Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 10.2 Is the Safe House Safe?

  The brothers, Alex, and Grange arrived at the townhouse that Grange had arranged.  There was a hospital bed in the master bedroom and counters along the wall were outfitted with medical supplies.

Gabe clumsily laid Alex on her back on the hospital bed. She whimpered in pain and rolled to her side, taking pressure off the painful burn. Grange pushed a large red button on the wall and motioned sharply to the brothers to follow him.

He led them into a second bedroom. "There's a nurse in attendance at all times, but she understands that she's not to see any of Alex's visitors.  She'll make hourly checks, but when you enter the townhouse, press the gold, green, and red buttons on one of these security pads by any of the doors."

He tapped the electronic panel on the wall to emphasize. "She'll then leave Alex alone for an hour starting from the time of your entrance and then will return to check on her. She'll also enter if any alarms go off, so get out quick if that happens. Either way, you can avoid her by ducking into this bedroom or leaving the townhouse."

Grange explained further, "I've called in another doctor. His name is Dr. Marshall and he often handles cases for us.  I've been recruiting him, but he likes his private practice."

"How do we know she'll be safe? How do we know you won't ship her off to a laboratory at your first chance? Or kill her?" Gabe fired his anger at his first target. 

Grange regarded him with his usual calmness, expression blank except for shrewd eyes. "It would be stupidity to kill her."

"Brockner didn't think so," Gabe shot back.

"Brockner experienced sour grapes. Plus, he was afraid that she would nail him. Unfortunately he escaped."

"Good job."

"You could have killed him. A nice execution by sword," Grange said evenly. "In any case, my people are more interested in the practical aspects of AL-10.  We want her alive, healthy, and on the outside working for us.  Let the R&D boys tear their hair out, they answer to us.  You might be interested to know that the project has failed on several more people.  Mostly insanity but two charred their nervous systems to crisps the first time they activated their powers.  This project is shut down. Permanently."

"That's a relief." Rile's sarcasm bounced off Grange, who lifted an eyebrow at him.

"What about the slipstream generator?" Cale asked. "Flying is a wonderful ability."

"Having a nuclear power source in one's chest isn't good for one's health," Grange said. "What will happen first? Leukemia or lymphoma from the lymphatic system being exposed to radiation? One of the many types of lung cancer? Thoracic aneurysm as the aorta calcifies from the radiation? Best case scenario is massive heart attack at a relatively young age because the heart's blood vessels have hardened. The agents who sign up aren't expecting longevity. The public will be even less interested. Not that the FDA would ever approve it."

"You murdered Alex." Rile advanced on Grange, muscles tensed for action. "The slow, long kind."

"She volunteered." Grange backed up and his hand touched his gun. "She knew all the risks in exquisite detail."

"Stand down, Rile," Gabe ordered.

He nodded to Cale, who placed himself between Rile and Grange, facing his youngest brother.

Grange continued, hand still on his firearm, "The kitchen is fully stocked and the other two bedrooms are prepared like this one: one for the nurse, one for my agents, and one for you.  There will be two agents around at all time, somewhere, but they're my boys and they know to leave you alone.  Everything copacetic?"

"Yeah, yeah, too much so." Rile flung open the door and headed to the kitchen. "Let's see what food you stored. If you didn't stock pralines, make it so."

Cale dove to keep the door from banging against the wall. Grange sighed and tapped the security panel.

"Remember to enter the code!" he called after Rile.

Grange rolled his eyes, relaxed his hand off his firearm, and asked Cale, "Star Trek? Really?"

Cale clacked his claws sadly. "Alex taught us to love it."

Grange pulled out a cigarette. "I'm going outside to smoke. You okay here?"

Gabe pushed past him and Grange quickly tapped the security panel. "Remember the code!" he yelled. He rounded on Cale. "Do your brothers listen to anything?"

"That's my job," Cale replied sadly.  "And my job to remind them."

Shaking his head, Grange left, cigarettes in hand. 

The nurse had left Alex's room and Gabe sat by the bed where Alex lay sleeping.  Some of the tubes and wires were back in place but at least her color looked a little better. 

He had an hour before the nurse would come back in. An hour to wait, and watch, and regret.    

*****

A/N

Is the safe-house safe?

Thoughts on Agent Grange?

What about Gabe?

Dedicated to newest reader writer-being-trained

May we continue our training and polishing our work forever!

Wait, does that sound depressing?