Panic set in as Jennifer grabbed her coat and ran straight out the door, jumped in the car and left for the hospital. Jennifer abandoned her car right at the entrance to the hospital. She ran to the reception where an unhelpful nurse pointing to the elevator. “The ER is in the basement.” Jennifer jumped in the elevator banging on the buttons as the door closed and made her way down. She ran to the counter and asked, “Where is Lee?” The man who spoke to her on the phone was sitting behind the counter and asked, “Are you Jennifer?”
“I am, where is Lee?”
“It’s ok, there is no panic, he is fine.” The man said reassuringly. “He only has some bruising and a few cuts along with a couple of cracked ribs.”
“Cracked ribs?” Jennifer shrieked, “How is that fine?” before the man could answer she demanded, “I need to see him!”
The man came out from behind the desk and said, “No problem, follow me.” Jennifer did as the man asked. Walking down the corridor he said, “We had a call from a local drug house that there was a disturbance and we needed to send an ambulance. He really is very lucky, I don’t know why someone like him would be in a place like that.”
Rounding a corner, Jennifer could see Lee sitting in a chair being attended to by a young doctor. She ran up to him throwing her arms around him once more seeking reassuring comfort. “Are you ok? What happened?” she squeezed Lee a little too tight and he winced with pain.
The doctor said, “You will have to go easy on this fella, he has been through quite an ordeal.” He handed Lee a painkiller and some water. “Take these and get some rest,” and he left the room.
Jennifer waited for the doctor to leave and demanded from Lee, “What the hell?”
Lee simply opened his hand and inside there was the locket. “Be more careful with it next time,” and laughed, although it was cut short by pain.
Jennifer was visibly shaken by what was happening, “Why would you risk yourself for a locket?”
“It was never a risk, I was never going to lose,” he proclaimed.
“But what if you did? I don’t know what your power is but how can you expect to beat everyone?” she asked.
His lip curved and he answered, “Well I always have.” Reaching out his hand he wiped away a tear from her cheek declaring, “Look Jennifer, I will never stand by while someone I love gets wronged. It’s not in my nature. I don’t bow down before bullies. Not now, not ever. But the thing you need to trust is that I am smart about it. If there was even a remote chance I would have not got your locket and got back to you in one piece I would not have taken the risk.”
Accepting this, Jennifer asked, “Will I call your father?”
Emphatically Lee responded, “No! Let’s just go home.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Growing comfortable in his life with Jennifer, Lee failed to see that his brother’s life was beginning to unravel. Tom was growing distant from him and his family and eventually stopped coming to share the holidays with them. This new routine did not sit well with Lee and Philip, so after some discussion Lee decided the pair would pay his brother a visit.
The two drove to Tom's apartment, but his brother was not to be found. Lee, knowing Tom, understood that the most likely place for him to be was in his father’s cabin. It was also a good place to go if a person didn’t want to be found as it was secluded and private and paired with Tom’s survival skills it was, for the most part, self-sufficient.
They went to the cabin where they found the door ajar. Philip looked at Lee.
“Well at least we know he’s here.”
Pushing the door he went inside and Lee followed. The first thing that hit Lee was the stale smell. It smelled like someone had been there drinking for days. Lee looked over to the sink and it was full of dirty dishes and surrounded by empty beer cans. His eyes scanned the room for any signs of his brother. Lee looked over to the table and there was a man doubled over asleep, surrounded by more empty beers cans. Lee thought to himself, this could not be Tom as he had never seen him in that kind of state before, but Lee’s loyalty to his brother was wrong. It was in fact Tom and he was still drunk.
This was not something either of them expected from the highly disciplined soldier that Tom was. Lee sat and spoke softly and candidly to his brother, a man who he truly looked up to, with the knowledge his brother only had his best intentions at heart and being able to trust him with any secret. Tom began to speak, opening up to Lee all about his true role in the army, the things that the government were doing in order to maintain the balance of peace. He told him about his reconnaissance missions and what they were truly in aid of, speaking of how the government really dealt with crime factions loyal to the Old World Alliance, with a bloody and cruel iron fist.
Anyone who stood in opposition to the world treaty would be suppressed in the name of a higher peace. Before the government wiped out its enemies it would perform experiments on the individuals in order to learn their weaknesses so the government could better quash future uprisings and maintain the balance of power.
Lee had long suspected that the reason the stories of this nature got pulled from his newspaper was governmental interference. All of Tom’s stories then culminated into one; the government used Tom to recon all the enemies of the states, then used a weapon against the opposing factions to eliminate them.
“I never knew what the weapon was, until one night on a mission I got delayed from his extraction and witnessed the army using the weapon. What I viewed was not what I expected. The weapon wasn’t a what it was a who.”
He went on to explain further. “I viewed the target compound for about six hours to get an accurate and detailed report of all inside and I also had to make sure that the main target was inside. After five hours I reported back to base that there was a positive ID on the target. I also stated that the target’s families were in residence, including women and children...”
