Lucid Design Read online

  “So Raleigh who makes Lucid, are you Designed, too?” Brent held the water marginally out of her reach and waited on the answer.

  “Designed?”

  “No. I guess that you won’t be with those freckles.”

  He slid the water the rest of the way. He filled another glass and slid it to Rho, who didn’t take it. Instead he glared daggers at Brent.

  “Did I say something wrong? Is she insecure about them?” asked Brent. “Raleigh, you should embrace your freckles, they give you the whole innocent-girl-next-door-vibe. Although, a Designed female is something that I wouldn’t mind seeing.”

  “What does that mean?” Too many secrets had piled up over the last day, and she was done with being out of the loop.

  Brent’s grin left his face, and his eyebrows rose up as he looked to Rho. “She’s traveling with us, but she doesn’t know who you are? How did you explain making so much Lucid?”

  “Raleigh didn’t question me making a lot. She makes as much as I do, and no, she’s a natural, has her father’s hair.” Rho saw Raleigh opening her mouth. “I told you I’d tell you about my origins when it was the right time. This isn’t it.”

  “Will it be better in the next thirty-six hours?” Brent’s easygoing mood returned. “I’m not taking her to meet Marcel without her knowing.”

  “I’ll tell her on my own terms—and she isn’t meeting Marcel.”

  Brent sighed. “Part of the problem with you wanting to work with the nice dealers is that they aren’t as seedy as their counterparts. He’s not going to make her fake papers—which we’ll need—without meeting her.”

  Dealer? That didn’t sound good to her. “What does he deal?”

  “Wow, you really filled her in. Raleigh, girl, why did you come along with this secretive ragtag team? Rho’s pretty eyes?” Brent laughed.

  She wasn’t about to be the butt of the joke. “Why does everyone suggest I’d be that superficial? What do you deal?”

  Rho twirled the glass in his hand. “The jokes about my appearance are directed at me, and we deal Lucid. Before you judge, hear me out. We’re on the run from Grant and Able, the black market dealers, and who knows who else. It’s not like I can find a nine to five job. It isn’t an option. I have a commodity, and I sell it.”

  Brent leaned against the counter. “Don’t give us that look, it’s not heroin.”

  “But Sabine said it might be addictive.” She couldn’t help but notice Rho’s eyes drift to Collin. Is that where his nerves came from?

  “It can be if you have enough receptors and can get a hold of enough of it,” Rho said. “Most people don’t get addicted, and it’s not like other drugs. It gives people better awareness. It makes them understand their own bodies better, improves their health. A few people can sense, but the ability to influence is so rare that we really don’t worry about it.”

  “But you’re perpetuating the same market that’s hunting you.”

  “Yes, but I can’t think of a better way to raise funds. Train tickets, plane tickets, secure apartments all cost money. Brent’s parents don’t have so many friends that we can live everywhere free.”

  “At least not enough friends that I’m on good terms with,” whispered Brent. He clapped his hands together. “So, now we have more product which is good because Marcel is going to require payment, and no one likes an IOU.”

  “He can’t have hers.”

  Brent asked, “Why?”

  “Because it’s different from mine.”

  “Doesn’t work as well? Nature never is as good.” Brent shrugged. “It would still probably be better than the synthetic.”

  Rho held out one of the vials Sabine gave him. “You try it.”

  Raleigh squirmed, was he going to inject that now? They were right, Lucid wasn’t a standard street drug. It was also something that she was “on” all the time. Despite that, Brent’s syringe seemed nefarious. A moment later he plunged in the Lucid, her Lucid, into a small device on his arm. It was similar to her port but smaller. It required the Lucid to go in, not out. She grasped the effect her Lucid had on Brent as it hit his system. His eyes dilated, his body tensed, and he took a long breath in.

  “How many receptors does he have?” Raleigh turned to Rho, keeping her eyes off Brent and the intimate experience.

  “Enough to sense for the first half hour or so after taking it.”

