Taking another deep breath, he never took his eyes off of the woman. “Guys, we’ve been lied to. These people have lied to us all our lives to prevent us from learning the truth. Guys…” He finally broke contact with her and looked back up at them. “There never was a nuclear war. The world above is clear and clean, just like what we’ve seen in the videos.”
“Which can only mean one thing,” G8 surmised.
“Yeah.” T8 nodded. “They mean to keep us down here for the rest of our lives, so they can poke and prod, and do all sorts of ghastly experiments on us.”
“Why?” F8 questioned. “For what purpose?”
“I have something else to confess,” Cydney whispered. “I was ordered to seduce N8 and get pregnant, so that they could see if your offspring also has the Chimera Factor.”
They all cast her a questioning look, their eyes narrowed in confusion. Cydney nodded. “Yeah. The Chimera Factor. That’s what this whole project is about. Creating more of you. People with unique abilities.”
“For what reason?” K8 inquired softly.
Cydney shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been told.” She stared at N8. “They saw you and I had a…connection, I guess you could say. They wanted to exploit it. I’m sorry, N8. I never wanted to do it. I hate myself for telling them I’d go along with the plan. But if I hadn’t, I was afraid they’d send me away and try again with someone else. And I…I couldn’t…” Damn it, but the tears were back, hot and stinging. But it no longer mattered. The truth was out. From both of them.
Which was why she wasn’t surprised when N8 came over to her and gathered her into his arms.
9Formul8
The others waiteduntil N8 or Cydney were ready to explain further. As they waited, they took a seat around the room in front of the couple.
Brushing a strand of hair out of her face, N8 pressed a kiss to her forehead, then nuzzled the same spot. “Okay, Cyd. You go first. Tell us everything.”
“I think I’ve said too much already.” She lifted her face to let them see her fear. Her eyes scanned the ceiling above them, and he understood what she was doing.
“It’s okay. They can’t hear us,” he reassured her.
She blinked in confusion.
“P8 tamped down the audio,” K8 told her.
“I also blurred the video a bit,” P8 admitted. “Not a lot. That would make them too suspicious. I also included your key card.”
Cydney placed a hand to her chest, trapping the ID. “My key card?”
“Oh, yeah,” G8 commented. “More than likely they’ve bugged your apartment, too.”
“My apartment, too?” She looked to N8. “Think they’ll come in here to see why it’s not working properly?”
K8 made a rude sound. “This time of night? Don’t count on it. They don’t want to show their hand and reveal to us we’ve been under surveillance all this time. But you can be sure they’ll send someone in here tomorrow while we’re gone to check the connections. Or maybe they’ll just replace the whole thing.”
Cydney looked at P8. “You can do that? Block audio and video?”
P8 chuckled. “Let me guess. They have me listed as being able to affect electrical currents and all. Turn lights on and off at will. That sort of thing.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Let me guess. It was all a ruse?”
“No, it’s not a ruse,” the young man shook his head. “I can do all that, but I can also negate electrical pulses, which messes with all their spying equipment. And that’s justonething I can do.”
K8 spoke up. “Some of us, our abilities, are too obvious to disguise or hide. But there are some things we can do that we swore never to show to anyone else outside our group.”
“You understand why, right?” F8 questioned her.
Cydney sighed. “Yes, I do. It’s to protect yourselves.”
N8 smiled down at her. “Exactly. But in my case, there was nothing overtly I could do to show them my ability. That’s why they concluded my power was either dormant or non-existent.”
She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. Her warmth was oddly soothing. “Tell me in layman’s terms what you do. What I experienced.”
