Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) Read online

  ‘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?’

  ‘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 fath
er’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.’

  ‘Hear, hear,’ we all cried.

  The next hour was bliss. We laughed, drank, ate. Chris steadily became drunk, and started a wonky tune of Kelly Clarkson’s ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’, drawing more laughter from the group.

  ‘No it’s true,’ he continued once he’d stopped. ‘You guys, you guys are mine family. Mine family, my fami…’

  We all clutched our sides in laughter. Chris’s face crunched into a frown as he sat there, contemplating his words.

  ‘So, Lucas,’ Brian said from the head of the table, ‘what was your life like before all things went to hell, and you turned into a quivering little madam?’

  ‘Ohhhhh,’ Anna laughed, tears forming in her eyes.

  ‘Madam?’ I chuckled.

  ‘Yeah, come on,’ Brian teased. ‘You were a little bit whiny.’

  ‘No he wasn’t,’ Anna defended half-heartedly.

  ‘I guess your humour is an acquired taste, huh?’ I chuckled then shrugged. ‘You’re wrong. I wasn’t a little whiny at all.

  ‘I was a lot.’

  Anna and Brian cackled, and we chinked beers. Anna sipped on a glass of coke.

  ‘Before, well, it was nothing spectacular, I lived with my folks, went to college. Hung out with friends, you know normal stuff.’

  ‘What d
id you do at college?’ he followed up.

  ‘Computers,’ I smiled, ‘studying them, hardware and software, yada yada.’

  Brian brightened at the mention of the thing he was brilliant at.

  ‘How good are you?’ he shot.

  I laughed, and Anna joined in.

  ‘Nowhere near you,’ I said. ‘The best thing I can do is open up Internet Explorer and Google.’

  ‘Oh, segue,’ Anna said. ‘We know you’re good Brian, but how the hell did you get all this money?’

  Brian’s eyes crinkled as he smiled.

  ‘The hacking part is easy for me, but I don’t take a lot of money from one single account,’ he explained. ‘A few pounds here from one account, a few there from another, only from thousands of accounts. Just little amounts that people won’t realise are gone.’

  ‘Cool,’ I said, unable to keep the awe out of my voice.

  I was about to ask how he had become so good with computers when Chris and Paul erupted in laughter, both guffawing over something Chris had said, and the question was lost. Anna shook her head with a spreading grin on her face.

  ‘What about buddies?’ Brian interrogated. ‘Did any of your friends make it out?’

  ‘No,’ I sighed. ‘I never even saw them the day everything started. I didn’t really have many friends. A few I hung with every now and again, but I guess I liked my own company.’

  Anna’s forehead wrinkled in pity.

  ‘Hey,’ I said and smiled, ‘it wasn’t a bad thing. I mean I had tons of friends when I was younger.’

  ‘Who?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Well I had my best friend, Samuel,’ I said, but the memory of the boy closed my mouth.

  ‘Did you guys drift apart?’ Brian pushed.

  ‘Uh, no, um, he died not long after he turned eleven,’ I replied and dropped my gaze.

  ‘What happened?’ Brian said and Anna shot him a look. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to push.’

  I shrugged and tried a smile, a smile that no doubt looked like a grimace.

  ‘He was run over, an accident,’ I said. ‘At the time Greystone didn’t have much of a hospital, you know, being the tiny town it was. No college either. There was a building off the doctors’ surgery that was a makeshift sort of hospital, where I thought my Dad had worked, but they weren’t equipped well enough to deal with Samuel’s injuries.’