CHAPTER THIRTEEN - DEVIL IN DISGUISE
“Nick?” Brian called as he entered the medical centre; the lights dimmed slightly which presumably meant that the patients were sleeping. He lowered his voice slightly. “Nick?”
“Here,” Nick called from the left. “What’s up Bri? Is B all right?”
“He’s a little better. He woke up about half an hour ago. He still seems pale though.” It had been lovely to see B’s sleepy eyes flicker open and actually stay open for more than a few minutes, but he was still paper white like a ghost. “Howie said you wanted to see me,” he added.
“Yep, I got something for B. hang on a sec.” Nick grabbed a bottle filled with orange liquid and began to pour some out into a measuring cylinder. “Was B awake when you left?”
“Yeah he’s with Sammy.”
“It’s just the shock after what happened. The internal injuries weren’t bad, but he’ll be weak for a while. You gonna be okay to look after him for a day or so?” Nick peered hard at the cylinder while he spoke and then nodded in satisfaction before reaching for a bottle of brown liquid.
Brian nodded, hoping that this could somehow help them both to get along more. He was certain that all they needed was a little time together to sort it out without other problems getting in the way. “I hope he doesn’t mind though,” he confessed. “Things haven’t been great between us recently.”
“He’s still a kid. He needs time to adjust things.”
“Like me?”
“Well, yeah. Things don’t just fall into place do they?”
Brian sighed. “I guess not. How’s Aaron anyway?”
“He’s cool, thank God. He’s gonna stay with us for a while and help us to sort the Gerai threat out.” Nick had poured a small amount of brown to mingle with the orange and was now stirring them both. “He wants to join one of the espionage teams that are watching the Gerai base.”
“Uh huh,” Brian had suddenly noticed the man that lie upon one of th med beds to his right. Curiously he stared down at him, not recognising him as one of the resistance members. “Is this a villager?” he asked.
Nick paused. “No, it’s not.”
There was a wrist band on the right arm and Brian froze as he recognised the navy blue stripes that marked the Gerai. He stared down at the man upon the med bed again and his eyes narrowed as they took in the dark, stubble hair and the tanned skin that covered a thin body, tucked beneath a thick, blue blanket. He thought back to the Gerai Kevin had hit with the truck and then glanced at the man again. It was him, the Gerai.
“He should be awake soon,” Nick said as he passed a scanner over him. “It took Robert and I a while to clear up the internal injuries but he’s looking good.”
“Why did we save him? The man’s a murderer,” Brian said venomously. Fighting for B and Sammy’s lives and then years of cruel, savage slavery had embittered him against the Gerai until his entire soul would sometimes throb with white anger that burned him inside. He could not see them for human beings like himself. They were monsters, all of them.
“That ‘murderer’ though is now our prisoner,” Nick replied. “I thought we might be able to get some information out of him about the virus and if they’re planning to use it. The Gerai are cowards. They’ll tell you anything to save their own skin.”
Yes, some were cowards but Brian knew that some of the extreme Gerai would shoot themselves before they spoke a word of information to the enemy. He only hoped that this man would cooperate so that Brian could see exactly what they were going to do with B if they ever caught him.
Nick sighed slightly. “Look, I agree with you in that they’re monsters but we need this guy. He could tell us a lot and at the moment we really don’t know much.”
“I guess,” Brian agreed. “I’m not normally one to hate others but I can’t help feeling this way about the Gerai.”
“After what they’ve done to you and B, I don’t blame you. Like I say though, we only saved this guy to get him to talk. We may actually have him awake before tomorrow. Darren will be pleased.”
“Have there been any other village attacks?” Brian asked softly.
“No, thankfully. The good news is though that the Gerai research base is being watched intensely by the other base. Darren’s sent some people out there to help as well. The second the Gerai try and leave that place, they’ll be attacked. Darren’s just worried in case they have tunnels like we do that they can sneak out of.”
“The base is underground then?”
Nick nodded. “It was very well hidden. It’s no wonder we didn’t find it before. They’ve been searching for ways into the place, but no luck so far. There must be tunnels leading way out somewhere.”
Brian slowly sat down a chair beside Nick’s cluttered desk. “They’re pretty organised then, huh?” he said dismally, thinking of B and the danger he was in. Damn it, why did it always happen to B? Brian wanted to give him a life and future but he couldn’t while he was forced to watch over him constantly. That was one of the reasons he was at arms with B so much. The boy despised being given no independence. He needed someone to leave him alone to explore life, but somebody who would be there to hug him if anything went wrong. He was so sensitive.
