In Death 21 - Origin in Death

needed to learn until they were dead and we had more control."
    "So you killed them both. You and Deena."
    "Yes. We planted the weapon for her. We believed she wouldn't be identified. Or if she was, we'd get to all the records first; we'd be able to shut down the project. And we took the children away, safely away, then came back for Will."
    Eve worked with their rhythm, and in a strange way found it efficient. "You drove Deena to the school to kill Samuels."
    "She was like us, taken from Eva Samuels's DNA, and designed to continue the work. She's Eva, replicated. You know that."
    "Eva helped kill us and Deena when we weren't perfect enough. She terminated others. Many others. Do you see us? We're not allowed a flaw, no physical or biological flaw. This is the father's directive. Our children have flaws, as any child does, should. We knew they would take what they were and alter it."
    "They gave us no choice, not from the moment they made us. There are hundreds who had no choice, who were trained every day for up to twenty-two years to become. Our children will have a choice."
    "Which one of you killed Wilfred Icove, Jr.?"
    "We're the same. We killed our husband."
    "It was one hand that held the knife."
    Each held up an identical right hand. "We're one."
    "Bullshit. You've each got a set of lungs, a heart, kidneys." Eve tipped a water glass so drops fell on the left hand on the one nearest her. "Only one of you has a wet hand. One of you walked into that house, into the kitchen, prepared a nice, healthy snack for the man you intended to kill. One of you sat down beside him where he lay on the sofa. Then stuck a knife in his heart."
    "We were one to them. One of us would live in the house, mother to our children, wife to our husband. One would live in Italy, in the Tuscan countryside. The villa's large, the estate beautiful. As is the chateau in France where one of us would live. Every year, on the day of our becoming, we would be switched. And the other of us would be given a year with our children. We thought we had no choice."
    Tears glimmered now in three pairs of eyes. "We did what we were told to do. Always, always. One year of every three to be who we were made to be. Two years to wait. Because we were what Will wanted. and what the father deemed he could have. He made us to love, and we loved. But if we can love, we can hate."
    "Where's Deena?"
    "We don't know. We contacted her when we agreed to cooperate with you. We told her what we intended, what had to be done, and that she should disappear again. She's good at it."
    "The school has a second generation."
    "Of many. Not us. This was what Will requested of his father. But we know there are more of our cells preserved somewhere. In case."
    "Some have been sold."
    "Placement. He called it placement, yes. Made-to-order generated * great deal of money. It required a great deal of money to continue the project."
    "Were all the . . . the base for the project... all from the wars? Eve asked.
    "Children, some adults who were mortally injured. Other doctors, scientists, technicians, LCs, teachers."
    "All female."
    "That we know of."
    "Did you ever ask to leave? The school?"
    "To go where, and to what? We were taught and trained and tested every day, all of our lives. We were given a purpose. Every minute was regimented and monitored. Even what was called our free time. We're imprinted to be, to do, to know, to act, to think."
    "If so, how do you kill that which made you?"
    "Because we were imprinted to love our children. We would have lived as they'd wanted us to live, if they'd left our children alone. Do you want a sacrifice, Lieutenant Dallas? Choose any one of us, and that one will confess to it all."
    They linked hands again. "That one will go to prison for the rest of our lives, if the other two are free to go, to take the children away where they'll never be touched or observed. Where they'll never have to be stared at, pointed out. Be objects of fear or fascination. Aren't you afraid of us, of what we are?"
    "No." Eve got to her feet. "And I'm not looking for sacrifices, either. We're breaking from interview at this time. Please remain here. Peabody, with me."
    She went through the door, secured it, then went straight into the observation area. Reo was already on the 'link, having an avid conversation in undertones.
    "They'd know Deena Flavia's location," Whitney said.
    "Yes, sir. They know where she is, or how to find her. Certainly they have contact