The Book of Eva: Clone, Book One Page 16

  Desperate men would say anything, but what if he’d told the truth? If he hadn’t, she’d die. Not a chance she could take. Freedom hung on the answer. Thousands waited for her to liberate them. Though she wanted to stop his execution, she couldn’t. She couldn’t trust him this time, even if she wanted to.

  “Take him outside and shoot him,” General Axis said.

  The guards dragged a fighting Dante to the door. The council members watched him go. Saying nothing to stop it, fully backing Eva in her new position as Madam President. No questions asked, no suggestions of a trial to prove his innocence. They’d handed her ultimate power, like a piece of candy to a child.

  “Eva! Tell them. Michael, this is a mistake. It’s not part of the deal.”

  She turned away as they strong-armed him from the room, unable to look him in the eyes further. It did not matter if Dante had lied or not. The bastard who manipulated her would pay.

  “Good girl, Eva. You continue to behave and you’ll have your freedom when I have the codes—and you will get me the codes.” General Axis turned on his heel and exited, whistling in joy at the elimination of one more witness to his treachery. He lied about freeing her, that as certain as he’d killed Dante, he would take her life as well. But not until he had what he wanted.

  As soon as he left, Eva rushed over to the window. The guards led Dante to the driveway and shoved him to his knees. He looked up. She pressed her palm against the glass and sucked in a deep breath. The soul they denied she possessed wept when she couldn’t. “Forgive me.”

  Bang.

  * * *

  Eva rose from where she sat.

  “So this is it.”

  “No,” she said, so softly that if I had not been tuned in I would have missed it. “You’re not what I expected. I’m giving you a second chance.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t want to turn power over to him, and I don’t think you want him to have it either. He sent me in here to talk you out of the codes, believed you had them, and he was right—about one thing. You have them. But he’s not going to get them. Give them to me, and let me finish this story.”

  We stared at each other for several moments. Was it a ploy? Would she kill me the moment I handed the codes to her? Then again, I no longer cared. All I’d loved or believed in was gone. I had a chance to see this through, finish what I started. Even if it wasn’t by my hand. Did she believe Dante innocent now? Would she go against General Axis when push came to shove? I believed she would.

  I broke eye contact, reached over to my bedside stand, and extracted my sketchbook, flipping to the first page. For a couple of minutes I stared at it, the memories barraging me like heavy artillery. Scrunching my eyes shut, I tore the page from the book and glanced at Eva again, scribbling the code on the picture of the bee. I wouldn’t need the drawing anymore. Once, twice, I folded it into a small square and looked up, waiting for her to step closer and kill me. She reached out.

  I stuffed it into her fingers and closed my eyes. Whatever her weapon of choice, I didn’t want to see it coming. “God go with you, Eva.”

  “No. He’s never been with me before. I’ll give you two hours to get out of here. Use them.”

  I opened my eyes. She lifted her chin. Her expression was one of pure sadness, the kind that made you weep inside and crushed down on your heart. Tears filled my eyes. It was no ploy. She didn’t intend to murder me in my bed.

  “Okay,” I said, even though I was too weak to go anywhere, but I didn’t want to say anything to stop her. The clones would be unaware I’d freed them, and I would be dead before sunrise when they found me and I paid for the crimes of my family. It didn’t matter if this would be my end. I wanted their freedom as much as she did. For once, we agreed upon something. It was time their imprisonment ended, along with mine.

  After she left, I asked for a holo-recorder and repeated all I’d heard. The clock ticked down. Soon she would open Pandora’s box.

  16

  The guards outside my room fled. Shouting and the sounds of retreating boot steps filled the hall as the blast doors four floors below were blown. Screams of chaos permeated the structure, followed by bolts as they explode against the walls.

  They were inside the president’s personal quarters, approaching the panic floors hidden behind ten inches of a solid steel ballistic barricade that might as well have been made from foil for all they did to stop them. This was where my family and the staff evacuated during an emergency, and our personal quarters during troubled times. If I could run, a ship would be on the roof, waiting for me. Or maybe not. The residents of Aeropia no longer had a reason to swear allegiance, and I didn’t blame them.

