Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (26 page)

I nodded
and took the seat beside her. I reached out my hand to place it on
her shoulder but she batted it away, and that cold, calculated
smile replaced itself on her lips.

‘
Any of you two breathe a word of me in this state to anyone,’
Jess said, ‘and I’ll kill you.’

I
laughed and even heard the broken Brian by the door
chuckle.

‘
I take it threatening to murder people is your way of coping,’
I smirked.

‘
Only I’m not afraid to follow through with it,’ she retorted,
deadly serious.

Alex
stirred and his eyes fluttered opened. He stared around the dark
room before his eyes settled on me. I smiled as my heart filled
with warmth, and got up and walked over. I lifted him from his crib
and asked Jessica if he needed fed. She left the room, while Brian
wandered over to the desk and sat down. I watched him carefully,
but he didn’t look in a murderous mood like he had when his father
had just died. Jess returned not long after, and then tested the
bottle before handing it to me.

We all
hung in the silence as I placed the bottle to Alex’s lips and he
gurgled hungrily, sucking on the bottle with all his
might.

‘
It’s my turn for an answer,’ Jessica finally said and I faced
her with my eyebrows raised.

‘
Anything,’ I replied.

‘
Bonnie,’ she sighed. ‘Is she dead?’

I nodded
but held her gaze.

‘
Did you kill her?’ she asked.

‘
No,’ I replied.

Jessica
nodded and took a seat. I finished feeding Alex, and then changed
him. Before I knew it he had clocked back out, shut his eyes and
travelled back to the realm of dreams. I hoped with all my heart he
was having good dreams, whatever kind they were to an
infant.

‘
So,’ Jessica said after she drew a breath of air, ‘you guys
got any horrible pasts?’

I shook
my head, but Brian shocked us, even Jessica, who’d asked the
question.

‘
I killed my Mum,’ he whispered.

‘
Alright?’ Jessica said.

‘
Well, she died giving birth to me,’ Brian elaborated quickly.
‘That’s sort of the basis for why I’m good at what I
do.’

‘
How so?’ I asked, genuinely intrigued.

‘
When she died, my Dad didn’t handle it too well. He broke. He
didn’t turn to drugs right enough, but he was destroyed,’ Brian
whispered. His eyes stared out the window, but they were glazed, as
if he was somewhere else. ‘He lost his job, we had to move. For
years we struggled to make ends meet. Eventually things got really
bad. Our landlord was ready to kick us out and we hadn’t eaten a
proper meal in days, so I was desperate.’

‘
What happened?’ Jessica asked.

‘
I, um, stole a lady’s laptop in our building,’ Brian said and
blushed, as if it was the worst thing he’d ever done. ‘I’d always
been pretty good with computers, and I impressed my teachers at
school. So I booted the laptop up, and well, perfected my ability
to get money.’

‘
Ah,’ I said. Brian’s affinity for anything technological still
had me awestruck.

‘
Once our lives became more stable, my Dad perked up a little,’
Brian smiled as the memory crossed his mind. ‘It was like dawn
after a long night. Dad got a job, and I stopped
stealing.’

‘
Tough childhood,’ Jessica mused. ‘What age were you during
this?’

‘
Eight,’ Brian answered and waved her off, ‘but it wasn’t so
bad. If I hadn’t worked on my skills, I might not have been able to
help here. Plus, I used the money to replace the laptop I
stole.’

We
slipped back into silence and I looked down at Alex. I kissed his
forehead, and Anna flooded my mind.

Don’t worry little guy, I’ll be bringing Momma home
soon.

The Deliberation

Jessica
held a conked out Alex as Brian and I lugged the crib from the
conference room to the War Room. We placed it near one of the
couches, and close to the row of Brian’s tech. Jess then placed my
son back in his crib and looked at us expectantly. I glanced at
Brian as he headed over to the computers and took his seat. His
face hadn’t changed, it still looked as if something sour had made
its home in his mouth, and the snarl that mirrored his father’s
gave my heart a jolt.

I could
feel the guilt that tried to overtake me. The blame that was being
silently fired my way. I didn’t fight it, but I didn’t let it
overwhelm me like I had. Instead I waited as it ran its course. My
whole dream sequence lingered in my mind, and I focused on the fact
that Paul’s death had not been my fault, nor could I have changed
the outcome. We were all in the position we were because of sick
people playing God. And that was something I couldn’t
help.

But as
sure as the heart that thumped in my body, I could fight. I might
have been a victim, but I sure as hell wouldn’t take it lying
down.

‘
So how many assassin groups are there?’ I asked
Jessica.

She gave
me a sideways glance and pursed her lips.

‘
I’ve already told you more than I should have. Don’t push it,’
she replied.

I held
up my hands in surrender.

‘
You know it’s funny,’ I chuckled. ‘Bonnie helped us, and then
tried to kill us. You tried to kill us, and now you’re helping us;
the world and its ways.’

Jessica
shrugged and walked over to Brian. I joined them, and Brian drew
his eyes over my face with a snarl. I looked at Jessica who made a
gun with her hand and aimed it at Brian’s head with a smirk. I
shook my head, but smiled.

‘
Brian-’ I said, but he cut me off.

‘
Do you need something?’ he scoffed.

‘
Yeah, could you please-’ I was interrupted again.

‘
Because I’m worried that anything you plan is just going to
lead to more death,’ Brian laughed humourlessly.

I sighed
and rubbed my forehead.

‘
Could you-’ I started.

‘
Are we going to be rushing into danger again?’ he
said.

‘
Alright,’ I snapped. ‘Cut the crap, are you going to help or
sit there and waste my time? Because honestly, there’s gonna be no
room for error and if you ruin this because of something that
I
didn’t
do then
get the hell out of the way.’

