Subject Seven

Chapter Forty-one
Evelyn Hope

Evelyn shook her head. They’d watched the new footage three times. She stared at the screen and sighed so softly it sounded more like a breath of disappointment.

Beside her, George shifted in his seat. On her other side, a younger man, a boy, really, only twelve though he looked a few years older, looked toward her with a nervous expression. He knew his mother’s moods well enough to know that she was upset.

“Gabriel?”

Her son looked at her. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Did you recognize any of them?”

“No, ma’am.” His voice was clipped and efficient.

“Do you remember me talking about Subject Seven, Gabriel?”

The boy frowned. “The one that killed Dad and Bobby?”

She looked at him carefully. “He killed your father. He took your brother away.”

“You said he was as good as dead.”

She pointed to the screen and tapped one of the figures. The shape was heavily muscled with shaggy hair. “Do you see him?”

“Yes, of course.” He stared at the shape.

“That is Subject Seven, Gabriel.”

Her son stared hard at the screen and the sneer that came across his mouth was unpleasant.

“Do you remember Bobby, Gabby?”

“Of course, he’s my brother. I miss him every day.” She knew the words were true. The absence had probably been muted by time, but he still felt it.

“Gabriel, if Subject Seven is alive, then it’s possible that Bobby is alive.” She watched the realization on her son’s face.

“Bobby could come back to us?” Oh, the hope in his voice almost broke her heart. It was so much like the hope she was trying to suppress.

“It’s possible, but we don’t know yet.”

George raised an eyebrow and looked at her but never said a word.

“Gabriel?”

“Yes, Mother?”

“Would you be happier if Bobby came back to us?”

Her bright, precious boy looked toward her and smiled. “Yes, ma’am. We’d… we’d be a family again.”

She allowed herself a small smile. The words cut a bit, but she knew how much she’d changed since Subject Seven had murdered her husband.

“Gabriel?”

“Yes, Mother?”

“Does the moon always shine so brightly at noon?”

The boy’s face went slack for a second and then he clenched the arms of his chair and moaned. His body tensed, his face grew dark with rising blood pressure and he leaned his head back and hissed in pain as his bones grew, his body changed. The black clothes he wore had been slightly baggy, but by the time the change was done, they were snug. Every Doppelganger had a command phrase, a simple comment that could change them from student to killing machine. The only exceptions that she knew of were the creatures that Subject Seven had surrounded himself with. They were supposed to be dead. That thought terrified her.

Gabriel was in excellent shape. He worked out every day, trained in both hand-to-hand and armed combat, and though he was only twelve, he ran five miles every day and ten to twenty miles when out on maneuvers. He was fit and he was competent.

What took his place made him seem frail. The shape was larger, stronger and as always darker. Everything about him said that he was a predator, designed for hunting and killing.

“Good afternoon, Rafael.” Evelyn smiled tightly. She remained formal with all of the Doppelgangers. It was best to keep them at a distance, as history had taught her.

Rafael stood up and immediately moved his arms to the small of his back, the hands crossed over each other, his legs slightly spread into a quick parade rest stance.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Hope.” His face was calm, but his eyes, oh, how they shone. He was glad to be freed of his prison, as always.

“I have a mission for you and your team.”

He looked at the screen. “Who are they?”

“They’re the ones you fought earlier, Rafael. They’re mistakes, my boy.” She stared long and hard at him. “They’re your predecessors.”

“Like experiment number Seven?” His eyes lit up with a different expression.

She nodded. “As you told me earlier, he’s the Alpha for that group. I want him brought to me, Rafael. I prefer they be brought to me alive, especially Seven, but if a few die, so be it.”

“Really?” And there it was, what she was hoping for, anticipation instead of fear. He wanted a rematch. He wanted to beat his enemy.

“Oh yes.” She leaned back in her seat and steepled her fingers in front of her lips. “So, when do you think you can be ready?”

Rafael smiled. “Say the word. We can be ready to move in half an hour.”

“Perfect.”

Rafael left to collect his team, six members strong and combat ready. They had the best training available, the best weapons and every advantage over their targets.

A moment later and George looked at her with a stony expression.

“Say it, George. Now is hardly the time to get quiet with your opinions.”

“It just seems, well, like it might be overkill.”

“Do you think so?” There it was, the flutter in her stomach, the nerves telling her that she was making a mistake. She crushed the feelings down into the darkness where her soul was hiding.

When she spoke again, her voice was as calm as ever. “None of those… things out there should be alive. I want them back here where I can have them dissected, or I want them dead.”

George rose from his seat without another word. Maybe that was for the best.

Evelyn should have been ecstatic. She was finally going to have Subject Seven delivered back to her, and if all went the way she wanted it to, his other self, her son Bobby, would be returned as well. She would have her family again and she would lock away the animal that killed her husband.

So why then did she feel the flutters of fear deep in her stomach? She had no answer for that, except that even after all this time, Subject Seven scared the hell out of her.