Advancing ((Advance Industries #2))

by K A Duggsy

  “Faith it doesn’t matter anymore, it...”

  “It does though. Because I had a dream, we were happy and excited. I knew you wouldn’t let me fail, you’d teach me how to be a great mum.” She whispers, “We were going to be a family. That’s when I woke and realised. I’m bad Kye, good things will never happen for us because I’m bad and bad people don’t deserve happiness. You stay with me and you’ll never be happy. This last week has shown me what I’m capable of doing to you and I can’t risk breaking you again because it breaks me too.”

  Her words strike deep, why does she still think this of herself? She’s the best, most deserving person I know but all I can come back with is, “You’ll break me if you leave baby. I can’t be without you.”

  Her eyes are clouded with emotion but she stands her ground “You can Kye. You have too.” She’s resolute as she looks behind me and says, “I’m ready now.”

  I turn to see the President has crept back in and is holding the tube activation device in his hand. I pound on the tube desperation taking over. “Listen to me Faith, you’re still pregnant.”

  Her eyes widen, and then she presses her face to the tube, right against mine so I can see her breath against it. Cold eyed fury looks right at me and hisses, “That’s low Kye. Really fucking low.”

  Her venomous response is biting. She stands back and I shout at her, I bang the tube but she’s staring straight ahead, concentrating on ignoring me completely. A tear rolls down her cheek but still she stares ahead. She thinks I made it up to get her to stay. One minute I’m staring at her beautifully stubborn face, her eyes glittering with suppressed tears and the next... an empty tube.

  I stare at the tube completely overwhelmed by what just happened. She left me. She’s gone. She’s upset and alone in a world where she was used. Fuck! I pound my fists against the transparent frame. This fucking invention has become the bane of my life, without it though I never would have met her. I hate it but am grateful for it at the same time. What a mind fuck!

  “Will you follow?” snaps me out of my trance and I turn slowly to see the President regarding me. In three long strides I’m before him. I pull back my arm; fist bunched and slam it into his face. This is his fault. I thought he was a good guy. I should’ve never believed Fraser’s offspring intended to help, to do good, put things right. He has his own agenda and I fell for it. He sent Faith away from me. Did he want her to be alone, vulnerable? I think back to the day I first met with this President, what did he say? That Fraser was convinced Faith would return? He said he would be ready and waiting for her return! Pieces start clicking into place, the giant jigsaw in my head starting to take shape. He wanted her back, he prepped his son to gain our trust and send her back to where Fraser was waiting? How could he be?

  The President looks up at me from his flayed position on the floor. He smiles. Actually smiles at me. My neck tingles. What the fuck has Faith travelled back to?

  I Comm my team who are downstairs in a standoff with the AIG. Just as I left them before I took a guard and made him show me to this room. Then I thanked him and choked him until he passed out.

  “Stay down!” I warn the President.

  “I was warned about the violence you and your team are so prone to. If only you thought as quickly as you act,” he says.

  I drag him up by his shirt, trying to hold back the rage that’s bubbling. I want to pound him. He’s made me look like a fool, he’s lost me my girl and I’m crapping myself over what she’s facing right now. I’m going after her, that doesn’t even need to be said but I need answers first. Then I can run his face into every wall in this room and enjoy hearing his bones as they crack.

  The door flies open and in walk my team. Jonah takes one look at what’s happened, assessing the situation before walking over to me. I drop the President like the sack of shit he is.

  “She’s gone?” I hear from behind and it’s Trask. I have yet to deal with the traitorous sonofabitch.

  “Why didn’t you stop her?” I round on him. “Why didn’t you buy me more time?”

  “I did what was right for her, not for you. Someone needed to be thinking about what she needs instead of themselves!” he throws back.

  I take a step towards him. “You want her? You want my girl? Did you convince her it was right to leave me?” With every question I ask my anger overtakes. I can’t believe this audacity. There are codes you don’t break as a team, a friend and just a decent fucking person and going after someone else’s woman is top of that list. “Did it make you believe you had a chance? Did you make a move?”

