A Broken Jewel (Jade Book 1)

by Lucy Rains

  *******************

  We left the house at 6:30, heading to the nearest bus stop and then stopping at a hole in the wall Mexican cafe.

  Pierce ordered a few dozen soft tacos and we all ate quietly.

  “Do you think they’re still there?” I asked, to no one in particular.

  “No,” Gavin said. “They probably took the computers and left.”

  “Why do you think my mother pulled me out of the lab to live with her?” I wondered out loud. “Why not just keep me in the lab until I could get pregnant?”

  No one answered for a moment until Kyson cleared his throat. “Speaking from a medical standpoint- living in that environment would be putting a hard stress on a person’s body, especially a young female prepubescent body.”

  I willed my cheeks not to flush as he continued.

  “The tests and research they were doing on you at a young age, they probably realized would be counterproductive to their end goal. A teenager’s body will not have a monthly cycle if there is too much stress. It's been seen in competitive athletes, war prisoners, victims of abuse, those in high trauma situations. Your mother probably wanted to simulate a normal life for you to help your body produce the outcome she was working towards.”

  I swallowed a bite and wiped my mouth. My mind kept working down the path Kyson had drawn, playing the futuristic what-ifs.

  “So, if she had taken me in, say, and tried her, test. To impregnate me,” my eyes flicked between them. “She would have needed…” The word got stuck in my throat. Naive, innocent, whatever you want to call it, I didn’t want to say the word.

  “Sperm,” Kyson encouraged.

  “Yes, that. She would need that. From you guys.”

  Pierce sat back in his chair and folded his arms. Gavin ignored my monologue and focused on his food. Alex and Kyson looked at each other and then back to me. No one said anything.

  “Does she, have that? Like, frozen in a test tube some where?”

  Still silence, not even Kyson willing to chip in.

  “Yes,” Pierce said.

  “Why, did you want to know how she got it?” Gavin asked, speaking to his red ceramic plate littered with shreds of lettuce.

  Yes. “No, I was just curious.”

  I wanted to smack my forehead the second the words came out of my mouth.

  “Lie,” Alex teased. “It’s okay to be curious, Jade.”

  There was no controlling the flush that crept into my neck and up to my cheeks.

  “We tried not to,” Alex continued. “We definitely didn’t want to support their research.”

  Gavin looked up into my eyes then. “But when they don’t feed you anything but bread crusts for several days and then hold a giant meaty pizza in front of your face with a test tube condition, you will give in eventually.”

  “And when you're a young teenage male, it doesn’t take much. Book, magazine, movie.” Alex finished.

  “I get it,” I said, trying to end the flow of information, my hands splayed flat on the table. “But that means, it would have been one of you, with your...sperm. So ultimately, your child?”

  The idea thrilled and terrified my senses in a way I didn’t understand. It wasn’t reasonable or rationale. I was 18, young. A child, a baby. I had only experienced one menstrual cycle. But that idea...the thought of carrying a part of one of them inside me, sent a rush of heat to my chest and made my heart pound. I wanted that. Someday. The fibers woven inside of me warmed at the idea.

  The guys looked at me and I swallowed, bringing my hands back under the table. No, I scolded myself, coming back down to reality. Did I really? All of that raw intimacy? The life long commitment? And with who? All of them? Four babies? Oh hell, where was I going with this? But the surge of satisfaction at the idea remained in my mind. And the guys could tell, could feel it. The way they looked at me with dilated eyes and still bodies, they could feel every trickle of emotion I had experienced in the past 30 seconds.

  “We should go,” my voice came out heavy.

  There were a few blinks, a couple heavy sighs releasing tension. I avoided their gazes, praying they would let the subject drop.

  “Good talk,” Alex said quickly while standing up. “I gotta go use the restroom.” He darted away quickly from the table, almost comical as he jogged towards the back of the restaurant.

  Pierce gathered up the plates and stacked them, then left a few bills for the waitress.