  “She jumped, she jumped!” someone yelled as they ran down the hall.

  I didn’t recognize the voice. Not important. The woman who’d jumped wasn’t my mother. Still, I found myself grieving Eva’s death. She was as much a victim of my family as I was, as Axel had been. Redemption was never easy. Mine would not be pretty.

  I reached over to my bedside stand and grabbed my sketchpad, flipping it open and staring at him. Slowly, I lifted my fingers to my lips and touched, remembering his kiss, the way he tasted, the way he felt inside me. Oh, how I’d loved him.

  Something crashed on the floor right below me. It wouldn’t be long. I sighed and set the pad down. Two more floors to reach my location, and the blast doors that had been blown open had been the biggest deterrent. The small security screen inside the residence on the panic floors would not hold them. They were coming. For me.

  Explosions rocked the city. Ships swooped around the tower, diving at the crowds, firing on friend and foe. I needed only to sit back and wait for the end to come. Everyone dies. I was ready. It was my time.

  The door to my room flew open. My head snapped up, and I saw a man step over the threshold. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I didn’t need to. I could feel he was focused on me. Sooner than I’d expected. I’d thought I’d have at least ten more minutes.

  Light from the hall backlit his form, making it difficult to see his features, but I didn’t need to. Tall, in a military uniform and long duster, he wasn’t one of my father’s regular troops. The blue chip in his cheek gave away his true identity. One of them, the clones turned into puppet soldiers.

  My executioner.

  As I opened my mouth to tell him to make my death quick, he slammed the door shut and his face came into focus. My heart pounded, my stomach knotted, and a huge lump formed in my throat. Please don’t let this be my imagination. “Axel,” I whispered. Had I died? “You’re…”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, soaking my skin, cementing the fact I hadn’t died. I was very much alive. Breathing. Barely. My deepest hope stood before me, in grave danger, more danger than I would ever want him placed in.

  “Yes. We don’t have much time. I have to get you out of here. She told me you would be here.”

  “She?” The room whirled around me. I blinked to bring clarity and focus to my mind. Who?

  “Your mother’s clone.”

  “Eva?” Why would she do that? Did she wish to punish me? Have me watch when the mob got hold of him?

  “She didn’t give me her name. She told me she was her clone, even though she didn’t have a chip, and directed me up to this level.”

  “There’s no escape. They’ll kill me on sight. Get out of here. Leave me.”

  “No. I’m never leaving you again. They won’t kill you if you’re one of us.” He pulled a device that looked like a small pistol from his pocket and stepped up to me. “Open your mouth.”

  I eyed the gun. “What is it?”

  “An implant—tag. Eva’s. She gave it to me.”

  “An i-dent?”

  “You need to trust me, Olivia.”

  Not so very long ago, another said this very thing to Eva, except I had no doubt of Axel’s intent. He’d risked his life to come back for me. I tipped my head back to give him access and opened my mouth as w
ide as it would go. He slid the barrel inside and pushed the end against my cheek.

  “Hold very still.”

  Pop.

  The sharp sting radiated across my jaw and cheek as the tag expanded inside my flesh. Slowly, Axel withdrew the device from my mouth and tossed it in the corner.

  Next, he walked over to my closet and retrieved a heavy sweater, khaki pants, and black boots. He shrugged out of his pack and crammed another set inside. Without looking up, he tossed my clothes to me. “Put them on, quickly.”

  “I’m scared.”

  “Put them on. They’re coming. We need to get out of here.”

  “Why did you come back?”

  He lifted his chin and stood still with my coat in his hands. “I couldn’t watch you burn.” For several seconds he didn’t move. A boom below jolted him. For a moment, I thought I saw fear in his eyes, but it vanished. He walked over to the bed and pulled my blanket back, dropping the coat, a pair of gloves, and a hat beside me. “Please. For me. Let me rescue you.”

