Clone: A Contemporary Young Adult SciFi/Fantasy (Swann Series Book 3) Read online

  Heim turned with a lost smile on his face and said, “Not child. Children. And yes, both mother and children seem to be okay.”

  “That is relief,” Arabelle said.

  Gerhard busied himself prepping his personal canister. It lay horizontal and accessible. When the sequencing was ready, he turned, looked at Arabelle and said, “Pick a good name, please. I’m tired of this one.”

  Arabelle nodded.

  Her boss, her savior, and sometimes her lover, dropped his robe and climbed into the canister, laying flat on his back. Arabelle closed the lid, sealing him inside. She then depressed the appropriate buttons. The canister made a slow, vertical swing. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man.

  She would never see him again.

  He would be different. Someone new. A new face, new body, new smells. Even parts of his personality would change. She fought to keep calm. He smiled at her and she smiled at him, but she wondered if he would still have her when he became…new.

  He told her to trust him.

  She would try.

  The pink liquid began to fill the tank from the bottom up, and when it boiled over his head, he struggled to breathe. With no other option, he swallowed the gel in giant, whooping, amounts. After a thrashing struggle, he seemed slowly to relax. Breathing was difficult at first, with the jelly inside him, but then he could breathe the oxygenated solution just fine. It was working. After a few moments, his eyelids bobbed heavy. Finally he closed them, and became unnaturally still.

  Arabelle’s heart skipped a beat.

  Arabelle pulled her gaze from Gerhard, turned it on Dr. Heim. He was mesmerized by Rebecca. Completely obsessed. She understood his preoccupation because that was how she felt about Wolfgang Gerhard. Her amethyst eyes shimmered, but she fought back the emotion. She fought hard.

  When she couldn’t take it anymore, she turned to leave the lab. At the lab’s doorway, however, she stopped and glanced back at Gerhard once more. Her heart was sputtering. Arabelle was lost, and short of breath. Finally she left. As she walked the corridor and prepared to go home, only one thought filled her lovely head: would this version of Wolfgang Gerhard be better or worse than the last?

  The truth was, in any man or woman, science produced untold possibilities. The new version of him could be loving, kind and purely scientific—as had been the case for many years now—or this next version could resemble the barely contained beast he was before. The infamous and ruthlessly inhuman Angel of Death. Murderer of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Jew sympathizers. Brutal sadist. The torturer of women and children. The collector of twins and genetic giants.

  Arabelle grabbed her paperback romance, her sweater and her purse and then she went and got Alice, who was watching Hulu on the computer up front. Together, she and the girl left the building, locking the front door and checking it twice. Arabelle then turned and the two of them merged hand-in-hand into the busy sidewalk foot traffic. Alice didn’t say a word. But then again, the girl almost never spoke. And Arabelle, she was unconcerned with anything but her hope that this version of her boss, her sometimes lover, would be better, and not worse than the last. Time would tell though.

  Only time would tell.

  END OF BOOK III

  Important Note to Reader

  Ultimately, an author’s success and longevity comes through great word-of-mouth advertising, and the easiest, most gracious way to show your support is by participating in the comment and ratings system at the eBook retailer where you downloaded this book. So many potential readers rely on the positive feedback of others when deciding to buy a book, so a few kind words might not seem like much, but they tend to go a long way in honoring the author and his/her work. So before you begin reading the next adventure in this thrilling new series, please take a brief moment to rate CLONE now. Thank you so much for your continued support, and as always, I truly hope you had a five star experience!

  Please be sure to check out www.RyanSchow.com for the latest news on upcoming books in this and future series’, as well as links to my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest pages. Also, I would love to hear from you, so if you want to contact me, the website has direct links for that as well!

  The saga continues! Keep reading for a brief synopsis of book four in the Swann Series novels, entitled MASOCHIST, or simply head to your favorite online eBook retailer, purchase the book and begin reading immediately!

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  Have you checked out the other books in the Swann Series? Click here to see what’s next:

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  Book 4 of the Swann Series Novels:

  MASOCHIST

  Rebecca has vanished, and Abby is determined to get her back at all costs. Unbeknownst to her, Monarch Enterprises is not only tracking Abby, they’ve dispatched the murderous young assassin, Delta 1A, for her once more. Not only is the assassin’s system disintegrating, his savage bloodlust has him targeting random civilians as well. The closer Monarch and Delta 1A come to finding Abby, however, the more Abby’s problems with love and mortality seem to spiral out of control.

  With Abby’s and Brayden’s friendship/relationship in deep crisis, they are torn apart, then driven back together in the midst of a frightening and merciless attack. With crisis bringing them closer than ever, both as friends and potentially more, startling revelations unfold about the two of them and the kind of intimacy and insanity they are capable of together.

  When one of Abby’s dearest friends escapes Gerhard’s care, she does so as something dark, self-serving and paranormal. Whether it’s accelerated childbirth, mixing the DNA of intensely psychotic children with the DNA of unwitting subjects, or bringing the dead back to life, doctors Gerhard and Heim are rewriting the very fabric of reality. With her enemies tightening the noose, Abby must face Monarch’s assassin, the doctor who transformed her, the doctor who tried to kill her and a demented child with a penchant for melting people’s guts. No matter Abby’s ever-expanding skillset, MASOCHIST is proof that no matter how bad ass a girl gets, there is always someone better, meaner and far more lethal.

  Don’t wait, download your copy of MASOCHIST now!