Undisclosed (26 page)

A look of horror crossed Jayde’s face.

Harlan looked at his watch and tapped it.

“Now by my accounts, you’ll be dead in twelve hours.”

Deagan laughed. Jayde, feeling his grip loosen for a brief moment, took full advantage of it by driving her heel deep into his shin. He let go of her, reeling back in pain, and she darted in Travis’s direction, sliding across the soaked floor on her side. Realizing this would be her one and only chance, she forced the water around them up like walls in a maze, distorting their vision. Protective officers began firing rounds into the water; bullets ricocheted around the room like a pinball machine.

“Stop firing, you idiots,” Harlan screamed out.

Grabbing Travis, who was still in a state of shock, she reached into her pocket and pulled out two silver spheres, one from either side. As she placed them both in one hand, they snapped together like magnets forming one ball, tiny red lights lighting up around the object before she hurled it in the air
.
It bounced and slid beneath the water, coming to rest close to the main door. Kaine’s men looked down and saw a momentary flash of red light beneath the water, and then an explosion of epic proportions occurred. The force sent them flying off their feet, shattered the surrounding glass and exploded shards of razor edged glass through the air. Canisters of flammable liquid erupted, causing flames to ignite and shoot canisters up like projectile missiles. Jayde set the countdown timer on her watch to twelve hours.

“Can you move?”

Travis, still partly in shock, nodded. There was no telling what was occurring now inside his body. As explosions continued to go off around them they made a break for the door. Alarms rang out and the sprinklers kicked in again.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Harlan said.

Deagan raced after them with a few others, and by the time he had reached the door he could see Jayde and Travis had already made it to the elevators. Multiple doors opened and a stream of firemen flooded out. Travis pointed in the direction of the fire. They slipped into the elevator and before the doors sealed closed they could see Deagan, Seth and Billy trying desperately to push past the influx of officers and firemen.

As they made it to the ground they could barely think straight with the deafening sound of sirens and the entire first floor in complete pandemonium. An unknowing officer, upon seeing them exit, spotted their visitor passes and moved them quickly out of the building, where they were hurried onto the waiting school bus outside. It pulled away quickly. Police and fire engines had begun sealing off the area behind them as they moved further away. Now, covered in dirt, soaked to the bones, and their hearts racing, Jayde and Travis slid into a seat and glanced back at the building, watching the plumes of smoke pour out of the top. Firemen’s hoses like black anacondas twisted and unfolded across the dark pavement, bulging and squirming, unloading a mass of water in the air. Escorted off the premises, the bus covered ground faster than it ever did driving kids to school. All the while both of them expected to be stopped any minute and thrown into handcuffs. But it didn’t happen. They had made it out but they knew their problems had only begun—they had awakened an angry and unrelenting wasp’s nest.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Later, inside his pristine office, Harlan sat like a king behind his table with a high-heeled, dark-haired beauty draped over him. The woman snorted a line of coke as the doors slid open and Deagan stormed in followed by Billy and Seth. “Father. Why would you let them go?” Deagan demanded.

The girl gave one last sniff and then wiped the powdery dust from her nose. Harlan’s lip curled up as he reached for a sparkling glass decanter of brandy and began to pour. “We already have what we need.”

“Why do you continue to waste our time pursuing an ancient myth, having us hide in the shadows, when we should be ruling over them?”

“Son, of all people I would have thought by now you would have understood—this is not about making slaves, or even power. It’s about completing what our fathers’ fathers have given their lives for. I’m surprised—hasn’t anything I have taught you made it clear? Control only lasts so long. Freedom is your greatest weapon. Never allow your emotions to cloud your judgment.”

Deagan snapped, “Like the freedom you just gave them to walk out of here?”

“Son, you mistake freedom for a lack of control,” he said, swiping his little finger through the pile of dust on the table and waiting for the woman to snort it off his finger.

“Tell me … who controls more? The dictator or the liberator?”

“What is this anyway, that you needed so badly?”

“Leave us.”

The women strolled out, leaving them alone. Harlan went to a wall and touched it. It slid open to reveal a safe, and after pressing a few buttons, eye recognition and a thumb print, it unlocked. Opening it, Harlan retrieved the phone, walked back to his desk and placed it on what looked like a docking station. Up in front of them rose a holographic screen. Deagan moved around to get a clearer view. A few swipes and a video started, fuzzy at first, and then a face.

“What’s this?” Harlan growled.

Ryan. It was Ryan—a recording of himself in the lower right-hand corner of the screen played. The rest was filled with a replay of gameplay. Nothing but the sound of Ryan hooting and hollering could be heard over the top of gunfire and team commands.

“Counter-Strike, seriously?” Deagan said half-aloud. “I never took you for the gamer type.” He burst into laughter.

Harlan slammed his fist down on the table, cracking the top. Like a drug addict desperately searching for a hidden stash of narcotics, he swiped through the other files rapidly, hoping, praying that he had simply made a mistake. But he hadn’t. It wasn’t there. The algorithm video had been replaced by Ryan’s gameplay. Harlan looked as if he was about to burst a blood vessel.

“Careful, Dad, you don’t want your emotions to cloud your judgment.” Deagan said with a smirk.

* * * * *

Later that afternoon, back at The Black Hole, Mason was pacing the floor. The others were wandering around when they entered. Besides looking as though he hadn’t slept in days, Travis felt unusually fine, at least for now. Travis immediately confronted Ty to find out how the cell had made its way into the hands of Harlan.

The others listened patiently as they recounted the incident at the Lab.

Ty shrugged. “I could have sworn it was here last night. Ryan must have taken it back.”

