Girl Takes Up Her Sword by Jacques Antoine Read Free Book Online

have worked a little magic on her. Michael met her at the front door.
    “I’ve got something to show you. It’s about Emily.”
    “Nothing bad, I hope.”
    “You’ll have to be the judge of that. It’s a video smuggled out of Kamchatka. You can see what really happened there. Some of it is pretty grueling.”
    Connie tried not to let it show on her face, but she found it exceedingly difficult to swallow at that moment. So many questions presented themselves to her mind. Who filmed it? How did Michael get it? Who else has seen it? But only one found expression, and it wasn’t the question of a professional. More that of an older sister.
    “Are you sure she’d want me to see it?”
    “She asked me to show it to you, and Ethan, too. We can talk about who else should see it afterwards.”
    Ethan was already settled in on the sofa when Michael opened the door to his library. A minute later the grainy images from a dingy cell flickered on the television screen. The scene was horrendous, but Connie had seen worse things, even done worse things herself. Just not to someone she cared about.
    The first part showed Emily in her underwear fighting off a gang of men, a rape gang, Connie knew. She cringed to watch it. To her great relief, Emily quickly dispatched her assailants, though with a ferocity even she could find appalling. In a second scene, now dressed and in a ring, she fought against multiple opponents.
    “Thank God, she’s found some clothes,” said Ethan.
    “Probably stripped them off one of the guys in the cell,” Connie said.
    In the ring, Emily dominated the teams of opponents sent against her. All that was terrifying in the cell was transmuted by her display of power and confidence. It was almost comforting, until the clone entered the ring . He was huge, so much larger than her. The camera angle obscured his blank, lifeless eyes. He loomed over her gigantically, the sheer immensity of his strength unmistakable.
    “What the hell is that?” Ethan asked, practically gagging on his own words.
    “He is the source of all our troubles,” Michael said.
    “That must be the Koreans’ clone,” Connie said. “They really managed to make one? Look at him.”
    “How does he not kill her?” Ethan shouted.
    “Just watch,” Michael said.
    Connie wasn’t looking for reassurance. She’d already found it. On the ship, Emily concealed his existence from her. That required more self-possession than she credited her with. Being able to dissemble in a pinch, even with friends, she knew that was a crucial survival skill.
    The first time the clone managed to hit her, a backhand to the side of the head, he sent her sprawling. Ethan squirmed on his end of the sofa. He tossed her across the ring, and she bounced off the wall. She eluded him for a few moments. They both could see she was merely delaying the inevitable. He struck her again, then leapt across the ring, trying to get to her before she could squirm away. Ethan couldn’t keep his seat. He paced across the room, visibly upset.
    “Just watch,” Michael said, again.
    Then something unexpected happened and everything changed. Somehow, Emily got the upper hand. She had locked her legs around his neck and trapped the wrist of his free hand, twisting it to control him. He was helpless. She squeezed and twisted, slowly, inexorably. He would be dead in a matter of moments.
    “That’s my girl,” Connie whispered.
    What happened next shocked even her. Suddenly, inexplicably, Emily released him, disentangled herself and leaned in, close to his ear. She seemed to be speaking to him. Then all hell broke loose. Armed men rushed in, and he unleashed on them the savagery that just a few moments earlier had been directed at her. Michael turned off the video.
    “What the hell just happened?” Ethan demanded, his face flushed, his breathing uneven.
    Connie sat quietly at the end of the sofa, mulling over what she had just seen.
    “Michael, do you know how she turned