Scorpion's New EQ

Chapter 16

As Cabe demanded, all of us were at the garage at 5 o'clock the next day. When he has said 'bright and early' I wasn't thinking that it would be as bright and early.

Cabe arrived shortly after the rest of us did, and as we began the second pot of coffee Cabe took control.

"We need to stop Collins from getting into those major files. We have about fourteen hours to do that," Cabe said quickly. Toby widened his eyes and he took a long drink out of his mug of coffee.

"It's hard to do that when none of us have access to any of our devices," Happy said sourly. She obviously wasn't a huge early morning person.

"I have my laptop and phone. I'm not sure how much that helps but-."

I didn't get to finish because Walter grabbed my backpack with my laptop in it and then grabbed my phone out of my hand. He tossed my phone at Sylvester, who barely caught it.

"Sly, Toby, work from Taylor's phone. Happy and I will work off of her laptop. We need to either pinpoint his location or hack into his computer to stop the flow of information," Walter said quickly.

"Toby and I can pinpoint his location," Sylvester said and him and Toby retreated to their desks.

"We'll try to hack into his computer," Happy said, grabbing my laptop from Walter and going to her desk.

That left Paige, Cabe, and I standing around as they jumped right into it. Ralph had wondered off to the back of the garage, so I took advantage of it.

"So, Collins. Why is he so bad? He has obviously done a number on this group," I said and gestured to Walter, Sylvester, Toby, and Happy.

At first both Paige and Cabe were reluctant to answer my question. I narrowed my eyes and cocked my head to the right slightly in an attempt to read them.

Finally, Paige gave in and jumped right into the story, "Mark used to be a member of Scorpion, then he started turning. . . Weird on the team. He put Walter into a trance like state. I can't recall what Toby called it though. Anyways, after Happy pulled Walter out of it, Walter had Collins put to a mental institution."

I took a step back as if trying to escape the flow of information, although Paige wasn't done, for she continued, "Some months ago, he ended up getting caught in a government area. He was arrested and he asked for Walter by name. One thing led to another, he "helped" us stop a nuclear meltdown, even if he almost killed us all doing so. Walter put him back in the mental institute, and now he goes back and forth between there and jail."

I took a deep breath, trying to understand everything that had been told to me, "So, this genius who has access to everything that could ever be important to the world, can destroy us in more ways than I could have ever imagined?" When neither Cabe or Paige responded I sighed, "Wonderful."

Before Paige could say anything else, I heard my phone go off on the other side of the room. I walked to Sylvester and Toby's desks to see who the text was from, but Toby moved away from me quickly.

"We are halfway done with this! Don't mess us up now," he protested, and Sylvester looked straight down at the table, avoiding my glance altogether.

I narrowed my eyes in distrust but walked to Happy and Walter anyways.

"Collins has encrypted everything. Some of this software even looks like my own. There isn't a way to get through it if any of this security is mine," Walter said. His fingers flew across the computer's keyboard in a blur.

"Ah, Walter, maybe you would have a little more EQ if you would just allow yourself to believe in some things a little more," I said, sliding the laptop out from underneath Walter's hands so that it was now facing me.

Happy moved behind me so that she could see the computer screen as I typed in a code that only I would know. Hardly two minutes later, I had gotten through Walter's software.

"How did you do that?" Walter whispered quietly, thoroughly shocked.

I grinned and stepped away from the laptop before responding, "Everyone has their own quirks and secrets, Walter."

Before Walter was able to ask anything else, the door to the garage opened. My mouth dropped when I saw who was there.

"Caine," I said in a quiet rage. Before he could say anything, I walked over to him and grabbed his arm, leading him to the back of the room. This allowed me to watch the rest of the team and stay close in case of an emergency.

"Why the hell are you here? I never called you. In fact, I don't even know what happened to your number," I said sourly.

Caine looked at me with shock, "What do you mean? You texted me asking if I would come here."

With that I clenched my teeth and glared at Toby and Sylvester, who were watching us carefully, before saying, "I do not have my phone. Those two do."

Caine looked between me, and Toby and Sylvester with a curious look, "Well, I am already here. Might as well just confront the problem."

"You're the problem! At least you're my problem," I said angrily, my teeth still clenched."

"I had no control over what happened, Taylor. I was just a kid," Caine said in defense, his voice quieter than my own though.

"How old are you now? 22? So that means, you've been an official adult for four years. In those four years, I never once saw you. You never made an attempt to contact me, and you never came back like you said you would. It's been seven years since you were adopted, and I was left alone at that orphanage. Seven. Everyday of those seven years, I watched out a window at least once a day, hoping that you would come back. That the last person that I knew and cared about would come back. Yet, you never did, and now, you suddenly care again? You expect our sibling bond to suddenly resurrect itself? The damage has been done, and now I have my own life to live," I said it quickly and loud enough that I'm sure whoever was listening, could hear.

"Mom would want us to work this out. To come back together as a family-"

"Mom's not here, Caine! She's gone, and so is dad!" I shouted, sending the whole garage into a dead silence.

Caine just stood and looked at me for a period of time. My heart was beating quicker than I thought humanly possible.

"Fine. I'll text you later. I'm not giving up on you this time, Taylor. Just know that," and with that, he left the garage, leaving me staring after him with his words echoing in my head.

There was another minute of silence before Cabe cleared his throat and said, "Come on guys, let's get back to work."

----- (Please, please, please read below!!)

Author's Note

Hi guys! It's been a while. I've had soccer practice galore though, so I haven't had too much time on my hands. Plus I am trying to finish The Once and Future King before school starts (September 8th for me) has anyone read that before? I need it done for Honors English 9.

Soo I was thinking it would be kinda fun to do a Q & A with you guys! You could Inbox me a question and I could answer it for you and, if you guys wanna, I could do a Q & A chapter in this book! The questions could be anywhere from this book to the show to me personally. I dunno, that sounds really fun to me. Tell me what you guys think, and even start sending me some questions! As a reader, I like to know the author a little, so why not? If you guys send them in tonight, I can start answering via Inbox tomorrow after my morning practice.

Plus guys, I was thinking of starting an Instagram account for me as a writer. I have one for personal stuff and all that if you guys want to follow me on there. My user is emily_seifert because I am so original. I am on there a lot and I interact with you guys a lot on there.

So yeah, start messaging me questions everyone!! I love you guys and thank you so much for reading!!