Prologue
Her scalp began to tingle, she leaned over to her best friend’s ear. Her coffee colored hair mixed with blonde, made a curtain between them. “Ever feel like your being watched?”
“Cora, we’re in Middle School, in study hall.”
“I mean all the time, everywhere.”
“No.”
Cora pulled away from the blonde and glanced behind her, something in black turned the corner and went down the hall. Her green eyes focused on the corner, then she shivered as the bell rang. She gathered her things and left the school, she passed dirty alleyways on her way to the apartment.
Cora jangled the key in the lock, then opened the door to the one room apartment. She dumped her school work on the bed she shared with her mother. Then she walked out and locked the door.
The worn dirty carpet showed the floor beneath.. The front door to the complex opened on rusty hinges. Cora saw a man in a black suit talking on a cell, facing her and leaning against a telephone pole. She turned and walked in the opposite direction to the elementary school.
“What’s your name?”
“Cora Cinders.” She rolled her eyes, one would think that the secretary would know her by now.
“Who are you picking up?”
“Amy and Ellie Cinders.”
“Why?”
Cora smiled sweetly and said, “I’m their sister and mom is working.” The blonde secretary nodded several times.
“Girls someone is here to pick you up.” Identical twins who looked just like Cora slid out of a set of chairs.
“C.C.!” They screeched like every other day.
“Time to go home my pretties.” Cora took their hands and turned to the door as they giggled. The man from the front of the apartment came in. Cora sailed out of the school and switched Ellie to the left and Amy to the right.
“Was that man mean?” Amy tilted her pink had back to look at cora.
“I don’t know.”
“Mommy says all men are bad.” Ellie’s purple hat moved to look at Amy.
“But, Mr. Fenton is nice.” Amy’s pink hat turned to look at Ellie.
“To you, but not me.” Ellie’s purple hat bounced as she retorted.
“All right girls. Do you have school work?”
“No.” The two said as one.
“Good, let’s see what we have for supper.” Cora unlocked the door. The girls ran in and dumped their pink and purple bags on their shared bed. Cora pulled out bread, peanut butter, and jelly as Amy and Ellie set the table.
“When is mommy coming home?” Ellie looked up at Cora. She checked the clock then looked at the door.
“She should be here in a few minutes.” With the table all set and sandwiches made, the door opened to an older looking Cora and the man in a black suit from before. “Mom, what’s going on?”
“Cora pack your things.”
Cora’s green eyes studied the man in black, he still had his shades on and his hair was military cut. “Why?”
“Cora you belong to him now, pack your things!” Cora’s lazy gaze settled on her mother.
“Maybe dad didn’t leave, maybe he was driven out.” Cora saw her mother’s hand come up and the man caught her hand.
“Ms. Cinders there will be no hitting.” He turned to Cora. “Pack your things.” He tossed her a hiker’s backpack. Cora shrugged and hid her emotions as she turned to her meager belongings.
Cora had her things packed, she hugged her sisters then turned to the man. She gave him a lazy smile and said, “Since my mother sold me out, I’m ready.” She tossed the last barb over her shoulder at her mother and watched as the man turned without a word. She followed him out to a black car.
Cora got in shotgun and put the backpack between her legs. She studied the inside, black leather and posh. The man got in and drove off, he tossed a wallet in her lap. She looked at it and them at him, she got the feeling that it was a test.
“Open it.” Cora snapped it open and looked at the ID card, Emma Lune, with a picture of Cora.
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re in a training program. Everyone has a new ID.”
Generation: 1
Emma sat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, stark white walls glowed slightly and bright florescent lights were harsh on the eyes. A man in black came up, with him was a ten year old girl. “Emma you’ll be showing her the ropes.” He walked away, leaving the girl standing.
“Sit down, hand me your wallet.” Emma pushed her empty tray out of the way and glanced around the room. A handful of boys and girls reach sat around the cafeteria. A nineteen year old boy sat in another corner, watching her. Everyone where she left them, Emma turned to the girl and took the wallet. “Amy Stone.” The girl watched her with baby blur eyes, her face was framed by blonde ringlets that stopped at her shoulders.
