The Pandora Project (18 page)

Though a big man, the Colonel seems to shrink from the weight of the news he has come to deliver.
“You were right,” he reports, his words short and clipped.

Cox looks up at him condescendingly, “Yes, a by-product of my genius.
What about in particular, Christian?”

“They picked Asher up approximately twenty-five minutes ago.”

“And can we expect your boy to play his part as well as his father?” Cox asks with a sneer.

The Colonel tries not to flinch at Cox’s words, “We can.”

“Get your men ready. Take her pathetic parents with you, you may need the leverage.”

“Yes, Sir.”
Colonel Mays moves quickly, trying to put as much distance between himself and the man who is orchestrating his life.

“And Colonel?”

“Yes?”

“I will not be disappointed again.”

“No, Sir.”

Chapter 21

“I’m going to leave you guys here,” John says when we reach a field a couple hundred yards away from the mini storage.
His feet barely touch the ground as he races to the fence surrounding the storage units.

“Are you kidding me?!” Asher screams as John’s body blurs with speed.
I could kill John for leaving me here to answer the questions that will inevitably come.

“Yeah,” I respond lamely, “John has a lot to tell you.”

“I’m sure you could start…Holy Hell!” He screams when John streaks to the top of a pole holding a camera, going hand over hand, foot over foot to the top. It only takes him about five seconds to scale the pole and disable the camera. He pushes off from the top, dropping gracefully to the ground and does the same thing to the other three camera poles. After disabling the final camera, he executes a perfect back flip from the top.

“Show-off,” I mumble and have to laugh at the look of awe on Asher’s face.

From this distance, I can barely make out John punching in the code and the mechanical gate slowly sliding open. John quickly surveys the parking lot looking for a good replacement for the minivan. Most of the cars are old junkers that people don’t want crapping up their property, but they also can’t bear to part with. I am a little ashamed at how many cars he breaks into before he finally finds one with owners irresponsible enough to leave keys in the car.

Heaving a visible sigh of relief, I get out of the minivan and start to pull our luggage from the back.
I have it all unloaded when John drives up in an older Mercedes. I leave a couple thousand dollars to pay for the “rental” of the van in the glove box and turn to look at Asher. “Are you coming?” I ask when he shows no sign of moving.

“No,” he replies and the look on his face makes me turn away quickly.

“Your friend isn’t very happy,” I tell John as I help him load the new stolen vehicle. Breaking the law gets easier and easier, I notice. We are on quite the slippery slope. I have to keep balancing petty theft versus end of the world on the scales in my head.

John moans and goes over to Asher.
Whatever he says is enough to convince Asher to get in the car, but he still doesn’t look happy about it. We are all silent as we pull out of the field and make our way to the interstate. I am surprised that Asher is so calm about us making our way out of town. His faith in John is both reassuring and shocking. I guess if Lexi showed up wielding superhuman powers and asked me to trust her, I would…maybe.

“Asher, if I told you that Paige and I were both genetically altered super humans running for our lives, would you believe me?” John asks, watching Asher’s reaction in the mirror
. His blatant description of us tickles my funny bone and a small snort escapes me, earning a glare from John. When Asher doesn’t respond he continues, “More importantly, would you help us, even if it puts you in mortal danger?” That sobers me right up.

Waiting silently for an answer, I start to get very uncomfortable.
It was easy for me to believe everything John told me because I have never been normal. The world has never been safe, but Asher is falling down the rabbit hole and I feel guilty for letting John push him.

Asher finally unfolds his arms and wipes the palms of his hands on his jeans, making me wonder how nervous he is.
“I probably wouldn’t believe you so quickly if I hadn’t just seen you scale poles like a monkey and break into a dozen cars using nothing but your bare hands. Still, John, you better start at the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”

John looks at me questioningly, I know he is asking my permission to tell my side of the story and I nod,
knowing I don’t really have any other choice. I stare out the window, fighting the urge to watch Asher’s every reaction to John’s words. John tears up when he talks about his mom and dad, I put my hand reassuringly on his knee. He returns the favor when tears fall quietly from my eyes as he talks about my parents.

I can’t help but watch Asher’s reaction to John receiving his powers in the forest.
Asher’s eyes grow as wide as saucers and I feel heat rise to my cheeks when he almost snaps his neck looking from my hands to John and back again. He never utters a word, but his responses are written all over his face. John skims over the parts of our criminal activity, for which I am thankful, and fades off when we get to the parking lot of the school.

Hearing our story rehearsed back to me reminds me how impossible it all sounds.
Evil scientist, magic hands, superpowers released in a moment…how Asher keeps himself from jumping out of the car is beyond me. The silence goes from nervous to downright uncomfortable until John finally explodes, “Say something! Call me a liar, ask for proof, anything! Don’t just sit there.”

Asher actually jumps slightly at the outburst.
He looks from his hands, to John, to me and then back to his hands. “What do you want me to say, John?” he spits and I am shocked by his hostility. “That you are crazy? Maybe. You just waltz into my life, drop all this on me, and what? What do you expect me to do?”

John’s jaw drops slightly, this clearly isn’t the reaction he was expecting.
If Asher is this mad about being brought into our problems, I definitely won’t be mentioning that John was ready to throw Asher straight into the fire. How would Lexi feel if I dropped all of this on her? I think she already knows so much more than I give her credit for, but will I ever get the chance to find out?

