Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy)

by Leslie O'Kane

  “It’s not like Alzheimer’s,” he continued. “Neither of us is forgetting our childhood memories. We’re gaining a second set of memories, is all.”

  “Along with a second set of personality traits and behaviors, plus a different set of interests and opinions. I’m starting to dream about paintings I’d like to create. I notice patterns of darkness and light like never before. I can feel that I’m seeing things through Alexis’s eyes. It’s disturbing.”

  “Why?”

  She sighed, worried that expressing her biggest fear to him would only it all the more real. “Because Ellie and you are compatible. Melissa and Eric are, too. But Alexis and Eric have never met, and I get the feeling that they aren’t especially compatible. Yet now I’m supposed to measure up to another girl who is me on the inside and your former girlfriend on the outside.”

  “Ellie,” Jake said, caressing her cheek with his fingertips. “I love you with all of my heart.”

  “I want to believe that.” She was getting a painful lump in her throat. “But what about your mind and your soul? If half of your mind and soul are Eric’s, half of your heart belongs to Melissa.”

  He pressed at his temples. That was a gesture that Allie had come to loathe. “How can I convince you that you’re wrong? That it’s you, not Melissa, that I love?”

  You can’t, she thought. Because, for all we know, you might be mostly Eric in another year, and I might be mostly Alexis. All she said, though, was to mutter miserably: “I don’t know.”

  “We can tell Melissa to leave,” Jake suggested tentatively. “Is that what you want me to do?”

  “No,” she snapped. “What I want is for her never to have existed in the first place.” She caught her breath, wondering if this poutiness was hers or Alexis’s; she could no longer differentiate. Maybe, in that case, it no longer mattered; she was “Allie Bixby” now, and forevermore. “I can’t get what I want.”

  “No, you can’t. And neither can I. But we can both try to get Jennifer McGavin where she belongs: locked away for the rest of her life.”

  She considered his statement. She needed to regain a sense of purpose in her life—the ability to prevent Jennifer from widening her path of destruction. “You’re right, Jake. That’s the only way I can make peace with what happened to both of us. To all of us, really...to Melissa, Eric, Alexis, my parents, and my grandmother. Daniel, too. Along with the seven people she killed at her clinic, after using them as her guinea pigs.” She caressed Jake’s cheek and searched his eyes, battling the lump in her throat as she considered how many lives Jennifer McGavin had destroyed. “Promise me you’ll let me be your true partner as we deal with Jennifer.”

  “Of course I will,” Jake replied, much too quickly.

  She shook her head. “I mean an equal partner. One who’s taking the same risks that you take.”

  He averted his eyes.

  Alexis let her hand drop to her side. “I’ve lived in Alexis’s body almost as long as you’ve lived in Eric’s. I know what it means to live every day of your life with this crushing burden on your conscience...with the knowledge that you’re living in a stolen body. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that you’re around, and that I owe my life to you. So, Jake, I need you to promise that you won’t take any bullets for me. You can’t protect me from Jennifer. The fact is, she wants us both dead. But she needs you alive, because of your intellect. The only reason we prevailed the last time was because you, Daniel, and I stuck together.”

  “True,” Jake said. “And now there are four of us.”

  Ellie felt a pang at Jake’s statement. “The thing is, we can’t guarantee which side Melissa is truly on.”

  “She’s on our side! She’s you, minus the past six months.”

  “Jennifer could have downloaded her memory device into Melissa’s brain, then overlaid them with mine. If so, Jennifer is calculating that her own memories will start worming their way into Melissa’s brain, and that she’ll switch sides. That would explain why Jennifer created a mind duplicate of me in the first place.”

  Jake got an intense, far-away expression on his face, which she’d seen many times. It meant that his brilliant mind was fast at work. “Even if that’s precisely what Jennifer did to Melissa, it won’t have any effect. The cohesion in the hippocampus portion of the brain would be linked exclusively to the most recently established neuro-pathways.”

