Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) (9 page)

“You’re so silly,” I laughed.

We continued to laugh and joke about the next steps of our
quest
for another few minutes, but
in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but feel that it was selfish of me to involve her. The fact that she so willingly agreed to join me despite the out-of-this-world level of weirdness and the life or death stakes made me feel even worse. It also didn’t help that I had not been completely honest with her about the main reason that I wanted to find Reaper. I had told her about the return of my dream but chose not to tell her the whole story because I didn’t know how she would react if she knew that two days ago I had been contacted by The Righteous.

- ONE MONTH LATER

USERNAME…..
**WELLS**MICHAEL

PASSWORD......
********************

ACCESS GRANTED……

WELCOME DIRECTOR WELLS……

PIECE OF CAKE,
I THOUGHT AS I STARED DOWN AT THE sophisticated terminal that I had just hacked into. I knew that Wells kept his most precious files off the grid, so I took a few weeks to devise a plan to infiltrate his main office and manually download the info I needed. Getting in was a piece of cake. My clearance was enough to get me into Area 51 after hours; and getting onto Wells’ level was as simple as hacking into the building’s network and tricking the sensors into thinking that certain doors were locked when that wasn’t necessarily the case. For anyone else, this would have taken an entire team and a boatload of equipment, but I had managed to get it done with just myself and a two-year-old smart phone that I had designed in my spare time.

Wells’ office was nearly pitch-black by the time I made my way to his desk and powered on his main computer. I adjusted the night vision on my smart glasses to account for the soft light that shined from the monitor and immediately got to work when the computer completed its boot-up sequence. Even in the dim light that emanated from Wells’ computer monitor I was still barely visible to the naked eye due to my all-black gear which blended perfectly with the shadows that filled the room. I was also looping footage from last night through the room’s surveillance cameras so as far as anyone could tell, Wells’ office was completely empty.

Nice try
, I thought to myself as I cracked the encryptions on Wells’ main computer on the first try. My heart rate increased drastically as I withdrew a thumb drive and placed it into a port on the front of his computer. I kneeled in front of the computer and proceeded to download droves of top-secret files from Director Wells’ hard drive to my battery-sized thumb drive. As the files continued to download to the thumb drive, I pressed a few buttons on the left of my smart glasses and began to wirelessly copy the information from the thumb drive to the backup drive in my smart glasses. I took a seat on the floor and leaned back against Wells’ desk as the files continued to stream to my smart glasses. The top-secret information was flashing onto the virtual display of my smart glasses with alarming speed as it wirelessly transferred to the drive. Luckily, my eidetic memory and years of speed reading allowed me to read at a rate of nearly 10,000 words per minute with almost 95 percent comprehension. As the files were copied and saved to the hard drive in my glasses, I was able to read most of the information almost as quickly as it was coming in.

For nearly thirty minutes, I sat there in absolute awe as I read the earth-shattering secrets that Wells had hidden from us. My already racing heart pounded even harder as I realized the true gravity of the situation. I had always known that Wells was holding out on us but never could have imagined just how much we didn’t know.

My heart nearly stopped when my smart phone suddenly began to vibrate letting me know that the miniature motion detectors I had planted at the entrance of Wells’ level had just picked up movement. My palms grew sweaty beneath my black gloves as I quickly stood and looked at the computer screen and saw that I had only downloaded 35 percent of the files I had come for. My phone suddenly began to vibrate more intensely, indicating that someone was approaching the second motion detector that I had placed just outside the entrance of the director’s office. The files continued to download onto my thumb drive and stream to the backup drive in my glasses as I stood and contemplated my next move.

Finally, I pressed a button on the side of my smart glasses and switched the display to X-ray vision. I was frozen stiff as I saw the skeleton of a figure just outside the office stealthily creeping toward the entrance. I was just about to switch my glasses back to night vision when, courtesy of the X-ray vision, I noticed a secret room behind the wall that stood just behind Wells’ desk. I took a deep breath and tried to slow my heart rate as I typed out a sequence on my smart phone while the stealthy figure crept toward the office entrance.

