The Pretenders

by Rebecca Hanover

  “Put it down,” I tell Theodora under my breath. “The Taser. They’ve got Pru.”

  Theodora lowers it—we have to play this carefully. The Similars have super strength, but Pru, Jaeger, and Bianca don’t. And the guards have guns, making us well matched. I don’t know who would win if we charged the guards now. Or who we might lose in the process.

  Meanwhile, Levi rips the bindings off Jaeger’s wrists. I notice tears in the real Bianca’s eyes. A guard grabs Levi by the armpits and drags him across the room, as we hear Duplicate Bianca take the stage outside, to the deafening roar of the crowd.

  Maude has nabbed a gun from a guard’s belt and trains it on a different guard across the room, the one fighting Levi, but another guard knocks it from her hand, and it fires…shooting Jaeger in the leg.

  I feel myself scream but don’t know if any sound comes out.

  Jaeger crumples in his chair, howling in pain, as Pru elbows her captor and tries to get to her father across the room. “Dad!” she screams out. That’s when a couple of people I don’t recognize rush into the tent, guns trained on the guards.

  “Let them go,” one of the men says. I assume he’s a Quarry member. “Let Bianca and Jaeger and the kids go, and we won’t have to use these.”

  A scuffle ensues, shots are fired, and the next thing I know, I’m being dragged from the tent and shoved into a black SUV. I hear the crowd cheering Duplicate Bianca on the stage. She’s speaking so eloquently and with such conviction, there’s no way anyone would ever suspect she’s not who she claims to be.

  The car door slams, and a guard slaps duct tape over my mouth and thrusts the barrel of a gun in my face. The message is clear—cooperate or die.

  I hear some of my friends behind me in the car, and when I crane my neck, I see Maude and Jago. Then someone else is shoved next to me on the seat. It’s Levi. I’m shaking on the cool leather, fear coursing through me. But Levi subtly moves his hand next to mine, so that our fingers are touching. It’s the only thing that keeps me from totally losing it.

  • • •

  The car ride is short and no words are exchanged. One guard drives the SUV; the other rides shotgun and points a weapon at us. I can tell my friends have done a similar calculation to my own. We may be strong, but the guards are armed. Super strength won’t save us if they’re willing to shoot. So for now, we don’t try to fight them. Not until we have to.

  When we pull up to a towering office building in Midtown Manhattan, we’re ordered out of the car and told to walk single file into the building, where we ride an elevator to the top of the tower.

  I feel my body shaking with every step. What’s their plan—to throw us off the roof of this fifty-story building? Is that really what Gravelle would want, to kill us all so brutally in one fell swoop? Surely he didn’t raise and train the Similars just to kill us off so unceremoniously, did he? Then again, we know about the Legacy Project and that Bianca has been replaced, along with all the others. We’re a liability, thanks to our snooping—my snooping and discovering that Ollie was a Duplicate.

  Tears prick my eyes as I meet Levi’s. I hear him breathing next to me in the elevator, and I long to tell him the one thing I didn’t last night—that I love him. But it’s too late. We’re on our way to our deaths, and I wasted my chance. And Ollie. I’d been so worried he might be dead, and I’d never see him again. What if I never see him again because I’m the one who’s killed?

  No. If you give in, Gravelle wins. We won’t let them do this to us. We’ll fight them tooth and nail.

  Ding! The elevator doors open. A guard prods me in the back with his gun, jolting me forward. The wind hits us hard up here because we’re so high up.

  But wait. That’s not the wind blowing us. It’s man-made wind from a helicopter.

  We’re poised on a helipad. We’re not alone. Pru, Theodora, Ansel, and Pippa are already here. And next to them are Jaeger and Bianca. Jaeger’s leg is bandaged, but blood seeps through it, and it looks like standing on that foot is pure agony. Several guards are directing them into the mouth of the copter, and I see now that we’re next.