  Allie shook her head. “If our brains stayed true to the most recent pathways that your device created, we wouldn’t be regaining our host-body’s memories.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t disprove that the newly created pathways aren’t permanently determined by the most recent procedure. We don’t have the hours upon hours it would take for me to explain how I know that to be true, but I’m right.”

  Allie again studied his eyes, wondering if his intelligence could have been adversely affected by Eric’s brain. “Are you sure? You designed this device for use on Alzheimer’s patients, not to put one person’s mind into another person’s brain. And you once told me that you suspected the McGavins had altered your original design.”

  Again, Jake pressed his thumbs against his temples. “I’m ninety-eight percent certain,” he answered after a short pause. Jake glared into her eyes. “I’m willing to live with those kinds of odds.” His words had an unsettlingly Eric-like delivery.

  “I’mnot. I want to—”

  Allie’s father came trotting down the driveway toward them, jingling his keys in front of him. “Hey, there, you two. Found my keys. I’ll move my car right now.” As they got to their feet, he watched them with a sheepish grin on his face. “Er, Allie? Your mother wants to talk to you. It’s important.”

  Allie stiffened. This could only mean that her mother was going to tell her not to see Jake until the school year was over. “Okay, Dad, but can’t it wait for ten minutes? Jake drove six hours to see me, and our conversation is also important.”

  Her father looked frozen by indecision. “I, er, need to get my car in the garage.”

  “It’s okay, Allie,” Jake said, breaking their awkward standoff. “I’ll move my car, Mr. Bixby. And, Allie, you can go talk to your mom in the meantime.”

  “I’ll just be a minute,” Allie said to him.

  “No worries,” Jake said. He gave her a pure-Jake grin, and she felt her heart leap. She gave his hand a squeeze, thinking that she should just go for it—seize this chance to be intimate with the man she loved. She should have the faith to know things would work out however they would, with love as the strongest single guiding force.

  Allie found her mother, sitting in the back room, looking resolute. “Allie, honey,” she said in her no-nonsense voice that she often used with her husband but very rarely with her. “We’re not going to allow you to leave with Jake. Not even for a few minutes. You’re grounded. Until we know for certain that he’s left the area.”

  “You can’t be serious!”

  “It’s for your own good, Allie.”

  “No, it isn’t! You’re grounding me when I haven’t done a single thing wrong! Neither has Jake!”

  “Honey, you ran away with him just six months ago. You could have been killed. Now his old girlfriend is here. You’ll either run away with him again, or you’ll have your heart broken and become suicidal once more. Either way, we need to intervene to keep you safe and alive.”

  “I’m not suicidal! That was Alexis!”

  Her mother’s stony expression didn’t change.

  Allie turned and ran toward the door. To her complete shock, she saw Jake driving away. She bolted outside after him. He sped away without a second glance over his shoulder. By the time Allie reached the end of the driveway, he was already turning at the corner.

  Allie whirled around. Her father’s face was red. “What did you say to him?!” she shrieked.

  “We’re just watching out for you. Keeping you safe from harm.”

  “Did you threaten my boyfriend?”r />
  “No. I simply told him that we were keeping the two of you apart and wouldn’t let you leave the house until he proves to us that he’s back in Washington, D.C. where he belongs.”

  “And that’s it?” Allie asked, trying in vain to lower her voice. “That’s all you said, and he left without saying goodbye?”

  He nodded. “‘Fraid so, sweetpea. He understood that would be the best thing for you.”

  “You’re lying!”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Your wife put you up to this! I saw you arguing through the window!”

  “Your mother and I agreed on what we had to do.”

  Allie brushed past him and marched back inside. She had put her cellphone on the end table in the living room during dinner. She was going to call Jake and insist that he return to smooth things out with her parents.

