Genius (CENTURIES series: Book #2)

29

"Can I get a box of juice? Or maybe a cube of juice? Do you serve them in liquid or in cube-form, I'm a little confused."

"Mr Montrell," Hs Hope said, grinding her teeth as Caleb threw his feet up on the desk in the interrogation room. Zoe and Mia stood silently in the background while they let the two of them discuss. "The only reason we let you in here—"

"Call me Caleb," He replied, smirking at her. "You'll want to memorize that name, sugar, because it's going to be your doom. Sorry if I sound melodramatic, that's just my style."

Ms Hope pursed her lips, making her crimson-colored lips crackle and crust. "Caleb, the only reason we let you in was—"

"—was because you already have Mia under surveillance and had me on your radar a couple of days ago. We both know I'm smart enough to be in here with both Eli and every other genius you have locked up in here – love the MIB style you got grooving in here by the way, very 'secret lab'-ish – but know that I'm not here to sign myself into a one way stay at the come-and-never-get-away resort you've built. I'm here to check one out," Caleb fired off smoothly, leaning back in the steel chair like he owned the room. Which he currently did. Ms Hope looked like she was ready to smack him one.

Her eyes shifted to Zoe and Mia who with their arms crossed just watched the conversation from the corner. Zoe had a glint in her eye, but Mia was nervous. She had been too anxious to focus on what Zoe explained in the car, so now she sort of felt clueless as to what their game plan here was.

"Mr—" Ms Hope stopped herself when Caleb shot her a flat look. "Caleb. Listen, it's very courageous of you three to come waltzing in here like you are the professionals," She said, eyeing out Caleb's shaggy, holed pants and Zoe's blue hair, "But the matter of the fact is, you have no idea what you are dealing with, nor will you ever. You are playing a dangerous game by coming here and implying—"

"Implying what? That we're leaving today with our friend?" Caleb cut in. "That's no implement, we're taking him with us. That's final."

"Sir—"

"Would you happen to know a guy who calls himself A?" Caleb said, dragging a smirk onto his lips. Ms Hope visibly tensed up. "I'll take that clench as a yes. Then you should probably know, he contacted us."

Ms Hope sat up in her chair and cocked a slow brow. "Did he now?"

"He sure did. Can you see where this is going or would you like me to cut it out for you? Perhaps in cube form?"

Ms Hope squinted her eyes coldly at him. Caleb was clearly poking the bear right now, that much was obvious. The disdain on her face was so vivid, it made Mia's toes curl. They really were playing a dangerous game; one wrong move and Ms Hope would lock them up forever.

"I'll cut it out for you," Caleb said and pulled his legs off the table. He folded his hands instead and leaned forward. "I'm a hacker. The smurf over there is a hacker. 'A' is a hacker. Now, as you obviously know, you've had interest in A. You wanted him to join this freak-show, didn't you? That was rhetorical," He said when Ms Hope opened her mouth. "I know you do, he told me himself. Well, sorta. Anyways, after you showed interest in him, he begun showing an interesting in you, too. Started poking around the edges of your experiments, looked into your files. Nothing big.

"But, as you can imagine, since you work with it everyday, what he found really truly appalled him. The sick experiments, the testing, the trials... irk. Where was I? Oh, right," Caleb grinned. "Naturally, he felt he had to shut you down, stop your experiments, but he couldn't find a way. As well as a hacker as he was, he couldn't find a way to get your information out of your databases and into his own without you erasing it. Clever bug that is, by the way.