*Cindy drove them back to Zack’s while Bill watched for tails. No cars followed them. When she pulled into Zack’s driveway, Bill ran a hand his hand down his face. They’d made it.
Hopefully Juliet was all right.
Zack came out to greet them with a tentative smile. “How’d it go?” Apparently, Julie’s bruised face and Bill’s bleak expression gave him his answer. He sobered. “Shit. What happened?”
Bill pushed his hair back from his forehead. “We left Juliet there with her cruel parents.”
Julie sniffled, and he instantly regretted his words. Dammit.
He knelt beside her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
She clamped her arms around his neck, sobbing against his chest. Bill held her tight and lifted her up. He glanced at Todd. “She should probably see a doctor to make sure she’s okay.”
Todd shook his head. “Too risky.”
“I know, but…” All of this was too risky. What the hell were they doing? Did he honestly believe they could handle this on their own? If anything happened to Juliet…
He didn’t even want to think about it so he changed the subject. “Did you find anything else?”
“Claudette Sutter paid Eden in three payments, and according to Cindy, one of the dates is Vanessa’s birthday. I’m still trying to get the money trail between Eden and Genesis.” Zack sighed. “I know it’s there. I just haven’t found it yet.”
“You will.” Bill carried Julie to the rental car and opened the door. After setting her on the passenger seat, her hold on him loosened. “I’m going to take you to Los Angeles. They won’t find you there. I promise.”
Cindy bent over close to Julie. “I’m so sorry.” She frowned as she looked over the girl’s banged-up face. “Did they do this to you?”
Julie nodded. “They’re going to kill Juliet. She shouldn’t have come for me.”
Bill did his best to comfort her. “We have your dad’s notes. They’re going to have to let Juliet go if they want them back.”
“Why do his notes matter?” She wiped her nose.
“Because they can’t make more girls like you and Juliet without them.”
She sniffled. “They’re real mad.”
Seeing the bruises on her face and arm tormented him. Were they beating Juliet right now, too? He prayed they still needed her “perfect.”
For once, that obsession with perfection could actually save her.
*
Juliet sat in the kitchen, baffled by the panic in her father’s voice.
“We can’t let the board come here tonight, Martha. Not now.”
Momma put dishes away like this was any other day. “It’s too late. Some of them are already in the air flying here.”
He paced the linoleum like a caged prisoner. “Then we need to run.”
“Run?” She tossed the towel off her shoulder and onto the countertop. “This is your moment, Ed. You did it.” She pointed at Juliet. “She’s perfect. Just like you promised she would be. Birth to eighteen years old without a single cold or disease. Tonight, they’ll enshrine Juliet as the first, and then you’ll have all the financial backing you need. You’re changing the world. We can’t miss that.”
Her mother grabbed the dishtowel and tucked it into the handle on the oven door as if they weren’t discussing sacrificing Juliet in order to procure more funding.
Her father glared at Juliet. “The Manning boy has my research journal. They won’t return it unless Juliet delivers the cash. She can’t be preserved tonight.”
Her momma’s eyes widened as she turned to face her. “You ungrateful waste of skin. You could’ve been the next Eve, bringing humanity back to the Garden of Eden. And you threw it all away, for what? The poison garbage outside and a worthless, stupid boy.”
“Enough!” Juliet shot out of the chair. “Keeping me locked up in this house for eighteen years doesn’t make me perfect, and it doesn’t prove anything. Of course I never got sick. When did I ever meet anyone with a cold? All you’ve done is clone my DNA and killed innocent babies and children you deemed less than your ideal for perfection. How twisted is that? They were human beings, not test subjects. You didn’t terminate subjects; you killed children.”
“Shut up,” her mother growled.
“No.” Juliet shook her head. “I won’t. In the time I was out there in the world, I learned something. No one is perfect, and that’s what makes them unique and special.”
Her mother pulled her hand back to slap her. Juliet winced, but her father caught her mother’s wrist.
“No.” He growled. “No bruises.”
She yanked her arm away. “What does it matter now? They’re all going to be here for the ceremony, and if we can’t enshrine her, we’ll have to tell them your journal is missing. They won’t give us the money without it. They paid for data and research, but the database is useless without your notes.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He went back to pacing. “We have to buy some time.” Stopping, he turned to his wife. “Do you know what they did to Anita Manning? They sent an assassin to silence her. We’ll be next. No loose ends.”
Martha’s face paled. “Call Frank. We need an exit plan.”
