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

her son’s hand with a palsied but firm grip. “I hope you’ll both come see me again. Your voices are lovely.”
    “Of course we will.” I smiled as I watched the nurse wheel her away.
    When she was gone, Seth said, “I was sorry to hear about Danielle.”
    My heart constricted just hearing my best friend’s name. “Were you?”
    “Of course I was. I’m not my sister, Lexi. I’m hoping since you asked me to meet you here, you’re figuring out that I’m here to help you.”
    Had I figured that out? “How do you know so much of this history if you weren’t actually a part of the original lab?”
    “Who said I wasn’t?”
    “So you were there ? When Sandra decided to clone human beings? Did you know she planned to implant them?”
    “I’m the twin brother no one notices, Lexi. Sandra was always the star, the one going places. But yes—I was there.” Seth stood and faced the windows overlooking the grounds. “And I knew that she would never destroy those embryos once she figured out that she could not only clone a human, but actually alter their genetic makeup.
    “We tried to stop her. A plan was in place—to destroy the embryos—but then the fire started. Everything was so chaotic. We had no warning. But Sandra knew. It was all part of her plan.”
    I stared at Seth’s back as he remembered his sister’s actions all those years ago. “Something obviously went wrong.”
    He faced me. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, the embryos weren’t destroyed, but she also lost control of them. In some cases, she didn’t even know where they ended up.”
    “Not all of them,” he corrected. “At least not at first.”
    “Jonas,” I said, mostly to myself. Not to mention the non-altered clones: Dia, Lin, and Ty. “What about the other clones? The ones that don’t seem to have the same abilities we have?”
    “A control group to compare the altered clones against.”
    “How did Sandra keep control of those, but not the DNA-altered ones?”
    “Good question. I don’t know.”
    “And Addison? She seems different.”
    “That she is. An anomaly.” Seth nodded. “She remains a mystery to me. She doesn’t talk about her time in Sandra’s facilities. However, she seems to escape every time. I don’t even know who she was cloned from, or if she has any healing powers. So far, all I know is that she has incredible mind-altering abilities.”
    “I’m assuming her disappearances occurred once Dr. DeWeese was back in touch with Sandra. Why was Jack never taken to one of the facilities?”
    Seth smiled. “Don’t underestimate a mother bear protecting her cub. I’m fairly certain Cathy had no idea that Addison and her mother disappeared to one of the facilities from time to time, but Cathy knew her husband, and she was careful to never let Jack out of her sight. Not for long, anyway.”
    I stood and stared out the window. Two squirrels chased each other around the base of a tree. “Which is why she homeschooled Jack.” I remembered how protective Cathy had been when Jack first met me and insisted on enrolling at Wellington. “But Dr. DeWeese seemed to be on board with Cathy’s decision to keep Jack hidden. And they kept a lot of the truth from him. What changed?”
    Seth joined me by the window. “It has always been important to both of them that Jack learn who he was over time. To become well-educated. And Cathy tried to maintain complete control over that. Educating Jack worked for both Cathy’s plans and John’s… in different ways, of course.”
    Cathy was definitely a control freak. “So, why The Program?” I asked.
    Seth crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Ah, yes. The Program was my invention. Once I discovered that some of the clones had survived, and were even thriving as human beings, I began watching everyone closely. I knew Sandra had gotten in touch with John in the last few years, so I suspected he knew that she hadn’t stopped cloning. And Cathy and Roger had kept