Redemption (Enigma Black Trilogy Book #3)

by Furlong-Burr, Sara

  Drew picked up a figurine from Victor’s desk and inspected it, turning it over from side to side. “Victor must be somewhat of a science fiction fan,” he said to Cameron, who was becoming visibly more shaken as the minutes went by. “What are these? Cyborgs? Robots?”

  “Put it down, Drew,” he said. “Victor handmade them, and I know he’ll be pissed if one of them gets broken.”

  Drew laughed. “I’m thinking breaking one of these is going to be the least of my worries as far as Victor is concerned, considering we just broke into his office and I’m holding a gun to his pet’s head.”

  “Quit calling me that, and put the figurine down now.” His shaking had grown more profound. A bead of sweat tricked down his face.

  “Gee, Cameron,” Drew said. “You would think we were interrogating you by the way you’re reacting.” He set the figurine down and picked up another, further aggravating him. Drew glanced up at Kara, who met his eye and nodded her head to proceed.

  “Who is Phillip Grant?” she asked as she picked up a photograph that had been published in a newspaper that seemed just as old as the one detailing the attack on the Flamingo. Its edges had yellowed, and the paper seemed as frail as an autumn leaf. “A relative of Ian’s, maybe? And why has his face been drawn through with an ‘X’?”

  Across the room, Drew had moved from the figurines on the desk to the numerous ones situated on the bookshelf. Instead of glaring at Kara, Cameron’s eyes were transfixed on Drew as though he wanted to jump up from the chair and pull him away from what he was doing. Kara returned her focus to the photograph and the caption underneath it. “Labinski. That was Liam’s last name,” she said, glancing up at the photograph above the caption. “His face has also been scratched out.” Her finger glided to the next name listed under the photograph. She gasped as her finger began to quiver, the realization hitting her like a freight train.

  “Kara,” Drew said her name, but it didn’t register with her for several seconds. Eyes wide, she looked up from the photograph at Drew. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “It’s George Stevens,” she murmured.

  “George Stevens as in Celaine’s father?”

  Kara nodded.

  “Has his face also been drawn through?”

  “Yes.” She read the rest of the caption, pausing at the end. “All three of them were doctors at Hope Memorial Hospital.”

  “That’s strange,” Drew said, picking up another figurine, much to Cameron’s disdain.

  “I think it’s more than just strange. There’s meaning behind it. There has to be.”

  “You want to fill us in on that meaning, Cam, ol’ buddy?” Drew asked.

  “Go to hell,” Cameron said, a slight tremble evident in his voice.

  “Why, so I can keep you company?”

  Kara placed the article back inside the folder and turned to the thickest file—the one labeled with Celaine’s name. She took in a deep breath, bracing herself for what may lie inside, and opened the folder. On top, she found a series of surveillance photographs taken by Blake, showing Celaine walking down an alleyway with Chase by her side. A medical report detailing Celaine’s operation and subsequent cardiac incidents were next, and Kara set them aside as she spotted more photographs further down inside the file.

  “What in the hell?” she asked to no one in particular. “Whose house is this?” Curious, she turned the photograph over and read the caption: Stevens’ residence. No, this can’t be her parents’ home, can it? she thought as she thumbed through other similar photographs depicting different angles of the house and the vehicles situated in the driveway. Kara turned the photographs over and moved on to the other documents, finding herself taken aback by what she found in front of her. Her stomach churning, she weeded through high school transcripts, including one from Celaine’s transfer to Iowa, her school photographs, and several news articles from the bombing at The Lakes. My god, he’s obsessed with her.

  “Is it really necessary for you to pick up every one of them?” Cameron asked Drew, agitated. Ignoring him, Drew picked up another figurine and tossed it up into the air, catching it with his free hand.

  When she reached the last news article, Kara found herself staring at what appeared to be more surveillance photographs, except the photographs before her were different from the others and showed Celaine at different stages of her life. One depicted her leaving campus at a university. Another one showed her moving into her apartment. With every turn of the page, she progressed in age until she looked like the Celaine who had arrived at The Epicenter. Stunned, Kara put the photographs aside with the rest of the file.

