CHAPTER FOUR - TOUGH DECISION
The cave walls of the underground resistance base seemed oddly cold and suffocating as Brian walked along the gloomy caverns with Nick. He was already shuddering at the thought of a longer stay in this place, it reminded him of the enclosed miens the Gerai had forced him to work in with hundreds of other slave workers.
B, Sammy and the others lived within them reasonably comfortably without the same claustrophobic feeling that affected Brian but he was unable to feel this comfort. He had lived within the caves for over a month before he moved with Sammy and B to the nearby village and he was much happier once he could feel the sun above him, although if the light was too bright it almost blinded him. He suspected that his eyes had been permanently damaged because of the dark mines.
He was not the only one going to be discontent in these surroundings, B had loved living on the surface where he was free to roam and sit out in the sun with his back lying against the grass. Brian sighed to himself, knowing that the boy was likely to be completely unmanageable by himself and Darren until he settled down to cave life again.
“You okay?” Nick asked. “You’re pretty quiet?”
Brian smiled dismally. “Just thinking about how I’m going to have to tell B that we’re gonna have to stay here.”
“Geez thanks! We’re not that bad here!” Nick laughed.
“You and the others will be the only part of this that he likes. You know how he hates being cooped up.”
“Yeah, kind of a step backwards isn’t it?” Nick said softly. “It shouldn’t be for long. Darren is already making plans to deal with this last base. There’s no real danger.”
Brian only wished that he could believe him. The Gerai were dangerous. He had seen the very worst of them. He could still remember the brutal punishments they had inflicted upon those who tried to oppose them. There was also a faint tugging at his stomach that refused to allow him to rest. A kind of sixth sense had made a deeply ominous feeling soak into his very soul.
The meeting room was different to the way he remembered it. It was still the same square oblong shape but it was now much brighter as the rocky walls had been covered in white powder to make the place seem more heartening. He had noticed similar differences in other rooms. Now the resistance were not fighting constantly against Gerai threats they’d had time to make improvements to their bases.
Darren was already seated at the long, shabby table with Kevin beside him and there were also two other men who Brian did not recognise as well as an older, bald headed man he knew as Robert the head doctor of the base.
“Hi Bri,” Kevin greeted. “How’s BB?”
“Getting better,” Brian replied. “Still asleep though.” He smiled at the thought of his peacefully snoozing son. He would be back on his feet again. He would actually be glad when he heard B yelling at him again… he would do anything to hear his voice now, no matter what it was he said.
“Hopefully he’ll be back with us soon,” Darren said swiftly as he clasped his hands together and rested them upon the table. “Nick, Brian, take a seat. We need to talk about this Gerai base and B.” He cleared his throat while Brian and Nick pulled up seats from the edge of the room and took their palaces around the opposite side of the table.
Brian straightened out his shirt, suddenly conscious that he had not changed it since he had arrived at the base and that it was beginning to look distinctively grubby and sweaty.
“Bri, this is Stephen Williams,” Darren said as he nodded to a dark haired, then young man to the right. “He’s one of our surveillance officers and has men watching the Gerai base we have recently found.”
Stephen nodded at Brian grimly, his eyes betraying the foreboding nature of the entire situation.
Darren turned towards the second stranger to Brian. “And this is one of our engineers, Milo Harris.”
Like the former, Milo also nodded and Brian could already feel the atmosphere beginning to fall heavy with unspoken worry and tension.
“I’m sure you’ve asked Brian here for something more than just some introductions,” Nick said, trying to lighten the mood as he laughed slightly.
Brian glanced across at him and saw that the silence had also affected him. Why did he feel that something big was about to be dropped upon him?
“Bri,” Kevin said gently. “We need to talk about B. I think its obvious that the Gerai were after him. The fire was to flush people out. Stephen says he caught the Gerai seizing young males and checking their arms. Some of them were questioned and it was always to ask where Brian Littrell was. We don’t think they mean you.”
