Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (4 page)

‘
I don’t know,’ Brian replied and sighed. ‘Before Greystone
happened he’d been a good guy, had a bit of a temper right enough,
but he was a good Dad. Now, I barely recognise him. He’s
overcompensating for something.’

Brian
shook his head and walked over to the line of computers. He turned
a chair there and sat down, rubbing his eyes with his
fists.

‘
Are you okay, son?’ Chris asked.

‘
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be alright. He wasn’t joking, my Dad, things
have gotten worse,’ Brian sighed.

‘
Yeah we noticed,’ I said.

‘
No,’ Brian whispered, ‘you haven’t.’

I
frowned, and Chris planted himself on a couch off to our left that
faced the windows.

‘
Is it just you and your Dad?’ he said.

‘
That’s what I meant by worse,’ Brian replied. ‘The five of us,
me, my Dad, you, Lucas and Anna; we’re the only ones
left.’

‘
What? What about the other survivors?’ I asked.

Brian
stood and walked over to the window. He stared at his reflection
and turned back to us.

‘
They’re dead, Lucas,’ he said. ‘Someone is hunting us down,
and killing the survivors of Greystone.’

The Promise

We
remained silent as Brian recounted the events of their time after
Greystone. It wasn’t a long story. They had gotten out and split.
Some wanted to go straight to the police, to blow the whistle on my
father and his travesties, but Brian and Paul had come to the same
conclusion we had. Undeterred, they left, and Paul, Brian and the
others looked for somewhere to seek refuge until a clearer plan was
formed.

‘
We never thought anything would happen to them,’ Brian sighed,
guilt lacing his voice. ‘The ones who went to the police, I mean.
We’d just thought no one would believe a word they said, and that
they’d be churned back out onto the streets.’

‘
What happened?’ Chris asked.

Brian
took his seat again.

‘
The rest of us bunked in an abandoned building,’ he said.
‘There were a lot of us wounded remember, and we were afraid to go
to any hospitals, so we tried to pull together as much money as we
could from what we’d been able to escape with. As you can imagine,
that wasn’t much.

‘
A few died there, in the building. So we moved on, I know,
it’s horrible, but we couldn’t stay there. Then we just wandered.
Two weeks passed and we were looking for food. I was in a store
when I caught the news on television. A few bodies had turned up in
alleyways with no ID, and no one had come forward for them. It was
chalked up to drug abuse, but I recognised them, and they weren’t
drug addicts.’

‘
Let me guess,’ I said, ‘they were the ones who went for
help.’

‘
Yep,’ Brian spat. ‘The news report said they had overdosed,
but none of them were addicts.’

He stood
again and started to pace, agitated and haunted.

‘
I rushed back to tell the others and they panicked, big time.
A few ran away, and the rest of us decided to find someplace
further out from the main part of the city,’ Brian
recounted.

‘
How did you get here?’ I asked.

‘
Word on the street,’ he laughed. ‘Some homeless had heard that
this place was abandoned and free to use. So we travelled with
them, well, up until we were cornered by police.’

He
stopped pacing and his face grimaced before glazing
over.

‘
All hell broke loose. It was odd, at first we had no idea what
was happening, and then they attacked. They attacked only
us
. The other homeless
people got away but
we
were their targets,’ Brian whispered. ‘There was a lot of
blood, a lot of screaming. It was like we’d never left Greystone at
all, and then I realised, the creatures in Greystone had had their
fates forced on them, whereas these men and women killing us had a
choice.’

He spat
at his feet and returned to his seat again. We all sat in silence
for a while, my mind worked overtime. Something was chewing at me,
it felt like I should have seen something, that there were dots to
connect. Then it dawned on me. The police had done this to them. On
someone’s orders the survivors of Greystone had been hunted down
and killed. My father was an influential man within his own group,
but to have bodies governed by a higher power kill innocent men and
women, that in itself, was a major pointer.

I
started piecing together the things that had seemed so far apart
from one another, the attempt on our lives, the mysterious group
who wanted my blood, as well as the attempts on Paul and Brian’s
lives. They were all connected, all committed by the same force. It
was so simple. I cursed myself for missing it before.

‘
I know who’s behind this,’ I whispered, and Brian and Chris
turned to face me. ‘Think about it. Who would lose the most if the
events of Greystone got out to the public?’

‘
Your Dad?’ Brian asked.

Chris
shook his head, ‘No, the government. Richard Bishop wouldn’t give a
rat’s arse if it came out. He’s already done what he
wanted.’

‘
Exactly, the government, they’re the only ones with the motive
behind attacking the survivors, to keep it from exploding in their
faces. Covering up the deaths and making them vanish in the blink
of an eye, only they could do that without drawing suspicion,’ I
growled. ‘Then there’s us.’

Chris’s
forehead folded into confusion, then flattened with recognition. I
nodded at him.

‘
What?’ Brian asked.

‘
You saw the news today,’ Chris answered. ‘How it looked as if
we’d murdered an innocent man. How we’re being blamed for the
destruction of Greystone. You’re right, Lucas, it’s so
simple.’

‘
What’s simple?’ Brian flustered.

‘
That man?’ I said. ‘He tried to kill us. He tried to run us
over, deliberately. He was also after a sample of my blood. Who
would want the power I possess, while eradicating all evidence of
their fault?’

‘
And add in the fact that now our faces are all over the news,
that we’re the city’s most wanted criminals,’ Chris added. ‘If
we’re caught, who gains?’

Brian
thought it over. His hazel eyes widened, and like me, he cursed out
loud at our stupidity.

‘
Chris, you said we couldn’t rat out my father because the
government wouldn’t want their fingerprints shown to the world.
Maybe you’re right. Maybe they’re going to extreme lengths to keep
it quiet,’ I said. ‘But what if they realised my father could
succeed in Greystone? What if the reason they created my father’s
division in the first place finally came to fruition?’

