by M. A Casey
“Everything alright?” Mum asked quietly trying to assess my mood.
“It’s fine, we can talk about it later,” I could tell I hadn’t done a very convincing job of calming her nerves – she looked worried. “It’s nothing to worry about, I promise. I just want to get back to the lab.” I smiled at her, and she seemed to relax a little, so I thanked her for the cookies and finally went back to the lab.
Once downstairs I put Patch on the table, handed Dad and Tyler their cookies and sat down to get myself ready.
“What took so long? Did you bake these?” Tyler asked, chewing on his cookie.
“Spencer was here,” they both stopped dead and looked at me.
“He’s gone now so don’t freak out. Davis clued him in on my behavior yesterday so he came to check on us, but I want to talk about it later alright. Right now I just want to perfect this procedure.”
They both looked at how determined I was and must have decided not to argue with me. “Let’s get started then,” Dad confirmed.
Dad and Tyler had already prepared the area for Patch so after I gave him a little pep talk, I sedated him. Once fully under we hooked him up to equipment to measure his pulse rate and brain activity. It was imperative I injected the serum into exactly the right part of his brain. I measured the correct amount of serum and began the procedure with the first injection. I was so nervous but was able to control myself so my hands didn’t give me away. I was finishing my last injection when I heard a smash from upstairs and then Davis’s voice yelling. We all looked at each other.
“I better go check on that,” Tyler said sounding disappointed that he had to leave while we were in the middle of this.
“Be quick,” I encouraged him. I needed him to come back and tell me everything was alright up there. I had to focus on my procedure, but that was a little difficult with the thought of one of my family or boyfriend being hurt upstairs.
I had finished the injections and Dad, and I now prepared Patch for the current to be passed through his body. The equipment we had would do for today, but if we decided to go ahead and do this to humans I would need something a little more reliable. I decided it would be best to worry about that later.
Tyler bounded back downstairs, eager not to miss out on what was happening.
“Everything alright up there?” I asked a little anxiously.
“Yeah,” Tyler laughed. “Emin and Zeke were throwing a football in the hall and knocked out one of the cameras by accident. It pissed Davis off pretty bad, but Ian is trying to fix it now. The boys have been put out the back.”
This made me smile too, I looked at Dad and even he looked lighter. Part two of distracting the henchmen was well under control. Knowing everyone was safe, and that only Davis was at the monitors meant I was ready to do this. I looked at Dad, and without saying anything, he adjusted the voltage of the current and we were ready. I closed my eyes and turned it on. We decided to pass two small currents through his body.
His pulse raced and his body twitched lightly, as if he was dreaming and then after a moment, and his heart rate was back to normal. We all relaxed a little with the procedure over. We obviously couldn’t try to implant a memory with Patch because he was a rabbit, but Dad wasn’t concerned about that part of the plan. At the very worst, we could pass their memory loss off as amnesia if it didn’t work, but in my heart, I knew it would.
We had a little time before Patch would wake up from his sedation. Dad wrote the notes of the procedure down while I sat with Patch gently touching his soft coat and his velvet ears. I closed my eyes and said a little prayer. I hoped this would work, and if it did, prayed for the strength to go through with the rest of my plan.
After a while, Patch started to twitch awake, and I was full of nerves and excitement all at once. I really wanted the others down here to see us test Patch, but I knew Davis would know we were up to something. Instead, I decided just to get Zeke. He helped me train Patch in the beginning, and I thought at least here should be here for this part. I went to the back door where the boys were still playing with the football laughing.
“Zeke,” I called to him. “Could you bring some rabbit food down to the lab.”
He threw the ball to Emin who seemed a little nervous all of a sudden and dropped the ball. Zeke jogged over to me protecting his side with the broken rib. He looked carefully at my expression.
“You have that nervous smile thing happening again that drives me crazy,” he said a little puffed.
“Come on,” I said as I tugged him inside. “Grab the food and meet me in the lab.”
By the time he came down, Patch was moving around. He was a little groggy still, but he looked fine. Zeke went straight to Patch, and patted him as if he was his favorite pet.
“How did you go, little one?” He asked.
“We’re about to find out,” I said still smiling nervously. “Try to feed him.”
Zeke seemed a little surprised that we hadn’t tested him yet and then must have realized that I wanted him here when we did. He smiled warmly at me and reached into his pocket for the food. He held the food above Patch’s head like we did countless times when we were training him. And just like the first time I tried it, he just kept sniffing around for the food but didn’t try to reach for it. We tried again, and this time tried to help him in the position we had taught him but again he didn’t reach for the food. It worked.
“It’s just like before we taught him,” Zeke sounded amazed.
I looked up at Dad, Zeke and Tyler and felt we were all wearing the same expression I am sure I was – hope.
Alliance
“It’s not the most conclusive test, but it’s all we have,” Dad said sounding a little wary. “I will continue to monitor him over the next few hours to make sure there aren’t any problems, but it certainly looks promising.”
It felt incredible, I had just achieved my most significant scientific discovery ever. I felt like I was in the clouds floating through this moment. No one said anything for a while, and I was grateful to be able to soak this up before I started to think about what would be next.