Brian
remained silent.

‘
Can you check CCTV footage around Digilock? Find out what
we’re up against?’ I asked.

‘
Whatever,’ Brian shrugged and started typing. ‘What makes you
think it won’t be the same as before, you know, empty?’

‘
Because my father is likely no longer in control,’ I replied.
‘As soon as Hazel woke up I got the feeling she was the new top
boss.’

As Brian
worked, Jessica and I travelled to the kitchen, where I gladly let
her make two mugs of coffee. As the kettle made its way to boiling
point, I thought about the ever increasing complications we were
faced with. I felt in the dark, like I was in the middle of a huge
mess I couldn’t see, so I made a list of our problems, and tried to
simplify them.

My
father, creator of the drug that rocked our lives, enacted the
experiment in Greystone to create me, to place me in the perfect
state, emotionally, mentally and physically, so that I would accept
his creation. If my thought mother was right, and the other missing
part of accepting the drug was also a balance of morals, it would
explain why only I, with my father’s care, had overcome the drug.
When the townspeople in Greystone had changed into those monsters
after being overdosed, their first thoughts would have been
selfish, but understandable. They’d have wanted to save themselves.
When I changed, my perception of the world had been altered, I
wanted to help and protect the family I had fought side by side
with, and I was ready to forfeit my life for them if needs asked it
of me.

But
after escaping Greystone, almost all of our assumptions changed.
Richard Bishop had left us alone for the most part, until his old
bosses in government forced us into his hands. Along with the disk
he’d given us, and the night my sister had killed me, everything
about him came into question; especially my sister. My father may
have created the drug that changed me, but I got the sense he
wasn’t the leader of his group like he’d led me to believe, so that
begged the question.

Who the
hell was, and what did they want?

To top
it off, the government wanted our heads. They used an order of
assassins to target us, placing Bonnie in Greystone, sending both
Danny, the man who had tried to run us over, and Jess, our new
deadly ally, all of them with orders to snatch a sample of my blood
and take us out of the picture and solve one of their
problems.

I
latched onto the goals we’d always had. We needed to decimate my
father’s group, and blackmail the government into leaving us
alone.

I sighed
miserably as Jessica handed me my steaming mug.

‘
Oh God,’ I said as I gulped my hot drink. ‘I forgot how good
coffee is.’

Jessica
smiled.

‘
I hope Brian isn’t going to stay like this,’ I whispered. ‘I
understand what he’s going through, I really do, but he’s changed
drastically.’

‘
Give it time,’ Jess shrugged.

We
finished our coffee, and once we sat the mugs down, Brian, without
so much as glance in our direction, raised his hand towards us and
snapped his fingers. I was just going to let that go, but Jessica’s
face darkened and she leapt over to Brian’s outstretched arm and
grabbed his fingers. She bent them slightly and growled in his
face.

‘
Snap your fingers at me like I’m some dog again,’ Jessica
snapped, ‘and I’ll shove those fingers so far up your arse they’ll
be typing an apology from your stomach.’

Brian’s
face paled and his snarl vanished. He looked surprised, and his
face sagged with regret.

‘
Sorry,’ he whispered.

Jessica
let go and sorted her rumpled top before taking a stance next to
Brian’s chair. I walked over and took up the other side.

‘
What have you got?’ I asked.

‘
Well, you were right,’ Brian said. ‘Take a look, I managed to
find a camera that covers Digilock’s street, and catches a glimpse
of the lobby.’

We all
stared at the screen, and my eyes widened. Inside and around the
outside, Digilock was teeming with men dressed in black. Their
imposing facades were made even more menacing by the guns they had
strapped to their bodies. The place had beefed up security, and
there was a mass of armed soldiers between us and Anna and Chris. I
shook my head as I thought forward and planned.

‘
Damn,’ I whispered.

Brian
laughed and I felt like socking him in the face.

‘
Yep,’ he said. ‘How do you suppose we get through that? It’s
not like we can call the authorities. If your Dad and his group
have the same evidence we do, then that explains why the government
aren’t kicking down their doors.’

Brian
was right, but I didn’t say so. In fact, something else he said
flared in my mind. It sparked, like a parade of fireworks blooming
inside my brain. I couldn’t think of any plan that would work,
other than the one that wouldn’t. Brian was right about one thing.
The police would steer well clear of the place, unless we gave them
no choice but to attack. I wasn’t thinking of a partnership, but
more a diversion. It was perfect.

I
started to pace under the gazes of Brian and Jess. They scrutinised
me as I tapped my chin. If we forced the government’s hand, and
pitted our enemies against one another, we could slip in, deal with
Hazel and my father, and rescue Anna and Chris. We could do the one
thing no one would expect.

But we
needed a way to force their hands. I stopped and ran my fists
through my hair, taking deep breaths as my heart beat frantic. How
could we pull it out of the bag? There had to be a way. Then it hit
me. My picture, along with Anna and Chris’s, were plastered all
over the media; we were public enemy number one. We were mass
murderers and explosive pariahs. If we publicly declared Digilock
as our next target, if we terrified the public with a fake attack,
then our friends in power would have no choice.

They
would have to make their move.

‘
Brian, um, do you have a laptop with a camera?’ I asked in a
rush.

Brian
nodded and got up. He rifled through his things and came away with
a small piece of equipment. He opened the lid and pointed with his
eyebrows raised at the tiny, pinprick camera at the top of the
laptop’s screen. I nodded and took the object from his hand and
walked over to the kitchen counter. Both Brian and Jessica
followed.

‘
If I record something,’ I said, ‘can you black out the
background and release it?’

‘
What do you mean?’ Brian asked.

‘
Can you put this on the web, for everyone to see, but make
sure it can’t be traced back here?’ I pushed.