Activate by Crystal Perkins Read Free Book Online Page A

her cage right now, and I won’t be advocating for her release anytime soon.
    “Have a seat,” Levi tells us, sitting next to me as I take mine. I like that he did that—too much. “So, you all know we were created, but I’m going to explain to you the how and why of all of it.”
    “It’s not important!” Abigail yells.
    “It is , and she knows it. Ignore her. Twenty years ago, five ‘aliens’ landed in our world, looking for a new place to live because their planet was failing. They were all they had left of their people, and they didn’t want their species to die out. Since they could shape-shift, they made themselves look human, spread out to cities around the world, and tried to blend in. It worked for a little while, until the government in China found the first one, and tortured her until she admitted there were more. They forced her to contact the others through telepathy, and though they knew it was a trap, they came for their sister anyway.
    “Once taken, they were brought into a room where the leaders of the covert services for their countries were waiting for them. These men told them they could live if they helped them create a new species. The five wanted to live, but they also knew not to trust these men. They agreed, while planning their escape. They became known as the Muses; blood and tissue from their bodies was taken from them.”
    “We can shape-shift?” Coalton asks.
    Levi shakes his head. “No. When our DNA was created, it was done with diluted matter from them. The governments wanted us to be like them in some ways, but they knew having twenty-five more who were just as powerful would be too dangerous. Also, they had other things they wanted to put in there. In addition to the alien part of our DNA, they were somehow able to give us the skills of famous detectives and spies from literature, movies, and television. I don’t know how they figured it out, and made it into something concrete that could be passed on, but we all have the skills.
    “We think like Sherlock Holmes, fight like James Bond, charm people like Charlie’s Angels, and we can adapt like Jason Bourne and Sidney Bristow. There are others we have traits from, like Veronica Mars, Monk, Nancy Drew, and the detectives created by Agatha Christie, but I won’t name everyone—it would take far too long. Suffice to say, we can solve any crime, and fight any fight with no problem at all. We were born this way, and in the minds of the different government men, that would make us the perfect soldiers one day.”
    “You don’t know how it was done?” Hinton asks.
    “The DNA manipulation? No. Maybe if we’d been given the DNA of famous doctors or scientists, but I think they kept those skills from us for a reason. We aren’t meant to know, and really, we weren’t supposed to think for ourselves, even before ‘activation.’”
    “We did have a different life, didn’t we?” Michaela inquires.
    “Yes. You remember there was more, don’t you?”
    “I do. I just feel like there is more than what I am now.”
    “There is, and we’ll help all of you remember.”
    “How? How can you do all this? Was your DNA manipulated differently than ours?” I ask, because I feel like I should’ve known.
    How does Michaela know, and not me? Or the other three? Do they know, and I’m just the one who doesn’t? Levi’s hand lands on my knee, giving it a squeeze. I look up and he’s smiling at me.
    “Our DNA was all done at once so there could be no variations, or advantages, to one country over another—remember some of our countries are not friends. But…the five men wanted to be able to have each of their five have a specific focus, so they manipulated the DNA even more, and came up with five versions. The leader, the fighter, the empath, the super-soldier, and the analyst.”
    “I’m the empath,” I say.
    “Fighter,” Michaela admits, holding up her hand.
    “Analyst,” Hinton tells him.
    “Super-soldier. I have the