The trip back is incredibly fast. Ellis pushes himself to make up for lost time. Neither of us speaks. For the first time in a long time, my world is actually completely silent. My head is uncluttered. And I am beginning to see things as they truly are. What happened to me wasn’t my fault. What my mother allowed to happen to me—it wasn’t my fault.
When we return to Ellis’s house, Fallon is waiting for us, arms crossed.
“Took your time.”
“Shut up, Fallon,” Ellis says.
“You’re such an idiot. You know how much time we lost while you said your sweet goodbyes!”
“I said shut up.”
“So I take it your family reunion was successful?” Fallon says to me. I thrust my hands into my pockets and look away from him.
“Everything okay inside?” Ellis asks.
“Well, those cats have been circling Margaret. You need to do something about them.” Fallon nods toward the house.
“What’s going to happen to Lucy and Bo? I suppose you’ll just abandon them and let them die.” My voice rises in a whine.
“Of course not. I found them a good home.”
He is a master of his features and capable of great deception. “Really?” I ask skeptically.
“No, he’s going to dump them in some river,” sneers Fallon.
“You’re such a jerk.” Ellis glares at Fallon and then turns to me, his eyes instantly soft. “I promise. I found them a really nice home. I knew I wouldn’t be here very long. I just took them in because—”
“Because you’re an idiot who thinks you can help everyone and everything,” Fallon says, his meaning clear as he looks directly at me.
“They will be taken care of,” Ellis says.
“But how?” I ask.
“Let’s just say I can be persuasive.”
“Yeah, that I can believe,” I say, feeling the anger return.
Fallon disappears into the house, and Ellis is about to follow him. I tug at his sleeve and he stops. I know we have to get ready to leave. But I need to know. His answers won’t dissuade me from going to Istriya. Nothing will. Navi must be safe. But I deserve the truth.
“Did you already know why I ran away when you found me in the alley? Did you know what happened to me?” I try to keep my voice even.
Ellis glances toward the front door but doesn’t go inside. “I knew you ran away. That’s why you were selected. But I had no idea why you left.” He pauses and regards me with such resignation. “I only learned those things from our conversations. I’ve broken your trust in so many ways.”
“You only use women who can disappear? Isn’t that right?”
He nods.
“Women who aren’t cared for. Have no family. No friends.”
He nods again, his head hanging.
“So that’s why you wanted to know about my family? Wanted to test me to see if I would call them. Even at the clinic you were checking. What would you have done if I wanted to go home?”
He fidgets uncomfortably and looks so miserable that I steel myself.
“All the other women we used were tranquilized for the seven days it takes to incubate the embryos. But with the injuries you sustained in the alley, this was not a feasible option for you.”
“So what would you have done?” I ask icily.
He moans slightly. “Locked you up until the process was complete and then modified your memory.”
He looks so pained, but I don’t care. I need to know more. And his answer to my next question has the potential to shatter my world into a million pieces.
“Did you arrange for that guy in the alley to attack me? Did you kill Sammy?”
His eyes widen as his hands move to his chest. He opens his mouth to speak but all I hear is a gurgle. I press on.
“Was the psycho in the alley one of you? Was he part of the plan to lure me toward you? So that you could rescue me, and I would be grateful and trust you?”
“No,” he gasps, as he regains his voice. “Of course not. The attack on you was a complete shock to me. I was planning on meeting you the next morning, so I was keeping track of your whereabouts. The attack is what made your body weak and unable to incubate the embryo.” He shakes his head. “No, we did not set up the attack.”
“And Sammy?”
He doesn’t say anything. I choke back a sob. “You killed him?”
“No. Kalli, Sammy’s not dead.”
“What? What do you mean? You said you found his body.” And then it hits me. “You lied! You made me think he was dead.” I pound my fists into his chest. I hadn’t thought he could hurt me any more than he already had.
He grabs my hands and holds them still. “I couldn’t let you go back. I couldn’t let Margaret find out that the memory modifier didn’t work. She specifically targeted your connection with Sammy. All your other connections to people didn’t matter. You’d already run away from them on your own. But Sammy. If you remembered him, you’d never have stayed with me. And like I said, tranquilizing you wasn’t a safe option. So when you remembered him, I panicked. I didn’t want her to hurt you. My feelings for you were changing. I was falling in love ….”