  “Use your fucking head Kye. What I said in the Comm was to get you to move, I didn’t need to tell you did I? I might adore her but I know who she wants and regardless of how you’ve treated her I wouldn’t do that to you. I respected you once but you’re losing it and I’m not the only one who agrees!”

  I look at the rest of the team. We’re not looking much like a team right now. We were tight but I’ve lost their respect? How can I lead a group of men if they don’t respect my orders? If they don’t respect me as a person? This is the least of my worries for the time being. I can live without my team too. I can live without everything except her.

  “You don’t respect me? That’s fine. I couldn’t care less right now. We’ve been tricked, used by him.” I point to the President still sat on the floor. “She’s gone back and I have to follow so Jonah you’re in charge again. There you go guys - someone you respect. The thing is whatever you feel about me I thought you all respected her, guess I was wrong.”

  I walk to the tube, open it and get in. Before the door closes Callan is in my face. “We respect you both. We love you both. You’re in automatic mode and that’s how fuck ups happen. Think about it Kye, you have no plan, no back up. The team is disconnected, that’s no way to steam off on a mission. I know you want to get to her, we do too. But jumping in feet first is a bad idea. You need to think. Be smart!”

  “Be smart?”

  “Yeah, let’s fix this rift then figure out how to screw them up the arse! All of us not just you?”

  Cal the baby of the group, our team joker is so worried by what’s happening that he’s offering me an olive branch and begging me to take it. I take a huge calming breath and offer one back.

  “You want to screw me up my arse?”

  He doesn’t miss a beat. “What the fuck man? Your arse is nice and all but too hairy for my preferences.”

  “Preferences? I thought anything with a pulse would do?” Arlen joins in.

  “Any female with a pulse Arl! Men don’t float my boat. I probably coulda swung both ways but you guys have scarred me for life!”

  “Whatever Cal, I’ve seen you looking at my junk when I take a piss!” Saunders says.

  “Just trying to find your junk baby. I look coz I’m convinced you’re a woman!”

  “Hey, it’s not the size that matters but what you do with it. I’m a grower not a shower!” Saunders winks and licks his lips in what I’m guessing is meant to be a sultry pose.

  This makes everyone crack up; a ghost of a smile even passes my lips. This is what I love, when my team are light-hearted, taking the piss and the camaraderie is high. It might not be the right time but it has overshadowed the cloak of despair I was feeling. It’s made the room lighter. Cal has his uses and that’s why we keep him around, annoying younger brother to us all that he is. He diffused this situation nicely.

  I step out of the tube smiling at him and he claps his hands. Mimicking a child, he turns to the rest of the team and chants, “Daddy’s back, Daddy’s back!” with a triumphant grin plastered on his baby face.

  I smack him over the back of his head. Enough with the Daddy reference already. I’m only a few years older than him. That chant has me snapping back to Faith though. I’m going to be a daddy, she has no idea, she thinks I was desperate enough to lie to her about being pregnant. She’s at Advance Industries in the past, they could do anything to her, test her again. T
ry extraction? Lock her away until the baby’s born then test on the baby? I shudder at that last thought. Jesus I have a sick mind. The fact is she’s pregnant and won’t be taking care of her body. What if she has to fight? What if she takes a blow to the stomach? There are too many what ifs, I could reel them off all day long.

  “Okay guys that did the trick. I’ve been a dickhead I know. What most of you don’t know is that Faith is still pregnant!”

  Gasps of shock, furrowed brows and narrowed eyes all come my way.

  “Well, that explains it then,” Walker mumbles.

  “Explains what?” I ask him.

  “Why you’ve been acting like a lunatic, an escapee from the house of loonyville.”

  “It’s old age I tell you. Maybe you’ll fall in love and it’ll happen to you one day as well and you won’t be able to deal with shit as well as you used too.”