  We all followed Alex’s example and used the restroom. Then we met out front of the restaurant, discussing our next course of action.

  Pierce looked at his watch, “We have four hours till midnight. Let's find a hotel with wifi and showers located close to the lab and hang out until then. The drive up there will take longer, because we’re going to avoid freeways and major streets. We should probably try to rest while were there since I don’t know when we will sleep again.”

  “Lets just go now,” Alex suggested as we walked to the old beater truck. “We have everything ready, the feeds can be taken down at anytime. No one’s going to be there on Sunday except for maybe the P, P or Q.”

  “We stick to the plan,” Gavin said, taking on Pierce’s tone. “Besides, Jade probably needs another nap before heading in.”

  I glared at him while snapping on my seatbelt. “Gavin needs time to shower,” I made a point of leaning over and smelling him while wrinkling my nose. “I know I don’t want to be on plane next to him.”

  “You guys literally banter like children,” Alex sighed.

  Gavin started to open his mouth but cringed before he could say anything, closing his eyes. I looked to Pierce then back to Gavin. My mouth turned up into a satisfied smile and I winked.

  CHAPTER 38

  The PPQ lab was located at the top of its own private road, set away from any visibility from the main street. Pierce drove slowly up the dark lane, with only the truck’s parking lights on to light the way. I wrung my hands together, eyes forward, shoulders stiff.

  Everyone was tense, quiet. Nausea came and went in waves. I was sweating in my black jersey jacket. The smell of nerves was beginning to fill the tight space and I knew I wasn’t the only one having stress sweat. The guys were dressed in all black as well, clothing that was purchased once we got near Baltimore. Their cargo pants were loaded with the weapons they had packed during our quick departure. Glocks, knives, small explosives, and miniature flasks of gasoline to start a fire when needed.

  The guys had been quiet long before we were in the truck, even before we had left the hotel. There were no jokes from Alex, no snide comments from Gavin. When we arrived at the hotel they had pulled out their laptops and begun working late into the evening. After showering off the pool water from earlier that morning, Pierce had dished out new cell phones to everyone, purchased and set up under his new identity. This allowed me a source of distraction for the evening, while laying curled up in a bed while the guys worked. I had been able to relax and get lost in a word scrambler game, some jewelry ideas, and even checked out the layout of Aruba. At the time, the events planned for the night had not bothered me. I was able to shove it into the back of my mind.

  But now as the truck ambled slowly up the drive, I wasn’t so sure about any of this. My head was screaming bad idea as my hands fidgeted with the seatbelt. The urge to stay locked safely in the back seat of the truck sounded much better.

  Lights began to filter through the thick trees, gleaming on a large building. I craned my neck, trying to peer through to get a better look. Pierce pulled the truck over to the side of the road and cut the engine.

  “We walk from here,” he stated.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It’s best to approach the outside guards on foot, rather then in the truck. We don’t want to risk them shooting at it.”

  Alex pulled out his laptop from his bag, snapped in a small drive on the side and began tapping furiously. “I need 5 minutes to put a freeze on the feed on all security cameras inside, and tem
porarily mess with the outside feed.”

  “Guards?” I asked, looking at Pierce. “What about them?”

  “Two in front, two in back.” Kyson said, “They walk the perimeter every 30 minutes, and trade spots at the same time.”

  “How are we getting passed them?” I asked.

  “Gavin,” Kyson and Pierce said at the same time.

  Using Gavin’s ability to stun them seemed silly, “Why don’t we just take them out? What if the persuasion doesn’t hold?”

  “So you want to kill them?” Kyson asked curiously.

  I stumbled, “No, I mean. Duct tape? Or the sleeping meds you’ve injected into me? Do we have any serum?”

  “Don’t have any of that,” Pierce said. “Plus, taping them up will take too much time. Once Alex takes care of the cameras, he’ll need to bring up the current access code to get into the building.”