It takes a few seconds for John to recover; when he finally does it is with equal anger.
“I don’t know what I expect! Maybe a little understanding, compassion, anything from my best friend. I thought I could count on you. I thought you would always be here for me. Why are you so angry? I just shared the biggest secrets of not only my life, but Paige’s as well, and you what? You throw it back to me?” What I thought was anger is actually hurt and my heart goes out to John as the last person he thought he could count on seemingly abandons him. How much more can he take?

Asher looks out the window and I think I see tears welling in his eyes.
“I can’t believe you,” he whispers.

“Can’t, or won’t?
” John asks, exasperated.

“Can’t, John, can’t!” Asher shouts.

Sucking a huge gulp of air in surprise I look questioningly at John. This is not going at all how I was expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is nowhere close. Judging from the look on John’s face, he is as baffled as I am.

“Asher, what is going on?” John takes on a calmer, more pleading tone.

“Dr. Cox,” Asher asks and John nods. “Dr. Andrew Cox?” Again John nods. “I can’t believe you,” Asher says, hesitating again, “because I know Dr. Cox.”

“How?” I ask, finally breaking my silence.

Asher shoots me a dirty look, like I am to blame for…well, I don’t know.

Giving his attention back to John he says, “How do I know Dr. Cox, John?”

John shakes his head knowingly, “Your dad,” he states.

“I can’t remember a time Dad didn’t work for Dr. Cox in one way or another.
Dr. Cox has always dabbled in Dad’s career. If I believe your story, I have to believe that
my
dad was involved in killing
your
dad. I refuse to believe it.”

Chapter
22

“What I refuse to believe is that we picked the enemy up for a little spin!” I practically choke on the words. “Why not just call Dr. Cox up directly, John! ‘Hey Andy, meet me at 7 Eleven, I’ve got something for you!’” My head starts to spin and I wonder if I am having a panic attack.

After muttering a couple expletives, John starts looking for an exit.
I guess having your world explode around you is more than you can handle while driving…and here I thought he was a super hero. I glance back at Asher and am surprised to find him glaring at me. What did I do? It wasn’t my idea to practically kidnap him.

It takes a few minutes for John to find a suitable place to stop.
I get more uncomfortable with each passing second. When we pull around to the back of a Cracker Barrel I don’t know whether to get out or stay seated and we all just wind up sitting in deafening silence until Asher can’t take anymore.

“What did you expect me to do?” Asher asks in a calm, steady tone.
I admire his control.

John turns to face his best friend, “We need help.
We are going to meet Paige’s parents but I didn’t want to go it alone.”

Unable to hide the hurt at being so quickly discounted, John reaches over to reassure me, “I meant
we
don’t want to go it alone,” he amends. “I was hoping you would be our back-up, in case something goes wrong. You know what we are up against, if you know Dr. Cox.”

Still wearing a mask of pure hostility, Asher responds, “Yeah, John, I do know what you are up against.
Dr. Cox
and
my dad. There is no way you can win. Give her up and maybe they will go easy on you. Or just let her go and try to make a life for yourself, you clearly have a couple of aces up your sleeve now.”

I suck in a quick breath at the thought of being abandoned or turned over.
I really don’t like this guy. “How can you say that? Are you serious? I’ve lost everything and now you want me to just give up?”

“Not give up, just be smart enough to know when you are beat.”
There is something about his attitude that sits wrong with me. That he could go so quickly from awe at John’s powers to hostility doesn’t make sense.

“John,” I start and he looks at me guiltily.
“Maybe we should leave him and go,” I mumble under my breath. “What if Dr. Cox has already gotten to him? What if we are being tracked right now?” My hands start to shake and I know things are about to get ugly.

The look on Asher’s face confirms my worst fears
. He is not on our side. Yep, I hate him. “What did you think, John? That I would turn against my own father? Not even for you, not even for a super power. If I were you, I would make a decision pretty quick.”

John doesn’t even hesitate, he moves so quickly I barely see him move, he hits Asher squarely on the jaw with such force it knocks him out.
Scanning the parking lot quickly to make sure no one sees us, he jumps out of the car and whips Asher’s body out of the backseat. He dumps him unceremoniously behind the car and jumps back in before I really understand what is going on.

“Was that quick enough Asher?” he spits and squeals out of the parking lot.

“We definitely aren’t safe,” I screech and worry that I sound as hysterical as I feel.

“That’s an understatement, but you haven’t been safe since you met me, so let’s just move on.”

Knowing he has lost what he thought was his last connection to his old life, I give him a little leeway.
“What are we going to do?” How many times will I ask this question before I start deciding things for myself?

“We have two choices, we drive like hell to your parents and hope they are there, or we hide out for a little while, which I don’t think they will be expecting.
At least we didn’t tell Asher where your parents are.”

“At least, we didn’t really tell him anything he didn’t already know.
He is a pretty good actor though, he acted pretty amazed.”

“He was I am sure.
People can tell you anything but seeing it for yourself is completely different.”

“I’m sorry about him,” I say while reaching over to rub the back of his neck.

He smiles at the comfort, “Don’t be, he let us go. He didn’t betray me like you might think.”

“How do you figure?” I asked, taken back.

“He could have played us all the way to your parents. He could have had a super power and he gave that up to cut ties with us. He may not have chosen us over his dad, but he didn’t turn us over either. We now know who one more of our enemies are…”

“Like we need any more of those,” I interrupt.

“And we know we can’t trust anyone.”

“I’ve always known that
.”

“So what is it going to be?” he asks.
“Run or hide?”