Toys - James Patterson [33]
“I certainly understand your feelings, Hays, but you’d better believe they’re getting ready to wipe us out—soon. That’s right, I said us.”
Actually, I couldn’t argue with what Lucy said. I’d heard it myself from President Jacklin.
“You’re probably angry at your mother and father,” Lucy continued. “But think about how hard it must have been for them. Performing surgery on their own little boy, then sending him away into the enemy’s camp. Maybe to die.”
Suddenly, I remembered the home movie scene of Mom weeping inside the operating room.
Then it struck me how Lucy had phrased that last sentence.
“My mother and father?” I said. “So it’s true that you’re not really my sister?”
“My own parents were their best friends. My folks died when I was a baby, and they adopted me. But you and I do have a biological connection. Your mom and dad enhanced me surgically, just like they did for you, beano. Our brains have implants from the same chip set, and some of our organ tissue is cloned from the same sources. You do the biology.”
Shaking my head in confusion, I stepped into the boathouse, which was filled with familiar old smells of fishy water and musty equipment, and started loading gear into the skiff.
“That’s terrible, losing parents so young,” I said. “Both at once? Some kind of accident?”
“No, it was totally deliberate,” she said. “The Elites declared them enemies of the state—and then executed them. Your friend Jax Moore did the job himself. Someday I’ll cut off both his murdering hands, fry ’em in bacon grease, and eat them.”
“Ah,” I said, “well put.”
Chapter 45
LUCY SAT PERCHED in the bow of the skiff as I rowed out onto the clear, smooth waters of the bay. Even though she’d had a lifetime to absorb it, the pain of her parents’ death still must have cut very deep. It certainly seemed that way. I was starting to understand humans better, and to feel something for them—other than contempt, that is.
“Finally, some unexplained things are starting to fall into place,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out what my sensors were telling me that night. I was sure you weren’t an Elite. But I didn’t know anything about humans being able to be enhanced to this degree.”
She nodded. “Just to set the record straight—I’m more enhanced than you are. I came along later and the technology was improved. Sorry, bro.”
I stopped rowing in mid-stroke. “You’ve got to be joking. You are, aren’t you?”
“I’m simply stating a scientific fact.”
“Not possible,” I said, and dropped the oars back into the water.
“You think I can’t compete with you?”
I didn’t bother to answer.
“Remember, I’ve seen you in action. But you’ve never really seen my moves,” she continued to taunt in a lighthearted way.
I shrugged. “I don’t need to see your moves. I know what I’m capable of. Few, if any, Elites can match me for strength, speed, problem solving.”
Lucy put her fists on her hips. “You’re starting to make me very mad. I’ll race you to the house.”
“From here?” I glanced around. We were about a mile from the beach.
“Why not? You can swim, can’t you, superman?”
I shook my head and grinned. “I’ll do my best. What are the stakes?”
“Sheer satisfaction, and bragging rights, of course.”
She kicked off her sneakers, unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it aside. Then she wriggled out of her jeans, leaving herself in a halter top and panties—which were turquoise blue and nicely revealing.
I pulled off my boots and shirt and stood up.
“You’re going to leave your pants on?” she said.
The uncomfortable truth was that when I’d been hurrying to buy new clothes, I’d forgotten to get underwear.
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Whatever you say, hotshot. Quit staring at my legs though.”
“Sorry. But, you know, there they are.”
“Not for long. Ready?”
“Any time.”
“How about now!”
We dove off the boat at the same instant, both with powerful arcing leaps that carried us a good ten yards.
But actually, Lucy hit the water at least a couple of feet ahead of me. I couldn’t believe it.
I stayed under for another hundred yards, aware of Lucy right beside me. She was