The Mirror Man, стр. 51

“Oh? Try me,” the clone said. “I think I’d be very interested. Especially if you decided to—oh, I don’t know—actually tell me the truth for a change.”

Her silence felt like it filled both the kitchen where she stood and the lab beyond. Jeremiah could feel Brent staring at him, but he kept his eyes on the monitor, waiting.

“What are you talking about? Tell you the truth about what?”

“About what it is that’s taking you away from your family,” the clone said. “What is it that’s so much more important to you than your own son? Or should I ask who?”

Diana glared at the clone in a way that Jeremiah had never seen before. It was as though he could see something physically shift in her as she held him in her gaze. And that shift smacked of something final. For a minute, he wondered whether she was about to lash out and slap the clone across the face. If she had, it wouldn’t have surprised Jeremiah.

Instead, she took one measured step closer to the clone and, when she finally spoke, her voice was low and cool, almost devoid of emotion. “You’ve changed, Jeremiah,” she said. “I don’t even know who you are anymore. But you’re not the same man I married.”

Jeremiah felt a wave of dread rise up inside him. Why, of all the things she might have said, had she decided on those exact words? He understood why she’d said it. She was angry. She’d felt trapped. In any other scenario, it would have meant nothing. But it echoed eerily what his mother had said just before she was murdered. Those were words that could get her killed.

Jeremiah closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. He could hear Brent typing something rapidly into his laptop. He sat up, startled, and looked at him.

“Brent,” he said quietly. “Don’t.”

“Jeremiah, this has to go into my report. You know that. They’re going to see it. If it’s not in my report it’ll look suspicious.”

Jeremiah let his eyes linger for an instant on Mel’s painting and then looked again at Brent. “Come in the kitchen for a minute,” he said. “I’m going to make a smoothie.”

“We’re not done with the viewing. There’s still twenty minutes left.”

“Fuck that,” Jeremiah said. “Come in the kitchen.”

Over the racket of the ice in the blender, Jeremiah implored Brent to leave Diana’s words out of his report.

“Look, Jeremiah, I’m sorry, I really am. But I have to put it in.”

“You know what happened with my mother. You know as well as I do what those words will sound like to Scott and his goons. You can’t put it in there.”

“Look,” Brent said, “I know you’re upset. I know you’re worried about this. But I think they’re going to be focused on something else here. They’re going to be looking at the fact that the clone thinks she’s having an affair. Maybe that’s what’s really got you all riled up here. That isn’t an easy thing to hear.”

“No, that’s not it,” Jeremiah said.

“You know, maybe the clone’s got it all wrong. We don’t know for sure that she’s having an affair.”

Jeremiah sighed. “No,” he said sarcastically. “Maybe she’s joined a knitting circle and she’s going to surprise me with a new blanket for my birthday. She is having an affair. I already knew about it. I’ve known about it for a long time, before any of this even started. But that’s not what I’m worried about. You know what I’m worried about.”

Brent added more ice to the blender and hit the button. “It was just something she said in the heat of an argument, Jeremiah. It isn’t that bad. She didn’t mean it like that.”

“And what my mother said was just because her memory happened to be failing her. It doesn’t matter to them. We both saw those emails. They’re prepared to neutralize any threats. You know what that means. You saw it. You have to leave her words out of your report.”

Brent sighed. “Maybe I can gloss over them and focus on the affair. But they were said, you know. They’re going to see the tape of that viewing. They’ll see it whether I put it in the report or not. But I don’t believe they’re going to hurt her because of this. It was just an argument.”

Jeremiah added more ice to the blender. “You know, Brent, there are things you don’t know about Charles Scott. He’s not just in this for the science, to make a better future for mankind. This is personal to him. Believe me. And I don’t think he’ll stop at anything to see this through. He’s got too much to lose. More than you even know.”

Brent looked at Jeremiah with an odd mix of confusion and pity and shook his head. “Let’s just finish the viewing,” he said. “Then I suggest you take one of Pike’s sedatives and go to bed. You’ve got to relax. You’ll drive yourself crazy.”

Reluctantly, Jeremiah followed him back to the living room, took his place on the couch and averted his eyes from the screen and from Brent. He had to do something. But without Brent’s help, he didn’t see what he could do.

He had to find some way to warn Diana, to warn the clone. There had to be a way to stop this.