*
Juliet stared down at the street from her seat by the window. Locked in her bedroom, gloves back in place and puffy socks on her feet instead of the tennis shoes she’d borrowed from Billy’s mom’s closet. It was hard to believe she’d ever left this house.
But her time with Billy hadn’t been a dream.
He loved her.
In the tempest of anger and fear, his simple, honest words were a tether to hope. She’d get out of this. Somehow.
They took the cell phone Zack had given her. She had no way to warn him that her parents were going to take her and run. And there was no telling where she’d end up. But nothing would keep her from finding Billy again. Nothing.
The door opened behind her. She turned around, surprised to find a familiar face in a lab coat.
Billy’s dad. She knew that now.
She stood up. “Are you Frank?”
He took a tentative step inside, glancing over his shoulder. He kept his voice hushed. “Yes. Frank Manning.”
She didn’t move any closer. “Why are you here?”
“You have to understand, this research has the capacity to change the world. Your sacrifice will save millions of lives.”
Juliet stoked embers of her rage until it flared to life inside her again. What had Billy said? Stay angry. It made her strong.
She crossed her arms. “But my life is worthless? Are you saying the data is more important than my soul?”
“Soul?” He blanched but didn’t apologize. “You’re the world’s most miraculous science experiment. Your DNA was the result of hours and hours of work and trial and error. We had others before you, but they couldn’t maintain perfection. You were the first of the in vitro efforts to pay off.”
Her brows pinched together. “The Huffs…aren’t my biological parents?”
“You were genetically engineered, created in our lab. We implanted your embryo into Martha. Once you passed the first-year milestone, we replicated your DNA. The first several Julies didn’t meet the standards, but we reached perfection again when Julie-Eight was born. Don’t you see? You’re…” He fumbled for words. “You’re the property of the Genesis Foundation lab.”
Baffled, she dropped her arms, her hands balling into fists at her side. “I’m not anyone’s property. I’m eighteen years old, and I should have my whole life ahead of me.”
“You don’t understand.”
“How you could raise Billy to be such a good person, and meanwhile you’re working for people who kill children for being imperfect?”
He cocked his head. “Billy is exactly why I’m doing this work. I don’t want him to have a child who might die of cancer, or have a birth defect, or countless other maladies.”
“Billy loves me.” She waited for her words to sink in. “He will never forgive you if anything happens to me.”
He frowned, then raised his eyebrows. “I’m impressed with your high level of manipulation. I’ll make a note on our critical-thinking data.”
He didn’t believe her. She was still just a “thing,” a lab rat. “I’m not lying. We met years ago, before I escaped.”
He shook his head. “Impossible.”
“He came to my door on my ninth birthday. I kissed his cheek. Ask him.”
“Enough.” He frowned. “Come with me. We’re leaving for a safe house.”
She didn’t move. “Iridescence.”
Billy’s father froze. “What did you say?”
“He told me it’s your safe word so you’d know it came from him.”
Mr. Manning stepped farther into her room, leaning on the vanity table. “Why would he tell you that?”
She searched his eyes. “Because I’m not a science experiment. I’m human, just like you, and I love your son.”
He studied her for a moment, like he was really seeing her for the first time. He shook his head, his expression pained. “We have to go.”
She went to the top drawer of her dresser and retrieved the graphic novels he’d given her over the years and fanned them out in front of him. “I learned to draw from these books you brought me. Billy and I want to publish his comic. He’s writing it, and I’m illustrating.”
She lifted her eyes to meet his. “I have a heart and soul. I want a future”—her voice wobbled—“with your son.”
He cleared his throat. “I can’t do this.” He turned and closed the door. “Bill is all I have left in this world. If I help you, you have to promise me you’ll persuade him to hide. I know he wants to finish college, but they’ll find him there.”
Juliet nodded, choosing not to mention their plans to expose Genesis. Her trust was with Billy and his friends, not the man that thought of her as property of a lab until a few moments ago.
“There was a fire at one of the other Genesis pods once. It killed the science team and destroyed the basement lab.”
“Pods?” She frowned.
“Another house, like this one. We have to stay small, hidden in the suburbs.” He checked the door again. “When word got out it was arson, the rumor was that Genesis had ordered its destruction. Dr. Huff deleted all his real research from the database. They were furious, but it was his insurance policy. We were no longer expendable. They’d need us alive. Tonight, they’re all coming here for your ceremony and to wire transfer money in exchange for the data in your father’s journal.”
“That’s why he’s running. He doesn’t have the journal.”