  Things moved by at a blur. All I’d been told played through my head, and I questioned why fate had chosen to spare me. What my family had done, what I had done—certainly I didn’t deserve a hero, yet Eva had seen fit to send him to me. A touch of kindness I didn’t expect or deserve. She did indeed have a soul, and society had been foolish to believe otherwise.

  I pulled my pajamas off and slipped a shirt over my head. My hands shook, and my fingers slipped off the button to my pants several times before I managed to fasten them. My chest was healed, but lying in a cryo-healing chamber for three months had weakened me. My limbs were only beginning to recall the connections they had with my brain and what movement was. A few days outside the chamber were certainly not enough time to adjust to everything I’d been through, mentally or physically.

  When I finished dressing, Axel dropped to his knees. He slipped my socks and boots onto my feet and tied the laces. Leaning into me from between my thighs, he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his cheek over my stomach. I slid my fingers into his hair and idly played with the strands. No deep thoughts, fear, or panic, only a sense of contentment that he was here with me.

  I did not know at the time, this one moment of peace would turn out to be the only one I’d have for months to follow. I only wanted to touch the man I’d thought dead, who loved me unconditionally and didn’t care about claiming the money and belongings of my family. I only wanted to embrace him as though it might be our last time in each other’s arms. That would not be the case. As soon as the moment came, it ended.

  “We need to go.” He pulled back and rose to his feet, scooping me into his arms. I rested against his chest, safe and happy, even though the world crumbled around me.

  Axel carried me down the hall, past a mob of clones in black military uniforms like Axel wore. They eyed our chips. Blue lights flashed from their cheeks as they watched us approach. I held my breath, not sure if this was it. Would they shoot me?

  They stopped, snapped to attention, and pounded their right fists against their chests in salute. I blinked, hardly able to believe what I’d just witnessed. As we passed, they turned and continued down the hall on their mission of destruction. Smoke poured from the rooms they’d exited. My home was on fire; my life was going up in flames. Everything was gone.

  Down, down, down flight after flight of stairs, Axel carried me. The power was out, the lift didn’t work. I was amazed he didn’t falter under his burden or even stop to rest. When we stepped out into the walled courtyard, I could see the gates had been blasted off their hinges. The enclosure was empty, but the streets were not. Weapons blasted from a block away, screams and shouting echoed through the morning darkness.

  The stench of charred meat seeped into my nostrils, and my eyes stung. I didn’t have to guess from where it came. A smoldering corpse lay not far from where we exited the building, its skin blackened and melted, the hair gone. A military clone collar had been shackled around the man’s neck, melted into his flesh. His mouth was open in the silent scream of someone burned alive.

  The uniform he wore, the rank on the collar told me it could only be one person. General Axis. Though I despised the man, I’d never wish anyone the painful death he’d had endured. I turned my face into Axel’s chest and coughed.

  He tightened his grip. “It’s okay. It’s better you don’t look.”

  I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut, keeping my face buried in his coat.

  The Army had arrived and, from the sounds of it, was trying to regain control. They’d have to do it without their leader. It would not be easy—most likely impossible. The streets were not safe for clone or citizen. Axel slipped into an alley and ducked into a doorway as a group of soldiers ran down the street. He let me down to my feet and rolled his shoulders. I opened my eyes and stared into his. So many questions waited to be asked, but now was not the time.

  “What are you thinking?” Axel whispered.

  “I thought you were dead.” And I had. My heart had been broken in so many ways. I’d been ready to die, too, until I discovered my ghost lived and breathed. I opened my mouth to tell him I’d believed him lost. He shook his head and pressed two fingers to my lips as another group of Aeropite soldiers ran by, firing bolts at a target somewhere down the street in the direction from which we’d come.

  As soon as they passed, Axel spoke. “A man called Dante smuggled me over the border the night we were together, the same person who knocked me out in the kitchen. I told the people at the Institute where he took me I needed to return for you. They gave me the codes to get into the rear entrance of the winter palace.” He twisted and looked around the corner. Seconds passed before he relaxed and pulled me closer. “I was afraid I’d arrived too late.”

