Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (9 page)

‘
I couldn’t get in,’ Brian admitted and sighed. ‘I see why
people use this place. It’s almost hack-proof.’

‘
That still doesn’t explain why you’re on this floor,’ I
said.

They
both went silent, and Anna turned to face me. The fury on her face
took me back. I had to fight the urge to take a few steps away, her
fists clenched and unclenched, turning from bright red to white,
until she crossed her arms.

‘
What Brian
did
manage to find out, is who rents each floor,’ Anna
whispered.

‘
Who owns floor twenty-four?’ I asked hesitantly.

‘
Apparently,’ Anna spat, ‘Anthony Gordon does.’

She took
a deep breath, quivered as she exhaled.

‘
My brother,’ she finished, driving it home.

*

We sat
for the next hour in thought, each of us unable to speak. It stunk,
it all stunk, bad. Chris was sure we were being baited, that it
wasn’t a coincidence. Anna was pumped though, her anger was
palpable, her frustration and fear. They were taunting us with her
brother, and the effect was terrifying.

‘
We need whatever’s there,’ she spat into the
silence.

‘
Anna…’ Chris started, but a glare was fired his way, and he
closed his mouth.

‘
They want to taunt us? Fine!’ she blazed. ‘We’ll show them how
fucking wrong they are to do it.’

I knew
what Chris wanted to say. I also knew how Anna felt, I knew
exactly. I thought back to before we found out my father was an
evil mastermind, to when I had fretted and worried over his
whereabouts and safety. A good man had died to send me a message, a
picture of my father, frail and near death. It had been a rouse
though, an arrow that led us into a trap, a trap that resulted in
me watching my mother leave this world, another trial for me to
face.

At that
point, seeing that picture, I was taken over. Against everyone
else’s better judgement, I had walked straight into my father’s
trap.

‘
We need a plan,’ Anna muttered as she paced back and forth in
front of us.

I sat on
the couch with Chris, Brian behind Anna, swivelled every now and
then in his chair.

‘
Anna, I know that you don’t want to hear this, but,’ Chris
sighed, ‘it’s a trap. It’s one big massive trap. They know we know
that, and Lucas’s father is using your brother to bait you in
anyway.’

‘
Well it’s working,’ Anna replied, stopping. ‘If you think I’m
going to pass this up, think again, Chris. Richard Bishop isn’t
there, but there might be something in those files.’

‘
If Brian can’t get in…’ Chris replied, but Brian
coughed.

‘
It’s not that I can’t get in,’ he said, ‘I just can’t get in
from here. If someone can get into that room, connect me directly
into it, I can get in.’

‘
Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘How did you manage to get a list of
the people who own the floors?’

Brian
used his hands animatedly as he explained.

‘
This isn’t the company’s only building,’ Brian said.
‘Digilock, the company, have two others in this city, and more
elsewhere. Now, things like client names, and accounts, stuff like
that are shared across one network with every building owned by the
company. It saves time if someone who already has an account with
them, and maybe wants to rent another floor of another building.
The company can just open the client’s already existing
files.’

I nodded
my understanding, and he continued.

‘
To do that, the client’s account is shared over their wireless
network, to make it easy to access from any building. I was able to
snatch a copy out of cyberspace if you get me. Nothing is truly
hidden there. The files on the floors on the other hand, are
uploaded to a secure server by whoever rents them. By uploaded, I
mean someone physically at the building. It isn’t connected to any
Wi-Fi, the files don’t go anywhere. I tried to use Digilock’s
network to access the files, but it just isn’t for happening. It’s
completely separate, even the company doesn’t know what’s stored on
their floors.’

‘
Then we go in,’ Anna said.

Chris
sighed, he’d danced this dance with me, for all his skills, he
wouldn’t come out on top. He stood up, and moved back to the
screen.

‘
Alright then,’ he grumbled, ‘we can’t just go in
half-cocked.’