  “Anyone that works here has a key fob with a digital display for the current code to enter the building without triggering any alarm. That code changes every 7 minutes.” Alex explained, still typing on his laptop.

  “Can’t we just make the guards let us in?” I asked.

  “No,” Pierce said, “They are for outside security only. They are not permitted inside the building and don’t know any of the codes or have any keys.”

  A few taps of rain began to hit the windshield and I groaned inwardly. The trees around the truck shook in response to a gust of wind and branches scratched at the roof.

  Kyson and Gavin pulled dark skull caps over their heads, and I wrapped my hair into a high ponytail, the length brushing the nape of my neck.

  My fingers trembled as I fidgeted, touching my collar, rubbing my knees, smoothing my hair. My entire body was a tight wad of painful nerves and even the vibrations in my chest couldn’t soothe me.

  Pierce continued with his orders, “When we get inside, Kyson and Jade, you take care of the lab. Destroy the tubes, bio material, fluids, everything. Check all the fridges and freezers. Afterwards, check the OR rooms for any other vials. Alex will work on the computers and safes, Gavin and I will head to the basement.”

  “Aren’t all these rooms locked?” My eyebrows scrunched together. “We’re not just going to be able to walk into all of them?”

  “There are keypads, locks,” Pierce answered, “If we can’t find the key cards, they shouldn’t be able to hold under our strength. And yours.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. He really thought we were going to bust into all of these rooms on brute strength?

  “How much time will we have?” I asked.

  There was a second of pause. “40 minutes,” Alex answered. “The hold on the camera feed will only hold for 45 minutes, we need to make sure we’re out of there before then.”

  40 minutes. We would be done and out in only 40 minutes. I could do that, I pep talked myself. Stay with Kyson, do your task, in and out.

  “What’s in the basement?” I asked.

  The tense emotions next to me coming from Gavin turned rank and bitter. My head jerked to look at him, surprised at his thoughts. He looked down, pulling at a zipper on his pants pocket, his mouth pinched together tightly.

  “The other test subjects,” he murmured quietly.

  If that was where the other test subjects were kept, there must be beds. Living quarters. Holding cells. It must have been where they had kept the guys.

  I turned and aimed my question towards Pierce, “You really think that’s a good idea taking him down there?”

  “I don’t have a choice,” Pierce said quietly, but with little emotion. He kept his face forward, I watched his eyes in the rear view mirror, waiting for him to glance at me, but he never did. “I need his ability to subdue the subjects before terminating them. It will make the process smoother, easier.”

  I wiped a hand over my forehead, trying to block out the currents of foul emotion coming from Gavin. This wasn’t going to be pleasant for him.

  I turned to look at him again, trying to get his eyes but he refused to lift them. “Do you want me to go with you?” I asked quietly.

  He shook his head once, twice, his fingers wrapping around the door handle. “Stay upstairs.” He said firmly.

  Determined not to be offended at his rejection, I knew not to take it personal. But it still stung.

  “Jade, you do not wander.” Pierce said in low tone. “At all. Understood?”

  I nodded and said “Okay.”

  “Also, do not use your energy. We’re assuming the cameras are down but we don’t know who might be watching and what they might see. We have to keep it secret as long as possible.”

  “Now,” Pierce continued, “The guards will be expecting us, we believe a sensor was triggered when we entered the property.”

  “There!” Alex chimed over his tapping fingers. “671854, We have 7 minutes to get inside.”

  He shoved his laptop into his backpack and zipped it up.

  Throwing the doors open, we all jumped out into the slow but steady raindrops. The guys let the truck doors click softly shut and then we began our sprint up the rest of the way to the building.

  The cold air whipped at my face, the heavy pump of my heart helping to beat out a touch of anxiety as my feet hit the ground. The guys ran both in front and behind me, keeping me tucked safely between them.

  The moderately sized building came into view quickly, the letters PPQ in large bold letters on the side. A Fertility Solution For You was printed underneath. The parking lot was small but enough to accommodate a couple dozen vehicles. It was when I saw the triple tiered turquoise fountain bubbling in the dark night, spotlights pointing from the base to the top, that my feet slowed, my mouth dropping open.

