Chapter Seventeen

~ Tyrell

It was a long day, and it seemed like even longer when Adaria had to leave to make copies or run other errands for me. No matter how long I thought about it, it didn't make any sense. How could anyone fall in love with anyone without knowing them for a long time? It didn't make any sense. I had never dated a woman before knowing them at least a month. I'd known Adaria all of 24 hours. I knew next to nothing about her. All I knew was that she cooks, was an assassin that worked for my father, and lost her home. There was nothing to base my feelings on... unless it was all sexual attraction. I'd be lying if I said that she wasn't the least bit attractive. Her black hair, grey eyes, thin body, long legs, freckles covering her body, and... her smile. She had me hook, line, and sinker. Even her sarcastic and somewhat rude comments made my heart flutter. I blinked rapidly and shook me head. There was work to be done.

~ Adaria

During lunch break I ran into the receptionist that I'd met earlier that morning. When she saw me she smiled, waved, made her way over to me.

"Adaria, right?" I smiled back and nodded.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name earlier." I admitted.

"Jensensa Coela, but everyone calls me Coco." She sat down next to me. "So, how do like working here so far?" I thought about it for a second.

"It's nothing like my last job." She raised her eyebrows.

"Really? I thought you were right out of college. You look so young."

"Not really, I'm just twenty-six." I chuckled.

"What?" Her eyes widened. "You're older than me! I'm twenty-one." I laughed.

"Ah, well I can't say anything other than I'm more of an inside person." She scoffed.

"C'mon, tell me your secrets to eternal youth!" Her eyes sparkled.

"Lots of mud." I finally said. She laughed.

"So, what was your last job?" I froze, looking over her shoulder. She looked too. A man and his P.E.T. entered the lunch room. It was someone I hadn't seen for over twelve years. The man who was the doctor in charge of the modifications... and my brother.

~ Tyrell

I jumped when Adaria burst through the door gasping for air. I put my fork down and stood up.

"What's wrong?" I helped her stay upright.

"T-the d-doctor." She coughed a few times. "Is h-ere, the o-ne who did this." She looked up. She was starting to breath normally. "And... my brother." Brother? She never mentioned a brother.

"Are you sure?" She nodded. "Were are they going?"

"They're coming up here. I ran up the stair to beat them."

"Do you think that either of them will recognise you?"

"I don't know."

"Darn it. I need to have my secretary when important government officials come." I snapped my fingers. That's right. Last years company party, everyone was given fake prescription glasses as a joke. I opened the bottom drawer in my desk. They were still there. I threw them at Adaria. "Here." She put them on just as a knock came at the door. I sat down at my desk and nodded at her. She opened the door.

"Mr. Iven! And who is this? I don't remember your secretary being quite so young, and beautiful." He took Adaria's hand and kissed it. I could tell she was trying hard not to shake. She didn't make eye-contact with either of them.

"What brings you here, Doctor?" I greeted him, gesturing to the seats in front of me. He plopped down, but Adaria's brother sat behind the chair. Watching Adaria. A rush of panic went through me. He wouldn't expose her would he?

"Your father said that you'd be the right man for the job that I need done." He paused and looked at Adaria. "Do you trust her?" He asked quietly. I nodded. "As you know, twenty years ago your father founded this company, but have you ever wondered how the test subjects were picked?" I glanced at Adaria. She was now staring at her brother.

"Yes, I have actually." The doctor laughed.

"Well, we found this planet, Earth, and found its occupants to be less intelligent, as you know, but what if I told you that they weren't?" Adaria snapped her head up.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"We really picked that planet because they were becoming more and more intelligent. We needed their information, but at the same time we didn't want them." Adaria was pale. "So, we gave them two choices, extinction or," He grinned. "becoming slaves." It was one thing hearing it from Adaria, but hearing it from a man who enjoyed doing this was, to say the least, frankly disturbing.

"What?" Was all I could muster out.

"You understand, right? I mean, those people they had all the intelligence at their finger tips but they were wasting it with their meaning less wars. They had no use to us this way." He patted his P.E.T., who visibly flinched at his touch. "So, we made them better." He leaned forward. "I'm telling you this because there was one who was a horrible failure." Adaria was shaking now. "She was the first one we tested on. I believe that she'd just turned six the day before, the youngest of the bunch. And she was a pitiful orphan. All she had left was her brother. She didn't change like the rest of them. In fact, her 'attachments' could easily be removed, if she had done what she was supposed to at least. You see, she gained many things in that operation. Speed, strength, agility, and more intelligence than we could've achieved on our own. It would've taken at least a hundred years to reach that level. You're father didn't want to lose the opportunity to expand our world. We hooked her up to a computer every night and trained her to work for us during the day. Eventually, we ran out of test subjects. So, we sent her down to Earth to... convince them to help our cause. A few years later she turned on us, the people who raised her, fed her, and taught her everything she knows. We were basically her family." Adaria was shaking and crying. "She tried to kill your father." She wasn't looking at me. "We couldn't do anything for her after that. She'd gone crazy. Her brain didn't work like it used to so we couldn't sedate her completely to continue gaining knowledge. We had no choice but to lock her in the bottom of our old facility." He paused.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"That facility was were you went yesterday to get your P.E.T. We have your records that you bought her." I froze. "What happened to her, Mr. Iven." I sighed.

"That thing gave me a lot of trouble. It died last night. Stabbed itself with a knife from my kitchen." I rubbed my temple with my hand. "That explains a lot then." He smiled.

" I'm sorry to hear about that. It must have been a lot of money, just to be wasted on a useless P.E.T." He sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. I was hoping to purchase it from you, but seeing as it's dead now... I hope you can lend me its body." I laughed.

"You think that I would have kept the stinking thing in my house when it died? If I'd known earlier I would have kept it in a morgue. I put it into the P.E.T. disposal unit last night, sorry to disappoint you." He stood. Adaria wiped her eyes thoroughly.

"Ah, well. It can't be helped can it. Thank you for your time, Mr. Iven. I'll be sure to tell your father what happened. I'm sure that he'll be happy to know that his to-be-murderer is not a threat anymore, good day." He turned and saw Adaria's puffy eyes. "Don't cry sweetheart, after all, they are just animals."