Emma stood and motioned for Amy to follow. Emma ran her hands through her coffee colored hair and French braided it. Now she was seventeen and she knew what the ‘training program’ was really for turning talented kids into national spies and killers.
“Amy, I don’t understand why your here, you seem too sweet for what they’re going to want.”
“A nineteen year old male, 155 pounds and in these shoes.” Amy gestured to the shoes that she and Emma wore. “Is following us. He waited two and a half minutes before following us.”
“Yes.” Emma had known that and had signaled him that she had known. “How do you do it?” Emma studied Amy’s face, no emotion showed.
Amy shrugged as the boy came from around the corner and leaned against the wall. “My parents were spies.”
“What do you mean ‘were’?” Emma opened a door to the dormitory.
“Died on a mission.” Amy entered the dormitory, a noise shot through the air. Emma pulled a bag from under her bed. The boy went to his bed and got a similar bag and grabbed Amy’s hand and pulled her up to the supports in the ceiling. Emma grabbed another bag and tossed it up. The she stood by the door. The boy jumped down and stood on the other side.
“It’s not a drill this time.”
“What do you mean?”
“The public got wind of the project.”
“They’re erasing it.”
“Two men.” Emma looked up, but couldn’t see Amy.
“In the corner.” The boy pointed.
“Thanks, Dillon.” Two shadows formed in the window, the knob turned slowly. Then the door shot open. Emma kicked it back and Dylan went for the gun. The hinges broke and Emma ducked and went for the gun. The hinges broke and Emma ducked and went forward. Her foot hooked onto the guy’s legs and dragged him down, his head cracked on the floor. She flipped and dislodged the gun, she stepped lightly out of the way and trained the gun on the prone figure.
“They’re both out.” Dillon shoved the gun and ammunition in his jacket. Emma did the same and leapt up to the supports and made her way to a small window. “I’ll go first, then hand Amy to me.” Dylan shattered the window and slipped out onto the roof. Emma held onto Amy’s legs as she sat in the window and held out her arms. Amy disappeared and Emma crawled out and reached up, she felt the ledge and pulled herself up.
“If they’re erasing the program they’ll get rid of the building.”
Dylan nodded, “We’ll run through the woods.” He jumped and disappeared in the leaves of a tree.
“Come on Amy.” Emma grabbed her hands and jumped off. Emma went through the leaves, she wrapped her legs around the branch and tipped to hang upside down. She dropped Amy at Dylan’s feet, then dropped. She hit the ground running with them.
When they broke out of the trees they came across a road. “Should we go to the town?” Emma looked towards town.
“To change how we look, then we move on.”
Emma nodded and took Amy’s hand, they weren’t too far out of town.
“We’re near town.” Amy said as she slowed down, Dillon was ahead of them.
“You two go get what we need to change how we look, I’ll get a room.” Dillon headed for a motel and Emma took Amy into a salon supply store. “I’lll get the dye, you get a pair of scissors. Remember don’t look up.”
“Why?”
“Avoid cameras.”
“Right.”
Emma opened the door and they split. Emma walked down the isle of hair dye. “Dark brown will cover Amy’s color, auburn will cover mine, but we’ll have to bleach Dillon’s to cover the black.” She muttered to herself. She collected the boxes and went to the counter as Amy sided up to her.
“Find everything all right?”
“Yes, thank you.” Emma counted out her money to the cashier. She took the bag and headed for the motel. She opened the door and let Amy through. They found Dillon and he showed them to the room he had gotten.
“Do my hair first, then your’s, last Amy’s while I go get us some supper.” Dillon said as he rummaged through the bag.
“All right.” Emma took off her jacket and T-shirt, leaving her in a spaghetti top. “Amy, see if the clothes in your pack fit.” Emma picked up the blonde hair dye as Dillon pulled off his jacket and T-shirt. She followed him into the bathroom. She opened the dye as he leaned over the tup. She detached the shower head and soaked his head. “Do you know how the public got wind of this?”
“I told them.”
“Why did you endanger us like that?” Emma worked the dye through his hair.
“I didn’t know that was going to happen, and you’re not mad?”
“Of course I’m mad, I could have died. How could you not know?”
