“Believe me, so am I,” said Leon.
The dark blue hue of the water around the dome was a refreshing change of pace from the blackness he had been traversing through. Leon entered the pressure chamber and impatiently waited for the chamber to drain. He opened the door, and was surprised to find Elizabeth, Kendra, and Julia waiting for him.
“Uh, hey,” said Leon. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what we want to know,” said Elizabeth. “You’re going to tell us everything that happened to you while you were outside the dome. Leon, we know about the creatures out there. We found your father’s research.”
Leon still felt as though the best thing to do, at least until he had a better handle on the situation, was to play dumb.
“What are you talking about? He was researching ancient Polynesian civilizations, wasn’t he?”
Elizabeth shook her head and sighed.
“If you’re going to try to lie to me, I will have you brought up on charges, Leon.”
“Elizabeth, he hasn’t done anything!” said Julia. “Why don’t you try to track down Miles, he’s the one that’s most likely going to have answers?”
“Quit protecting him, Julia,” said Kendra. “Your son is not the angel you think he is.”
Leon smiled at that. The only thing he had managed to determine with any level of confidence about Kendra was that she was totally out of her mind.
“I feel like I’m the one who needs to be caught up to speed,” said Leon. “I went out to try to find Miles because I was worried about him. I don’t know anything.”
The look that Elizabeth gave him in return told him everything he needed to know. There was no way for him to fool her, not at that point.
“Leon, I’m putting you in the custody of your mother for the time being,” said Elizabeth. “A submersible is coming down from the surface to bring a team to investigate and temporarily evacuate the dome. You’ll be held in confinement once you’re back on land, I’m afraid.”
He nodded, feeling as though the outcome was a mixture of good and bad. The best possible thing he could do was get people out of the dome, and away from the mer. But having any sort of investigation into Miles disappearance would only add to the scrutiny the creatures faced, and to the danger they would be in if directly discovered.
“None of you have any idea what you’re dealing with,” Leon said quietly. “The ocean doesn’t belong to us, and that’s not a fact that can be altered just by building a couple of domes.”
“Julia, you need to bring your son back to your domicile,” said Elizabeth.
Julia looked at the woman pleadingly.
“Wait, hold on, I-“
“Just do it. If you want to appeal to my emotions, save it for when we actually have a handle on this situation.” Elizabeth gestured to Kendra, and the two of them started off for the science center.
Julia seemed defeated, and subdued. She took Leon by the hand and gently began escorting him back to her domicile. He didn’t resist, and didn’t say anything at first. They walked through the residential area and headed into her residence through the front door, and then finally Julia turned to him.
“You can tell me what really happened, sweetie,” said his mom. “I’m not going to make any judgments about it, one way or another.”
“Mom, I’ll explain everything soon enough. But for now, I need you to do me a favor.”
Julia was silent, but made it clear with her eyes that she was listening.
“I need you to go and find Kim as soon as you can,” he said. “Bring her to me, and make sure that she gets here without being seen.”
Julia smiled solemnly at her son. She would do anything for him, he realized. His mom stepped closer and pulled him into a motherly embrace. Leon hugged her back, the scent of her perfume catching on his nose almost intoxicatingly.
“I love you sweetie,” said Julia. “When this is all done, I just want to be with you.”
“I love you too, mom.” It was hard for Leon to not hear a second meaning in her words, intentional on her part or not.
Julia cupped his cheek and moved his face so their eyes were meeting, and then leaned in and kissed him deeply. She tasted sweet, and seemed to move her lips against his in a way that managed to be both erotic and incredibly tender.
After a quiet moment, they broke away from each other. Julia coughed, as if intentionally trying to break the strange tension on the air, and then headed out of the small house. About ten minutes later, the door opened again, and Kim slipped in through it.
“Leon…” she whispered, quickly moving over to him. “I was so worried!”
She threw her arms around him, and Leon found himself in the role of calming her down and soothing her. Their relationship was so different from the one he shared with his mom, but it seemed to share the same oddly unintentional sexual spark.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” said Leon. “I’m fine. The ocean is essentially my backyard at this point.”
“You jerk!” Kim pushed away from him and hit her hand against his chest a couple of times. It didn’t hurt physically, but as a gesture it cut into Leon surprisingly deeply. “I let you go out there, and then you just disappeared on the communicator? I thought…all I could think was that…”
“Hey, relax,” he said gently. “Look, Kim, everything I was talking about has come to a head. Miles…he found the mer, and it didn’t end well.”
“Did they attack him?” asked Kim. Leon shook his head.
“It was, uh, the other way around,” he said. “And he was trying to attack me, too.”
Kim didn’t say anything, and just looked at him, as though she was trying to process what he was saying.
“Look, Kim, I have to do something,” he said. “Project Cobalt and other domes like it, they threaten the entire existence of the mer. But I think we can stop it.”
“How would it even be possible?” asked Kim. “They are already putting the plans for more of them into action.”
Leon led Kim over to the couch, and the two of them sat down. He took her hand into his, knowing that what he was about to ask would put all of the trust he had in her to the test.
