Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (7 page)

‘
The drug is obviously flawed. It was designed to alter key
aspects of a human’s DNA to grant them these gifts,’ I started.
‘Problem is it’s not as easy as you’d think to mess with Mother
Nature. Our entire being fights back, old DNA fighting with the new
for control. Can you imagine? That kind of battle, it’s painful,
unbelievably painful. To top it off you get these new advanced
senses and attributes. All I remember is the pain, the anger. Every
pin fall was like glass being rammed in my ear. I couldn’t remember
anything, all I wanted was to share the pain and stop anything that
made sound. It’s no surprise those people in Greystone went crazy,
they couldn’t control anything that was happening to
them.’

‘
But you’re not?’ Paul asked.

‘
The town was a massive experiment. An emotional, physical and
mental test to force me into accepting the change,’ I whispered.
‘It worked.’

We
lapsed into silence again. The weight of everyone we’d known, the
dead, was painful to remember. Brian broke the tension.

‘
The notes are most of what we already knew then,’ he said.
‘There’s some stuff here on how he got the drug into the people in
Greystone though.’

‘
How?’ I asked, curious. ‘I remember my father saying something
about giving them a massive dose, but he never said
how.’

‘
What happens during winter?’ Brian said.

‘
I hate riddles,’ I muttered, and Brian smiled angelically.
‘Don’t tell me, Santa Claus and his elves are the real reason this
happened.’

‘
Ah, so broody guy does have a sense of humour,’ Brian
quipped.

‘
I’m not broody!’ I mumbled.

I was
trying to lighten the mood, and Anna noticed, backing me
up.

‘
It would put a strange twist on the “who’s been naughty and
who’s been nice” ordeal,’ she said.

Brian
laughed.

‘
Flu vaccinations,’ he replied simply. ‘Richard used flu
vaccinations to administer the drug to people.’

That was
horrible.

‘
Is any of this information useful to us?’ Chris cut in. ‘Other
than to depress us more?’

‘
No,’ Brian shook his head, ‘not really. It’s just notes, some
files on a few of us, nothing that would give us any
leads.’

I
sighed, the earlier joy of finding something deflated from us all,
but there was a glint in Brian’s eyes.

‘
Don’t fret guys,’ he smiled. ‘I can do something better. Give
me time, I’ll find out where this information was downloaded from,
that much I can do.’

The Party

My blood
was pounding from Brian’s declaration. He was confident he could
trace the file’s origin, and that was one huge lead we didn’t have
before. He’d copied the file onto a different laptop at my request,
and I lay on the bed while Anna took a shower. Night had fallen,
and the moon was reflected by the city’s numerous windows, along
with the freshly lain snow.

A lot of what was on the USB we already knew. Not just knew,
but lived through. There was a list of the things my father had
orchestrated to enact his experiment. Dosing the residents of
Greystone, taking things slowly and delicately with me, the
experiences I’d went through, and the probability of the test
actually working. I was angered to see that, to begin with, my
father hadn’t been very hopeful. He had set loose that horror on
a
hope
it would
succeed.

There
were also a few dossiers on us. I’d perused my file, finding
nothing new. I learned how he had seduced the psychotic Grace,
convinced her to do his every whim on the basis that he loved her.
He didn’t. He also knew about Bonnie, of her allegiance elsewhere
and her plan, but had written that he was confident we’d be able to
handle it on our own. In the end, it had been Grace who’d killed
Bonnie.

There
was even some more information on the complex built under
Greystone. Bonnie had filled me in on some parts; about the
failsafe bomb if something down there escaped. The bomb was the
last line of defence though. The centre of the tunnels was where
the experiments were conducted, with submarine like doors set where
the tended part of the complex gave way to the parts my group had
been bunkered. If something escaped containment, and the doors
didn’t stop them, the labyrinth that followed would hopefully stop
anything reaching the surface.

If
everything failed: BOOM! Failsafe.

The
notes didn’t detail what the underground complex in Greystone had
been used for before my father’s experiments. I’d assumed it was
where he had first started his project, but there wasn’t any
information on that. But Richard had said the tunnels had been
there for almost a century, and that his work had only started over
twenty years before my experiment. So what other secrets the
complex held were a mystery; a fact that made my insides
squirm.

I rubbed my temples vigorously, trying to push out the
headache forming. The files never detailed what he’d planned to do
next, and trying to sort out theories was mind-numbingly painful.
He’d dubbed my journey ‘
The Trials of
Strength’
, that I would be the next step of
science. For all his doubts, he had been right, but what
next?

‘
Getting anything?’ Anna said, emerging from the bathroom
drying her hair.

‘
No,’ I replied, ‘just a bunch of crap.’

She
perched on the edge of the bed, hoisted the towel around her body,
and bit her lip.

‘
What’s wrong?’ I said and sat up.

‘
Nothing,’ she said. ‘Nothing’s wrong. It’s just, I don’t
know.’

‘
No, come on, what?’ I inquired, taking her free hand in mine.
‘I’ll do my best to help.’

Anna
squinted at me.

‘
You promise?’ she said.

I nodded
my sincerity, and she sighed.

‘
We should do something not “FOG” related,’ Anna said, using
the acronym of my father’s group,
Fear of
God
, an unofficial name, given ‘lovingly’
to the group by its workers.

‘
What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘
We need to de-stress, Lucas,’ she replied, ‘before we all go
mad.’

I
thought about it. It wasn’t really what I had in mind, I wanted to
work non-stop, find my father, stop him, and find some way to get
back some of our lives. But the pleading in Anna’s blue eyes
stopped my words short. I couldn’t think of myself right now, if
Anna wanted this, then I’d do my best to give it to her.

