The Eve (The Eden Trilogy)

  “I’d like a word with you and West if you don’t mind.”

  His tray fully loaded, Dr. Beeson nodded, his eyes dark.

  We made our way through the crowded room. When West spotted us, his still slightly blackened eyes widened and he sat back in his chair as if preparing for another blow.

  “I don’t think I’m going to hit you this time,” I said as I sank into the seat across from him. “But I do want to talk. It’s time for the truth. All of it.”

  As Dr. Beeson sat in the other chair, West’s eyes were hesitant. He’d spun such a complicated web of shaded-truths and all out lies, could he dare untangle them all?

  “This isn’t a choice, West,” I said, fixing my eyes with his. “I can’t imagine there is much left to hide—well, there better not be. This all ends, now.”

  “What more do you want to know?” he finally asked.

  “First,” I said, turning to Dr. Beeson. “You knew I had a sister. You never said anything either. How did you not spill the beans?”

  Dr. Beeson set down the fork he’d picked up and had yet to use. “The first time I saw you, you were with West. When Royce wanted to test you with the CDU?”

  I remembered. That was when our team had first arrived in New Eden, a mission to simply see if there was actually anyone alive in the city. Royce ordered everyone to be tested for infection. Everyone had gone into panic mode when he insisted that I was no exception for testing. Until Dr. Beeson stepped in the room and confirmed I couldn’t spread TorBane.

  “From the look on West’s face the moment our eyes met, I knew there was something he didn’t want said, so I said as little as possible in those first few minutes. He came to find me an hour or so later and told me about keeping your sister a secret. I didn’t have a hard time agreeing to keep it all buried either. I screwed up big time before; not spotting the mole that took you and tampered with all your other programming and hardware. All this time I thought it was my fault you were dead. So, it seemed easier to just not say anything.”

  “Like you were going to let the past stay dead,” I said, looking at West.

  “Yeah,” he said with a roughness to his voice. A long, heavy silence followed for a few moments.

  “You have to understand, Eve,” Dr. Beeson continued, desperation rising in his voice. “No one wanted you disposed of. But we had no idea what you were capable of anymore. We thought it was you that attacked West. You shorted out and killed all those people. Given that was in no way your fault, all mine, but we were on the verge of the biggest medical breakthrough in history. I hate to say it, but you were a liability.

  “You were supposed to be dead. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re Eve Two and not Eve One.”

  His honesty was brutal, but I appreciated it. It was better than soft lies. “My sister,” I looked back to Dr. Beeson. “You only wiped one of our memories, right? Mine.”

  He nodded.

  “So she’s still out there somewhere,” I said, imagining her running scared through the desert and forests like I had, on her own. “And she remembers everything we went through at NovaTor.”

  “I would imagine so,” Dr. Beeson said as he started picking absentmindedly at his roll. “Your sister had an impeccable memory. I’m sure she remembers every little detail.”

  I nodded, processing the implications of that. “Is it true? That he and I hated each other?” I felt West’s eyes jump to me, but I didn’t look back at him.

  Dr. Beeson suddenly chuckled, his bright teeth in stark contrast to his darker skin. “I don’t know that hate is the right word, but you two fought every time you were in the same room. You always had to one up each other. You each thought you were better than the other. Given that toned down a bit once your chip was in place, but the animosity between the two of you never went away.”

  I glanced over at West, just a moment. His eyes were locked on mine, and I could tell the past, our childhood, was playing through his head.

  “It does explain a lot between us,” I said, looking back to Dr. Beeson. “The way I would black out every time we were together. Too much emotion—hate and interest—going on in my head. Even if I didn’t understand it or why. But he and my sister, they liked each other?”

  “Yes,” Dr. Beeson said, his eyes dropping to the roll he had now demolished. “Your sister was very unattached to everyone at the facility, except West. She didn’t always like to cooperate with us, she was colder and more removed than yourself. But with West, she was different.”

