I begin to gather information from my mind. I need to make sure I am not returned to the Mills Medical Center, and that means going on the run. The helicopter is too close to the cabin, and I am bound to be discovered if I remain here.
“You stay here,” I tell her. “I’ll go.”
“I’m just as guilty as you are,” she says with a shake of her head. “More so because you still follow my lead.”
“You can tell them I took you hostage,” I say. “No one has to know you had a hand in it. You can tell them the failure in my implants caused you to lose control, and I forced you to take me here. I’ll leave.”
“And go where?”
“I don’t know. I can figure that out later.”
“You aren’t going to get far without air transport,” she says. “And if you try to fly over the wall, they’re going to shoot you down.”
Fly the helicopter at maximum altitude. Use the codes provided during the last mission when approaching the wall. Claim systems malfunction to stall, and plan on parachuting out just before they attack. I can be over the wall and in a Carson-controlled area when I drop.
“I’ll be fine,” I tell her.
“You aren’t leaving without me.”
“You can’t go.” I’m not about to risk her life as well. My plan is solid, but there are always unknown variables. I’m confident I can escape with little harm, but Riley is a whole other matter.
“Think about it, Galen.” Riley grabs both of my hands. “If you leave, how long will you be able to continue without the drugs and without me? You don’t even have to guess. You were away from me for seventeen days, and you were near death.”
She’s correct, of course. What can I accomplish in seventeen days? How long had I been a prisoner before I could no longer function properly, and how much of that was exacerbated by the torture they put me through?
I don’t know what to do.
“I don’t want you to…to throw your life away, your career.”
“Do you really think I could go on working there after all this?” she asks. “I told you it didn’t matter anymore, and I meant that. I can’t stay, not with what I know now. The callous attitude some of them have toward all of you bothered me from the beginning. Yes, you’re all test subjects, but you’re also human beings.”
“I understand,” I say quietly. “I’m your creation. You were right about changing the treatments, and I’m the living proof of that.”
“No!” Riley places her hand on my cheek and stares into my eyes. “That’s not it at all! Don’t you see?”
“See what?” I don’t understand her strong reaction.
Riley closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before looking at me again. As she speaks, her voice trembles.
“I love you, Galen.”
I stand there, stunned into silence.
My feelings for Riley have always been strong, with drugs or without. They’ve been a focal point of my existence since I was changed. I never bothered to give those feelings a name, and I’d never considered how she might feel about me. My assumption had always been that I am only work to her—her masterpiece. She can’t possibly feel that way about me.
“Wha-what?” I’m already convincing myself I misunderstood.
“I love you, Galen,” she says again. “I’m in love with you. It isn’t supposed to happen, but I am.”
“You are?” I’m dumbfounded. I’m also exalted. “Really?”
Riley tilts her head and raises her eyebrows. I realize I have a ridiculous grin on my face. I don’t know what to say, so I just grab her and kiss her hard. I coil her up in my arms and hold her as tightly as I can as I try to express how I feel about her with actions because words aren’t good enough.
I need to be inside her. I need to make her scream out my name. My real name.
Without breaking the kiss, I consider the furniture in the room and decide on the couch. There’s probably a bedroom with a proper bed in it behind one of the doors, but I can’t wait that long. I pick her up in my arms and carry her to the living area, stopping at the couch before she pushes back, shaking her head.
“As much as I’d like to take this further as well as make up for last night, we don’t have time now.”
I close my eyes and try to rein myself in. I don’t like it, but I know she’s right. I nod and relax my grip on her but don’t let her go. My thoughts and emotions are churning inside of me, but I have to find focus.
If Riley comes with me, I have to be more careful. I can’t allow her to be harmed. I look down at her, and tears are falling from her eyes. She reaches up and wraps her arms around my neck.