Honesty, though. I remember my vow and that note. “All the stuff I told the McCluskers. Is there anything you want to ask me about it, or the institute? Was that new to you? Like, what my dad said about frankenstructs being made there?”
“No.” He’s on his knees and halts in his stacking of drawers on the rug. “I knew I came from there. I trained there. I know this. Just, I do not aways know…what I will suddenly remember. Does that make sense? Will you forgive me if something like that turns out to be a problem?”
I put my hands on his shoulders, run them up to his neck. “Of course I won’t be angry if you didn’t know it.”
My smile falters, and I lower myself to sit cross-legged on the floor before him.
“Do you know who you are, Kail? Or who you were? Is all of you the same you?” I touch the suture line on his arm. “If any of this upsets you, just say and I will stop.”
Tentatively, I put my fingers on his mouth. He holds my wrist as I touch his face then angles his head and kisses those fingers. His mouth stills. I guess I’ve made him think.
“Even if it did, I promise I will tell you the truth, if you ask me. No. I don’t know what my name means or my true past, or whether all of me is from the same man. I trained with four others like me, and we trained to fight, kill, obey commands. The man I intercepted at your door was my handler. He gave me a mission, but I chose to disobey.”
“Chose?” I frown. “What mission?”
He sighs. “You would ask that. I’d decided not to tell you. If you hate me for this?—”
“What was it?” My pulse is accelerating. I think I know. “You were supposed to kill me.”
“No. I was supposed to kill your father.”
“But…he’s been dead for months.”
“Then they made a mistake.”
“How? And even so…you chose not to do it. Why would I hate you? Wait. The institute knew my father was dead. That makes no sense. None at all. Are you sure?”
“It’s what he told me.”
This can only be a mistake. “Your memory must be wrong, Kail. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it likely your handler told you that. We should chalk it up as a glitch.” I bite my lip, aware I must look worried, and I am.
“Huh.”
“Look, nothing else has gone wrong. I don’t blame you for it, whatever your mission was.I do not.Let me see. You know all there is to know about my recent mess. My father, his death,and what he discovered, Clay, the institute. I’d trade you some insights into my own life, if I could think of any.”
“Same. I don’t remember anything at all of my creation. No people are in here.” He taps his head. “Apart from those four frankenstructs and vaguely some scientists, but their faces are a blur. The handler too. Let’s keep searching your house. We can talk while we do this.”
“Okay. This handler. Do you know where?—”
He sighs. “Dead. He’s dead. I killed him to stop him hurting you.”
“Wow.”
“I swore I wouldn’t tell you that either, because I figured you’d be scared of me. He’s in the same place as the others.” Kail waits, one eyebrow high, as if he thinks this will be the blow that dooms him.
“Oh my.” I’m probably taking this too calmly. Yeah, I am. My heart isn’t racing. Kail killed for me and this information only affirms his nature, and I am… I run through the logic. That his handler was dragged away by Kail and went missing suggested he killed the man. I am, if anything, reassured. “That must be some cemetery,” I mutter, pulling aside all the dusty books on a shelf and flicking through the pages.
“Yes. Smelly too.”
“So, you’re a triple murderer, and I’m now an accomplice?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t anyone looking for him?”
He shrugs, lifts a rug. “I don’t know.”
“You’re making me feel an amateur at this. I have zero murders to confess.”
