Inspiration Point (19 page)

“Out of everyone, I didn’t expect you to defend him,”
I said calmly but a little surprised.

“Not defending him really, I just wanted you to know
maybe there’s more to this and not to beat yourself up over it.”

I thought about that as we both drank our milk. 
Zeke made some valid points I suppose, but I was still too raw to listen to
them.  How could I try to understand what Tyler must have gone through
over the last few years when clearly I never knew him at all.

“Now that’s enough talk about Tyler I think.  I
don’t want you dreaming about him tonight,” Zeke joked to lighten the mood.

I was glad.  It helped me forget about all the
problems we were facing, even if it was just for a moment.

“I doubt I will have anything but nightmares at the
moment,” I smiled at him but nodded in the direction of the two men who would
be watching us all night.

“Maybe we could work on that,” he said as he put his
empty mug down and held my face in between his hands to kiss me.

His hands were so warm from holding the mug, it felt
wonderful.  Like finally, I could feel the same heat on the outside that
washed through me internally every time he kissed me.

My hand reached up to the back of his neck, pulling
him closer to intensify our kiss – it worked.  I suddenly forgot about
everything around me and all that was left was the two of us.  We were now
so close we were both hardly still sitting on our chairs.  His hands came
down to my hips pulling me onto his lap, and that was when Davis yelled from
the lounge.

“Stop making me sick and go to bed,” he bellowed.

Zeke pulled back to look at me, I was worried he might
get angry. But he just looked amused.  “It’s fun making this guy upset,
isn’t it?”

I laughed and got up to take the cups to the sink then
grabbed his hand and took him upstairs.  I figured he would probably be
going back to Emin’s room so I thought I would try and find out what they were
up to.

“What are you guys doing in Emin’s room?” I whispered
as we got to the top of the stairs.

“Hopefully something that will help us, I'll let you
know if it works.” 

He kissed me again softly, but before I could wrap my
arms around his neck to pull him closer, he pulled back.

“I’d better get back before Emin says I am not focused
enough,” he smiled and kissed my hand before he went to leave.

Something didn’t feel right, and I realized he hadn’t
wished me goodnight as he had done the last few evenings.  I quickly
reached for his hand before he got too far.

“Sweet dreams Zeke, I love you.”

The smile beaming across his face proved he had been
testing me, and I had gotten it right.  He came back to my side and
brushed his hand across my collar bone lightly.

“I didn’t want to be too predictable,” he teased.

“Actually being predictable sounds perfect right
now.  It would be nice to be able to rely on something.”

He nodded, understanding how I felt.

“Sweet dreams Hayln, I love you,” and his kissed me so
passionately I was sure Davis would start yelling again.

When the morning came I didn’t hesitate, I had a
shower and got dressed for the day.  Although I had no idea how we were
going to handle this, I still felt strangely positive.  This mood was
mirrored in my family except for my mother.  She seemed a little lost. 

When I had a moment I asked her if she felt
alright.  She smiled and patted my hand to reassure me.

“I just don’t know what to do with myself,” she
answered.  “You and your father will be busy downstairs and it seems the boys
are engrossed in whatever they are up to – so that leaves me at a loose end.”

I didn’t really have any suggestions for her since
there weren’t many options – we were housebound.  But my father had been
listening and spoke to her softly.

“Like you said Evelyn, a way to a man’s heart is
through his stomach.”

“Cooking?” My mother said sounding a little insulted.

“Well someone needs to feed this crowd, plus from the
kitchen, you can hear what’s going on in there.” 

My father’s eyes looked in the direction of our two
henchmen, this seemed to catch her attention. 

“Ian already seems to be fond of you, I am sure you
can find a way to take advantage of that,” Dad suggested.

This seemed to perk my mother up a bit.  Dad told
everyone he would be in the lab and to send Spencer down when he arrived. 
I went upstairs to brush my teeth and then went down to join him.

“So what’s the plan Dad?” I said keeping my head down
from the camera over my shoulder.

“It seems to me that Spencer won’t leave us alone
until he has his miracle drug – so I hope to make him one.  Just not the
one he has in mind.”

“What do
you
have in mind?” I asked curiously.

“Well the current design of the DNA strain has two
outcomes, one to the immune system and one to natural abilities.  I want
to separate them and give him the drug to perfect the immune system only.”

“Do you think he will be satisfied with that?”

“I don’t know Hayln, but it is all I can think
of.  He will have something that I know won’t hurt innocent people, and it
will make him extraordinarily rich.  I can’t live with myself developing
the other drug.”

I nodded, agreeing with him, “but didn’t you try this
before – before I was born?” I said stumbling over the words.

“Yes, but I wasn’t as motivated then was I.  And
besides this time I have you helping me.”  His eyes were full of faith and
confidence in me just the way they had been all my life.

“I hope I can help Dad,” I said sounding a little
deflated.  My discoveries up to this point were few and far between for a
genetic genius.

“We’ll be fine, but we do have to be careful about
what we do in here.  I know Spencer’s scientific knowledge is limited, and
I doubt Davis & Ian have any, but there is Tyler.” 

My heart sank again hearing his name.  I don’t
think facing him today will be much easier.

“I suspect he will be forced to watch us and report to
Spencer,” my Dad concluded.

I heard movement upstairs, and a few moments later
footsteps were coming down to the lab.  Dad and I glanced to each other knowing
this would be Spencer and the game was about to begin.

“Good morning Knox, Hayln,” he nodded to each of us as
he said our name. 