  Her mother was now standing in the living room. The cellphone was missing. “Mom. I need my phone.” She could hear the venom in her voice and knew this would only strengthen her parents’ opinion that she was behaving like a child, but it was all she could do not to scream at them. “We can straighten this out. You don’t need to go all Homeland Security on us!”

  Her mom made a calm-down gesture with both hands. “We’re setting ground rules, Allie. Just until the school year is finished, and we can see where we’re at.”

  The screen door banged behind Allie as her father entered. He walked past them and down the hall.

  “No! Jake is here now, and—” She stopped. She didn’t want to explain about the threat to Jake and herself that Melissa posed. Her parents wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice Jake’s life to protect hers, and she could never live with herself if she deserted Jake. “You can’t keep me here! Alexis will be eighteen in just six months. I’ll no longer be a minor.” Allie knew her rage was misdirected but she couldn’t control her fury. “I’ll never forgive you for this!”

  Her mother gaped at her. “You don’t mean that,” her dad said, reappearing from the hallway to stand behind Allie.

  “Allie,” her mother pleaded, “try to see things from our perspective. You’re our only living child. This is history repeating itself. Jake is going to chase after that homicidal maniac just like last time. It was a miracle that you escaped unharmed once. You can’t push your luck again. We’d be terrible parents to allow you to run off again and get yourself killed. I’ll give you your cellphone back a week from Friday, after your school year is over. We’ll sit down together then, all four of us, and work everything out.”

  Allie felt so boxed in that she barely knew what to do. “This is so unfair!”

  “I know it is, sweetie, but we don’t have any choice.”

  “Yes, you do! You can trust me and let me live my own life!”

  Her father shook his head. “You’re not yourself when you’re with Jake. You’re Elony Montgomery.”

  “Yes! That’s exactly right! And I have every right in the world to be Elony!”

  “What your father means is—”

  “When I left with Jake six months ago, I told you I’d return in a couple of weeks. I did that. I returned. You can’t keep me under lock and key. I’ll leave with or without your permission. At this rate, I’m just not sure whether or not I’ll ever want to return!”

  “Oh, sweetpea,” her father said. “You’re too young to know what you will or won’t ‘ever’ do again.”

  “I’m not too young to think for myself. And to ask that the people in my life make decisions based on my behavior and not on their fears.” Allie took a deep breath, trying to hold back her anger. “I’m actually nineteen and a legal adult. And it isn’t my fault that I’m not a rising sophomore at Stanford. I’m here by choice, and not by familial obligation!”

  “You are not nineteen, Allie. And, as your mother, it is my duty and my privilege to do everything within my power to see to it that you live to see your nineteenth birthday, and, God willing, a long lifetime’s worth of birthdays.”

  “So what are you going to do? Barricade me in my bedroom?”

  “If that’s what it takes to protect you.”

  Hoping to find an ally, she looked at her father who was staring at the tops of his shoes. He was hiding something behind his back, but she could see one metallic corner.

  “You took my computer out of my room!” She stamped her foot. “This is ridiculous! I’m just going to borrow someone’s phone or computer the instant you’re looking the other way.”

  “Honey, please promise not to do—”

  “Did you plan this in advance?” Allie cried, shifting her gaze to her mother and back. “Figure out how to separate us, the instant Jake came to see me?”

  “This is the last thing I wanted to do,” her mother said, not really answering her accusation. “I don’t believe your story that his host body’s girlfriend just happened to become one of your classmates. I know that you’re in deep trouble, and I’m protecting you the only way I know how.”

  “You can’t protect me from Jennifer McGavin!”

  “I have to try, Allie. I realize you don’t approve of my methods. Someday you’ll understand them.”

  Chapter 7

  The next morning, Allie’s mother was all sweetness and light. Allie avoided her gaze and answered politely. She understood that her parents simply wanted to keep her safe, yet there was no way for her to explain why she couldn’t simply stay in her room for the next two weeks like they wanted. If she told them that she now had a brain clone in school with her, they would grab her and run.

