Page 62 of Hunter

Taking a few steps into the room, she eyed the machinery attached to the tanks and the monitoring equipment like in an intensive-care unit. Only this was no hospital. Not with the patients lying in what looked like aquariums.

Her eyes darted to the other containers ranked around the laboratory. Two were empty. Two others held men who looked like twins. The remaining four tanks held boys—or rather what looked like the same boy—at different stages of development, ranging in age from a few years to a young teenager.

Clones? Started at different times. And grown at a rate much more rapid than normal, she speculated as she remembered the conversation in the hall.

Logic had made her think that Swinton had progressed to cloning humans. The reality was more than she could cope with.

“No,” she gasped as she backed away, out of the room, into the blessed solitude of the hall. Then she was running for the exit and freedom.

She was barely thinking, barely functioning on anything approaching a normal level. All she knew was that she had to get away from that place before she passed out. Blind to caution, she staggered down the corridor. If Swinton or Anderson had still been in the building, they would surely have caught her.

Reaching the door through which she’d entered, she twisted the knob. For a few dreadful seconds it wouldn’t open. Then the catch moved, and she careened into the night. Moments later she found herself standing under the oak trees sucking in great gasps of air.

It was still dark, she saw with shock, since it felt as if she’d been in that terrible room for centuries. When she looked at her watch, she discovered that only half an hour had elapsed since she’d first entered the building.

Breath wheezing in and out of her lungs, she made for home. Too late, she realized she had forgotten to pay attention to her surroundings. About a hundred yards from the guest cottage, a cruiser came gliding up behind her and gave her a blast from the siren, almost making her jump out of her skin.

She thought about fleeing, then imagined a bullet plowing into her back. Trying to wipe any expression from her face, she stood dragging in air as two security men she didn’t recognize got out of the vehicle and came toward her. They seemed to know who she was, however.

“Dr. Kelley?” the taller one asked.

“Yes,”

“Do you mind telling us what you’re doing out here at this hour of the morning.”

“Running.”

“You weren’t moving very fast.”

“I know.” For a terrible moment her mind went completely blank. Then she raised her chin. “I had a stitch in my side. I’ve been walking for the last half mile, I think.” As soon as she said it, she wondered if they’d been quietly following her. And how far?

“What was your route?” the one who seemed to be in charge asked.

“I don’t know the compound all that well. I assume it’s perfectly safe to be out at night,” she said, pretending that the man’s chief concern was for her safety.

“Of course,” he agreed.

“Well, I probably should get home now. Thank you for stopping.”

The guard looked at her consideringly.

As if she assumed the interview was over, she turned her back and walked toward the house. Then she remembered that the front door was locked. She’d have to go in the sliding glass door, the way she’d come out. Hoping they wouldn’t wonder why she was disappearing around back, she hurried into the shadows under the trees.

It had taken every ounce of concentration to focus on the conversation with the security guards. Every ounce of concentration to sound sane and rational.

She was about to climb back in the window when Hunter appeared and stepped into the backyard. Seeing him after her experience in the laboratory, was a shock. She made a muffled sound and stepped back.

“I frightened you. I’m sorry,” he said.

Her lips moved, but no words came out.

“I heard the siren,” he said in a strained voice. “I looked out the window and saw you with the security guards. I didn’t know what they were going to do. I thought I should protect you from them. Then I thought I would make things worse, if they saw me.”

“I’m fine,” she said, although she knew she had broken her rule about lying. All at once, it was impossible to keep her teeth from chattering.

Hunter reached for her and wrapped his hands around the cold skin of her arms, rubbing the gooseflesh. “You are not fine,” he said. “You are cold and shaking.”

She tried to deny it but gave up the attempt.

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