“Anna,” Nina tried again, “why don’t you go ahead and spell it out for us? Pretend like we really don’t know what you mean.”
Anna blew out a long sigh. “I get it. This is some sort of test. You want to know if I’ve figured it out.” She leaned forward, carefully enunciating her words. “You are from the Pleiades. We have met before on at least twelve occasions, but this is the first time you’ve visited while I’m awake.” She sat back in her chair and gave each of them a satisfied smile.
Nina shot Wade a look. He and Kent were the headshrinkers, not her.
Wade took the hint, adopting a patient tone. “Anna, we are FBI agents. We do not come from the Pleiades, we are from Earth. We need to ask you some important questions.”
Anna frowned. “There’s only one way to be sure.” She stood. “Follow me into the kitchen. I can sterilize a knife and—”
“No,” Wade said firmly. “You cannot cut us. We need your cooperation for an investigation.”
“An investigation,” Anna said, sitting back down. “Is that what you’re calling it these days?” She let out a huff. “I won’t believe you unless I can perform a few experiments of my own. Let’s see how you like being probed.”
Anna had managed to obtain two doctorates but had come loose from her moorings and gone adrift somewhere along the way. Nina wondered about the Cipher. Did crazy run in the family?
Wade tried again. “Anna, we need to know about your background. Were you adopted?”
Anna’s cackle was derisive. “As if you didn’t know.”
Kent, who was sitting closest, leaned toward her. “Please, Anna, this is very important. Tell us what you know about your parents and where you were born.”
She turned to him with a conspiratorial smile. “You’re here because you’re in my bloodline. I’m descended from the Nordics, you know.” She clasped her hands neatly in her lap. “The Grays had nothing to do with it.”
Nina was lost. “Anna, what are you talking about?”
She pointed to Kent. “He can tell you.”
If Anna thought that would clear things up, she was badly mistaken. Nina had been excited to interview the Cipher’s only known full-blooded relative, certain she would garner exactly what she needed to track him down. Instead, she was listening to a crazy woman babble while the clock ticked down. She shot Kent a questioning glance.
He appeared to be stifling a massive eye roll. “I’ve run across this before due to my . . . appearance.” He pinched the bridge of his nose under the thick black frames of his glasses. “There are people who believe in a race of humanoid extraterrestrials from the Pleiades star cluster who resemble Scandinavians. They are referred to by UFOlogists as ‘Nordics.’” He grimaced. “This is as opposed to the ‘Grays,’ who are small and gray skinned, with large dark eyes.”
Nina would have laughed if the situation weren’t so serious. How would they get actionable information out of Anna? She had been trained at the academy not to indulge people’s delusions, which was the course Wade and Kent had taken. She decided on a slightly different approach.
Adopting an expression of utmost sincerity, she faced Anna. “There might be something in your DNA that is very helpful to us. In order to get that information, we need to know about your origins. All of the files we have are gone.”
“Well, why the hell didn’t you just say so?” Anna said. “My parents—not biological, obviously—went to the Borr Clinic when they found out they couldn’t have children. They didn’t want to adopt, and they had heard about Dr. Borr’s lab through friends in DC.” She glanced up at the ceiling, trying to recollect. “I don’t remember their names, but I’m pretty sure they worked for the government.”
Surprised she had gotten Anna to talk, Nina kept to the relevant details. “Who is Dr. Borr?”
“You know, the famous geneticist. He pioneered genetically engineered offspring. Told my parents I would be special.” She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But of course he didn’t tell them the baby would be half extraterrestrial.” Her eyes flitted to Kent.
“Do you know where his clinic is?” Nina asked, trying to keep her on track.
“About an hour from here, right next to—” She jabbed a finger at Breck. “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
Breck hastily tucked her cell phone away. “Nothing.”
“You were taking pictures of me. I saw you.”
“I just wanted to, you know, get some photos of your head and facial features.”
Nina inwardly groaned. Breck should never, under any circumstances, work undercover. She had to be the worst liar ever.
Anna shot to her feet, pointing at the front door, stiff armed. “Get out. All of you.”
Despite their repeated assurances that there was nothing to fear, Anna remained adamant. In her mind, they had crossed the line by taking secret measurements of her body without her permission. She told them she’d been abducted too many times, suffered from PTSD because of it, and would no longer tolerate any probes, examinations, or hours of lost time.
A barrage of accusations peppered with obscenities followed them as they clambered into the sleek black van and instructed the driver to head back to Quantico. Nina looked out the darkly tinted side window to see Anna standing on her front porch, both middle fingers in the air.
The van maneuvered onto the main road as she glanced at Kent, who had taken the bench seat opposite her. “I didn’t know you had relatives in the Pleiades.”
Wade chuckled. “It certainly explains a few things.”
“I’ll have to report this to the home world,” Kent said, deadpan. “And I’m afraid I’ll also have to wipe your memories.”
“I don’t know about alien-hybrid babies,” Breck said, typing on her cell phone. “But Dr. Borr ran a fertility clinic in Bethesda.”
“I guess we know where we’re going next,” Wade said. “That’s exactly what Fanning was talking about. We should be able to get a search warrant for medical records if they don’t grant us access.”
Breck frowned down at her screen. “Except that the clinic burned to the ground about thirty years ago.”
“What happened?” Nina asked.
“According to this news article, the clinic was founded by Dr. Wayland Borr, who advertised his services to couples who wanted to raise superior offspring.” Breck made air quotes around the last two words. “He called it the Borr Project.”
A chill crept down Nina’s spine. “Superior offspring?”
Breck pursed her lips. “He collected eggs and sperm exclusively from Caucasian donors screened for optimal genetic health and a genius-level IQ.”
“Unbelievable,” Kent said.
“Local media did a report about the clinic.” Breck continued reading as the van maneuvered onto the freeway. “Described the Borr Project as a modern-day eugenics experiment. The day after the story went out, someone torched the whole building.”
“Did the clinic reopen?” Nina asked.
“According to this news report, Dr. Borr committed suicide a short time later. The clinic never reopened.”