“I trust you both are well rested and ready for a
successful day in the lab.”

Neither of us responded but started unpacking the
crates with supplies Dad had ordered.  Davis and Tyler came downstairs
with more crates and some test subjects, three white rabbits.

Davis went back upstairs while Spencer spoke to Tyler.

“You remember what we spoke about?” He questioned
Tyler. 

Tyler nodded, “Very good then, I will talk to you this
evening.”

He turned to us.  “I have other duties today so
Tyler will be watching over your work.  I will speak to him this evening
to make sure the day has been productive.  If not, we may have to make
things a little more interesting.”

I glared at him, and so did Dad.  Tyler hung his
head as if he was ashamed – he should be.

“I’m sure it won’t come to that though,” he said as he
left the room.

I felt like throwing something at him as he
left.  His threats over my family were starting to wear thin with me.

“Let’s calm down Hayl’s,” Dad said assessing my
mood.  “We have a lot to do.”

Tyler sat in the corner at the window and pulled out a
book to read.  How can he just sit there I thought to myself?  I bit
my tongue and continued to help Dad, once we had sorted out the supplies he
handed me an enormous folder.

“What’s this?” I questioned.

“That’s all my original work from before you two were
born.” 

I ignored the mention of Tyler and picked up the
folder – it was heavy.  As I weighed it in my hands, I saw my father
smile.

“I'll get started, but before you will be able to help
me, you will need to go over those notes.  It will make you see things…….
differently.”

Fine with me, I thought to myself, I would be able to
bury myself in work for a while which means I could block Tyler’s presence
out.  I opened the folder and got started. 

It was totally enthralling, partly because of the
discoveries my father had made and partly because this was the work that led to
my birth.  I pored over the papers for what must have been hours because I
was starving when I stopped reading to look up at Dad.  He continued to
work so I decided to keep going a while longer.  When I finally got to the
composition of the chemical strain I was speechless.  Not only had I never
seen anything remotely like it, it entirely changed everything I had been
taught.

I am not sure of an easy way to explain something so
complex, except maybe to compare it to music.  In any song, you know that
there are numerous instruments to make the music.  And what you hear when
you listen, is the combination of all those instruments combining to form one
song.  But now after seeing how my father constructed his chemical strain,
it is like you would still be able to hear the music the way you did before,
but you could also hear and identify every instrument individually along with
every single note they played.  You now know, what each of them is doing,
at any one time, and because of this you can make small changes without
altering the whole.  

Like I said – it’s hard to explain, but understanding
it changes the way I will look at everything in the lab now.  I shook my
head in disbelief because everything I’ve learned had been turned upside
down.  This was ground breaking.

“You’ve read the composition of the strain, haven’t
you?” Dad asked, smiling at me. 

He must have been dying to show this work to someone
who would have understood and appreciated it for years.  I simply nodded
still astounded at his work, and, after a while I spoke.

“There are so many more possibilities in my head now,
this changes everything,” I said amazed.

“Yes,” my father said modestly.  “The day I
discovered that was the second greatest discovery of my career.”

“I don’t know what could top this,” I said as I
started thumbing through the rest of the paperwork.

“You,” Tyler said simply.

I was immediately drawn back to reality by his voice,
I had lost myself reading as I often do.  I took a moment to glare at him for
intruding in our conversation and then looked to my father to see if his answer
was right.  His face was warm and loving, and I remembered that no matter
what I had learned over the past few days this was the one person in my life
who I have always been able to count on.

“Yes, the night I created the embryo, you, was easily
the highlight of my career.  And watching you come into this world, was
one of the happiest moments in my life.”

With all that had happened I had forgotten that my
father and I hadn’t really spoken about the past since I found out.  It
was a shame that Tyler was here to ruin the moment.

“It’s truly amazing Dad, and I am glad you did what
you did,” I stopped to smile at him. 

What I had said was true, but what was also true was
that I wished he had handled it differently.  Maybe our family would have
survived if he did.  All that pain with my mother might never have needed
to exist.  He sensed what I thought from my pause and dropped his head.

“Once we get rid of Spencer I will make the rest up to
you Hayln, I promise.”  He sighed loudly and then composed himself before
he looked towards Tyler.

“Tyler would you like to look over the file, since it
is your story too?” My father asked.

I was appalled at this, he was the enemy.  He
wasn’t always the enemy, but that was only because we hadn’t learnt the
truth.  Why would Dad want to encourage him?

“Dad, I am sure Tyler is too busy getting his report
ready for Spencer,” I snarled at him.

“Hayln, Tyler’s father helped me create this, and if
he would like to see it than I am more than happy to show him,” he said sternly
to me.
 
“I know you never knew him Tyler, but he
was a good man at heart.”

Tyler got off his chair to take the file.  I was
furious.

“I’m taking the rabbits outside to feed them.”

I grabbed the cages, huffed past Tyler and went to the
stairs.  Not wanting to be a part of this.

“Could you ask your mother to send down some lunch,
I’m starving,” Dad said.  “What about you Tyler?”

“Yes please Professor,” Tyler said sheepishly.

I grunted as I left the lab.  It was like Dad had
utterly forgotten Tyler’s betrayal.

I went out to the backyard and put the cages on the
grass and then returned to the kitchen.  A smell of baking wafted towards
me that reminded me of my childhood.  Mum had just freshly baked a batch
of muffins and had nearly finished a tray of sandwiches.  I went to the
bench and grabbed a muffin, it was still warm.  In the lounge, I could see
Ian and Davis devouring their fair share of the baked goods as well.