Of course they didn’t mean him. Why would he be so important to them? Sometimes he wished above all else that he could take B’s place and relieve him of the heavy burden that he carried.
“I already guessed that,” Brian replied. “They’re always after him.”
The Gerai were relentless in their fearful pursuit of B… but how long could they trick the hunter from claiming his prize?
“But why?” Nick cut in. “Why B? We know he has the computer chip in his arm but what good can that do them when the Gerai are so few and so weak?”
“That is the question that we need answering. They have a plan and they Gerai are not completely incompetent. They are smart and devious and they would not be coming after B again unless it gave them a chance at turning things around in their favour again. I don’t know what is in that chip, but it has to be something that can help them.”
“You really think there’s something that powerful in there?”
“Why else would they spend so long searching for him?” Kevin asked. “It’s been over ten years since they lost him but they are determined to get him back. It ahs to be something very important. They could have designed new weapons , maybe not the same, but they could have done it. There is something else we’re missing here and we need to know what it is.”
Brian’s eyes narrowed slightly at all of the talk of B’s computer chip. He did not like the way their voices spoke and the way their faces were contorted with grim faces. His hands were clammya s thye rested in his lap cand his fingers had begun to fiddle. There was something in the way they were talking that made him want to run… “What are you getting at Kev?” he asked.
Darren sighed and placed his hands on the table as he leaned towards Brian. “We have to know what it is that is in that computer chip. This could destroy everything we have ever worked for or - ”
“NO!”
Brian would not even let Darren finish his argument on this subject. How dare he suggest what he was getting at? Here they were playing all concerned for B in the medical centre when they were thinking of carving his arm up to possess the petty trinket which lie hidden within. He was trembling as he thought of innocent B sleeping soundly unaware to the dispute that was going on.
He was standing on his feet and slamming his hands down on the table. Sacrifices had to be made during war, he knew that, but this sacrifice was too much. He’d been through a lot and it was not going to all be for nothing. He would fight and kill before he let anybody hurt his son again. He was fearful creature as he towered above the others, daring them with his eyes to try and speak against him.
“Darren are you insane?” Nick snapped, joining Brian on his feet. “If we even probe that chip it could kill B!” His face had turned pale.
Brian was shaking, suddenly numb inside as his ears heard Nick’s words. To get that chip, B would have to die… The Gerai were murderous enough to do such a thing but Brian could not believe that he was hearing it from his friends, his family. His heart was shocked at the betrayal.
“I fought damn hard to survive just so that I could see him again and I won’t let you take him away from me now!” Brian screamed. “Is this what it was? You let him grow up because you didn’t want to kill a sweet little boy but now you say he ahs to die? What right have you to - ”
“Brian!” Kevin immediately stood up and rushed to his cousin. He grasped Brian’s arms. “We would never ask you to give him up, we would never do anything to him! We all love him! He grew up here! You really think we’re going to kill him? We are not like the Gerai!”
Brian stared into his cousin’s eyes, holding onto his arms to prevent himself from slumping to the floor in weakness. He lowered his head, tears in his eyes.
“We would never hurt B!” Darren said.
Kevin rubbed Brian’s shoulder sand then allowed Nick to slip an arm about his friend and push him back down into his seat.
“Bri, what do you take us for?” Kevin asked softly.
“I… just… didn’t…” Brian hung his head again.
“Bri we are not going to remove the chip. We just want to scan it,” Darren argued.
“It could still kill him!” Nick replied immediately. “We tried once and B was in agony! You promised him you would never do it again! Don’t you remember that tiny kid sitting on a bed crying as we tried to get rid of that chip?”
“Of course I do!” Darren snapped. “Nick, Bri, you’re not listening! Now hear us out, okay?” He looked hard at Brian’s shaken face, waiting for his permission.
Brian blinked back tears and nodded keeping B’s face framed in his mind, prepared to fight again if he thought there was going to be any more pain or despair caused to his son.