‘
They’d stop at nothing to get their hands on it, or in this
case, you,’ Chris replied, nodding. ‘Our own government are hunting
us down. The people sworn to protect us are picking us off, one by
one.’

‘
It looks like we know who Bonnie was working for,’ I spat.
‘The reason they didn’t intervene in Greystone wasn’t just because
they were afraid. No, they didn’t intervene because they hoped my
father would succeed, and if he did, they could swoop in, steal the
results.

‘
And if it ever came to light their involvement, they’d pin the
blame on my Dad, the leader of an
ex
-government division.’

*

Eventually, Anna and Paul returned. We filled them in, their
faces lighting up with the same realisation ours had. The dots had
finally connected.

‘
But even if they did pin the blame on your Dad, Lucas, they
would still have to reveal they had had a hand in it to start
with,’ Anna finally said.

‘
Yeah but, the events in Greystone had occurred after they had
disavowed Lucas’s father,’ Chris put in. ‘It gives the government
plausible deniability. Plus, with the successful results of the
experiment, they’d be able to create an army of advanced soldiers.
How are the public going to overcome that?’

‘
But they don’t have those results,’ I said. ‘So they’re
removing the survivors, and hunting for me.’

‘
What’s your father’s plan in all of this?’ Brian
asked.

I shook
my head. I had no idea what his endgame was, only that my father
seemed to be ahead of us all.

‘
Enough for tonight,’ Paul chimed in and I jumped, I had almost
forgotten he was there. ‘You guys look shattered. Get some
sleep.’

Brian
nodded and stood up, stretching his arms and legs.

‘
We can talk more in the morning,’ he said.

‘
Wait,’ Anna stood from the couch we sat on. ‘You still haven’t
told us how you found us, or how you managed to get all this from
nothing?’

She
pointed at the bank of computers.

‘
He didn’t tell you?’ Paul said, beaming. ‘My son is quite the
computer whiz, aren’t you? Tell them, go on tell them.’

Chris
looked up intrigued and Anna looked sceptical.

‘
Yeah,’ Brian chuckled. ‘When we managed to get here we found a
busted laptop in one of the rooms. I’m pretty good with them, so I
patched it up and, well, did some things to get by.’

‘
Things?’ I asked incredulous.

‘
Illegal things,’ Paul laughed proudly.

He has changed.

‘
I hacked some money into an account I set up and used it to
keep us alive, and you know, get more equipment to help us,’ Brian
said and shrugged his shoulders. ‘I bypassed the security on a few
hotels after seeing you on the news the first time. After a bit I
found a name and credit card listed to someone who was from
Greystone and after that it wasn’t hard. I got lucky’

‘
We got lucky you mean,’ I said in awe. ‘If you hadn’t managed
that and we had missed what was on the news, we might have been too
late in leaving that hotel.’

Brian
blushed and shrugged again.

‘
And you covered your tracks alright?’ Chris
wondered.

‘
He’s good,’ Paul answered, ‘really good.’

Chris
stared at Brian.

‘
Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘No one’s gonna track me.’

Brian
smiled, and he and Paul turned to leave.

‘
One more thing,’ Chris called. ‘Can you take a look at
this?’

He
pulled a small plastic object from his pocket, and I was surprised
to see the USB drive we had taken earlier that day. Chris placed it
in Brian’s hand, and Brian agreed to take a look at it in the
morning. Then, the door closed, and Paul and his son went to their
own rooms.

‘
I’ll take the room on the left,’ Chris said, his mouth opening
into a yawn as he walked away. ‘See you guys in the
morning.’

Anna and
I said goodnight, and we headed for the room Paul had shown Anna
earlier. It was large, just when I thought the room had ended, the
darkness gave way to another part. Thankfully, the light from the
city beyond the windows lit up the space enough for us to see. The
stone walls held similar paintings as the hall we’d come through,
and old dust-ridden wood drawers and wardrobes sat around the
place. The bed lay at the back, beside a door that led to a
bathroom about half the size of the room.

Anna
took my hand as she slouched over to the bed. Her eyes drooped, and
she yawned. I stopped her, and lifted her into my arms. A laugh
escaped her lips as she ran her hands through my hair.

‘
I can walk you know,’ she said.

‘
I know,’ I replied. ‘I’m just trying to be
gentlemanly.’

We both
laughed, and I sat her on the bed. I climbed on and faced her,
sitting cross-legged.

‘
We still have one more thing to talk about,’ Anna whispered,
as if someone hid in the shadows, desperate for our
secrets.

I looked
around, the thought electrifying the hairs on my body.

‘
It’s alright,’ Anna said taking my hand. ‘Paul and Brian have
been giving the homeless money. The only thing they ask for in
return is that they stay away from this floor. The way Paul tells
it, they’re more than happy to do so.’

‘
Paul,’ I said. ‘Do you think he’s alright?’

‘
Lucas,’ Anna whispered, ‘we need to talk.’

I nodded
and squeezed her hand. There was an elephant in the room, and it
had to be dealt with.

‘
I’m keeping it,’ Anna suddenly said, ‘no matter
what.’

‘
You think I don’t want it?’ I whispered, taken
aback.

She
shook her head, and a tear made its way down her cheek.

‘
I don’t mean that, Lucas,’ she replied. ‘I mean, I know you.
You’re always trying to do your best for everyone, to stop them
having to go through pain. This though, I
want
this. Richard, he’s already
taken everything from us, but-’

‘
Not this,’ I cut her off. ‘I’m with you on this Anna. I
promise you, this is ours. No one, not anyone will take this from
us. I promise.’