The Eve Genome

by Joanne Brothwell

  Tait grabbed the keys from Marcus’s pocket and hopped into the driver’s seat. I pulled Adriana onto my lap in the front.

  A red exterior light on the Eros building started to flash, followed by a wailing alarm bell.

  “Hurry!” I said.

  Tait turned the ignition on and the car roared to life. He shoved it in reverse, backed up, and then pushed it in drive. The tires squealed against the pavement.

  A set of unnaturally-bright, huge headlights veered down the parking lot toward us.

  Tait pulled a hard right. My head slammed into the passenger side window. Pain burst through my temple, and everything went blurry. Adriana shifted in my lap, and I protectively tightened my hold to keep the same thing from happening to her.

  Tait drove through the parking lot at top speed, hitting speed bumps so hard it made my teeth rattle. I glanced back. A huge black vehicle, something so big and square it resembled a black army tank, was bearing down on us, and judging by how close the headlights were, it was gaining ground. Fast.

  The engine of Marcus’s car roared, lurching up and down like a roller coaster ride, the back and forth momentum sending us sliding in our seats. The whole vehicle jarred forward, rammed from behind. The rending crunch of metal against metal groaned through the interior. Involuntarily, I braced myself and Adriana from hitting the dashboard, and pain shuddered through my wrist. Yells erupted from within the vehicle as we were bashed forward once again, our voices cut off from the impact.

  “Take a hard right!” Marcus yelled from the backseat.

  The massive black push-bumper on the front of the assaulting vehicle came at us once again, and the trunk space crumpled inward. My head flung sideways as Tait turned the steering wheel and floored the accelerator. The car lurched, almost as if it were going to end up on two tires, but continued on in a skid. I glanced back. The headlights were no longer behind us.

  “Take another hard right and go back toward Eros,” I said. “They’ll never expect us to go back there.”

  Tait did as I suggested, and as we approached Eros, my hands and feet turned clammy.

  Then he turned left, away from the lab once again and drove the car to its limit. The black vehicle was nowhere to be seen.

  It wasn’t until after forty minutes of driving in silence that we stopped checking over our shoulders. My muscles slowly began to unclench. Behind me was a series of gasping breaths as Marcus let go of the sleeper hold. Malcolm sat more upright, but was still within Marcus’s grip.

  “What was that machine?” I demanded, glaring at my father. “An armoured vehicle?”

  Malcolm opened and closed his mouth, like a guppy. He pulled at Marcus’s forearm. Marcus loosened his grasp just enough so Malcolm could speak. “That’s correct. An armoured vehicle.” His voice was hoarse and gravelly. “Our facility is fully serviced with all scientific advancement, including military. We’ve been preparing for this day for some time.”

  My response was icy. “Not prepared well enough.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Did you honestly think you could genetically engineer two physically and cognitively superior humans and not be outwitted by them?” Marcus sounded feral. “Your God complex has clearly reached the point of weakness.”

  “I think you are correct, my son—” Malcolm’s response was immediately cut off and replaced by a gurgle as Marcus squeezed his father’s throat in the crook of his elbow.

  “Don’t call me son!” Marcus yelled from the backseat.

  Tait startled and glanced back. What was he feeling toward Marcus at this moment? Contempt? Hate?

  “Are we going to kill him?” I asked. I could hardly believe the words were out of my mouth, so easily spoken. I glanced at Adriana. Her expression was stoic.

  “Yes,” Marcus said.

  Malcolm gurgled and stuttered the odd groan. After at least a minute of this, Marcus let him speak.

  “But you need me,” Malcolm said with a gasp.

  “For what?” Marcus snapped.

  “Because I have Adriana’s embryos.”

  #

  We arrived at a motel for the night and even after a twenty minute shower, I couldn’t stop shaking. I came out of the bathroom to find the room empty. Where was Adriana? I checked my cell. Her message read: Getting ice. Right back.

