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A review by madarauchiha
Nine by Rachelle Dekker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️
dnf 30 percent. chapter fifteen explains everything that's a mystery about the Born Sexy Yesterday mc and I don't care enough about spy political thrillers to finish it. also lol that the american public would carethey're making clone babies. gestures towards the alphabet agencies. they've done worse irl already.
content warnings, incomplete:
minor fatphobia,
medium sexual harassment,
major torture, violence, gun violence, murder, suicide, death,
Hey this is a huge spoiler and reveals the mystery behind the mysterious protagonist. I don't know what the ending is like. Also lol that it's a huge info dump.
▪ “You were born and raised at black site CX4-B, fondly referred to as Xerox, a government-run campus dedicated to the development of biological warfare and weaponry.”
Just as Summer had said.
“The Grantham Project was Xerox’s largest program and the reason for its creation. It dealt in human germline engineering using CRISPR/Cas9 to edit reproductive cells in order to ensure fetuses developed an affinity toward particular skills. The edited reproductive cells were incubated and grown at Xerox from conception, being adjusted and mutated to explore outcomes of different external forces on the end results.”
“End results,” Zoe said. “You mean babies.”
“There were eighty-nine specimens to begin. Only fifteen made it to viability. And of the fifteen, only nine were born.”
Zoe already knew where he was headed.
“You are one of the nine, Lucy. A genetically modified subject with the ability to harness physical skills in a way that has never been seen before. Speed, strength, intelligence, adaptability, reasoning, all heightened by constant training and observation. You and the others were sculpted to perfection.”
“I was born in a lab?” Lucy asked.
“Is that even possible?” Zoe asked.
“You tell me.” Agent Seeley nodded his head toward Lucy. Zoe’s mind traced back through all the strange and unbelievable things she’d seen Lucy do over the last few days. What else could explain such things?
“I don’t have a mother,” Lucy said.
“Olivia was your mother,” Agent Seeley said. “She was the head geneticist on the program and oversaw every stage of development from conception to your sixteenth birthday. She named you. She loved you.”
“And the others? The ones like me?”
Agent Seeley rubbed the sides of his face with his fingers and exhaled painfully. “There was a problem with the DNA melding as some of you grew. An unforeseen mutation in the brain’s hardwiring made certain patients, which is what we called you, unstable. Olivia tried to warn the director about the early signs of the mutation, but the higher-ups demanded results. The process was clear: create, raise, train, control. Until you were called upon by your country.”
“Like spies,” Zoe said.
“Like weapons. Only to leave the black site when needed. But as Olivia suspected, some of the others started to change. Number Three was the first to resist his programming. He killed seventeen Grantham agents before he could be contained. They put him in solitary, but he escaped, managed to recruit Numbers Five and Six, and the three got off campus without being detected. They made their way into a small town north of the black site and shot up a local shopping center. It left six dead and a dozen more injured.”
“I remember hearing about that,” Zoe said. “It was all over the news.”
“I don’t understand,” Lucy said, and Zoe turned to see the horror filling her face. “Is that all going to happen to me?”
“I want to tell you no with confidence,” Agent Seeley said, “but honestly, there is zero data on your current state. After these events, they put the Grantham Project on lockdown and started looking more closely at the mutation Olivia had originally warned about. They hypothesized it was deeply embedded in the original genetic code and couldn’t be resolved. Again, Olivia had a different viewpoint and believed with memory alterations she could return each of you to a former state, before the mutation started presenting itself, and alter your course. But it was too late. The fear of not being able to control you was already present, and the majority believed it would be better to terminate the project and start from scratch.”
“Terminate,” Lucy said.
“Erase all evidence of the nine so it would appear you never existed. Keep only what was necessary to further the evolution of the project. Every document, every recording, every video, and all of its subjects.”
“They wanted to kill us.”
“They were afraid of you. Of what you could do and expose if you couldn’t be controlled. Not to mention what would happen if the American people ever found out what Grantham had been doing. Genetically engineered babies in a lab . . .”
Agent Seeley stopped. He didn’t need to finish; his intent was clear. The government would explode if the American people knew their tax money was helping fund something that perverse. Zoe thought about what Summer had said: “The fall of the powers that be. You’re going to be a part of that.” This was what she had meant.
Suddenly a dozen connections formed in Zoe’s mind. They were after Lucy because she could expose them. Burn it all down.
“Olivia wouldn’t let that happen to you,” Agent Seeley continued. “She heard about the execution orders, and with the small amount of time she had she wiped your memories, but not before copying the damning evidence and giving it to you.”
“I have it?” Lucy asked.