“Ouch!” Dylan grabbed her wrists. “Look, I’m sorry. I had my reasons. Now, stop pulling my hair.”
“Sorry.” She worked her hands free and rinsed his hair out. “No longer black, now blonde.”
“Man.” Dillon sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. Emma opened her dye and handed it to him.
Dillon ran his hands through her long hair, rinsing out the extra dye. “You’re going to have to cut it.”
“I know.” Emma sighed and twirled the red hair around her finger. “It matches my eyes now.”
“You have pretty eyes.’ He said as he put a hand on either shoulder. She turned to look at him, then he pulled away. “I’ll get supper.” He pulled on his T-shirt and left.
“Amy, come in here.” Emma stuck her head out the door and saw Emma in blue jeans, a T-shirt, and the special silent shoes. Emma drew back as Amy entered the bathroom and her eyes scanned the room. She handed Emma the hair dye and leaned over the tub. Emma doused the blonde curls and rubbed in the dark brown dye. She rinsed Amy’s hair and did a quick rub with a towel. Emma took the scissors and cut the brown curls to Amy’s chin.
“Go watch out the window, while I cut my hair.” Emma watched as Amy slid over to the side of the window sill. She turned back to the mirror and held a strand of hair to her shoulder and cut off the waist length hair.
That’s how Dillon found her, slowly cutting off her now auburn hair. “I thought you would have had that done.” Emma dropped the scissors in the sink and wiped away her tears.
“It’s just harder to cut hair with a mirror.”
“Of course.” Dillon left with rustling bags of fast food.
Emma joined them with her hair pulled back in a french braid, she sat down and they all ate in silence. “What was that?” Amy whispered and sided over to the window. “They’re here.”
Emma turned and grabbed her pack and Amy’s, her training was kicking in. “Wait till it’s clear outside, then climb on the roof. Be quiet and go to the back of the building and climb down. The woods aren’t far, run for them.”
“What about you?” Emma stood by the window as Amy threw back the curtains and window.
“I’ll reduce the numbers.”
Emma saw Amy’s feet swing out of sight, then glanced at the door. Dillon rushed at her and she met his stare.
“I told you to go, take care of Amy.”
Emma finally nodded and climbed out, Dillon pushed her up and she heard the door splinter open. “Stop!” Emma scrambled on to the roof and Dillon jumped up.
“I thought,” Dillon pulled her back from the ledge to Amy, who was climbing down the wall.
“I didn’t have a chance.” He jumped down and rolled on the ground. “Jump!” Emma jumped and he caught her, set her down and pushed her to the trees. “Amy jump.” Emma heard the thump of Amy landing, then their steady footfalls. Then the pursuit came, three shots rang out in the air. Emma heard Amy shriek and dead weight hitting the ground, she turned and felt white hot pain in her shoulder. She stopped and clutched at the sudden blood.
“What’s wrong with Amy?” Dillon grabbed Emma and pulled her up a tree, on the branch he pressed her left shoulder to his chest and held a finger to her lips.
“She’s dead.” He whispered in her ear, she blinked at him and things began to go out of focus. “Stay awake.” She nodded slightly and turned to look down below. Three men stood around Amy’s crumpled body.
“We lost the other two.”
“It doesn't matter, she’s the one without a chip in her hip.”
“So, we can track them on the computers?”
“Yes,” The men turned around to leave. Emma turned back to Dillon and saw him watching the men intently. She felt herself drifting, she lifted her hand to get his attention, but everything went black as her hand fell against his chest.
Emma felt numb pain in her shoulder and her hip, she struggled to sit up against the tree behind her. She saw a freshly dug grave to her left, “Are you feeling alright?” Dillon came into her line of vision from the left.
“I guess so.” She touched her hip where she felt the pain.
“I took out your chip and mine.” Emma looked past Dillon and focused on Amy’s grave then saw that their were two graves. “They saw the blood by the tree. They’ll assume that you’re dead.” Emma nodded when she realized that her chip was in the other grave. “Can you walk? We need to get to a big town and insert my chip in some homeless person.”
“I think so.” Emma raised herself on unsteady feet. Dillon put one of her arms around his shoulders. They made their way to the road by the time Emma could stand with no help.