  I threw a clean pair of jeans on and a t-shirt and went to the kitchenette area of the room. Inside the cutlery drawer was only one knife, a tiny paring knife that would do little damage. Unless it was used strategically. It would be enough to injure. I slipped it into my back pocket and left the room before Adriana returned.

  I went into Marcus’s room adjacent to ours. Marcus agreed to keep watch over Malcolm, with Tait keeping watch over Marcus. The two king-size beds were enough room to accommodate them, with Malcolm tied up and secured to a chair.

  I checked the ties, pulling at the ones around Malcolm’s wrists attached at the back of his chair. They were so tight the skin above his hands was red and bulging. Marcus had done a good job. I glared down at Malcolm.

  “Do you have any idea the pain you’ve caused us? Do you have any idea who you’ve hurt and sacrificed, so you could test out your hypothesis?” Malcolm looked up at me with wide eyes, a vein standing out in his forehead. When he didn’t respond, I went on. “You took everything from Genevieve. She had to spend her entire life in hiding, to stay away from you. You went ahead and turned Marcus and I into freaks. Did you have any idea what that was like? To grow up a mutant—mocked by everyone you know? Mistrusted by even your own family?”

  Malcolm didn’t respond.

  “Family. I suppose I shouldn’t use that term so loosely. I was brought up in foster care, and Marcus was raised by individuals who merely wanted a doll to look at, a marionette they could be puppet master to, not a child to love.”

  Malcolm spoke, his voice uncharacteristically quiet. “It wasn’t supposed to be that way. We were supposed to be a family, you, Marcus, your mother and I. She ruined it all. Genevieve is to blame for the way things have gone wrong.”

  My entire body shook and I ground my teeth together to keep from hitting him. “You don’t get it, do you? You can’t make people do things against their will! You can’t just… rape people to get what you want!”

  I shoved the chair with the sole of my foot and it momentarily tipped back on two legs before crashing back onto all four. Malcolm’s neck jerked and his mouth dropped open with the impact. I held the hilt of the knife in my clenched fist and my arm twitched.

  I shoved the paring knife back down, into my pocket. If we had any hope of saving Genevieve and retrieving the fertilized eggs before they were harvested, we had to keep Malcolm alive, at least temporarily. I don’t care if you are my father. I just really, really want to kill you.

  I took a deep breath to stop myself from doing anything else. Knowing Adriana was waiting for me in the adjacent room kept me from rearing back and punching Malcolm in the jaw, or worse, slitting his throat from ear to ear. Instead, I pivoted on my foot so my back was to Malcolm. Tait and Marcus sat at opposite ends of the room. The tension between them was almost palpable. The atmosphere icy and caustic.

  A cold war.

  I needed to get out of this room. Now. “He’s in your hands.” I strode to the door.

  Tait stood up and caught my arm and whispered into my ear. “Check on me, okay? What if he puts me under another one of his… spells?”

  Marcus responded before I could. “It’s called mind manipulation, Tait. No witchcraft involved. And I won’t. You have my word.” To my surprise, Marcus looked appropriately sheepish.

  Tait rolled his eyes. “And I should believe your word, should I?”

  Marcus tilted his head to the side and smiled, no longer looking at all humble. “That’s all you’ve got, isn’t it, sweetheart?”

  Tait’s lips pressed into a hard line. “Kalan?”

  “I’ll check on you,”
I said.

  I stepped out and closed the door behind me. I felt a strange tightening in my gut. Was it frustration that I couldn’t kill my father? That I had to trust Marcus wasn’t going to betray me once again? Or was it apprehension about being alone with Adriana, after what had happened to me in the lab? As I approached our room and pulled out the key card, I took a deep, steadying breath. I opened the door.

  She sat on the bed, her feet dangling above the floor. Her black hair was still wild and dishevelled, a purpling bruise flowered on her temple, and her clothes were rumpled. But the smile on her face made all of that disappear. She stood up and threw her arms around me in a tight embrace. I leaned into her, taking in the scent of her hair, blood and sweat mixed with her own unique raspberry fragrance.

  I pulled away and looked down at her. “You heard what Genevieve said about being a clone of Virginia and the stuff about consanguinity. We’re cousins.”