“He wouldn’t have given it to them,” Travis replied.

“So what do you think, it’s one us?” Mason said flatly.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Maybe your buddy’s a traitor. Let’s face it, you didn’t know the half of what your father did,” he said with a sudden and astounding viciousness.

“Shut up, Mason.”

Mason bristled and his eyes narrowed.

Jack jumped in quickly. “Ryan isn’t here now, so for now let’s not be too hasty in pointing fingers. It’s not going to help us. Did you find the serum?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is it?”

“No offense, Jack, but until we know how the phone got out, I think it’s best I hang on to it. It’s not like it matters now. He has the working algorithm, he’ll just create another batch.”

“Here’s what I’d like to know. What happened to you, Jack?” Ty asked.

“I was about to ask you the same question, Ty,” Jack shot back.

“We’re not getting anywhere, blaming each other. Listen—our ear pieces stopped working. They must have had a way to jam the signal.”

“Besides that, we have a bigger problem. Travis was injected with one of the failed serums,” Jayde added.

“What?” Jack gasped.

Even upon hearing that fateful news, Mason still didn’t let up. “How did you get out?”

“What?”

“Well, without the diversion at the east access point …” He turned back to Travis. “How did you get out?”

“How do we get out of most situations?” Jayde asked.

“As good as you are, Jayde, that still sounds too unbelievable. More like they let you go. With the east access in operation, how else can you explain how easy it was for you to have made it out of there?” he asked. “They’re tracking you.”

Mason pulled out a gun and held it on Travis.

“Mason, put that away,” Jack boomed.

“He’s right, you’ve got a tracking implant in you. Travis, take a seat,” Lincoln ordered him.

“Look, I’m not feeling good. Let’s do this later.”

“That wasn’t a question,” he said in a serious tone.

Travis looked at them both; he hadn’t seen Lincoln this on edge before. He stared at the gun barrel pointed at him before giving Jayde a sideways glance—she gave a short nod and he exhaled and took a seat.

Ty slid over on a computer chair and pulled Travis’s head to one side. A dark round bruised imprint the size of a nickel had formed. In the center it had a black entry point like a bee sting. Ty handed Lincoln a patch that looked like a square gelatin nicotine patch. They ripped the back off and attached it to his skin.

“This won’t take a moment.”

Travis felt multiple pins puncturing his skin like surgical needles.

Lincoln took out his knife and Travis flinched and put up his hands.

“Whoa!”

“Don’t be a wuss, you won’t feel a thing,” Mason said gruffly.

“It’s okay, Travis, we’ve done this enough times. The surrounding tissue is frozen,” Ty assured him.

Lincoln proceeded to insert the tip of the knife in between a slit in the center of the patch. Travis felt pressure and then it was over. The sound of a small stone rattled as it landed into the glimmering surgical bowl that Ty was holding.

Lincoln took the implant and held it out in his hand. The tiny dark silver object was like a fine chunk of glass. Travis felt it. Its texture was hard—almost stone-like.

“That, my friend, is what was in you.”

“They’ve been doing it for centuries. Tracking, monitoring and controlling.”

Travis took the seedlike object out of his hand and held it up to the light. “All of that with this?”

“Might be small but it packs a punch; highly effective, state of the art, for most part it goes unnoticed. But you’d be surprised at how many people’s lives around the world have been destroyed using these,” Ty said. “At first we thought it was just another way for them to get us off their trail, create confusion by having others do their dirty work. And I have to give them credit. It worked. They had our kind chasing our tails for quite some time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Unexplained acts of violence and crime, unexplained phenomena, mutations and diseases—all of it can be traced back to these tiny implants. At first we assumed it was just their way of unleashing chaos, blowing off steam, retribution for being imprisoned here. When we discovered how many people they were doing it to, we realized they weren’t just looking to create chaos, they were tagging, testing, in preparation for something far bigger.”

“Global genetic modification,” Travis put in.

“That’s right.”

“What happens once they successfully reactivate the non-decoded DNA?”

“You get to watch the world go to hell in a handbasket.”

Travis scoffed. “I thought it already had.”

Ty let out a stifled laugh.

“It won’t come to that,” Jayde said.

“I’ll dispose of this.” Lincoln took the implant, tore the patch off Travis’s neck and left. Travis rubbed the mark on the side of his neck; it was numb and cool to touch.

“Keep your head to one side.” Ty sat in front of him and placed his hand on his neck. His eyes filled with darkness, and then Travis felt the same warmth he had the night Jayde had healed his wounds. After a moment he removed his hand. Travis felt it again; this time it was fine.

“You’re good for now.”

“How do you each have different powers and yet you share some?”

“If our history is correct, individual abilities are inherent to the individual’s race. Other races hold different abilities. All are a manipulation of the energy that surrounds us and forms us.”

“But if you all come from the same race, shouldn’t you be able to do what the others can?”

“Guardians are not a race. As like the Watchers are not a race. Both were formed from different races. How could I put this? Guardians were a kind of Special Forces team, a group assigned to serve and protect, to carry out high-risk operations and missions. They were made up from what was considered the strongest, those who had proven themselves among the many.”

“And the Watchers?”

“Their training was different.”

Travis rubbed the side of his neck. “So is that it?”

“No. Not by a long shot. The serum inside has been released into your bloodstream.” Jayde looked at her wrist as it counted down. “We’ve got less than eight hours and twenty-five minutes left to figure out what to do.”

Travis gave a despondent sigh. “Or I’m dead. Just like those men on the video.”

“That’s not going to happen. We’ll find a way.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven