Piece by Piece

67. The Price of Lies

The question Rachel had asked plagued Davyn for the next weeks.

His suspicions were confirmed on another late night when he heard talk of weapons of mass destruction and the price they could ask for in order to deliver a weapon such as the world had never seen before.

During a rare moment in which Davyn could meet with Phillip, Rachel and Simon, the four of them came to an obvious conclusion. They couldn't just up and leave. It would only instigate a manhunt, and they would be found sooner or later. It was hard to disappear, especially for Simon and Rachel who might want to start a family soon.

"We could go," Phillip mumbled. "Just vanish. Take the burnt of it. After all..." He nodded towards Davyn. "You can be the cause for the failure of the jewel project and I can take everything about the serum project with me. That way, the two of you can stay on in blissful ignorance."

"You know we can't do that," Simon said. "We won't let you do it either. We can all stay aboard and try to regulate it from within."

"How are we supposed to regulate it?" Davyn snapped. "How long do you think we can dwindle until they'll ask for results?"

Simon huffed. "It took them almost fifty years--"

"They're not going to wait fifty years, Simon. Not anymore. Not when they know I made some headway."

"I think they're right, though," Phillip interjected. "There's no point leaving and being in danger if we can continue to stick around and pretend we're working. The money's good and we're safe."

Yes they were, but what the hell were they doing? The question didn't leave Davyn's mind as he continued his research. He dropped looking into laser theory because he got the general idea and he knew he didn't want to know more just in case the Counters decided to pull information out of him the hard way.

Instead, he continued his investigation regarding the possibility of another jewel being just south of the border. He figured if he wanted to fail, he couldn't be right by accident. Searching through Lindenbrock's papers as well as many other academic sources, he did find clues regarding a supposed temple of the sun somewhere in the Yucatan peninsula. But the temple itself was the stuff of legends, so the jewel inside it even more so. There were a lot of mentions of blood and fire in everything he found, so he wondered if the jewel wasn't actually a ruby and everyone was being overdramatic.

One late night, as he made his way towards his office, a cup of coffee in hand, he started to considered whether it wasn't better to go have a look around. But he wasn't sure the Counters gave time off or if he could slip under the radar long enough to check it out. And as much as he hated to admit it, he needed his team to get through the jungle and find the temple. It was something he couldn't do alone.

When he reached his door, he jumped so violently, he poured half of the cup down his front. He didn't even feel the heat of the liquid as he stared a grinning Benjamin in the face.

"Pulling a late-nighter?"

Davyn did his best to school his expression into an indiferent one, even if he knew it was a bit late for that. "You scared me," he said, hoping the phrase would alleviate any suspicion. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be here so late."

"As much as we appreciate you, you're not the only one who works hard, you know." Benjamin winked.

Davyn navigated around him and had a seat at his desk. It took him a fraction of a second to realize that his research papers were now facing the wrong way and a fraction more to not have any reaction.

"Well, it's not like I have something better to do." He toasted the cup of coffee and took a sip.

"It's very interesting what you've got going here." Benjamin gathered his papers and arranged them into a neat stack.