by Malinda Lo
Amber raised one eyebrow. “Impatient much?”
“Don’t fuck with me,” Reese said.
The smile disappeared from Amber’s face. She crossed her arms and entered the room, brushing past Reese and David. “I’m here to tell you the truth.”
“Just like the president?” Reese said.
“She’s a liar,” Amber said.
Reese had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from snapping, And you’re not? It was David who asked, “What’s the truth?”
“Well, first of all, obviously we have not left the planet,” Amber said.
“So, why are you still here?” Reese asked.
“Because of you,” Amber said, then shifted her eyes to David. “And you.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“The thing that happened to you in Nevada after your car accident—you’re both different now.”
“Yeah,” Reese said. “We found our medical records. We have extraterrestrial DNA now.” She heard Julian utter an exclamation behind her.
“Sort of,” Amber said. She pulled out the desk chair and straddled it, elbows resting on the back. “What the president said about the United States government working with the extraterrestrials on scientific research—that’s only half right. My people, the Imria, have been here for decades doing research. That’s true. We’ve agreed to help you with advancements in biotechnology, but your government hasn’t been too eager to wait. It’s been stealing that biotech for decades. That’s what they’ve been using in Project Blue Base. But that technology is not meant for those purposes.”
“The June nineteenth crashes,” Julian said. “It’s the government’s fault, isn’t it? Because they were modifying birds in a way that was never supposed to be done. They’re like Dr. Frankenstein.”
“Except they weren’t trying to reanimate dead birds,” Amber pointed out, “but yeah, basically. You can’t just start injecting Imria DNA into ordinary birds and expect the birds not to freak out. It doesn’t work that way.”
“Wait a minute,” Reese said. “This technology that the government is using the wrong way. What exactly is it for?”
Amber took a deep breath. “My people, under the guise of Project Plato, have been developing an adaptation procedure that would basically upgrade human DNA.”
“Upgrade? How?” David asked.
“We have certain abilities that you don’t. We, meaning the Imria. We wanted to find a way to give you guys those same abilities through this adaptation procedure. But it’s been really, really tricky to do. We’ve been working on it basically forever. You and David were actually, um, test subjects.”
Reese stared at her. “Are you serious? We didn’t give our consent.”
Amber looked uncomfortable, but she said, “You would have died if you weren’t given the procedure. Your accident was pretty bad. The procedure saved you.”
“But you had no right to do that to us,” David said. “You should have at least contacted our families and gotten their permission.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “There was no time. It wasn’t ideal, but sometimes things happen for a reason.”
Reese gave her a puzzled look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying that we’ve been testing this procedure for a long time and—”
“They weren’t the first test subjects?” Julian cut in. “David and Reese. You’ve been testing this procedure on other humans?”
“Yes.” At the expression on Julian’s face, she said, “Don’t freak out on me; they’ve mostly been consenting subjects. You two were an exception.”
“Mostly?” Julian said.
“Let’s not get off track here,” Amber said. “The point is, you had the accident; the procedure saved you. Both of you took really well to the adaptation chamber.”
“The what?” Reese remembered overhearing Dr. Brand say those words that day in front of Amber’s house. “What is that exactly?”
Amber gestured to the painting on the wall. “This thing you painted—it’s a pretty good depiction of the adaptation chamber.”
Reese gazed at the red and yellow paint, the light gleaming off the plastic in the center. “This?”
“Yeah. The adaptation chamber is kind of like an incubator. After you went through the procedure you were pretty beat up, and this chamber enabled you to heal faster. It also prevented your body from rejecting the Imria DNA. It helped you to adapt.”
Reese crossed her arms. “So David and I had this procedure. What does it do exactly?”
“It introduces Imria DNA into your mitochondrial DNA,” Amber said. “It enables you to have certain abilities that most humans don’t.”
“Like telepathy,” David said.
“Telepathy?” Julian cried. “You’re telepathic now?”
Reese made a face. “Well, sometimes. It doesn’t always work.”
“Your abilities can be enhanced through training,” Amber said. “I was supposed to keep an eye on you to track how you were developing and to make sure you didn’t have any unexpected side effects.” She looked at Reese. “That was my assignment. To make sure that you were okay.”
“Why didn’t David get assigned someone too?” Reese asked.
“Initially we didn’t think the procedure worked with him,” Amber admitted. “He didn’t test positively after the procedure, but you did.”
“Obviously you guys were wrong,” Reese said.
Amber shrugged. “Yeah, we were wrong. We don’t know everything. But now we know that it worked with both of you. And we want to make you an offer. You can stay here and be a government guinea pig if you want, or you can come with us.”
“Why would it be any better to be a guinea pig for the Imria than for the US government?” David asked.
“You wouldn’t be our guinea pigs,” Amber insisted. “Don’t you understand? You guys are the first truly successful adapted humans. We don’t want to treat you like guinea pigs. We want you as partners.”
Reese gave her a skeptical look. “For what?”
Amber made a frustrated face. “To help you. We want to help humanity, not destroy it. But your government has different plans. It’s using that biotech to make weapons and soldiers. Those weapons could wipe out all of your civilization. Do you really want to be a part of that?”