“After waiting an hour I radioed back to base that they were clear to engage. As I maneuvered my way to the extraction point, I found myself pinned down between a tower and a patrol vehicle, which had stopped to check the perimeter.
Being careful to go unseen I hid in a shallow drain on a hill overlooking the compound. It was this delay and vantage point that allowed me to see what was going to happen, being able to view the courtyard to the compound and the buildings that over looked it. Along the perimeter I was able to see the two watch towers that had guards concealed within. It was then I heard a large explosion, as one of the towers burst into violent flames and the guards within screeched with agony from the flames burning them alive. But the screams were short lived when another explosion echoed out from the other tower. This time there were no screams and the compound fell silent for a moment that seemed to last an eternity.
I stayed still and concealed myself as I waited for events to unfold. The patrol vehicle that had halted my withdrawal from the area was now speeding in the direction of the explosions to valiantly confront whatever had caused the chaos below, freeing me to withdraw. I chose to watch events unfold rather than to make haste with my exit. Sirens broke the intolerable silence and I viewed a lone masked soldier enter the compound. He was scouting and wreaking havoc to all inside…”
“Do you remember the stories Dad used to tell us about the leap, and how the first kids affected would wear masks and costumes to hide their identities? This soldier looked something like how you would imagine them to look, but he could not have been mistaken for a hero…”
Tom continued on through glistening eyes. “I watched this single individual lay waste to all in front of him, he seemed to grow stronger and faster with every person he faced in combat. He laid waste to the entire compound and moved with a stealthy determination. Some of the enemy soldiers laid down their arms in the face of this superior force, but this did not stop the individual from executing all inside. Innocent or guilty, the individual showed no bias and murdered all inside without proper proof of guilt.
In
my recon report I viewed at least fifty operatives within the compound, along with the main target and his entire family and none of them stood a chance against this individual’s attack. The last thing I heard before a deafening silence was the cries of children ringing out…”
Tom was a highly intelligent person and knew that the sort of concealed dynamism that this one masked individual possessed would have to be unstable. As he spoke he let his feelings known for what he had witnessed.
“Murdering innocent people that I swore to protect goes against everything that I hold true to me, so I resolved to investigate further.
After a few weeks of researching into the ‘weapon’ with no significant breakthrough, I uncovered some highly classified files on a ghost server in a secret basement in the base where I’m stationed and learned that the weapon was filed as Project K. Also, every individual who took part in the development of Project K met with a tragic end. It gave me chills and thinking about it now only adds to it.”
Tom told his brother, “As I read the files I learned how Project K operated, that this one individual was able to absorb the powers of those he fought and permanently fuse their energy with his whilst not absorbing their weaknesses. Making him effectively immune to any attack an enemy could strike onto him.
I also found files, which were buried by his superiors, that showed that Project K was unstable and had a tendency to go rogue. By targeting non-threatening individuals whose powers were strong, Project K was able to absorb their energy and make him stronger. The files also contained the subsequent cover ups to hide the fact that Project K was targeting civilians.”
Spooked by seeing this, Tom opted to copy the files and approach his old commanding officer with the information; the now Second Class Sergeant McKay. Despite their strained relationship he remained a man Tom had served with for the past five years and a man Tom trusted with his life. The two men met in a bar that soldiers regularly visited. They shared a few stories and a few beers and spoke of missions that the two had undertaken in previous years. Tom had been dancing around the topic of what he wanted to say to McKay for a while and eventually plucked up the courage and told McKay his story.
He told him about the delay on the mission and about the masked individual, the secret basement and about the ghost server. Giving McKay a copy of the files, he told him they were the only copy as he didn’t want them falling into the wrong hands. McKay seemed sceptical of the information he was being given, but would look into it further and promised to keep Tom’s identity as the source of the information secret.
Tom also told Lee that this was the last time he saw McKay and that after that he was immediately transferred out of the base and no one in his company saw him again. Tom began to worry for his own safety and told Lee that this is why he had been visiting the family less and less; as a measure to protect them from any potential backlash. He explained how he had become increasingly paranoid that his apartment was being monitored and relocated to the cabin, which no one outside the family had knowledge of. He also knew that no one would be able to approach it without his knowledge.
By this stage Tom was beginning to sober up, thanks in part to the strong coffee his father had brewed for him. Lee interrogated him about the story in order to measure his brothers’ safety concerns. He asked if it was possible that he had been seen entering the basement, but Tom assured him counter measures were taken. Lee also asked if Tom passed the information to anyone else, and Tom told him that the only times he had spoken about Project K was to McKay.
“Was the copy you gave McKay in fact the only copy you made?”
Tom hesitated before answering and Lee knew from this that he had in fact made another copy for safe keeping and that there was two possibly scenarios at play: 1. The army did not learn of Tom’s involvement in un-earthing the files or 2. They knew he was involved and were monitoring him in order to learn the whereabouts of the files and assess the threat level that Tom posed.
Tom said that they would not be able to find the files and if something happened to him that the only people who would be able to find them would be Lee and Philip. They all agreed that the safest place for Tom to stay was in the cabin. Knowing this, Lee and Philip decided to return to their homes. Before leaving, his brother called out to him.