  Brent exhaled and extended his hands letting the rush slide to his fingertips. “That’s pretty good. Half the population gets nada, and only a quarter can sense.”

  “Having any receptors means that you’ll have more control over your own body. Brent will have that for a few hours.” Rho noticed her confusion. “You take that for granted. The sensing you know is special because others can’t do it. What you don’t realize, is that you also have better control over your body, more awareness, than other people.”

  “How is that helpful to him?”

  “If I were an athlete, I’d be able to train better,” said Brent. “It could help me control any illness I had. It’s insightful. Hers is better. Has more of a kick. I can tell it will wear off faster, but the sensing is easier. This would sell for more, easy. Why aren’t you barricading my sensing?”

  Rho bowed his head. “I’m still weak. No reason to do it while around friends.”

  “There’s the term barricading. What exactly is it?” Raleigh asked.

  A moment later her awareness of him slipped away. She could reach out and touch him if she wanted, but her mind had no clue what was going on inside him. Nothing. It was the same feeling she got nearing the end of an extraction. Then the connection was back.

  “And you do that all the time?”

  “When I haven’t nearly died by being drained of Lucid, yeah.”

  Brent interrupted them. “Rho, it’s time you figure out your terms. She needs to know a lot more than she knows now.”

  “I’ll teach her influencing and barricading tomorrow.”

  Done with his scan of the house, Collin reappeared. “It takes weeks to learn both. She’s not going to be up to speed for a while, until then she’s a liability.”

  Raleigh opened her mouth ready to spit out a snarky remark, but Brent beat her to it. “You’re being finicky because you don’t like being shown up. From Rho and his brothers, it’s understandable. From her, a natural, it’s unexpected. You may be at the top of the curve, but she redefines it. Careful. Jealousy can really cloud your judgment.”

  “Like you should be giving anyone a lecture on judgment.” Heat spread down Collin’s neck.

  The half hour wasn’t up. Brent would still be able to sense that his words ignited the heat rising in his friend. “We have different methods of working with people, which explains why I’m the liaison between us and everyone else.”

  Rho stepped in. “Collin, do you want to try Raleigh’s?”

  “Why? We’re not selling it and from what I heard you say, it doesn’t work as well.”

  Brent tilted his head. “Works different. It might be more enticing to our customers. I could see addicts liking it more. Want to prove my theory?”

  “Enough!” Rho said. “We’re all stressed after this week. Let’s remember this is a team. The dynamics have changed a little, but I expect that you’re all smart enough to adapt.”

  Brent and Collin both turned down their eyes in submission, their shoulders relaxing.

  “I’m going out for a late dinner with Raleigh.” Rho’s eyes met hers. A secret laced the iris of his eye.

  Collin nodded and said, “I’ll come, too.”

  “I don’t want you there.” Rho kept his back straight and spoke before Collin could protest. “I don’t need your protection. I’ll bring a vial, on the off chance, that I need it. But I should be able to influence.”

  Trevor cleared his throat and looked up from the computer. “Rho, we just got you back.”

  “I’ll be fine. Raleigh, let’s have that talk.” He swigged the rest of his water and go
t off the stool. “You should bring a jacket. It will get colder.” He hauled her bag up the stairs and poked his head into the rooms, deciding on the one with the floral motif. Then he nodded his head to her and went back down.

  Her eyes admired the tasteful décor, feminine, but not too girly. She opened her case and pulled out a sweater. A few cool minutes would be welcomed after such a hot day. Wrapping the sweater around her waist, she noticed her reflection in the mirror over the dresser. She had no idea where Rho was taking her. On the street, her clothes were too casual, and, presumably, that would be the case with any place they went. She swapped her shorts for a skirt.

  As she entered the kitchen, Collin stopped arguing with Brent to appraise her. “Why the skirt? It isn’t a date.”

  Brent punched Collin lightly. “She looks like less of a tourist, and we know how important it is to blend in.”