  I looked at West again. His eyes were on the table, and there was moisture pooled in them. He squeezed his eyelids closed and shook his head.

  While West looked conflicted, I simply felt relief. Half of the tie and pull I had felt toward West was because I thought there was history that grounded us together. The weight and guilt I had felt was clipped away. My entire body felt lighter.

  “You see why I made the decision I did?” I asked quietly. “What would have happened if I picked you?”

  Dr. Beeson cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. “Is there anything else you wanted to ask me, Eve? I sense that the rest of this conversation needs to be just between the two of you.”

  “No, that’s all. For now. Thank you for your honesty,” I said as he stood.

  He nodded his head, and turned and left with his tray of food.

  West and I were quiet for just a moment after he was gone, neither of us meeting the others eye.

  “So I guess this is where we finally have the non-break up conversation,” West said, twirling a salt shaker on the table with one hand.

  “It’s just a lot more complicated and simple at the same time,” I mused, grabbing the salt shaker from his hand and setting it on the far edge of the table. It required everything I had in me to take his hand in mine and calm his shaking. He was instantly still.

  My eyes locked on our hands together on the table and a hurricane of emotions whipped through me. I hadn’t forgotten the passion he and I had shared last year. Waking up emotionally like that would be something I would never forget.

  “How much of your pull to me was based on the past? On what you thought had existed between you and me?” I asked, still not looking up at him.

  He hesitated a moment before responding. I knew his answer, and knew he didn’t want to admit it. “A lot,” he finally responded.

  I nodded, rubbing my thumb over his.

  “How different did I seem, all that time before I picked Avian?” I asked. It wasn’t an easy question for me to ask, but I had to paint a very clear picture.

  West slowly let out a big breath and sat forward. He never let go of my hand though.

  “Your emotions were a lot stronger than I ever thought you capable of. Eve One was always so steady, predictable. But you…” he trailed off. “I guess that should have been a good indicator.”

  A tiny smile suddenly came to my lips. “I remember, when we were in the desert, heading here, you said something like ‘you used to be a lot easier to deal with.’ That I didn’t use to freak out over every little thing.”

  Suddenly West gave a little chuckle. “I was being an ass that day, wasn’t I?”

  The smile on my lips grew. “I deserved it.”

  West pulled his hand out of mine and groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “How did this all get so complicated?”

  “I think we were both just born into a complicated life.”

  West chuckled again. “Yeah.”

  We were quiet again for a moment as the air around us grew serious once again.

  “So what would have happened if I’d picked you, West,” I said as our eyes met. “And we learned the truth all these months later?”

  He didn’t respond, and I could see it playing out in my head. “You would have broken my heart, West. My sister was always the girl you were looking for. Not me.”

  He chewed on his lower lip, his eyes once again dropping to the table.

  “I know this isn’t easy
,” I said, folding my hands on one another. “But you know it’s true.”

  He took a deep breath, and then his eyes rose up to meet mine. “There was something real between us, Eve. You know that. We both felt it. And you did break my heart, well, more than that, when you picked Avian. But…”

  “But I’m right,” I filled in for him.

  He didn’t nod or say yes, or acknowledge it, but I could feel it. He knew.

  “So now you can start to move on. To heal.”

  “That doesn’t make it easy,” he said, his eyes meeting mine.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head slightly. “But it makes it possible.”

  I heard footsteps behind me a second before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I recognized the warmth and tenderness that came with it and knew it was Avian. West looked up at him, and finally, the anger and hatred was gone from his expression.

  I looked up at Avian and met his uncertain blue eyes.

  “This is over,” I said, looking from him to West. “The anger and the competition. The fighting. It’s done. We’re in the business of saving the world together. It’s time to move on.”

  They both hesitated. The distrust and hatred that had been building between the two of them the last few months wasn’t going to instantly disappear.

  But I knew they were both going to try when Avian extended his hand. West shook it.