“Stored in your memories is the location of a data chip with enough evidence to bring criminal charges against the country’s most powerful leaders. The plan was never for you to have to recover it. Olivia was always supposed to be with you. You were supposed to head to France, start over. You and Olivia, the information as a shield against those that would always be looking for you. But as smart as she was, she was still fighting against the FBI and all of its resources.” He shook his head. “She never stood a chance.”
dnf 30 percent. chapter fifteen explains everything that's a mystery about the Born Sexy Yesterday mc and I don't care enough about spy political thrillers to finish it. also lol that the american public would care
content warnings, incomplete:
minor fatphobia,
medium sexual harassment,
major torture, violence, gun violence, murder, suicide, death,
Hey this is a huge spoiler and reveals the mystery behind the mysterious protagonist. I don't know what the ending is like. Also lol that it's a huge info dump.
▪ “You were born and raised at black site CX4-B, fondly referred to as Xerox, a government-run campus dedicated to the development of biological warfare and weaponry.”
Just as Summer had said.
“The Grantham Project was Xerox’s largest program and the reason for its creation. It dealt in human germline engineering using CRISPR/Cas9 to edit reproductive cells in order to ensure fetuses developed an affinity toward particular skills. The edited reproductive cells were incubated and grown at Xerox from conception, being adjusted and mutated to explore outcomes of different external forces on the end results.”
“End results,” Zoe said. “You mean babies.”
“There were eighty-nine specimens to begin. Only fifteen made it to viability. And of the fifteen, only nine were born.”
Zoe already knew where he was headed.
“You are one of the nine, Lucy. A genetically modified subject with the ability to harness physical skills in a way that has never been seen before. Speed, strength, intelligence, adaptability, reasoning, all heightened by constant training and observation. You and the others were sculpted to perfection.”
“I was born in a lab?” Lucy asked.
“Is that even possible?” Zoe asked.
“You tell me.” Agent Seeley nodded his head toward Lucy. Zoe’s mind traced back through all the strange and unbelievable things she’d seen Lucy do over the last few days. What else could explain such things?
“I don’t have a mother,” Lucy said.
“Olivia was your mother,” Agent Seeley said. “She was the head geneticist on the program and oversaw every stage of development from conception to your sixteenth birthday. She named you. She loved you.”
“And the others? The ones like me?”
Agent Seeley rubbed the sides of his face with his fingers and exhaled painfully. “There was a problem with the DNA melding as some of you grew. An unforeseen mutation in the brain’s hardwiring made certain patients, which is what we called you, unstable. Olivia tried to warn the director about the early signs of the mutation, but the higher-ups demanded results. The process was clear: create, raise, train, control. Until you were called upon by your country.”
“Like spies,” Zoe said.
“Like weapons. Only to leave the black site when needed. But as Olivia suspected, some of the others started to change. Number Three was the first to resist his programming. He killed seventeen Grantham agents before he could be contained. They put him in solitary, but he escaped, managed to recruit Numbers Five and Six, and the three got off campus without being detected. They made their way into a small town north of the black site and shot up a local shopping center. It left six dead and a dozen more injured.”
“I remember hearing about that,” Zoe said. “It was all over the news.”
“I don’t understand,” Lucy said, and Zoe turned to see the horror filling her face. “Is that all going to happen to me?”
“I want to tell you no with confidence,” Agent Seeley said, “but honestly, there is zero data on your current state. After these events, they put the Grantham Project on lockdown and started looking more closely at the mutation Olivia had originally warned about. They hypothesized it was deeply embedded in the original genetic code and couldn’t be resolved. Again, Olivia had a different viewpoint and believed with memory alterations she could return each of you to a former state, before the mutation started presenting itself, and alter your course. But it was too late. The fear of not being able to control you was already present, and the majority believed it would be better to terminate the project and start from scratch.”
“Terminate,” Lucy said.
“Erase all evidence of the nine so it would appear you never existed. Keep only what was necessary to further the evolution of the project. Every document, every recording, every video, and all of its subjects.”
“They wanted to kill us.”
“They were afraid of you. Of what you could do and expose if you couldn’t be controlled. Not to mention what would happen if the American people ever found out what Grantham had been doing. Genetically engineered babies in a lab . . .”
Agent Seeley stopped. He didn’t need to finish; his intent was clear. The government would explode if the American people knew their tax money was helping fund something that perverse. Zoe thought about what Summer had said: “The fall of the powers that be. You’re going to be a part of that.” This was what she had meant.
Suddenly a dozen connections formed in Zoe’s mind. They were after Lucy because she could expose them. Burn it all down.
“Olivia wouldn’t let that happen to you,” Agent Seeley continued. “She heard about the execution orders, and with the small amount of time she had she wiped your memories, but not before copying the damning evidence and giving it to you.”
“I have it?” Lucy asked.
“Stored in your memories is the location of a data chip with enough evidence to bring criminal charges against the country’s most powerful leaders. The plan was never for you to have to recover it. Olivia was always supposed to be with you. You were supposed to head to France, start over. You and Olivia, the information as a shield against those that would always be looking for you. But as smart as she was, she was still fighting against the FBI and all of its resources.” He shook his head. “She never stood a chance.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Fatphobia