What She Thought She Knew (Rachel Moore Mystery Book 1), стр. 36

I felt a bit annoyed at his lack of respect, but decided that whatever Fear's reasons were, they were too personal for him to openly say.

Just when I thought he wouldn't speak, the Assassin finally spoke. "I joined the Seekers because I enjoy the fight. As an Assassin, I was trained to kill. It is my life; there is nothing else."

I was momentarily stunned at his bluntness. I didn't believe that was truly his reason for joining the Seekers, but I decided to let him be.

I turned my attention towards the other agents, and stared at all of them equally. "There you go. Whatever the reason, we've all joined the Seekers because of one common goal: to take down the Phantoms. We must continue our work if humanity has any chance to have a safe, and free future. The people need us, and we have the responsibility to make sure that the Phantoms stay down permanently."

My team members were deep in thought as they took in what I said.

I nodded at them, and walked to the door. "Agent Elvira, you will assist me with the interrogation. The rest of you, get some rest."

"I'm coming with you!" The Demolitions Expert exclaimed.

I looked at him in confusion once more. Ever since we captured the Phantom woman, Predator had been acting extremely unusual.

He stared at me fiercely, as if daring me to say no.

Deciding that it'd too much trouble to try to stop the guy, I gestured for him to follow.

As I glanced quickly at Fear and Olsen, both men were looking at Predator in confusion.

I stepped into the hall, and the two other agents came into line behind me. I made my way to the room where the Phantom woman was kept.

I nodded at the guard on duty as we arrived.

He nodded back, and unlocked the steel door.

Predator, Elvira and I stepped inside.

It was a fairly small room; the three of us made it seem even tinier as I began to feel a hint of claustrophobia.

I ignored the sensation, and focused my sights on the Phantom.

Having a better look at her, I finally realized just how frail and exhausted she looked.

She was dangerously skinny, almost to the point of anorexia. Her cheek bones were hollow and gave her the appearance of a walking skeleton. A nasty black eye painfully clashed against her pale skin.

I nearly felt pity for her.

"My God," Predator said quietly, "what happened to you?"

The frail woman looked up at him. "More like what didn't happen to me? The Phantoms don't really take care of their own." She replied bitterly.

I never would have guessed, I thought sarcastically.

I stepped in front of the woman. "As I'm sure you can tell, you're under an interrogation. My colleague here has many ways of making people talk." I said as I gestured to Elvira.

She nodded in my direction, and stepped to the other side of the Phantom, frowning at her in dislike.

The woman looked at Elvira with a slight scowl. "Oh calm down Seeker, I'm not going to make this interrogation hard for you. I'll tell you whatever I know."

Well that's a first, I thought.

I pulled out a foldable chair that was leaning against the wall, and sat right in front of the Phantom. "I suppose we should start at the beginning. How did you get involved with the Phantoms?"

The woman snorted, much to my annoyance. "It's obvious isn't it? I'm a clone."

"Maybe, maybe not." I replied. "This is the first we've heard of Phantoms conducting cloning experiments. How did you manage that?"

"It wasn't very difficult." The woman started. "Since the 1950's, scientists have been conducting cloning experiments on various animal species. The difficulty we had was preventing the protein necessary for cellular division from being removed."

"How did you make up for that flaw?" I asked.

"We had numerous failed attempts of keeping that protein. Eventually, we were forced to artificially create it, and give it in pills which the clones were obliged to take once a month. Finally, after much trial and error, we succeeded in creating the first human clone."

"So those victims you've captured were used as cell donors," Elvira commented.

The Phantom woman nodded. "Yes. Essentially, we were growing artificial twins."

Confusion filled me. "I vaguely remember learning about this in High School biology, but can you explain it in more detail?"

A barely visible smile formed on the woman's face. "About ten years ago, scientists were making breakthroughs in manipulating the nature of stem cells. There are different types of stem cells that can form various tissue cells. You know about the bone marrow transplant, correct?"

I nodded.

"It's the same principal. Cells from the bone marrow are injected into a patient that is in need of new cells for various reasons. Some cancer patients even remove their own stem cells, and have it frozen during the treatment, only to have it injected back into their bodies once their treatment has been completed."

"So those stem cells from the donors were used to create the clones, while the pills were used to supply them with that protein?" I asked.

"Exactly. Without cellular division, we'd die rather quickly."

I hummed quietly in thought.

I then looked at Phantom. "What criteria was there to determine on who got cloned?"

"The ones who were cloned were considered too valuable to be altered in any way. What exactly qualified them as "special", I have no idea. That knowledge was far above my ranking."

"Do you know who you were cloned off of?" I asked.

The woman shook her head. "No, clones don't have any memories. That's what makes us so useful to the Phantoms; they program us to do their tasks with no questions." She replied surprisingly bitter.

I hummed in thoughtfulness. "You certainly seem different than other agents.