Masterminds

Masterminds is the first book in the Masterminds trilogy. The three installments tightly interconnect. Unsurprisingly, the first two books end with cliffhangers, and Masterminds doesn’t offer any resolution to the central plot; it simply concludes at a brief stopping point. In Masterminds, the clones discover their secret identities and learn of the villain behind Project Osiris: Felix Hammerstrom. They glean some essential information in the basement research center beneath the Plastics Works factory, but many of the facts they need to know remain hidden. The first novel ends with their escape from Serenity as they successfully find temporary shelter with Eli’s friend Randy in Colorado.

The second installment in the trilogy, Masterminds: Criminal Destiny, has the group trying to find proof of Hammerstrom’s scheme that will convince the world to believe them. They hope to do this by getting statements from their DNA donors about Project Osiris. After staying with Randy long enough to make a plan, the clones are on their own again. Their first stop is a visit to Tamara Dunleavy, the tech billionaire who initially supported Hammerstrom’s research. She lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and was once a criminal genius hacker before turning over a new leaf. The clones must use their wits to get to her. They commit various minor crimes along the way just to survive, raising the question of their innate criminal tendencies.

Even though Dunleavy knows that Eli was cloned from her own DNA, she denies all knowledge of Project Osiris when the teens confront her. Instead, she sends them away. Secretly, Dunleavy starts her own Hammerstrom investigation and keeps tabs on the clones throughout the rest of the story, hoping to help them at a later point.

The teens then visit a DNA donor in a Texas prison. He’s a swindler and con artist named C. J. Rackoff, who agrees to help the clones expose Hammerstrom if they break him out of jail. After Rackoff’s escape, he double-crosses Eli, Tori, Amber, and Malik. It turns out that he’s Hector’s donor. The latter is still alive in Serenity and helps Rackoff trap his friends because he feels betrayed after they leave him behind. Rackoff leads the Surety (the local security police) directly to the clones, who must again run for their lives.

In the trilogy’s third book, Masterminds: Payback, the four clones, who are now fleeing the Surety, split up into pairs to make it harder to track them. Eli and Tori go on the hunt for Eli’s donor because they’re still unaware that it’s Dunleavy. Malik and Amber go after Malik’s donor, an imprisoned mob boss named Gus Alabaster. Meanwhile, Hammerstrom has moved his entire experiment offshore. Serenity is abandoned, but his project continues on an island in the Bahamas at the Poseidon Resort and Water Park. Hammerstrom allows the remaining clones to mingle with regular visitors at the resort because the test subjects are confined to an island outside US jurisdiction, so government interference isn’t a possibility.

A final showdown takes place at Poseidon when the four renegade clones confront Hammerstrom. The group has exposed Hammerstrom’s location to the press, and the rest of the captive clones are freed. By this time, Hector has reconciled with his former classmates and is instrumental in transitioning the captive clones to the real world. Hammerstrom prepares to shoot Eli rather than allow him to escape, but Hector shoves the doctor as he shoots, and the bullet ends up shattering an overhead fish tank, releasing a giant manta ray that crushes Hammerstrom to death. Afterward, Dunleavy adopts all 11 clones and brings them to her ranch in Jackson Hole to live, where they’ll attend school in the real world, just like normal teenagers.