The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

Chapter Sixty-Five-Back to Columbus Part 2

It's a very long chapter (4k words). It's normal to not understand fully what Raymond and Luc are referring when they speak to each other in the motel, btw. I might halve the information into two different places in the book so that they eventually complete each other for the reader, based on if this chapter is too much of a mouthful or not. 

Let me know your impression on that :)

LUC

I WIPED THE blood off my nose. Three breaths murmured across the hall, like a brush against paper canvas. My eyes were locked on Michael. I signaled at the upholstered sofa. His gaze darted to the old clock by the wall, then he took us in, one at a time.

He backed into the living room. "Okay. Okay, I see."

Raymond moved without incentive, digging his hands out of his pockets. He stopped at the sofa's corner. I walked over the rug and chose a white loveseat opposite from the man. My nerves were too on edge to settle near him, no guarantee I wouldn't lash out again. The whole room was plunged into darkness, with no lampposts irradiating into the windows.

"You are going to tell us everything or so help me." My finger pounded the coffee table. "Starting when Lauren saw you before she disappeared."

Michael swallowed a long breath, hands clasped together. "I did not know she was following the hunters. I had no idea she found the barn's underground passageway, but she came to ask me about it when she figured it out."

"Figured what out?" Raymond pushed.

"That NIO was behind the hunters, that you were all being tracked." Briefly, his eyes stopped over me then roamed to the ground. "She thought I could do something once the truth got uncovered. I... I told her it was impossible, but she insisted, crying, begging. You remember that broken-hearted look that delivered her whatever she wanted."

I nodded reluctantly. I knew how her eyes expanded, tears welled up at the rims, and it seemed like Lauren would shatter if I didn't concede. Telling her no wasn't a piece of cake.

"At least, she was right on that one."

"Maybe she was, but it wasn't in my power to stop it, Lucas. You know that very well. I made her turn around, asked her to go home. She left angry—"

"Yeah, no shit," Raymond said. "What do you mean, you can't do anything? We built Freecore for protection. That was all for the sake of building a barrier, and now you refuse to use it?"

Michael's face twisted. "Then tell me how am I supposed to end those dozens of compounds spread throughout the states? Who knows if they even have installments overseas? Do you want me to summon an army? They're all affiliated to the government. Everything these people do, it's authorized and classified beyond presidential clearance. Their systems operate on the highest security level that not even the company board can—"

My neck stiffened.

"Wait, how do you know this?"

"Your parents knew this. Heather and Greg, too," he replied freely after a second. "All of us who escaped discovered it."

I stared at Raymond, who shifted his weight by the sofa and ticked. He was visibly trying to remember his guardian sharing this information. My mother had been adamant their compound had been the only one standing. To her and others, the experiment remained a mere initiation killed in the egg. Nobody ever mentioned this stuff, not Heather, not anyone.