I touched Zeke on the arm, he was still fussing over Patch. “I will finish a few more things here, and I will come up okay.”
“Sure, your brother will be dying to know what’s going on anyway.” His eyes trapped me again with their warmth. “I knew you could do it Hayl’s, you’re amazing.” We weren’t touching each other, but just the electricity from his gaze made me wonder if Tyler could tell how much I loved him.
Once Zeke left I had one more thing to do. I decided I needed Tyler to come to our meeting tonight. I knew now, if this was going to go down, Tyler would be in the middle of it with us – so he needed to be there when we planned our finale. I wasn’t sure how my entire family felt about this, but I knew this was the way it was meant to be.
“So what now?” Tyler asked.
“Actually I wanted to talk to you about that, what are you doing tonight?” I asked as I glanced over to Dad. He didn’t seem to disagree with my train of thought so I continued. “Well?”
“What did you have in mind?” Tyler asked.
“We have a meeting each night about one in the morning do you think you can make it?”
“What do you mean a meeting?” He sounded confused.
“Don’t worry about that for now, I just need to know whether you can make it.” Without meaning to, I sounded a little anxious
“Of course, I can make it, just tell me what to do,” Tyler reasoned with me.
“Okay, do you think you can climb that tree to get into my bedroom window.” He glanced at Dad before he nodded, as if he was going to get busted for something. “We need you inside my room at one o’clock – no earlier okay. If you get in through my window Davis and Ian won’t know, I can explain the rest then.”
“Well I guess I will look forward to that,” Tyler said
“See you later then,” I said as I went back upstairs.
I was
still enjoying my high from the procedure as I went up to my bathroom. Ian was working on the camera in the hall, and he smiled a small smile at me when I went past. I often wondered about Ian, he never quite seemed to fit in with Davis and Spencer. As I went to head back downstairs, I thought I might ask him a question. I knew the camera wasn’t up and running yet so it would be the perfect opportunity.
“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question,” I said softly as I crouched down to where he has several parts of the camera laid out in front of him.
He looked at me for a moment and then nodded for me to continue.
“How did you end up here with these guys? I mean, I am sure you didn’t wake up one day and decide to work for a leech like Spencer.” I thought he might get upset at my line of questioning, but instead he seemed amused.
“I haven’t heard him called a leech before,” he said smiling again.
“Really, I would like to know, it just doesn’t seem like you is all. Which I know sounds a little stupid considering I don’t know you - but I still think it’s true.”
“Davis hired me for this job, I’d been out of work for a while, so I guess you could say I was running out of options.” He lowered his head while he spoke, as if he was ashamed. “I wasn’t fully aware of what my role would be here. I never thought I would be asked to hurt someone.” He looked sincere as he said the last part.
“What did you think you were hired for?”
“This,” he said pointing at the camera stuff in front of him. “I am pretty good at all this technical stuff.”
“So why aren’t you working as some highly paid computer technician?” I asked honestly wanting to know the answer.
He hesitated before he spoke. He looked as if he wasn’t sure whether he should be telling me any of this, but he seemed as if he wanted to get this off his chest – he didn’t want to be here anymore than we wanted him here.
“I guess I never graduated, you know too busy partying and stuff. From there, things went downhill. Most of my knowledge with computers comes from illegal channels. So without any proper training, this is where you end up.”
He seemed resigned to the fact that this was his life – I thought that was sad.
“I think you'd better getting going Hayln, before Davis comes looking for you.”
I stood up and thanked him for his honesty and went downstairs. He was confused in my interest in him, but I needed more information for what we have planned.
I realized I was starving as I headed to the kitchen. With all the excitement in the lab I'd missed lunch, but I was going to make up for that. I thought it was time to test my culinary skills again so I went to find mum. She was chatting to Davis in the lounge. When I say chatting I mean she was babbling away while reading a magazine, and he was trying to ignore her. When he saw me enter the room he seemed happy for the distraction.
“Mum did you have any plans for dinner? I thought I might cook something.”
“Sounds good, what did you have in mind?” She said as she put her magazine down.
“Actually I was hoping to do something a little more challenging tonight. There’s not much we can do in the lab at the moment until we get some results from the rabbit – so I thought this might keep me busy.”
“Okay let’s get started,” Mum said sounding happy for a new challenge.
“Actually I might need a favor first,” I said as I turned to look at Davis chewing my lip nervously. He lifted his eyes from the monitor to meet my gaze. “I was hoping to cook Chinese for dinner, but I will need some specific ingredients. Before you freak out though, there is an Asian grocer not far from here that delivers - so what do you think?”
“Will you cook spring rolls?” He asked in a dead pan voice.
I smiled, because I knew I had him – as Mum said a way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. “Spring rolls will definitely be on the menu.”
“Give me a list of what you need and I will call,” he said as he turned back to the monitors.
Mum and I went to the kitchen and made a list of what we needed. Whilst there I let her know things went well in the lab. She didn’t seem surprised so I figured she had spoken to Zeke. When we were finished, I gave the list to Davis. Ian was back in front of the monitors, he must have finished repairing the camera. He eyed my list and smiled a real smile.
