Free Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3) by Heather Sunseri Page A

and attempted to comfort her through the confusion.
    I pulled a chair back and took a seat facing Seth. “Thank you for meeting me away from school.”
    He shrugged. “After recent events, I’d say you’re finally starting to put a lot of pieces together.”
    My leg began its nervous bob. Seth had appeared in my life shortly after Jack, and had made no secret that we were not friends—not yet anyway. After first meeting him, I had even considered that perhaps he had murdered my father and was at Wellington to kill me. “Why did you come to Wellington?” I asked.
    “I came in search of Jack and you, and the others.”
    “When did you know about us?”
    “About ten years ago. Before Wellington even existed.”
    “Wellington is that new?” I didn’t know why, but I had always assumed that Wellington had been around for a while. I never thought to question that.
    “Wellington was opened for you. For all of you.”
    I thought of the list of clones Dad had been compiling. “Dad was searching for clones. He was searching for them even when I was only ten or eleven. Bringing them here.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Do you know how many clones are at Wellington?”
    He nodded. “Fifty-two. All younger than you and Jack and the rest of the original group.”
    “What about outside Wellington?”
    “That’s a little trickier. No one seems to know how many embryos survived after the lab burned down eighteen years ago.” Seth glanced over at his mother, who seemed oblivious to our entire conversation. “Here’s the thing, Lexi. Sandra is creating more cloned humans every day. She’s been creating these clones since before the original lab burned. And she’s getting better at it.”
    “How is she doing this? Where is she doing this? How many surrogates could she possibly have that are agreeing to this?”
    “Those are huge questions. As far as the ‘where,’ I think a facility is already in place when she leaves one lab and goes to another. Hard to say the exact locations.”
    “You think she burned down that lab—the one where she, Dad, and Dr. DeWeese worked? The same way she destroyed the lab at the University of Kentucky?”
    An orderly rolled a large cart down the hallway behind me. I stood and paced a moment, processing this new information. If Sandra had been cloning humans all these years, where were they?
    I faced Seth. “So, did Dr. DeWeese know where Sandra was after the original lab fire?”
    “Not at first. No one knew where she was. But John and Sandra had been in love—”
    “Some form of it, anyway.” I laughed under my breath, although nothing about this was humorous.
    “I can’t disagree that their connection is strange. But after the fire, my sister disappeared. John, your dad, Cathy, Roger, and even your mother—they were left behind to pick up the pieces. Everyone else pretty much scattered.”
    I squeezed the bridge of my nose, attempting to ignore the comment about my mother. “Why did Dr. DeWeese marry Cathy? Did he think Sandra was dead?”
    Seth smiled. “Oldest trick in the book… so to speak. Cathy became pregnant with John’s clone.”
    “So… what? You’re saying John wanted Jack? And Cathy tricked him into marrying her?”
    “Control is everything. Controlling the cloned humans that survived. Controlling future research. Controlling who knows what and when—”
    “Controlling who gets to live or die.” I watched Mrs. Whitmeyer slowly lift a spoon to her mouth and take a bite of her oatmeal, and I was struck by her gentleness. Her daughter was nothing like her. How had Sandra become so evil?
    Then again, Dr. DeWeese, too, had seemed gentle and caring when I first met him. But after facing him and Sandra inside The Farm… and if he was responsible for killing Dad—his best friend…
    “Mr. Whitmeyer.” A nurse approached. “It’s time for your mother’s bath.”
    Seth leaned over and kissed his mother on the temple. “Good to see you, Mom.”
    She squeezed