  “Seriously, Drew, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop now.” Cameron’s voice was an octave away from a yell, more fearful than angry in tone.

  “You talk a big game for someone who has a gun pointed at them,” Drew said, unfazed by his veiled threats.

  Toward the end of the documents in Celaine’s file, Kara stumbled upon more news articles, some of which appeared just as old as the ones in Ian and Blake’s files. She unfolded the first article, her heart skipping a beat. Staring up at her from the announcements section was Chase. “An engagement announcement for Celaine’s ex-boyfriend,” Kara said, surprise mixed with confusion. She read the announcement, pausing when she came to the date. That’s in two days, she thought. Why does Victor have this in her file? Why is it relevant? Perplexed, she folded the article and placed it in the pocket of her blue jeans.

  The worn, yellowed appearance of the paper on which the next article in the file was printed told her that it was most likely the oldest one. She picked it up and unfolded it, instantly recognizing the face staring back at her. Victor, a younger version of him, stood next to another familiar face. Through an ‘X’ crudely drawn over his face in red pen, George Stevens smiled up at her. “Drew,” she said, “I think we’re coming close to the answers we’re looking for—”

  “No!” Cameron yelled, lunging at Drew, who had just picked up one of the larger figurines from the center of the bookshelf. He tackled him, knocking Drew’s gun to the floor as Cameron bashed his body against the bookshelf. Shocked, Kara jumped up from the desk and dove to the floor to retrieve the gun before Cameron could get to it. Once it was firmly in her hand, she aimed it at Cameron’s head.

  Eyes wide and frantic, Cameron’s desperation oozed from his pores. Drew rubbed the back of his head, holding the figurine up in the air as though threatening to bash it against Cameron’s head at any moment. With his other hand, Drew felt something on the shelf where the figurine had been, which caught his attention. Cameron’s body tensed, prompting Kara to cock the gun in order to prevent another outburst.

  “No, Drew,” Cameron said, his voice quivering. “No.” Confused, Drew looked at the raised object his fingers had found.

  “What is it?” Kara asked.

  “It looks like some kind of button,” Drew replied. His fingers hovered over the raised, circular protuberance, unsure of what to do next. He glanced at Kara, who met his inquisitive stare with a nod as though instructing him what to do.

  “Drew, listen to me,” Cameron pleaded. “Please, just back away now and I won’t tell Victor you were in here. Just leave well enough alone, Drew.”

  “For the past couple of years, I’ve left well enough alone, always listening to what you and Victor told me to do even if it was against my better judgment. That all changes, right here, right now.” When the last word of his sentence escaped his lips, he pushed the button. An earsplitting, grinding noise emanated from within the walls. Eyes wide, Drew and Kara backed away from the bookshelf, gasping when it parted in two and revealed a hidden entryway. Inside the entryway, a light automatically flickered on, followed by another one, and another, until an entire tunnel was exposed, leading to a room at the end of the light trail.

  Kara looked at Drew, mouth agape. Drew nodded as she gestured toward the tunnel, and he took his gun back from her, once again pressing it against C
ameron’s back. “Time to take us on the grand tour,” he said to him. Unable to fight back, Cameron complied, reluctantly walking toward the entryway and into the tunnel. The tunnel was wide enough to allow both Drew and Kara to walk next to each other. Kara’s skin began to prickle, and she felt herself shudder the closer they became to the still darkened room—the closer they became to the unknown.

  Cameron stepped on the last tile of the tunnel floor. With the weight of his body, the tile began to glow, activating the lighting mechanism inside the room. In perfect unison, the room lit up and sprang to life. Screens surrounded its perimeter, each one displaying a view of the different rooms in The Epicenter, including both Ian’s and Celaine’s rooms. “What the hell, Victor,” Kara said, disgusted.

  “He must see everything from this room,” Drew said.

