Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) by Matthew R. Bell

‘Richard used flu
vaccinations to administer the drug to people.’
    That was
horrible.
    ‘ Is any of this information useful to us?’ Chris cut in. ‘Other
than to depress us more?’
    ‘ No,’ Brian shook his head, ‘not really. It’s just notes, some
files on a few of us, nothing that would give us any
leads.’
    I
sighed, the earlier joy of finding something deflated from us all,
but there was a glint in Brian’s eyes.
    ‘ Don’t fret guys,’ he smiled. ‘I can do something better. Give
me time, I’ll find out where this information was downloaded from,
that much I can do.’

The Party
     
    My blood
was pounding from Brian’s declaration. He was confident he could
trace the file’s origin, and that was one huge lead we didn’t have
before. He’d copied the file onto a different laptop at my request,
and I lay on the bed while Anna took a shower. Night had fallen,
and the moon was reflected by the city’s numerous windows, along
with the freshly lain snow.
    A lot of what was on the USB we already knew. Not just knew,
but lived through. There was a list of the things my father had
orchestrated to enact his experiment. Dosing the residents of
Greystone, taking things slowly and delicately with me, the
experiences I’d went through, and the probability of the test
actually working. I was angered to see that, to begin with, my
father hadn’t been very hopeful. He had set loose that horror on
a hope it would
succeed.
    There
were also a few dossiers on us. I’d perused my file, finding
nothing new. I learned how he had seduced the psychotic Grace,
convinced her to do his every whim on the basis that he loved her.
He didn’t. He also knew about Bonnie, of her allegiance elsewhere
and her plan, but had written that he was confident we’d be able to
handle it on our own. In the end, it had been Grace who’d killed
Bonnie.
    There
was even some more information on the complex built under
Greystone. Bonnie had filled me in on some parts; about the
failsafe bomb if something down there escaped. The bomb was the
last line of defence though. The centre of the tunnels was where
the experiments were conducted, with submarine like doors set where
the tended part of the complex gave way to the parts my group had
been bunkered. If something escaped containment, and the doors
didn’t stop them, the labyrinth that followed would hopefully stop
anything reaching the surface.
    If
everything failed: BOOM! Failsafe.
    The
notes didn’t detail what the underground complex in Greystone had
been used for before my father’s experiments. I’d assumed it was
where he had first started his project, but there wasn’t any
information on that. But Richard had said the tunnels had been
there for almost a century, and that his work had only started over
twenty years before my experiment. So what other secrets the
complex held were a mystery; a fact that made my insides
squirm.
    I rubbed my temples vigorously, trying to push out the
headache forming. The files never detailed what he’d planned to do
next, and trying to sort out theories was mind-numbingly painful.
He’d dubbed my journey ‘ The Trials of
Strength’ , that I would be the next step of
science. For all his doubts, he had been right, but what
next?
    ‘ Getting anything?’ Anna said, emerging from the bathroom
drying her hair.
    ‘ No,’ I replied, ‘just a bunch of crap.’
    She
perched on the edge of the bed, hoisted the towel around her body,
and bit her lip.
    ‘ What’s wrong?’ I said and sat up.
    ‘ Nothing,’ she said. ‘Nothing’s wrong. It’s just, I don’t
know.’
    ‘ No, come on, what?’ I inquired, taking her free hand in mine.
‘I’ll do my best to help.’
    Anna
squinted at me.
    ‘ You promise?’ she said.
    I nodded
my sincerity, and she sighed.
    ‘ We should do something not “FOG” related,’ Anna said, using
the acronym of my father’s group, Fear of
God , an unofficial name, given ‘lovingly’
to the group by its