“Do you know of any way to overload the thermal generators in the basement?” asked Leon.
Kim blinked a couple of times, as if she thought she didn’t hear him correctly.
“What?”
“Would it theoretically be possible?” he asked, gripping her hand more tightly.
“I mean, yeah, it would. But Leon-“
“Here.” He handed her a pen and a small notepad from the table across from the couch. “Just write down how to do it on this.”
Kim looked as though she was about to cry. Leon smiled, and tried to make the situation seem a little less dire than it really was.
“Look, I’m not going to do anything until the dome has been evacuated,” he said. “And I’ll have the suit on. And things will work out, I promise.”
Kim wrote down what he asked of her dutifully, adding a couple of loose tear drops to the page that she seemed to be unable to suppress.
“You are a liar,” she whispered. “Don’t lie to me, Leon.”
He reached his hand over, and gently stroked her hair. Kim was a beautiful girl, and he felt terrible for making him an accomplice for what he had to do. She looked at him with eyes that seem to be pleading for an alternative, and then surprised Leon by moving in closer, and putting her hands on his chest.
“I want you to find me once you get back to the surface safely,” she said.
Leon nodded, and then watched as Kim slowly slid down and off the couch and began unzipping his pants. He didn’t say anything, but his cock began to react in the way that any man’s would, hardening and popping up as Kim pulled it out of his boxer shorts.
She licked the head of it, and Leon felt a jolt of pleasure shoot through him. This felt like a proper send off, for what he was about to do, but part of him felt guilty for letting her do it. He
hadn’t done anything yet, and it seemed like he was being rewarded.
Kim was a little inexperienced when it came to giving head. She rubbed the tip of his cock against her lips, and then slowly began to suck at it, almost like a little girl having her first taste of a popsicle. After a moment, she began to lower her mouth down and over his member, and Leon let out a very pleased sigh.
The door behind her opened a little, and Leon almost panicked. His mom poked her head through and looked in on the scene. Kim didn’t realize that Julia was there and just kept sucking, using her lips and tongue as best as she could to pleasure Leon and show him just how much she cared.
Julia’s face was conflicted, and she seemed to be a little embarrassed, but totally unable to look away. Likewise, Leon met his mom’s gaze and felt as though it was almost as arousing as what was happening to his lower half. Julia licked her lips, and grabbed her chest with one hand, and Leon couldn’t help but picture his own mom as a sexual creature, waiting in the background for her turn.
Kim was bobbing her head up and down on his cock faster. She was able to suck surprisingly effectively, and all of the warm and wet saliva from her mouth had coated Leon’s dick to a nice sheen. It felt incredible, and as he watched his mom watching him, he felt himself lose control.
He blasted his seed deep into Kim’s mouth, and she did her best to drink it down, a small amount of it escaping out of the corner of her lips and streaming down her chin. She pulled her mouth off his cock, gave it one final lick, and then began to cry.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” said Leon. “Come here…”
He pulled Kim up onto the couch and gave her a reassuring hug. The two of them stayed like that for a while, at least several minutes. Finally, Kim got up, kissed Leon once on the cheek, and then headed for the door.
“I’m serious Leon,” she said. “Come back alive.”
He nodded, and then watched as the girl left Julia’s domicile, leaving him alone in the room and even more alone in his head.
CHAPTER 17
Things began to happen quickly after Kim left. Leon left the domicile and almost ran into his mom, who was on the way in. The two of them shared an awkward moment where neither of them said anything, both thinking of what had just happened and what it meant. Finally, Julia spoke up.
“They’re gathering everyone together in front of Gate 1,” she said. “The submersible for the evacuation just docked, and it’s only making one trip.”
“Okay,” said Leon. “Mom…you have to trust me on what I’m about to say.”
Julia crossed her arms and looked at him sternly in a way the Leon hadn’t seen since back on the surface, when he was in high school. She nodded for him to continue.
“I…” He paused, deciding that it might be for the best for him to keep his intentions to himself. “I’m sorry for making you worry, mom. I never meant to make you worry.”
“Sweetie, it’s fine,” she said. “Things will be normal again once we’re on land, you’ll see.”
The two of them walked across the dome towards Gate 1. People were streaming out of the domiciles and all of the buildings, headed in the same direction. It seemed as though the evacuation had already started, with people pushing through the opening and packing into the underwater vehicle.
Leon slowed his pace, and Julia looked over at him concerned. He turned and looked back at the landscape of the dome, and felt a strange sense of déjà vu as the same wonderment he had experienced on his original arrival took hold of him again.
“Come on, sweetie,” said Julia. “Almost everyone is on.”
Leon walked up to the gate. He could see Kendra and Kim already sitting in seats inside of the submersible. It had a good deal more space on the inside than the one Leon had been taken down on. Elizabeth stepped out from the inside of it, and behind her followed a team of five large, intimidating looking soldiers that were carrying large bags of equipment. Leon leaned in close to try to overhear what Elizabeth was whispering to them about.
