by Yalu Taylors
“We want to take the organization down for good Kalenia, not just the facility. If we can do that we stop them from doing to anyone else what they have done to us.” Kalenia nods in understanding. “Okay but why do you lot have to do it? Why not find someone else to do it for you?” Ace starts to argue but her idea has merit so this time I am the one who raises her voice to speak over the top of everyone. “That is actually a great idea. Why don’t we gather as many people as we can and all of us go in at once to destroy J.O.Y?”
“That would take months of planning, possibly longer if we have to track down everyone who has escaped.” Kalum frowns and then his face breaks out into a smile. “It could work. With so many of us being able to teleport we could jump all over the country and return with as many people as we need. We would need a proper base of operations though and maybe a way to communicate publicly to get a message out there to let people know how to find us without tipping off J.O.Y.”
“Maybe an encrypted message in a TV Ad.” Hunter states as we all sit down to a dinner of home made hamburgers. We’ve been throwing around ideas all afternoon and still no luck figuring it out. “How would they know to look for the encryption?” I ask. Declan who has been quiet up until now pipes up with, “Maybe we could pose as a private investigation team and do a couple of Ads, the first one saying something like, ‘Our team of experts will help you locate lost loved ones using our powers of perception and observation.’ Then the second one could have something like ‘We have the power to help you locate the ones you’ve lost, with just a hint of DNA we can find anyone who has been lost, stolen or disappeared without a trace. It would be a joy of ours to help you and your loved ones. Cryptic but obvious at the same time.”
“We would need a way to screen anyone who contacts the number we give out. Any chance either of you can control your visions?” Ace asks Hunter and me. I shake my head but Hunter nods his. “I’ve been practicing forcing visions, they are accurate about eighty percent of the time.” My mouth drops open. Hunter sees my shock and shrugs sheepishly. “I can help you do the same Tessa.” Braydon gets up from the table and starts clearing away our dishes. Zack and Zayne jump up to help. I smile my thanks to Zack as he grabs my empty plate. I don’t even remember finish the hamburger.
Declan and Kalenia sit close together rewording the advert to make it more cryptic but still keep the main information. Ace and Kalum go outside to make a few phone calls to find out how much it would cost to run an ad on both the TV and radio. Zack and Zayne wash and dry the dishes while they discuss the idea of putting it up on social media as well. Hunter ducks out to go for a shower, while Quinn and Phoenix discuss possible meet locations. I look at Braydon and he winks at me. “We could go for a drive to one of the twenty-four hour Coles servo’s and get a prepaid mobile to use for the adverts.” I like the idea of getting out of here for a little while so I tell him I’d love to.
We borrow Ace’s SUV and Braydon drives to the nearest store, after we buy the phone, he drives us to a local park. I’m looking out at the full moon when Braydon says, “You know when I was little I asked Hunter why the moon was broken. He told me that it had lost it’s true love and needed to heal from the heartache.” I have no idea what to say and for a few moments I just stare at him. He smiles at me and we both start laughing. “When I was little I used to think that the rain was the sky crying, I used to ask my mum, I mean Tori, she used to tell me that I had to be good so the sky wouldn’t cry.” I’m not sure why that makes me sad but I sniff back a sob. “It’s okay to miss her, you know. She was your mother for most of your life, even if she was a bitch, she must have been nice to you at some point.” I nod my head as he hugs me sideways. I sigh as we sit in silence for awhile.
Braydon pulls back and starts pointing out the star constellations. He points to the big dipper and says. “Look the saucepan.” I laugh as he continues to tell me what they are. I know he is making names up but it’s too much fun to tell him I know what they all are. Besides his names are more interesting. He points out a donkey and I laugh as he makes a funny voice. Trying to mimic a character off a cartoon. I snuggle in closer and he kisses the top of my head. “I wish we didn’t have to go back, it would be so cool to be able to just sit here for the rest of the night.” Braydon looks uncomfortable for a moment and I fear that I have pushed it too far and ruined our moment. He looks at the clock on the dash and sighs sadly. “Come on, the other’s will be wondering where we got to. We should get back.”
