Inspiration Point
Authors: M.A Casey
Inspiration
Point
By
M.A. Casey
Text Copyright ©
2012 M.A.Casey
All Rights
Reserved
No part of this
book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where
permitted by law.
The characters
and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real
persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by
M.A. Casey
Orange, NSW 2800
To my husband
Steve and my two incredible kids Livvy and Archie. For always
understanding when I was tucked away with my book.
And to my
beautiful friends Michelle, Nic & Sharon who ignited my passion of books.
xoxo
He was cornered. I could see fear in his eyes as
beads of sweat fell from his weary face. We'd been questioning him for hours,
and he had given us nothing. We were going to have to find another way.
I gave a signal for my men to end the beating.
Bruised and exhausted he begged us to stop.
“There is only one way this can end, you know that,” I
said as I crossed the room to pull him up to the chair.
He sucked deep breaths back as he spoke. “We never
found a way, I promise. Do you think I would be in this dead end job if
we did?”
“I have evidence that proves otherwise,” I confirmed
unsympathetically. “So, this is what you are going to do. You are
going to find all your old lab work, retrace every damn step if you have to,
and then you are going to bring everything you have to me. We will be
watching every move you make, so think carefully. If I am satisfied with
what you find, I will allow you to go.”
“I don’t know if there is anything left, I have
explained that,” he pleaded. Tears were escaping his eyes, making him
look pathetic. It was hard to believe that this man was part of one of
the most astounding discoveries of our time. He was the weaker of the two
scientists which is why I chose him to begin with. He was Plan A, if it
didn’t work I would kill him and move onto Plan B.
“You had better hope for your sake there is something
left. You have forty eight hours, and we'll be back. Don’t
disappoint me.”
My men and I walked to the door as I closed it; he
broke down and sobbed unashamedly. I left instructions that he was to be
followed, and went to my car. I could only hope that we had scared him
enough to get what I wanted. What I needed.
With the school day finished, I was making my way to a
lecture at the University where my father works. You see I'm in my last
year of high school, and whilst I am thoroughly average in just about every
way, I do seem to excel in biology, physics and chemistry. Although, it’s
not exactly a surprise when you know who my father is. And whilst that is
where I truly feel at home – in a lab. It's probably also the reason that
I don’t have any friends – well except for one, Tyler Weston. He's also
been chosen for the advanced lectures at the University which I am grateful
for, at least I have someone to talk to.
He usually waits for me at the gates of the
University, and today is no exception. I see him sitting under a tree enjoying
the warm day and reading another biochemistry book, not noticing my
approach.
Tyler is seventeen just like me; in fact, our
birthdays are only a few weeks apart. He transferred to Cape High two
years ago, and we have been friends ever since. He approached me one day
at lunch, after one of our classes. We started talking about physics and
chemistry, and before I knew it, we became best friends. It was a
pleasant change, as the only people who ever spoke to me before this were the teachers
or my brother and his friends who would just make some joke at my expense.
I watch him for a moment as he sits under the large
tree, his blonde hair shimmering where the filtered sunlight hits it.
When he notices me walking towards him, he grabs his backpack and jumps to his
feet.
“Hey Hayln, I’m just making a few more notes before I
return this book to your Dad,” he says grinning.
He is easily a whole head taller than me now and has
filled out even more since the last holidays, which he is quite happy about.
He has always had an exceptionally strong physique, and most people expected
him to be an athlete of some kind when he arrived on his first day. Even
I had made that assumption. So you can imagine how surprised I was, as
well as the entire student body, to find out that he was more like me than
them. In fact, I have no idea how he keeps in such excellent shape as we
spend most of our spare time here in the labs of the University.
“You’ll have read every book in my father’s collection
before the end of the year at this rate,” I say teasing him.
“Just trying to keep up with the child prodigy,” he
grins. He turns and continues to walk with me as I make my way to my
father’s office on the northern side of the grounds.
My father is Ethan Knox, a rather famous Biochemist at
one time. Now he is the head lecturer here at Cape University, and has
been since I was born. Before teaching, he and his partner Able Crowson
had their own private laboratory, which was successful in discovering a number
of vaccines that are now widely used in the medical field. As well as
being a published author for his work in molecular genetics and
bioengineering. He told me once, that when he had his children he felt
his passion switch from endless lab research and testing to teaching.
Which is why I suppose, seventeen years later he is still here.
