Wired For Sex: A.D.A.M. Page 9

  "They'll expect that."

  Adam turned to look at him. Not with the internal destruct programming sequence. It's designed to trigger if we move beyond the city's perimeter.

  His brother looked disgusted. Three more days and they would've had to deactivate it to take us to the desert facility. We need to stop somewhere and get rid of the tracking devices.

  Evelyn looked at first one and then the other suspiciously. “What are you two talking about?"

  Adam looked at her in surprise. “I was just thinking."

  She gave him a look. “No you weren't. You two were discussing something you didn't want me to know."

  Looking vaguely guilty, Adam evaded her gaze. “We have to stop somewhere to get rid of the tracking devices they implanted."

  She knew there was more to it than that, but she saw it would be pointless to pursue it. Whatever it was he didn't want to tell her, he wouldn't. She allowed the subject to drop, settling against him again, enjoying the feel of his arms around her. “Thank you,” she said after a few moments.

  "For what?” he asked in surprise.

  "Saving my life."

  His arms tightened. “I did it for me."

  She smiled. “Did you?"

  She heard him swallow. Before he could say more, however, his twin interrupted. “There's a veterinary clinic one block over."

  Adam nodded. “It should be after hours."

  "What...?” Evelyn broke off, realizing abruptly why they needed the clinic. Dismay filled her. “You're going to take the devices out yourself?"

  "Out of each other,” Adam confirmed.

  She didn't want to think about that. “You're both Adam,” she said, abruptly changing the subject, feeling the need to separate them in her mind and give them the individuality the company had denied them, to make them understand she didn't see them as a ‘unit', not human, that it didn't matter whether they had names at all.

  "Yes,” they responded in unison.

  "It's ... confusing,” she said tentatively.

  "You can't tell us apart."

  "I can,” she disputed emphatically.

  Adam, the one holding her, gave her a doubtful look. “You didn't know there were two of us."

  "Exactly—but I can still tell you apart. You look the same, but you aren't the same. You shouldn't have the same name. You're individuals. You should each have a name of your own, just like everybody else."

  "It isn't confusing to us,” they said in unison.

  Evelyn studied his face. “Do you think of yourselves as one person?” she tried again.

  "No. We think of each other as brothers. We're clones of our father."

  Evelyn's lips tightened. “Bullshit! Maybe some of his DNA was used, but you're certainly not clones of him. You don't look like him—maybe there's a little resemblance, but damn sure not enough for the two of you to be his clone. Each other, yes. Not him."

  "He was the primary donor."

  "And primary is the key word. There was at least one more. And the two of you are, basically, technically speaking, identical twins."

  A faint smile curled Adam's lips. “What do you want to call us?"

  She hadn't actually considered it, but she did then. “Daniel and Adam,” she said firmly.

  "Who's Daniel?"

  She turned to look at the man driving. “He is."

  "And I'm still Adam?"

  "Always."

  He looked at her curiously. “Why?"

  She smiled, lifting a hand to stroke his cheek lovingly. “Because you were the one who told me why you call me Evie."

  He looked startled. A dull red color heated his face. “You're certain of that?"

  Evelyn chuckled and leaned close to whisper in his ear. “You're the one who blushes."

  Daniel cleared his throat. “I blush."

  Evelyn turned to grin at him. “No, you don't. You're the one who's impatient."

  He glanced at her uncomfortably and then looked as brother. Do you think she really can tell us apart?

  That's an interesting question. If we get out of this alive, maybe we should find out?

  "Conferencing again?"

  Adam chuckled, but he didn't deny it.

  Daniel slowed the vehicle, studied a squat little building and circled the block. When he came around again, he parked the transport, leaving the engine idling. Adam scooped her off his lap, settled her on the seat, and got out, closing the door. Evelyn stared at him in surprise as he turned and walked briskly around the building.

  Daniel pulled out into traffic again, drove two block,s and parked the vehicle. “We'll walk from here,” he said as he got out.

  "Wouldn't it have been quicker...?"

  "This is safer,” he said as he came around the vehicle and draped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her briskly along the sidewalk. “The two of us never walk together. It attracts too much attention."

  Adam was waiting inside the clinic when they'd slipped around the back and entered through the back entrance.

  He'd stripped his shirt off and was arranging an assortment of medical instruments on a tray when they entered the examination room Daniel led her to. Evelyn's belly clenched as he lay down on his belly on the table. “Where's the device?” she asked uneasily, knowing it must be in his spine and terrified at the thought.

  The two men exchanged a look that made her more nervous. “You should've told her to wait in the vehicle,” Adam said.

  "It's stolen. I didn't want to take the chance she'd be picked up.” He turned to study her. “You should wait outside, near the street—but not in view. Adam disengaged the security system, but we might have been seen and reported. Come and tell me if you see a police cruiser moving slowly past the building."

  Chapter Twelve

  Evelyn studied Daniel. “That's not why you want me outside,” she said with conviction. “They would've given you the ability to scan radio frequencies."

  The two men exchanged another look. “It'll be safer, Evie. Do it,” Adam said.

  Evelyn swallowed against a hard knot that formed in her throat. “You're not here to remove tracking devices, are you?"

  Adam shook his head. “We have to move quickly, Evie. Please?"

  Evelyn bit her lip, looked from one to the other and finally nodded, but only because she realized it wouldn't help them at all if she stayed. She didn't think there was any point in playing ‘lookout', but she knew they had to move quickly. Staying to argue was only wasting time they couldn't afford to lose.