We arrive back at the campervan to find it dark inside. All thoughts of Braydon’s strange mood leaves me as Braydon pushes me behind him before opening the side door. He peers into the darkness and then calls out. “Hello?” There’s no answer so he climbs in and flips the light switch just inside the door. I notice a note on the table at the same time Braydon does.
I really like you Tessa, that’s why I waited until you had left, so I hope for your sake, you and Braydon use this opportunity to just run. If not then I will probably be seeing you in a few hours. My team and I took your friends, if you want to try to rescue them, then you are a huge fool but we’ll be waiting for you at the Mulwar facility.
The address for the facility is at the bottom and the note is signed Kalenia. “I guess Ace was right to not trust her.” I whisper as Braydon finishes re-reading the note. A strange look crosses his face, if I didn’t know better, I’d say he almost looked guilty. It’s gone almost as soon as I notice it. “What do you want to do?” He asks me as he puts the note back on the table.
“She had to have known I wouldn’t run. So what do you think their end game is?” Braydon is silent for a moment. I get up and grab a bottle of water from the little fridge and return to the table. I take a mouthful then pass it to Braydon. “It’s definitely a trap but why didn’t they just grab us all when we were together?” I tap my fingers on the table in a quick staccato. “Maybe she was telling the truth, she really didn’t want me to get caught.” Braydon shrugs. “Doesn’t really matter does it Tessie, we’ll have to take her down as well.” Although I don’t like it, I know he is right. If we let her run free, she and the others will just come after us again and again. I’m so over being chased and having to go on rescue missions. “Why did they take them alive?” Braydon taps his chin in thought. “I assume they want something more than just getting you to go to them. Why would they risk us actually getting in there and rescuing the others?” An idea comes to me. “I’m not the target, am I?” I watch him shake his head before asking. “Then who is?”
I can’t believe Braydon kept yet another secret from me. I slam the bedroom door and slump down on the bed, repaying his words over again in my mind. “I lied about not knowing anything from before we were rescued from the facility. I was part of a separate group who had extra doses of the formula that gave us our powers. I suspected you might have been part of the group as well but I couldn’t confirm it until you told me that story tonight. I know what you are Tessie. You are just like me. I was raised in the facility and so were you. They gave me most of my memories to help me fit in with the other children my age after we escaped. We were separated into groups, each group was told a different signature story but every story had a similarity. They all had something to do with the sky.” He stopped there and I had to prod him to keep going.
“My memories from back then are still a little hazy but the truth is I remember being in the facility. I remember meeting a girl my age with the most beautiful hair that changed with the lights around her. I remember you, Tessie. I remember Hunter, Zack, Zayne and I fighting over your attention, I remember making a pact with them to never fight over a girl again. I remember everything. It’s why they are after us. I know something that could take the entire organization down. I know the formula to make the serum.”
The lying aside, why after all this time wouldn’t he tell me? I truly thought he loved me. Betrayed, that’s how I feel right now. Betrayed and pissed off. I storm back out into the kitchen. “So when they too
k you all earlier, why didn’t they just get the information from you then?” Braydon looks at the floor and mumbles. “Because I don’t look the same anymore.” I tilt my head to the side in confusion. “Frank changed my looks permanently just after he rescued me. Height and weight stayed the same but my eyes are no longer brown, same with my hair. My jaw used to be square but well as you can see it’s more rounded with higher cheekbones.” I stare at him trying to imagine the old him. The only thought in my head right now is that I fell for a guy I don’t even know. “Do the others know why we have been chased and kidnapped, and nearly killed so many times? While you are at it, why don’t you explain to me why everyone keeps saying I’m the key to creating a new generation, why do they keep talking about breeding programs and crap like that?”
