“Evan.”
Evan shakes his head. “You’ll never get away with it. They’ll figure it out. Then what will they do to you? What will they do to me? You did all of this to save me, yet this will all backfire, and you’ll lose me anyway.”
Dr. Whittaker sits up straighter and shakes his head. He takes Evan’s speech as an acceptance of my fate instead of a condemnation of his plan. “Evan, we won’t be at risk. As soon as we enter the lab, I’ll tell them she needs to be sedated. Unfortunately, she’ll die as we try to destabilize her.”
“Do you expect me to go along with this?” Evan’s voice shakes.
His father’s voice hardens. “You have to. Your own life depends on it.”
Evan grabs my hand. “No. I won’t do it.”
“You don’t have a choice, Evan.”
He looks up, his eyes burning with rage. “I always have a choice. If she dies, I die.”
I tug on his hand. “Evan.”
He turns to me. “I won’t go along with this, Jules.”
Disappointment and grief cover Dr. Whittaker’s face. “Evan, I was worried you’d feel that way. You leave me no choice.” He opens the door and steps into the sunshine.
The blinding sunlight is quickly covered by shadows—cast by the figures in hazmat suits.
Evan realizes what they’re doing, but it’s too late to react. And trapped in the car, we have no place to go. The men place tubes against our arms. I feel a sharp pain and my vision starts to fade.
“Julia.” Evan’s voice is fading.
In my haze, I realize that this might be the last time I see him. I try to tell him that I love him, but darkness overtakes me before I can get out the words
Chapter Twenty-Five
Someone calls my name, but I feel like I’m underwater and I can’t make my way to the surface.
“Julia.” The voice is more insistent.
My eyelids are heavy, but I regain partial control of my tongue. “What?”
“Julia, wake up.” The voice is friendly, but something in my mind tells me not to trust it.
I force my eyes open for a few seconds, and I see Dr. Whittaker before my eyelids close again.
“Julia, this will go better if you wake up on your own. The drug we can use to wake you can be…difficult.”
I want to listen, but I don’t want to obey him, and I can’t figure out why.
“Should we inject her?” a woman asks.
“No, let’s give her a moment. I don’t want to cause her any more unnecessary pain.”
I should take comfort in his words, but instead, panic overtakes me. My limbs begin to twitch.
A hand brushes my forehead. “There, there, Julia. Calm down or we’ll be forced to sedate you again.”
Why am I here? “Evan…”
“Evan is fine. I promise you. Thank you for keeping him safe.”
I shake my head, trying to clear the fuzziness so I can remember where I am and how I got here.
“I need to ask you some questions.”
“Okay…” I was with Evan. In a field. And then we went back. Where did we go? My mind wants to stay in the field with Evan, but part of me screams to remember the rest. That my life depends on remembering the rest.
“How did you find the rebel compound?”
The compound. We went there after the field, then we were found and taken to the panel.
“Her heart rate is increasing, Dr. Whittaker.”
“Keep an eye on it. She’s probably remembering how she got here.”
How did I get here? Something happened at the panel. Something bad.
“How did you find the rebel compound?” Dr. Whittaker repeats. He’s expecting me to think of two different things at the same time when I can’t even concentrate on one.
“Reece…he knew it was out west.” If we were with the rebels, how can I be with Dr. Whittaker?
“He knew the location of the compound?” His voice is insistent.
“We found a map.” The memory of the scavengers returns, fear following in its wake. I try to sit up, but my arms and legs are tied down. When I force my eyes open, I see that I’m on a hospital cart with raised metal sides. My limbs are restrained against the rails.
Dr. Whittaker leans over me so his face fills my vision. “Julia, it’s okay. You’re restrained for your own protection. I need you to answer my questions. You found a map and then you found the compound. Were they expecting you?”
“No. They were upset we found them.”
Everything floods in a gush, how I got here, the danger I’m in. “Jo?” She was supposed to help us. Where is she?
“We know all about Jo.” Something about the way he says this catches my attention. He looks around. “I need you to clear the room, Rachel,” he says.
“Yes, Dr. Whittaker.” A few seconds later, I hear a door click shut.
I force my eyes to focus on him. His face is blurry but becomes clear after a few more blinks. “You know about Jo?” Did they catch her while she was trying to help us?
“Jo was part of our plan to track you.”
I shake my head, sure I’ve misunderstood. “What?”
“We set Jo in your path.”
I’m already drugged, so the rush of emotions in my head makes it difficult to sort through the mess. Betrayal burns the brightest so I latch onto it. “But how?” How could they know we’d stop at that store? How could they know we’d check out the back?
“She wasn’t the only one. We had other agents placed strategically, hoping you’d encounter one of them. Jo just happened to be the one you found.”
Shock and dismay replace the betrayal. “But why?”
“The military had several purposes. They suspected Reece was going to the rebel base. They wanted someone to get inside and report what they found. They also wanted to find you, of course. They had her report in when she had the opportunity. She reported twice. Once from Deacon City and a second time from New Denver.”
He’s lying. He’s doing this to hurt me. Hasn’t he hurt me enough? “No. You’re wrong. Her brother was in New Denver.”