  She blinked like I’d waved a fist in her face. “So what?”

  “Third cousins, I think.”

  Adriana took a deep breath. “I just escaped a place where they’d finished inserting giant needles into my body to extract my ova so they could be fertilized by your sperm. Do you think I give a shit about whether we are third cousins right now?”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Right now she looked and sounded like the embodiment of the term wild woman. “Okay.”

  “Well, I guess I want to be with my third cousin right now.” She put her hands on her waist and thrust one hip out. “Because I’ve just had a gun pointed at me, both of my legs spread wide open and strapped to stirrups for the entire room to see, and all the while I thought I was going to die. But I didn’t. I escaped. Forgive me if I’m not feeling particularly concerned about the moral and ethical issues of being in love with my third cousin. I’m more focused on how I’m not dead.”

  “Enough said.” I grabbed her roughly, and her body melded to me. She raised herself onto her tiptoes, her mouth on mine, the pressure enough to part my lips. Then her tongue was in my mouth and her hands slid up my back, her fingers woven through my hair. The familiar tingle in my mouth and lips began once again. It was a pleasure and pain I was becoming intensely addicted to.

  I lowered her to the bed and she moaned as my body came to rest on top of hers. Our mouths were hot, our movements pressured, all of the tension and anxiety of the last days finally coming unravelled. She pulled my shirt up and over my head, and I tore it the rest of the way off.

  Within moments I had her button-down top off and was peeling the jeans from her curvy hips. Smiling mischievously, she undid her bra, letting the bra straps slip over her shoulders before flinging it off and onto the floor. Beautiful. We were finally flesh to flesh again.

  “Oh, Kalan,” she whispered, her hot breath tickling my ear. “I thought we’d never be together, ever again.”

  “I know.” Every nerve ending inside of me animated.

  Adriana whispered into my ear. “I don’t think I can wait. I want you. Now.”

  I answered with my body. Even if I spent my entire lifetime with this woman, I could never get enough of her. I held her tiny waist, where the seventh rib was located, right above the flare of her hips. An unwanted image flashed through my mind, of being in the lab, my body violated in ways that before this, I could never have imagined. Instantly, the desire slipped from me as if I’d been plunged into an icy ocean. No!

  Adriana seemed not to notice. I looked at her partially open mouth, full lips flushed pink. I loved her and wanted her, and forced myself with every inch of my being to hold the memory down, to damn it into the recesses of my mind.

  What if I couldn’t maintain my hold over these unwanted thoughts? For a moment, I wasn’t sure my fears could be contained. Then I shoved it back and focused on loving her.

  A savage need to dominate took over all rational thought as if the movements of my body could keep the pain of the memory that clawed at the back of my mind at bay.

  After, we twined our legs together and she propped her chin up on her enfolded hands atop my chest. She gave me the sweetest smile, a smile that spoke a thousand words.

  Holy shit. I sucked in a heavy breath as my heart did a backflip. At no other time in my life had I felt like this, so cared for, accepted, like I was the most important person in Adriana’s world. Her energy was like a healing blanket, the intimacy between us rebuilding and regenerating my trampled spirit. Never had I felt so whole, like I was… worthy. Was it like this for other people? Do other people’s hearts feel like they’re busting out of their chests when the person they love smiles at them in that way?

  Then it hit me. I really was in love with Adriana. The thought crossed my mind before, but now, I was acknowledging it to myself. Now it was different. Real.

  I kissed the tip of her nose and swept stray hair back from her face. “I’ve never met anyone like you,” I said. Silence ensued. I wondered what she was thinking.

  Finally, she spoke. “What’s going to happen to those embryos?”

  My jaw clenched at just the thought of it. “I don’t know.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, causing them to turn a most lustrous, brilliant shade of turquoise. “I can’t stand the thought of our children… being out there without us to protect them. We can’t let that happen, Kalan…” She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. Two fat tears slid down her cheeks.

  I swiped them off with my thumb and noted the warm sting on my skin, echoed by the sting below the waist. “We won’t let that happen. I promise.”