Braydon sits down on the chair beside the door. “Because you are the last born female, the other girls all had their DNA altered after birth. You were born from two Original Ultra Research Subjects. You are the missing ingredient to perfect the formula. It’s why your father had us looking for you. Your father hid the last piece of the formula in you. Without you the formula doesn’t work properly. It only allows each subject to have one or two abilities and your blood is the cure to the side effects. The only problem, is that if you went through the change before they were able to harvest your blood then the only way to create more like you would be to harvest your eggs and then wait for the babies to go through the change to get their blood.”
“So we rescue the others and then go into hiding. Forget trying to take down the organization. We just run, all of us, together.” I emphasize ‘all of us’, so that Braydon knows I’m not going to abandon him. I may be angry and hurt right now but I still love him as much as I love Hunter, Zack and Zayne. Ace and his group of misfits too, they have become family, all of them and I can’t leave them behind.
Chapter 12
Braydon
Telling Tessie the truth was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. The whole time I was talking I was shit scared that she would hate me forever. I should have known better. Our Tessie never gives up on anyone. I smile to myself as she starts gathering provisions. I don’t trust J.O.Y to not have bugged the van so we are going to trade it in for something smaller. She finishes packing our clothes into the bags and comes over to me. I’m half expecting her to punch me or slap me but instead she leans in and kisses me lightly on the cheek. Guilt eats away at me as I see the trust in her eyes. I haven’t told her everything. I’m hoping I never have to, If she finds out what I did to her, she’ll never forgive me. I think my guilt is the real reason why I can deal with having to share her with the others. She pulls me from my thoughts by telling me everything is packed. I start the car and just as the sun begins to rise we make our way into the city.
We have to wait until eight o’clock to trade in the campervan. We’ve been sitting here for nearly an hour and she hasn’t said a single word to me. “Tessie, please talk to me, we have another hour before we can trade this thing in.” She Glares at me and I sigh. If only she knew everything. I can’t tell her though. Maybe one day there really won’t be any more secrets between us. She turns to face the window and I check the time again. This is going to be the longest hour of my life.
I made sure Tessie put the inside back to normal before we traded the van in. She’s sitting in the seat next to me but it feels like she is out of my reach and I can’t stop thinking about the night we shared together. I wriggle in the seat and adjust myself. My heart breaks knowing that she is going to hate me for sure when she finds out what I did. Needless to say my hard on goes down really fast. I decided we aren’t going after the others. I love them all like family but I love Tessie more. She is my all and I’m not going to lose her on a suicide mission. I pull up at a driver reviver and buy a couple of coffees. Before she gets back from the toilet, I put the pills into her drink. I know what I am doing is wrong but it’s for her own good.
I drive towards Mulwar for another half hour before the pills kick in. Tessie starts drifting off and I pull up on the side of the road. “I’m so sorry my love.” I grab my phone and dial the number. “It’s me, I need a favour. I have a code Blue. Package is drugged and can teleport. She still has her memories so a full wipe is required, preferably before she wakes up.” I give them our location and wait. It doesn’t take them long to teleport here. Jarad takes one look at Tessie and glares at me. “Fucking hell! Do you have any idea who you have here Lachlan? That’s Frank’s daughter Hallie. He’d kill me if he found out I helped you wipe her mind.” Jarad looks like your typical biker, built like a brick shit house and covered in tattoos. He’s bloody scary. “I know who she is but it doesn’t matter. If she isn’t wiped then she’ll just teleport and get herself killed. Ultra agents know who she is and I don’t have time to argue with her about what is best for her. I have to go rescue the rest of my group and Ace’s team.”
