Freak of Nature - By Julia Crane Page 0,20

it on the counter, and replaced it with another.

Her eyes closed as her body went slack for the update. She had no idea how long she sat slumped in the chair. Eventually, the humming in her head stopped and she sat up straight. She blinked a couple of times. The mess had been cleaned up and Lucas was sitting behind his desk staring directly at her.

“Do you feel any different?” Lucas asked. It was an unusual question coming from him.

She thought about it for a moment, and shook her head. She felt the same.

She still didn’t want to leave.

Chapter Nine

Lucas had seen a spark of emotion in Kaitlyn’s eyes. He knew he had.

He couldn’t get the image out of his mind. She’d genuinely seemed upset to leave the compound. The emotion was so fleeting that for a moment he thought he’d imagined it, but it was there. He knew what he’d seen.

The lab felt colder and more silent since she’d left. Lucas sank back into his chair, his mind going over the encounter from beginning to end.

Could she possibly still have feelings after all they had done to her? It was hard for him to believe. They had overridden the signals in Kaitlyn’s brain that caused any kind of human emotion. She was supposed to look human, but not possess human traits. That was the beauty of the project—or the tragedy, depending on how you looked at it.

He ran his hand through his hair, agitated. This was like his worst nightmare coming true. His justification for going along with the idea was that she wouldn’t understand what they had done. She wouldn’t care. When she awoke from the coma, she was supposed to have no memories of being human. In essence, they’d saved her life. She would have died from her injuries.

At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.

He needed to find out the truth before they sold her off to the government. If she was harboring any kind of human thoughts or emotions, not only would she pose a threat to government security if her own moral compass affected her decision-making, but it would fall back on IFICS.

Before he could change his mind, Lucas tossed off his lab coat and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, jerking it on as he exited the room.

He made his way across the courtyard towards the dormitory Kaitlyn shared with the groundspeople, cooks, and other workers that lived on the compound.

He hesitated as he turned down her hallway. In all the time he had known Kaitlyn, he had never entered her bedroom. There had never been a reason to. But now….

Maybe he should just turn around. It was none of his business. He was paid to make sure she was prepared for the assignment, not to check on her emotional state of mind. Not that she had an emotional state of mind. But it kind of seemed…. The keys jingled in his hands. Screw it. He had to know.

In a few long strides, he was in front of her door. He tapped the keys lightly against the metal, thinking to himself how it was more similar to a jail cell than a bedroom.

“Yes.” Kaitlyn’s sweet voice floated out the door.

“Umm, it’s Lucas. Is it okay if I come in for a moment?”

“Yes, you can come in.”

His hands shook as he turned the key and pushed the door open.

Kaitlyn lay on her bed with her long bare legs crossed, her eyes wide and serene. The sight of her smooth, silky skin distracted him, and Lucas had to will his eyes away from her legs and to her face. He no longer noticed the teal parts of her body with the code scrolling. When he looked at Kaitlyn he saw a young woman not a machine. He felt lightheaded and almost forgot why he was there.

To divert his attention, Lucas glanced around the room. It was small, not much bigger than a closet, and everything was white. Even the curtains. Other than a little television, she didn’t have anything else. She was only allowed to watch movies they deemed acceptable. Mostly spy flicks. It was mainly for her to watch humans interact outside of the locked down environment she lived in. The thought was she could pick up on mannerism and dialogue. Did she really spend all her time sitting in her room? She needed books or magazines, too. He should address the issue with the Professor. Not that it really mattered