When ODR hit, all of their careful surveillance came to an abrupt halt. Nyler dropped off the government’s radar, and with infrastructure crashing down across the world, they had no ready means to track him down again. Until my Dad got word from one of his old informants, right before long-distance communication ceased for good. Nyler had been spotted setting up base at a closed-down university in Northern West Virginia — practically right under their noses.
Instantly suspicious Nyler was back to his old ways with no one left to police his actions, Dad rounded up the remaining members of their team, eight men and women total. He devised a plan to infiltrate The Compound and investigate, first hand, the happenings within.
As Agent Calder said before, when Dad stopped communicating through their poorly constructed lines of contact, Calder became worried Dad had been found out. And here he is now, at The Compound with me…. All because I thought my family, my Dad, had stopped being the type of person that would put others before himself.
He proved me wrong in the most horrible way.
Agent Calder finally stops speaking, and I find I’m in a daze, trying to process everything I’ve just learned. It’s the most I’ve ever heard Agent Calder speak, and his voice has grown hoarse - and not the sexy kind - by the time he tapers off into silence.
I don’t realize I’m crying until he slowly leans forward, gently wiping a line of tears off my cheek.
“Are you okay?”
Am I? There’s so much I never knew about what my dad did with his life wrapped up in what Calder has said, and even more prevalent than that revelation is the fact that my suspicions about Nyler have been confirmed.
He’s experimenting, once again, on human beings. Whether they’re volunteers, or unwitting recruits, I can only guess at the answer to that. And I’m definitely leaning towards the latter.
“I’m… as okay as I can be.” I eventually reply. “Thank you for not holding anything back.”
Dropping a calloused finger beneath my chin, he makes me look up at him. “I’m trusting you with this information, Saedie. If Nyler finds out who I am, what I’ve come here to do? My life would be in jeopardy even more than it is now, with a near-biblical apocalypse on our hands.”
“I understand. And I believe you. You have my word I won’t speak to anyone about what you’ve said.” I pause, pulling the papers that have been digging into my spine for the entirety of his tale out and hand them to him. “These are why I came to see you today….”
He slowly reaches out to take them from me, like he’s not sure he wants to delve into the world of shit that’s about to present itself. When he realizes what I’ve given him, steely resolve shines from him in droves.
We sit there for hours, picking apart details on the pages one by one. Agent Calder, Cade as he’s asked me to call him, is in a state of disbelief at what’s been going on here the last several months. The fact a college drop out with no form of legitimate training was able to suss out the core of it all is another huge surprise to him, and I have to tell myself not to be offended. He doesn’t know me from Adam… there’s no way he could fathom my sheer determination to take Nyler down.
When I tell him about Mr. Penguin’s office, how I found it and subsequently broke in, I make it a point to let him know there’s so much more there than what I was able to pilfer. He’s impressed by my lock-picking skills and sweetly compliments me for them, throwing me for a loop. I have to fight a blush, but move on quickly. I also fill him in on the steel door - how I’ve placed a code-catcher on it - and about the night I witnessed PPE-dude tossing Gladys into the incinerator.
He’s aghast at this revelation, but listens intently to every word I say. I can tell he’s storing them away for later on, when he can replay the conversation and go back over everything on his own.
“We need a plan.” He’s lounging back in the corner of the couch, watching me.
“I have a plan,” I huff.
Taking a sip of water from a bottle he had stored somewhere in the room; Cade shakes his head. “You and I need a plan… Together. Now that our suspicions have been fully confirmed, there’s no way I’m letting you dive into this mess head first without me.” His tone implies he finds the thought abhorrent. How cute - maybe. “No, we’ll do this as a team.”
I want to argue, simply from the standpoint of being an independent woman, but I can see the value of having someone like Cade on my side. It’s why I’d stormed his doorstep to begin with.
“Fine.”