Jarad tells me he won’t wipe her mind but he’ll cuff her and keep her safe while I take his team to rescue the others. I agree because I really don’t have the time to argue. If J.O.Y think they are wasting their time trying to get us to come in then they will kill the others without a second thought. I blame myself for this situation, I really should have ran Kalenia’s prints through our data base but I didn’t think J.O.Y would send in one of their last females. I really should stop assuming things. Jarad clasps the cuff on Tessie’s wrist then gently picks her up out of the car. I watch him like a hawk as he gently lays her down in the back seat of his car. “Drive carefully, she’s more valuable than you think.” Jarad glares at me. “You think I don’t bloody know that she is the missing link? The whole resistance knows who she is. What I don’t get is why you didn’t just bring her to us the moment you found her. Wasn’t that your task to begin with?” I give him a fuck off look and jump in my car. “Just keep her safe.” His team get in the back seat and I turn the engine on. “Bring my team back safe this time Lachlan.” I yell out the window as I drive passed him, “It’s Braydon now. Remember.”
I glance in the rearview mirror and take note of who Jarad assigned to this mission. Troy is sitting in the middle, he’s the smallest of the group at five foot. His looks are plain but easily forgotten, just like his power. He has the ability to become invisible, he is also the youngest on the team but an expert at martial arts. On his right is Cedric, yes that is his real name. He is a little over six foot and nearly as wide as Hunter. But unlike Hunter, Cedric has the ability to become living fire. He also has a weak form of mind control. Last but not least we have Nathan, he is huge, like couldn’t fit through a door huge, well, technically he’s the weird one in the group, his power is morphing. He can take on the appearance of any person he sees. He is also a techno path, able to manipulate technology with his mind. His nickname is PC. I trained with all of these guys not long after escaping from the Orion facility.
Frank had us all trained the moment we got out. Hunter, Zack and Zayne don’t remember but they too trained with the resistance. When we went under cover to find Tessie we all agreed to have our minds wiped of all knowledge of the resistance. For some reason mine never stuck. Tessie would have a fit if she knew that we all aren’t who she thinks we are. Let’s not forget that I’ve been lying about my age as well, you see Hunter and I are really twenty but we both look younger which is why we were chosen for that mission. The memory wipe was supposed to wear off once we located her but I made sure none of the others got their memories back.
Ace and his group were meant to be the retrieval team but while I had Peter in my custody I had him remove their triggers as well as Hunter, Zack and Zayne’s, in exchange I let him go. No one was supposed to find us once we got to the cabin. Were supposed to live out our lives in seclusion. I’ve been covering my own ass for months now and no one was supposed to find out. Especially not Tessie.
I’ve been so lost in thought that I must have driven on autopilot, I pull myself out of my thoughts to find that we have arrived at the fron
t gate to the Mulwar facility. “So what’s the plan here Lach?” I tell Cedric to call me Braydon out of habit. “It’s simple, we’re going to go in and rescue everyone on the two teams then we’re going to have Ace and Kalum teleport us out of there.”
If only things were that simple.
We get to the door and Nathan stands there staring at the shiny new biometric security panel. “Well this might take a little while.” He hovers his hands over the panel and I watch waiting for something to happen. Cedric looks and me and laughs, what were you expecting to be able to actually see what he does?” I frown as he shakes his head. “Everything that is happening is being done inside the panel, unless you can see inside a piece of electronics we don’t get to actually watch him work his magic.” I huff at his over dramatic explanation. Nathan pulls his hand back and wipes it on his jeans. He nods and smiles at me as the light turns green. We all fall silent at the unspoken signal from Nathan.
Nathan opens the door so Troy steps forward and then disappears. His entire body invisible to the naked eye. I look up and see a camera on the roof and nod to it. Nathan gives me a thumbs up and places his hand back on the security panel. The little red light on the ceiling turns off and I smile as we move into the reception area of the facility. No one says a word as we move in a practiced formation. Troy materializes out of nowhere and motions for us to stop. He holds four fingers up and motions towards the door to our left. He points to the door to our right and holds up two fingers then the door behind him, which is behind the reception desk. He holds up a closed fist and gestures for us to follow. My heart is pounding in my chest, I’ve forgotten what it is like to get the adrenalin rush from espionage operations.