“You’re too lenient on her.”
The two new voices penetrated the lovely fuzziness cocooning Kendra. She’d been feeling buoyant, as though she were hovering somewhere outside her body. But the disapproval in the one voice grabbed at her with tiny hooks, pulling her down.
“You’ve let her run wild since the divorce,” the disapproving voice continued. “I’m not criticizing. Well, maybe I am. But it’s only because we’re friends, Annie. Can you hand me that? Thanks.” There was a moment of silence. Then, “She’s playing you, you know.”
“She’s just . . . going through a rebellious stage.”
“Well, she’s lucky to have you. There’re plenty of people in this world who don’t have anybody. Like this poor girl.”
“What’d’ya mean? I heard that the Director himself was asking about her.” The voice dropped to an almost fearful whisper, as though the woman, Annie, thought the Director—whoever he was—was lurking nearby. “And there’s always someone from the Bureau coming around, checking in on her. Dr. Campbell was given the order to oversee her case himself.”
“Work people.” The other woman sniffed. Disapproval again. “Doctors. Us. No family. Look at her. Even with her head wrapped up like a mummy, she’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she? I’d kill to have lashes like that. You’d think she’d have a boyfriend at least worried about her.”
“Hmm.”
“My nephew, Joey, just broke up with his girlfriend—”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Pamela! The girl hasn’t regained consciousness since she was brought in.” There was a thread of laughter now in the other woman’s voice. “And you’re trying to set her up with your nephew!”
“Her vital signs are excellent. Now that we’re weaning her off the sedatives . . . I just feel sad for her, that’s all. No family—”
“Oh, my God! Kendra Donovan.”
“What?”
“Kendra Donovan. This girl—the patient. I just realized . . . I’ve heard about her, you know.” The voice dropped back to a whisper. Annie’s voice. For some reason, floating as she was, it was important to Kendra to know who was talking, to be able to identify the voices. “It was on 20/20 or 60 Minutes—one of those news programs. Her parents were part of some movement to bring superbabies into the world.”
“Superbabies? That’s . . . wait a minute. I think I read about that! Designer babies.” The disapproval was back in the other woman’s—Pamela’s—voice. “Genetically engineered, tinkering around with their genes to make them smarter than normal. Frankenbabies.”
“I don’t know if they went that far. Not back then. God only knows what they do now. But the scientist who founded . . . I guess you could call it a society—”
“Cult.”
“Cult, then,” Annie conceded. “The goal was to bring these superintelligent scientists together to have superintelligent offspring. Crazy, huh?”
“More like sick.” Pamela’s voice went from disapproving to appalled. “It’s breeding, like cattle. Put the best livestock together to breed a better cow. It’s not normal for people.”
The fuzziness was dissipating, leaving a dull ache in its place. Kendra didn’t want to listen anymore. She didn’t want to hear the revulsion in the women’s voices.
Special, or a freak. In the eyes of Pamela and Annie, definitely a freak.
“So . . . she’s one of those Frankenbabies?”
“Yeah . . . I think she started college at fourteen or fifteen.”
“Jeez, that’s young.”
“I can’t believe she’s here. That this girl is her. Small world, huh?”
“Crazy world. Where are her parents? Why aren’t they here?”
“I think they had some sort of falling out—”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Her blood pressure is spiking.” Annie sounded worried. “Should we notify Dr. Campbell?”
“Maybe she’s in pain.”
“They told us to wean her off the morphine.”
“I’ll page Dr. Campbell, then. He can check her.” There was a shuffling sound, and the voice was farther away.
“Are you going to call your nephew?” The other voice—Annie—was also moving away, but Kendra could hear the ripple of sly amusement. “Play matchmaker?”
The other woman seemed to hesitate. Then, “I don’t think she’s Joey’s type.”
“What? Too pretty for him?”
“Too weird. There’s something off about a Frankenbaby, even if she’s all grown-up and gorgeous.”
It was pain, not voices, that woke Kendra the next time. Her skull felt like it was being cleaved in two. If she wasn’t mistaken, she was going to have the mother of all headaches. No, correction. She was having the mother of all headaches. It throbbed from the right side of her head and radiated outward in jabs that shuddered all the way down to her toes.