Free Reckoning by Christine Fonseca Page A

image came to life in his mind. Although he hadn’t worked with her often, she was his mentor. Family. Her death had been hard. Anger mixed with sadness as Seven focused back on his memory:
    “Chess?” the Architect asked in his thoughts.
    “Sure. But first, I have questions for you. How are you supposed to find the Assassin? No one knows where she could be.”
    The Architect smiled. “I find it’s the details that give people away. In this case, the Assassin’s mother.”
    “You know her?”
    “Yes. She trained with us, all of us.”
    “What did she say?”
    Seven smiled at the memory of his eagerness.
    “She said she always wanted to live in Central California. In a small coastal town.”
    “So you’ll start there?”
    “Yes.”
    The memory faded quickly and Seven opened his eyes. Cambria was where the Assassin had spent part of her childhood. It was her home. And exactly where she’d go to feel safe. He took another glance at the Google Earth image before ripping it into shreds.
    “I’ve got you,” he whispered to the thick plexiglass of the airplane’s window. “You won’t escape me this time.”
    The plane landed and Seven retrieved a car and map to the small coastal town, his fake ID proving more than a little valuable. The sun sat low on the horizon, casting the sky in shades of crimson washed with purple and orange. He sped along the twisted highway, barely aware of the beautiful ocean in the distance or the changing colors of the sunset. Each curve of the road dredged up memories from somewhere deep. Seven had never been to the West coast. At least, he didn’t think he had. But as he drove the several hours between San Jose and Cambria, he began to wonder.
    More turns. More echoes of memories long forgotten. Emotions swirled as Seven reached for the thoughts. It was no use, whatever Seven thought he remembered was lost the minute he reached for it. Frustrated, he turned off the emotional side of his mind and returned his focus to his mission.
    The road into town was sparsely populated. He stretched out his mind, searching through the scant noise for anything that could lead him to her . Snippets of conversations filtered past. None of them are useful, nothing to indicate that the Assassin was home.
    “Where are you?” Seven asked as he brought the car to a stop in the center of town.
    New conversations pushed into his thoughts. Images of the house in the picture, and pizza.
    “I’m sure it was her . . . the girl who went crazy and dropped out of school before graduation. She’s back.” The words mutated and tossed in Seven’s mind.
    His risk had paid off.
    Seven allowed his eyes to roll back as he reached for his master’s mind. “I found her,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
    Good .

 
     
     
    The Solomon Experiments 3.0
    The Order
     
     
    Dr. Benjamin LeMercier’s Personal Journal –
    July 4, 2015:
     
    I am disappointed in Seven’s training. Despite his obvious talent and loyalty, his mastery of skills is a slow process. Perhaps he has too much of his mother in him. I grow more impatient with each passing day. I need him to give himself over to the experiments fully, to trust in my guidance. His questions, his doubts—there is no place for them here.
     
    The Architect urges patience. And perhaps she is correct. But, every time Seven fails, every time he questions me, my need for the Assassin grows. She never questioned my motives, she never hesitated or allowed her ethics to override her orders. Seven is too emotional. He needs to believe that every action serves humanity. He needs to believe the Order wants global peace. He needs to envision a future within their collective.
     
    And perhaps he wants to gain my position within the Order, to replace me.
     
    I will not allow this. I need him to remember that I, alone, determine his fate. That will never change.
    The rest of the recruits perform as expected. The Architect is proving to be a strong leader. She proves her