Is there a pressing reason DC-035 hasn’t completed her Year 16 benchmark tests? I can understand a certain degree of preferential treatment, but you, of all people, should understand how important regular testing is.
EIGHTEEN
Ava would not stop staring at her.
Maya tried to ignore her as she sliced another lemon and handed half to Rainbow. The girl’s face was fixed in an expression torn between fierce concentration and outright wonder as she gently pushed down the lever on the citrus press. The tart smell of lemon juice filled the room, and Rainbow solemnly removed the rind and deposited it in a bowl slowly filling with them.
“You know, there are machines that do that,” Ava pointed out as Maya passed over the next lemon half. “There have been for at least a century.”
Rainbow froze, gaze darting from Maya to Ava and back. Maya barely bit back an exasperated sigh. No one other than Nina ever responded well to Ava’s sudden appearances, but Rainbow was reacting with heartbreaking awe to the sudden tangible proof that Nina and Ava were like her—clones, genetically enhanced and ruthlessly trained. Maya supposed she might feel the same confronted with a data courier in their sixties who’d somehow mastered the seemingly impossible task of thriving in a world that would never understand you.
Nina knew how to handle the girl’s hero worship. Ava, on the other hand …
Maya wasn’t sure Ava knew how to handle anyone she wasn’t planning to kill.
“We don’t need a machine,” Maya said firmly, giving Rainbow’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “We make lemonade for ourselves, for fun. If we decide to go into business, we’ll discuss streamlining the system for mass production.”
Ava lifted one shoulder in a barely visible shrug, and Maya knew that she was already trying to decide where to obtain a top-of-the-line citrus juicer. She’d leave it behind, the same way she’d left Maya’s fancy ear cuffs, or the 3D scanner, or the set of perfectly balanced prototype throwing knives that wouldn’t set off metal detectors. Because she couldn’t seem to help herself.
“We don’t need a machine,” she repeated, a little more firmly.
“Don’t bother, Maya,” Rafe drawled, flipping around the chair at the head of the table so he could straddle it. “Ava doesn’t know how to express herself with words, so she’s just going to keep buying us presents until we like her.”
Ava turned her cool gaze on Rafe. Her face might have been identical to Nina’s, but Nina had never managed to pack that much absolute disdain into a single look. “Don’t flatter yourself. I neither need nor desire your approval.”
“Yeah, you say that. You say it all the time.” Rafe leaned closer to Maya and stage-whispered, “Do you know what she had in that huge-ass bag she hauled in here?”
“I don’t know, gold bars?”
“A heart.”
Maya blinked at him, her imagination immediately supplying the grisly visual. “What, like ripped with her bare hands from the chest of a man who’d wronged her?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Ava retorted, her voice bland. “Why would I get my hands dirty for such an inefficient kill? There are much better ways to kill someone.”
“See, now she’s just trying to look like an asshole.” Rafe propped his chin on his hand and grinned. “She grew the heart. From Ivonne’s DNA. And paid a surgeon to be on standby.”
Maya’s own heart skipped a beat. Ivonne couldn’t afford the artificial organs created by the TechCorps, and even the best treatment Luna and Rafe could buy had only been a stopgap measure. “Ivonne is getting her transplant?”
“Don’t make something of this that it’s not,” Ava snapped. “I inconvenienced Luna—”
“Kidnapped,” Maya interjected. “You kidnapped Luna.”
“—and she deserves compensation for her trouble. That’s all it is.”
“Uh-huh.” Rafe dragged the cutting board away from Maya and started slicing the lemons in half with effortless strokes. “You will work harder than anyone on this whole damned planet to avoid apologizing. It’s honestly impressive. I have deep respect for your dedication to never saying you’re sorry.”
Deprived of anything to do with her hands now that Rafe had taken over slicing the lemons, Maya nudged Conall. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
“Nope,” he replied without looking up from his tablet. “I don’t poke bears or psychotic evil genius clones.”
Rafe snorted. “You literally poked a bear on that mission in the Carolinas. As I recall, it tried to eat your face.”
“Exactly. That’s why I don’t poke bears.” Conall tapped his fingers rapidly over the screen of his tablet. “Besides, this whole conversation is irrational. Who wants I’m sorry when you could get latest-gen smart lenses instead?”
He flashed a grin at Ava, and the light caught his eyes just right, reflecting off his new contacts. Maya’s one attempt to try the things back on the Hill had put her flat on her back for a day with vertigo she couldn’t shake. The last thing she wanted was more shit trying to get her attention. But Conall had clearly missed looking at the world through his customized heads-up display, so she wouldn’t begrudge him the gift.
Rafe clearly did, though. He exhaled and shook his head. “It’s the principle of the damn thing, y’all. She can’t just kidnap and blackmail everyone and then buy them presents.”
“Obviously I can,” she told Rafe, baring her teeth at him. Maybe she thought it was a smile. Maya found it mildly terrifying.
“Ava.”
Ava’s fearsome smile-grimace disappeared. Her expression went utterly flat as Knox leaned past her to set a stack of salad plates in the center of the table. His voice hadn’t been particularly chiding or serious. It hadn’t been anything. But Knox and Ava circled each other like two scary monsters with one shared vulnerability—Nina.
Maya was pretty sure they hated each other. And equally sure neither would ever act upon it. Neither of them would risk Nina’s heart.
It was the main reason Maya had grown fond of Knox and even softened toward Ava. No one who loved Nina as fiercely as Knox and Ava did could be beyond redemption. The urge to make Nina happy made them better people. Maya could see it with Ava already. Her jaw was clenched around whatever undoubtedly caustic thing she wanted to say to Knox …
But she wasn’t saying it. That was something, anyway.
Knox eased the large jar from beneath the juice press and held out a hand to Rainbow. “Do you want to see how we turn this into lemonade?”
After another covert glance at Ava, Rainbow silently slipped her tiny hand into Knox’s huge one and followed him back to the kitchen area.
“That was a good move,” Rafe said. “We should probably talk less about murder in front of the baby.”
“She’s not a baby.” Ava narrowed her eyes as she considered Rainbow where she stood at the far side of the room next to Knox. “Depending on what her training protocols were, it’s possible she’s already made her first kill. I doubt it, though. They have a certain look, after that.”