Anna
started up, but Chris shut her down.

‘
No, Anna,’ he growled. ‘If we do this, we do this smart. We
learn as much as we can no matter how long that takes.’

I nodded
and stood, walked over to Anna and took her hand. When I’d faced
this type of problem, Anna had sided with me. I would return the
favour. Not that I had even thought about giving the lead
up.

‘
You know I’m there,’ I told her. ‘I’m with you. No matter
what, we go in.’

Finally,
she relented and took a shuddering breath. I squeezed her hand, and
Chris got started.

We
talked until the sun had abandoned the sky. We would case the
building and learn its security, its patrols. We would judge the
best way to break in, and the quickest way to get out.

We
hadn’t come up with much, but we promised to start the next day.
Chris begrudgingly agreed to take the car, and watch the building.
All of us prepared for bed. Brian shut down his array of tech, and
Anna informed me she was jumping in a quick shower. Chris left, and
as Brian reached the door, I followed him out.

‘
Hey,’ I said. ‘We need to talk.’

Brian
turned. His lips were pursed, and his forehead creased into worry.
He knew why I’d secluded us, and he sighed, resigning himself to an
explanation.

‘
Where’s your Dad?’ I asked. ‘More importantly, what’s wrong
with him?’

Brian
tugged at his collar.

‘
He’s sick, Lucas,’ Brian gasped. ‘He’s sick.’

‘
In what way?’ I said.

‘
You remember the way he acted in Greystone?’ Brian started,
crossing his arms, and then continuing once I’d nodded. ‘You
remember it got worse? Really bad? And when you came back and the
group had tied Jane up, and Chris asked my Dad if he’d been taking
anything?’

Jane
McDonald had been the mother of the group, a strong, intelligent
and compassionate woman that had sacrificed herself to send a
message to our enemy, and also to help us escape. My heart sped up
at the memory.

‘
Well he had been,’ Brian sighed and his shoulders sagged with
his confession.

‘
Yeah, Grace had been drugging him, right?’ I said.

‘
In a way,’ Brian replied. ‘It wasn’t without his knowledge,
and eventually Grace stopped giving him it, that’s what sent him
mad. He chose her side at the time because he wasn’t thinking
clearly, he just wanted more.’

‘
You mean he took it willingly?’ I said.

Brian
nodded, and took a second before he continued.

‘
He’s addicted, Lucas. Really badly. You’ve seen him, one
minute he’s fantastic, and the next he’s the man he was before,’
Brian said. ‘After we escaped it got to the worst it’s ever been.
He went into withdrawal and had horrible nightmares. He never has
handled Greystone well. Since we’ve been here, and I’ve been
syphoning money from wherever I can, I’ve been using a contact of
one the homeless guys to keep him stocked. But I can’t always get
it and he’s getting worse. He’s beginning to need more and more,
and I can barely get the stuff to begin with.’

‘
What the hell is he taking?’ I whispered.

Brian
shifted and peered at me over his glasses.

‘
Heroin,’ he said.

I felt
like I’d been slapped. Anger flared in my stomach, and I had to do
a double take of what was just uttered. Heroin!? Paul was addicted
to heroin!

‘
You’re kidding me right?’ I spat. ‘You have got to be kidding
me.’

‘
Look at it from his point of view. It takes the edge of this
for him, he’s not like us, no matter how he acts it,’ Brian said,
coming into defence for his father.

‘
No,’ I said, my voice rising. ‘Don’t you dare try to
rationalise this. As if we don’t have enough problems to deal with.
Government bloody assassins and a secret science group, and now
there are drugs involved?’

‘
I can’t ask you to accept it,’ Brian pleaded, ‘but please try
to understand. Please, don’t tell Anna and Chris. They just… Anna’s
on a warpath, and Chris wouldn’t understand. Please, I’m begging
you. There’s no time right now to get him the help he
needs.’

