Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (6 page)

We sat
for a few minutes and rested our foreheads against one another’s
before standing up. I laced my hand with hers, and we trudged back
into the main room. The sun hung higher in the sky, breaking
through the dust-smudged windows and lighting the place up. The
city below reflected the light, twinkling with a fresher radiance
than when it was lit up with electricity.

Paul had
entered the room at one point, and he sat on a single chair near
his son. Brian remained glued to the laptop’s screen, his glasses
reflecting the confusing array of letters.

‘
Brian, Paul?’ Anna said, before she called out for
Chris.

He
entered the room, avoiding my eyes.

‘
Lucas and I have something to tell you,’ she raised her voice.
‘I’m pregnant.’

Brian’s
fingers stopped in mid-air, and Paul’s mouth dropped open. Chris,
having already known, looked composed. I realised I was more
nervous than I’d thought I would be. These guys had more on their
plates than most people on the planet, and we were giving them one
more thing to add to that. Thankfully, Brian broke into a
smile.

‘
Congratulations,’ he said. He stood up and walked over, placed
a hand on Anna’s stomach and gave us both a hug. ‘When,
how?’

Anna
laughed, and Brian corrected himself, ‘I know how, sorry. Um, when
will the little guy be here? Or girl.’

‘
Well,’ Anna answered, glancing at me, ‘I think I’m just over a
month, and well, my lady time hasn’t come yet so.’

‘
But you know for sure?’ Chris spoke up.

‘
I can hear it,’ I answered. ‘I can hear the baby’s
heart.’

Chris
nodded and sighed, but he failed to suppress a smile,
‘Congrats.’

I
smiled, and then someone returned to form.

‘
You’re keeping it?’ Paul muttered. His face was void of any
emotion.

‘
Yes, we are,’ Anna frowned. ‘That isn’t even a
question.’

‘
Why?’ he blurted in response.

Anna
opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off.

‘
You’d bring a child into this kind of life?’ Paul blustered,
standing up while his face turned red. ‘Knowing that around every
corner there’s death?’

‘
It won’t be like that,’ Anna said. ‘We’re going to stop all
this.’

Paul
laughed, his face verged on purple. The veins in his neck started
to pop, and I flashed back to an image of him in Greystone. The
real man had finally come through.

‘
Both of you would be so selfish!?’ he screamed, advancing on
us. I moved myself defensively in front of Anna, the hairs on my
body tingled.

Chris
appeared at Paul’s side, something I thought I’d never have to see
again. He grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him away. Before we knew
it, Chris spoke into his ear, and Paul charged out of the room,
slamming the door behind him.

‘
I am so sorry guys,’ Brian whispered as he stared after his
father, his forehead wrinkled with concern and
confusion.

We all
stood there stunned, watching the door, as if Paul would burst back
in. He never though, and Anna walked over to the couch and sat
down. Brian returned to his task, and Chris wandered over to stare
out the window at the city below. I stood awkwardly, before
deciding to shower.

I
informed Anna and headed back into our room. I grabbed clean
clothes and opened the bathroom door. As I turned on the shower,
and took off my shirt and trousers, I cast my mind back on my
whirlwind morning. With a little help from Anna I understood
Chris’s change of heart. I couldn’t blame him, but I was surprised
at my own reaction, it scared me. Was he right? Was I marching
myself and the rest of us toward destruction?

I closed
my eyes and let the water wash away the tension. The government
wanted my gifts, they wanted us all dead, and they had even gone so
far as to pin the hundreds of deaths in Greystone on us. I had no
idea what my Dad was up to, what his plans for us were. We had
nowhere to start looking for him, and absolutely no idea on how to
deal with any of our problems. But they had to be solved. My
father, the government, they all had to pay for what they had
done.

I made
another promise to myself. They would all be stopped, and the baby
Anna and I would bring into this world would be safe. They had to
pay.

The Information

I was up
early the next day. Chris and I had arranged to set up more
training sessions. The sun hung low in the sky, the city’s
residents just beginning to wipe the cobwebs from their eyes and
start another normal day. I envied them. Snow had started again,
light drifts of sparkling white. I stared out the windows that
covered the entire wall, in quiet thought over the beauty before
me. The hotel as well was growing on me, and I couldn’t help but
feel sad the place had been shut down.

If only I could enjoy this day like the rest of the
world.

I sighed
and headed for the door. Anna lay on the bed, snoring lightly, and
I did my best to move as slowly and quietly as I could. I couldn’t
imagine the stress she was enduring, stress she couldn’t share with
any of us. All I knew was that her and my baby’s safety was all
that mattered, and to do that, we had to solve every single problem
that faced us.

The main
room was empty. Surprisingly, Brian wasn’t at his laptop, but a
steaming cup of coffee sat beside it. My body screamed for
caffeine, and I wandered over to the kitchen area to the right of
Chris’s bedroom door. I grabbed a mug, poured sugar and instant
coffee into it, and waited for the kettle to boil. It was then I
honed in on the voices.

They
were hushed, and came from the corridor outside the room. I moved
silently, carefully placing each foot on the ground and held my
breath. I reached the door that led out to the hallway where the
elevator was. I was wrong. The voices didn’t originate from the
corridor, but the room parallel to ours, Brian and Paul’s
room.

I crept
into the hall and listened. I felt guilty about my intrusion, but
the panic and desperation in one of the voices had my hair on
end.

‘
I
need
more,’
Paul whined behind the door.

Brian
sighed and started to pace.

‘
We talked about this Dad,’ he said. ‘We were pulling you off
of it, this has to stop. You know it does.’

‘
Please, son,’ Paul begged. ‘Please, I can’t do it. I can’t do
this without it. Just a little, please? I can’t be my best without
it, you saw me yesterday. I don’t want to be like that
anymore.’