  “Friends?” Avian asked, his voice guarded.

  “We’ll get there,” West answered.

  FIVE

  Dr. Evans couldn’t stay in the hospital for obvious reasons. He was kept in a building half a block from the hospital. It was another medical facility building and it had this glass room that worked perfect for keeping him separated from everyone. Not that he was going after anyone, but if nothing else, our world had taught us to err on the side of caution.

  Royce radioed for me and Avian and we made our way there. When we stepped inside, we found Royce, Dr. Evans, and Dr. Beeson.

  “All done with the plans yet?” I asked as I settled into a chair. Avian stood just behind me, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Nearly,” Dr. Evans said, his voice muffled slightly because of the glass.

  “I wanted to run some things by you before we finalized plans,” Royce said, opening a notebook and pulling a pen from behind his ear. “So, according to our freakish friend here, he needs to get back to the NovaTor Biotics facility to get this code and a few supplies for the Nova—”

  “The Nova?” I interrupted.

  “The transmitter device,” Royce clarified. He gave a sidelong glance at Dr. Beeson and Dr. Evans that said he didn’t love the name. “Anyway, he needs to get some supplies for the Nova we won’t find around here. I’m designing a solar vehicle with Dr. Beeson’s help, that will get him there quickly, but won’t require fuel. We’ve been lucky in the past with gas, but luck doesn’t last forever.”

  “Makes sense,” I said, nodding my head. “How long will it take?”

  “We have a single person vehicle we should be able to convert in a week, maybe two,” Dr. Beeson said, looking over some files.

  “So a bigger vehicle is going to take a bit longer to convert, right?” I asked, sitting back in my chair, propping my elbows up on the table behind me.

  “Excuse me?” Dr. Beeson asked, his brow furrowing.

  “My sister is still out there,” I said, crossing my ankle over the opposite knee. “She remembers everything that happened to her. She’s probably alone, or someone could have found her and twisted her into who knows what kind of weapon. I’m not going to not look for her. I’ve got to start somewhere. NovaTor seems like a good place to begin.”

  The three of them looked at me for a long moment. There was disapproval written all over their faces.

  “We cannot afford to delay in setting the Nova off,” Royce said, shaking his head.

  “And what are the odds that you will ever find her?” Dr. Evans asked. “It’s a big country out there. A big continent.”

  I looked to Dr. Beeson. His expression was conflicted. But he understood. I saw it in his eyes.

  “I have to at least try. She is my only family. The only one who understands what it’s like to be what I am,” I said, my voice hard and firm. “So I’ll be going too.”

  They were all quiet again for a long while, arguments forming behind their closed lips.

  “You know it’s pointless to argue with her,” Avian said.

  “I wasn’t going to be the one to say it,” Royce retorted, shaking his head.

  “Fine,” Dr. Evans said. “A slightly bigger vehicle shouldn’t be too big of a deal, right?”

  “I don’t think so,” Royce interrupted almost before Dr. Evans could finish his sentence. “Eve just became the most valuable being in the entire universe. There is no chance I’m sending just you and her out into the wild. She’ll be going with an arsenal of back up.”

  “That big of a team will require a fifteen passenger van!” Dr. Beeson protested. “That will take three weeks to construct!”

  “Then we’ll wait three weeks!” I said, my blood boiling. I understood everyone’s points, but that didn’t mean the entire conversation wasn’t annoying.

  “Were you not the one who told me about a particular Bane sweep?” Dr. Evans asked from behind the glass. He was getting angry, and I’d never seen anything scarier than an angry Bane-human freak. “What makes you think they won’t move faster than predicted? What makes you think they couldn’t destroy the NovaTor facility tomorrow?” By this point he was shouting, his cybernetic fists pounding on the glass wall.

  Avian pulled a firearm and pointed it in Dr. Evans direction. “I suggest you calm down, sir,” he said, his voice deadly serious.