My stomach chooses that moment to let out a horrendous growl, and I can’t hold back my blush this time. “But I think I need to get some food first. And maybe some time alone to process everything we’ve talked about today.”
A small smile breaks through Cade’s stoic demeanor. “Sure. Mind if I keep these for a while?” He asks, raising up the lab reports.
“No, they’re probably safer with you anyway, at this rate.”
“Thank you.” He tucks them away in an old-school binder, then turns to me. “How about we meet back up tomorrow? Give us both a chance to gather our wits.”
“I have rounds tomorrow, first thing, but we can meet after lunch?”
He agrees, seeing me out the door with a quiet farewell.
What a fucking day….
CHAPTER 13
“Okay, so what if there’s some kind of checkpoint at the bottom of the stairs? What then?” I ask Cade, staring up at him from the floor of his apartment. A crudely drawn map of the sports complex is spread out on the floor between us.
It’s been three weeks since our initial spill-all conversation, and I’ve been spending a lot of time holed up in this tiny space with Cade. He was too worried about me going back to retrieve the code-catcher device myself, so the day after we spoke he’d followed my directions directly to the door and gotten it himself.
We decided to wait, make a solid — detailed — plan before barging in to Nyler’s den of despair. I refuse to afford that man the title of Commander any longer. He doesn’t deserve it, and won’t be getting any kind of respect from me in that vein, or any other ever again. Even without being present.
Cade sits back on his heels from his hunched position over the map, thinking hard on this new question. “We don’t want to assume there won’t be… which is why I’ll go down first. If I need to silence someone, I will.”
“Not permanently though…”
“No, not unless there’s no other choice.”
Cade is a fucking badass. Over the last few weeks, he’s picked up where Luca left off with teaching me self defense. Only he’s also been giving me weapons training.
I shit you not. Weapons. A handgun and a small, manageable for my size, blade.
Fucking epic!
It’s majorly upped my confidence levels, and I’m truly thankful for the boost.
As for the other man who’d stepped in to attempt the same feat…. Luca’s training had been a lifesaver - in the form of getting me out of my own head - and I’m grateful to him for it. But the way he’d been acting in recent days had soured my view of him.
My feelings are still present… though not burning quiet as hot as previously. Yet I can’t seem to reconcile the person who’d spent countless hours helping me learn to properly punch, kick, and basically keep myself fit - who had taken the time to see me and genuinely care about my wellbeing - with the man who now can’t even bother to meet my gaze.
Not in the cafeteria, not walking past each other in the halls, or out on the commons — even when no one else is around.
He’d gone so far as to ignore another member of The Compound when they’d tried to bring me into a conversation one day. The other person had seemed perturbed by his change in mood, but didn’t comment, and eventually I’d just wandered away to do my own thing.
It was like Luca had a beacon attached to me somewhere, and when I drew close, his entire personality ran and hid. I’d been hit with a wall of coldness from him that was entirely impenetrab
le.
I finally gave up after a week of the bullshit. Which of course meant we hadn’t talked about whatever he was hiding, and I was beginning to think we never would.
In retrospect, I’ve been getting to know Cade fairly well, and I sincerely like the man he’s showing himself to be. He’s always very diligent in anything he teaches me, making sure to take time on the parts I struggle with without making me feel insecure. He’s considerate of my weird eating habits, too, and never gets frustrated when I accidentally stab him with my new little knife.
Which has happened quite a few times, I’m not going to lie.
Thanks to our daily meet ups, I’ve gained quite a bit of knowledge on the man-beast, much to his chagrin. He’d rather speak about wind changes altering a bullets trajectory than easily chat about himself. He’s the least vain person I’ve ever met, this man.
Cade had been recruited to the Secret Service by my dad during his third year in the U.S. Army. He was almost twenty-one at the time, and still a bit green around the collar, but Dad had taught him everything he knew about how to be an agent… and do it exceptionally well.
They’d worked together for six years before Dad’s… incident.
