Cabigail yanked out the syringe and threw it skittering across the floor. Her face turning blue, she began to shiver as if night had fallen and the temperature was dropping.
“What was in the syringe?” Con asked, although she had no doubt it was the same drug that had killed both Abigail and Con’s original. How quickly it did its work when injected so close to the heart.
Instead of answering, Cabigail stabbed a finger in the direction of the nearest cabinet. “I need a syringe and a vial of Klenadone.”
Con went on autopilot and scrambled to her feet, her instinct to help temporarily overriding her fury. She ran to where Cabigail was pointing.
“A green label. Hurry,” Cabigail called out weakly.
“It’s locked,” Con yelled, yanking on the handle. “I can’t get in.”
Cabigail nodded and typed something on her LFD. When she was done, she told Con to enter her biometrics and try again.
This time, the cabinet opened.
Everything had a green label. Con pawed through the shelves until she found the Klenadone. She took it and a syringe to her aunt, who lay on her back, struggling for breath. Cabigail checked the label and nodded, thrusting it back into Con’s hands.
“Hurry,” Cabigail said, voice growing fainter with each passing moment.
Con had never injected anyone before, but she’d just seen her aunt do it, so mimicked the same steps. Tapping was to remove any air bubbles—she didn’t know how she knew that, probably from a movie. Then her eyes fell on Peter’s broken body, and she paused, the syringe hovering above her aunt. Peter was like Con’s father. A soldier. The kind of person that her aunt claimed she was protecting all this for. If her aunt could sacrifice him, who would ever be immune from her ruthless self-interest? Her aunt had spoken so eloquently of the dangers should Gaddis or Fenton gain control of her research. Con realized it was nothing compared to what would happen if Abigail Stickling was allowed to keep it for herself.
What happened when someone with a god complex became one?
Across the lab, Con saw the womb holding yet another waiting clone of her aunt. Maybe it was time to put her aunt’s theory to the test. Con set the syringe down on the floor. It wasn’t murder if the person had a clone, was it? She hoped her aunt would appreciate the irony. Gently, Con plucked the LFD from behind Cabigail’s ear. She didn’t know how much access to the complex her aunt had given her, but she wasn’t about to risk losing it.
Cabigail protested but could barely lift her arm to stop her. Instead, she let her head fall toward the rDog. Con realized almost too late what her aunt meant to do and clamped a hand over Cabigail’s mouth. Her aunt bucked with all her waning strength, thrashing hopelessly, trying to get free. But the poison had spread too far, and she was too weak to throw Con off now. Right to the end, Con could hear her trying to shout muffled commands to the rDog. Con watched in terror for any sign it understood, but the rDog never so much as flinched, sitting motionless by its master’s side while Con smothered her.
When Abigail Stickling was dead, Con fell back on the floor and lay there until she didn’t have to concentrate simply on breathing in and out. She climbed unsteadily to her feet and stumbled over to the door leading to Zhi’s room. What she did next hinged on whether her aunt had had the presence of mind to limit her access to the medical cabinets. If the door didn’t open, then Con would be trapped down here forever. But not alone, because her aunt’s clone was already being prepped in its womb for download.
Con’s hands shook as she entered her biometrics, and she held her breath while the door took an eternity thinking about it. But then the lock turned from red to green. The door swung open.
She went down the hall and cracked his bedroom door. Zhi was lying on his back in bed, but when she got closer, she saw he wasn’t sleeping. His eyes were open, staring glassily up at the ceiling. He’d been dead for a little while now. Her aunt must have triggered something remotely. Once he’d served his purpose, she’d euthanized him like the laboratory experiment he was to her. Con closed his eyes and sat on the edge of the bed the way she’d done on countless occasions visiting him in the hospital. But for the first time, she felt only relief that he wouldn’t wake up to this nightmare. How strange that she’d come all this way only to wind up where she’d begun.
She took his hand in hers and said a final goodbye. Then she went out to the lab and pulled the plug on her aunt’s new clone. Did that qualify as murder? After seeing Zhi, she really didn’t give a damn.