Inspiration Point (17 page)

“Now, I promised you all some food didn’t I,” he said
watching me, for some reason he was assessing my mood while I was assessing
his.

I could hear Ian talking to someone outside and
wondered what Spencer was about to do.  He seemed to be anticipating
something.

“I had a friend of mine get a few things together for
you, and it seems he has arrived.”

I looked to the doorway, and felt every bit of air get
punched out of my lungs in a second.  Tyler was standing with Ian, with
groceries in his arms.

“You must have wondered how we found out about your
planned escape from the benefit.” Spencer said arrogantly.

I stood up, but couldn’t stay on my feet, Emin put his
arm around me to prop me up.  I wasn’t taking my eyes off Tyler, but he
wouldn’t look at me.  I felt dizzy as an angry heat took over my
body.  My best friend ruined the only chance my family had of escaping
these men.  Could that actually be true? The danger we are all in now is
his
fault.

Spencer seemed to be enjoying the moment, obviously
knowing how close I thought Tyler and I were.  I wanted to run at them and
hit them with every bit of force I could muster.  But I didn’t, I knew a
gun would be pointed at me now without even checking, and my family would be
ready to restrain me.

“Let me introduce you all to Tyler,” Spencer started
again still savoring the moment.  “Of course, you all know each other, but
what you don’t know is I met Tyler about five years ago when I found out he was
Able Crowson’s son.”  He looked to my father to assess his reaction. 
He was understandably stunned.

“Yes Knox, Hayln isn’t one of a kind, Tyler was
created in exactly the same way.”

This rattled me of course, but not enough to ignore
the betrayal I felt.

As if sensing my anger had reached another level,
Tyler gestured to Spencer that he would take the groceries into the
kitchen.  He moved around me with his head down to avoid my stare. 
Just as I was about to lunge at him, Emin secured his hold on me, sensing my
next move.  Spencer smiled smugly, and I heard Davis and Ian sniggering
from where they had started to set up the monitors.

Spencer drew his attention back to my father who was
looking confused.

“Have you put it all together yet Knox?” He asked

“Able lied, he was the one who broke into my house?”
He answered in disbelief.

“No, he told you the truth.  He never knew Tyler
existed, not even in the end.”

“Then who?” Dad said shaking his head.

“Your lab assistant, Amy Mason.”

“Amy?” My parents looked at each other baffled like
that was the last name they thought they would hear.

“Yes, she was an exceedingly bright women - bright but
also extremely lonely,” he said.

“She made some assumptions about what you had achieved
here in your home laboratory – assumptions that turned out to be correct. 
She wanted a child and felt her time was running out, so she took a chance on
what you had created.  She came here and took the sample she needed, she
also made copies of your notes but left the originals so you wouldn’t be
concerned.  From there, she replicated your work and implanted the embryo
into herself and then let nature take its course.”

“But why did she come to you?” Dad questioned.

“Once she had her baby, she destroyed all the evidence
and lived a normal life with her son.  But she fell ill just over five
years ago and couldn’t support him anymore.  That's when she sought me
out.  I agreed to help her with her medical problems and provide
everything her and her son needed, as long as she would let me assess Tyler’s
abilities and run some tests.  She agreed, and we've been working together
ever since.  Although unfortunately, Miss Mason only survived another twelve
months after that.  Once she passed away we appointed an old colleague of
mine Maive Weston as his guardian, she helps us assess him on a daily basis.”

Aunt Maive too, I thought to myself shaking my
head.  Even she was part of this treachery.  I noticed then that
Tyler had returned to the room but only just stood in the doorway behind me.

My father still had more questions, and I wanted to
hear the answers so I decided to wait to confront Tyler.

“So if you have Tyler, you have what I have.  Why
do you need me, you could have perfected this on your own,” my father pleaded
with him.

“Believe me, we have tried.  We had a highly
respected scientist spend the last five years trying to do just that without
any success” he explained.

“That’s what I have been trying to convey to you
Spencer, this may not even be possible!” My father said, completely frustrated.

“I don’t believe that Knox, the scientist who I have
been working with could barely believe what you have achieved up to this
point.  And with your brilliant daughter here to help you, I am sure
success is just around the corner.”

“And then you will just let us all go – just like
that,” Emin questioned with disbelief.

“I have given your father my word Emin, you are going
to have to trust that.”

We all knew the truth of the situation, whether we do
this or not the chances of us surviving this were slim.

“Now I think it’s time to get back to the task at
hand, we will need your list Knox.  You have one hour.”  Spencer
walked over to Davis, and they went upstairs pointing out places to put
camera’s I assumed.

I turned on Tyler, I couldn’t hold this in any
longer.  He finally looked at me, and then turned away.  He was
trying to move past me to leave the room.  No-one stopped me when I put my
arm up to grab his shoulder and spun him around.

“I may have been stupid enough to believe you were my
friend, but I am not going to let you walk away until you hear what I have to
say,” I screamed at him.

“Hayln you don’t understand, I didn’t have a choice,”
he said desperately.

“You always have a choice Tyler.  You didn’t have
to pretend to be my friend.  You didn’t have to hang out with me. 
You certainly didn’t have to invent that you wanted to be my boyfriend.”

He started to interrupt me, but I wasn’t finished.

“You let me pour my heart out to you countless times
about my mother, when you already knew why she left us all along didn’t
you?  And you knew what it was doing to me.” Tears started fill my eyes,
but I blinked them away.  I didn’t want to waste tears on someone who
feigned being my friend.

“It’s true, they made me enroll at your school to
observe you, but everything else was genuine Hayln, you have to believe
me.  You are the only real friend I have too, it nearly killed me not
telling you the truth.”