Cade assures me he doesn’t blame me for what happened and, surprising even myself, I find I actually believe him. It was easy from the start to ascertain Cade isn’t a man of many words, but what he does say, he means.
“Have you thought about what will happen if they recognize you?” I ask him, centering back on our present conversation.
“I’m an unknown to Atlas. The only person they may have thought familiar would have been Steven.”
My dad.
“Obviously they didn’t or we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Mmm.”
He taps a spot on the map, “Were there any lights still working in this hallway?”
My eyes rove over the area before I shake my head. “There are some here, and here,” I point to two intersecting passageways. “None along that side of the building though.”
“Good.”
I agree.
“Have you been able to speak with anyone from your team?” It would prove really fucking helpful if we could get a few more of his guys in here.
“Not since entry into The Compound, no.”
Balls. I push prying words past my chapped lips, hoping I don’t offend him. “Are you concerned by that at all?”
He shakes his head, fully focused on the map. It’s truly nothing to write home about, but he ‘wants every scenario considered’, which means we’ve been going over this shit for hours.
I get it. I want to be safe. But I don’t have his mind for strategies, so I’m just chilling while doing absolutely no good for the planning process.
“Stop over-thinking.” Cade commands, not glancing up.
Observant fecker.
“I’m not over-thinking. I’m thinking about how if you had someone else from your team here, we could get this whole thing over with a lot quicker and cleaner.”
He studies me with a stern look, “You’ve learned enough in the last few weeks that I trust you to have my back on this mission, Saedie. Quit doubting yourself.”
I can almost feel my ego growing with every word he speaks.
“Thanks, Cade.”
“Yeah,” he grunts, going back to the map.
◆◆◆
We’ve pretty much consumed all of Cade’s stockpiled food over the last several mission-planning sessions, so leaving Cade to do his thing with the map, I head out to remedy the problem.
If you do an essential job around the compound - like I do - you get a few perks. For instance, I’m permitted access to the food stores any time I please, because they want their ‘only other medical worker around’ hale and whole, and not cranky as shit for some grub. Took me a while to figure it out, but now that I have, I admittedly abuse it a bit.
I’m on the way to take advantage when a door along the chow hall walkway opens up abruptly in my path. A hand snakes out from the dim room and latches onto my arm, yanking me inside.
If I didn’t immediately recognize his ozone and mint scent, I would have come in swinging. As it is, instincts cause me to pull my blade in one smooth motion without even thinking of doing it. Holding the weapon down at my side, I let it rest there. Waiting.
“That wasn’t very nice, Luca,” I mock pout, tension coursing through me when he stays quiet.
Bored of the dramatics, with my free hand I briefly feel along the wall behind me before flicking the light switch. A bright florescent bulb flares to life above us, illuminating Luca’s features, and I can’t hold back my gasp.
“What the fuck?! What happened to you?”
He has a black eye that looks fresh, his plump bottom lip sports a gaping cut, and his jaw has the shadows of another bruise coming up.
His gaze is intense as he takes me in, somehow not noticing my knife, and my wariness grows. Somebody did a number on him, and he’s looking at me like he thought he’d find much the same on my body.
“Can we…” He starts, then stops, releasing a frustrated breath. “We need to talk, Saedie.”
I can’t prevent the eye roll that follows his breathy statement. Duh, asshole.
“I don’t have anything to say, but you obviously do, so talk Luca because I’m about ten seconds from gifting you another black eye and getting the fuck out of this cramped storage closet. I have somewhere to be.”
There’s heavy derision riding his words when he responds, “Yeah, with that bloody Calder bloke. Real nice company you keep these days, New Girl.”
Ignoring the annoyance laced butterflies his nickname for me sets alight in my stomach, I stare his ass down.
“At least he has the decency to treat me like a human being, Luca, and not like I’m scum on the bottom of his boot.”
