Jenna Black - Replica

“So it’s true,” Nadia whispered. “There really is an AI.”

Nate nodded. “I don’t know a whole lot about it.” He made a wry face. “I’m not considered responsible enough to be let into the true inner circle. All I really know is that it exists, and that it’s located somewhere below ground under the Fortress.”

“I don’t get it,” Bishop said. “What’s the big secret? Lots of people are already convinced there has to be an AI behind the technology, so why hide it?”

“My understanding is that we don’t want anyone to know anything for sure. If other scientists knew for sure that it took an AI to invent the Replicas, they’d focus their energies—and their research grants—that way, and they might eventually create another AI that’s capable of doing the same thing.”

“Uh-huh,” Bishop said, sounding completely unconvinced.

Nate shrugged. “My father explained the reasoning a lot better than I did. It made sense—it really did.”

Nadia had no doubt that it had. The Chairman was an impressive speaker, able to justify his actions to the public in such a way that there never seemed to be any huge outcry over what Nadia saw as injustices. Though perhaps the existence of the resistance movement proved that he wasn’t convincing everyone, at least not anymore.

“It’s a camouflage,” Nadia said.

“Huh?” Nate asked, looking at her in puzzlement.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder, “but your father wouldn’t share a sensitive state secret with you if his life depended on it.”

Nate jerked back as if slapped. “Just how exactly am I supposed to take that that isn’t the wrong way?”

“You’ve gone out of your way to paint yourself as an irresponsible playboy,” she said. “Don’t be offended at the thought that your father might treat you like one.”

It looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but he thought better of it and settled into resentful silence.

“He told you about Thea’s existence and told you it was a big state secret so you’d feel like he told you something important and you wouldn’t ask any more questions. But there’s a lot more to it than that. Something about Thea that he doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“Something you overheard him talking to Mosely about,” Bishop put in. “Something big enough that he’d rather kill you than take the risk you might tell anyone what you heard.”

The corners of Nate’s eyes tightened at the reminder. “And whatever it is, we’re going to have to figure it out.”

“Let’s not worry about that now,” Bishop said. “The thing we have to do now is get Nadia out of this mess before Mosely gets drastic with her. Everything else can come later.”

Nadia wondered if Nate could read between the lines as well as she could. For the moment, she guessed he was too distracted to notice, but she felt sure from the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice that Bishop was humoring him. Allowing Nate to believe that he would somehow be involved in solving the mystery of Thea. That there was a “we” beyond their current mission. But even though they were all on the same side for now, Nadia knew that she and Nate represented exactly the kind of establishment the resistance planned to fight against. When the crisis was over, the resistance would be through with them—and Bishop would very likely break Nate’s heart.

Nadiawas brushing her teeth the next morning when she heard a commotion outside. The sound of raised voices reached her even through her closed bedroom and bathroom doors. She spit out her toothpaste and hurriedly pulled on the slacks and blouse she’d picked out for the day, her nerves buzzing with foreboding. It could be just Mrs. Reeves yelling at one of the maids, but even Mrs. Reeves’s tantrums weren’t usually quite so loud.

As she stepped out of the bathroom, Nadia realized it couldn’t be Mrs. Reeves, because there was at least one male voice yelling, too. It sounded like her father. But Gerald Lake never yelled—he left such theatrics to his wife. Nadia’s palms started to sweat, and her heart fluttered in her chest as she heard the heavy tread of many feet tromping down the hallway, coming closer and closer. Her stomach bottomed out when she heard crying and recognized her mother’s tearful voice calling her name. She had a brief thought of diving under her bed to hide, or trying to lock herself in her closet, but that would be as undignified as it would be futile.

There wasn’t time to prepare the little transmitter to plant on Mosely, nor was there time to dispose of it, since it was still stuck in the pocket of the catsuit, which she’d hidden at the back of her closet. Probably just having that little transmitter in her possession was enough to help fuel any accusations of treason or espionage Mosely wanted to throw her way.

Panic bubbled and boiled in her stomach, but Nadia kept it at bay as she moved over to her bedside and casually picked up the earrings she had laid there last night when she’d taken them off before her trip to the Basement. Her hands shook only a little as she slid one through the hole in her ear and her bedroom door burst open. She used her fingernail to flip the switch on the earring to transmit and wished the signal were going to an actual person who might be able to help her now, rather than avenge her later.

“I’ll be with you in one moment,” she said, her voice sounding much calmer than she felt as she inserted the other earring. She picked up a black velvet headband she had discarded on the nightstand, just to make sure her calm donning of the earrings didn’t bring any special attention to them.

“Nadia Lake,” a deep voice intoned, “you are under arrest for conspiracy and suspicion of treason.”

Settling the headband on her head, Nadia raised her chin and turned around.

In her doorway stood two armed security officers, glowering at her. Both had their hands on their firearms, though at least they weren’t pointing them at her. Behind them stood Dirk Mosely, and behind him stood two more security officers who spread their arms to keep Nadia’s mother and father from entering the room. Nadia’s throat closed up to see her mother’s face awash with tears, her eyes red and her nose running. Esmeralda Lake never cried.

“Turn around and put your hands behind your head,” one of the security officers barked as he approached her, brandishing a pair of handcuffs.

Nadia didn’t see any point in resisting, so she did as she was ordered. The officer shoved her facedown onto her bed anyway, putting his knee in her back as he wrenched her arms behind her to slap the handcuffs on. Nadia clenched her teeth to keep from crying out. The officer yanked her to her feet, and his partners forced her parents back so he could drag her, stumbling, out of the room. Mosely watched dispassionately, turning a deaf ear to her parents’ repeated attempts to plead with him.

“Mom, Dad, I’ll be all right,” she choked out, though she didn’t believe it any more than they did.

The servants had gathered in the hallway outside, watching in varying degrees of dismay as the officers marched Nadia between them, each holding one of her arms. She was not being quietly spirited away for questioning, and news of her arrest was no doubt spreading even now. Even if Mosely was using this as nothing more than a scare tactic and immediately released her, her reputation would never survive. No matter what the outcome, today marked the end of the life she’d been bred and raised for, and the future was a horrifying unknown.

The public humiliation continued as Nadia was perp-walked through the lobby of the Lake Towers while people stood and stared. A couple of them openly took photographs of the procession. Nadia saw Mosely notice one of the photographers and then pointedly look away. He obviously wanted this spectacle to be as public as possible. Nadia wanted to kill him for it, for putting her family through all the added horror of the publicity. As if her being arrested weren’t bad enough.