  She left the building and moved to stand in the recess of a door in the building across from the vetinary office, trying not to think about what they were doing that would make it ‘safer’ for her if she wasn't in the building with them.

  It had to be something implanted in them to destroy them in just such a situation as they now found themselves in. The company, despite their arrogance, wouldn't have left anything to chance. They would've wanted to make certain they had complete control of their Adam project.

  She was so relieved when they both exited the building nearly an hour later that she felt tears sting her eyes as she examined them carefully for signs of distress. Both of their faces were drawn, but there was no other indication of the pain she knew they would've both felt having done surgery on one another. “Did you ... remove it?"

  Adam looked away from her searching gaze. “We need to find two more vehicles."

  "Why two?"

  "It took longer than expected,” Daniel responded easily. “They will have cordoned off the perimeter now. We need to split up. It'll be safer for you if you're in one vehicle and we follow in another."

  Evelyn glared at them angrily. “Don't! I'm not an idiot. I know what you were trying to do in there. They implanted something in both of you, didn't they?"

  "Tracking...."

  "Besides that!” Evelyn cut Adam off.

  He didn't approach her. In fact, she noticed both of them had stopped a good ten feet from her.

&n
bsp; "You can block the signal, can't you?” she asked, begging them to tell her they could.

  The two exchanged a look again, and she ground her teeth in frustration.

  "We won't know for certain if we succeeded until we pass the point of no return,” Adam said finally.

  Evelyn bit her lip. “I want to be with you."

  "You'll be safer...."

  "I'll be safer with the two of you."

  "Once we get beyond the city,” Adam assured her soothingly. “We'll pick up two transports. Daniel and I will follow and run interference if we encounter problems. If we're ... delayed, keep going. Don't stop. And don't go anywhere where you might be expected to go. Stop at the first place you come to and draw out all of the credits you can and keep moving. They'll stop looking for you if you keep quiet and stay hidden."

  Evelyn felt the tears she'd been trying to hold at bay fill her eyes. “I don't want to do any of that. I want to be with you two."

  Adam's face twisted. “We want that, too, but we want you to be safe."

  Evelyn sniffed back her tears, wiped her cheeks. “I love you, both of you. If anything happens to either of you I'm going straight to the media to tell them everything! I'm not going to let them get away with this!"

  Adam studied her for a long moment and finally strode toward her, pulling her into his arms. “I love you, Evie. Promise me you won't do anything like that. I need to know you'll be safe."

  She clung to him tightly. “I'm not going to promise that, Adam Mercury!"

  He made a sound of frustration. “Evie...."

  "No!"

  Daniel's hand settled on her back. “We have to go. Every minute we delay our chances diminish."

  Evelyn lifted her head and looked at him stubbornly. “Only if you promise me we'll stay together. Otherwise, as soon as I get in a transporter, I'm going straight to the media with the story!"

  He caught her face with his hand, studying her angrily for a moment before the anger subsided. “You are a stubborn woman, Evelyn Carlson! You're determined to gamble your life on whether or not we can block the failsafe?"

  "I trust you."

  He shook his head at her. Leaning down, he kissed her quickly on the lips. “I love you.” He exchanged a look with Adam. “Let's go."

  As Adam and Daniel had predicted, the net had been thrown up before they reached the city exit. There were a half dozen arteries leading from the dome, and, at every one, they found a police check point and had to take an exit off the out ramp. Daniel parked the transport beneath the last they tried and both men turned to study her speculatively.

  "What?"

  "We'll have to underground. Chances are, you could make it through the check point and meet us on the other side."

  "And maybe they'd just take me in because my car blew up and they think I put the bomb in it?” She studied his face and realized he'd already thought of it.

  "You'd be better off in police custody,” Daniel said grimly.

  "Why wouldn't we all be better off?” Evelyn demanded.

  "Because the company wouldn't hesitate to use the failsafe if we were compromised,” Daniel said testily.

  Evelyn folded her arms over her chest angrily. “They could arrest me at my apartment. I'm going with you, or I'm going home."

  Daniel rolled his eyes but got out of the vehicle. Shaking his head at her, Adam opened his door and got out, holding his hand out to her to help her out.

  'Underground’ turned out to be the sewer system.

  They waded through the stinking mess for hours—Adam and Daniel did. They carried her. She didn't object even though she felt guilty about it, but they were nearly up to their waists in the stinking water, and she knew it would've been nearly chest high on her.

  Besides, she was wearing heels.

  She had a blinding headache from the fumes within minutes and was so sick to her stomach before long that she ceased to worry about the possibility that the men with her were walking bombs that might explode and blow them all to pieces at any time. She'd never been happier about anything in her life than when they finally emerged from the sewer and found themselves in the desert beyond the city.

  They'd been walking for several more hours along the desert highway before a man driving a cattle transport finally took pity on them and allowed them to ride in the back. It didn't smell a lot better than the sewer, but Evelyn was too relieved to be off her feet to care overmuch.

  She settled gratefully on a mound of hay between Adam and Daniel. “We made it,” she murmured, tired but elated. “We reek, but we're still alive."

  Adam tightened his arm around her. “It'll be safe enough, now, to find a hotel for the night."

  "Umm,” Evelyn agreed, although she had her doubts any self-respecting establishment would let them have a room. “Where are we going?"

  Daniel shifted beside her. “Where would you like to go?"

  "I don't care as long as I'm with you,” she responded, snuggling comfortably between them.

  The End

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