“It might just be nothing, but it could be a lot more serious,” she said quietly. “Either way, we’ve lost one of our people. At the very least, try to find his body…”
“Ma’am, we have reason to believe that this threat needs to be taken care of immediately and with overwhelming force,” replied one of the men. “Your boy is none of our concern. We have our own orders.”
Elizabeth looked taken aback, as if it was the first time in a long time that somebody had gone against her will. The men seemed not to notice, and began taking out equipment and getting themselves ready. After the stunned expression on her face faded, she caught sight of Leon and Julia, and waved them over.
“Come on, get in you two,” she said. “You’re the last ones to board.”
“Sorry,” replied Julia. “I was just giving Leon some time…”
“We don’t have time to waste. The sooner we get to the surface, the sooner everyone will be safe.”
Elizabeth began calling off names and taking attendance, making sure that all of the people of Project Cobalt were secure within the submersible. When she called Leon’s, he answered her, all the while slowly positioning himself so that he was the closest one to the door. She finished, and then walked up to the captain’s chamber to let him know that they were ready to depart.
“Well, that’s it then,” said Julia. “This feels so anticlimactic.”
“I know exactly how you feel mom,” he replied.
Leon could feel adrenaline beginning to race through his veins. He only had one chance, and he knew that he would need to time it just right. The squad of men inside the dome was a couple hundred feet away from the entrance of the gate, but they seemed busy enough setting themselves up.
A loud noise sounded that it was time for the submersible to depart. The door separating it from the gate and from the dome slowly began to close, and as it did, Leon took a deep breath. With only about two feet left between it in the ground, he dropped down and rolled outside, and then immediately pulled himself to his feet.
“Leo-“ His mom’s cry was cut off as the door sealed within the craft. Leon wouldn’t have heard her, anyway. He was sprinting at full speed towards Gate 2, not bothering to look and see if the soldiers inside the dome had noticed him or yet.
He was almost completely out of breath by the time he got there, but still felt an absurd amount of nervous energy pulsing through him. He shut the first hatch, wishing that there was a lock for it, and rushed to quickly disrobe and pull on a WAVE suit.
One of the men busted in behind him, wearing a suit of his own, one that looked almost like a tactical, military grade version of what Leon had just finished slipping into. He managed to make it back into the pressure chamber before the man could get a hand on him, and he started the water filling process right away, knowing that there was no way in from the dome once it had begun.
It was impossible to see the soldier’s face, but Leon could sense the rage and frustration of the man just from looking at his body language. He heard a crackle in his ear, and realized that his communication system had been tapped into.
“Boy, you just signed your death warrant,” said the man, through sub vocalization. “You will be deemed an enemy of the US government, and treated as such from this point on.”
“Hmm, interesting,” replied Leon. “Well I’ll be right outside the dome. If you want me, you know where to find me.”
He was glad that his own sub vocalization didn’t take his emotional state into account. Leon felt panicked, and nervous, but with it came an odd sense of resigned strength. Whatever happened beyond that point would be up to him and his abilities. Knowing that made chance and luck into his swords to attack with.
The water finished filling, and the door to the ocean opened. Leon exited out through it, and then immediately turned on his water turbine, jetting up and landing on the very top of the dome. It felt strange to have the clear structure down below him, and gave him an oddly mismatched sense of vert
igo.
He could see the submersible slowly rising towards the surface a couple thousand feet away, and was glad for it. One of his main concerns had been that they might delay the evacuation to look for him, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
It made him feel very tiny, and very alone to watch the craft rise up and away from him. He only had himself to rely on, and Leon knew what he had to do. He watched as the team of soldiers exited through the same gate he had just gone out through, and then slowly slid down the curvature of the dome to land down on the other side.
Leon moved as quickly as he could, throwing open Gate 4 and standing in the room while the water drained out. He had no way of knowing just how much time he’d have before the men realized what he was up to, but it didn’t matter. As soon as the inner hatch opened, Leon sprinted back into the dome, which felt completely abandoned, and almost like some type of amusement park exhibit.
He didn’t even bother to take his suit off, running as fast as he could with it on the stairs behind the science hub. All of the doors leading down to the thermal generator room were unlocked, and he headed along a similar path to the one he had taken the day before.
Kim had written him detailed instructions on exactly what he needed to do in order to take down Project Cobalt. The atmospheric pressurizer was in the underground station, and by turning that up to its highest setting, along with maxing out the thermal generators, he was able to sow the seeds of the base’s destruction. Kim had said in her note that it wouldn’t take long, and almost immediately after Leon had finished and started up the stairs, he could feel a strange treble in the air.
This time, he wasn’t just running to outrace his adversaries, but for his very life. Leon bolted for Gate 2, pumping his legs as fast as they would go as he felt the atmosphere of the dome beginning to over pressurize and the translucent structure above strain against the force.
He made it into the chamber, and filled the room with water just in time. As he spilled out into the ocean, the dome shattered and a shockwave pushed through the water, knocking him away and further out. Leon was disoriented, and felt panic race through him as he did a quick check of his suit’s integrity. He was okay, and took a minute to breathe a sigh of relief.
Depths of Desire: Complete and Uncut (Taboo Erotica) Page 9