“I’m thinking I’ll leave you in a hotel and go take care of things by myself.”
“If you think it’s best.”
Dillon watched the color drain out of her face as he flagged down a car. He opened the back seat door and let her climb in, then he followed her. “Where you going?” The guy said as he pulled onto the road.
“The next town.” Dillon gently pushed her head down on his shoulder.
“You two running away? Your parents don’t approve of you two being together?”
“They don’t care.” Dillon turned to the window and tightened his grip on her arm. Emma knew that she should let Dillon do all the talking and she also knew that she needed rest. She closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.
“Wake up, he’s dropping us off.” Emma woke to Dillon shaking her, the car was idling at the entrance to a hotel. She climbed out after him and gripped her pack as he shut the door. Dillon guided her into the lobby, the carpet was worn and the wallpaper old, but it was clean. He handed her his pack and headed up to the front desk. She watched as an elderly couple came from a hall and met up with a younger couple with noisy children. The children hugged the elderly couple and Emma turned back to look at Dillon. “Find the room while I go take care of business.” He pressed the key into her hand. She nodded and went up to the room.
She clicked open the door and dropped her pack on a bed. She went into the bathroom and checked on her bullet wound. The wound and the cut for the chip would be fine if kept clean. She went back out to her pack and took out clean clothes, then she went into the bathroom to clean up.
She rewrapped the bandage around her shoulder and pulled on a T-shirt as the door opened. “Emma, are you here?”
“Yes,” Emma opened the bathroom door saw Dillon hold up a plastic bag. She glanced at the clock between the beds. “Did we spend the night in the woods?”
“Yes, you were out the whole afternoon and night. You didn’t notice that it’s morning?”
“No. It’s more like noon.”
“Yeah,” Dillon opened a box of blonde dye. “You’re going blonde.” Emma sighed and backed up into the bathroom and pulled off her T-shirt. She knelt at the tub and leaned her head over the edge. “The business is done, so we need to get rid of whatever we don’t need and get on a plane to go out west.” Emma listened to his plans for disappearing from the government as he worked the gel into her hair and then rinsed it out. “My family used to own a ranch, I can work on one till I earn enough to buy us one of our own.”
“Us?” Emma’s voice came muffled from the towel as she dried her hair.
“Yes, I’ll make some adjustments on you passport and papers today before we leave and I’ll have to make up the marriage license.”
“Dillon, what are you saying?” Emma said as she opened the dye for his hair. He stepped forward and kissed her, she dropped the dye and it splattered at their feet. Neither one noticed and Dillon pulled her close.
Emma sat close to the window watching the road. “You want me to start burning what we don’t need?”
“Yes, we can get out of here sooner.” Emma stood and gathered up the pile of extra papers, passports, and ID’s. She carried them into the bathroom and started burning them in the sink.
“Everything is burned.” Emma looked over Dillon’s shoulder.
“Good, pack up. We’ll go as far as we can for today.” Emma opened her new ID, Elizabeth Bringhem.
“What’s your’s?” Emma asked as they called for a taxi to take them to the airport.
“Michael Bringhem, don’t worry about being out west, you’ll get the hang of it.” Emma nodded as the taxi pulled up. She tossed her bag into the back seat and followed it as Dillon gave instructions to the driver.
“Well, Elizabeth how do you feel about our new adventure?” They had gone through the metal detectors, baggage scans, and long lines for tickets.
Elizabeth turned to Michael. “As long as your with me I can do it.”
Michael smiled buckled himself in as Elizabeth did the same. After they were in the air Michael began to describe what they would need to buy before he looked for a job.
Two flights later they were in Utah, in a hotel room, looking over a map. “Here’s a really small town called Bluegrass, with some outlaying ranches. We’ll get you a room in town while I’m working.”
“I’ll work for the room and food, so you can save your salary for the ranch.”
Michael turned to look at her, “I can provide for us.”
“I know,” Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder. “This way your can save faster for your ranch.”
“Our ranch.”
“Our ranch.” Elizabeth smiled fondly and hugged him as he stood and brought her close.
“We’ll get the ranch and have a family of our own.” Michael said as Elizabeth nodded against his chest.