‘
I’ll see what I can do,’ Brian whispered, resigned. ‘This
isn’t good. It’s unnecessary Dad. The people I get this from aren’t
the most trustworthy.’

‘
I know, I know,’ Paul cried. I could hear the sobs that took
him over.

My brow
was crunched in confusion when I heard Chris cross the room behind
me and venture into the one Anna was soundly asleep in. Brian and
Paul had finished their talk and had started to slouch towards the
door.

Crap.

I
panicked. Using my new advanced speed setting, I crossed the
hallway and slipped back into the computer bay. Or was it called
the War Room? I smiled, and flew across to the kettle that finally
popped.

‘
There you are,’ Chris grunted, exiting my room as quietly as I
did. ‘You do understand that when I say six on the dot, I don’t
mean quarter past?’

I nodded
innocently as Brian and Paul walked in. Brian looked haunted, his
face shadowed and worried. He took up his chair and pulled his
laptop to his knees. Paul hovered, his face glistening with sweat
as he paced.

I was
staring when Chris grabbed my arm and marched towards the gym area.
I groaned.

I still
hadn’t gotten my coffee.

*

It was
fair to say I wasn’t in the best of moods as Chris jabbed and
blocked and kicked at me. It was made worse by the fact he was a
much better fighter than I was. I might have been quicker, but
Chris was a master at anticipating my next blow, effectively
blocking and moving away from my attacks. He was running rings
around me.

We
danced that dance for over two hours, with mini breaks thrown in.
I’d just been thrown to the floor when someone broke into song in
the main room.

‘
Yes!!’ we heard Brian scream.

A few
seconds later Anna came barging into the room. Her face was alight
with joy, and she took one look at us and shook her
head.

‘
Is all this really necessary?’ she asked.

‘
The boy needs to learn,’ Chris replied.

Anna
sighed and then broke into that wonderful smile again.

‘
Are you gonna tell us, or should we guess?’ I said.

‘
He got in,’ Anna said in a rush. ‘Brian cracked the USB drive,
and you are not going to believe what’s on it.’

I took
one look at Chris then we both lurched forward, rushing into the
War Room. Brian’s eyes were bright, and his smile almost travelled
the full length of his head.

‘
What have you got?’ I said.

Paul
opened the door to the hallway, and stepped inside with an
apologetic smile. His cheeks were red, and he tore off his jacket
and made his way over.

‘
Where did you get off to?’ Chris inquired casually.

I never
saw whether Anna and Chris saw it, but I did. Brian’s smile
faltered slightly, barely noticeable, and I could tell both his and
Paul’s hearts picked up into a gallop.

‘
Just nipped out for a smoke,’ Paul replied. ‘Sorry, Lucas, you
too, Anna, I’ve been running low, that’s why I’ve been an arsehole
lately, I really am sorry.’

He was
lying, Brian’s sharp intake of breath confirmed so.

‘
It’s alright,’ Anna shrugged and smiled, ‘no harm, no foul,
right Lucas?’

I
nodded, trying to shield my emotions behind a smile.

‘
So,’ Paul continued, rubbing his hands for warmth, ‘what’d I
miss?’

Brian
filled him in, and Paul instantly perked up.

‘
Notes, you guys,’ Brian said. ‘The USB was filled with your
father’s notes, Lucas.’

I did a
double take.

‘
What?’ I blurted. ‘That can’t be right.’

‘
Lends weight to Chris’s theory that your Dad sent that man,’
Anna said.

I shook
my head.

‘
Then why did all those survivors die with Brian and Paul?’ I
asked. ‘My father doesn’t have that level of control. It’s not him
framing us for the murder either. It can’t be.’

‘
Lucas, we might have to entertain the fact that Richard is
still working for the government,’ Chris chimed. ‘That would
explain a lot, especially why they never intervened in Greystone,
and why we haven’t heard anything from your Dad.’

My
insides were screaming. It was wrong, it was all wrong. I’d heard
the way my father had spoken about the people he’d worked with. The
disdain and anger over how they had abandoned the project out of
fear the public would find out. What was all this?

‘
Lucas is right,’ Brian came to my rescue. ‘These files weren’t
downloaded onto this drive easily. From what I can see and find,
they were hacked from somewhere.’

Chris
sighed.

‘
We need to straighten this out,’ he said, ‘lay the facts all
out on the table, and work through them.’

‘
Okay,’ I said. ‘To start, I just know in my gut that Richard
isn’t working for the government anymore. The way he spoke about
them, the way he reacted. Part of the reason he’s doing this is to
get back at them, to prove them wrong.’

Anna
nodded and weighed in.

‘
Then we’re back to the explanation that the reason the
government didn’t intervene in Greystone was because of their fear
of putting their fingerprint to it, and their hope it would be a
success.’

‘
If it was a success, then they could fly in, take the working
drug, AKA me, and have what they wanted in the first place,’ I
added. ‘Then nothing would really matter, they could use my
father’s group as the fall guy and pin the blame on
them.’

‘
And if they could perfect the drug,’ Paul chimed, ‘even if the
public found out they were behind hundreds of deaths, they could
make an army of strong and unstoppable soldiers to protect
them.’

‘
We all escaped though, and the town was destroyed,’ Brian
said. ‘Now what? They’re hunting down the people who could blow the
whistle on them, and hunting for Lucas?’

The
silence hung in the air like a deadly force.

‘
So what the fuck is your Dad up to?’ Chris sighed,
frustrated.

I shook
my head and shrugged. I had no idea, he was being suspiciously
uninvolved.

‘
So tell me something,’ Paul said, ‘your abilities, Lucas, I
mean, I get some of it, but I’m still not sure. What happened to
those people back home?’