  “All of you just shut up,” Royce said, irritated, as he stood from his seat. “We can’t control the element of time so we’re just going to have to hope that we can get there quick enough. It seems smart anyway to send more than one person on this mission. We’ll get the van ready, and you’ll leave as soon as possible, got it?” Royce yelled at Dr. Evans.

  He didn’t give any kind of response except for a glower.

  “You can take four guards with you,” Royce said, turning back to face me. “Your choice, but I suspect I already know who you’ll pick. The rest of the space in the vehicle will be needed for supplies and firepower.”

  “Avian’s coming, obviously,” I said. Avian finally relaxed and put his weapon away. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks of him right now, I trust him and that’s all that matters. I think I owe it to West to let him come too. He wants to find my sister as bad as I do.” He hadn’t said as much, but I knew it was true. “And Bill. We’ve worked together for so long, he’s part of my team. I’ll let you know the fourth as soon as I decide.”

  “Peachy,” Royce said, turning to the other two and giving an annoyed smile. “So, we good?”

  Dr. Beeson shook his head and looked slightly irritated. “I’ll have my team start working on the vehicle tonight. We’ll work as quickly as we can.”

  “Great,” Royce said as he set to collecting his things. He turned to Dr. Evans. “Can I get you a magazine or something,” he said sarcastically as we all turned to leave.

  “I’m fine, thank you,” Dr. Evans replied with just as much vice and chill.

  Royce stalked out of the building, myself right in tow.

  There was a group of refugees walking out of the hospital and toward the hotel and our paths had no choice but to cross one another.

  There were two men; one in his younger twenties, another in his forties, and a woman who looked just older than me. The two men glared at Royce and I, distrust and hatred in their eyes.

  The entire time we walked past them, bodies stiff, fingers just a little too close to triggers, I kept telling myself to simply ignore them.

  I was going a good job of it. Until one of them muttered “murderers” once they were behind our backs.

  “Okay, this is enough
,” Royce growled. He reeled around and moving faster than I thought him capable of, grabbed the younger man by the front of his jacket and had him pinned against the side of a building.

  “I can deal with you wrongly accusing me of murdering that psychopath you all called a leader,” Royce hissed in his face. “But I won’t tolerate lies about Eve. After everything you lot did to her and after everything she’s done and will do to save your sorry asses, you ought to be bowing down at her feet. Any of you says anything about her again, I’ll have every one of you escorted from New Eden in a very uncomfortable way.”

  “Both of you just stop!” The woman from their group was instantly crying and I actually felt sorry for her. So many of the refugees just wanted peace. But the two men were bristling with anger. But when a man like Royce makes threats, fear overrules anger.

  “Corbin,” Tristan suddenly called from behind. “Do we have a problem here?”

  Royce released the man, who shrugged his jacket back on straight and tried to look unbothered by the encounter.

  “No problem,” Corbin said, his eyes burning into Royce’s. “Apparently I’ve been put in my rightful place.”

  “Good,” Tristan said, his finger resting just to the side of the trigger on his shotgun. “Now, how about we get on home, okay?”

  Without another word, the small group turned and started back for the hotel.

  “I hope they weren’t too much trouble,” Tristan said, watching them retreat.

  Royce’s jaw was set hard. He shook his head once, hatred burning in his eyes as he stared after Corbin and the others. Finally, he just stalked back in the direction of the hospital.

  “We’ve got to start bridging this gap and animosity between us,” Avian said, placing a hand on my back. “Or there’s going to be another war.”

  Over the next week, Avian, West, Bill, and I made plans for our journey and departure. We gathered supplies, carefully picked our firepower. And we discussed who the fourth member of our crew should be.

  Elijah was laid up and in bad shape. He’d been shot twice in his left leg, and once in the chest. If the bullet had hit two inches higher he would have died. But even if he was at fighting readiness, he would be needed here in New Eden. Graye was in charge as head of security detail until Elijah was healed up. So Graye was out too.