  “You were free. You risked everything to come back for me. Why?”

  “I have always been free because of you. I love you and could not leave you behind. I never will. Whatever the future brings, I will stay by your side and keep you safe. You were right. I was never soulless. You are my soul.”

  There are things you try to forget, and things you learn to live with because you never will eradicate those memories. My story of Eva ends here, in a smoldering country where the kindling of depravity ignites a civil war around us. The holo chip that told the truth—my story and hers, was clutched in my fist, cutting into my palm and making it bleed. I released it, letting it drop to the ground. Axel was too busy looking into my eyes and stroking my hair to notice.

  When tested, my DNA would prove the story contained in it was not a lie, choreographed to control the population, but the truth. In a time of genetic engineering, blood is a dangerous thing to toss about, but it needed to be done to prove the validity of what the holo-chip contained. Someone would pick it up, and they would watch it, and Eva’s story would be heard, and so would mine. I had burned my bridge and could never go back, nor did I want to.

  “We need a glider.” The small hover bikes Axel referred to were popular military vehicles for the narrow streets and tight neighborhoods of the capital city. They would make our escape faster but certainly not safer. Once we climbed onto the growling machine, we would become a target for both clone and soldier, unable to duck into empty doorways. But he was right. We needed transportation to get us as far from the palace as possible.

  “Stay here.” He pressed a laser into my palm and curled my fingers around the grip. “Shoot to kill. Don’t talk or hesitate—just shoot. Out here, no one is your friend. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, and he was gone. Fear grabbed me, and in a moment of panic, I slid down the door and dropped to the stone step on my butt. I pulled my knees to my chest, tears welling up in my eyes. If something happened to him, I’d be trapped, unable to escape, too weak to travel alone.

  I didn’t want to be alone anymore, and the thought terrified me more than the certain death looming around me. I noticed the bloody holo-chip and pushed it under a pile of snow, burying it from view. Spring
would come, the snow would melt, and it would be found. I didn’t know why I hid it… I just did. Perhaps there were things on the chip I wasn’t ready to talk about with Axel.

  What felt like hours later, Axel pulled up. He hopped off the glider and scooped me into his arms. His cheek bled from a cut under his eye, and soot covered his face like a mask. His lashes were singed from some kind of close encounter with a blast of heat, but other than that, there was no further damage.

  Axel carried me back into the street and to the glider. He swung his leg over the seat and mounted behind me. “If anyone gets too close or points a weapon at us, shoot them.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him I’d never handled one of the military side arms, only nodded that I understood. My stomach danced with butterflies, and a lump formed in my throat. What if I couldn’t hit them? What if I did?

  As if reading my mind, Axel spoke. “Set the weapon for broad range, and it will spray a less focused blast, but will cover a wider area. They’ll dissolve quickly on that setting.”

  “Okay.” I stared at the laser, thinking about the condition I’d seen General Axis in. He certainly hadn’t dissolved. Did that mean the torture had been intentional? Who had he encountered that bore him so much malice? I thought about all Eva had told me. It could have been anyone.

  I turned to Axel, but couldn’t bring myself to ask. I didn’t want to know if he was capable of such a gruesome and beastly act. The body had still been smoking when we came across it and Axel had passed through the courtyard before entering the palace.

  He reached over and used his thumb to change the setting. “Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.”

  “How do I…?”

  “Point and shoot.” With that said, he put the hover-bike in gear and pulled away from the alley and our cover. I didn’t ask how he’d learned to drive one, or when. I only trusted he could. He had it under control, and I was glad. One of us needed to.

  Point and shoot. Point and shoot. My heart thumped painfully in my chest. That would mean killing someone, not that I hadn’t, indirectly, but this time I’d be looking them in the eyes while I did it. I suddenly wished for the safety of the past, knowing that even though I didn’t agree with my father’s politics, he’d protected me.