Inspiration Point (29 page)

“Good news actually, but we can go over it
tonight.  I have to get back to the lab now.”  I bent down to pick up
Patch and turned back toward the house when I saw Spencer standing in the
doorway.

“Shit,” I muttered to myself, I wondered if he heard
us.  I looked at his face carefully he didn’t look suspicious, smug or
angry.  He seemed thoughtful.  I suddenly felt sick, why was he here
– this could only mean trouble.

“Hayln, could I take five minutes of your time?” He
asked politely, looking at the boys.  They both looked at me before
heading back inside, making sure I would be okay with Spencer on my own. 
He came out into the yard and shrugged off his suit jacket, folding it over his
arm.  I suddenly felt extremely warm too.  The sun was almost
directly overhead, and standing there with Spencer staring at me, definitely
was making me sweat.

“Dad is waiting for me in the lab.”  I was
impressed how confident my voice sounded and hoped I looked confident too.

“It will only take a minute I promise, there were just
a couple of things I wanted to talk about, and then I will leave you to your
research.”

I was glad to hear this was a short visit.  At
least that was something.  I waited in silence, to hear what he had to
say.

"Well firstly Davis wanted me to pop around to
see you.  He seemed to think you might have had an epiphany yesterday.” He
was standing directly in front of me now, eye to eye.

“Not an epiphany exactly, but it seems we have turned
a corner.  That’s why I came out to get a test subject actually.  All
going well we might have something for you to see tomorrow.” I sounded
believable, after all it was mostly the truth.  I was relieved to see that
he didn’t seem to doubt me.

“That’s excellent news Hayln, hopefully it will go
smoother than last time.”  I knew this was his subtle way of warning me
not to do anything foolish, so I just nodded.

“Was there something else, before I head inside?” I
asked politely – really wanting to get out of there.

“Yes actually, I had an offer for you.  Now,
before I tell you what it is, I want you to think about this seriously. 
This is why I won’t ask you for an answer until tomorrow.  I know you
don’t trust me Hayln, and that’s fine for now, but I sincerely hope that
doesn’t cloud your judgment on this.”

Did he honestly think I would want anything he had to
offer?  Of course, I didn’t say that, instead I just prompted him, “I’m
listening.”

“With the end of this project drawing near we have to
consider how to - finalize all the details.  I know your families opinion
on the DNA strain so that leaves me with a problem – a big one.”  My
polite expression vanished – he was talking to me about how he was going to get
rid of us.  Assessing my sudden change of mood he continued quickly.

“I am not a cruel man by nature Hayln, which is why I
have come to you today with a solution to what would otherwise be a grim
scenario.  You see I would like you to join me once this is done.  I want
to help you find your full potential and have you work with me as one of my
scientists.  In return for your loyalty, your family will remain
unharmed.  I am fairly sure that with you by my side they will not try to
expose me, so it works out well for everybody don’t you think?”

“So I don’t get to see my family again?” I asked
disbelievingly.

“Of course you do my dear, you will be allowed
visits.  And you will of course have Tyler with you on a daily
basis.  I know you both have formed a strong bond, so it's not as if you
would be alone.”

I wanted to punch this man in the face, but I had to
pretend to consider this option.  And the truth was if my idea didn’t work
this was probably our next best plan.  So I hid my true feelings.

“That’s a lot to think about, thank you for giving me
some time.”  I really wanted him to leave, I didn’t need Spencer’s offer
in my head today.

“Thank you for listening Hayln, hopefully this will be
the start of a successful relationship.”  He smiled at me as he put his
jacket back on obviously pleased with himself.
 
“I will
leave you to your work in the lab now and look forward to hearing from you.”

I followed him inside, he went into the lounge, to
talk to Davis and Ian.  I stayed in the kitchen with Mum.  I grabbed
a handful of warm cookies to take back to the lab with me.

“Everything alright?” Mum asked quietly trying to
assess my mood.

“It’s fine, we can talk about it later,” I could tell I
hadn’t done a very convincing job of calming her nerves – she looked
worried.  “It’s nothing to worry about, I promise.  I just want to
get back to the lab.”  I smiled at her, and she seemed to relax a little,
so I thanked her for the cookies and finally went back to the lab.

Once downstairs I put Patch on the table, handed Dad
and Tyler their cookies and sat down to get myself ready.

“What took so long? Did you bake these?” Tyler asked,
chewing on his cookie. 

“Spencer was here,” they both stopped dead and looked
at me.

“He’s gone now so don’t freak out.  Davis clued
him in on my behavior yesterday so he came to check on us, but I want to talk
about it later alright.  Right now I just want to perfect this procedure.”

They both looked at how determined I was and must have
decided not to argue with me.  “Let’s get started then,” Dad confirmed.

Dad and Tyler had already prepared the area for Patch
so after I gave him a little pep talk, I sedated him.  Once fully under we
hooked him up to equipment to measure his pulse rate and brain activity. 
It was imperative I injected the serum into exactly the right part of his
brain.  I measured the correct amount of serum and began the procedure
with the first injection.  I was so nervous but was able to control myself
so my hands didn’t give me away.  I was finishing my last injection when I
heard a smash from upstairs and then Davis’s voice yelling.  We all looked
at each other.

“I better go check on that,” Tyler said sounding
disappointed that he had to leave while we were in the middle of this. 

“Be quick,” I encouraged him.  I needed him to
come back and tell me everything was alright up there.  I had to focus on
my procedure, but that was a little difficult with the thought of one of my
family or boyfriend being hurt upstairs.

I had finished the injections and Dad, and I now
prepared Patch for the current to be passed through his body.  The
equipment we had would do for today, but if we decided to go ahead and do this
to humans I would need something a little more reliable.  I decided it
would be best to worry about that later.