‘
Alright,’ I finally said, and her gorgeous face broke into a
heart-breaking smile. ‘Only thing is, you get to tell everyone, and
organise it. It has to be here too, our faces are plastered
everywhere, it kinda limits our options.’

Anna
jumped onto the bed and wrapped her arms around my neck. She placed
a soft kiss on my lips and moved back to the bathroom to get
ready.

I hope this is the right thing to be doing.

*

‘
Did Anna speak to you yet?’ I asked, feigning a blow at
Chris’s stomach, and throwing one at his face.

It was
early the next morning, and true to form, Chris hunted me down. I
still hadn’t been able to grab a coffee.

‘
Yep, I think it’s a good idea,’ he replied, blocking my head
blow and throwing his elbow at me. ‘We need a moral boost,
especially if we’re staying to fight.’

‘
We are,’ I said.

Chris
stopped and sat down heavily, panting. He motioned for me to sit
opposite him.

‘
We need a plan, Lucas,’ he said once I’d sat down.

‘
You’re the one whose brain never stops, what do you think?’ I
asked.

‘
When we find your Dad, could you kill him?’ Chris replied,
eyeing me carefully.

I never
even took a second to think about it, in my heart, I
knew.

‘
No,’ I sighed, ‘no, I don’t think I can.’

Chris
nodded.

‘
I thought that,’ he said. ‘Alright, not a big deal, I
can.’

I looked
up sharply.

‘
What?’ I gasped.

‘
I don’t see anything short of taking your father out of the
picture from stopping him or his group, do you?’ Chris said, and I
shook my head. ‘And if we can find him, where he is, there might be
enough proof to keep the government off our backs.’

‘
What do you mean? Blackmail?’ I said.

‘
Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. Right now we could cause
them trouble, that’s why we’re being hunted, but it’s nothing they
can’t sweep under the rug,’ Chris panted. ‘But if we can
find
something, something
definitive of the events in Greystone or concrete information about
the experiments that preceded Greystone, then we’d have them on the
ropes.’

I
agreed, and we finished the training session. I quickly, and
finally, grabbed a cup of pure caffeine before going for a shower.
I sighed blissfully at the rich dark liquid, and Anna stared at me
from the couch, a frown on her face.

Once I’d
dried and changed, I joined the group back in the main room. Brian
and Chris whispered heavily at the computers, and I took my place
by Anna’s side. Paul was nowhere to be seen, and when I asked, Anna
informed me she’d sent him on a supply run for her ‘party’. Since
his and Brian’s faces weren’t all over the news.

‘
What are they whispering about?’ I asked, refraining from
listening in, I felt guilty about it.

‘
Brian got a location from the drive,’ she replied
casually.

‘
What!?’ I blurted.

I stood
up and moved over to the two men in the shadows. They cut off their
conversation at my approach, and I hit them with a cold
stare.

‘
Anything prudent I should know?’ I said.

Chris
shook his head, and Brian had suddenly developed an obsession with
the wall behind him.

‘
Really?’ I pushed, a little bit of anger welling in my
stomach.

‘
Anna told you already?’ Chris muttered, but he didn’t wait for
an answer. ‘Anna!’

She
looked up innocently and smiled.

‘
Oh, I’m sorry, was what you told me supposed to be a secret?’
she asked, and I smiled.

‘
You know damn well it was,’ Chris growled, and I turned back
to stare at his almost dark pit-like eyes. ‘Yes, Brian managed to
locate where the files were hacked from.’

‘
It’s a building on-’ Brian started, he looked relieved at
being able to speak, but Chris cut him off.

‘
Not now!’ he barked. ‘As soon as you tell him, he’s going to
march straight up to the front door and get himself
killed!’

‘
I’d just like to remind all parties in attendance right now
that, yes, yes I am still standing here,’ I said.

Chris
softened a little.

‘
Let’s just relax okay?’ he pleaded. ‘Anna’s counting on
this.’

I sighed
and nodded. He was right. As soon as Anna mentioned Brian had found
a location, I had started mapping out multiple ways of attack. The
door to the room opened and Paul stepped inside carrying bags of
food, and beer.

Beer?

I eyed
Anna curiously, and she shrugged.

‘
Best form of de-stressing I’ve ever knew,’ she said. ‘Don’t
get your knickers in a twist, I’m not having any.’

Chris
and Paul worked to move a large table into the middle of the room.
Both of them protested my help, preferring to show off their own
strength. Anna and I poked fun at them, and Brian laughed from the
kitchen. It turned out, along with his insane computer skills,
Brian was also a good cook, and the smell of chicken wafted over
and heat up the room. Anna had decided on the dinner, saying that
she wanted to have a late Christmas. She’d even made Paul pick up
gifts, gifts she’d ordered over one of the computers so we wouldn’t
know what they were.

The sun
set and the moon took its place. Anna dimmed the lights and lit
some candles. It cast a pleasant glow around the room, and I
inadvertently found myself enjoying the night. Everyone relaxed,
Chris and Paul, usually the most highly strung of the group were
laughing and clinking beers. It brought out a smile I couldn’t
remove, even if I’d wanted to. If you took away everything that
happened, Chris and Paul were just two guys, who showed they would
get on; Anna and I were a couple, happy to be with one another,
with a miracle on the way; and Brian was the super-smart sarcastic
one, who pulled the group together by being likeable and
level-headed.

‘
This was a great idea, Anna,’ I said sincerely. ‘Thank
you.’

She
smiled, and Brian brought over a large plate with a huge cooked
chicken on it. My mouth watered, I couldn’t remember the last time
I’d had something that good.

‘
To us,’ Brian lifted his beer, ‘we will catch the bastards who
did this to us, and we will come out on top.’