Olivia intruded into the scene with a gasp. “Fertility clinic,” she choked out.
Travis looked at her. “What?”
“I was born as a result of fertility treatments. Do you think? I mean...” Her voice trailed off before she said, “I’d better shut up and listen.”
“We could stop,” Travis offered, and she knew that was what he wanted to do.
She shook her head. “I have to know.”
He made a rough sound before bringing her back into the scene with Smith. His captor was saying, “You aren’t on the list of children whose mothers kept the agreement they signed before the treatments. They were supposed to bring the children back for testing, but yours never did.”
“Because she died when I was born. And I’m sure as hell my dad wasn’t gonna honor any agreement she signed.”
“So we’ve cleared that up.”
“Did you know that’s how you were born?”
Travis wondered why he should answer this guy’s questions. He could think of several good reasons—the first being that he was tied to a chair, and he was probably going to get the crap beaten out of him if he didn’t cooperate.”
“And you don’t know that Dr. Solomon was doing brain experiments on the unborn children.”
If Travis could have jumped up in surprise, he would have. “No.”
“I believe his goal was to create super smart individuals, but that experiment turned out to be a dud. When the children were tested, they had the standard IQ spread.”
Travis shook his head, trying to work his way through the strange revelations that were hitting him like bowling balls.
“But the doctor’s experiments did have an unexpected effect. They created children with special powers. Do you have any?”
“What? No.”
“You can’t move objects with your mind?”
“Huh?”
“Or call up any lightning bolts to zap people?”
“Are you crazy?”
Ignoring the question, Smith went on. “You never read anybody’s thoughts? Or made anybody bend to your will? Or slowed down time?”
Travis tried to wrap his mind around the crazy questions. “None of that’s possible.”
The man continued with rapid-fire questions. “Do you have intuitions? Do you make special connections with people? Can you talk to them without speaking? Do you think of things that are going to happen and find out they come true?’
“Jesus,” Travis exclaimed. “Nothing like that.”
Smith was still talking—babbling on with more outlandish suggestions. Then he switched gears and confided, “You know, all the children turned out to be loners. Mostly kept to themselves until they met one of the other subjects. Then—boom. And away they go. That’s made it really hard to catch any of them. Safer this way.”
The words hardly registered. Travis was thinking about special powers and coming up blank. But it seemed that Smith was talking to himself now.
“I’m not sure every one of the couples has all of those skills. I think some of them can do some things, and some others. But let’s try to find what you’ve got.”
While Travis was wondering what was coming next, Smith was saying, “From what I’ve observed, I believe there is a sexual component. I mean, the abilities might be triggered by sexual contact. I don’t have another subject here, but maybe I can use hypnosis to create the right circumstance for you to manifest.”
Olivia watched the scene unfold with growing horror.
“You still want to watch?” Travis asked, and she could tell from the uneven note in his voice that he was hoping she’d call an end to the revelation.