  I feel an immediate rush of relief. They’re not pushing us off this roof. But I also feel a sinking dread, because I know where we’re going: Castor Island. It’s obvious, isn’t it?

  Still, if that’s the case, I’ll soon be reunited with Ollie and my dad and Jane.

  And that’s what matters. Making sure Ollie knows how much he means to me. My dad too. Doing whatever’s in our power to rescue them.

  I follow in a line behind Maude and board the helicopter. I locate a seat belt that’s like backpack straps, and I wordlessly strap it on. I notice the floor I’m sitting on is made entirely of glass. With a lurch in my chest, I realize how disorienting it’s going to be to watch the world below me shrink as we take off into the air.

  Levi is beside me, and I feel his constant reassurance. I try to give him the same vibes but, admittedly, I’m scared out of my mind.

  There’s a deafening roar as the helicopter’s turbine engines whine, and my heart flips as we head up into the sky, leaving the helipad far below us until it’s a mere speck. I look up; there’s no way I’ll make it through this ride without throwing up unless I refuse to look down. Pru and Theodora are across from me, and Maude’s kitty-corner from where I sit. We try to communicate with our eyes, but what can we really say right now? We all know where we’re headed, for better or worse.

  What feels like hours later, the duct tape’s being ripped from my mouth, painfully, leaving my face stinging.

  “We talk. You listen,” a guard instructs us. I keep my mouth shut, happy to have it free, even if I can’t use it.

  “Help him,” Bianca moans as soon as the tape’s been ripped from her mouth. She means Jaeger. He’s passed out, from pain or loss of blood. “Please. You must have painkillers. Something.”

  “What did we just say?” a guard bellows, striking Bianca in the head with his gun. She winces in pain. I take stock of who else is in this helicopter with us: two of the Quarry members who rushed the tent at the rally. At least they’re alive.

  “Emma,” Levi whispers to me. “Look.”

  Even though I’d vowed not to look down, I do, for a split second. I see it now, below us. Castor Island, jutting up out of the water like a small cityscape. It’s all glass and steel and impossible geometric angles, just like I remember it. It’s breathtaking. For a minute, I forget to be nauseous.

  And I forget all the suffering Gravelle has caused there.

  Then it all comes crashing back to me, and I bristle. This is where he’s keeping Ollie and my dad. Which means we aren’t merely Gravelle’s captives; we’re his enemies. We will have to fight to get our loved ones back and restore them to their lives, or die trying.

  This is what I’m thinking as Castor Island looms larger beneath us in the glass-bottomed copter: that we may not leave this place alive.

  The Legacies

  The copter delivers us to the island’s helipad, where we disembark. I’m relieved to be on solid ground again, but I feel a growing sense of dread as we follow the guards into the bowels of Gravelle’s compound. Jaeger is whisked off, too weak to walk, and I pray this isn’t the last time we ever see him. I shoot Pru a pained glance, and I can tell she’s doing everything she can not to scream in fear and frustration.

  The guards lead us into a room I recognize from the last time I was here, a year ago. The long, cavernous chamber is as vast as a school gym, with high, narrow windows at the top. Out of those, I see hills and blue sky. Gravelle’s disturbing lab is here too, tucked away behind a set of doors. Being back here is painful, and I’m sure Levi feels this even more acutely than I do. After all, he just escaped this place. It’s both his prison and his home.

  We’re standing in the center of the room, eager to organize, to come up with a plan. Find Ollie and the others.
Get the hell out of here. But no one feels bold enough to launch into that, not with guards stationed all around us.

  I start to ask Pru about her dad but don’t get a chance. She’s looking down the length of the room to where a video screen is set up. It’s got to be ten by ten feet, at least. The screen comes to life, turning on, and we can see it’s divided into six squares. A grid.

  “Like surveillance footage,” Maude murmurs. It does look like the footage from a surveillance camera, divided into different zones. We all step closer to the screen to get a look at what’s on it. When we do—we can’t look away.