  Adriana took two deep breaths. She held my hand up for her inspection, obviously taking in the slightly redder skin of my thumb.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish that didn’t happen to you.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I like it.” I paused. “I wonder how Malcolm knew about the burning?”

  She shook her head. “How many of them do you think there are? Embryos, I mean?”

  The thought of it sickened me. “I have no idea. God, the thought of it is too… repulsive.”

  Adriana nodded. “How did they get your…?”

  I stiffened as the physiological sensation of violation flooded my mind. Every muscle in my body tensed, like an over-tightened guitar string. “I don’t think I can talk about it.” My voice came out strange and raspy.

  Adriana’s eyes widened, her eyebrows high on her forehead. Somehow, her concern only seemed to deepen my inner shame and horror. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and wished I could forcibly expel the memories from my cranium, reverse time to five minutes ago before she realized what had happened to me. Adriana’s soft fingertips brushed over my lips, my nose, my eyebrows. I kissed her. With Adriana tucked in my arms, I relaxed. I forced the memories back down and tried to focus on the here and now. I couldn’t change the past and I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but for the moment, I was at peace.

  I didn’t think I couldn’t say it out loud yet, but I felt compelled to say it anyway. I think I love you, Adriana Sinclair.

  She smiled. I think I love you, too, Kalan Kane.

  I slept.

  #

  A loud bang on the wall sounded from Marcus and Tait’s room. Adriana and I both sat up.

  The room was dim but bright light shone in under the curtains covering the window. Was it morning already? I got up and slipped into my jeans and t-shirt and Adriana followed. We hurried out to find the cause of the commotion.

  The motel door to Marcus and Tait’s room was locked, but the banging continued.

  I knocked firmly but not too loud. I didn’t want to alert anyone in the motel. “Tait, what’s going on?”

  Tait opened the door, black rings beneath his eyes. “Your father has decided to be an enormous pain in the ass. He kept us up almost all night.” He threw open the door and gestured dramatically toward Malcolm. Marcus stood over him, a thumb thrust into the side of
our father’s neck.

  “Shut up or I’ll give you something to whine about,” Marcus said through gritted teeth. How many times had Marcus heard those exact words during his childhood? Marcus straightened up, the scowl still firmly etched in his face. “It’s time to leave. He’s going to keep up his bawling until we get discovered.”

  “Or we kill him,” I added, smiling at my father. You bring me into this world, and I’ll take you out. I was bluffing, but he wouldn’t know that for sure. There was no way I would allow Adriana’s fertilized eggs to exist, not after the way she talked about them last night.

  Malcolm’s eyes widened into saucers. Was he thinking about his sons, the two scientific specimens, both physically superior to others as they discussed his survival? I wanted him to fear for what was about to happen. I wanted my father to pay the price for destroying all of the lives he’d left in the wake of his ambition. His need to prove himself worthy of his father’s love. Shake in your boots, old man.

  “Before we go, I need to ask you something,” I said. “Why did you let your alcoholic father’s opinion of you dictate your life?”

  Malcolm frowned. “Is that what Genevieve told you? Of course she did.” He chuckled as if it was an inside joke. “That statement just speaks to her naiveté and how little she knew me or my objectives. This isn’t about my father’s approval. This is about discovery. The meaning of life. The origin of our species. Doesn’t it excite you to know that Adriana’s mitochondrial DNA is at its maximum potential? That her chromosomes hold the key to the future of our species?”

  “No, it doesn’t excite me,” I said. “But obviously it gives you a huge hard-on, you sick fuck. And your father. What was his goal when he cloned Adriana’s aunt? Was this the plan all along, that you’d carry out gene sequencing?”

  “You were right about that old man. He was a directionless drunk. He didn’t have a goal in mind when he did it. He only did it to see if it could be done.” Malcolm stilled and studied my face. “You look like him. Both you and Marcus do. In fact, I think you look more like him than you do me. Phenotype. Keeps the dead alive and brings the past back to haunt you.”