Gideon wagged a finger at Heath in a you-got-me gesture.
“You completed the experiment, clever boy.”
To the soldier he said, “Release my son.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Heath stayed on the ground on all fours, his head hanging between his shoulders.
He spat blood, leaving a red mud puddle in the dust.
Gideon smiled. “There’s no need to keep up the ruse any longer, son. You’ve done it. You stuck to the plan to the very end—even to this moment. And you’ve succeeded. Beyond my wildest dreams, you’ve succeeded. Your name will go down in history as the first scientist to prove true artificial consciousness.”
Heath raised his head and glowered at his father.
“Go to hell. You’re insane.”
Gideon laughed, clapping his hands. “I know it wasn’t easy. Achieving a breakthrough never is. It requires one to put one’s heart and soul into the work. Believe me, I can understand how you’d become… entangled in it. Nonetheless, you’ve proven my theory. Well done.”
“What theory?” I asked. “What’s he talking about Heath?”
Heath’s eyes slid to my face. “Nothing. Don’t listen to him.”
“What theory?” I demanded, staring hard at Gideon.
Heath’s father clasped his hands and strolled back to me, beaming.
“I theorized the best way to prove artificial consciousness beyond doubt would be to immerse the test subject in a realistic set of emotionally provoking circumstances. But this… this exceeds my wildest dreams. Heath’s experiments met the most strenuous criteria, proving beyond a doubt that artificial consciousness is possible.”
“What criteria?” I asked him.
All Gideon did was raise a brow and glance over at his son.
This time I asked Heath. “What were the criteria? What exactly was it you were trying to prove?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Heath muttered. “It’s not important. He’s insane.”
Gideon barked a laugh. “On the contrary, it’s the most important thing that’s ever happened in the study and manufacture of artificial life. Tell her, son. Tell your special friend what your real assignment was… or I will.”
Heath took a deep breath, drawing his lips in between his teeth and then releasing them. When he finally answered, his words fell out like jagged gravel.
“To find out… to find out whether you were capable of… falling in love.”
Every ounce of blood left my face, draining to the bottom of my stomach, where it churned like the mixing vats in my father’s kitchen.
It had been a lie—all of it.
Heath had never actually loved me. He’d only said it and faked an attraction to me to elicit a response in return.
As part of an experiment.
And it had worked so well—as he’d known it would. Why had I ever believed someone—especially someone as incredible as Heath—would ever find me worthy of love?
“I knew it,” I whispered, my eyelids closing in ultimate defeat.
My legs buckled, and I went limp in the guard’s arms. What was the point in resisting anymore?
If I couldn’t trust my memories, my feelings—if they were all pre-programmed, artificial—why not let them take me back to Gideon Corp and wipe my brain clean? Let them re-program me.
I wasn’t a real person, anyway. I didn’t have a real family or even a real past. It was all an elaborate experiment, like the time I’d spent with Heath.
“I’ll take her.” Heath’s voice was close.
The guard shifted away from me, and Heath scooped me up to carry me to the helicopter. His heartbeat drummed beneath my ear as my head lolled against his chest.
And then there were other sounds—the helicopter engine humming to life and its rotors beginning to turn. Their noise drowned out the voices around me as well as my own breathing and heartbeat.
I felt motion and briefly wondered if we were in the air yet. I’d never flown before. Under normal circumstances, I would have wanted to see.
But exhaustion and sickness and grief settled over me like a weighted blanket. I didn’t open my eyes or lift my head, which was propped on something firm but pliant. Heath’s leg was my best guess.
His hand stroked my hair repeatedly, filling me with conflicting impulses—to burrow into the comfort and closeness—and on the flip side, to shrug it off, roll away from him, and curl up like a pill bug in the corner.
As I wavered in and out of consciousness, Heath’s smooth, deep voice rumbled close to my ear.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m going to take care of you. Everything’s going to be okay, my sweet girl. Everything’s okay.”
White. Everything was white. I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by white walls, white curtains, a white ceiling.
I wiggled my fingers. There was something soft to the touch beneath me.
Lifting my head, I looked at my outstretched body. I was lying on a bed. White sheets and a white blanket covered me.
I was in a room… somewhere. There were no windows. No other furniture beside the bed and a single chair.
In it, Heath slumped, sound asleep, his head tilted to one side with his cheek propped on one palm.
Were we in a hospital? I’d never been in one before—as far as I knew—but it vaguely resembled the hospital rooms I’d seen depicted on the vids.
With no clock and no view of the outside, it was impossible to know what time of day it was—or how long I’d been here.
The last thing I remembered was an odd sensation in my belly as the helicopter had turned in the air and started descending. Everything after that was as blank as this room.
The door opened, and a woman stepped inside, glanced up, and stopped abruptly, her eyes going wide.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Without another word, she backed out of the room and shut the door. The noise disturbed Heath’s sleep. His eyes opened, and he blinked a few times, straightening in his chair. When he looked over and saw me watching him, he rose and came to the bedside.
“How are you feeling?” his voice was sleep-roughened and soft. With concern? With shame? It didn’t matter.
I took an inventory of my body, wiggling my toes and fingers. My aches and pains were gone.
Reaching for my hip, I realized the injury there was also healed. I was no longer foggy-headed from fever, and I was pain-free, as if none of it had ever happened.
Either I’d been in the hospital a long time, or the medical staff here worked extra-quick.
Making an effort to swing my feet to the side of the bed, get up, and leave him without a word, I realized my legs were immobilized. I flipped the bed linens aside and saw why.