Got it!
I
silently cheered as I finally unlocked the secret room with my phone. I darted toward the hidden room as the wall behind the desk retracted upward, but I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks when I realized that I had not only left Wells’ computer on but I still had my thumb drive attached to it. I looked to the hidden room then back to the computer just as the mysterious figure outside prepared to enter the office. I finally pressed a button on my phone to close the door to the secret room and quickly darted back to the computer and switched off the monitor as I ducked under Wells’ desk.

I took a deep breath and sucked in as much oxygen as I could just as the sound of the metal entrance to the office retracting upward suddenly filled the once silent room. Soft yet deliberate footsteps quickly entered the room causing my heart to pound even harder than it already was. I shut my eyes and remained as still as humanly possible and the room suddenly fell back into complete silence. I wasn’t sure if the mysterious visitor had decided to leave or if he was standing still amongst the darkness, patiently waiting for me to make a sound and reveal myself. The only things I knew were that I had no idea where he was and that my lungs were on fire as I continued to hold my breath for much longer than I had previously thought I was capable of.

I clenched my jaw and fought hard to keep it together as the soft whirring of night vision goggles powering up rang out no less than fifteen feet away from my hiding spot.

Hold it together, Echo
, I thought as I slowly exhaled through my nose, taking extra care to do so as quietly as possible. Sweat trickled down my forehead as I heard soft footsteps within the darkness suddenly approach the desk that I was hiding beneath. I held my breath once again as the soft footsteps paused inches away from the desk.

My heart was beating so emphatically by that point that I was certain the sound of it would give away my location. Several uneasy moments went by in silence and then finally, to my relief, the mysterious figure crept past the desk and continued to search the room. He crept around for a few more minutes and then finally headed back toward the exit. I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when the metal door automatically slid open due to his close proximity which triggered the motion detector I had placed at the entrance. My tension and apprehension matured into terror as the motion detector was activated and my smart phone suddenly began to vibrate.

I quickly scrambled for my life as the lights were switched on and I heard the figure explode back into the room. He shot across the room before I could even make it to my feet and before I knew what had happened, the back of my head was slamming hard against the floor. I nearly lost consciousness as his foot slammed against my neck and pinned me to the ground, but the sudden glimmer of a shiny metal blade sent my heart into a frenzy.

“Jason, wait!” I suddenly pleaded, barely able to speak due to his foot practically crushing my wind pipe. “Ace, it’s me! It’s Howie!” I repeated frantically as I yanked the black ski mask from my face and stared upward at Jason, who was dressed in his all-black, armored ninja-like combat gear. His long headband wavered behind him as he glared down at me with his sword still held above his head.

“No!” I cried out as I clenched my eyes shut while Jason’s lightning quick sword suddenly descended upon me.

I laid there for a few moments expecting the piercing pain of impalement to explode inside my chest at any second, but fortunately that moment never came. When I finally opened my eyes, I swallowed a massive lump in my throat as I noticed that the razor-sharp blade of Jason’s sword was less than an inch away from my face.

“Jason, it’s me,” I repeated. “Let me up.”

“What are you doing here?”
he demanded in an ominous tone that sent a chill down my spine. There was something about the eerie level of calmness in his voice that was absolutely frightening to me. It also didn’t help that he still had his foot at my throat despite the fact that he now knew who I was.

“I can explain,” I said, though I had not yet actually come up with a sufficient excuse at the time.

Jason stared at me in silence for a few more tense moments but, to my relief, he finally removed his foot from my throat and took a few steps back. I sat up as quickly as I could, gagging and gasping for air as Jason removed his mask and glared at me in silence. After a few seconds, I managed to catch my breath and pull myself to my feet.

Just as I suspected, Jason was absolutely livid when I turned to face him. The fire that burned in his dark green eyes made me doubt if I would actually be able to talk him down.

