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“Another one I’m not so good at,” he shouts down. This poor boy does need to build the muscles in his arms.
“Jump down,” I tell him. He immediately does as I say. “You’re wasting strength by starting at the bottom. You need to go as high as you can to start off. Use your momentum from a run up and the natural bounce in your knees to propel as high as you can. I’m certain the muscles in your arms are burning now from hanging onto to ropes back at the start, but that is why you have to go for it. As soon as you land, know where you’re going next, and have your lead hand moving toward that spot. Have your brain one step ahead each time. If you pause, the lactic acid in your muscles will slow you down.” I motion for him to take a few steps back. I run for the wall again. Leap at it, and straight over again. I come back around. “See what I mean?”
“Yes, sir,” he says.
“Your go.” I step aside. The boy takes a deep breath and runs for the wall and leaps three-quarters of the way up it and finds a rung above his hands to hold on to. In no time, he’s at the top and hauling himself over. I applaud his effort as I walk around to the other side just in time for him to land on the ground next to me.
“I did it.” He looks shocked, and I try not to laugh.
“Quit wasting time.” I point toward the finish line.
“Shit,” he exclaims. “I forgot.” He takes off toward the line, and I jog after him. He crosses and looks expectantly at the soldier with the stopwatch.
“Three minutes and twenty seconds,” the soldier tells him.
“A full minute off my personal best.” The boy jumps up and down. Some of his contemporaries come up to him and offer congratulations.
“Thank you, sir,” he shouts over them all but can’t shake my hand for he’s dragged off in a whirlwind of boys, soon to be men, wanting to know all the secrets I imparted.
“You did a good thing there.” A feminine voice comes from behind me. It’s not one that sends a shiver of pleasure up my spine though. No, only Samara can do that. It’s one that boils my blood with fury.
“Rebekah.” I turn around to face her. She’s dressed in her usual tight-skirted suit with high heels. This one is purple. She looks out of place here amongst the sweaty, gym-wear clad men. “If you listened to my advice and improved their fitness first, then the times would be much better. You don’t just throw a kid in at the deep end and hope he swims.”
“You did,” she retorts with a playful rise of her manicured eyebrow. How did I ever find this woman attractive? The chip must have distorted my views of what was sexy in a woman, because this brash, made-up skank of a person is nothing like my natural and stunning Samara.
“I think we both know by now I had a lot of help. I was the guinea pig after all, for all the men out here.”
“A perfectly made man.” She licks her lips, but I’m done here. I take the bottle of water and towel from the soldier carrying them, ignoring Rebekah’s flirting, I return to the main building. She follows me. I hear her heels clicking on the sidewalk when we reach it.
“Archer, wait,” she shouts after me.
“What?” I spin around and face her down. My lips pursed together, my nostrils flare with the anger coursing through my body. This is the woman who ordered them to cut Mara’s womb from her body. This is the woman who had the chip put in my head. I want to wring her tiny little neck with my hands. I want to hear the bones snap. I want to feel her last breath on my face. But what I’m not prepared for is the next words that come out of her mouth.
“I’m pregnant with your baby.”
Chapter 29
Samara
It’s been more than eight hours since we found Diana’s sister, and my anxiety has twisted my stomach in knots. We don’t have much time left to get to Archer, and with every moment that passes, I find myself on edge.
“Okay,” Mikaela says when she enters her living room again. A folder, thick with paperwork, is gripped tightly in her hand. “I have everything we need. How to get into The Factory, and how to get into my sister’s office. Once we can get in there, we can turn off the chips she inserted into the soldiers.”
“And as soon as those devices are turned off, they’ll get their memories back?” Hunter questions as he steps toward her, holding out his hand to grab the folder. She nods, allowing him to scan the documents as he flips through the paperwork.