I stood
there in complete shock. I didn’t know how to respond, what to
think, what to do. On some level I truly did understand. For Paul,
it was his escape from the reality that plagued us, but heroin!? In
the end I nodded and promised him my silence. We had too much to
contend with without adding drugs into the mix.

‘
Just tell me if he gets too bad,’ I whispered, not too
unkindly. ‘Even Paul’s a part of this family, but we can’t have
that kind of liability right now.’

Brian
promised, and headed to bed. I pulled at my hair in frustration and
slouched back through to the bedroom. Anna had showered, changed,
and was now sleeping. I smiled and joined her, wrapping my arms
around her. I kissed her forehead, and closed my eyes.

Dad, what the hell are you up to?

The Decision

Three
weeks passed slowly. Each and every morning Chris was waiting, and
we trained relentlessly. Chris was noting my improvements, I
learned how to better plan my moves, to not rush in and leave
myself open, but to plan for every contingent. I was better at
handling my strength too, any blow I landed on Chris still left
bruises, but for what I was truly capable of, it was a definite
plus.

Chris,
begrudgingly, staked out the building Anna was becoming more and
more pumped over. Digilock’s building was across the city, so after
training Chris was gone for the majority of the day. The rest of us
prepared.

Paul
stayed out of everyone’s way for the most part, especially Anna’s.
We never saw him for around a week, and after that, he travelled
with Chris.

The snow
that had glittered over the city as it fell gave way to rain. It
washed away any residual snow that had landed, and the weather in a
way, mimicked the mounting tension within the group.

‘
Tonight,’ Anna spoke into the silence from the couch,
‘tonight.’

I took a
sip of the coffee that had gone cold in my hands, and moved from
the kitchen to take up the place next to her.

‘
Are you sure?’ I asked.

‘
I’m done waiting, Lucas,’ she said. ‘It’s been three weeks,
Chris has had enough time.’

I nodded
in agreement. Chris was drawing it out, hoping we’d change our
minds. A few minutes later, my ears picked up the sound of the
elevator doors opening, and I made my way out to catch Chris and
Paul before Anna got a hold of them.

Soaked
and red-faced, both men shivered as they left the
elevator.

‘
Good, I was just coming to find you,’ Chris said.

‘
Me too,’ I replied. ‘Anything new?’

‘
That’s the thing, Lucas,’ Chris sighed, ‘there’s nothing.
Today we went to the other two buildings owned by Digilock, and
they’re maximum security prisons compared to the one we were
staking out. Something is wrong.’

‘
I don’t get it,’ I said.

‘
In the other buildings there are checkpoints as you walk in
the front door,’ Chris explained. ‘You need an ID card, plus a
password before you even get to the metal detectors and guards. On
our building there’s nothing. A receptionist and that’s
it.’

‘
He’s right, Lucas,’ Paul chimed, and I had to take a breath to
hold my composure. ‘We tried something today.’

‘
What?’ I said when they’d lapsed into silence.

They
both looked at one another, and Chris drew a deep
breath.

‘
I sent Paul in,’ he said. ‘I would have gone myself, but, my
own face with yours and Anna’s faces are plastered everywhere, and
we had to be careful, so Paul volunteered.’

‘
I walked straight in, Lucas,’ Paul continued. ‘I walked
straight by reception. There’s no guards, no metal detectors,
nothing. I even got on the elevator and rode it up to the
twenty-fourth floor, and
no one
stopped me. If I’d had the equipment from Brian I
could’ve gotten the bloody files myself.’

I shook
my head.

‘
How is that possible?’ I asked.

‘
It’s not,’ Chris answered, ‘unless someone’s made it that way
for
us
.’

We lapsed into our thoughts, tried to work through the
information, but none of us could think of anything other than that
it screamed trap. But my mind wasn’t concerned with that. There was
no way we were going to just bury this lead, both Anna and I
refused to, and Chris was telling us that it was going to be
too
easy to get
in?