Tyler bounded back downstairs, eager not to miss out
on what was happening.

“Everything alright up there?”  I asked a little
anxiously.

“Yeah,” Tyler laughed.  “Emin and Zeke were
throwing a football in the hall and knocked out one of the cameras by
accident.  It pissed Davis off pretty bad, but Ian is trying to fix it
now.  The boys have been put out the back.”

This made me smile too, I looked at Dad and even he
looked lighter.  Part two of distracting the henchmen was well under
control.  Knowing everyone was safe, and that only Davis was at the
monitors meant I was ready to do this.  I looked at Dad, and without
saying anything, he adjusted the voltage of the current and we were
ready.  I closed my eyes and turned it on.  We decided to pass two
small currents through his body.

His pulse raced and his body twitched lightly, as if
he was dreaming and then after a moment, and his heart rate was back to
normal.  We all relaxed a little with the procedure over.  We obviously
couldn’t try to implant a memory with Patch because he was a rabbit, but Dad
wasn’t concerned about that part of the plan.  At the very worst, we could
pass their memory loss off as amnesia if it didn’t work, but in my heart, I
knew it would.

We had a little time before Patch would wake up from
his sedation.  Dad wrote the notes of the procedure down while I sat with
Patch gently touching his soft coat and his velvet ears.  I closed my eyes
and said a little prayer.  I hoped this would work, and if it did, prayed
for the strength to go through with the rest of my plan. 

After a while, Patch started to twitch awake, and I
was full of nerves and excitement all at once.  I really wanted the others
down here to see us test Patch, but I knew Davis would know we were up to
something.  Instead, I decided just to get Zeke.  He helped me train
Patch in the beginning, and I thought at least here should be here for this
part.  I went to the back door where the boys were still playing with the
football laughing.

“Zeke,” I called to him. “Could you bring some rabbit
food down to the lab.”

He threw the ball to Emin who seemed a little nervous
all of a sudden and dropped the ball.  Zeke jogged over to me protecting
his side with the broken rib.  He looked carefully at my expression.

“You have that nervous smile thing happening again
that drives me crazy,” he said a little puffed.

“Come on,” I said as I tugged him inside. “Grab the
food and meet me in the lab.”

By the time he came down, Patch was moving around. 
He was a little groggy still, but he looked fine.  Zeke went straight to
Patch, and patted him as if he was his favorite pet.

“How did you go, little one?” He asked.

“We’re about to find out,” I said still smiling
nervously.  “Try to feed him.”

Zeke seemed a little surprised that we hadn’t tested
him yet and then must have realized that I wanted him here when we did. 
He smiled warmly at me and reached into his pocket for the food.  He held
the food above Patch’s head like we did countless times when we were training
him.  And just like the first time I tried it, he just kept sniffing
around for the food but didn’t try to reach for it.  We tried again, and
this time tried to help him in the position we had taught him but again he
didn’t reach for the food.  It worked.

“It’s just like before we taught him,” Zeke sounded
amazed.

I looked up at Dad, Zeke and Tyler and felt we were
all wearing the same expression I am sure I was – hope.

“It’s not the most conclusive test, but it’s all we
have,” Dad said sounding a little wary.  “I will continue to monitor him
over the next few hours to make sure there aren’t any problems, but it
certainly looks promising.”

It felt incredible, I had just achieved my most
significant scientific discovery ever.  I felt like I was in the clouds
floating through this moment.  No one said anything for a while, and I was
grateful to be able to soak this up before I started to think about what would
be next.

I touched Zeke on the arm, he was still fussing over
Patch.  “I will finish a few more things here, and I will come up okay.”

“Sure, your brother will be dying to know what’s going
on anyway.”  His eyes trapped me again with their warmth.  “I knew
you could do it Hayl’s, you’re amazing.”  We weren’t touching each other,
but just the electricity from his gaze made me wonder if Tyler could tell how
much I loved him.

Once Zeke left I had one more thing to do.  I
decided I needed Tyler to come to our meeting tonight.  I knew now, if
this was going to go down, Tyler would be in the middle of it with us – so he
needed to be there when we planned our finale.  I wasn’t sure how my
entire family felt about this, but I knew this was the way it was meant to be.

“So what now?” Tyler asked.

“Actually I wanted to talk to you about that, what are
you doing tonight?”  I asked as I glanced over to Dad.  He didn’t
seem to disagree with my train of thought so I continued.  “Well?”

“What did you have in mind?” Tyler asked.

“We have a meeting each night about one in the morning
do you think you can make it?”

“What do you mean a meeting?” He sounded confused.

“Don’t worry about that for now, I just need to know
whether you can make it.”  Without meaning to, I sounded a little anxious

“Of course, I can make it, just tell me what to do,”
Tyler reasoned with me.

“Okay, do you think you can climb that tree to get
into my bedroom window.”  He glanced at Dad before he nodded, as if he was
going to get busted for something.  “We need you inside my room at one
o’clock – no earlier okay.  If you get in through my window Davis and Ian
won’t know, I can explain the rest then.”

“Well I guess I will look forward to that,” Tyler said

“See you later then,” I said as I went back
upstairs. 

I was still enjoying my high from the procedure as I
went up to my bathroom.  Ian was working on the camera in the hall, and he
smiled a small smile at me when I went past.  I often wondered about Ian,
he never quite seemed to fit in with Davis and Spencer.  As I went to head
back downstairs, I thought I might ask him a question.  I knew the camera
wasn’t up and running yet so it would be the perfect opportunity.

“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question,” I said
softly as I crouched down to where he has several parts of the camera laid out
in front of him.