“Why should we trust you?” Reese asked. “You lied to me.” She remembered something that had been puzzling her for some time. “If I have this crazy telepathy adaptation now, why did it never work with you? The only time I ever felt it with you was when you got shot.”
Amber’s eyes flickered from Reese to David and back. “I guess it’s worked with David?”
“Yes.”
Amber looked uncomfortable. “When I first met you, I didn’t want to overwhelm you. For us—for the Imria, and now for you—it only works if both people are open to it. Humans don’t have this ability, so they’re kind of open to it by default because they don’t know any better. Some humans are more open than others. But now that you have this ability, if you decide that you don’t want to let someone into your mind, you don’t have to.”
“Like shutting them out?” Reese said.
“More like keeping things to yourself. When I first met you, I knew that you didn’t have any experience with this ability, so I… I kept things to myself. If I’d let you see everything, it probably would have freaked you out. It’s not exactly like what you think of as telepathy. It’s kind of a deep thing.”
“That’s an understatement,” Reese said. “But it was also convenient, wasn’t it? If I couldn’t see inside you, I couldn’t tell that you were lying to me.”
Amber stood up and crossed the room, reaching for Reese’s hand as if they were alone. “I’m not lying to you now. I’ll show you.”
Reese went rigid and jerked her hand away. “No. You don’t get to see inside me.”
Amber’s face went white. “Reese—”
“Look, it doesn’t ma
tter if you’re lying or not. This isn’t about you. If we have this new ability, we need to be in control of it—not the US government, not your people.” She turned to David. The vein in his temple was back. “Do you agree?” she asked him. We do this on our own terms.
“Yes,” he said immediately. “I absolutely agree.”
“But if you don’t accept our help, your government won’t allow you to go free,” Amber said, her voice rising. “You think you’re here on your own terms now, but you’re not. They’re parked right down the street with machine guns. They’re not going to let you go.”
Julian cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but I think there might be a solution to this.” Reese, David, and Amber all looked at him. He was still standing in the doorway. He squared his shoulders. “Since there is a whole mob of reporters out in front of your house, you might try talking to them. Power of the media, you know. That’s how your mom got you back from Area 51.”
“You mean, we go out there and tell them about everything?” Reese said. “The birds and the adaptation procedure and how the government and the Imria are fighting over us?”
“We’re not fighting—” Amber objected.
“Basically, yes,” Julian interrupted. “I think your parents were only going to give a brief statement, like ‘We’re happy to have our children home’ sort of thing, but if you tell all, you’ll get the press on your side, and you’ll also expose the government for being totally crappy to you. They’ll probably fall all over themselves to deny it and let you have your freedom.”
David said, “I think we should do it.”
Amber’s eyebrows drew together. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” she warned them. “The media isn’t exactly a neutral party.”
“But it’s the best option, isn’t it?” Reese said. “If you were me, isn’t that what you would do? I can’t imagine you just giving in to anyone.”
“It’s not giving in. It’s in your best interest.”
Reese turned to David. “We can tell them together.”
“Together,” he agreed.
Reese headed for the doorway, brushing past Amber and Julian with David on her heels. Their parents and Chloe were clustered at the bottom of the stairs, and Reese’s mom asked, “What’s going on? Where are you going?”
“We’re going to tell the press the whole story,” Reese said.
Her mom grabbed her arm. “Honey, wait. We should think this through more carefully. There are repercussions to revealing classified information.”
Reese pulled away. “We have to do it, Mom. How else are we going to make sure the government doesn’t take us again?”
“David,” his father said, “do you think this is a good idea?”
“I don’t think there’s any other choice,” David answered.
“Come on,” Reese said. Now that they were doing this, she wanted to get it over with.
She opened the front door and stepped outside. The sky was pale blue, with clouds scudding in from the west. Directly overhead a triangular spacecraft hovered motionless.
David joined her on the top step. The murmur of voices from the mob of reporters on the street below rose as they noticed the two of them.
Amber came outside too. “Reese, please listen to me.”
Reese started down the steps. The police officers at the bottom turned toward her, followed by the reporters, and she was buffeted by the uncanny but now familiar sensation of dozens of people looking at her. They began to shout questions at her. They wanted to know what had happened to her and David, why the spacecraft was over their house, why the army was waiting at the end of the block, whether that blond girl at the top of the steps was really the girl in the video—
The force of their curiosity was so strong—an avalanche bearing down on her—that Reese almost wanted to run back inside. But David was there beside her. He reached out and took her hand.
Snap.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to my agent, Laura Langlie, for supporting this crazy book idea from the beginning. Thanks to my editor, Kate Sullivan, who barely blinked when I told her what was going to happen in the end (shh!). Thanks to my friend Cindy Pon, for her sharp-eyed critiquing and for being the best writing cheerleader ever (fuzzy hugs to you!). Thanks to my brother, John, for talking me through many conspiracy theories and for reading an early draft. Thanks to my friend Dr. Vincent Smith, for answering my weird medical questions. Any errors—medical or conspiracy-related—are my own. And as always, thanks to my partner, Amy, for being there in good writing days and bad. I couldn’t have done this without you.
ALSO BY MALINDA LO
ASH
HUNTRESS
Contents
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALSO BY MALINDA LO
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Malinda Lo
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First e-book edition: September 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-21446-9