He nodded. “Whatever you and Bill have planned, it won’t work. All that matters is the research. Your lives are worthless to them.”
“You’re wrong.” She swallowed. “We know one of the donors funding Genesis and her granddaughter is helping us.”
His jaw dropped. “That’s impossible. We don’t even know the donors.”
“We also know this donor paid for her granddaughter to be cloned. They live in town here.”
Confusion shone in his eyes as he shook his head. “No, it’s too risky.”
“I’m not lying. I’ve met them both.”
“Frank!” her father yelled up the stairs. “Bring her down. We need to go.”
Frank glanced at the door and back to her. “Promise me you’ll force Bill to hide.”
Juliet nodded. “I will.”
“All right.” He reached for the doorknob. His hand trembled. “Be ready to run when I give you the signal. And don’t look back.” He grabbed some clothes from her dresser and tossed them in a tote. “Let’s go.”
*
Zack dropped his piece of pizza back on the plate and stared into the webcam. “Bill, I think I found something.”
Bill looked over at Julie passed out on top of the comforter of the hotel bed. She looked tiny all curled up on the California king. “Keep your voice down. She finally fell asleep.”
“Okay.” Zack nodded and leaned in close like that might help. Bill turned down the speakers.
“Eden Incorporated makes a monthly stipend under research and development to the Genesis Foundation. The payments reference the phony vitamin formulation. We’ve got ’em.”
“Holy shit. You did it.” Bill grinned, relief washing over him. “You’re the best, Z-Man.”
He buffed his knuckles on his chest. “Yeah, I know.”
Bill tapped the pen on the desk. “I wish we’d made the drop in twelve hours. I hate leaving Juliet with them.”
He’d be counting down the hours until the exchange at the mall. If everything went according to plan, when Juliet came in with the money, they’d grab her, run through mall to the emergency exit by the bathroom. Pulling the door would set off the alarm, emptying the mall. Zack and Todd would be waiting in Zack’s van. Cindy would be with him and Juliet again. Hopefully it would keep any snipers from shooting.
It seemed to work when they dropped her off this morning.
“We’ll have her out of there soon.” Zack leaned back in his chair. “I’ll poke around and see what else I can compile. I’m putting it all in an email with an attached PDF of the research journal and the funding connection. I’ll set the email to send on a delay, just in case something goes wrong and we need to hold it back. And if things go south and they come after us, the LA Times will have the story tomorrow night, regardless of what happens.
Bill took a slow breath, trying to relax a little. “Thanks for everything, man. I’m sorry you got pulled into this mess.”
He shrugged off the praise. “We’ve been friends for way too long for me to leave you hanging.” His lips curved slightly. “Plus, I like this girl. She’s special.”
Bill nodded. “Definitely.”
“Get some rest.” Zack moved closer to the screen again. “We’ll get her back in the morning. Just stick to the plan.”
*
Juliet’s father held up a black velvet bag. “This will be over your head. Behave, and we won’t have to bind your hands.”
“You can’t tie me up anyway.” Juliet ground her teeth. “It might leave a mark.”
Her mother groaned. “We don’t have time for this.” She snatched the sack out of his hands, and Juliet was plunged into darkness. Disoriented, she stumbled behind her mother. They stepped out the door, and her mother froze.
“Going someplace?”
It was a female voice.
Her father replied. “Yes. We wanted to let her walk outside before the ceremony.”
“Oh please.” The voice laughed. “Everyone in the county knows she’s already been out. You broadcast her picture all over the news for days.”
A hand rested on her shoulder. She tensed.
“You’re a little early.” Her mother’s voice broke the silence. “Go on inside. We’ll be right back.”
“I don’t think so.”
Metallic clicking. Juliet had never heard anything like it.
“Who are they?” Momma asked.
The woman’s voice grew louder, as if she was closer now. “This is my cleanup crew. Thanks to them, you have the little girl back. We can’t afford any more mistakes. Now let’s go inside. All of us.”
Juliet’s heart pounded. This had to be Cindy’s grandmother. She was there the night they took Julie, but she didn’t seem to know her parents had traded her for Juliet.
“Where is the younger girl?”
“Locked upstairs.” Her father’s voice was tight.
“Good. The rest of the board will be here soon.”
Juliet gasped as her mother shoved her back into the kitchen. If Bill’s father was right, once they discovered there was no research journal, they’d kill them all.
Her pulse thrummed. She’d broken free of this prison once. She could do it again. But she needed to keep her head. Her life depended on it.