Hijacked by Lolita Lopez

Chapter Twenty

“Easy, Cam,” Willa urged. “If you sit up too quickly, you might dislodge a clot and start bleeding again.”

“If you’re so worried about how fast I’m moving, come help me.” Annoyed, Camila narrowed her uncovered eye at her baby sister who lounged carelessly next to the extremely uncomfortable cot. The eye patch covering her left eye made it difficult to judge depth, and Camila swayed precariously.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Willa grumbled and shoved off the rickety metal chair. “Hang on.”

“No, please, take your time,” Camila muttered testily.

“Glad to see having an ice pick yanked out of your gourd didn’t change your sunny demeanor.” Willa slipped an arm around Camila to help her move.

“If you’d like to experiment, I’m happy to shank you with whatever sharp and not so rusty piece of metal you can find around this old barn.”

After her rescue from the institute, she had been brought to a safe house in the countryside. It looked more like an old factory than a house. Maybe an agricultural complex. There was a strange smell that lingered in the air, something organic and rotten. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what that smell was exactly.

Willa laughed softly. “I’ll pass.”

“Candy ass.”

“Wow.” Willa reached over to the portable medication pump and tapped at the screen. “Maybe we need to dial back these pain meds a bit.”

“Touch my feel-good juice, and you’ll be sorry,” Camila warned, only half playful. Her stomach gurgled suddenly, and she hissed at the discomfort. “I can’t tell if I need to eat or barf.”

“Probably both,” Willa remarked, taking her seat once again. “You were in that shithole for almost three days before we broke you out.” Willa swallowed hard and shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Cam. I’m so sorry it took us that long to break you out.”

“Don’t,” Camila said quickly. “You came for me. You saved me from being lobotomized. That’s all that matters.”

Willa exhaled roughly and flopped back in her chair. “I wish we could have helped the other patients there.”

“You did what you could,” Camila insisted, hating that her sister felt so much guilt.

“We have footage from inside the facility now,” Willa said. “I can use that to shame the government into closing down the hospital and to raise awareness of what’s really going on in the capitol.”

Camila stiffened with shock. “You’re not seriously thinking of going back.”

Willa frowned. “Of course, I’m going back. I live here, Cam. I belong here on Kirs. My work is here, and it’s unfinished.”

“You and your crew of rebels just broke me out of a government facility,” Camila said carefully. “Don’t you think that Shui is going to suspect you of doing it?”

“I have an airtight alibi,” she replied smugly.

“Really?” Camila asked with disbelief.

“I was with the emperor when you were broken out of the IDM.”

“Okay, I’m recovering from a pretty traumatic event so maybe my brain isn’t working,” Camila said with a wave of her hand. “Say that again.”

“I was with the emperor. Apologizing. Profusely. Convincingly.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

“Oh, it will,” Willa replied cryptically.

“When?”

“Soon.”

Camila scowled. “I hate your riddles.”

“This is a good one. I promise.”

“It better be,” she said grumpily.

“It’s not a barn, by the way,” Willa interjected abruptly.

“What?”

“Earlier, you called this a barn.” She gestured around them. “It’s not a barn.”

“Well, what was it?”

“An abattoir,” Willa said matter-of-factly.

Camila’s still sore jaw dropped. “You brought me to a slaughterhouse!”

“It’s clean,” Willa replied, as if that were the problem.

Camila shuddered. “I can feel the ghosts of all the murdered cows staring at me right now.”

“Pigs,” Willa corrected. “It was a pig processing facility.”

“Oh, well, that’s so much better,” Camila said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome to find another safe house to hide out in until your transport is arranged.”

“I just might,” Camila haughtily replied.

“Considering you can barely navigate the shopping district with both eyes open, I would highly suggest you stay put until you lose the eye patch,” Willa snarked.

“Stop antagonizing your sister.”

Both girls glanced at the doorway where their father stood. Camila glared at her father, though she doubted it was very intimidating with only one eye. Willa rose to her feet, looking from their father to Camila and back.

“I’d like to speak with Camila alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Willa replied. “She might only have one operational eye at the moment, but she’s still feisty enough to strangle you with that IV line.”

“No doubt,” their father said as he walked into the room. He stopped at the foot of the cot and stared down at Camila who seethed with rage and betrayal. Finally, he said, “I’m not here to apologize.”

Camila chortled. “Imagine that.”

“You made a choice to risk your life to save the cyborg you love, and I chose to do what was necessary to protect the work your mother started.”

