Subject Seven

Chapter Twenty-eight
Cody Laurel

Cody laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. Kyrie’s arm was around his shoulders and he almost shrugged her away, but part of him needed the comfort. She was warm and soft and wonderful in a world that was rapidly turning into a cold wall of sharp angles and points. Without something decent in his life, he thought maybe he’d go insane, and right then the only thing close to decent was the hot girl standing next to him and holding him.

“I need to call my parents. Maybe my dad won’t kill me after all. Turns out I really am crazy.” His voice shook with the desire to scream.

Kyrie shook her head. “If you’re crazy, so am I.”

His firm belief that he’d lost his mind gave him courage. “You can’t be crazy. I think there’re rules against pretty girls being nuts.”

She shook her head again and took her arm from around his shoulders. He desperately wanted her to put that arm back. “Just listen, okay? Please?”

He looked back at the screen, and Kyrie, God love her, put her arm around his shoulders again.

“Hopefully you’ve all calmed down by now.” Bronx’s voice still held an edge. “I’ve spent a lot of time looking for answers. I didn’t even know that any of you existed at first. I thought I was the only one of my kind that was left. I watched a few others die off and then I escaped.”

Bronx sighed. “It’s a long story and it’s boring as hell. After I was on my own, I started thinking about the people that had done this to me, and I started thinking that maybe they could fix the problems that came up.” He paused again. “We’ll get to the problems in a minute. First, I had to figure out where they were. That took some time because all I had was a name. Janus. They’re the group that started this. They’re the ones that can fix it.

“I started searching for Janus. They’re very good at hiding, but now and then everyone makes mistakes.” He settled down in his chair again and faced the camera. “After that, well, I started looking for other names, other tips. I’ve been at it for almost four years. I had to find information, make money to pay for information, hell, kids, I did things you wouldn’t believe to get what I have and what I’m going to share with you. Hunter here had to find the rest of you for me because I was working on the answers we all want and need.” He smiled. There was nothing of joy or kindness in the expression.

“You’re the failures. You were supposed to be controllable. You were supposed to change when they wanted you to, but there was no indication that you had anything special. They did tests and all they found was that you were perfectly normal babies.” He snorted that short burst of angry laughter again. “They didn’t understand that they’d actually succeeded.”

Joe stood up again and reached into his back jeans pocket. “All of you were from the same lot. None of you were anything special, according to their test, and so you know what they did? They started killing off all of the babies that were just plain normal.”

Tina shook her head and spit, actually spit on the floor. Her face was hard, set and deeply angry and she said nothing, but every move she made said she was furious. Not upset because of the joke, but seriously pissed off because maybe the man on the TV was telling the truth.

Cody stared at her for a second and then looked away before she could catch him staring. He thought maybe the look in her eyes right then would have melted steel.

“Sounds horrible, I know.” Bronx got an almost comically shocked look on his face. “Killing little babies is wrong and no one would ever do that.” He shook his head. “The Egyptians did it to the Jews according to the Bible. Hitler did it to the Jews, according to the reports of the Holocaust. He also did it to Gypsy children and the physically deformed.” Joe Bronx leaned in close again. “It’s happened lots of times. Hell, it’s happened in the United States, just in case you’re feeling all self-righteous. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, big bad nuclear bombs, wiped out thousands. Lots of babies in those towns. Oh, and of course there are plenty of rumors of orphans being fed radioactive oatmeal just to see what happens when they get too much radiation.” He grinned. “But you were the lucky ones. A lot of the babies they created were deformed. You looked normal enough for someone to decide you needed saving.”

None of them spoke. Cody listened as hard as any of the others, unsettled and wanting nothing more than to run away.

“You were supposed to die. You were supposed to get incinerated in a building just a few blocks from here. Instead, some dude decided you should be given a chance at a life, and you were sent out to be adopted. The good news for me is that the guy who made that decision also made some money in the process. The adoption agency cut him a check for a finder’s fee. That allowed me to track him down.”

Cody tilted his head and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. From the corner of his eye, he saw the entrance they’d come in through and caught the motion as a vehicle rolled to a stop.

He turned his head and leaned in closer to Kyrie’s arm, his eyes leaving the room and focusing on the small part of the front door he could see down the hallway.

“What is it?” Kyrie’s pretty face partially blocked his view as she looked at him.

“There’s somebody out front.”