or disdain for what he had been forced to become. She cared about him, deeply.
She didn't have to search very far inside her heart to realize that she loved him. With emotion stinging her eyes and the back of her throat, she turned a few more dreaded pages.
Subject: Year 9Report: Handler notes alarming rise in subject inquisitiveness; frequent questions about purpose in life, personal origin
Report: Subject found hoarding books in cell; random volumes of fiction, biography, philosophy, poetry stolen from handler quarters This particular entry had a further notation beneath it, scribbled by a furious hand.
Determination: Restrict access to reading material other than program-approved manuals, technical and training booksAction: Handler instructed to remove contraband from cell and order subject to destroy itConsider: Rebellion to be anticipated as limiting factor as program continues. Subjects are highly intelligent, natural-born predators and conquerors. Discipline alone may not be enough to keep them submissive. Process Improvement: Task technology staff with providing means of ensuring subject obedience and loyalty within the Hunter program Corinne closed the ledger and moved up next to Hunter.
She was speechless, overcome with sorrow for the boy who'd never been given the chance to be a child and humbled by the man who had come through such a lonely, lightless hell and still had the capacity for gentleness and honor.
She took his face in her hands and tenderly turned him to look at her. "You are a good man, Hunter. You are so much more than what Dragos meant for you to be. You are better than the sum of your past. You must know that, don't you?"
He drew out of her grasp, scowling, shaking his head. "I killed her."
The words were spoken quietly, a simple, horrific statement of fact. "What are you talking about?"
"It's all in there," he said, gesturing to the awful ledger in her lap. Although she hated to see what other ugliness she'd find in Hunter's early years, he had obviously read the entire thing from front to back. She picked it up again and flipped past the first page. This time, she went slower, reading through the details of his birth and the weeks and months afterward, when he - unlike her own son - had been allowed to feed from his mother's vein and not from the strangers who had ostensibly nourished Nathan when she was denied even that small gift.
And then ... she saw it.
Report: Subject exhibits obvious separation anxiety when removed from presence of mother; weakness noted; behavioral flaw to be correctedAction: Interaction with mother eliminated; feedings switched to human and/or Minion sources Corinne turned a few more pages, foreboding putting a tremble in her fingers as she found the entry that made all the rest of them pale by comparison:
Subject: Year 2Report: Subject experienced chance sighting of mother in lab; subject emotional, inconsolable when refused contact by Minion handlers; incident resulted in damage to lab equipment, further defiance exhibited in subjectDetermination: For benefit of subject training, potential future distraction must be eliminatedAction: Mother terminated; effective immediately, program process modified to prohibit interaction between future subjects and mothers; subjects to be provided for solely by Minion handlers Corinne's eyes were too wet to read any more. She set the record of Dragos's madness away from her, giving it a hard, hate-filled shove. Hunter's voice was wooden beside her. "I killed my mother, Corinne." The words were flat and emotionless, even while a couple of tears strayed, wholly ignored by him, down his rigid face.
"You didn't do any such thing." As tenderly as she dared, Corinne reached out and swept her thumb through the tracks of moisture dripping toward his tightly held jaw. She caressed his flushed cheek, her heart cracked wide open, raw and aching for this man. "Dragos did this terrible thing, not you."
"My mother is dead because of me, Corinne. Because I loved her."
There was such a depth of regret in his eyes, she could hardly find the words to offer him comfort. Nothing she said could take away the hurt he must be feeling. Loss left pain in its wake, no matter how distant the void.
Corinne knew firsthand how soulless Dragos was, so it should have come as no surprise to learn that he'd considered an innocent child's natural bond to his mother to be a weakness. A flaw in his sadistic program that could be corrected with a single, final action. That Hunter was left holding the pieces now, after all this time, certain that he was to blame,