Mindsiege

by Heather Sunseri

  I walked slowly around the perimeter. Every once in a while, a child would look up at me. One child made eye contact and smiled. She couldn’t have been more than ten years old. She was wearing a navy, patterned dress and leggings, and her hair was pulled into a loose and messy ponytail. She immediately pushed away from what she was doing and ran to me.

  After giving me a hug, she crooked her finger, asking me to bend down to her. I did, and she whispered, “You look different. Where’ve you been?”

  Every muscle in my neck and spine locked up. A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. “Do you recognize me?”

  She nodded, then pulled me close again. After placing a quick kiss on my cheek, she scurried back to her table.

  I stood up straight, quickly turned back toward the exit—and smacked into another person.

  “Oh, I’m…” My words trailed off when I stared into eyes I knew so well that I could recite their retinal pattern. Only… something was terribly wrong.

  “Who are you?” the person asked.

  I studied him—his cobalt blue eyes and his sandy blond hair that was cut short enough to spike in the front. Everything about him was nearly identical to Jack. My Jack.

  “Who am I?” I repeated back to him. Oh my gosh, Jonas. How do I get out of here? But Jonas wasn’t inside my head anymore. He had left me. He knew what I was going to find. And he left me.

  Then a different presence entered my head. A very distinct presence, unlike anything I had ever felt. Instead of fuzzy around the edges, I could clearly see the person inside my head. When this person mindspoke there was no question that it was the exact person standing before me now. Why have we never met? the Jack look-alike asked.

  My knees buckled. This person before me, with hands identical to those that have held me and brushed hair from my face. Hands that have held my own, that have grazed my lower back. Those same, but different, hands caught me as my legs betrayed me and I slumped to the ground.

  He supported my back and brought me back up. My face was inches from his. I couldn’t keep my fingers from reaching out to trace the outline of his cheekbone. It was Jack. But it wasn’t. Everything but the way his hair was cut.

  Before I could recover, a group of men and women entered the room. Some were dressed in black suits, others wore blue scrubs and white lab coats. My eyes darted from them back to the person in front of me.

  Come with me. Jack’s look-alike grabbed my hand and led me to a group of teenagers in the corner.

  When I saw their familiar faces, I stopped dead. I curled my trembling fingers into fists.

  Dia! he mindspoke.

  A redhead turned in her seat, and when she saw me she said, “Holy mother of all that is good and normal in this world!”

  “My thoughts exactly,” I whispered, as I looked at the spitting image of Briana Howard, my archnemesis from school. Everything matched, from too much makeup to those unruly red curls.

  Dia, we don’t have time. Make them not see her. Jack-look-alike turned to me. Sit. Act normal.

  “Normal,” I whispered. “Right.” I pulled out a chair and sat. Dia moved her textbook—Molecular Biology—to sit in front of me.

  She then turned toward the herd, who had split up and walked from table to table. Two men approached us. “Hey, Dr. Chi,” Dia said. “What’s going on today?” Before my very eyes, this Briana look-alike, Dia or whatever her name was, changed in appearance. She made her chest a little larger. Her hair became tamer. Loose red curls lengthened around her face.

  The eyes of the man standing beside Dr. Chi roamed from Dia’s face to her chest and back up again. His lips curved upward at the edges.

  “Hi, Dia. Has anyone that you didn’t recognize walked through here in the last twenty minutes?” Dr. Chi asked.

  “Oh gosh, no, Dr. Chi. It’s just been us. Has there been another breach?”

  Dr. Chi and Roaming Eyes looked at every person at the table, seeming to recognize each of us, including me. Once they were satisfied, they moved on to the next table, never answering Dia’s breach-of-security question.

  Okay, let’s go, Jack-look-alike thought.

  I stood and followed, as did Dia. My heart continued to pound. I had to get out of that basement, but I also wanted answers.

  Jack’s look-alike led us around tables and to the door. The exit was now guarded by a man and a woman in dark suits, very much like the people I saw in SUVs that morning. As we approached, Jack-look-alike tightened his grip on my hand and mindspoke, Don’t look at them. Dia will make sure they see someone different when they look at you. They examined us closely, but let us pass. We headed down the hallway in the opposite direction from where I had originally come in.

  The second we were out of earshot and eyeshot of everyone, I let out a huge breath. Jack’s twin turned and said, “Start talking.”

  “Yeah, who the hell are you?” Dia asked, stopping in the middle of the hallway. “Why do you look like Dr. Whitmeyer? Only in cheap clothes?” She gave me a once-over.

  “And decades younger,” the clone of Jack added.

  I looked down at my clothes. There was nothing cheap about a North Face jacket or my two-hundred-dollar running shoes—which I was using for more and more running these days.

  When I didn’t speak, Dia stepped closer. “Oh, look, Lin. She’s scared.”

  “There you guys are,” another familiar voice said behind me.

  I turned slowly, bracing for another clone. Sure enough, the boy behind me looked like Jonas—except clean-shaven.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” He even talked like Jonas—smug arrogance. “And, oh my, you look just like her.” His grin didn’t fade, and he didn’t really seem shocked at my likeness to the doctor. He cocked his head, studying me. Fascinating. The word, mindspoken by this replica of Jonas, wrapped around my brain like silk.

  “Ty, maybe you can make her talk before the agents at the end of the hall discover her.”

  “There’re agents here? Dia, she can’t be here.” This time, Ty grabbed my hand and pulled me forward.

  I jerked it away and rubbed my chest. I didn’t want Jonas or this Jonas look-alike, a.k.a. Ty, touching me. Why did everyone feel the need to touch me and pull me along? “Where am I? What is this?” I finally asked. My voice came out breathy.

  My eyes darted all around me: at the hospital-like walls, the white tiled floor, and the three human clones in front of me. I searched my memories. “Seven,” I whispered to myself. There were seven original clones. That’s what Dad’s spreadsheet said. He listed other clones he knew about, but they would all be younger, I thought. The freaks before me now were the same age as Jack, Briana, and Jonas—or pretty darn close anyway.

  You will follow me right now if you don’t want to be turned over to IIA agents. Again, the presence inside my head was clear. Only this time it was Ty doing the speaking, and when he mindspoke, my feet immediately began doing what he ordered.

  I walked directly behind Ty. With each step he took, I followed.

  “That’s what I’m talking about.” Dia laughed at my obedience.

