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He picked up the journal and handed it to her. When he spoke, there was no inflection in his voice whatsoever. "It was among the papers contained in the leather pouch back in the house."
Corinne frowned, lifting the cover and glancing at the handwriting scrawled across the first page. "Is it a record from the labs?" When Hunter didn't answer, she paged forward, then rapidly fanned through dozens of entries, page after page of handwritten notations. "It's a birth record. My God, this is a ledger of events. It's a detailed documentation from one of Dragos's assassin programs."
"The very first," Hunter replied.
The truth hit her even before she glanced up at him and saw the bleakness in his handsome face. This wasn't merely any aged lab record recovered from the beginnings of Dragos's twisted breeding operation ... it was Hunter's own.
Her breath caught, uncertain what to expect, Corinne flipped farther into the ledger. Not quite a quarter in, she randomly settled on one of the many entries.
Subject: Year 4Report: Performs at top levels of education and physical training; tests in excess of 50 points above other 5 Hunters currently in program
It came as no surprise to her that
Hunter would excel in whatever he did, even at so young an age. Some of the air she'd been holding in her lungs eased out now, and she turned to another entry farther in the ledger. Subject: Year 5Report: Initial conditioning completed; subject removed from lab to individual cell off-site; habitation and discipline to be monitored by assigned Minion handler She
flipped some more pages.
Subject: Year 8Report: Physical and mental fitness exceeds testing expectations; concepts and practice of various stealth execution techniques mastered; handler recommends advancing subject to live target training A number of later entries, recorded in apparent close sequence to the one that had Corinne's blood running cold in her veins:
Subject: Year 8Report: First kill; training tested in field situation against human quarry (no contest)
Report: Successful kill of civilian Breed adolescent; methods employed: hand-to-hand and short blades (subject and quarry equally armed)
Report: Successful kill of civilian Breed adult; method employed: hand-to-hand, short/long blades (subject unarmed; pursuit and capture techniques outstanding, efficient use of environment and training in execution of quarry)
The coldness she'd felt a moment ago was
ice now, a sickness rising within her when she considered the evil that would bend a child into becoming the kind of soulless monster Dragos seemed determined to have at his command. She glanced up at the stoic Gen One male - the hard-trained assassin who had somehow become her friend and lover - and she found no fear or disdain for what he had been forced to become. She cared about him, deeply.
She didn't have to search very far inside her heart to realize that she loved him. With emotion stinging her eyes and the back of her throat, she turned a few more dreaded pages.
Subject: Year 9Report: Handler notes alarming rise in subject inquisitiveness; frequent questions about purpose in life, personal origin
Report: Subject found hoarding books in cell; random volumes of fiction, biography, philosophy, poetry stolen from handler quarters This particular entry had a further notation beneath it, scribbled by a furious hand.
Determination: Restrict access to reading material other than program-approved manuals, technical and training booksAction: Handler instructed to remove contraband from cell and order subject to destroy itConsider: Rebellion to be anticipated as limiting factor as program continues. Subjects are highly intelligent, natural-born predators and conquerors. Discipline alone may not be enough to keep them submissive. Process Improvement: Task technology staff with providing means of ensuring subject obedience and loyalty within the Hunter program Corinne closed the ledger and moved up next to Hunter.
She was speechless, overcome with sorrow for the boy who'd never been given the chance to be a child and humbled by the man who had come through such a lonely, lightless hell and still had the capacity for gentleness and honor.
She took his face in her hands and tenderly turned him to look at her. "You are a good man, Hunter. You are so much more than what Dragos meant for you to be. You are better than the sum of your past. You must know that, don't you?"
He drew out of her grasp, scowling, shaking his head. "I killed her."
The words were spoken quietly, a simple, horrific statement of fact. "What are you talking about?"
"It's all in there," he said, gesturing to the awful ledger in her lap. Although she hated to see what other ugliness she'd find in Hunter's early years, he had obviously read the entire thing from front to back. She picked it up again and flipped past the first page. This time, she went slower, reading through the details of his birth and the weeks and months afterward, when he - unlike her own son - had been allowed to feed from his mother's vein and not from the strangers who had ostensibly nourished Nathan when she was denied even that small gift.
And then ... she saw it.
Report: Subject exhibits obvious separation anxiety when removed from presence of mother; weakness noted; behavioral flaw to be correctedAction: Interaction with mother eliminated; feedings switched to human and/or Minion sources Corinne turned a few more pages, foreboding putting a tremble in her fingers as she found the entry that made all the rest of them pale by comparison:
Subject: Year 2Report: Subject experienced chance sighting of mother in lab; subject emotional, inconsolable when refused contact by Minion handlers; incident resulted in damage to lab equipment, further defiance exhibited in subjectDetermination: For benefit of subject training, potential future distraction must be eliminatedAction: Mother terminated; effective immediately, program process modified to prohibit interaction between future subjects and mothers; subjects to be provided for solely by Minion handlers Corinne's eyes were too wet to read any more. She set the record of Dragos's madness away from her, giving it a hard, hate-filled shove. Hunter's voice was wooden beside her. "I killed my mother, Corinne." The words were flat and emotionless, even while a couple of tears strayed, wholly ignored by him, down his rigid face.
"You didn't do any such thing." As tenderly as she dared, Corinne reached out and swept her thumb through the tracks of moisture dripping toward his tightly held jaw. She caressed his flushed cheek, her heart cracked wide open, raw and aching for this man. "Dragos did this terrible thing, not you."
"My mother is dead because of me, Corinne. Because I loved her."
There was such a depth of regret in his eyes, she could hardly find the words to offer him comfort. Nothing she said could take away the hurt he must be feeling. Loss left pain in its wake, no matter how distant the void.
