millions would have died. What could you have possibly gained?”

Lauren ignored the question and continued as though the outburst hadn’t happened.

“The Conclave have existed for hundreds of years, and in that time we have been happy to stay in the background, exist in secrecy. Our goals have always been wealth and power, but a number of us believe the time has come to take up a more prominent position.”

“Why?”

“The world is falling apart. Acts of terrorism grow more frequent. It can be only a matter of time before something is done that could destroy the Earth and the human race forever. One nuclear weapon in the hands of some religious fanatic, and it could be all over for mankind.”

“You plan to fight terrorism with more terrorism?”

“We like to think of it as a demonstration of what we are capable of. Something so definitive we can gain the cooperation of governments and bring them under our control. The Descartes poison will do that. It will cause instant devastation and vanish without a trace.”

“What is the poison? Where did it come from? The doctor said it was a by-product of the real experiments.”

“In a way he’s right—if you think of yourself as the original experiment. After the Descartes project was terminated, we carried on with the work but took it in different directions. We combined the alien DNA with human DNA again, but this time kept it at the cellular level. Eventually we created an organism that manufactures the toxin. It was refined, concentrated, until the product you saw tested in Ivory Coast was produced.”

“Is it all destroyed?”

“Of course not. The major stocks, yes, but we can produce more…eventually. The plan has been delayed, not abandoned, and we will become a benign dictatorship. Controlling the world from behind the scenes. Stamping out disaffection before it can turn into something worse. The world will be a better place.”

“Yeah, right. And where do I fit into all this?”

“Members are recruited, but founders are born. Only those born to a founder may become a founder.”

Jenna had a sudden inkling where this was going and at first, the idea was so alien it refused to take hold.

“I don’t have any children,” Lauren continued. “Well, at least I always believed I didn’t have any children.” She looked at Jenna and smiled.

“Did you try?” Jenna asked, suddenly curious.

“Of course, but I had ovarian cancer not long after your eggs were removed, and I was never able to conceive. So you see, my line in the Conclave will die out. Unless you agree to join us.”

Jenna had guessed this was coming, but still the words shocked her to the core. “I don’t believe this.” She rose to her feet and paced the room, paused at the window to stare out. Dawn was coming—the start of a new day. She turned back to where Lauren sat in her leather chair, watching her, her expression blank.

“What happens if I say no? Will you kill me?”

“Probably not. At least not straightaway, because there’s a lot we can learn from studying you.” She paused then gave a small shrug. “But you won’t be allowed to leave here, and Luke Hockley will die. You saw the film. It’s not a pleasant way to go.”

“Bitch,” Jenna muttered.

What were her choices?

She could agree, join this organization that went against everything she’d ever believed in. She thought again to the film, all those people dying. Could the end ever justify those sorts of means? She didn’t think so.

Then again, she would have access to so much information. Information about where she came from, what she was.

“Just consider,” Lauren murmured. “You could be a source of good. Think what you could do with all that money and power. The people you could help.”

There was something Jenna wasn’t getting here. “Why bring me in now? What do you get out of it?”

“An ally.”

Shock hit her hard. That this woman could stand before her and suggest such a thing was beyond belief, and her anger rose as she took in the similarities in the other woman. Her mother. “What makes you think I would be your ally? You’re not going to tell me blood is thicker than water, are you? That, coming from the woman who tried to have me put down at the age of four, would take some convincing.”

“I was given a direct order, and I was brought up to follow such orders. I’m never going to have your squeamishness about taking life—it’s not the way I was raised. We see a bigger picture.”

“Really? How clever of you. Cut the crap. What is it you really want? What will you gain by bringing me into the Conclave?”

“I told you, an ally. There’s a side to the Descartes project I want to explore, but there is some opposition to it among the founders.”

“What is it?”

Lauren smiled, and Jenna could see the barely suppressed excitement in her eyes, which glittered with blue fire. Her hands flexed against the smooth wood of the desk, and she pushed herself onto her feet as though she could sit still no longer. She came around to stand in front of Jenna and leaned in close so Jenna could smell the expensive perfume. She wanted to back away but didn’t want the other woman to know she was uncomfortable, because she had a feeling that to Lauren, appearances were important.

You could feel fear, but never show it.

She forced herself to stare directly into Lauren’s eyes without flinching. They were of an identical height, which only made Jenna’s anger rise higher.

“What is it people have desired throughout time?” Lauren asked, and her voice was tense with excitement. “What is the one thing all the money and power in the world have been unable to buy?”

Jenna shook her head at the question.

“Immortality.”

For a moment, she was speechless. “Immortality? You really think that’s a possibility? You’re mad.”

