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“Immediately,” McNamara added.
“Of course. And how was your trip?” Lucias went to the antique cabinet that held the liquor. His grandfather might not want a drink, but he needed one.
“Productive. A word you’ve become unfamiliar with since you graduated college.”
“With honors,” Lucias pointed out and poured scotch neat into heavy crystal. “Just taking a sabbatical after years of study. And actually, I’ve been doing some work in my lab. A pet project. You know all about pet projects, after all.”
McNamara turned away briefly. The boy was a disappointment to him. A severe disappointment. He had helped create him, handpicking the man he’d deemed best suited for his daughter. A man much like himself—intelligent, driven, strong. Ambitious.
Their inability to conceive a child had been a monumental frustration for him, but had helped him launch the project. The project that had advanced his career, created his grandson. And had very nearly ruined everything.
Still, he had risen above it. His name had never been marred. And never would be.
And hadn’t he nurtured the child? Educated him, molded him, given him every opportunity to refine and develop the superior mind he’d been born with?
Instead, the boy had been spoiled. His mother’s doing, McNamara thought grimly. A woman’s weakness. She’d pampered and coddled him. Had ruined him.
Now, he was very much afraid that child had put his name, his career, his reputation in the greatest jeopardy.
“What have you done, Lucias?”
Lucias downed the scotch, poured more. “I’m not prepared to talk about the experiment, though it’s coming along quite well, I believe. And how is Grandmother?”
“As ever.” He took the glass Lucias offered, studied his grandson’s face. And saw what he had always seen. A blank wall. “She misses you. It seems you had no time to visit her, or call, while I was away.”
“Well, I’ve been a busy little bee.” The whiskey helped, considerably. “I’ll be sure to make time for her very soon. Ah, here comes Kevin.”
He went back to pour a drink for his friend, and yet another for himself.
“Dr. McNamara, what a delightful surprise.”
“So I just said myself.” Lucias handed Kevin the glass. “It isn’t often we’re so privileged. That will be all,” he said to the droid, then dropped into a chair. “Now, what shall we talk about?”
“I want to see your lab,” McNamara demanded.
“I’m afraid not.” Lucias sipped scotch. “You know how we mad scientists are about our experiments. Hush-hush. Top secret. After all, I learned all about the sacrosanct from you, didn’t I?”
“You’ve been using illegals again.”
“No, I haven’t. I learned my lesson. Didn’t I, Kevin? We both learned our lessons well when you had us tucked quietly away in rehab on Delta last year. Hush-hush,” he said again and nearly giggled. “Top secret.”
“You’re a liar.” McNamara exploded, striding to his grandson, knocking the heavy glass from his hand. “Do you think I can’t recognize the signs? You’re using again. Both of you. Destroying your minds, your futures for a weakness, a temporary indulgence.”
“That glass was an heirloom.” Lucias’s hands wanted to shake, but with anger as much as the innate fear, the bone-deep loathing his grandfather always brought to him. “You should have more respect for family, Grandfather.”
“You speak to me of respect? The police came to my office today. They questioned me. I’ve been ordered into Interview tomorrow, and there’s a request being processed to open the sealed files on the project.”
“Oh-oh.” Lucias’s bright blue eyes twinkled, a mischievous boy caught in a prank, as he looked at Kevin. “Now that would be quite the scandal. What do you think, Kevin, about having all those secrets, the grand passions that conceived us both, revealed?”
“I think it would be embarrassing, in some quarters.”
“Yes, indeed. Couples, well, coupling, under the fierce scrutiny of the exalted Dr. Theodore McNamara. No candlelight and music to romanticize the exercise. No indeed. No muss, no fuss. Just a clinical process hyped by sexual enhancement drugs with one purpose. Us.”
He laughed now and swilled back scotch. “And a rousing success it was.”
“Medical advancement. Procreation of the species.” McNamara’s voice trembled with rage. “I had assumed, incorrectly it seems, that both of you were mature enough to understand the scope of what you were part of.”
“But then we weren’t really part of it, were we?” Lucias countered. “We were simply part of the results. I don’t believe we were given a choice in the matter. I don
