Freak of Nature Read Online Free PDF Page B

cords. After the second upgrade, she stopped laughing. By the fifth, she stopped smiling entirely. Guilt washed over Lucas, and as hard as he tried to push it away, a permanent, low level of uneasiness stayed with him.
    It was an hour’s drive to the compound, which was ridiculous since it hadn’t even been an hour and a half since he’d left work. And here he was, headed back in the same direction. On the bright side, IFICS reimbursed him for mileage and gas.
    IFICS did a lot for Lucas. The job really was a dream-come-true. Great pay, generous benefits, and work he loved. Seriously, what more could he ask for?
    If only his conscience hadn’t started to bother him. Without knowing why he was doing it, Lucas had started planning escape routes for Kaitlyn. He shook his head at the thought, gripping the steering wheel tighter turning his knuckles white. He must be losing his mind.
    Every time he saw her, he wanted to whisk her away from the life she was headed towards. Hell, the life she was living. Who was he kidding. Guilt wrenched his body knowing he was practically the mastermind behind morphing her into a cyborg. If it weren’t for his coding, they wouldn’t have been able to get as far as they had.
    He felt repulsed by himself—for what he had done, and for the fact that he was so drawn to her in her half human form.
    It didn’t help that she was gorgeous: those long legs, dark hair, athletic body, and incredible mind. It was the last one that made his heart trip up. God, she was so intelligent. The amount of information stored in her beautiful brain was mind-boggling. It was like she was a living, walking encyclopedia. In his eyes she was perfection, at least until they kept stripping away who she had been little by little. Now she was an empty shell of what she had been.
    Lucas shook his head—he had issues.
    He drove the rest of the way lost in his thoughts. Before he knew it, he saw the sign—Private Property. Trespassers Will Be Shot. The sign was not a joke. Lucas looked up and saw the silhouette of an armed guard patrolling the grounds. Well-trained guards stood on alert throughout the property, most of them ex-Special Forces and armed with the kind of weaponry that was probably illegal in seven countries. It was a constant reminder of the importance of the project.
    Dr. Harrington spared no expense. As a billionaire, he could pretty much do whatever the hell he wanted, which was how IFICS was formed. It wasn’t even an acronym, IFICS didn’t even mean anything. Harrington’s dry sense of humor had thought it would be funny to name his company IFICS: Sci-fi backwards. Lucas smiled to himself. It was clever—he had to give him that.
    Harrington had always been obsessed with the future and advances in technology, not to mention his own desire to live forever. His company was on the cutting edge of science as far as anti-aging, and he had made tremendous gains in the field. The company was known for nanobots used to dramatically slow the process of aging. Harrington was sixty-three and barely looked forty. Modern miracle.
    But Kaitlyn was the real dream. The secret project. Now that Kaitlyn was turning out to be a success, Harrington had started to get greedy. The eccentric man had begun to believe that cyborgs—like Kaitlyn—were the way of the future. In fifty years, he believed it would be normal, she would be normal, and so would thousands of other cyborgs living out their lives among the human populace. Lucas didn’t quite believe that, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
    He hadn’t seen the man in quite some time. Professor Adams had informed him Harrington was off in the rainforest hunting exotic wild animals or something equally as crazy. The man had a death wish, but fate always seemed to shine on his side. Some people were just lucky that way. A man with a death wish that wanted to live forever. Makes total sense, Lucas thought wryly.
    Of course, Harrington would have to return soon before