My talents even at a high school level have always
captured the attention of my teachers – mostly because they couldn’t keep up
with me. I have always spent a lot of time with my father here at the
university, and because this stuff comes so naturally to me my brother often
refers to me as the prodigy. A term I hate, which is why Tyler is teasing
me with it now.
As we enter the hall to my father’s office, Tyler asks,
“Have you finished the lab work for today’s lecture?”
I try not to sound too confident, as I know this
homework was meant to challenge us, but I had finished it on the first night
without much fuss at all. So I just said, “yeah, finally what about you?”
“All done,” he said. “Although I'm not sure I’ll
get very good marks on this one.”
“I'm sure you’ll do fine – you usually do,” I say as I
pat him on the back. He smiles back at me shaking his head.
“Not all of us are naturally gifted with a published
biochemist at their beck and call Hayln.” We both laugh as I knock on my
father’s office door. There's no answer, so we go inside and wait.
Tyler was chosen to be a part of this program, as was
I. But whilst he breezes through everything given to us in High School,
he does find this advanced program much more challenging. I suppose I do
have my father to help me if needed, but I rarely do. I keep this to
myself though, as any extra attention in class is not something I want to encourage,
but I suspect Tyler knows anyway.
My father’s office is like most of the Head Lecturer’s
here. One wall with oversized windows overlooking the grounds, and the
other three stacked with books to the ceiling - all of which I have read.
His desk seems unusually disorganized today even for him. He must have
something on his mind or a new theory, I think to myself before Tyler
interrupts my reverie.
“Hayln?” He asks with a little trepidation in his
voice. “There’s a good band playing at the Sweat Room tomorrow night, and
I wondered if you wanted to come with me?”
It intrigues me why he sounds so nervous. It’s
not like we don’t do things together outside school, and then I realized it was
probably because of the venue. It’s a place where my brother Emin and his
friends always hang out, and they wouldn’t allow an opportunity pass to have a
joke at my expense if they were there.
“The Sweat Room?” I ask. “I didn’t realize you
knew any of the bands that played there”.
“Well to be totally honest I don’t. I heard in
the locker room at school that the band playing tomorrow night is meant to be
awesome, and we haven’t been there before, so I thought it might be
interesting.”
“Well, if it was said in the locker room, it must be
true,” I joke with him. “But sure, sounds like fun.”
“Great!” He sounds chuffed; he must have been
expecting another answer. “We can sort out the details after class, we
better get going now though, or we’ll be late.”
He was right; it was time to get going. My father
must have been caught up somewhere.
“I'd better leave a note so he doesn’t forget I need a
lift home.”
I scribbled on a piece of his letterhead on the desk
and leave it on the top of the pile as we headed off to Professor Gregor’s
lecture.
The presentation was quite compelling today, although
it covered formula’s I had learnt by the time I was twelve. With the
session over, we handed in our lab work. Professor Gregor found mine and
started going over the results I’d listed approvingly.
“Well done Miss Knox, it seems once again this hasn’t
presented much of a challenge for you has it?”
“I wouldn’t say that Professor,” I hedged, just
wanting to leave the classroom before the predictions of how my talents might
change the world began.
“It seems I might have to get your father to help me
set you something that might challenge your knowledge.”
I smiled awkwardly, looking at my feet and hoped they
would take me out of the classroom as quickly as possible. I heard Tyler
say goodbye to a few other students and the Professor. He caught up to me
just outside the room.
“You made a quick escape again,” he said.
“Avoiding more praise and admiration I assume?”
I sighed; he knew how I felt about this stuff.
“It’s as if they're all waiting for me to rewrite history or something.
Like at any moment I will have an epiphany and change the world in a
heartbeat.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” he said rolling his eyes.
“They just know you are incredibly talented, and it is exciting to
them. We would all give anything to have a quarter of your talent”.
“That’s just it though,” as I spoke the words were
coming out fast. “All this classroom stuff is fine but the things my
father did before teaching, well they…. they did change the world in a way, and
that’s the stuff I have no idea about. I have gone over his studies, and
I understand them all. But the places where he started from, the
inspiration point as he calls it, that’s what I’m lacking. And without
that, I doubt I will be doing anything ground breaking anytime soon.”
“Hayln, you’re putting too much pressure on
yourself. No one is expecting miracles of you. They just want to
give you every opportunity to reach your full potential.”