  “She’s pregnant? Why would she leave then? It doesn’t make any sense. That’s not like Faith!” Trask says.

  “She doesn’t know. I only found out a couple of hours ago. It’s a long story but she is pregnant, she’s unaware of it and putting herself in danger as usual.”

  “Shit!” Trask shouts and slams his fist on a desk. He fixes a steely eye on me.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” I warn him. He let her get this far, he could have stopped her, held her back until I got here but he never. The others look between us both waiting for a blow up so I direct my attention back to them and away from Trask. “Come on guys you know what she’s like, she can’t be controlled or dictated to, reverse psychology doesn’t work on her. She’s a force to be reckoned with and probably why I’m going grey.”

  “Nah you’ve been grey for a while. I didn’t have the heart to hurt your pride,” Callan pipes up.

  “If that’s true then it’s most likely your fault!” I tell him.

  “Not possible. You know I make your life worth living... daddy.”

  “Speaking of which...” Jonah says as he walks towards me “Congrats man. You’re not firing blanks! High five?” He holds his hand up and I leave him hanging.

  The others laugh then surround me, adding backslaps and handshakes congratulating me, saying how pleased they are. Trask is last in line, he looks crestfallen and we weigh each other up. He pulls me into a half-hearted hug and says in my ear, “I’m pleased for you Kye. You’ll make a great dad.”

  Did I have it wrong? Was I being my usual unreasonable self where she’s concerned? I don’t think so but he’s man enough to back down, step away so I let it go. It’s not important any longer. “Thanks,” I acknowledge.

  “We cool Man?” He asks.

  I nod and turn from him as I clear my throat. “Thank you guys but it’s a bit premature. I need her...” I stop and correct myself “I need them safe before we can celebrate.”

  “What’s the POA then?” Arlen asks.

  “This should be interesting,” the President says.

  Chapter 11

  Faith

  This is the first time I’ve time travelled and retained all my memories. I’m so angry with Kye. How could he say something like that to me? He might have been desperate but that doesn’t excuse his behaviour. I’m glad I got him to confront his feelings and call me out on what I did before I left. That’ll be better for him moving forward. He won’t have unanswered questions tumbling about in his brain. The more I think about what he said I realise it was cruel, it was mean, it was just so uncalled for. Was he trying to hurt me just a bit more once he realised he couldn’t stop me leaving? Was it retaliation? I hurt him, he hurts me? I don’t really believe that. He’s not spiteful. He’s many things but vindictive just isn’t one of them. So why say it?

  I step out of the tube, creeping like I’m about to be caught. The whole place is silent, it’s dark, no lights are on and being here alone is scary. I roll my neck, straighten my shoulders and walk towards the Eleview. I need to stop being a wimp. I decided to do this and now I have to follow through. I wish I had a phaser though, the knife is all well and good but I’ll have to be up close to someone to use it. I’d much prefer firing a pulse from a safe distance. Being armed with my preferred weapon would dampen my apprehension. The Eleview dings and is so loud in this deserted space. Every sound amplified, including the pounding of my heart. My eyes dart around as if that sound has signalled my arrival and people are ready to jump out on me, like a ‘gotcha, did you really think it’d be this easy?’

  Nothing happens though so I step in carefully.

  Now I’m bricking it, the slow descent doing nothing to ease my nerves. I don’t know what I’ll be faced with when the door opens. I feel like a rabbit in the headlights. Upstairs might be dead but that doesn’t mean downstairs is abandoned. The President could have been lying. I might have returned to an earlier time than he predicted. So much is up in the air.

  The ding of the old style Eleview signals I’ve arrived on the ground floor. I press myself against the back of it as the door slides open, my hand wrapped around the knife in my pocket. No one approaches, I can hear no bustling or voices so I tip-toe to the front and poke my head around the door. I step out and breathe heavily, holding my breath on each new level is too much effort.