  In the left-hand square at the top of the grid, Ansel’s dads are working away at their production company. Only I know it isn’t really the de Leons; one or both of them have been replaced. The Duplicates—or maybe the guards who replaced their originals—probably set up this camera on Gravelle’s orders, so that Gravelle’s master plan could be rubbed right in our faces. I look over at Ansel, who audibly gasps when Archer enters the screen, laughing about a social media post and showing his phone to his dads, who laugh too. There’s no sound, but we get the gist of what’s happening. My stomach drops at the realization that this is Gravelle showing us proof that he successfully replaced Archer and his dads. He’s bragging about it, using this footage as a way to boast about what he’s done.

  Suddenly nauseous, I gaze at the next live feed. It’s video footage of the Frederica and Tessa Duplicates trying on dresses and coats from a giant pile on the bed. All the clothes still have the tags on them. I don’t even know what to make of those two—it’s not like I was fond of their originals—but still, it’s sickening to think of their lives being snatched from them like that, and with no one the wiser.

  The rest of the squares in the grid are equally disturbing. A live feed of Zeke and Mira Choate and their son Jake, and one of Bianca answering questions from eager supporters at her rally. Next, there’s a feed of Jane at home in California for spring break with Oliver, Chloe, Lucy, and Booker, and I have to hold back the bile in my throat when I see that one. The thought of Jane and Booker Duplicates infiltrating that house, and Ollie’s sisters having no idea that their parents aren’t really their parents… And that their older brother isn’t really their brother… We’re watching Jane bake cookies with them in the kitchen. The girls are making a mess of rainbow sprinkles and chocolate chips, grabbing fistfuls of them and popping them in their mouths when Jane isn’t looking.

  Finally, my eyes rest on the last square in the grid. It’s footage of my father in his office. I’m prepared for the tears that will inevitably come, watching this clone impersonate my dad, but surprisingly, or maybe not, they don’t surface. At least I know he’s not really my dad. Unlike Chloe and Lucy, who are so little and innocent, and who would never suspect their parents are imposters.

  “Popcorn, anyone?” a familiar voice reverberates through the chamber, and I instantly know who it is. I spin to see Gravelle standing across the space from us, leaning on his cane, looking exactly as he did in his holo-call. “It’s nice to see you’re all enjoying the entertainment. I regret not setting up chairs. Guards! Grab our guests some seating. And sustenance. I’m sure you’re all starving.”

  “Let’s not pretend we’re here for a friendly visit,” Levi addresses his guardian. “You’ve replaced every single DNA parent and original. Congratulations. Now where are they?”

  “You never were patient, Levi. Even as a little boy,” Gravelle muses.

  I stare at Gravelle, never feeling more furious in my life. He’s going to draw this out as long as possible. Torture us.

  The guards set up chairs for us to sit on in front of that giant screen, and my stomach churns as I imagine what he has in store for us for the rest of the day. Maybe even the rest of our lives. Watching this reprehensible footage, indefinitely. We don’t sit. It’s the last thing we want to do.

  “It’s fascinating to see so many Darkwood legacies out in the world, enjoying all the benefits of a top-notch education,” Gravelle continues. “Most of these folks were my classmates, and I couldn’t be happier for them. Experiencing the kind of success some people only dream about.”

  “You sick bastard!” I shout. “These are clones. Not your classmates!”

  “Can you prove it?” Gravelle asks, a smile creeping over his scarred face.

  “Of course I can,” I snap. “That’s not my father up there on that screen, and you know it. He has a time stamp on his wrist.”

  Gravelle laughs. “Ah, but no one knows about that, do they?”

  Maude reaches out and grabs my arm, presumably to keep me from doing something I’ll regret. I take a deep breath, reminding myself to save my strength—and anger—for later. This is Gravelle’s warm-up act. I have to pace myself. Still, there is something I can do, and Gravelle won’t even know about it. I can try to read his mind. Find out where Ollie and my dad and the others are.

  I focus as hard as I can on Gravelle, sending all my fury and desperation at him, tuning out everyone and everything else around me.