“Maybe not immortality, but extended life span. There were changes in the cellular organisms we created from the mixed DNA. The cells mutated, but they never aged, and they never died. I bet if we looked at your cells we’d see the same thing.”

Jenna turned the information over in her mind. “Are you saying I could be immortal?” She forced a rusty laugh from her throat.

“I told you, maybe not immortal, but far longer-lived than a human.”

“I am human,” she snapped. “So why are the Conclave against this? It sounds just up their alley.”

“Some of them are for it, but we’re split. Many want the whole Descartes project shut down, and tonight’s fiasco is only going to give them more ammunition. Also, so far the research on prolonged lifespan has been inconclusive, and some of the Conclave believe it to be nothing more than a ‘flight of fancy’ on my part and a waste of resources. They’re old men with no vision.”

Jenna blinked in disbelief. Immortality? This was crazy, but again, here was maybe the one person who could help her understand who and what she was. All her life she had felt isolated, different. At least now she knew why. She was different.

“How do you know I won’t agree, say I’ll join you, and then double-cross you?” she asked.

Lauren studied her, head tilted to one side. “It’s strange, but I do trust you. Besides, there will be safeguards in place. You’d be carefully monitored.”

“And Luke? Will you leave him alone? Will you let him go?”

“That rather depends on Luke, doesn’t it? He’s become something of a thorn in our side, and I’m sure the rest of the Conclave want him dead. But I gather the two of you have become close.”

Jenna had a mental flashback to lying in Luke’s arms, to the feel of him on her, in her. It sent a shiver of sensation through her body, tightening the muscles of her belly.

Lauren laughed softly from beside her, and Jenna came back to herself with a start.

“Yes,” Lauren murmured. “I see you’ve become very close. Close enough that he would give up his quest for revenge for you?”

“Never. He holds the Conclave responsible for the death of his family. He won’t let that go.”

“Hmm, and yet he broke into our facility to rescue you, and he sounded most put out when he heard I had you in my evil clutches. Did that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?”

Jenna wasn’t about to admit to this woman that yes, it had. But she’d accepted she was expendable and been relieved when she’d heard he’d gone ahead and destroyed the toxin; she couldn’t have lived with the responsibility. And in a way, it showed he truly cared, that he knew her well enough to understand her.

All the same, it might stretch their relationship a little bit if she became one of the very people he’d been trying to destroy for the last ten years.

The thought brought her up short. God, she couldn’t believe she was even considering it.

“Well?” Lauren asked. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know, and that’s the honest truth.” She took a deep breath. “Give me the suppressant and the antidote right now, as an expression of good faith, and I’ll consider it.”

“No.”

Jenna’s heart sank. She saw no way out of this.

“I’ll tell you what,” Lauren said. “If you persuade Hockley to give himself up, I’ll make sure he gets the antidote. We might kill him later, but at least you won’t be guilty of poisoning your lover to death like you did your poor nanny.”

“Bitch,” Jenna said again, and Lauren laughed.

A knock sounded on the door, and Lauren called out, “Come in.”

Mark entered and came to stand in front of them. “We’ve had a call from Hockley.”

Lauren frowned. “How the hell did he find a number?”

“It came through the priority protocol channel.”

“Ah, Dr. Smith, I presume. Oh well, I suppose it saves us the trouble of trying to find him. What does he want?”

“Plenty. Proof that Ms. Young is alive and well, and to meet and exchange her.”

“Exchange her for what?” Lauren seemed amused by the concept.

“He says he’s amassed considerable information on the Conclave over the past ten years, and he’s going to go public with it if we don’t give him the woman.”

Lauren raised an eyebrow. “Really. I wonder what he’s got exactly.” She turned to Jenna. “I don’t suppose you know?”

“Not everything, but he does have the film of the test in Ivory Coast. Surely that’s worth a swap.”

“Did you not listen to what I told you? We’re about to come out into the open. Why the hell would we care if he tells the world what he thinks he knows?” She released her breath on a huge sigh. “On the other hand, your Mr. Hockley is becoming a pain in the ass. We might as well resolve this.” She turned to Mark. “Arrange it, but make sure there’s backup. I want him covered at all times.” She turned back to Jenna. “Looks like your boyfriend wants you back.”

“I doubt he’ll feel the same once he finds out who and what I am.”

Lauren’s expression became serious. “Maybe not, but join with me and you have a chance to do something, perhaps change the Conclave.”

“You think that’s possible?”

“What’s the alternative? That your boyfriend dies a particularly horrifying death, caused by you, and you spend the rest of your days as some sort of lab rat? As my daughter, I can protect you. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”

Jenna studied the floor. What choice did she have?

Either way she would lose him, but at least if she chose the Conclave, he would be alive to hate her.