  “Which makes it that much more wrong,” Kara muttered. She broke away from Drew and Cameron and looked around the room, noticing computer and other lab equipment not unlike the kind in the operating room. As she tried to take it all in, her attention was diverted to a corner of Victor’s private hideaway that remained dark. In light, we find truth. In darkness, we find deception, she repeated in her head.

  “Holy shit,” Drew said, capturing her attention. She looked behind her back to find Drew holding a round metallic object.

  “What is it?” she asked, unimpressed.

  “It looks like some sort of sophisticated explosive device,” he said in awe. “Exactly like the ones used by the avatars in the simulator, the ones recovered from the attack sites—” He paused, his words punching him in the gut. “These are them, aren’t they?” he asked Cameron, who remained tight-lipped, his hands growing increasingly fidgety by the second.

  “Wait, that’s a bomb?” Kara asked. “But why does Victor have bombs?”

  “He has more than one, there are several of them over here,” Drew said, inspecting the shelf. “There’s enough firepower here to blow up a small town.”

  Kara’s stomach turned. “Or for several well-orchestrated attacks, perhaps?”

  Drew stared blankly at the device in his hand, his face blanching. “No,” he said, a sickness evident in his voice. “No. Tell me these aren’t the same bombs,” he said to Cameron. “Tell me that Victor or anyone else here hasn’t been responsible for any of the attacks.” Cameron remained silent as if it were the only form of defiance he had left. “Answer me!” Drew yelled, holding the gun up to Cameron’s forehead, tears pooling in his eyes.

  In a daze, Kara glanced back to the dark corner of the room, the one that had beckoned for her attention minutes ago. Numbness consumed her body as her feet moved across the floor without her even feeling them touch the ground. When she drew nearer, just as she was on the cusp of crossing over the threshold of the light in the room and the darkness that shielded the corner, a light came on, illuminating her worst fear.

  Visibly sick, she let out a guttural scream that frightened Drew and summoned his attention toward Kara. “Is that—” he began to ask, his voice trailing off. In the now brightly lit corner stood the last figurine in Victor’s collection. A life-sized statue of himself, half flesh, half metal, towered over them, its hulking form enhanced by the suit that covered its body. The same suit they’d seen in numerous surveillance photographs and described in eyewitness accounts across the country. The suit that gave The Man in Black his name.

  Kara fell to the floor, sobbing. She screamed once more, a long, shrill scream of agony and anger that bounced off the walls and struck everyone and everything in the room. “All this time I’ve been devoting my life to the person I thought would help me bring my sister’s murderer to justice, and it’s been him all along,” she said trembling. “I’ve been working side-by-side with my sister’s murderer. Carrying out his orders, trusting him, even admiring his work.” She looked up at Cameron, her face contorted. “How long have you known?” she asked him.

  “A while,” he answered with no trace of emotion.

  “Days? Weeks? Years? How long is a while, Cameron?” she asked, her voice just short of a yell. He remained silent as he stared at her, all color in his face having drained away. Kara returned his gaze, her eyes quickly filling with tears. “You’re a monster, just like him,” she said in a whisper. She sat paralyzed on the floor as though all the strength had been drained out of her limbs, leaving her limp. “You’re a monster, Cameron Lake!” she yelled at him, mustering a final show of strength. “A murderer.”

  “I had nothing to do with anyone’s death or what Victor was doing,” he said, tears welling in his eyes.

  “Not directly, but you knew what he was doing and you could have stopped it, but you didn’t, which almost makes you worse than him,” Drew said, his body stiff from shock.

  “You don’t understand,” Cameron said with a quivering voice. “Victor is like a father to me. He took me in when no one else would. He accepted me for who I am.”

  “All he ever wanted was to use you for his own purposes,” Drew said. “It’s not about you, it’s what he can get from you. You’re nothing to him, an insignificant speck like the rest of us he’s been using to carry out his dirty work.” Drew walked over to Kara, crouching down to meet her face. She had retreated into herself and begun rocking back and forth on the floor. “Every attack began and ended with the man you hold in such high esteem. Family members and friends of ours were murdered because of Victor, and you’ve known this entire time.”

