"Harker?" The girl in front of me is undeniably the ditzy little blond whose mansion I was kidnapped from. What I don't understand is the sudden change that's come over her. Harker crouches huddling against the wall with her arms wrapping around her thin knees, her once expensive tan looks pale and dingy and her large blue eyes are rimmed by dark circles. I don't understand it, if the gang kidnapped Harker on the same night that they kidnapped me, then why weren't we transported together? Besides that, two days can not have wrought such a physical change so quickly. "Harker what happened to you? It's Elizabeth, don't you remember me? I was at your house just a few days ago." The words don't seem to get through to her, and Harker's eyes drop back to the floor as she mentally retreats farther from us.
"Actually Miss Burnhart the young lady you had the misfortune of acquaintanceship with is not Harker Hayes, not the real Harker at least. Unfortunately, this Harker and the one you met both share an unfortunate lack of true character depth. Poor dear sheltered and pampered Harker didn't last more than a week in my island resort before she began to crack. We were unable to gather much information from the girl before we were forced to send her clone home in her place. Lady Luck however has always sat by my side. The qualities which made Harker such a superb candidate for replacement also ensured that the substitution was not noticed."
"You mean her parents didn't notice her and she was always bouncing around between different boarding schools so no one would notice a change in her personality?" Clones? They were making freaking clones out here? Oh this is so not good, I'm in really big trouble here, big trouble. Stay calm, just stay calm and see how much you can weasel out of him.
"Yes, Miss Hayes is the quintessential poor little rich girl, ignored by her parents, given any toys she wants but never seen or loved. It was child's play to kidnap her. She was headed off for a spring break in the Cote d'Azure and I simply snatched her in transit. The poor girl was unfortunately too dim to recognize the difference between Spanish and French and she actually climbed right into one of my men's cars without a fuss. A couple of blood and tissue samples later and all I needed were a few base memories and personality tests to feed the new and better Harker Hayes. You didn't realize did you? It never even would have occurred to you that the girl you met was really who she said she was." I understand the principles behind what they did but now I'm lacking in their motive. Sure Harker is from a wealthy family, but you can't ransom a girl who for all intents and purposes is still living at home safe and sound.
"Why do this then? You don't gain anything from having Harker, she's nobody. Sorry Harker. I mean, like you said her parents ignore her, so its not even like she could influence their great financial empire." I don't like the way his eyes are lighting up, don't like it at all.
"You fail to comprehend the depths of my plans little girl. Do you think this has been a short term operation? This project began over a decade ago when I bought myself into the good graces of one of the Manticore scientists…"
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"How's she doing?" True to her word, Original Cindy had dragged me to TC as soon as we left Crash, frog-marching me straight up to Kate's office. Now I'm feeling bad. Kate's only other customer is CeCe, big as a house and waiting for a prenatal check-up. I haven't bothered to check up on CeCe in weeks, and she looks only slightly better than she did kneeling at Biggs's grave. Around the bulge of her child, the rest of her body has gotten skinnier. At least some of the grayness is gone from her complexion. I know the woman standing beside CeCe only slightly; her name is Naia I think, and she volunteered to take CeCe into her apartment after Biggs's death. She looks reprovingly at me, and I know that she feels I ought to have checked on my friend before this.
"The child is saving her, gives her something to live for. If she died, it would kill her baby, and so she keeps going." For an X-5 her features are very plain, her body sparingly curved like a very young girl's, but her eyes carry more depth of pain than most transgenics that I have seen, and in our crowd that is really saying something. She opens her mouth again as if she wants to say something else, but Kate walks in at that moment.
"Max! How are you huh? I swear you better not have any new bullet holes in you." Kate descends on me like a mother hen and I feel some of my worry ease. If anyone can fix this, it's Kate. She looks at the curious collection of other females standing around us, including the very guarded expression on Naia's face. "Come on into my office deary and we'll have a look at what ails you." Cindy smiles in reassurance and turns her attention to exclaiming over CeCe's growing stomach.
I sink down into one of Kate's comfortable office chairs and fold my hands over my offending stomach. "I've been having these stomach pains Kate. They're really awful. I have nausea and cramping, and I can't hold down any food most of the time. It just started a week or so ago too." Kate frowns faintly and massages her forehead with the tips of her fingers.
"I hate to make a judgment based on your complaints. To be sure of anything I'll have to take some blood and tissue samples, and do a full physical of course. I think I have a good idea of what it is though, and you're not going to like it."