Altered

by Jennifer Rush

  “Quit stalling,” Riley barked.

  Trev made a grab for me. Sam moved, too, but not fast enough. And I wasn’t ready to fight. I didn’t want to believe it.

  Trev swung an arm around my neck, positioning the gun at my head.

  I felt like I was breaking in two. He’d deceived me. And he’d done a good job of it, too. I’d never, ever questioned his loyalty.

  “Toss your guns,” Riley said. “And the documentation.”

  Don’t, Sam, I thought. Run. If anyone can escape, it’s you.

  But he didn’t. He didn’t even hesitate. He dropped the evidence at his feet, then pulled the gun out from beneath his shirt and tossed it to the soggy ground.

  Riley nodded at one of his men. The taller, balding agent retrieved Sam’s gun and the evidence we’d dug up before resuming his position at Riley’s side.

  I shifted, looking for a weakness in Trev’s hold, but he only drew me closer.

  As Riley barked out more orders, Trev whispered in my ear: “It’s the alterations. Sam and the others are powerless when it comes to you. Don’t you see, Anna? You’re the whole reason we’re here.”

  I tried to digest what he was saying. Was he trying to feed me more lies? My mind raced through all the things Sam and I had read in the files we unearthed.

  The Branch had always had an issue with controlling Sam. So they started Operation ALPHA, hoping to implement a “programmed” commander. They wanted to program him into cooperating.

  As Riley tapped in a few numbers on his cell phone and one of the men came around to handcuff Sam, Sam’s words came back to me: If you’re trying to make the ultimate weapon, you don’t lock it in a basement for five years. You put it on the field and test and alter it until it’s perfect.

  Realization washed over me. The lab had been the field. And every interaction between the boys and me had been a test. We’d been living and testing and altering the program right there in the farmhouse.

  I was the “commander,” and the boys were programmed to listen to and protect me.

  “I’m the key to Operation ALPHA,” I said.

  Riley went silent. He slid his phone into his pocket.

  “When I ask the boys to stop, they stop,” I said. “They listen to me without fail.” I thought back to everything that had happened in the last few days. At the house in Pennsylvania, I’d asked Nick not to hurt that cop with the wastebasket, and he hadn’t. I’d asked Sam not to kill Riley behind the mall, and he hadn’t, even though in Sam’s position it made total sense to do it. And last night, Sam and Nick stopped fighting when I told them to.

  Of course they had an overwhelming urge to protect me. Even if they found out I had the ability to control them, they wouldn’t turn on me. Because somehow the Branch had programmed them not to.

  The Branch, Connor, Riley—they’d covered all their bases.

  “But why me?”

  Riley tilted his head to the side, analyzing me, picking me apart with his eyes.

  “Because the only person Sam listened to was your older sister. And then she died.”

  I sucked in a breath. Dani was dead? Pain crept into Sam’s eyes.

  Riley didn’t pause to let the news sink in. “We’d already dumped too much money into Sam to let him go. So, Plan B. Dani wasn’t the only O’Brien sister, was she?”

  The notes said that Operation ALPHA was supposed to explore the possibility of replicating the control attributes between Dani and Sam. And they’d done it. They’d produced an artificial link between the boys and me. They’d taken something that was human—love, respect, trust—and made it into something scientific, valuable.

  Biological control.

  It was no wonder they’d gone to such lengths to lock Sam away and clear out his memories, to keep the evidence he’d stolen hidden. The alterations—strength, intelligence, a slower rate of aging, obedience—would be worth millions.

  A dog barked in the distance. Sam’s nostrils flared and his shoulders tensed. He looked ready to leap at Riley, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

  I twisted, trying to face Trev. “Your name was in the file,” I said. “Five years ago. You were altered, and they tried to sell you like a weapon.”

  “She’s lying.” Riley swept forward and whacked me across the face. Pink and yellow dots filled my vision.

  Trev’s hold loosened. Sam made a low sound that rumbled in his chest as he tried to rip himself away from the man holding him.

  “I’m telling the truth,” I sputtered.