“Why didn’t you then?  When I told you how my
father created me, you could have said you were just like me.”

“You don’t argue with Spencer Hayln, why do think I
was desperate to stop you from trying to escape at the benefit – I knew what he
would do to you.”

We were pacing around each other.  He seemed
frantic to have me understand, and I wanted him to feel some level of the
betrayal that I had stewing inside of me.

“You know how dangerous these men are, yet you hand
both me and my family to them on a silver platter?”  His head fell knowing
nothing he had said to me made any difference.
 
“You
also know what they want from us Tyler, can you live with yourself knowing that
they have that power in their hands?”  I shrugged and shook my head. 
“Well, I guess you won’t have to worry about that too much, since they won’t
let us live anyway.”

“Don’t talk like that Hayln,” he said almost in a
whisper, looking over at Ian.

“Do you really think they will let us walk away after
this Tyler?  They killed your father.” I said putting my hand on his
shoulder, forcing him to look back at me.  “I hope you can live with the
fact that your actions might have just killed us all.”

It was like my words had just punched through him, he
was wounded and broken.  He took a deep breath.

“No Hayln, if this is anyone’s fault it’s your
fathers,” he said as he straightened to hide his pain.  “If anyone dies,
it will be on his head.” 

He moved away from me quickly, glaring at my father as
he went upstairs to find Spencer.

My legs gave way under me now, and I slumped to the
floor.  Zeke came over and lifted me to the lounge, I felt numb.  I
looked at my father, both Emin and Mum were with him, he knew there was truth
in what Tyler said – we all did.

“Dad we need to get that list together alright,” Emin
said trying to get us all to refocus.  “Mum you help him write it down, we
will figure this out, it’s not over yet.”

Mum was right, Emin was strong, he always had been,
but it is easier to see under these circumstances.  He came over to the
lounge and sat next to Zeke, keeping his voice low so Ian wouldn’t hear while
he was concentrating on his wiring.

“I was wrong about this place being bugged,” he
whispered to Zeke.  “Have a look at their wiring, they will only have
visuals on each screen, no sound.  When we are allowed upstairs, I'll need
your help on my computer – if it still works.”

Zeke nodded, he seemed to be on the same train of
thought as Emin, but I wasn’t.  I just felt betrayed, there was no other
word for it.  Betrayed by my father, for not telling me the truth all
these years, and betrayed by Tyler, who I believed was my best friend.  If
you had asked me a week ago which two people I trust the most in the world, I
would have picked both of them – some genius I turned out to be.

Dad finished the list and left it on the table, and
Mum asked Ian if she could go to the kitchen to make some sandwiches.  He
was hungry, you could tell, but his better judgment told him not to leave any
of us alone at the moment. 

“It’s fine Ian, I will keep an eye on Evelyn,” Spencer
said as he came back down the stairs.

He gestured for her to go ahead of him into the
kitchen.  As she stood he reached around under his jacket and pulled out
his gun.  Seeing him point the gun at my mother made me shudder.

“Just a precaution I'm sure,” he said politely as he
followed her into the other room.

The rest of us sat and watched Davis, Ian and Tyler
turn our home into Fort Knox (no pun intended).  I went to sit with my
father as Emin and Zeke watched every move the men made with their
equipment.  From what I could see displayed on their screens, they had a
camera in every room, including the bathroom, but Emin was right they had no
sound. 

My mother brought two trays of sandwiches out to
us.  She left one with Spencer and his men, and we kept the other. 
We ate quietly while we listened, trying to hear what they had in store for
us.  It seemed they were nearly finished with the surveillance cameras and
once they were, Spencer and Tyler intended to leave together to get my father’s
supplies for the lab.  I felt a little better knowing I wouldn’t have to
look at Tyler much longer.

My mother and Spencer took the empty trays back to the
kitchen, while we watched Ian and Davis test their surveillance system. 
Ian walked around the entire house, he was never out of sight on the
monitors.  Every last inch of this house was now being watched night and
day.

“Well, you can see from the screens we will be
watching you all,” Spencer said sounding pleased with himself. 

“Tyler and I will be going now to get your supplies
Knox.  You and Hayln have a big day tomorrow.” 

He took the list off the table and tucked it into his
jacket.  Tyler was already standing at the door, I knew he wouldn’t look
back now, he wanted to get away from me nearly as much as I wanted him to
leave.

“I suggest you all take the opportunity this afternoon
to clean yourselves up and have a rest.  You will be in expert hands with
Davis and Ian, and as long as you all behave yourselves no one will get hurt,”
he warned.

He spoke quietly to Davis who nodded at his
instructions and then left.

“You can go to your rooms now, but remember we will be
watching.  If we think anyone is going to cause trouble, you will all be
back in this room before you can count to ten,” Davis said, making it clear he
was back in charge.

“I think the camera in the bathroom is a little
extreme, don’t you?” My mother said sounding appalled.

“No, Mrs Knox, I don’t,” he responded with his arms
folded.

She huffed to herself as she grabbed her bag and went
upstairs.  We all followed taking our suitcases with us.  I unpacked
my bag and looked around my room, I was happy to be home.  I took my
photos from my bag and put them around my mirror, all except the one of
Tyler.  I put it back in the photo album. 

I can’t believe I never truly knew him.  I had
confided in him about every aspect of my life, and he had hidden every part of
his.  I lay down on my bed just thinking about Tyler.  About when we
met each other and how he sought me out as his friend.  Our time together
in the labs, and more recently when I told him about what my father did and how
we planned to leave.  It all looked different to me now, calculated and
planned.