“Lee, even a broken clock is right twice a day...”
This comment left Lee confused as he searched his mind for a reason for this statement.
“Don't worry about that just now, I'm sure you will figure it out...” Tom smiled warmly to his younger brother and turned away from him, allowing him to leave.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jennifer met Lee as he was coming in the door with her usual smile and soft kiss and for that brief moment the anxiety Lee felt about his brother’s safety disappeared, but as Jennifer took her lips away from his, the overwhelming anxiousness he had for his brother began to rise again. Jennifer asked him what was wrong and Lee willingly explained, knowing he needed to ease Jennifer’s mind.
“Tom is in danger, but I can’t really go into details of what is happening, as your safety could be put at risk and this is something I just can’t do. I cannot and will not put you in harm’s way.” He kissed her again, held her reassuringly close and spoke softly in her ear. “Let’s go to bed.” So they did.
Lee returned to work as usual, editing all the stories of interest over the following weeks, but on one day a particular story caught his eye. It was titled Local Football Hero Goes Missing. It was about a young student, who was a college football prospect from a small farming village outside the city, missing in strange circumstances. This story struck a note with Lee, so he decided to go back through the pulled stories from the last eighteen months. He went to see how many similar stories there were. It wasn’t long before a pattern began to emerge; the pattern included the targeting of people with vulnerable backgrounds, such as young people and old people from disadvantaged and rural areas.
They were all targeted in similar circumstances.
The details given to the authorities at the time matched the masked individual that Tom had seen attacking the compound. Lee quickly figured that the reason the stories were being pulled was because the perpetrator was a valuable member of the armed forces within the United New World and was being protected by his superior command. Lee went to share this information with his brother, wanting to get his advice about what they should do next. As he drove he seemed to hit every red light on the way and a traffic jam, frustrating Lee. The more he wanted to hurry the slower the traffic went. Eventually he relaxed and accepted that all he could do was wait for the traffic to relent. But by the time he reached the cabin, much to Lee's dismay and distress, he found it to be empty.
There was no sign of his brother, no sign of a struggle and no sign of any foul play. Lee being Lee and knowing his brother, knew something was seriously wrong. He sat for a moment with the feeling that something wasn't right, knowing ‘if something isn't right then it’s wrong’. Applying his logical thinking to the scenario in hand, he looked around and saw there was no sign of a struggle, which meant that Tom went willingly with whoever came for him. For if Tom put up a struggle, given his strength there probably wouldn’t have been much left intact in the cabin. Lee also knew if Tom was to be taken, given a chance he would leave him a clue.
So pulling a chair from by the door he sat it in the middle of the room and scanned everything. At first glance nothing seemed out of place. Taking a second scan of the room and still seeing nothing wrong, but trusting his instincts, he sat with the idea that maybe what Tom left was not something that’s out of place, but something that should be there.
The first thing Lee saw was the ashtray on the table. Tom did not smoke, but Lee knew that if needed he would have a cigarette so he could give Lee and Philip a timeframe of when he left the cabin. Lee felt the ash and there was still a little heat in it. Had he not been delayed in traffic he may have made it to the cabin in time to help his brother
.
Lee sat back down and looked for more indications as to what happened, becoming conscious of the fact that the big grandfather clock had been fully wound up, but the time on the clock was unchanged. The clock was stuck at 1.48. This time was familiar to him, but he did not know why. He recalled the words Tom had left him with.
“Even a broken clock it right twice a day...”
At the time these words seemed cryptic, but now Lee comprehended that he was telling him where to look. Carefully he opened the glass door that covered the clock face, only to hear something inside the clock fall. He peered into the bottom of the clock to see if he could see what. It was too dark to make out any distinct objects, so running into the kitchen he grabbed a torch from the cupboard underneath the sink.
Returning to the clock he lit the torch. It struggled to ignite the filament in the bulb, but after gentle persuasion by hitting it with his other hand, the torch lit up and he shone it into the darkness in the clock. He saw a black pouch and reaching his hand in, he retrieved it.
Carefully he carried it to the table by the window and began to inspect it. Opening it carefully, he removed the contents for examination. From a quick inspection he gathered it to be a hard drive from a computer, but he had never seen one like this before.
It was the same size as a normal drive, but the markings on it were very different to any he had seen before. It appeared to be military grade technology. He ran to his car and grabbed his laptop to connect the device and learn what secrets were hidden inside. Swiftly he booted up his laptop and connected it all in a hurried panic. Just before the device powered up, it struck him how easily this process had unfolded.
Lee’s face crumpled; his brother would always fail-safe anything of importance. Choosing to re-examine the device; carefully, he opened it and discovered a circuit board missing. Lee exhaled a breath of relief, certain that if plugged in the device would then most likely have corrupted any information on it and his brother would have been lost. Searching every part of the cabin to find the missing circuit board, he could not find it or any clue as to its location. Lee knew only one person knew his brother’s thinking as well as he did. With that in mind he left the cabin.
Powerless (Book 1): Powerless Page 9