  “Stop,” Trev said to me. “Please.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t try to redeem me, Anna.”

  I would not go down like this, held in place by the one person I’d thought always had my back. Not with the evidence so close at hand, the documentation we’d fought for days to locate.

  This was not my end.

  If I was as much a part of this program as the boys were, I wasn’t some weak girl caught in the middle of a top secret program. Like Trev said, I was the whole reason we were here. And if I was the key, then I had the power to send the plan off course.

  Sam and I exchanged a glance.

  On three, I mouthed, and he gave a barely discernible nod.

  One.

  Two.

  Adrenaline raced through my veins. I felt stronger than ever.

  Three.

  I grabbed Trev by the wrist and shoved his arm up, forcing the gun away from my head. Caught off guard, he didn’t fight, giving me just enough time to whirl around, set my hands on his shoulders, and drive a knee up between his legs. He collapsed to the ground.

  Nick jumped, swinging his tied hands beneath his feet. He lunged for one of the men at Riley’s side and they went down, tussling.

  Riley reached for me but I dodged him, plucking the shovel off the ground and brandishing it like a club. Riley and I danced back and forth and I swung. He ducked.

  A gun went off. The other agent stumbled backward, clutching at his side. Sam barely stopped to see if his shot had hit the mark before he aimed for Riley. He pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire; either it was jammed or the magazine was empty. He tossed it aside.

  I tightened my grip on the shovel as Trev stood up. It was me and Sam against Trev and Riley, and I wasn’t sure if I could best Trev. My only hope was the shovel. I stayed light on my feet, my anger at Trev’s deception all the fuel I needed. I would slam that shovel in his effing face and have no qualms about it.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Riley pull something from the interior pocket of his suit jacket. I realized too late that it was a gun. He pointed it at Sam and shot.

  “No!”

  The gun made a light thwoop-thwoop sound, and two darts hit Sam in the chest. He looked down at them, then back up at me.

  I dropped the shovel—I had to get to him—as he collapsed to his knees, his eyes glassy and unfocused. Nick cut me off and shoved me in the opposite direction. Trev stole a gun from one of the downed men.

  “Sam!” I screeched. Riley shot again, and a dart hit the tree next to me.

  Nick took hold of the collar of my jacket and dragged me toward the woods. “We don’t have time!”

  I staggered back, saw Sam struggling to send me one last message, his finger pointing at something off to my left.

  The notebook and logs—they’d been abandoned by Riley’s man.

  I tore away from Nick.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.

  “We can’t leave it.” I scooped up the evidence as another dart whizzed past. Riley yelled. A gunshot rang out. Nick tugged me in front of him and away from the bullet. He staggered forward, and blood began to soak through his shirtsleeve at an alarming pace.

  “Oh my God,” I said.

  “Go.”

  We crashed through the woods. The sky opened up with a downpour. I slipped in the mud, regained my balance, and kept on even though I had no idea whe
re I was going, even though I didn’t want to go.

  We’d left Sam behind. He couldn’t even fight back. They could do whatever they wanted with him. They could wipe his memories again, and he’d have no idea who I was or who he was or what had happened between us.

  Branches pulled at my hair. Ferns whipped my legs. Nick ran next to me, but he was slowing down. “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes.” But he didn’t sound good.

  We passed a hunting shack, and then an abandoned farm wagon, its big wheels rusted out. We crossed a creek, stomping through the water. Finally, the trees ahead thinned, and we saw a dirt road. An abandoned barn sat in a field across the road, the structure leaning dangerously to the left.

  Nick pushed me toward it. “What about you?” I asked.

  “I’ll leave a false trail.”

  He ran the other way, purposefully dripping blood on the surrounding brush.

  Checking to make sure the road was clear, I hurried to the other side, keeping the evidence we’d dug up tight against my chest. Despite the rain, the brown field grass crackled beneath me. When I reached the barn, I poked my head in through an empty window. The interior was dark and smelled of wet earth and rotting wood. I danced on my feet, unsure of what to do with myself, worried about Nick.