“Don’t worry,” Nick reassured him. “Yes, they’re holed up pretty well and it’ll be difficult to flush them out but I don’t think there’s much danger. We just need to be a little careful, especially with B. I know it’s hard on him, but hopefully it will be over soon.”
It will be over soon… how many times had Brian heard those words? How many times did he have to make this world safe for B?
He was getting a headache. Parenting was supposed to be stressful but surely not when the kid was seventeen and there was no drugs, alcohol or pregnancies involved. This time it was a tiny thing only a few centimetres wide… but it was still important enough to mess his son’s life up completely.
“I can’t help worrying Nick,” he whispered. “If anything ever happened to him.” He placed his head in his hands for support. “He doesn’t even realise how much I care about him.”
“He’s a teenager, what do you expect?” Nick said, bringing a slight smile to Brian’s face. “He loves ya Bri. He just wants to grow up. It’s hard for him.”
“Worse now he’s stuck here again. He doesn’t need this.”
“Is he getting grumpy already?”
“No, he’s still sick after the extraction process but it won’t be long before it sinks in that he’s trapped again.”
“Well, this should make him feel better.” Nick shook the bottle he had just poured the brown liquid into. He handed it to Brian. “His medication. His system has had quiet a shock after what happened. This will help. He’ll feel much livelier with this.”
“Thanks, but I don’t imagine that he’ll be too impressed with it!”
Nick grinned. “Tough. He’s taking it. I’m a fully trained doctor now and I have authority.”
Brian smiled in return. “Be afraid be very afraid!”
********************
“I’m bored.”
“B, you’ve got like a hundred comic books here! Read something!” Sammy said as he threw one at B.
B had awoken an hour ago, but his cheeks were still pale and his eyes slightly dull from his experience before. Sammy had almost cried when the eyes flickered open. He knew from Brian that B had woken up briefly while Sammy was in the meeting yesterday but when he had returned B had still looked cold and fragile. Now he was sitting up, very much alive in comparison with the death like composure before.
“I’ve read them all before!” B moaned as he sat with his back propped against several pillows. “Can’t I get up and go somewhere?”
Sammy smiled. Typical B, even when ill or resting he could still be a bundle of trouble ready to explode any moment. He was still weak from the procedure but it had not taken him more than half an hour before he grew bored of being stuck in bed.
“No, you’re staying in bed,” Sammy replied bluntly. “You need rest. You’re still shaken up.”
“I don’t like staying here.” B folded his arms, but was caught off guard when his body decided it required more oxygen and so forced his mouth open in a weary yawn.
“Tough!” Sammy laughed.
“I’m fine,” B protested.
“Yeah, but you what you went through was pretty intense,” Sammy said. “You need rest.”
“Don’t remind me,” B said, his voice suddenly cold.
Sammy frowned slightly. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Would you stop talking about what happened? I know what happened, believe I know and I really don’t want to talk about it or think about it!” he snapped before he turned over and lie back down with his back to Sammy.
“B,” Sammy said as he placed an arm on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I… I was just worried.”
He could hear B’s hallow breathing. “I know,” he whispered. “But I don’t wanna talk about it. I want something to occupy my mind. I keep thinking about what happened…”
“Have you spoken to dad about it?”
B shook his head. “No. I don’t want to talk.”
“Sure?” Sammy peered at B in concern before climbing up beside him on the bed. He had tried not to think about the incident in the science lab the other day. Even after Robert and Nick had insisted that B would be okay, Sammy was haunted by the way B’s eyes had rolled back to gaze unseeing at everything before he had started to jerk so unnaturally upon the ground.
B paused for a moment while Sammy rubbed his back soothingly, like he used to do when B was a kid and having trouble sleeping. Even now it could still calm him.
“I thought I was dead. When I was unconscious there was no dreams, just this dark oblivion… when I woke up I was so scared.”
“But dad was here with you. He told me. He wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” Sammy said.
“I was still scared.”
“Do you want a hug?”
B was silent before he slowly turned to face him. “Yes.”
Sammy wrapped his arms tightly about him, closing his eyes for a moment as he recalled B’s screams of pain the other day and they way he had slid to the floor like a lifeless doll. He kissed him on the head, not caring that B was almost eighteen now. “Cheer up. It won’t ever happen again. I won’t let them touch you and neither will dad.”
“What if the Gerai get me?”
Nick had been as gentle and as careful as he possibly could, they all knew that. Nick had been trembling as much as Brian and Sammy when B had a fit and he had tried his hardest not to hurt him. The Gerai would not be so kind and caring. It would only take a few seconds for them to rip into B’s arm with a knife or other sharp instrument.