  Though I couldn’t stop myself from complying, it felt wrong. I was walking farther into an underground facility somewhere on the University of Kentucky campus. There was no sign of an exit, and I was completely at Ty’s mercy.

  ~~~~~

  “What are you going to do, Ty?” Dia asked. She grabbed onto his arm, but he only shook her off. She may be our only chance, she pleaded, switching to mindspeak, which I could still hear.

  Our only chance for what? How, exactly, do you think she can help us, Dia? Ty asked, irritated.

  Dia considered Ty’s question. We walked down yet another long hallway. I was under Ty’s spell. He had told me to follow, and though I was able to process everything going on around me, all I could do was submit to Ty’s command without speaking. I was helpless, and every cell in my body hated that feeling. It was not lost on me that I had inflicted a similar kind of mind contr
ol on others.

  I had entered this facility to discover whatever it was Dad had found here before he was killed. Why had he toured this facility? Did he know that this existed? That there was another Jack?

  At the same time, I had hoped to find a clue as to how Jonas had so much control over me. He led me to believe I’d find answers down here. Instead, I had plummeted into a raging sea of more questions.

  Lin walked behind me to my left. I could see him in my periphery. Everything about him—from his furrowed brows to how he ran his fingers through his hair as he considered the situation—screamed Jack DeWeese. I missed Jack. Though I had seen him only hours before, we now couldn’t be further apart.

  Who are you? Lin asked me. Why are you here? By the looks on the other two faces, it seemed that only I heard him.

  I didn’t know what to tell him. Or if I could even speak, given that Ty seemed to have control over me. I tried anyway. Someone with less-than-good intentions led me here, I said. I was scared to say too much, but the loathing I felt for Jonas right then…

  Seeming to hear me, Lin quickened his pace, now walking directly beside me. How did you plan to get out of here?

  A knot flipped around in my stomach. I had counted on walking out. I figured the security was for getting in. It never occurred to me that I would need permission to exit, too.

  I was so blinded by the desire to know why my father was killed, and why some clone could seize my mind, that I didn’t stop to consider that I might trap myself.

  Suddenly, Ty left my head. I stopped in the middle of the hallway. Lin’s presence disappeared as well.

  “Uh-oh,” Ty said.

  “What?” Dia looked panicked. “They’ve shut us off, haven’t they?”

  “What does that mean, they shut you off?” Now that I was able to talk to the wack jobs in front of me, I wanted answers. “What the hell is this? Where am I? You’re obviously clones. What is your purpose?”

  Ty got up in my face. “It’s getting ready to get really ugly down here. Any second a gas is going to be released into our air that’s going to knock us all out. They obviously were somewhat prepared for your arrival…”

  “Not prepared enough,” Dia scoffed behind Ty. “Or they’d have her already.”

  My heart raced. “What kind of gas?” I swallowed hard.

  Ty grabbed my arm. “The sleeping kind. We have to hurry.” He urged me along, and for some reason, I went willingly this time. The sounds of voices yelling echoed through the halls behind us. “In here.” Ty pushed open a door to our right.

  We entered a dark room. Ty held up a small flashlight that helped us see. The room consisted of many long tables with chairs all pointing in the same direction. A classroom, maybe.

  Ty faced me. “How did you get down here?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything,” I said, crossing my arms.

  The corners of Ty’s lips lifted. “No, you don’t. But if you don’t, I won’t show you the way out. And I promise, you have a matter of minutes, maybe seconds, before you’re discovered.”

  I thought about that. Would he really show me the way out? “Fine. I got in by the retinal scan.”

  “Are you that stupid?” Ty asked. “Surely you know that every person’s retinal scan is completely unique. Not even identical twins or humans cloned from the same DNA share retinal patterns.”

  My hands balled into fists. I was seconds away from hitting this jerk. Jonas put me in this position. And now I stared into the eyes of his cloned twin.

  Ty continued. “If you were able to get through security based on your retinas, your scan was already in the system. You walked right into their trap.”

  I sucked in a breath. My hands began to visibly shake.

  Lin moved in and grabbed my arm just above my elbow. His gentle touch made me long for Jack. “You’re obviously a clone of Sandra Whitmeyer. Did you know that already?”

  I stared into his gentle eyes, debating what information to trust these three lunatics with. I wasn’t in too much of a position to argue. “Yes. I am aware of that.”

  “Are there others besides you?” I couldn’t decide if it was hope or pity I heard in Lin’s voice.

  I looked at the three of them, one by one. Dia’s eyes urged me to answer. Ty looked at me expectantly. Lin was expressionless, patient while he waited. “Yes, I said. There are others.” Did I tell them that there were others who shared their very DNA?

  “Do you have powers like ours?” Lin asked.

