Anew: Book Two: Hunted Read Online Free Page A

mistaken me for some monster from his twisted id, and made a
move on me. Last one he’ll be managing for awhile.
    Apparently, you don’t need much in the way of brains to run
a terrorist organization responsible for killing well over a hundred people and
blowing up billions of dollars worth of scientific research. All in the name of
preserving humanity, of course.
    Asshole’s lucky I didn’t wring his neck, I’m in that foul a
mood although I shouldn’t be. Everything’s gone well. Hunt down the HPF crazies
who declared an all-out war on replicas. Check. Stress them with a combination
of drugs and deprivation until they tell me everything I want to know. Check.
Clean up whatever’s left. Check.
    Staying busy and productive has kept me from thinking about
Amelia as much as I would otherwise. As it is, she doesn’t go through my mind
more than a thousand or so times a day. Each and every memory of her is a punch
to my gut. In the ten days since we were last together, the pain of missing her
has become as constant as breathing. Weirdly, I’m glad of it. In a strange way,
it makes me feel as though we are still connected. Pathetic, I know, but it’s
all I’ve got.
    I come out of the bathroom still drying my hands to find
Edward stretched out on the couch in my private office on the penthouse floor
of Pinnacle House. He’s my age, twenty-eight, and has the same aquamarine eyes
and chestnut hair as Amelia. Otherwise there isn’t much resemblance between
them. Not surprising since she’s exquisitely beautiful and he’s just a guy.
    The real surprise is how little Amelia resembles Edward’s
older sister and my former lover, Susannah McClellan, the woman for whom she
was supposed to be nothing more than a source of replacement parts. The moral
and ethical issues of human cloning are tough enough but the replica technology
that allows the digitized pattern of one individual’s brain to be imprinted on
another has introduced a whole new level of controversy. So far we’re not
handling it well.
    Except for Susannah who made a selfless decision in her last
days before the disease that had overshadowed her life finally took her. Not
only did she choose to forego any further chance to extend that life, she
sought out the most cutting-edge replica technology so that she could give
Amelia only knowledge and abilities rather than her entire neural imprint. By
doing so, she made her unique among replicas--free to be her own self, form her
own memories, and live her own life.
    The truth is that I can’t imagine what it’s been like for
Amelia, awakening into the world as she did. I’d say that she suffers from
amnesia except a person has to be allowed to live before she can have anything
to forget. However much she knows, and that appears to be a great deal, she has
no context of memory or experience. Everything--every sight, sound, taste,
every touch is entirely new to her.
    If I were any kind of decent guy, I would have backed the
hell off and given her time to find her own way. Instead--
    I close my eyes for a moment against the image of Amelia
that first night on the balcony in the rain and later under me in the golden
bed. In the aftermath, I couldn’t evade the sickening possibility that I had
taken advantage of a vulnerable young woman who had no ability to deny me. To
my infinite relief, the truth turned out to be otherwise. Amelia possesses free
will in abundance. She is in every sense her own person, able to make her own
choices. I’m the one who can’t resist her. Or at least I couldn’t until I
realized what a danger I am to her. Now I’ll deny myself what I want more than
anything else in this world before I’ll compromise her safety for an instant.
    Yet despite all that, she still has no existence in the eyes
of the law except as property.
    My property, to be precise, according to the terms of
Susannah’s will. That’s something I try very hard not to think about.
    My cock stirs at the reminder. He and