  But even though I’m concentrating as hard as I possibly can, I get nothing. I hear nothing. It doesn’t work.

  “Of course you’d try to read my mind, Eden. I would expect nothing less from you.”

  I’m startled out of my thoughts to see Gravelle staring me down. He looks almost…amused.

  “Don’t you think I’d prepare myself for that? I’ve had years to practice shielding my mind from yours. Which means, I’m afraid, you won’t be getting anything from me. Don’t take it to heart—your talent’s still remarkable.”

  I don’t answer him. I just silently fume as Levi steps up next to me.

  “What now?” Levi asks, his voice sounding dead. “You’ve won, old man. You got us here. The others are presumably locked up here too. What more could you possibly want from us?”

  “You are critical to the next phase of my plan,” Gravelle says, almost reverently.

  “And if we don’t cooperate?” Maude cuts in. “Then what? You’ll terminate us all, just like that?”

  Gravelle paces, clunking his cane down on the concrete floor, the sound reverberating in the cavernous room. “I’d hate for you to go the way of Headmaster Ransom, that sad old fool. Of course, for you it will be worse. The stealth virus wasn’t designed to completely wipe Ransom out. He’s on the mend, actually. Still comatose, but alive. The virus was designed to specifically target your red blood cells and gray matter. It’s stored in your plasma and can be remotely activated via a trigger mechanism built into its cellular structure. I haven’t had the opportunity to study its effects outside of the lab, but, by my estimation, it would, once activated, only be a matter of minutes—an hour or two at the most—before every organ in your body begins to fail.”

  “You say that like there’s no choice in the matter!” Pippa speaks up, indignant. “It’s entirely in your power to make sure that virus is never activated!”

  “No, my dear Pippa, it’s entirely in your control. Do as I ask—and I’ll be more than happy to never bring up the stealth virus again.”

  “But…you raised us,” Theodora finally speaks up. “All those years, you told us we were special. You said there was no one like us in the world, and that’s why we’d never be understood by anyone but you. All those days in our lessons, you proselytized about how the world would never accept us, but that you would. Was that all a lie?” Theodora chokes. “Did you mean a single word of it?”

  Gravelle considers Theodora. If I believed this man truly had any empathy left in him, I’d say that he looks, for perhaps the first time ever, like maybe her words have gotten through to him. “Of course I meant it, Thea,” he says. “I meant all of it. You are special. More special than anyone else on this planet. But being special requires responsibility. You have an obligation to the world, and as your guardian, it’s my job to ensure that you fulfill it. Caring for
someone, raising a child requires tough love. In your case, it requires a steady hand, to show you where you’ve faltered. You are all soft. Too soft. You see the world a certain way because you’re still full of childish hope. I can tell you with certainty that hope is a losing proposition. No, no. You must not hope, ever again. You must do. You must fulfill your true destinies, the very ones you were created for. You must step into your roles as my legacies and never look back.”

  Theodora moves to stand in front of her chair. Her eyes are glassy from the tears that have pooled there. I take in a breath, unsure of what she’ll do; what she’ll say.

  “Go ahead, activate that virus, if you must,” she says coolly. “From this point onward, I won’t do anything else you ask of me. Ever again.”

  The Island

  “Thea!” I cry out. I hear my friends echoing the same concern.

  “No.” Theodora holds up a hand. “I meant what I said. Sending Damian Leroy to prison was the worst thing I’ve ever done. And after everything you put us through, everything we already lost… A chance at a real childhood. A chance at a real life, and a shot at connecting with our DNA families… Why did we have to be the ones to ruin it all, for the families we only wanted to be a part of?”

  “Sounds like revisionist history to me,” Gravelle answers, looking like a tightly coiled spring about to snap. “I cost you a real childhood? I gave you everything you could have ever wanted! The best tutors. A facility where you could train to become the best of the best. The brightest and most knowledgeable people this world has ever seen.”