Chapter Twenty-Seven

My greatest regret atop a mountain of others is that I never got to see his face. But those twin flames are burned into my brain like an afterimage. I was escorted out of the room by two of the clones. So strange seeing them up close. Tall, dark, and handsome. Strong hands gripping my arms. I wondered if they work out or if their strength is genetically engineered. Create a pin-up calendar of the whole brotherhood and make a million bucks.

I was feeling strangely elated after my talk with the brains behind the operation. Having negotiated the terms of our release. This experience was ending and I had developed a minor case of Stockholm syndrome. Felt a sense of camaraderie with these clone chaperones, one on each side.

“You guys talk?” I said.

The hallway was long and empty. Concrete slab floor with cinderblock walls. Who built this place, I wondered. Probably these guys.

“The silent type, I get it,” I said. “Part of your mystique.”

“You killed our brother,” the man on my right said, and that chilled me. I had forgotten what elder-Malia had said, This is not a game.

“I what?” Their hands gripped my arms, leading me forward. Just the three of us in this underground bunker.

The one on my left spoke with the same voice as the one on my right. “You killed our brother.”

They halted me in one synchronized movement, turned and pushed me up against the wall, standing shoulder to shoulder. A paper doll chain turned flesh and bone.

“Closed his eyes to this world,” they said together, blinking at the same time.

I held up my hands. What, was I going to apologize? After the hell they’d put me through?

“I had no choice,” I said. “I don’t know what the fuck you guys know about this world, but this isn’t how it works. Your brother attacked me. If I killed him, it was in self-defense.” Even that wasn’t really true given how my mind had been invaded. If anything, I had been directed to kill, manipulated like a puppet. If anything, their brother had killed himself.

I was staring into human eyes, black, both sets, and not finding one bit of humanity.

“We know of this world and more. Murder never goes unpunished. It is a basic law.”

“I’ve paid enough,” I said, heat rising to my face. If they wanted to punish me, let them try.

“You have paid a grain of sand when your debt is the ocean floor,” they said.

Christ almighty, I didn’t expect something so deep from these lab babies. They are vessels, though. Their consciousness, as I now know, comes from another place.

“You know what? You guys are assholes. I’ve got nothing more to say.”