I hold up my hand. “Don’t you dare! You sicken me. I hate you.”
“What the hell is going on?” Fallon’s yell startles us, and we jump away from each other. “So all is forgiven?” He sounds disgusted. “Are you two going to die a tragic death, or are we still going?”
“You are a complete jackass,” Ellis says to Fallon.
Fallon’s eyes blaze red, yet he says nothing. He rushes by us, heading to the forest. Ellis takes my hand. I snap it back and follow Fallon into the woods.
I’m almost within an arm’s reach of Fallon when he stops. He turns to me with his finger on his lips, his eyes searching wildly. I hold my breath, desperate not to make a sound. Ellis and Fallon rapidly gesture at each other as I stand still. I can hear the rustling too. It’s faint, but it’s there, distinct from the whistling of the wind. Someone or something is out there. Fallon runs in the direction of the sound.
Ellis steps toward me. I know what he’s about to do. What I have to let him do. He picks me up and we tear through the trees, away from Fallon. After a few moments, he stops by a large pine and lets me go.
“Did you hear? So many voices, like a small army. I don’t get how they found out. Fallon, the idiot, thinks he can take them all on.” Ellis paces, his rants muted but alarming.
Ellis finally looks at me, his eyes wide and his skin damp with sweat. He takes a couple of deep breaths. “Sorry, Kalli. Listen. It’s going to be okay.”
“Okay? What are you talking about?”
“I wish I could just let you go. I want to. But it’s too late. They’re coming. They’ll find you. I can’t hide you from them. Margaret inserted a tracking device inside you.”
Tracking device? I search my body, pulling at my skin. Where?
“Don’t worry. Fallon knows how to get it out. He’ll be back. It’s going to be okay.”
I want to believe him. I’m desperate to believe him. But I’ve come to know his face, and all I can see is fear. The fear that made him run faster than he ever had. The fear that makes him lie to me now. He knows we’re both going to die. Ellis picks me up again, and we race on.
It’s strange how a living body reacts to the knowledge that it soon will no longer be alive. My heart beats fast, as if trying to accomplish a lifetime of beats, before it’s all over. My hands shake, trying to move as much as they can, before it’s no longer possible. But my breathing is slow, almost nonexistent. My lungs are the first to accept their fate.
We reach the workshop, and Ellis sets me down. We walk inside. It’s like entering my coffin. I’m certain that I will never leave this place again. The door creaks slightly, and Ellis curses under his breath. We both freeze and wait, but nothing happens. Someone has been here. The walls are empty, the filing cabinets gone, and only the desk remains. And sitting on the desk, taking up almost the entire surface, is Fallon.
“They’ve already been here. Packed it all up,” Fallon says, nodding toward the walls.
“Where are they? Did you see them? What happened?” Ellis asks, as he walks along the edges of the room, feeling for pictures that are no longer there.
“You need to calm down.” Fallon jumps off the desk and throws a quick glance at me. “I threw them off our tracks. We have a bit of time before they’ll be back. So we better get going.”
Ellis moves to the desk, opens a drawer, and pushes a button. The wall behind the desk pulls apart, revealing a narrow flight of stairs. Fallon brushes past Ellis and disappears down into the darkness.
Ellis smiles weakly, his eyes pleading for my forgiveness. I swallow the huge lump building in the back of my throat and feel my way down the stairs. I hear Fallon’s footsteps echoing ahead of me.
“Hurry up. I don’t know how long it will take them to figure it out,” Fallon’s voice rings out.
I reach the bottom of the stairs and Fallon’s waiting, holding a flashlight. He grabs my hand and pulls me after him.
“It’ll be quicker if we talk while we move. Once we get to the spaceship there won’t be much time.” Fallon speaks over my head to Ellis.
“Yeah, okay,” Ellis says. “Kalli, I’m sorry for what you’re about to see. But they’re not in any pain.”
Ellis’s lips part again, but this time no words come out, just a tiny moan as we all stop in front of a steel door. I’m afraid to exhale. Who’s not in any pain?
After all we’ve been through in these few hours, what could be so terrible on the other side of the door? Fallon sighs, inserts a key into the knob, and turns it.