  “They can find ways to bicker about anything.” Rho scooped up a backpack from the counter and touched Raleigh’s elbow. “Let’s go.”

  “What’s in the pack?” Raleigh asked.

  “Dinner.”

  11

  RHO AND RALEIGH left the townhouse, stepping through the large navy doors onto the sidewalk. The streets thinned out as evening settled in. It was nice not having Collin scrutinizing her every move, but could they protect themselves without him? Rho’s steps had grown more confident since that morning, but he wasn’t fully recovered.

  “So your brothers....”

  Rho’s steps lengthened. “Wine, food, and then the explanation.”

  “Or you could just tell me now.”

  “You’ll be glad you had the wine.”

  Rho knew his way around Paris, winding assuredly through the streets until they reached a park. The hot July day had given way to a warm evening. Couples sat on benches and stretched out on the grass.

  Unzipping his pack, Rho took out a blanket. It billowed open as he laid it down, giving them a place to sit. They could hear the French chatter of the nearest couple, but not well, meaning their conversation could be private.

  Now nothing kept her from admiring the city. The tumultuous past few days had given her little time to catch her breath. She relaxed as the city soothed her with its pleasantly warm air and ambient sounds. Rho pulled out two sandwiches and handed her one. Then he extended her a water bottle. Raleigh sat with her legs tucked neatly beneath her, regretting the skirt, as she bit into her sandwich. Its fresh taste was amazing. Pulling the bread back, she inspected it. The cheese, ham, and bread were things she’d eaten before, but, even in combination, none of the parts had tasted near this good.

  Rho took out a thermos and unscrewed the lid. The smell of wine infused the air as he poured it into the cap. He handed it to her. “Here.”

  “Can we drink in the park?”

  “As long as we don’t get rowdy or drunk.” He poured himself one. He took a small sip and then rested his cup on the blanket alongside the sandwich he had yet to touch. He stretched out his legs.

  She didn’t know if he relaxed because he could let his guard down here, or because he was too exhausted to keep it up. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine. Why don’t you tell me what your family’s like?”

  That wasn’t the purpose of their coming here, but she humored him. “I have two older siblings, Ben and Lana. Ben’s out of college and working at a bank in San Diego. Lana’s a sophomore in college and lives away from home. I rarely see her. Thalia, my younger sister, is going to be a junior in high school. My mom stayed home with us when we were younger and now has a flower shop. My dad’s a lawyer.”

  “So, you’re the unique one in the bunch?”

  “Thalia is pretty unique. She’s the rebellious one. Or maybe I get that title after coming here.”

  “Your mom wouldn’t encourage you to join us?”

  “If she knew, I’d be on the first flight home, the police would be called, and she’d seal up the house and never let me leave again.”

  “She’s protective.”

  “A product of having a child with special needs. Ben says that she was much more carefree before my blackouts. I was seven and can’t really remember her being any other way from how she is now. What’s your family like? Pretty boring?”

  “Very funny.” He took another slow sip of wine. “I grew up in the boys’ home.”

  “That’s where you met Sabine and Henry.” Their reminiscing the other night at dinner gave Raleigh the impression they’d had good times.

  “It was great. I thrived there. At the time, I didn’t know who I was. Kappa and I figured that we were probably brothers even though we don’t look alike. He’s blond with green eyes. We showed up at the same time, as infants with matching necklaces.” He slid his fingers under the top of his T-shirt and removed the silver chain with the Greek letter.

  “His picture is on top of the extraction machine at Sabine’s.”

  “We were really similar. Both of us were in the top of our classes—Trevor and us. And when it came to sports, we were always the two captains. It wouldn’t have been fair to have us both on the same team. It sounds arrogant, but it was true. Everything came easy. Really, the only thing to contend with was that we both had a liver disease which required daily filtrations.”

  “You don’t feel like you have liver disease, not that all liver diseases feel the same. Really, it’s hard to detect. Usually other stuff is off... You didn’t really have liver disease.”

