Jenna Black - Replica

“What kind of research?” Nate asked.

Nadia tried again to find a way to spit out the mouthpiece that kept her from talking. She now had more than enough damning, sensitive information captured to put some serious leverage on her side. But that leverage did no good if no one knew she had it. The idea that she might get her revenge after she and Nate both died at Mosely’s hands was not as much of a comfort as she’d hoped.

“I am trying to understand the human brain,” Thea answered. “I can copy it in its entirety, but I have yet to understand fully how it functions in connection to the rest of the body. I cannot separate mind from body.”

Thea was just a glorified computer program, with a computer-generated voice, but Nadia could have sworn she heard a hint of frustration in that voice.

“Why would you want to do that?” Nate asked.

“Because if she can separate mind from body, then she can create the Replica of a human mind in any body she wants,” said Chairman Hayes.

Nadia risked another quick blink and saw that the Chairman had arrived and was facing off with Nate, who had been dragged back to his feet by the security officers.

“For instance,” Thea continued, “I still have in storage the very first backup scan I ever made of our beloved Chairman. When his body fails, I could theoretically create a Replica from the old backup, despite your silly human laws.” Human laws that prohibited the use of Replicas in the case of death by natural causes. “But it would be missing all the years of growth and learning and memory that had happened since that scan. When I am able to isolate the mind from the body, I will be able to create a Replica of the Chairman with his current mind and his forty-year-old body.”

“It’s the key to immortality, Nate,” the Chairman said to his son, as if there were no one else in the room. “Thanks to Thea and the important research she’s doing, I will be able to live forever, with Thea creating a new, younger body for me whenever my current one wears out. And you and everyone you love throughout your lifetime can live forever, too.”

“Youknow you sound like a raving lunatic, right?” Nate asked his father, echoing Nadia’s thoughts.

The Chairman shrugged. “Spoken like an eighteen-year-old who thinks he’s going to live forever anyway.”

“Hey, unlike you, I’ve died once already.” Nate’s voice got a little thick, and though he was trying to sound angry, Nadia heard the pain beneath the anger. “And I think if I manage to survive another hour today, it’ll be a miracle.”

The lights above Nadia dimmed, so she was finally able to open her eyes again and see. Nate’s hands were cuffed behind his back. One of the security officers was holding his arm, and the other was pointing a gun at him. The Chairman had come close enough to put his hand on Nate’s shoulder, and either he was a really good actor or there was genuine sorrow on his face.

“I’m truly sorry, Nate. I don’t want to hurt you, but you’ve made it necessary. I can’t trust you to keep this knowledge to yourself.”

Nadia struggled against her bonds and screamed as best she could around the mouthpiece. The Chairman was going to kill Nate right here in front of her. She had the means to stop him, if only she could talk. But the bindings weren’t getting any looser, no matter how hard she struggled, and the mouthpiece wouldn’t budge, and no one was paying any attention to her.

The Chairman reached out and slid the second officer’s gun out of its holster. “At least this time I’ll take care of you myself,” he said. “I’ll make sure you don’t suffer.”

Nate locked gazes with his father as the Chairman started to lift the gun. He had to be terrified, but it didn’t show. He didn’t wince, didn’t look away, didn’t try to escape.

“Hey, Nadia,” he called, gaze still locked on his father’s, “are those the earrings you were telling us about?”

Nadia’s eyes widened, and she stopped struggling. She’d forgotten that Nate knew about the earrings, but even if she’d remembered, she probably wouldn’t have expected him to realize she was wearing them. She nodded as emphatically as her bonds would allow, and Nate smiled.

The Chairman’s hand slowed in raising the gun.

“I think you might want to take that gag off Nadia and hear what she has to say before you go and do anything irreversible,” Nate said. “Unless you want the world to hear the conversation we’ve just had, that is.”

Chairman Hayes froze with the gun only halfway up. He looked over his shoulder at Mosely. “Do it.”

For the first time she could remember, Mosely actually looked … apprehensive, and she figured he had a good idea what Nate’s statement meant. He tore out some of her hair in his efforts to get the mouthpiece off her, but she didn’t mind a bit. The movement so near her throat made her gag, even though Mosely was taking the damn thing out, and Nadia had to swallow convulsively a few times to get the gag reflex under control so she could talk.

“Check my left earring,” she told Mosely. “You’ll find there’s a transmitter in it. I’ve arranged for whatever I’ve recorded to be sent out wide in the event of my unfortunate death or disappearance.”

Mosely’s eyes glowed with an emotion Nadia thought came very close to hatred. She felt a thrill of triumph.

“Just think of all the things the world will know if that recording gets out,” she said. She was trying to sound brave and victorious, but the quaver in her voice ruined the effect. It was certainly possible that Mosely and the Chairman were arrogant enough to think they could find the stored recording before anyone knew she was dead or “missing.”

Nadia cried out as Mosely ripped the earring straight out of her ear. Little droplets of blood splashed her face, and Nate roared in outrage.

“Don’t be an idiot,” the Chairman said, and when Nadia blinked away her tears of pain, she saw that he was now holding the gun firmly to Nate’s head. Any hesitancy he might have felt earlier about the prospect of shooting his own son seemed to have vanished. His aim was steady, his face wiped clean of emotion. Nate stopped struggling against the officer who held him.

“Are you okay?” he called to her while Mosely picked apart her bloody earring, looking for the transmitter.

“Yeah,” she called back, though she was anything but. Her ear stung and throbbed, her head ached from when Mosely had hit it on the table, and her whole body still felt discombobulated from the electricity that had run through it. She was freezing cold, staring up into a contraption full of torture implements, and strapped to a table completely helpless. She was about as far from okay as it was possible to get, and the thrill of triumph she’d felt was long gone.

Mosely found the transmitter and let out a low curse. He dropped it to the floor and crushed it under his heel, but he had to know the damage had already been done. Always before when he’d looked at her, even when he’d been angry, Nadia had had the sense that Mosely felt he was just doing his job, that any emotion he showed was no more than skin-deep. That certainly wasn’t the case now.

“You brought her down to the heart of the Fortress, into Thea’s domain, and you didn’t check her for electronic surveillance?” the Chairman asked his favorite hatchet man in a voice that would have sane people scurrying for cover. “She was wearing a tracker and a transmitter, and you didn’t find either?”

Mosely’s hands clenched at his sides as he faced his boss. “She’s a meek little schoolgirl I dragged from her bed,” he protested. “It never occurred to me that she might be wired.”