Dark Matter - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 2

Chapter Thirty Four - Deceptions

The walk down to the cells took longer than Jared had expected, what with the stares and whispered that followed him and Tai every step of the way. The curiosity didn't worry him, he'd become used to that at a young age, but the sheer number of curious people here today did. The corridors were choked with them. Some maintenance, some IT, but most were security.

Jared tried not to let his unease show as they passed guard after guard, gun after gun.

"Have you upped your security?" Jared asked, glancing back at Brenton.

The three of them were walking in single file. Tai first, his hands held securely in Jared's grip, and Brenton last.

"Yes," Brenton said. "After you disappeared, everyone became worried. Particularly about Leah."

"Right," Jared said, his eyes flickering around as they walked, counting every person they passed.

They reached the door down to the cells and Jared jerked Tai to a halt. He shifted past and pulled the door open. The fluorescent lights that lit the stairs down to the cells flickered on and began to hum overhead.

Jared stared down the passage for a moment, his mind flooding with memories, with all the people they'd held down there. It made his prayers that Leah's voice would crackle down the line and tell him it was time to go grow louder, almost deafening.

Her voice didn't come though, and eventually he stepped back, nodding at Tai to start descending.

For a moment, Tai hesitated, his expression full of conflict.

"Go on," Jared snapped, as annoyed with Tai's hesitation as he was with his own. "Stalling isn't going to help you."

Tai stared at him for a moment longer, but then he shouldered his way past and thumped down the stairs.

Jared watched him go, noticing distractedly that a fly was hovering above the stairs, bashing itself repeatedly against one of the lights.

"He's not very talkative, is he?"

Brenton had moved to Jared's side, watching Tai go with a blank expression.

"No, not overly," Jared said.

Brenton nodded, his expression thoughtful.

"I'm sure he will be. They usually are when it counts. I'll see what I can get out of him now and I'll let you know if I want you to take over."

Jared shifted. Brenton's words made him want to scream, to cry, to smash and destroy everything in this house. They were just another justification that what he was going to do was the right thing, and it made him furious.

"Don't worry," Jared said, giving Brenton a rough pat on the back, "I'll have a go at him first. It'd be nice to get a bit of payback after they kept me locked up for two weeks."

He thumped down a few stairs and then turned to look back up at his father, hating himself even as he offered the suggestion he knew Brenton was waiting for; the suggestion that would give Leah more than a couple minutes to do what she needed to; the suggestion that would end with a bullet through Brenton's brain.

"You can come and watch if you want?"

Brenton smiled and then moved into the corridor, shutting the door as he went.

Jared turned and clattered down further, hating himself more and more the deeper he went. When he reached the bottom, he glanced around for Tai and found him standing in the corner of one of the cells, back against the wall and chin jutted out defiantly.