"Now." Ace rolled Zero onto his back. "I need you to hold him."
Kasper blinked.
For a heartbeat, he'd been somewhere else, watching himself from a distance as though someone else occupied his body. The world had become a nightmare and he was nothing more than the unfortunate witness. "R-right." He knelt near the head of the bed and gently lifted Zero into his lap. "Like this?"
"Perfect." Ace reached for Zero's pants.
"Wait—"
"Ark doesn't play by our rules when it comes to placement." Ace barely looked up. "What? I'm not some creep. Don't be disgusting."
Kasper glanced toward Jack.
"He's right," Jack said. "Ark likes to hide their work. It won't be somewhere obvious."
Kasper nodded.
Zero's chest rattled with every shallow breath.
Zak quietly stepped closer.
Kasper brushed a strand of silvered hair from Zero's face.
He was cold,
and as perfect as marble.
He's here.
I found him.
Loose curls framed his impossibly delicate features. Pale freckles scattered across his temples like stars. Dark veins traced beneath translucent skin like velvet ribbons laid beneath polished ivory.
"Eva." Kasper said. "He has her face." There was barely a trace of Adam there... so it all dwelled in himself.
Beautiful.
Deadly.
Like a poisonous flower blooming in winter.
"He's so cold..."
"So are you." Ace searched along Zero's hips. "You just can't feel it anymore."
Kasper looked away.
I watched him die...
The question settled like a boulder on his chest.
I saw that right?
Someone had done this.
I'll kill every one of them.
Every last one.
"This is it." Ace pressed against the base of Zero's spine. "Told you." A small black lump bulged beneath the skin.
"Zak." Ace looked up. "I'll steady the skin. You cut."
"Okay." Zak knelt beside them.
Ace pressed firmly on either side of the implant, forcing it toward the surface. "Go for it..."
Zak slid the knife beneath the skin.
The tracker popped free almost immediately.
A thin antenna followed after it.
"They probably already know where he's been." Ace held the tiny device between his fingers. "But maybe we can make them lose him." He tossed it toward Jack. "Run this all over the woods and dump it in the river. Don't destroy it. We don't know what happens if it's damaged."
Jack nodded.
A quiet understanding settled over the room.
This wasn't for the group's benefit.
"Thank you," Kasper whispered.
"I don't want your thanks." Ace continued searching beneath Zero's skin.
YOU ARE READING
The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)
Acción"This story has no hero." Set in the distant future, where the government has been overthrown, and a new world power has risen, known only by the Moniker "ARK Corporation." We follow Kasper as he fights to survive in a nightmare where wrong is made...