  He reappeared a minute later, a branch from a pine tree in his hand. He darted across the road, sweeping the branch as he went to clear our footprints. I forced my way through the door and Nick came in behind me.

  “Now what?”

  He looked around. The barn’s loft had collapsed, and the old wood hung from the rafters, cascading down to the first floor. A few stalls sat empty in the back corner. There was a tack room directly across from us, but the fallen loft blocked the entrance.

  “Over here,” Nick said, taking careful steps across the floor to the very middle of the barn. He dropped down on one knee and ripped up the floorboards, revealing the barn’s framework and the earth below it. The boards came away easily, the nails rusted and useless.

  “Get in.”

  “Are you kidding me? What if the barn collapses and we’re trapped?”

  “And what if Riley finds us?”

  Voices shouted from the road outside. Someone yelled, “Check the barn!”

  Nick lowered his voice. “Get in the goddamn hole.”

  I climbed in and he squeezed in next to me, stuffing the pine branch around us. He pulled the floorboards back into place until they settled.

  My heart raced. I couldn’t catch my breath. It was dark and dank in our hiding place, and I felt like I’d been buried alive.

  I twisted onto my side to make room for Nick, because he was injured and we were practically on top of each other. The voices outside closed in on us. I laid my head in the dirt, trying to stop my body from shaking.

  The floor creaked overhead.

  “Check over there,” Riley said.

  A second set of footsteps thudded across the barn. There was a rustling of debris, the snapping of wood. “Nothing here,” the other man said. Not Trev. Riley had backup already?

  A cell phone chirped. Riley answered it, paused, and then said, “We’re on our way back.” To his partner he said, “Trev found a blood trail in the woods.”

  Dirt rained down through the cracks above us as they retreated. Next to me, Nick sighed heavily. Something scuttled several feet behind us. I cringed, biting back a scream. It’s just a mouse, I told myself. Nothing to be afraid of.

  Ten minutes must have passed before I could breathe evenly again. I waited at least ten more before nudging Nick.

  “I think they’re gone,” I said. When he didn’t respond, I rose up onto one elbow. “Nick?” His eyes were closed, and he seemed colder than was normal. “Nick. Wake up.” Frustrated tears bit at my eyes. “Nick!”

  I was alone in the middle of nowhere and buried beneath a barn. Nick was unconscious. The Branch had Sam and Cas. Trev had turned on us. Riley was somewhere out there, still searching. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t very well carry Nick out of there.

  Let them find us, I thought. I give up. I can’t do this anymore.

  Sam was the one who kept us together, who barked out the orders we followed, because he knew what he was doing and when to do it. Now I was supposed to be the commander? I didn’t deserve the role.

  I put my ear to Nick’s chest, praying for the sound of his beating heart. I heard it, faintly, and it was pumping slower than it should be. What was I supposed to do in a situation like this? Was I supposed to keep him warm?

  His hands were still tied together, so I started there, working against the zip ties, but with little success. I gave up and wrapped an arm around his torso, dragging him closer to me to lend him my body heat. As I did, my hand rapped against something hard in his pocket.

  I dug inside and pulled out the prepaid cell phone. I sighed in relief. I’d thought Trev had the cell. Or maybe Nick had stolen it when Trev wasn’t looking, when he realized Trev was on the Branch’s side.

  I flipped the phone open and found enough bars to get out a call. Except I didn’t have anyone to call.

  I didn’t have any friends, and even if I had, I was several states away from home. And my dad…

  Dad.

  I wasn’t his daughter and he had no ties to me, but he’d promised me when I left that he’d find me, and I wanted to believe in him. I wanted him to be the man I’d known all those years.

  I didn’t have anything left to lose.

  I punched in his cell number and hit send.

  32

  DAD ANSWERED HIS CELL PHONE ON the third ring.

  “Dad?” I said.

  He exhaled in a rush. “Stay at this number. I’ll call you right back.”