  Rho took a longer sip of wine. “It was the excuse to take our Lucid. Sabine and Henry knew we made it, but they didn’t tell us. They were with Grant and Able and didn’t burden us with the complexities of what we made. No one at the school knew besides them.”

  Sabine had a history of keeping people in the dark and hadn’t reserved that behavior strictly for her. “Did they know your parents?”

  Rho rolled over onto his back so he was looking up at the dusky sky. A few scattered clouds hung onto the sunset. “You don’t know me well. I don’t want you to hate me.”

  “I could never hate you for who your parents are.”

  “I used to think the same thing. So many kids at the orphanage had parents who had shady back stories. Trevor’s mother was an awful woman. When you see how important nurture is, you can fool yourself into thinking it beats out nature.”

  “I don’t think people are genetically predisposed to being bad.”

  “Neither do I. That was one of the reasons I never cared who my parents were. There was the initial interest, who gave me my eyes, did my parents like the same sorts of things I did. It didn’t really matter. At most, it was curiosity. I’m sure you’ve read the orphan books where they find they are someone amazing due to their lineage, a hidden prince, a magical child, a man destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Take your pick. I knew enough orphans to know those stories were garbage.”

  “But you weren’t a normal orphan. You could sense because of Lucid.”

  “So could Kappa, but we didn’t ever discuss it with anyone. The few times we did they didn’t understand. Sabine told us to keep quiet, and we listened. When we discovered influencing, it became a new secret to add to the other. We were the norm, Kappa and me. The rest of my brothers weren’t so lucky. For all they knew, they were the only ones.”

  “How many brothers?”

  “Twelve of us total, although two are dead. Drained.”

  “Twelve!” exclaimed Raleigh, glancing over at the other picnickers who thankfully didn’t pay her any attention. “And no sisters?”

  “Ten now, and no sisters, which was why everyone is shocked you’re a girl. You probably make more Lucid than any woman in the world, maybe history.”

  Raleigh took another bite of her sandwich. Surely, if that many brothers made it, she wasn’t that much of an anomaly. As she ate, she noticed that he’d put up his barricade. They’d ventured into the part of the conversation he didn’t want to have.

  “How did you meet your brothers?”
r />   “I was fifteen. Sabine and Henry woke Kappa and me and told us that we had to go. They said our family needed us back, that there’d been some trouble, and that we needed to leave immediately. It was the middle of the night. We didn’t say goodbye or pack, just left for a small airport where a private jet took us away.” Rho paused and ran his fingers though his hair as he propped himself up on one arm. “We landed on an island. We were confused by why our parents would give us up if they were so rich. Frankly, by that age I was moody and didn’t want to know them. That wasn’t an option. Then we were escorted into the largest mansion I’d ever seen and taken to a ballroom.”

  “Where the rest of your brothers were?”

  Rho trained his eyes on her. “It was weirder than counting up ten other guys besides the two of us. It was easy to do the math and hit twelve because there were four sets of identical triplets.”

  “Really? How is that possible? Isn’t that super rare?”

  “I guess triplets isn’t technically the right word. Each one was born to a separate surrogate, but there are two guys that had the same genes as me.”

  “I’m not getting it? What about your parents?”

  “There were none. We were made from scratch. Designed. The alternative would be you, a natural. It’s the category the rest of the world falls into.”

  “Clones?”

  “No, from scratch. It was a large experiment which is why we all have a Greek letter in place of a real name.”

  “I didn’t know science could do that.”

  Rho sat up shaking his head. “The question is why would they do it? What would be the point? You could make a person better, but, overall, they’re still only a person. I’ve been designed to be attractive and smart, but not so much that people should’ve spent years figuring out a way to make me.”

  Raleigh inspected him. His symmetrical face hadn’t one blemish. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say he was the most attractive person she’d ever seen. Up until now it had been a punch line, like Brent saying she came along because of Rho’s pretty eyes. Raleigh figured that Rho had the good fortune of having looks. Now that she knew it was artificial, his attributes took on new meaning.