What We Become | Book Two

17. Disaster

His dark and frantic eyes landed on Chris and me. They were coloured with hatred and rage and I was sure he didn't even blink once.

He wore a dark jumper with a hood and a canvas utility vest over the top. A black mask covered the lower half of his face, shielding his expression from the room.

"Pilot," Mike greeted, seeming startled by the intrusion. "This is Chris Shepherd and Ben Robertson."

"I don't give a shit what their names are," he spat. "This is a complete breach of procedure. What the fuck were both of you thinking?"

Mike's hands had begun to shake but he tried to hide it by clasping them together under the table. Pilot hadn't seemed to notice.

"Calm down," Mike reassured with a tremble in his voice. "This is Jackie's son."

The man in the doorway scowled. His narrowed eyes darkened as they landed on me. I felt smaller as if his pupils were somehow shrinking me in my seat.

"Jackie," he repeated, recognition flashing in his pupils. "Tell me you don't mean that Jackie, do you?" he questioned. "Stir shit and disappear Jackie?"

I tensed as Mike nodded. His eyes flickered toward me as if the mere mention of my mum's name would send me crumbling.

"That's the one," he confirmed.

"How do you know he's not pretending?" Pilot frowned. "Not some psychopaths looking to ruin everything again."

"It looks like everything's already ruined," I mocked. "I don't think I could do any more damage."

"It's him," Mike confirmed as I sat back in my chair. "I'd recognise him anywhere."

"You know each other?"

"We're familiar, yes."

Pilot turned on me. "Come to see the mess, have you? Create some more chaos?" he taunted. "Where is your mum now, anyway?"

"She's dead," I stated with no trace of hesitation, no trace of emotion in my expression. Nothing he could use as ammunition.

Mike's voice hardened and he sat up straighter. "That's enough," he said. "I believe Ben could have something for us."

"What the hell could this kid ever do for us?" Pilot scoffed, raising his dark brows.

Mike smirked, seeming more confident now. "Being able to unlock Jackie's computer."

"Unlock it?" I interrupted.

It was an issue I hadn't anticipated. I'd always assumed they would have got that far. I would have expected them to have found her files missing already, to be trying every possible way to recover them.

"Your mum's computer," Mike clarified. "The computer she left with all of her research."

"We've tried every possible solution and you think a kid can get into it?" Pilot pressed.

"The better question is how have you not managed to unlock it already?" Chris chimed in. "I thought this was a Government lab with Government staff? Aren't you guys supposed to be the most intelligent ones out there?"

"You flatter us, Chris," Mike smiled. "Government computers come with high levels of encryption," he explained. "If the right people were around, we'd be able to access it no problem. Unfortunately, they're dead and we're only scientists. One wrong password entry means everything on that computer is deleted."

I couldn't help but laugh. "It sounds like you're in trouble."

Mike looked at his hands on the table and it was Julia that answered.

"We were in trouble months ago. This is what disaster looks like."

*

Pilot pushed open the door to one of the rooms and the three of us stood in the doorway as it creaked open.

"Congratulations," he announced, sarcasm dripping from his words. "It looks like you two got the honeymoon suite."

The lights flickered above us, struggling to illuminate the bland room. Once, it had been a cramped office but it had since been turned into a makeshift bedroom. There was little thought to its design, only practicality. Two beds and two boxes for clothes filled the room and left little remaining space for movement.

"I would hate to see the other rooms if this is the honeymoon suite," Chris muttered, turning back to Pilot. "You treat us," he joked.

"This isn't a holiday," Pilot informed in a low voice. "We don't deal with freeloaders here. You do not go anywhere without authority. You do not move from this room without one of us because someone will always know where you are." His gaze shifted to the corner of the room where a security camera was mounted to the wall. A solid red light beside the lens meant that it was working.

He took a step closer to us.

"My job is to protect this facility. If anything ever threatens that, I take great pleasure in shutting it down by whatever means necessary," he warned with his breathy voice low against my skin. "Try to create as much chaos as you want but just know that I will be there every second waiting to end it before it even begins."

His cold stare didn't drop from mine as he stepped back out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Chris and me in silence.

"What now?" Chris asked, taking a seat on one of the beds.

I began to look around the room. "I need to get into that office."

"What office?"

I turned to him, rolling my eyes. "The Oval Office, Chris... What office do you think?"

"Did you not hear a word he just said?" he cocked his head. "Why can't you just let them handle this?"

"I can't just give it to them and let them take over."

"Why not? I'm tired of us always trying to take things into our own hands."

Chris slumped on the bed. Bruises from the crash had begun to form against his pale skin, now a multitude of reds and purples. He looked exhausted.

"They know what they're doing, Ben. There's no way either of us is getting out of here without someone knowing about it," he continued, waving an arm to the camera.

I pulled one of the chests closer to the wall and stood on top of it. Reaching up, I moved my hand around to the back, feeling for the small button I knew was there.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Chris called.

"Just a little trick I learned while I was here before," I said as my fingertips finally found the button and pressed it.

"Please don't tell me you're turning that security camera off to break into your mum's office," he sighed.

I jumped down from the chest and stared back at him, confirming what he already knew. "I turned the camera off."