Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (16 page)

Miniscule voices berated my ears, but
I ignored them. Anna gasped. My trousers became wet, and I looked
down absently, assuming it was blood. It wasn’t, a transparent
liquid pooled around us, and my gaze wandered to Anna. She was
silent, and her hands cradled her stomach as her eyes met
mine.

‘
My water just broke,’ she
whispered, and I almost collapsed.

The Birth

A few seconds passed, and all I
was capable of was gawping like a fish. Anna stared back at me
wearing a similar expression. I could still hear the snarls and
screams of the creatures left roaming the maze. I looked down
again, my eyes lingering on Anthony Gordon
’
s
corpse, a hole in his forehead. Anna groaned, and her hand flew to
her stomach.

‘
Lucas,
’
she
gasped,
‘
the baby
’
s
coming!
’

It was horrible. I truly
didn
’
t believe at that moment things could have gotten
much worse.

But they did.

An alarm similar to the one before
assaulted my ears. It was faster though, and sharper, a sound that
tore at my insides. Something was wrong.

‘
Security systems have been
breached,
’
a woman
’
s
robotic voice accompanied the alarm.
‘
Cleaning protocols have been activated. Can all personnel
please make their way to the nearest exit, detonation is in five
minutes.
’

You
’
ve
got to be kidding me!?

‘
Lucas!
’
Anna
cried.

I shook my head and shot to my feet,
my mind firmly focused on the task at hand. I needed to get Anna
out of there. She was my priority. I put my arm under her shoulder
and tried to lift her to her feet, but she groaned and leaned
heavily against me.

‘
Can you walk?
’
I
asked breathlessly.

Anna moved her head side to side and
looked at me. Her forehead was crunched and her eyes were wide. My
heart stung.

‘
Four minutes and thirty seconds
until detonation. Please evacuate immediately.
’

As carefully as I could, I swept Anna
into my arms and took off at a run. I sprinted through the
labyrinth, cursed every time we hit a dead end, and worried about
the people still in there with us. I couldn’t focus, my mind
whirled. I looked up, hoping to find some way of figuring out where
we came in, but the walls were too tall, and the only thing my eyes
caught were the sickening yellow lights.

I pressed the earpiece in my
ear.

‘
Brian, I
’
m lost
and the baby is coming!
’
I cried.

I heard the slap of keys and
Brian
’
s ragged breaths.

‘
Okay, okay,
’
he
repeated,
‘
I
’
m
trying to pull you up on the screen. Dad boot up that desktop,
hurry!
’

A scream erupted not far from where I
stood. I looked up to see an elderly woman blast towards me. I sat
Anna down quickly but gently and met the woman as she reached us. I
kicked out, my foot rammed her stomach, and she doubled over as she
lifted into the air. I followed it up with my other leg and brought
my knee against her face. She backflipped onto her stomach, and I
pulled the blade from my trousers and drove it through her
skull.

‘
Now would be
good!
’
I screamed as I lifted Anna back into my
arms.

‘
He
’
s doing
his best, Lucas,
’
Chris growled.
‘
We
’
re sifting through
Richard
’
s notes, hopefully we can find… Yes!
Brian, here.
’

‘
Your father
’
s files
have a layout of the building,
’
Brian gasped,
‘
I
’
m using your earpiece to locate your
positions. Hang a right, ten feet ahead of you!
’

I sprinted, took the right, and
with Brian
’
s guidance, made it back to the staircase
that we had taken down. I jumped the steps three at a time,
listening closely for anyone following us before I passed through
the silver door.

‘
Ten, nine,
eight,
’
the robotic voice burst over unseen
speakers.

I drew deeply on the air around
me and flew through the empty rooms we
’
d
passed into on our way in. I didn
’
t stop
when my feet hit the crumbling road outside, and when
I
’
d made it to the car, an almighty flash burned the
sky. I turned as the heat from the blast washed over us and burned
our skin. I stumbled with Anna in my arms, but kept my ground. It
was like a mushroom cloud engulfed the warehouses, and the sound of
metal on metal filled the air as the buildings caved in.

Holy crap that was
close.

‘
Anna! Anna!
’
I said
as I leaned her against the car.
‘
How you
doing, you alright? We need to get you to a
hospital.
’

‘
No!
’
she
screamed in return.
‘
They
’
ll take
our baby! They
’
ll take our baby away from us. We
need to, we need to-
’

Anna let out a painful scream and
doubled over again. Her breaths were short and labored. I felt
helpless. I had no idea how to deliver a baby.

Over the sound of scraping
metal, I picked up the hum of an engine, and the squeal of tires as
a motorbike pulled to a stop beside us. Jessica
’
s face
was covered in sweat, and for the first time since
we
’
d met, she looked flustered.

