Page 7 of Brax (Voodoo Guardians #36)

“Long-range rifle, probably with a scope. Definitely a professional or at least someone with the funds and ability to buy professional equipment. The car in front of her belonged to someone local. He said he noticed that she kept wiping her eyes, maybe crying or something. She leaned toward the passenger seat and swerved, which may have caused the first shot to miss.

“The second shot hit just as she was speeding up, which caused the car to hit the curb and flip. He stopped, ducking for a moment, worried it was random, then got out. He was there when we arrived. He checks out,” said Skull.

“Any thoughts on where the shooter was?” asked Luke.

“There’s not a lot along that section of River Road. She would have just appeared from our stealth netting, coming around that bend,” said AJ. “There are a few homes along there, but all are occupied. It’s more likely that the individual was in one of the trees.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Brax.

“Trajectory of the bullet. Both were on a downward slope. The shooter was either very tall or standing in a tree or on a ladder.” Brax nodded, staring at the photos of the SUV.

“So, we believe it was intended for her,” muttered Brax.

“Brax, we’re not sure, but he’s right. The windshield would have revealed the identity of the driver,” said Hex.

“But they must have been waiting there for weeks to see if she would drive by. Plus, someone would have had to have known she was here at Belle Fleur. How is that possible?” he asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out now,” said Luke.

“I don’t like this,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t like that someone knows she’s here. She told me what she was working on at G.R.I.P., but it doesn’t sound like something anyone other than us would know about.”

“That’s true,” nodded Ryan. “It’s not contracted for anyone. Only we know what it is because it’s for our Ospreys, which are unique to us.”

“Okay, then we cross off work as a motive for this,” said Eric. “Has anyone spoken to the others? Katelyn, Chelsea, Marilisa, Victoria, all of the genius kids.”

“Does that include me?” said the big, deep voice at the door. They all turned, smiling and shaking their heads at Hayes.

“I’ll be damned,” laughed Eric. “What the hell has the Navy done to you?” They all hugged him, welcoming him home.

“To answer your question, it’s not just the Navy. I’m a SEAL now,” he grinned.

“Are you fucking kidding?” smirked Luke. “Why wouldn’t you tell us that? Why didn’t you call us and ask for help?”

“No, sir. I wanted to do this on my own. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Your training when I was here got me there. I’m still part of intelligence but through the SEAL teams.”

“Why are you home?” asked Hex.

“I had leave coming, and I wanted to see Victoria. I know she’s been nervous about me not communicating with her. I’ll be home for a few weeks, then gone again for a while.”

“Well, as long as you’re here, any thoughts on why someone would want to kill Stephanie?” asked Brax.

“She’s the girl who was the clone, right? Victoria told me. I never met her, but I can only imagine that it has everything to do with the fact that she is a clone. I mean, that alone makes her more unique than the rest of us. We’re all geniuses, but she’s a genius clone. Can you imagine if someone figured that out and wanted to make dozens like her?”

“Fuck me,” muttered Luke. Luke tapped a message to Riley and Suzette, asking them to come to the offices. It was only Riley that was able to come down.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked.

“Thank you for coming, Riley. Can you explain the cloning process to us?” She stared at them, then burst into laughter.

“On that note,” smirked Hayes, “I’ll go see the love of my life.”

“Is that funny?” asked Luke.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Luke, cloning is extremely difficult. I can’t give a ten-second lecture on it.”

“Try, Riley. Please,” he pleaded. She nodded, taking a seat at the table.

“Alright, let me see if I can give you a freshman version of this. Cloning involvescreating a genetically identical copy of an individual, cell, or organism. Like cloning an orchid or rose. Or in Mama Irene’s case, or Ivy’s, cloning a plant that is endangered.

“Now, we are all well aware that this can happen naturally, like with monozygotic twins, or artificially, using techniques likesomatic cell nuclear transfer.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Brax. “Somatic what?”

“A somatic cell,” she smiled. “A somatic cell is any living cell other than reproductive cells.”

“So, maybe they didn’t use anything except those soma-whatever cells when making Stephanie. I mean, does that explain her being unable to have children?”

“It might,” nodded Riley. “In artificial cloning, a nucleus from a somatic cell, a body cell, is transferred into an egg cell with its own nucleus removed. The researchers would have needed a cell from the individual that they wanted to clone. Then, an egg cell,oocyte, a cell in an ovary,had its nucleus removed.”

“I’m getting a headache,” moaned Hex.

“Do you want to know about this or not?” frowned Riley. He swallowed and nodded.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The nucleus from the somatic cell is transferred into the cell where the nucleus was removed. The egg cell, now containing the donor nucleus, begins to divide and develop into an embryo. If the goal is to create a clone of the entire organism, the embryo is implanted into a surrogate mother to complete its development.”

“Wait,” said Brax. “So, a woman would have carried Stephanie. She wasn’t born in a laboratory?”

“No, honey. Does she think that?” Brax nodded. “Huh, what do you know? Our genius doesn’t know everything. I’ll speak with her, but the embryo obviously develops into a clone, which is genetically identical to the donor.”

“So, if her donor is still out there, in theory, like Michelle, she’ll be identical to Stephanie in every way.”

“God, this is so scary to me,” said Brax.

“Imagine how she feels,” said Riley. “She’s walking the street one day and runs into herself. Pretty scary.”

“She was told that her donor was dead,” said Brax.

“Did it ever occur to any of you that there is more than one?” said Riley. The shocked expression on their faces told her that they had not even given that a second thought.

“Look. There was an original donor, and that donor could very well be alive or dead. But what if they tried several before they got Stephanie? What if the only problem with her was that she wasn’t compliant and couldn’t be easily manipulated?”

“Damn. We have to find all the versions of the woman I love.”