The look in his eyes told her he didn’t believe it was. “Answer the question, General.”
He smiled. A crocodile toying with his prey, she thought.
“We never did anything without the permission of the people involved. In Generation 18, the sacrifice was one they made willingly.”
Not if what Allars said was true. “Then why was Emma Pierce listed as birth mother to at least two of your failures when in truth the children were conceived and raised in a test tube?”
“Because, in a sense, she was their mother. If the eggs from her ovaries resulted in successful births—and by this I mean children evolved from the initial procedure that reached full term—then she was listed as birth mother on the certificate.”
Given a woman’s ovaries carried all the eggs she needed to see her through her years of menstruation, it left open the possibility of there being hundreds of children out there who owed their existence to the unknowing Emma. It also meant that there could have been literally thousands of children who began their journey to life only to have it snuffed out by natural causes or the military’s whim.
Her heart ached at the thought. But maybe it hurt more simply because she could never have children of her own. “And the seventeen children placed into Greenwood? Were they the only failures from the project?”
“The only ones that survived, yes.”
“How many of them can Emma call her own?”
The general hesitated. “Nine, I believe. But surely that is something you can discover yourself.”
She smiled. Of course she could, but it was easier to ask directly. “What about successes? How many of those belong to Emma Pierce?”
“Five.”
“Are they still with Hopeworth?”
“Yes.”
And would be forever, if the general’s tone was anything to go by. “How were people like Emma selected for these projects?”
“They volunteered. We had criteria, of course.”
“Was one of those criteria to have no family outside of Hopeworth?”
The general began to tap the table lightly. It was the first sign of annoyance she’d seen in him. His stern features were as impassive as ever.
“People join Hopeworth with the knowledge that, once accepted, it becomes your life. Only with retirement can you walk away. The ‘no family’ policy is more a general policy for Hopeworth itself than one related to the projects.”
From what they’d learned, even retirement was no guarantee of escape. “Did Emma Pierce have a sister?”
“No. Her family was killed in an auto accident when she was a child.” He hesitated, staring at her bluntly. “As you surely know.”
“We do. Only Allars swears Emma had a sister. He claimed to have met her once.”
“Impossible.” But his quick frown told of his uncertainty.
“Why was Emma chosen for the project?”
“As I said, she volunteered.”
“Yeah, but surely all volunteers are not automatically selected.”
His quick grin conjured more images of crocodiles. “No. Emma Pierce had the right qualities.”
“Those being?”
The tempo of his finger tapping increased. “Her father was a shifter, her mother a changer. Emma herself could do multiple forms of both.”
She stared at him, uncertain at first whether she’d heard right. “What do you mean, she could do both? I thought hybrids were extremely rare.”