Hurt flickers, but he lets my comment go. “You said you wanted answers. I’m ready to give them to you.” He stares down at his feet, “But you have to understand, none of it was my choice.” Tortured blue eyes meet my gaze, “Please let me say everything I need to before you walk away, okay?”
He talks as if me leaving is a given, and it sets me on edge. What can he possibly have to tell me that would be worse than the cold shoulder he’s given me for months?
I nod that I’ll hear him out, and he doesn’t waste a second.
“I’m a member of Atlas.” My eyes go wide, and his plea from a moment ago is the only thing that keeps me still.
Fucker! What the fecking feck?!
He doesn’t make eye contact as he continues, “Robert Nyler is my father and —”
“What did you just say?” My voice is cold, disbelieving.
“I know, Saedie, please, I …. Just listen!” He’s begging, and I’m not ashamed to say I feel like he should be on his god damn knees groveling for the rest of his speech, but I do my best to hide my derision. I don’t know what he’ll say next, but I can’t reveal my hate for Nyler or everything I’ve worked toward, everything Cade and I are trying to accomplish will be for nothing.
“He’s my biological father, but I grew up in England with my mum and her husband, Frank. Robert wasn’t around much, and they were never married. Mum was his ‘side woman’ and he only ever came by when he was meeting with his associates overseas. One of those visits resulted in my conception.” He’s rushing, trying to get everything out. “When my mom found out she was pregnant, she knew she couldn’t be there the next time he came ‘round. She was well aware of the type of man he was, is, and refused to give him another pawn to play with in his sick game of chess.
She ran, moved to a busy city where she couldn’t be easily found, met the amazing man who raised me, and never looked back. Until I was fifteen and off at boarding school, I’d never even heard Robert’s name. Mum refused to speak it. I’d wanted to know who he was as a kid, but Mum was adamant he wasn’t someone I should seek out. So, I did my own research, and I found him easier than I expect
ed.”
His words are tumbling over each other, barely able to be understood, but I manage to get the gist.
“He had just been exonerated on charges of torture and unlawful imprisonment of free U.S. citizens.” Luca pauses, swallowing so loud it’s audible in the small room. “I immediately understood Mum’s reticence surrounding who my biological father was for all those years. I was a kid though, stupid and naive. I thought ‘Maybe they’re wrong. They let him walk free, they wouldn’t do that if he was as horrible as they said… right?’”
The emotional barriers he’s placed between us all of these months are dissolving before my eyes. I almost reach out to comfort him, but I don’t. Instead I grip my knife tighter, keeping it hidden between my body and the door I’m pressed against. He picked a small flipping closet for this tell-all.
I guess it’s humorous in a way — sort of akin to a priest’s confessional Before. I smirk at the thought, unable to stop myself, and his words halt as he eyes me. “Sorry, sorry, just had a funny thought. Continue.”
There’s nothing funny about what he’s saying - way to make yourself look like the psycho here, Saedie.
If he’s discomfited by my attitude, he must let it go, because he quickly picks up where he left off.
“I had myself convinced of his innocence, and a driving need to know the man my mother had kept me from my entire life surfaced with a vengeance.” Stepping back from me he leans against the wall opposite. It’s the only clean one in the room, and I have to tell my lady-bits to chill out when he props one foot against it, crossing his muscled arms over his broad chest as he speaks. “From that point on, I made it my goal to do whatever I needed to so that I could meet him one day. I knew he’d spent many years in service to his country, so when I was old enough, I followed in his footsteps.
“I joined up with the Royal Army at seventeen and spent the next seven years doing Britain’s bidding. Last year, right before ODR hit, I released my commission and flew to the U.S.. I sought out Robert, under the pretense of joining a group he was starting up to once again research the human genome. I’d spent so many hours studying so that I’d be up to par with anything he asked — and I was. He accepted me with open arms, and I’ve been with him ever since.”
Atlas (Apocalyptic Cries Book 1) Page 11