“You’d better start talking, Howie,” Jason snarled, as he tightened his grip on the sword in his right hand.

“I know this looks bad but it’s not what you think, Jason,” I replied, still hoping that a brilliant excuse would pop into my head at any second.

“Are you working for them?” he demanded.

“Seriously?! You think—”

“Answer the damn question Howie or I promise you this won’t end well,” Jason growled.

“Of course I’m not working for The Righteous!” I insisted, angered by Jason’s tone. In the back of my mind I knew that I should have been more afraid than angry but I couldn’t help it. Who did he think he was and where did he get off treating me like I was just some punk Stranger? So what if he caught me breaking into our boss’ top-secret office and stealing sensitive files? He was supposed to be my friend, and as far as I was concerned, friends weren’t supposed to make threats against each other—ambiguous or otherwise.

“If you’re not working for the enemy, then how in the hell do you plan on explaining this? You know access to Director Wells’ office is restricted,” Jason said.

“I’m just looking for answers. That’s all. You have to trust me, Ace. You have to know that I’m not working for The Righteous.”

“Trust you?! How can you expect me to trust you after
this?!”
Jason demanded.

“You’re one to talk about trust, Jason. Or is that even your real name? I can’t say I noticed one in your file,” I snapped.

“You read my file?” Jason asked, as he narrowed his eyes and momentarily glanced at his sword.

“You’re damn right I did,” I said, glaring at him as I recalled the deceit that he had perpetrated from the moment he was placed into our lives. “How could you lie to us like that, Jason? How could you pretend to be our friend for all those years?” I knew I would be angry once I confronted him about his deception but, to my surprise, as I watched him stand there in silence, I was actually much more disappointed than I was angry.

“I never lied,” he said somberly.

“You were placed at our school to spy on Reaper! In terms of lies, that is one hell of a whopper, if you ask me!” I replied.

“I was just following orders. You can’t fault me for that.”

“The hell I can’t,” I snapped. “What if Wells gives you the order to kill him, Ace? What if Wells orders you to kill Reaper? Will you just
follow
orders then?” I demanded. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To take out Reaper if he ever gets out of control.”

“You have
completely
lost your mind, Howie!”

“Have I? Because it sure seems to me like I’m actually starting to see things a lot more clearly,” I quipped.

“I am not going to kill him, Howie. That was never a part of the plan,” Jason insisted.

“Don’t kid yourself, Ace. You and I both know what Project Orion was all about—finding an answer to The Reaper. And look at what all that genome therapy has done to you. You’re not even human anymore, and you’re certainly not our friend. You’re just a killing machine—a machine that was designed solely to neutralize The Reaper.”

“Do you really think I could do that? Do you really think I would kill him?” Jason demanded.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” I said flatly.

“How can you possibly be so self-righteous?!” Jason demanded. “Where were you when he was trying to blow his freaking brains out, Howie?! Were you the one who tried to stop him when he was hell-bent on killing himself?—No, I was! So don’t you dare tell me that I don’t have Reaper’s best interest in mind! No one wants him to live more than I do! I am the one who tried to save him!”

“Give me a break, Ace. You’re no savior,” I scoffed. “Face it, you’re nothing more than a cold-blooded killer. And I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before Reaper finds himself on the wrong end of that
special
sword of yours.”

“I’m not a killer, Howie. I’m a soldier, and you of all people should know the difference. Every life that I’ve taken was in service of the people that all of us are fighting to protect.”

“Tell that to the civilians that you murdered behind the bar the other day,” I said, darkly.

Jason’s eyes suddenly widened with surprise, and he opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out.

“Yeah, that’s right, I saw you. Those guys were giving us a hard time, but we both know they didn’t deserve to die.”

“What was I supposed to do, Howie?—Just let some punk run around knowing Reaper’s true identity? You do realize that we
both
used Reaper’s name in front of him, don’t you?!”