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| FATHER JACOB {Chapter FIVE} |
The two were silent as Taylor drove back to the house. Pulling into the driveway, pausing for the security gates to open, Taylor looked over to his son. Josh still sat there, staring forward, but now he was rocking ever so gently in his seat. Pulling up to the front of the house, Taylor shut off the car, put left the stereo on. Turning in his seat, he reached out to touch Josh. He was shivering.
“Josh?”
“Josh?” Taylor said in a louder, worried voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Can we go inside dad?” Josh asked. There was a slight cry to his voice.
“Yes, yes.” Taylor replied as he got out of the car.
Josh stayed a couple steps behind his father as they walked to the house. His arms crossed his stomach, as if he was hugging himself. All hell was going thru Taylor’s mind. What did Josh know about the project? What did he think he knew?
Taylor realized if Josh asked, he would have to tell him, he didn’t know how or how much he dared to tell him, but he would have to tell him something. But first, Taylor needed to find out how much Josh knew.
Once inside, Taylor led them into the den. It was the room Josh was always most comfortable in. Josh sat down on the leather sofa. Taylor got them each a can of Dew from the fridge and sat down beside his son.
Josh took the pop. He just sat there staring straight ahead. His lower lip was quiver. Taylor knew he was fighting back tears.
Taylor reached over and tapped his leg.
“Josh, what’s wrong son?”
“You’re new project?” Josh asked, with still a cry to his voice. “Is it called ‘Project Unicorn?”
Taylor felt faint himself now. How did he know that? Had he mistakenly left out some of his papers? No, Taylor thought, he knew he always locked everything back up. Had he heard him talking? No. Josh was never home when Taylor made or received calls. Taylor made sure no one ever called before 9 am or after 4 pm. Well he knew something, and he was scared. The only choice Taylor had was to be totally honest, yet secretive.
“Yes Josh it is,” Taylor answered. “But now I need to know how you know that?” Taylor asked without trying to sound worried or upset. But he knew it probably came out sounding like a pissed off cop interrogating a suspect.
“Promise you won’t be mad at me dad?”
Oh God, Taylor thought, what did he do? Did he break into his desk? Or the safe? No, no, Josh wouldn’t have done that. Besides the alarms would have stopped him. Plus there would have been evidence left behind if anyone but himself opened either one.
“Josh, I won’t be mad at you, but you have me worried.”
“Project Unicorn? It involves kids doesn’t it? Kids my age right?” Josh was rocking back and forth on the sofa, hands clinched around his unopened soda.
“What makes you think that?” Taylor asked.
“Please dad, remember our pact? Buddies, honest, no one gets pissed.”
“Okay Josh, okay, please calm down. But I need you to tell me first how you even know the name for the project.”
“Okay dad, but remember no one gets pissed.” Josh answered; he had stopped rocking but was still staring straight ahead.
“Yes, son, yes.” Taylor replied.
“Well last week,” Josh started. “Our school went on a field trip. Well it wasn’t really a field trip. We went to a seminar at another school, Linclon High over on Franklin. And at that school I saw you dad. You were out front in the Jag taking pictures. I didn’t know of what though at the time, but I figured it was of the kids coming and going. You wouldn’t have seen me though because we came in the side entrance, and I really never gave it any thought until yesterday. You see dad, I hooked up my recorder to the phone line in here, just as an experiment to see if I could, you know play spy or something. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did, and I listened to the recording last night. I must have gotten lucky, because the first 45 minutes or so were just you doing normal stuff, but then a Mr. Crawford called and you were talking about Project Unicorn.”
“Oh Josh. Josh.” Taylor hugged Josh, he was crying freely now, and Taylor himself was on the verge of tears. After about five minutes, Josh pulled away and leaned back on the couch.
“I was hoping that you would never have to find out about this project,” Taylor started. “But it seems you have. Can you tell me what you know? Please?” That last word almost begging. Even thought Taylor knew if Josh had heard the entire conversation with Mr. Crawford, he was in big trouble. Taylor needed to get Josh to tell him what he knew, so as not to reveal anymore to Josh then he had to.
“Mr. Crawford said something about 15 kids,” Josh started. “And that he thought he had found one. He said he needed to do the switch right away. That’s when the tape ran out. That’s all I heard. What are you doing dad? What did he mean by the switch?”