Restraining devices wrapped around my ankles, securing me to the bed.
So… not a hospital then.
I wasn’t a patient. I was a prisoner. I was healed, but at what cost had the healing come?
Looking up, I met Heath’s apologetic expression. I recognized him, remembered him, remembered going on the run with him, his confessions… and his kisses.
Apparently, my memory hasn’t been wiped. Yet. I was still me—for now. And I was a captive audience for Heath.
“Sorry about the restraints,” he said. “I tried to talk them out of it. How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?”
Only my heart. I turned my head toward the opposite wall.
A long sigh preceded his next words. “Look, I know you’re not thrilled with me.”
I let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a growl.
“I’m sorry. Will you please look at me?” he pleaded. “I’m trying to help you.”
Sitting up, I did look at him, pointing to the straps around my ankles.
“Want to help me? You can start by getting these things off me and getting me out of here… wherever here is.”
“We’re inside Gideon Corp. You’ve been here a couple of days.”
My heart swooped with alarm, though I supposed that should have been my first guess.
“Where’s Daniel? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine—home with our mother.” Then answering my unspoken question, he said, “He hasn’t been altered.”
I relaxed marginally, then pinned him with a direct gaze.
“Why haven’t I been? Why hasn’t your father wiped my memories?”
Heath’s expression turned grim. “He wants to talk to you first.” He darted a glance at the closed door. “I’m sure he’ll be here any minute. We don’t have much time.”
“Time for what?”
Now his eyes came back to meet mine. They were clouded with regret. “I wanted to tell you… how sorry I am… truly sorry about the way things happened.”
“Save your breath. It doesn’t even matter anymore.”
“Please, Reya, listen to me. It does matter. I did start out working for my father. As I told you, I saw it as an opportunity to spend time with you, and yes, I was observing you to collect data.”
I looked down at my blanket-covered lap, wishing I could escape his pleading voice.
There was no real choice about whether to listen to him, but I didn’t have to look at those sad eyes. I kept my gaze averted as he went on.
“Try to understand. I’d never defied him before—never even considered it. He’s more than just my father. He’s Apollo Gideon, for God’s sake. No one defies him. He runs everything. He owns everything. A few days ago, I couldn’t even imagine a world where I didn’t do what he told me to do.”
His hand came to rest on my arm. “But you changed everything. You changed me. I really was trying to help you escape, trying to get you and Daniel to the Haven. I had that holoconnector on me only in case of emergency. It was turned off, untraceable. My father implanted Daniel with a tracking device. I didn’t know about it. Mom wanted it, in case he ever got lost. I would never have told them where we were if you hadn’t gotten hurt. And if we’d managed to find the Haven, I would have kept the secret forever, stayed with you forever if they would let me.”
His warm hand slipped over mine, cupping it atop the blanket.
“My father’s goal was to discover whether a Genesapien was capable of falling in love. But if you’ve ever had any faith in me at all, believe me when I say… I was the one who fell in love. I love you. It’s true. I always have, and I always will.”
His voice was so sincere, so filled with pain. Everything in me wanted to believe his story. But how could I trust him after all that had happened?
“If you really love me, you’ll help me escape,” I muttered.
“I can’t do that. I wish I could. There are guards outside the door. More importantly, you have a new chip.”
My hand instantly went to the back of my neck, probing for the foreign device.
“If you try to leave without authorization, security will activate an immobilizing pulse—it’ll drop you on the spot—with considerable pain.”
He grimaced. “I can’t get you out of here, but I am trying to help you.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“I know you don’t. And it’s my fault because I didn’t tell you the whole truth from the beginning. The thing is… I have to ask you to trust me one more time.”
“You must be joking.” I snarled.
“I’m not. When we arrived here, I spoke to my father.”
I could tell from his tone that whatever they’d discussed, it wasn’t good. For me.
“I don’t like how it was handled, but I think maybe it was meant to be that we came back here,” Heath said. “I think something good can come of you speaking with him. He thinks it’s time to move on to the next phase of Gebby development. He doesn’t understand. But if he could get to know you, see how special you are… he’d change his mind. He’d understand that you and the others like you are genuinely human.”
“What’s in it for me? Why should I bother ‘meeting my maker?’ He’s behind this whole sick thing. He’s the one who made me live a lie my entire life.”
“Why should you? Because it’s the only way to save your friends,” he said. “You have to show him what I already know—that you’re all worth saving, that you are truly human and deserve rights and freedoms like everyone else.”
And that’s when I understood what Heath was getting at.
“He’s planning to destroy us.”
He nodded, tears shining in his eyes. “You have to show him who you are. Show him what I’ve seen. He’ll listen—he has to. And then he’ll release you, hopefully. It’s now or never.”
I waited several long moments before answering, spinning his extraordinary words through my mind.
Finally, I said, “I’ll talk to him. But only for my friends, and for Daniel. I’ll put on a show for him and get whatever information I can to help my friends. And when it’s done… so are we.”
“Reya,” he whispered. “I still love you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t…”
The rest of that lie refused to come out of my mouth, so I tried again. “I can’t… think of anything right now but saving my friends.”
And you broke my heart into so many pieces, it’ll never be put back together.
Too much had happened. There’d been too many surprises, too many excuses, and far too many secrets between us.
“I don’t know how I could ever trust—”
The sentence died on my lips as the door opened again, and Apollo Gideon stepped into the room.