Dr. Whittaker shakes his head. “No, Julia. There is no brother.”
“She was my friend. She helped me escape from Deacon City.”
“She was paid to be your friend.”
“No.” My heart is breaking. I trusted her, but it was all a lie. Is nothing in my life real?
“We wondered if Evan would try to open a portal to your world somewhere else so we had her keep an eye on that as well. We weren’t even sure if he had the box anymore. But Jo said he built another one. And that he took you to another universe in the compound. In fact, she did such an excellent job that she not only delivered you and Evan, but the device as well.”
I close my eyes, sick dread slithering through my body. That’s why the rebels didn’t find the box in my bag. Jo had taken it.
“Where did you end up?” Dr. Whittaker asks, excitement in his voice.
I bite my lip to keep from crying. “Why don’t you ask Evan?”
“He’s still sedated.
“Why? I want to see him.”
“That’s not possible and you know it. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not sorry. Don’t pretend that you’re sorry.”
“Do you really love him?”
My eyes widen at his question. “Yes. Of course.”
“Then help me help him. He’ll refuse to cooperate for a while, and his life will depend upon his cooperation and the information he has. Please, Julia. If you love him, tell me what I need to know.” He takes a breath. “Did he create a new box?”
I close my eyes. The sight of this man makes me ill. “Yes.”
“Was there a weakness between the universes where you crossed?”
I don’t want to tell him anything that might help him, but he’s right. If Dr. Whittaker kills me, Evan will never cooperate. “No, I don’t think so. I was with Evan in his cell and we thought the guards were about to k
ill me, so he set the machine to take us to another world.”
“Was it your world?” Something in his voice sounds odd. Something desperate.
I turn to look at him. Why does he want to know so badly? “I don’t know.”
His jaw clenches and anger furrows his brow. “Don’t lie to me, Julia.”
“I don’t know. I asked Evan if it was and he said he didn’t know, but he didn’t think so.”
“What frequency did he set the box to?”
“I don’t know.”
His eyes look wild and he leans over my face. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know anything about the box. I have no idea how it works at all.”
“He didn’t tell you? Even in passing?”
“No, I didn’t even know he had it until right before we used it.” I don’t tell him that Evan had kept the device’s existence from me for over a week.
“I need to know more about it.” He stands and begins to pace.
“Then wake up Evan and take me to him. He’ll see me and then he’ll cooperate.”
Dr. Whittaker shakes his head. “No. I can’t do that. I need to wrap this up as quickly as possible.”
Wrap this up. He means kill me. “What did you tell them about me?”
He looks up in surprise. “I already told you.”
“That I’m a weapon of mass destruction. Yeah, I know. But won’t they figure it out when nothing turns up? What threat do I pose?”
His fingers massage his forehead. “Biological. You carry a virus that is changing in our world. When you arrived it was benign, but it’s mutated, and the longer you stay the greater your chance of infecting the entire population.”
“But I’m only one person. How can I be a weapon of mass destruction?”
“It only takes one, Julia. It spreads like wildfire until everyone is infected. And with such a high mortality risk, you have to be dealt with.”
“If your story was true, wouldn’t it have made more sense to leave me with the rebels and let me wipe out their population without any effort from you?”
He gives me an empty smile. “One would think. But what if they figured out what you were capable of and planned to send you to us as a weapon?” He picks up a syringe from a stainless steel tray.
I don’t answer. What can I say? It all sounds so believable that I almost buy it, and I know it’s fabricated. After all Evan and I have been through, does it really come to this? “He’ll never forgive you.”
He sighs. “I’ve considered that and it’s a possibility, but if I have to choose between having my son alive and safe, even if he hates me, or fearing every second for his safety, I’ll learn to live with his animosity and hope he eventually gets over it.”
I think he overestimates Evan’s capacity for forgiveness.
The other Julia’s memories begin to awaken, sending a panic through my blood. The heart rate monitor next to me beeps at an alarming rate. The memories have remained dormant since I saw Reece, but if they take over now, I’ll lose control I can’t afford to relinquish. Her presence surges forward anyway, with an intensity that is usually reserved for when I’m near Reece. I’m powerless to stop it.
I look up into Dr. Whittaker’s face and start to cry. “I thought you loved me.”
His eyes cloud with confusion.
“Why do you want to hurt me? You always told me that you loved me like a daughter.”
He shakes his head. “What are you talking about? That wasn’t you.”
“How could it not be me? All those days and evenings I spent with Evan—you joked that I should just move in.” I release a small sob. “I thought you loved me.”
Anger flashes on his face. “What kind of game are you playing?”
I jerk on my restraints. “Where’s Reece? I want to see Reece.”
He pales. “Julia, do you know where you are?”
I look around the room. “Your lab. Why am I in your lab?’
“I’m not sure what kind of madness this is—”
“Where’s Reece? I need him!”
“Reece?” He cocks his head to the side as though I’ve gone crazy. “Reece stayed with the rebels in the compound. Why aren’t you asking about Evan?”
Evan’s name prompts a thought in my head. It screams for attention. Evan.