  The line went dead. I stared at the phone, thinking he was going to turn me in, that he hung up so he could call Connor and tell him he’d found me—

  The phone beeped. The number registered on the screen as THORTON GAS & GO.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “My line isn’t secure,” Dad explained. “Don’t ever assume it’s safe to call it.”

  I clutched the phone harder.

  “Are you using a listed number?” he asked. “Cell phone? Is Sam with you?”

  “They have Sam. And Cas. And Nick’s been shot and he’s… I don’t know. He’s not responding to me.”

  I rested my head on Nick’s chest, one ear listening to Dad, the other listening to the beating of Nick’s heart.

  “And… did you find Sura?”

  I caught the faint glimmer of hope in Dad’s voice. My shirt was still stained with Sura’s blood. A flash of her dead eyes came back to me and I didn’t have the heart or the energy to tell Dad what had happened.

  Maybe he understood what my hesitation meant anyway, because he surged on before I could fake an answer. “I never wanted you to find out like this.”

  “Dad,” I started, then cut myself off. He wasn’t Dad anymore.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  But you did, I wanted to say. You and Trev both.

  I summoned a thread of dignity and hardened my voice. “We can talk about that later. Right now, Nick needs your help.”

  “Are you in Michigan?”

  “Yeah,” I said after a pause. If he turned me in, he turned me in. It was a gamble I was willing to take. “We found the house. My house. We’re in the woods behind it, at the next road over. In a barn.”

  “It’ll take me a while to get there. As soon as I was discharged, I went straight to the Pennsylvania address and found the house swarming with police officers.”

  I groaned. “Oh, yeah. Sam sorta knocked out an officer by accident.”

  Dad sighed. “That sounds like Sam.”

  “How long before you make it here?”

  “A few hours. Six, maybe.”

  Six hours? Nick might not have much time. And I couldn’t stand to sit in that hole any longer. Claustrophobia had set in
the moment I’d climbed down there, and the longer I sat, the worse it was going to get.

  “Hurry, please.”

  “I will. I promise. Don’t move.”

  I looked down at Nick. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I watched the clock on the cell phone and waited forty-five minutes after hanging up with Dad. I figured if I wasn’t safe now, I wouldn’t ever be, so I might as well risk it. Plus, I had to go to the bathroom.

  It took me a few tries to pry the floorboards up, but once I did, I burst from the hole like I’d been drowning, sucking in fresh air as if my lungs had been starving for it. I checked on Nick once more before climbing out. He hadn’t woken, but he was still breathing all right.

  I went to the bathroom behind the barn, then hurried back inside. I sat on the floor near the hole and gave Nick a nudge. He muttered something before going quiet again. I stood watch over him for a while. When the cell phone said it was close to four PM, I went to the broken windows at the front of the barn. The storm had finally passed, leaving the earth soggy. Mentally, I drew my surroundings, like it was important to name all the colors so I could share it with Sam later. But what if I couldn’t? What if I never saw him again?

  The thought left me nauseous.

  When I heard the slow crawl of tires over gravel, I slunk away from the window and peeked through a gap in the siding. I thought to call Dad’s cell, then remembered his warning and pocketed the phone. Instead I watched. He parked on the shoulder of the road and shut the engine off. I was relieved to see that he was alone, though I still half expected Riley to jump out from behind a tree.

  Dad made his way across the field sporting a limp. Inwardly, I winced, remembering that day in the lab, the horror of watching Sam shoot him.

  “Anna?” Dad called.

  I poked my head out the door. “In here.”

  When he squeezed inside, an uncomfortable staleness surrounded us. If ever there was a time for hugs shared between family, this was it. But Dad wasn’t my dad, and we’d never been big on hugs to begin with.

  I gestured at his leg. “How is it?”

  “It wasn’t as bad as it looked. Are you okay?”

  I lifted a shoulder in a half shrug, wanting to say all the things crammed in my head. I was sore and broken and sad and scared. But I wanted Dad to know without me telling him. I wanted him to read me, like dads are supposed to do. To dispel all the stories I’d heard so far, to make things right again.