  As Lin asked his question, Ty crossed his arms and widened his stance. I was caught between good cop and bad cop. But the more I answered Lin’s and Dia’s questions, the more they seemed to loosen up. “Yes, but I’m afraid we don’t know the extent of those abilities. You seem to be more… practiced, maybe?” Of course, that was just their ability to control minds. Did they have abilities to heal in some capacity, as well? “I have a question of my own.”

  “You don’t get to ask the questions,” Dia said.

  “Let her ask.” Lin rubbed my elbow. I looked from his hand to his eyes. Dia stiffened next to me.

  “You said they shut your powers off. How did they do that?”

  Dia reached out and grabbed Lin’s arm, pulling it away and holding his hand in her own. Was she jealous? Many of her mannerisms reminded me so much of Briana. Amazing how some personality traits transfer through DNA. A chill slithered down my spine as I considered my own shared DNA with Sandra. Oh, how I hoped I was nothing like her.

  “You have no idea what they’re doing here, do you?” Dia asked, and I shivered visibly at the coldness in her voice. She stepped closer. “They have complete control. They decide who we are, what we do, when we do it, and eventually where we do it.”

  My stomach knotted with the way she said where, though I wasn’t sure what that meant. “And by they, you mean…”

  “The International Intelligence Agency. The side of the government very few see or believe exists. The IIA.” Ty enunciated the acronym very slowly and clearly, confirming what I suspected. “If you’re down here, it was by design. And if they want you to stay down here…”

  A hissing sound interrupted Ty. A thin smoke spewed from vents along the top of the walls.

  “What is that?” I asked, staring up at the ceiling. I lifted my arm and breathed into my elbow.

  “Time for a nap,” Ty answered, like this was some sort of a joke.

  Lin moved frantically about the room, opening drawers and cabinets in storage counters along the edges. He was much more panicked than I’d ever seen Jack. Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for. Pulling out two gas masks, he handed one to me, and shoved the other one at Ty. “Get her out of here. We have to trust that it can only mean good things if we get this information outside of this facility. Maybe Dia’s right. If she’s like us, maybe she can help.”

  Ty put the mask over his face and gestured for me to do the same.

  “But I don’t know what I can do,” I said. “I don’t even understand what this place is.”

  “Put that mask on before you pass out and are stuck here.” Ty’s voice was muffled through the mask. I did as I was told.

  At the door, I turned back. Lin and Dia slid down a wall to the floor. Lin placed an arm around Dia, letting her lean into him, and they drifted to sleep. Jealousy erupted in my heart as I imagined those two as Jack and Briana. But I shook the image away and followed Ty.

  He and I ran in the direction we had come from. I heard voices and footsteps in the not-very-far-away distance. When we turned a corner, we faced a mob of dark suits. “Stop!” one of them said.

  The agents were not wearing gas masks.

  “This way.” Ty pulled me in a different direction.

  After a couple more turns, I finally saw an exit sign, glowing red in this fog that was making some people sleep but not others.

  Out of breath, I grabbed onto Ty’s arm. “What did Dia mean when she said she thought I could help all of you?” My voice s
ounded distant and echoed through the mask.

  “Dia thinks she wants out of here. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” He leaned closer. “There is no escape from this life. Only different levels of acceptance.”

  We neared the exit door. The fog grew thicker, consuming us. Another figure appeared through the mist. When his face came into focus, I practically launched myself at the person standing there. “Jonas.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jonas held Ty against the wall by his throat. The two of them were identical, with one exception—a tattoo ran down Jonas’s arm, but not Ty’s.

  Ty struggled against Jonas’s grip, gasping for air behind his gas mask. “Hi, Jonas,” he half-choked, half-laughed. “So nice of you to show your face.”

  They knew each other?

  “Did you bring the tracker?” Jonas growled.

  Ty couldn’t answer. His air had been cut off. I shook all over with the fear of being caught and trapped in the secure facility. At the same time, my knees locked, and my feet were superglued to the floor.

  The exit was only inches away. Could I just push through it?

  “No, Lexi, you can’t just push through it.” I jerked my head, stared hard at Jonas. He had read my mind. I searched my head. Nothing. I couldn’t find his presence. “Where is it?” he asked Ty.

  “In my pocket,” he coughed.

  “Get it.”

  Ty reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. Jonas took it, closing it in his palm. Then he released Ty. “Now, go.” Ty stumbled twice before he disappeared into the fog.

  Jonas turned to me, his look severe at first, but then a knowing grin appeared on his lips. “Did you like what you found here?”

  I stared at him in stunned silence. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came.

  I asked you a question, Lexi. He moved closer. Instinctively, I backed up against the wall, and he caged me in, with his hands on either side.

  My pulse raced like a horse in the home stretch of the Kentucky Derby. I turned my head and eyed his left hand, fisted beside me and still holding the small device he’d taken from Ty. “What’s in your hand?” My voice was hoarse and muffled through the gas mask.