Dr. Whittaker sets down the syringe on the table next to the bed and approaches. “Do you know who you are?”
“I’m Julia. Why are you asking me that?” But his question dislodges part of my own mind again. Her memories have taken over again. I claw over them to get control. “It happened again,” I whisper.
“What happened?”
“I became her.” I pause and look into his cautious face. “I became your Julia.”
“That’s impossible. You’re not our Julia.”
“I know.” I blink. “But I have her memories. Who she is. She’s started replacing me. That’s why Evan is trying to send me home. To save me.”
“No, none of that makes sense. If you were becoming her, he wouldn’t want to stop it.”
I shake my head. “He loves me for me, not her. He doesn’t want to lose me.”
“Why does he think that will work?”
I’m not sure why we’re having this discussion when he’s moments away from killing me, but it’s buying me more time so I’ll keep him talking. At this point, what do I have to lose? “Because they began to get worse when I crossed over to your world.”
A faraway look fills his eyes. Evan gets the same look when he’s deep in thought and a pain pierces my heart. Will Evan be okay? Will my death really save him?
“You had dreams before you crossed. Only when you were asleep?”
I nod wondering if this is a good idea, giving him information. Can he use it against my world?
“Once you came to our universe, what happened?”
Perhaps if he sees me as a scientific oddity he will keep me around longer to study. “At first, I got snatches of her memories. But her presence grew in my head until it was always there. More and more lately her memories have taken over, and I’m her. The only time I’ve been free of her since it began was in the field after Evan and I traveled. Her presence completely disappeared. Evan has been determined to get me home to save my sanity.”
He cocks his head. “They completely disappeared in the other universe?”
“Yes.”
“As I’ve suspected since the beginning, your essences were fused because of the accident, which is why you could draw and you had the dreams of our world when you slept. You are fused with the two universes. I suspect sending you home won’t halt it at all.” He shivers. “It’s all theory. I guess we’ll never know. It’s a pity, really.”
Disappointment washes over me. Going home won’t stop it. But what difference does it make now? I take a breath. “But if you hurt me, you’re hurting her too. She’s inside me. The girl that you love.”
He shakes off his dazed expression. “No. I don’t believe it. Snatches of her memory are in you, but that doesn’t make you her.”
I want to laugh at the irony. The argument Dr. Whittaker uses to justify brushing me off is the argument I’ve used with Reece to let me go.
He picks up the syringe. “Even if I could do something to stop this, I can’t. It’s too big of a risk for Evan. I’m sorry, Julia.” When he looks into my eyes, I see his turmoil and regret.
My heart races and I try to pull loose from the restraints. My anger mingles with my fear. “Don’t do that. Don’t lie to me. You’re not sorry.”
“This isn’t easy, taking a human life. I don’t enjoy it.”
“Yeah, you tell yourself that.”
The syringe moves toward my arm.
The door opens and Dr. Whittaker glances up. “Jo, I’ll need you to wait for a moment.”
Jo? Livid, I whip my head to catch a glimpse of her. She stands in the doorway in an oversized coat, wearing her trademark bored expression. I thought it was her defen
se to keep people out. Turns out it was the way she really felt. I feel like an idiot. She was biding her time, stuck with stupid me. Her betrayal hurts worse than everything I’ve endured put together. White-hot tears fill my eyes, but I blink them away. If she wants to watch then she’ll get a show. I’m not going to die without a fight, no matter how pointless the struggle.
“I was afraid I was too late.” She comes toward us in purposeful strides.
“Don’t you mean too soon?” He checks the clock on the wall. “Her body won’t be ready for another half an hour.”
She pulls a handgun from inside her coat, then stands with her feet apart, pointing the weapon at him. “No. I meant too late. Put down the syringe.”
His head tilts as he studies her, but he continues to hold the syringe over my arm. “Jo. Think about what you’re doing. You’re a national hero. Do you really want to throw that away?”
She moves closer. “National hero?” She laughs. “No one will ever know I played a part in this, and the officials will make damn sure of that now. Now put down the syringe.”
He watches her for several seconds, the metal syringe several inches over my exposed arm. “You’re bluffing. You won’t shoot me. If you do, you’re as good as dead yourself.”
She shrugs and gives him a cocky grin. “We all gotta go sometime.”
“Jo. What about your family?” His eyes narrow, and he has an ominous tone.
Hate fills her eyes. “My family is safe. No thanks to you.”
I pull against my wrist straps, frustrated that they’re just as tight as they were five seconds ago. “What are you talking about?”
Dr. Whittaker moves the syringe closer to my arm. “This won’t hurt, Julia. It will be like drifting off to sleep. It will be perfectly painless.”
“This is your last warning, Dr. Whittaker,” Jo growls.
“Do you know why you were chosen, Jo? Because you think and react well under pressure.” The syringe is against my skin, his finger on the dispensing button. “You’ll see the reason in this.”
“You’re right,” Jo says. “I do.”
A pop echoes through the room and Dr. Whittaker’s upper body falls across my abdomen and chest. The metal tube clangs on the floor.
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