Liar (Rewritten) | Queen AU

Chapter 11 - You Break the Law and You Preach

"You're never home."

"I'm home right now." John hurls his backpack over his shoulder.

"And you're getting ready to leave again. Are you avoiding us, John?"

"Mum, don't—"

"You can always talk to me if something's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong, Mum!" John snaps. His mother's gaze oscillates between horror, fury, and sorrow. He recollects himself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

His mother, hands on hips, sighs deeply. "You and your attitude. Haven't I raised you to be better?"

John doesn't respond. Glancing over his shoulder, he flashes an apologetic look before turning away. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Julie sitting on the staircase absorbing the argument from afar. He starts for the door, which compels his mother to take a step forward.

"Don't you go!" she yells. "You can't stay with Roger every day."

"I'm not going to Roger's." John twists the doorknob.

"Then, where are you possibly off to?"

"The library." He flings the front door open.

"The library is closed on Sundays! We have church!"

And the door slams shut.

John fiddles with the bus ticket in his pocket that he printed out the night before. It's a round trip from Leicester to Birmingham.

For the first time in about a month and a half, Spies of Rhye hasn't requested John to be in HQ. Even without the Dynamico job, John was expected to report for training with Brian and Freddie. The operation only made him slightly busier. So, it seems that Roger is right; the situation has escalated far beyond John's need, and they are finally easing up on him.

But, John has already decided that he doesn't need to wait for any order from Miami. Dragon Room fucked with Roger, and he is not letting that slide past him. Besides, it isn't like he is intending to single handedly take down Steven Smith, or anything. He just wants answers, and something in particular has been sitting uncomfortably in his brain: those codes.

What the hell even are they? The workers that don't speak unless spoken to by Smith, York, or Colwell. The helminth that isn't the serum. The Dragon that wants Roger. The cameras that know John is looking. What's the point in writing it all down and displaying them so they are easily photographable?

John isn't daft. Clearly, it's a trap. He wants to know who Dragon Room is trying to trap. Were the codes for Roger to find? Or, perhaps they were for someone else—that someone being him. John wants to know, and after having an entire Saturday to mull it over, he decides this is something he wants to act recklessly on.

Silly, John. Even against a brain-numbing serum, he still can't manage to keep his curiosity under control. Well, his curiosity and his naive good-will. Roger may have fueled his hero complex a little too much.

John sits at the bus stop, his knee jumping up and down at each half-second. Bouncing and bouncing, the steel under his bottom shakes. He brings his fingernail up to bite, but he sees fellow passengers approaching and quickly retracts his hands into his pockets. His jaw trembles. With October nearing, the air grows more harsh, picking at his skin in freezing nips. His sighs condense in front of him, and he prays that the bus nears soon. He'll summon the entire church here to make that kind of miracle happen.

He shuts his eyes. He tries to envision the plan in his head, but all he sees are the erratic scribbles in his diary. The main objective is to get inside the lift, move down to the lower level, and snag more scopolamine samples along with the helminth. Luckily for John, Dynamico is closed on Sundays, so there shouldn't be any worry of running into workers. Unluckily for John, that means breaking and entering.