“We won’t let them.”
“What’s in my arm anyway?” B asked, going limp in Sammy’s arms as he adjusted to the embrace that had kept him safe since the day he was born. “Just before I blacked out I heard them say something about a virus.”
Sammy sighed and slowly nodded, knowing he either told the truth or told a blatant lie, which he was not willing to do. “Yeah, there’s a formula for a virus in there.”
“So they will come after me won’t they? They were after me when they attacked our village?”
“We don’t know that. All we know is that there’s a small group of Gerai left who are cranky that they lost the war. They’re just lashing out. What can they do? You really think that there’s enough of them to storm the base and capture you? You think dad or I would let them get within ten feet of your room?”
“I guess. I’m lucky I have you two. I’d have been dead a long time ago without you,” B said softly.
“Don’t think about that. We’ll get you through this.”
“I bet dad is sick of taking care of me all the time. I should be able to fend for myself now,” B said dismally.
“When are you gonna get it into that thick little skull of yours that he loves you and doesn’t care what you do, he’ll always love you.”
“I don’t know. Things haven’t been right lately.”
“But they’re getting better now,” Sammy said. He sighed, he’d spent many night recently just lying awake while trying to think of ways to heal the rift between his family. He knew it was difficult for B. he was still young and had not understood that Brian would be different to the one he had known.
The first argument between B and Brian had been the worst. B had been in a bad mood and had not liked the way Brian was teasing him. That was all it had taken for B to begin shouting and the stabs of pain had been clear in Brian’s eyes. He’d survived in those mines because he had wanted to see them again and now when he arrived, there was a chasm between him and his younger son. Sammy had suddenly realised that happy families did not just fall into place and that B was never going to settle for anything less than the original Brian he had known and slowly grown to love.
“Yeah, I guess,” B replied.
They had not had much chance to start an argument since arriving and Sammy only hoped that everything stayed this ay. Brian was happy looking after and spoiling B. He was happy to help B get better.
Sammy did not want that happiness to shatter.
*************************
Lance peered slowly into the empty communications office and smirked when he saw that it was empty. The resistance were beginning to let down their guard a little too much recently… that and the fact that they trusted everyone they brought to the base now. All it had taken for Lance was a sob story about his family being murdered by the Gerai, yada yada and they had gladly accepted him into their clan.
They had no idea what his true intentions were. Originally his plan had been to simply befriend the stupid little B and lure him away from the others where he could capture him and take him to the Gerai, but on the day of the village attack he had been able to find him anywhere. He had hoped the Gerai would still find him but then Brian had gotten in the way as well.
That man was becoming a constant menace to the Gerai now. One would never believe that a parent could be so damn irritating.
But at least B had not been killed in the attack, then all would have been lost. They needed him alive. It had been a mistake to try to kill him before. He was much more useful alive.
Nervous in case anyone should catch him he rapidly slid into a chair and thumped in a few buttons on the keyboard.
Next he pulled a strange, black box from his pocket and placed it atop the console before pressing the glowing panel upon the side. It hummed slightly and then the lights on the console began to flicker as it communicated with it.
Lance began to quickly press more keys upon the panel, silently willing everything to go to plan. He was an expert hacker and being ‘friends’ with B meant that the kid had taught him a good deal of tricks as well. He was too willing to trust that one was.
Lance grinned as the data e desired suddenly appeared upon the screen and greedily his eyes traced the information that had been extracted from the chip in B’s arm. The resistance were even more stupid than they had thought before. Extracting the information had only meant that it was all the more easy for the Gerai to get.
He glanced behind him uneasily and then began to encode a message to be sent to the Gerai via the transmitter in the black box. He did not dare use a vocal message in case anyone passing by should hear him so he tapped one out on the keyboard instead.
‘The information was extracted from B Littrell’s arm. I’ve hacked the system and copied all of the data. It’s included in this transmission. I may need some help to get the kid though. He won’t come easy. Lance.’
He almost added another sentence to tell them to hurry up before he was caught. Each day he spent here he was afraid that he would somehow arouse suspicion and it was increasingly difficult to carry out the charade of ‘Lance the Loser’ and he was certain that Brian suspected something. He would have to take care of him and maybe the dumb blond Sammy as well to make sure that B was completely vulnerable.
There was one last thing the Gerai needed before they could work towards their victory and the resistance did not even realise that this was about more than a computer chip. They didn’t know that B was carrying something else as well.
They already had the information, now all they needed was the kid himself to go with it.