  I start walking slowly still scanning for others, highly alert as I walk past the cafeteria. I need to get to the girls’ quarters, change my footwear, clothes too and I need to investigate my sisters hiding place. I doubt they’ll be there a week later if this place has been cleared out but I have to see for myself. I wouldn’t put it past Fraser to leave them here, cold, hungry and in the dark. Then again how could he move them? They had chips implanted designed to destroy them if they set foot outside this building. Oh My God! My heart plummets remembering that snippet. Would he do that to them? Let them perish instead of bothering to relocate them safely? Are they in cages? Cages, like the ones I dreamt of? I know the homeless were held in them, Kye told me so. Nausea fills me again and it’s getting old. I never used to be this queasy, it’s just ridiculous.

  I stop to lean against the wall hoping it will pass if I calm down and stop moving, stop working myself up. I need to channel Kye – he exudes strength and power without even trying and if I’m going to get through this I need to tap into mine.

  I take a few more steadying breaths and push away from the wall. Get to my old quarters, that’s what I need to do, focus on one thing at a time. Move it, Faith!

  Imbued with a new lease of strength, imagined or not I start walking again, this time, unafraid of the shadows and the conjured up images my mind fooled me with. I walk with a purpose, determined to reach my sisters old room. I ignore the tingling slithers of ice cold running from my neck and down my spine. I block out the reminders my being here brings. They have no control over me anymore. I’m free from them. I’m my own person, answerable to no one. Leaving Kye proves that much. I have to learn to stand on my own two feet. I’ve never had to before, I’ve always had someone ready to catch me, firstly my sisters, then Kye and the team. What would fending for myself completely, be like? I guess I’ll find out.

  I round the corner and approach the girl’s room. I edge the door open on its broken hinge, broken from where I kicked it. I peak through cautiously and satisfied no one is in there, I walk in. This is the room where the Advance employees were held, where Fraser phasered me and my sisters showed their courage. I walk through to the adjoining room which houses a shower and the beds they slept on. I head to Hope’s rail and glance quickly at the camera in the ceiling. Will it catch me stripping off? Do I really care? They’ve seen me naked before, I was just too out of it for embarrassment. I take off Trask’s jacket, wriggle out of my dress, and then unstrap my sandals. I pick out a black vest top and black jeans and shimmy into them as quickly as I can. I pull my chestnut locks back into a tight ponytail and look around for some decent footwear.

  There isn’t any! Most of the time we were barefoot but we did have standard issue plimsolls. I search through them and
none is my size. I’m one of the oldest out of the girls, Hope is the same size as me body wise but footwear she’s two sizes smaller. I try anyway and force my feet into her flats but I’ll never achieve anything in these, the pain is too much. I huff and reattach my wedges, they’ll just have to do for now.

  I take a last look around the room. Nothing is out of place, it’s tidy but the emptiness is reflected in my heart. Wherever my sisters are they haven’t taken any of their meagre belongings. Does that mean they have no need for them because ... they’re gone?

  I walk back into the joining room and freeze. Something is here that wasn’t before.

  A person sat on a chair, back to me, head hanging low with a black cane lying across its lap.

  At my gasp, the head turns and addresses me, “I knew you’d return.”

  Kye

  I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to go in that tube. That if the men are with me we all need to go in a tube. But someone would need to stay behind, someone I trust to send us back. I could order any one of them to do it but they all have certain strengths, specialities that I need them for. I run through the team, Jonah has to come he’s my second and if I’m gone, if something happens to me he needs to lead. He needs to take charge of the team. Saunders is the medic so he also needs to be with us. Arlen is the techie, Callan is... well he’s Cal, he has to come. That leaves Palmer, Trask, and Walker.

  Should I put it to a vote? If I leave Trask behind out of unresolved animosity I’ll look pathetic to the team I’ve only just restored, he’d be my first choice, though. I want him nowhere near Faith, at the same time the feelings he has for her ensure he’s as invested in getting her back safely, more so than the others.

  Okay, so I’m down to Palmer and Walker. Shall I just flip a coin?