“You’re cooking Chinese,” he said sounding honestly excited.
I smiled and nodded then left the lounge room to find the boys while I waited for my groceries to be delivered.
From the monitors in the lounge I could see they were both in Emin’s room. Emin was on the computer and I saw Zeke resting on Emin’s bed. His afternoon in the yard with the football must have taken a toll on him. I knocked on the door and went in, both boys seemed happy to see me. I sat next to Zeke on the bed who had now propped himself up to talk.
“You should lay down if you still need to rest,” I said brushing his dark hair away from his eyes. “Throwing the football around might have overdone it a little, although it did provide a lovely distraction in the hall.”
“Not bad huh,” he said taking my hand entwining his fingers in mine.
“Before this goes any further,” Emin said as he turned to face the two of us on the bed. “I hear all went well with Patch Hayl’s. Do you think Dad will let us go ahead with your idea?”
“I think so, and with only a few people involved in Spencer’s plan Tyler seems to think he can get rid of all the other evidence.”
“And you trust Tyler with this, with all our lives,” Emin asked cautiously. I looked at both of their faces and could easily detect their concern.
“It’s his life too Emin, and yes I trust him. And you may as well know I have asked him to come to tonight’s meeting.”
“You didn’t think to ask us first? How is he even going to get here without Davis and Ian finding out?” Emin said clearly annoyed with my suggestion.
“He's going to climb the tree into my bedroom, I told him to come just after one, no earlier. Look we need him to help us Emin, not just with getting rid of the evidence Spencer has on us but to do the procedure. I need more reliable equipment to do this to humans, and he is our only link to the outside.” I could see my explanation start to register with him, I knew in the end he would be reasonable – he was just worried about us like Dad was.
“If Hayln trusts him Emin I think we need to as well – he obviously doesn’t like the life he has now. He’ll stick by us.” Zeke said squeezing my hand.
“Alright, I guess we will talk to him tonight then,” he said as he turned to face his monitor again. “Why aren’t you down there now anyway?”
“There’s not much to do now but monitor Patch, and Dad volunteered so I decided to cook dinner.” It was gratifying to see both their faces light up at that news. I realized I genuinely did like cooking - at least for my family.
“So what’s for dinner then super chef? Emin joked. “Pasta, curry, seafood.”
“Actually I was going to try Chinese, I know its Dad’s favorite as well as two other guys I know,” I said smiling at them. They both laughed and rubbed their hands together with excitement.
“What are you going to cook?” Zeke asked. “I can hear my stomach rumbling already.”
“I convinced Davis to get some groceries delivered from that Asian store on Laker Street, because we don’t have much here to work with. But I thought I would do my own versions of spring rolls, pot stickers, Szechuan pork, kung pao chicken and probably some rice.”
“Ohh man that sounds good,” Emin said. “Well don’t let us stop you from culinary genius.” He gestured for me to leave the room, but Zeke pulled me closer not wanting to let go of me yet and I was happy to oblige.
“I can’t start until we get the delivery actually, so I think I might just stay here.” I said giving Zeke a kiss that lasted a little longer than I thought it would.
“You can stay as long as there no kissing – understand,” Emin
said trying to sound brotherly, but I could tell he wasn’t really upset.
“Perfectly,” I said tracing Zeke’s jaw with my finger. I was more than happy just to sit with him for a while and ignore what I might be doing tomorrow.
Zeke lay back down and rested his head on my lap. We all talked and laughed about random stuff as we always did when we were together. Zeke held one of my hands, planting little kisses there now and then. With my other hand I played with his hair, twisting it around my fingers, it was so soft.
After about an hour, I heard the doorbell and peaked out the window to see the blue delivery van of the grocery store. “That’s my cue,” I said kissing Zeke as I left the room.
“Make sure you cook enough,” Emin yelled. I’ll definitely want seconds.”
I rolled my eyes as I left the room – when doesn’t he have seconds I thought to myself. Ian and Mum carried the parcels into the kitchen, he gave us a big smile as he left.
“I think he is as excited as Emin and Zeke,” I said to Mum.
She gave me a relaxed smile as we got started. As with most Asian food the majority of the work is in preparation. We chopped and diced more ingredients than I care to count, but still I was enjoying myself. I liked creating unique flavors and taking pride in the attention to detail. I carefully sealed and crimped the pot stickers and rolled each spring roll with delicate detail. I also enjoyed this time with Mum. I felt like I had a part of my life back that I thought was gone forever.
Dad and Tyler came upstairs just as we were about to start cooking. Tyler gave me a quick thumbs up before he left so I knew Patch was doing well and that I would see him later tonight. Dad came over to look at what we had prepared and gave me a giant hug, he was so excited. I don’t think it was just the Chinese food I think he was proud of what we had done today in the lab as well.
Everyone seemed to join us in the kitchen then as I worked around the wok cooking our dinner. With my family buzzing around me, I felt just as alive as when I am in the lab, but with this, I can share it with everyone. I knew then, that if we make it out of this I would make sure cooking became part of my life.