  But if she went into hiding, she would hate herself for deserting Jake in his hour of need. Jake hadn’t given her the promise she needed last night. Jennifer would not hesitate to kill Jake, once she got the information she wanted out of him. Worst of all, Allie knew that Jake was willing to pay that price, to allow Jennifer to kill him, in order to protect her. During her sleeplessness last night, Allie had tried to imagine herself carrying on if that happened, if Jake sacrificed himself. She was just plain incapable. She was going to help Jake stop Jennifer, or she was going to die trying.

  With no access to a phone or a computer, Allie needed to wait until she got to school to get in touch with Jake. She assumed her mother was trying to kill her with kindness in the hope that Allie would not simply borrow Fiona’s phone the moment she got to school. Clearly, though, her parents underestimated the strength of her and Jake’s love.

  After her typical granola-and-yogurt breakfast, her mom offered to drive her to school. During the short ride, Allie ruminated about how bad the timing was that her finals started next week. She loathed the idea of failing her classes by virtue of not taking her final exams. At this rate she was never going to get accepted at Stanford again. Maybe she could concoct a story about a crisis and convince her teachers to let her take all of her tests today. A possible monkey wrench would be that her teachers might not have their tests ready this far in advance, despite all of their advice to students not to procrastinate with their studies.

  As her mother pulled into the long line of cars dropping off students, she said, “Jake emailed me a photo of himself near the Beltway, holding a copy of the Washington Post with today’s date. I’m surprised he knew my email address. But I guess you must have given it to him.”

  Allie held her tongue, but she was as surprised as her mother was that Jake had her mother’s email address. Daniel, Jake’s roommate, was a computer whiz and must have helped.

  “So I’ll make a deal with you, Allie. I’ll return your cellphone and computer after dinner tonight, if you promise me you won’t run off with Jake.”

  Allie gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to just say: “Sure,” when she knew she would be lying. This was technology blackmail. They weren’t really her parents, and she wasn’t really a minor! “I don’t want to be late.” Allie got out of the car and shut the door behind her without looking back to gauge her mother’s reaction.

  The heat and humidity were already starting to climb
as Allie made her way toward the main entrance. She didn’t want to be at this school. She was repeating her second semester of her junior year through no fault of her own, in a different body. She wanted to scream as she weaved her way through the crowded hallway. All she wanted was to talk to Jake and figure out what to do. Wasn’t it enough of a nightmare for Jennifer to loom over her life like a ticking time bomb? Did Jennifer have to mess with all the people that she cared about?

  Allie needed an excuse to start summer break two weeks early. Should she feign having a massive headache? With Alexis’s history of concussions, that would be cause for considerable concern. She could manipulate the school principal into allowing her to take her finals tomorrow—a Wednesday—and get her parents to set an appointment at the hospital for brain tests for post-concussive headaches on Thursday. Then she could talk to Jake and arrange to sneak out of town with him, as early as tomorrow night.

  Already, her conscience was killing her. Maybe she could simply plead with her parents until they backed down. Allie’s dad was the softer sell. He’d left early for work this morning, probably so he could avoid the tension between his wife and her.

  Allie reached her locker. Fiona was waiting there for her. Allie fought the urge to burst into tears at finally having someone on her side. She averted her gaze so that she could keep it together.

  “Hey, kiddo,” Fiona said.

  “You’re not going to believe what my parents did last night,” Allie began, as she worked the combination on her lock.

  “Yes, I would,” Fiona said. “Jake called me last night to fill me in. He’s still in town.”

  “He is?” Allie felt like hugging Fiona, but Gayla was nearby, and Allie didn’t want to give her an excuse to butt into their conversation; it would be just like Gayla to interrupt and ask if they’d had good news. Daniel, she reasoned, had probably photo-shopped the picture of Jake in the D.C. area.

  “Jake just switched hotels, is all, to escape your parents’ detection, and he registered at the new one under a fake name.”