‘
Get her on this bike
now!
’
Jessica shouted.
‘
She
needs a hospital.
’

‘
I know,
’
I
replied.
‘
I know, but she won
’
t, she
doesn
’
t want…
’

‘
Lucas, you
’
re
gonna need to trust me right now,
’
Jessica said.
‘
I promise you, I give you my word, something I
don
’
t give lightly, that I will look after Anna and
your baby. She needs a hospital, trust me.
’

We stood there as precious
seconds ticked by. How could I trust someone who
’
d tried
to kill us? There was something about Jessica
’
s face,
her words, the sincerity and force behind them. I hoped to God she
wasn
’
t lying as I lifted Anna onto the back of the
bike. I kissed her on the forehead before clasping on a helmet
provided by Jessica. Once done, I turned back to our friendly
neighborhood assassin.

‘
Anything
happens to
her,
’
I growled.

Jessica nodded, and Anna
reluctantly wrapped her arms around Jessica
’
s
waist. The motorbike shot into the night and back down the road at
top speed. The smell of smoke burned my nostrils, and I felt tears
sliding down my cheeks. I rubbed at them hard and collapsed against
the car. What had I done? Chris had been right, my personal
vendetta against my father had almost gotten Anna, our child and I
killed! I truly was leading them to destruction.

But I couldn
’
t rid
myself of my anger, my frustration. I had made promises I had to
keep. My child was coming, right then. He or she was going to be
born into a world filled with people who would do all they could to
either kill, or grab for testing. We couldn
’
t run.
We couldn
’
t hide. We had to take out the source of
our problems, and that was my father.

‘
Lucas?
’
Chris
’
s gravelly voice interrupted my internal
debate.
‘
Lucas, you need to get out of there,
now!
’

I was about to ask why, but it was a
stupid question. I used my enhanced sense of hearing, and filtered
out the crunching metal and roaring flames. In the distance I could
hear their whine, the unmistakable sound of sirens. Another of our
enemies was on the way.

*

I raced through the heavily wooded area.
Flashlight beams and dog barks followed me. I was fast, and managed
to keep a pretty good distance from my pursuers, but the woods
disorientated me, and the number of armed police after me was more
than I would have liked.

After hearing the sirens Chris
laid orders into my ear. The man with a plan had brewed a course of
action up on the spot, and after retrieving the mobile phone from
the car, I set off into the woods that sat beside the road.
I
’
d taken the phone to stay in contact with the
group, but also so that when the police found the car, they found
nothing that could help them trace us to the hotel. The car itself
was expendable; Chris had explained as I ran that the warehouse
explosion would be pinned on us anyway.

I turned into a clearing, straight
into an ambush.

‘
Fire!
’
a
voice screamed, and gunshots filled the air.

I dove back the way
I
’
d come and slammed into the ground. I forced
myself to my feet and picked up the pace. It was going to be a long
night.

*

I stalked the streets with my hood up.
I hoped madly that no one would stop to pay attention to the blood
that clung to almost every inch of my body. I’d escaped the forest
and my hunters. Thankfully I was faster and harder to catch. I’d
gotten away, and prowling the streets under a sheet of panic. There
were too many people, too many things that could go wrong. I hated
it, the feeling of being smothered, of being in constant danger and
being able to do nothing about it.

A few times people stared, but
eventually they passed, skirting far around me. The police were on
high alert, each time I turned a corner I had to double back and
take a new route because of their presence in the streets. I
eventually made it back to the hotel, and the air I’d held onto for
far too long exploded from my lungs.

I took the elevator up to the top floor,
and when it stopped, the doors slid open, and there was Chris. I
gasped when he grabbed me by the collar, swung me round and threw
me against the wall.

‘
Idiot!’ he screamed. ‘Do
you have any idea what could have happened to you two!?’

‘
Chris, I-
’ I whispered.

He banged me against the wall
again.

‘
Do you think I want to see you
both get hurt!? We’re a family, Lucas! We’re a family!’ Chris
shouted. His voice wavered at the end, and tears sprung from his
eyes as his hand slipped from my top.

I felt my own salty tears slide
down my cheeks and I wiped at them. I didn’t know how to apologise
enough to make it alright, because it wasn’t alright. Maybe Chris
was right, in fact, I knew he likely was, but we had to do
something. I knew how he felt, I could feel it too, the desperate
pull to run and hide and search for a life elsewhere, but I was
under no illusions. That wasn’t going to happen; my father, the
government, they would make sure of it. We
had
to fight, and we had to
win
.

They were all useless
justifications.

Chris skulked off back to the
War Room, and I followed, dragging my feet down the corridor. I
entered the main room and was faced with both Brian and Chris. Paul
lounged on one of the couches and his head hung low, a black
circle
crowned his eye. I took another look at Chris, and I
searched past the scars to find a small cut above his lip. Chris
and Paul had come to blows.

‘
I’m sorry,’ I stuttered,
trembling. ‘I was only trying to help.’

Brian shook his head, a round lump
protruding from his hairline, a wound inflicted by me. The wave of
guilt was almost excruciating. Hurting the people I loved was the
farthest thing from what I wanted, I just wanted to get them their
lives back, to stop them living in fear.