Subject Seven

Chapter Thirty-two
Evelyn Hope

Evelyn watched the footage in silence, her hands held together in front of her face as if she might be praying.

She wished there had been cameras inside the building instead of merely the ones along the perimeter. Her life would be easier if she could see their faces clearly and decide if they were anyone she knew.

One of them, one on the roof. There was something unsettlingly familiar about him. The others? Nothing. The only things they had in common were unbelievable reflexes, oddly poor choices in the sizes of their clothing-which were universally too small-and a penchant for savagery.

George watched the footage with her. No one else was allowed in the room. There was no one else she trusted as implicitly as she did her second-in-command.

She kept a careful count of the men she saw fall to the strangers who’d come into her territory.

“Well, this is hardly the sort of footage I was hoping for, George.”

He nodded. After they watched the building getting blasted into debris, he finally spoke. “Do you think they got away?”

“Of course they did. There were plenty of opportunities for a competent athlete and these ruffians, they are decidedly athletic.” She paused for a moment and then used the remote control to slowly reverse the film. “There. See?” She pointed at the shadowy forms near an opened manhole cover. “Right there. That’s them getting away, I suspect.”

“Cheeky little bastards, aren’t they?”

“George, they killed twenty-five of our men. I think that makes them more than ‘cheeky.’”

He frowned. “Well, to be fair, I think the helicopter probably killed most of them.”

She waved a finger at him. “Let’s avoid the debate. Find the right people to make sure this is read as a gas main explosion and make sure you pay them off quickly.” He nodded. “When that’s done, clean out the secondary offices.” She sighed. “I have no doubt that the ones on the roof got one of the men talking.”

“Full cleanup?”

Evelyn shook her head. “No. Give them something. Let’s assume they’re looking for me, shall we? Give them an address.”

“What location?”

“Somewhere isolated, where we can have a better chance of controlling the outcome. Really, George, I’d hardly expect this to be challenging for you.”

He made that little tsking noise she so despised. “I know you, Evelyn. If I don’t double-check, you’ll be pointing a finger at me if it goes wrong.”

“I’ll be pointing a finger at you either way, George. That’s why you’re my assistant.”

He sighed. “Anything else you need me to take care of?”

“Yes. One more thing.” She tapped the remote again and backed up the recording until she got the clearest shot of the two intruders on the roof. “Does either of them look familiar?”

George leaned in closer to the screen. The high-definition monitor was as clear as ever, but the recording was grainy. It wasn’t meant for close-ups. He frowned and scowled and squinted each way he could. “I don’t suppose we’ve had this sent off to get the images cleaned?”

“Not yet. We only just had the situation a short while ago, George. These things take time, and they require that you actually call on the appropriate parties.” Her voice was sharp, but he ignored the slight.

“Yes, I’ll get on that.” His tone was snide. “Just as soon as I’ve handled every other whim of yours for the day.”

“And you call other people cheeky. Honestly.” Still, she smiled a little. Anyone else would have been fired, but George was allowed a little room. It was one of the benefits of being someone she trusted.

He pointed to the male in the dress slacks and bloodied shirt. “He almost looks like… ” His voice trailed off. “Is that even possible, Evelyn?”

“Well, I would hope not, but no body was ever found, now was it, George?” It had been over four years since the last time Bobby had tried to contact her. After he stopped trying, they had to assume that Seven was dead and Bobby along with him. They were inseparable, after all.

George stared hard and slowly shook his head. “Seven? Could he be alive after all of that?”

Evelyn leaned back in her seat and sighed, making herself stay calm. There was a possibility that her son was alive out there, along with his other half, Subject Seven. The boy who made her life a better, brighter place and the monster who’d taken away her husband and son. “We’re going to have to work under the assumption that he is.” The thought sent a hundred different feelings through her. Seven. Alive. Was that even possible? Did she dare hope for that? After all that he’d done, after all that he’d taken. Her hand moved to the necklace again, fondling the ring and the tooth next to it unconsciously.

“Well, that’s not a comforting notion, is it?”

“Not at all.” She rose from her seat, wincing slightly as her legs protested. She might have kept her figure, but age was starting to wear away at her joints.

“Make sure you get one of the teams prepared.”

“One of the teams?” He frowned for a moment. “Rafael’s group?”

Evelyn nodded. “Yes. Rafael’s team should be the best suited for this.” She waved a hand of dismissal. “In fact, send him in here. I need to have a talk with him. After that, we can send him out with the cleanup crew for the second building. It’s best to have a backup plan for something like this, don’t you think?”

George frowned more deeply. “Right away.” He disapproved. She could understand that, but it was necessary. Rafael was the best and brightest of the soldiers they had available.

