‘Don’t worry, Carissa,’ said the Inventor. ‘You can make more. It’s like our blood. We donate it all the time.’
His comparison made her feel a bit better.
The medic waved a thermo-imaging wand over June’s belly. Then, she carefully injected the growth repressors into the cavity around the foetus. The visible movement of the foetus appeared to ease up. June settled back with a sigh.
‘Junior wants out,’ she said, looking from the Inventor to Vanessa. ‘We need to get back to the city.’
Vanessa patted her knee. ‘We’re almost there. The boulders first, then getting you sorted will be our first priority.’
Carissa hoped their return to the city would not attract trouble. Who knew what awaited their return? She prided herself on having known the Collective once. She’d been able to hide her thoughts from the Ten. But Quintus, the spokesperson for the Collective ten, was acting differently to the way he used to. She could no longer predict his patterns.
And that scared her.
The Inventor pulled her back from the others and spoke in a low voice. ‘What’s the matter, miss? Are you worried about returning?’
The Inventor understood her—a little too well at times. She wished she had the same skill, but she hadn’t learned how to read emotions.
Carissa looked up into his watery blue eyes. Her first thought was to lie to him, but the truth didn’t hurt as much.
She nodded.
He responded with a pat on her shoulder. ‘You don’t have to worry. We’ll be okay.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we have a camp full of trained rebels, that’s why. Dom will see us there safely.’
‘But Julius is probably there, with Jerome and Alex, spilling the rebel secrets to the Collective.’
The Inventor frowned. ‘There’s nothing we can do about that. But you know what? The Collective may have Julius, but we have the next best thing.’
‘What?’
‘You.’
She didn’t understand. ‘Me? I could have stopped this. I could have ended Quintus’ obsession with winning the war. All I had to do was go home when he ordered me to.’
He shook her shoulder. ‘You’re thinking for yourself, miss. A sentient being with independent thought. You have evolved past what the Collective designed you to be. You became aware of your surroundings all on your own. You are special, and Quintus knows it. That’s why he wants you to return.’
It warmed her part-organic heart to hear the Inventor call her special. But when would she feel it?
The old man bent closer to her, and stared at her. ‘Do you believe me?’
Carissa wanted to. But predicting Quintus’ next move wouldn’t be easy, no matter how special he thought her.
‘I still hear him,’ she blurted out.
The Inventor straightened up fast. ‘Quintus?’
She nodded. ‘I’m still hearing his voice from the battlefield.’
He released a quiet sigh. ‘You’re replaying a memory, that’s all. It’s okay to think about him. He was a big part of your life in the city.’
Carissa twisted her hands to the front. Her nails were dirty from her attempts to shift the boulders from the valley to one side. She wanted to help speed up the wolves’ work. The longer the anti-magnetic barrier was down while they worked, the longer the camp would be vulnerable to attack.
She looked up at him. ‘Quintus is obsessed. He has been for a while. He made the tests harder for the last group that went through Arcis. He was excited to learn rebels were in the facility.’
She wasn’t certain, but Carissa sensed he had been most interested in Anya.
The Inventor cupped his chin in thought. ‘Quintus has always been an anomaly among the Collective ten. I sensed that when he called me to the Great Hall to ask about you.’
‘Is it bad to think about someone so full of spite?’ That was the only word she could think of to describe Quintus.
‘No. Quintus was like a father to you.’
The Inventor was her father. Quintus had been her... teacher. He showed no love towards her. He never praised her when she did something right. His manner was cold, like the machine he lived inside.
Carissa nodded and smiled at him. When the Inventor turned to check on June, she dropped the act.
‘I’m looking forward to getting Junior out,’ June said.
Vanessa replied, ‘We don’t know what it is, if it’s even human. Don’t get your hopes up.’
‘I don’t care. I need to see what he or she is.’
‘Very soon, I promise,’ said the Inventor.
June rubbed her now-still belly. ‘It can’t come soon enough.’
Carissa watched seventeen-year-old June cradle her belly. She was too young to have a child, yet she was looking forward to meeting what she carried. That confused Carissa.
Quintus had taught the Copies not to care. To care would mean losing innovation, progress. The children born from the Breeder-human combination were not designed to be loved. They were test subjects for Quintus to experiment upon. What life would the children have if they were raised by humans?
The loss of her former life squeezed her heart. It might not compare to this one, which offered more freedom, but she’d become used to comfortable parameters and easy predictability there. Out here, among these chaotic humans, control was dependent upon the actions of others.
But chaos made life exciting. And, it turned out, she quite liked it.
When the medic finished taking June’s temperature, the Inventor turned to Carissa.
‘Are you okay now?’ he asked.
She smiled and nodded, hoping to appease him.
Quintus had hinted at trouble in the city. The Copies under his command weren’t to blame for this mess. They were as much victims as the humans were.
Quintus would pay for his mistakes.
‘We should get back to the boulders,’ she said.
The Inventor lifted both brows. ‘I can see you’re not okay.’
His ability