  Images flashed into my mind as we came closer. Holding my mother’s hand. No. Her gripping my hand and pulling me forward. Me whining, her gripping me harder, dragging me towards the door.

  The guys slowed with me, all of us coming to walk.

  “Jade,” Kyson said from behind me. “Stay focused.”

  I took a step out of our formation to touch the wet surface, entranced by the memories it pulled from me. Confusion from long ago, turning to fear.

  “Jade!” Pierce hissed.

  I turned back to see all four guys looking at me with wide eyes. Moisture pricked my own and I wiped quickly at the corners, hurrying back to the group.

  When we rounded the manicured bushes that lined an entryway, two guards came into view several yards away, standing next to the entry doors. My eyes immediately saw the night sticks, radios and black guns that were buckled around their waists and my footsteps stuttered again. Besides their weapons, the size of their hulking frames was enough to make me want to turn around. I could barely make out their hard eyes underneath the bill of their black hats, but their lips were thin, their jaws hard.

  Everyone stopped.

  “3 minutes,” Alex said softly, checking his watch.

  Gavin stepped forward, stepping out from the group. His right hand came up, palm facing towards them, and the guards visibly relaxed, coming out of attention and shifting their feet. Their mouths even turned up into subtle smiles. The air around us seemed to soften and I released a breath.

  Gavin began walking forward, keeping his hand up, and leading us to the doors.

  The guards stepped out of our way as we walked passed, allowing Gavin to punch in the six digit code to allow us entry.

  I could smell the guards cologne, their cheap aftershave. Their eyes seemed to scan us, not out of threat but curiosity. What was going through their minds? I didn’t dare speak, for fear of breaking the spell that Gavin had cast. Would it hold when we were inside?

  The front door opened with a whoosh, a gust of sterilized air hitting me as we entered. When the door sealed shut behind us I turned to Gavin, “What did you do?”

  Gavin looked around the contemporary waiting room we had stepped into and narrowed his eyes on a hallway. “They think we’re plumbers.”

  Modern chairs
lined the small room, with the latest celebrity magazines stacked on side tables. A cooler filled with water bottles sat in a corner, with a coffee maker on a nearby table. The room had been painted in muted neutrals, creams and pale blues. It looked like a perfectly normal medical office from what I could tell.

  “Alex,” PIerce said, “You know someone’s going to be notified that door was opened, right?”

  Alex looked around the room, fidgeting with his bag and items inside. His eyes darted, lost in thought. “Yeah, I know. They’ll check the feeds, see nothing. We’ve got 30 minutes.”

  I raised an eyebrow. I had my doubts that the security company wouldn’t send someone to check out the lab and make sure it was okay. One more piece of tension to add to the night.

  “This way,” Kyson said, jerking his head towards the hall and leading away from the waiting room.

  As soon as we left the front lobby and our feet padded down gleaming tile floors, the smells that assaulted my senses almost dropped me to my knees. A harsh blend of bleach, lemons and cheap soap, was so overpowering to my nose but also to the mental images I was working hard to keep repressed. That smell. So familiar. In the most awful way. My eyes closed and my hand went to my hair, making sure it was still there, but also for the desire to tug at it.

  My vision became blurry and an arm went around my shoulders. “We’re all here with you,” Kyson spoke into my ear, his breath warm against my skin. “You’re not alone anymore.”

  My throat tightened and I couldn’t speak. The others spoke quickly, leaving me and Kyson to their own task. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. Suddenly we were in front of steel door with the Biohazard symbol painted on the front.

  CLASSIFIED PERSONNEL ONLY

  KEEP DOOR CLOSED

  There was a flat metal pad on the side of the door, where a key card would be swiped.

  “How are we getting in?” I asked.

  A gunshot fired down the hall, followed by a second one and I ducked in response, my eyes going wide.