Toys

“Well, it can’t have escaped your attention that Lizbeth is very ambitious,” said my father, entering the kitchen from the living area.

“Right. And so was-I mean, so am I.”

“Well, let’s just say she isn’t exactly intent on staying by your side,” said Mom. “Oh Hays, I’m so sorry we’re breaking all this to you. But it’s important that you know the truth now. They are planning to exterminate all humans. Lizbeth is part of it. She knows a great deal about the final plan. Perhaps you could help us with her?”

I waved my hands for her to stop talking. I’d heard more than I could manage for right now. I needed to think, to have some space. So I walked away and hurried out to my car.

“Right now, I don’t know who to believe,” I called back to my parents.

Chapter 43

“Welcome back, Sir,” Elle Too said as I climbed into the driver’s seat. I’d named her after my own car’s attendant. “You seem unusually tense. Can I do anything to help you?”

I almost laughed. Tense? Try shell-shocked, or borderline suicidal. “The mood helmet, please,” I said. “I’m fine, Elle, just fine. Thanks for asking.”

I reclined the seat fully while her fingers slipped the padded helmet onto my head. I didn’t have anything particular in mind, so I just surfed with the remote, trying out different ambiences.

I automatically skipped past high-adrenaline venues like sports, racing, and big-game hunting; I definitely needed something more soothing. After a couple of minutes, I came to a very popular selection titled “Behind Closed Doors-Shhhh!”

I didn’t think this was what I needed-but maybe it was worth a look-see anyway. Couldn’t hurt, right? The backdrop was a comfortable-looking room with old-fashioned furniture and a cheery fire crackling in the grate. A thick, soft rug was spread in front of it. A table was set with four glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.

“Would you like company?” a voice said, but it was inside my head.

I hesitated. I needed some kind of escape-and maybe it was sensual pleasure that could help.

“Company could be nice,” I said. “I’m definitely feeling a touch vulnerable.”

“Select your guests: Female? Male? Animal? How many?”

“One female will do, thanks,” I said.

Two of the champagne glasses disappeared.

“Select START indicator to begin ideation.”

I moved my focus over the icon and willed the program to commence.

Bingo! I was inside the room, stretched out on the rug, feeling the fire’s glow.

And that wasn’t all I was feeling. A warm shape snuggled up against me. I could barely see the outlines, like disturbed air-but my senses told me it was definitely female.

I knew what I was supposed to do next. It was up to my imagination to fill her in. Whatever I wished for would come true.

I decided to let my subconscious take over and see what would happen. I closed my eyes and emptied my mind of everything but the touch of silken skin and a lemony fragrance that was intoxicating.

Lips brushed mine-soft, full, extremely kissable.

I enjoyed that for a lingering minute, letting the suspense build. I was relaxing; the images from the “home movies” were receding.

Then I took a peek to see who was in the room with me.

“What the?”

My eyes shot all the way open. The female figure lying beside me had shaggy blond hair, the most beautiful blue eyes, and a face that was a dead ringer for that of my sister, Lucy.

That was what was lurking deep in my imagination? Lucy? That criminal. A human? It had to be a fluke, I told myself. The idea was only there because of what my mother’s clone had suggested in the kitchen.

But Lucy’s mouth couldn’t have tasted sweeter, and she definitely had a great body. And- she wanted me. God, I was vulnerable, wasn’t I?

Then I thought-how could it hurt? She was literally a figment of my imagination. Just a fantasy, a dream girl, harmless adult entertainment.

“Tell me your name,” I said, curious about what she would say.

She gave me a sly look-like she knew what I was thinking.

Suddenly, a loud bang bang bang sounded. It took me a few seconds to realize someone was knocking on the window of the car.

Chapter 44

I yanked off the mood helmet and rolled down the pod’s window. Well, what do you know?

The real Lucy was standing there, watching me with a frown, or maybe it was a self-satisfied smirk. Humans were known to be prudish, even puritanical, after all.

“You look like you were sucking on a lemon slice,” she said. “Playdate?”

“For God’s sake, can’t anyone have some privacy around here?”

Her face turned serious. “Let’s not hate each other for the moment. We got off to a bad start, I know, but we were just doing what we had to.”

“I had to do what I did, yeah. But I don’t get why you and your thugs had to attack me.”

“Maybe we’re thugs to Elites-but to humans, we’re freedom fighters. Like I told you, we weren’t out to kill you-we just needed to make it look that way. Our object was to bring you here…”

“Well, here I am. My life is a total wasteland now. Happy?”

She sighed. “Ecstatic. I’m on my way to go fishing. Want to come?”

Fishing? How crazy was that? But I did have a few questions for Lucy. So many questions, I didn’t know where to start.

So I put away the mood helmet, climbed out of the car, and walked with her toward the beach.

“Don’t take this as a compliment, but you know more about high-level Elite operations than any other human in the world,” Lucy said. “That makes you extremely valuable to us. You’ve even been called ‘the Savior’!”

I snorted with amusement. “I’ve just found out that everything I ever believed is a lie-and that my parents are the ones who started the lie. So now I should just take your side and join the human race in oblivion? I should help to save them?”

“I certainly understand your feelings, Hays, but you’d better believe they’re getting ready to wipe us out- soon. That’s right, I said us.”

Actually, I couldn’t argue with what Lucy said. I’d heard it myself from President Jacklin.

“You’re probably angry at your mother and father,” Lucy continued. “But think about how hard it must have been for them. Performing surgery on their own little boy, then sending him away into the enemy’s camp. Maybe to die.”

Suddenly, I remembered the home movie scene of Mom weeping inside the operating room.

Then it struck me how Lucy had phrased that last sentence.

“My mother and father?” I said. “So it’s true that you’re not really my sister?”

“My own parents were their best friends. My folks died when I was a baby, and they adopted me. But you and