  “I just wanted to be a part of something, to have someone think of me as something more than a disappointment.”

  “Yeah, and it cost you your soul,” Kara said, sneering. “You’re just a cold, hollow machine like him.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m no murderer.” He found his voice again as his plea carried across the room.

  “Prove it, then,” Kara said, looking up at him from the floor. “Where is he going to attack next? Does it have something to do with Celaine and the wedding announcement I just saw in her file?”

  “I—I don’t know. Victor doesn’t tell me when or where. The only thing I know is that he’s hell bent on finding Celaine. For some reason, he has it out for her, and he asked me to find information on her ex-boyfriend. He took half the supply of bombs with him the other night, the most he’s ever taken for one attack.”

  Drew’s eyes widened. “That will be his biggest one yet. Wherever he’s going, there’ll be nothing left.”

  “Celaine,” Kara whispered. “We need to find her.”

  “Where is Victor now?” Drew demanded.

  “I—I don’t know,” Cameron muttered, staring down at his shoes.

  “Why are you protecting him?” Kara screamed. “He’s no saint. He’s no father figure. He’s a cold-blooded killer who’s been responsible for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past decade, and you’re okay with that?” Kara stood up and began to charge toward him, but Drew held her back. “The reason you could never find anyone to love you is because you don’t know what love is. And how could you know? You’ve been too self-absorbed your entire life, never loving anyone and therefore never finding it in return. You don’t know what it’s like to have your heart—your life—ripped away from you because you don’t have one. You’re a heartless human being, Cameron Lake; one who will die alone with only your secrets and lies as evidence you ever existed at all.”

  “Come on,” Drew said softly, taking Kara by the arm to lead her out of the room. “Let’s—” He turned his head to speak with her, but was met with a sharp blow to his arm from Cameron’s fist. The gun flew out of his hands and landed on the floor. Before Drew could make a dive for it, Cameron fell on top of it and snatched it up, holding it out in front of him.

  Kara gasped as she and Drew instinctively put their hands up in the air. “So you’re going to kill us too, then?” Drew asked defiantly. “It’s not enough that you’ve already been responsible for the deaths of so many others? After the first thousand, what’s two more, right?
”

  “Shut up!” Cameron yelled. “You know nothing about me.” He moved the gun, slowly directing its aim away from them until he’d repositioned the barrel against his own head. “You know nothing. I’m not incapable of being loved.” He began to cry, the tears streaming rapidly down his face.

  “Cameron, put the gun down,” Kara said calmly. “Don’t do this. It’s not worth it.”

  “You’re right, I’m not worth it,” he said. “You’ve made that perfectly clear. I’ll never be worth it to anyone. I’m evil, incapable of having anyone ever care about me. Even when you were being nice to me, I knew you really wanted something from me, that it was all an act. But I didn’t care because I thought that maybe you may end up seeing something in me worth getting to know. I was wrong. When it comes to people, I’ve always been wrong.”

  “Cameron,” Kara said, taking a step toward him so slowly it appeared as though she was barely moving at all. “To be honest with you, I don’t understand people either. But the one thing I’ve learned is that it’s never too late to change. You can choose to be a better person. It’s entirely up to you.” She took another step toward him, never taking her eyes away from his. “You can choose to make the right decisions, to live your life honorably.”

  “It’s over for me,” he said, tightening his grasp on the gun. “With everything I’ve helped do already, there’s no turning back.”

  “But there is,” Kara insisted. “Tell us what you know, where Victor is, what he’s planning. Celaine said she thought some form of mind control implanted in their helmets is controlling the soldiers. If that’s true, tell us what we can do to stop it. That would be a step in the right direction, something that would redeem your soul.”

  “Someone would need to access the program, rewrite the commands entirely and reverse them.”

  “So there is such a program?” Kara asked, inching toward him another step.

  “Yes. I developed it with the intention of using it only for the simulator, but Victor wanted it adapted for real life use. He said it would make the soldiers better fighters. He said it would be used for training purposes only, and that no one would get hurt.”