“What does that mean?” Camila hated being in the dark like this. “Why do I get the feeling that everyone else in our family is part of something that I was excluded from?”

“Because you were,” their father stated. “You never showed any interest in what was happening politically so we chose not to involve you. There was no reason to put your life at risk.”

“Until there was?” she asked frustratedly.

“Yes.”

“So...what is this?” Camila demanded. “Are you part of Sara’s group?”

“In a way,” Willa answered. “We work independently of Civil Disobedience but within the wider network of the rebellion. All of our organizations are compartmentalized. Sara doesn’t know that we’re working for her on Kirs.”

“And you’re funding Sara?” Camila gestured toward her father. “You’re the one that makes sure she’s getting all those weapons, food and medical supplies I organized.”

“Some of it, yes,” her father admitted. “Mostly, though, it’s her cryptocurrency. I buy and use large amounts of it to generate a high enough percentage of the siphoned percentage she takes.”

“Okay, so lies you’ve all been telling me for years aside, what’s the plan now?” Camila wondered. “You broke me out of a state facility. Even if Willa’s alibi that she won’t explain holds, they’re going to figure out I’m missing and start digging around in your lives.”

“You aren’t missing,” her father corrected.

Camila frowned. “What does that mean?”

“You’re dead,” Willa interjected in that frank, blunt way of hers. “You died on the operating table last night. There was a catastrophic rupture of the anesthetic gas lines. The doctors and nurses in the room all died along with you from acute gas poisoning.”

Camila let that sink in for a minute. Her father stepped forward and handed her a small SeeSpeak tablet. When she saw the image on the screen, she recoiled. “Is that...?”

“It’s you,” Willa said, weirdly excited. “Or, I mean, it’s your DNA and your organs. Biologically, it’s you without the soul stuff that makes you you.”

Camila glanced at her father. “Can you translate that?”

“Willa has been replicating our tissues and organs in her lab for years,” he said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

“It started as a way to ensure we would always have access to any replacements we might need,” Willa explained. “After that law was passed about organ donation and all the new rules and regulations, I panicked. Mom had just died. Sara ran off. I was terrified of death. So, I thought, ‘Why not make copies of all the parts we might need.’”

“As one does,” Camila replied dryly.

“Right,” Willa agreed with a wild gleam in her eyes. “And then, one night, I had another thought. I decided to see if I could create a biologically based android. A complete replica of a human, down to the tiniest amino acid chain.”

“And you let her?” Camila gawked at their father. “You allowed your child—your very young child—to play mad scientist in the lab on our estate? You let her build biological androids?”

“It kept her busy,” their father explained weakly. “She finally had her spark back. I didn’t see the harm.”

“Holy fuck!” Camila threw up her arms. “Am I the only person in this family that’s not hopped up on extra strength crazy pills?”

Willa rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Cam! It was perfectly safe.”

“Well,” their father cut in, “mostly.”

Willa scoffed. “That was one rogue android, and she was easily stopped before she escaped the lab.”

Camila gaped at the two of them. “You’re both lunatics.”

“Lunatics that saved your life by dropping your biological copy on an operating table,” Willa grumbled.

Another thought struck Camila. “Is this your alibi with the emperor? You sent your creepy lab made twin to meet with him?”

Willa nodded and seemed supremely pleased with herself. “And it went beautifully!”

“The point,” their father interrupted their bickering, “is that you’re officially dead. Shui now has another mess to clean up because the media is asking hard questions about what happened in that facility and if you were sent there without due process or a trial. Your sister and I have alibis for last night. We’re not suspects. We can go back to our work. I’ll play the perfectly apologetic bootlicker to make sure I stay close to him, and Willa will continue her research.”

“Until?” Camila asked, thinking their plan was untenable.

“Until it’s time to flee,” Willa answered matter-of-factly.

“Like it’s that simple?” Camila shook her head. “It won’t be.”

“Probably not,” their father agreed, “but that’s the risk we take.”

“I think you should come with me,” Camila urged, worried that her sister and father would die if they stayed.

“We can’t,” Willa said, steadfast in her decision. “This is our destiny.”

“And yours is waiting out there,” their father said. “It’s not a luxury yacht, but you’ll get off the planet and to your destination safely.”

As angry as she had been with her father, she suddenly had no desire to leave just yet. “Already?”

“It’s time, Cam.” Willa smiled encouragingly. “Time for you to fly back to that cyborg who hijacked your heart.”

“Well,” Camila said with a smile, “when you put it like that...”