“Okay, I’ve had Milo here working on ways to extract information from the computer chip. We tried simulations and we even made a similar chip that would self destruct if activated. It basically self destructed when we went wrong. If it had been B, he would have died. We just wanted to use it to experiment with removing information,” Darren explained. He glanced across towards the dark haired man. “Milo?”
Milo leaned forward, warily watching Brian in case he tried to attack him for what he was about to say. “At first we thought it was impossible, but we have developed new tools fro doing such delicate work. We think we can do the same on B without even hurting him.”
“You think?” Nick said. “Think is not good enough! It will be much harder through human flesh!”
Brian still could not say a word as his hands entangled about one another. What they were suggesting could be fatal to B. How could he be asked to gamble his son’s life on experiments? Theoretical was one thing, but it would be very different to the actual operation.
“That’s where I come in… and you,” Robert said, deciding it was time for him to enter the conversation. “I worked with Milo on this to test the results with my research on human anatomy. It looks highly promising.”
“There is still a risk! We thought about this once before and we decided it was too dangerous!” Nick said. “We raised that kid and I will not do anything hat might harm him! He’s been through too much.”
“Nick,” Kevin interrupted. “This is not your decision, it’s Brian’s.”
Brian stared at him. He felt like the death sentence had just been passed upon his own neck and he could only imagine how he looked. He felt so sick, so sick it ached deeply inside of him. He gulped slightly, staring at Kevin in disbelief. He had hardly listened to Milo and Robert, feeling only the same cold words bouncing about his head. B could die.
“I… I…” The words were fumbled and shook as they came out of his mouth. He attempted to dampen his mouth but still he could not speak.
Kevin knelt down beside him. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but we have talked about this and we are almost certain that this will work and that we will not hurt BB.”
“Almost certain,” Brian echoed. He looked up at Kevin. “He’s my son…”
B was Brian’s son… and he did not want to lose him.
“The research has come a long way,” Robert the ehad doctor said softly. “We’ve tested it over and over again and every time it works. We can extract almost all of the information form the chip without sparking off the destructive program.”
“Why wasn’t I told about this ‘research’?” Nick asked folding his arms and staring hard at his mentor.
“It was a top secret project,” Robert said. “Very few people were involved because we didn’t - ”
“We didn’t want it to look like we were plotting against B,” Darren said. “Rumours would fly and it would change until people thought we were planning to hurt him. You know what people are like. The project would change with every re-telling and we wanted it to be kept quiet.”
“What do you say, Bri? Will you let us try?”
“I don’t know.” How could he make this decision? “I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you talk to B about this when he wakes up? We have all the data here for you, B and Sammy to read over.” Darren held out a computer chip, presumably congaing everything Brian and his family would need. “When it’s all sunk in a little more you can talk to Robert and Milo more about this. Nick, you also need to be brought up to speed with this project. Robert will need someone to help him during the process.”
Nick reluctantly nodded, his eyes watching Brian nervously. He reached over and placed a hand upon Brian’s. “It’s up to you and B. Don’t rush this.”
“I’m sorry Bri, but you don’t have much time to think this over,” Darren said softly. “Our spy here has been watching the location where we think the Gerai base is buried and there has been an increase in activity. We don’t want to leave it too long in case things worsen.”
“We need to know what the score is with that chip in B’s arm. The sooner the better,” Kevin said.
“Think about it,” Darren repeated. “We assure you that we think it would be okay.”
“You think?” Brian whispered. “But can you tell me that B will definitely be all right for certain?”
Kevin hung his head and the others looked away. Only Darren met Brian’s determined blue-eyed gaze. “No,” the older man said eventually. “There is a risk.”
“A risk, but everything could depend upon this,” Kevin added.
Brian was breathing deeply, his trouble heart skipping beats as it pounded irregularly inside of him. The others desperately wanted him to say yes to their suggestion. They wouldn’t force him, but they made their position clear. How could he decide? How could he play with B’s life like this?
“It’s up to B,” he said softly.