“Josh, oh Josh,” Taylor said. “This is one case I prayed you’d never ever,,,”
Taylor didn’t get to finish his sentence. Josh threw his can of soda across the room and got up and stared at his father. There were tears flowing down his face. Taylor had never seen his son so mad or scared. He also never heard him shout so loud.
“Don’t fuck with me dad?” Josh screamed. “Don’t fuck with me! I’m not a kid anymore! I love you dad, and I don’t mind you calling me kid, actually I like it when you do, but what the fuck are you doing? I see you taking pictures of kids, then some guy calls and is talking about kids and switching! What the fuck is this?”
“Josh, please calm down.” Taylor said as he got up and walked to hold his son. For the first time, Josh pulled away from him.
“Talk to me dad! God damn it I’m scared! Am I involved in any of this?” Josh asked. “Are any of my friends? Huh? Are they dad?”
“Oh God no Josh, you and your friends aren’t involved.” The later part of that Taylor didn’t know for certain. What if he did know one or more of these kids involved?
“I don’t know how much I can tell you Josh,” Taylor said. “I know I can trust you, but I don’t know how much you can handle.”
“Jesus dad!” Josh cried. “It can’t be any worse then what I’m thinking, can it?”
“Okay Josh, okay, but please calm down first okay?” Taylor said as he walked to his desk and opened it. He took out a folder marked ‘Unicorn’.
“Josh, come here.” Taylor asked his son. Josh crossed the room to his father’s desk.
“Four years ago Josh, a group calling itself the “Dark Way Saviors”, broke into and robbed a place called “SybroTech Industries” in a rural area in west central Wisconsin. This company was working on a special computerized human brain implant. It would make a person super smart, super strong, almost like a computerized bionic, robotic person. They would still be human, but would be able to be controlled more like a robot. It was first thought up by the late actor Christopher Reeves. You remember him?”
“Yeah, he was the guy who played ‘Superman’ right? Josh asked.
“Yes son that’s the guy,” Taylor continued. “After his horse riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, he started working with stem cell research and experimenting with the power of the human brain. You see, the average person only uses about 1/10 of the power of their brain, and Chris and a group of scientists were trying to figure out a way to harness the power of the remainder of the brain. They thought if they could tap into these parts of the brain and re-route the signals and energy, they could with the use of computers help a persons brain give strength and use back to areas of the body that had been cut off from the brains normal signals. Do you understand any of this so far?”
“Yeah kind of.” Josh answered. He was amazed that he was actually following what his dad was saying. As his father spoke, Josh could actually visualize everything his father said.
“Now this in itself wouldn’t have been bad at all, but Sybro Tech was also working on a top secret military weapons system. And that is where the problem came in. The Dark Way Saviors stole the computer implants, and the file disc information of the weapons systems. The weapons system had a built in fail safe where if there was any unauthorized opening of the file, out side of the safe room, the file would self-destruct. No one knows if they were able to open this disc or not yet, or if they did, if they did so successfully.
“But what does that have to do with this shit?” Josh
interrupted. “I mean some freaks steal some weapons shit and a computer chip and now you’re out abducting kids?”
“Were not really abducting kids,” Taylor replied. “Right now were getting info on certain kids. Nothing bad will happen to these kids.” Taylor knew he was probably lying, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his son the whole truth.
“Actually we are trying to help them.” Taylor said, wondering if his son was actually believing any of this. It was the first time he was lying to his son, but he had to. He just had to.
“So you’re not going to be abducting any kids then?” Josh asked.
“I didn’t say that son.” Taylor responded. “As soon as our info is complete, we will have to abduct them, but for their own safety, you see Josh, a few months ago we learned that the Dark Way Saviors had produced over a dozen of the computer implants and had them implanted into 15 kids. The kids were all like the ones you heard described. Now this in and of itself is of no danger to the kids, unless they have also mastered the weapons system. We also know that all these kids would most likely be in the DC area, since the schools reward the best students with a field trip to the capitol at the end of the year, and the best of the best get to meet personally with the president and vice president. And there in is where we have,”
Taylor stopped speaking in mid-sentence. God he thought, am I that blind and stupid? It just hit him. For Christ’s sake what if Josh was one of them? It was just about a year ago that Josh started whizzing through school at an alarming rate. The teachers all said he had finally blossomed and settled down. No, it couldn’t be, he couldn’t be. Josh was never alone. Or was he? What if they had people in the schools?
“Oh my God?” Taylor accidentally said that out loud. He turned to Josh. He was white as a ghost. Tears were flowing down his face, he was shaking.
“Daddy?” Josh cried out.
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