“I know you disagree, George, but this is for the best. I need him to know what Seven is capable of, and I need him to look at this footage.”

“Do you think Rafael is strong enough to take on Seven and what looks like others?”

“There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” She looked at her second and he in turn looked back at her, his face an impassive mask.

He wanted so much to argue with her, to remind her of what was at risk, as if she didn’t already know the possible outcome. There were no choices, really. It had to be this way.

“I need to consider all of the ramifications. I know that, George. But I also need the best we have to look into this and Rafael is the very best.”

George left without another word. That was another reason she’d hired him. He knew when to keep his mouth shut.

She needed to think. Her fingers danced around the ring, the baby tooth, and she made her hand move down. Sentimentality was not required just now. She had to keep control of her emotions.

She was once again toying with her trinkets when George and Rafael came back. Rafael was a striking figure, older than he looked by several years, which meant he looked almost like an adult. Almost. His face was still young enough to fool many people, though she’d known a few baby-faced adults in her time. His hair was dark, his uniform pristine, and his eyes carried the same dark, predatory glint that marked almost all of the Doppelgangers when they were in combat mode.

“You wanted to see me, Ms. Hope?” He got directly to business. She liked that about him.

“You’ve read the reports on your predecessors, haven’t you, Rafael?”

“Yes, ma’am, per your orders.”

She nodded. “What do you remember about Subject Seven?”

Rafael responded quickly. “Subject Seven was considered the first true success, physically far superior to a regular man, with a very high IQ and the first obvious Alpha tendencies. He escaped or was abducted from his home just a little over five years ago.”

A necessary lie. They had never made clear that Seven had escaped. They had no need to plant the idea of dissent into the ranks.

“We believe we might have a lead on Seven, Rafael, and we believe he has gone rogue. But I need you to confirm that before we send a retrieval team in.”

Rafael tilted his head slightly and nodded. “What certainties are there that this is Subject Seven?”

“There are none. From what I can see in the film you’re about to watch, he appears to be using Alpha tendencies, meaning he’s leading the others without words. But I need you to be sure of that.”

“How can I be certain? Alpha abilities are unique to each birth lot.”

Birth lot, a polite way of saying the genetic batch that a Doppelganger was born into.

“True, but didn’t you once tell me there was interference when you were dealing with other Alphas?”

Rafael contemplated that for a moment. He’d been the one to point out that while he could not force his will onto a different lot of Doppelgangers, he could always tell who the Alpha was because there was a mental resistance, a sort of feedback that was like white noise whenever he tried to read them. Since he had pointed it out, several other Alphas had confirmed the same thing.

“So, go find out. Either it’s Subject Seven or one of the Doppelganger teams we sold to the military is hunting us down. If it’s the latter, we can work it out easily. If it’s Subject Seven, we might have an issue on our hands.”

“And if it’s Seven?”

“If it’s Subject Seven and you can take him down, do so.” She looked at Rafael and took his measure. Against almost anyone, he was more than a match. He’d been tested extensively in combat situations and on obstacle courses. He could easily bench-press five hundred pounds and had a reaction time that was documented at one one-hundredth of a second, ten times faster than the reaction time of a trained athlete. Still, she wasn’t completely sure if he could take Subject Seven without getting himself killed in the process. He was close to the levels they’d reached with the original test subjects, but none of the original subjects had matured to Rafael’s level. Even with the procedures they’d used to chemically age the Doppelgangers, they were still physically not as matured as Seven. They weren’t likely to be as physically powerful. “If it looks like he has the upper hand, retreat and we’ll consider our options.”

Rafael tried to hide it, but she could see the arrogance in his face. He didn’t think he could take Seven, he knew he could take Seven. “Rafael, I chose you for this because you are one of the very best soldiers at my disposal. You are an amazing fighting machine.” She could see him resist the desire to preen. Evelyn did not give out compliments lightly and he knew it. “But when he was ten years old, Subject Seven was already stronger and faster than you.”

Rafael blinked, surprised.

“Listen carefully to me. If he did escape from us, if he wasn’t abducted, then he killed over ten people the night he escaped. He injured or crippled twenty more. Do not assume that he’s weaker than you or slower than you. And just because he hasn’t been trained by us doesn’t mean he hasn’t been trained. Do not underestimate him. Do I make myself clear?”

Rafael snapped to attention, duly chastised. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Very good. Come watch this tape with me. Look for any weaknesses and help me decide what’s going on with the rest of the people with him.”

“Do you think they’re like him?”

“Not quite. Either they’re some of ours, or they shouldn’t exist.”

Intrigued, Rafael sat in one of the chairs George offered and started watching the tape.