Page 15 of The Other World

CHAPTER NINE

Before I could wrapmy mind around being sucked into a vacuum, the world came rushing up, and we slammed back to reality. We came through the doorway and emerged into a room that was definitely not the lighthouse on the school grounds. Or anywhere on the school grounds. I’d been right about the cheesy villain’s lair, at least.

The room had a large marble fireplace to our right, with a screened-off seating area on a fancy-looking Turkish rug. There was a massive desk at the far end, made of heavy, dark wood, clearly meant to seem imposing. All along our left side was floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out from a height, down to a forest. My not-dad stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down over a forest, his hands clasped behind his back. He waited until we were almost to him before he turned to greet us.

He was both like my father and not. He seemed bigger, somehow, rougher. More savage. Like if my father had been born a pirate, instead of a scientist. I’d thought my own father was heartless but there was nothing at all behind this man’s eyes. It made me shiver.

He stared at me for a moment, and I tried not to shrivel under his gaze. He seemed to stare right through me. Nikolai, he completely ignored.

“I take it you’re prepared,” he said.

“Yes sir,” I replied. It seemed the thing to say, and it obviously satisfied him. He turned away, motioning for us to follow him.

He walked over to his desk and picked up a folder, handing it to me without looking at me at all. I glanced over to his computer. The screen was unlocked. If I knocked the guy out now, could I find Sam on that computer and get him free? Could it really be that easy?

“This is the brief,” he said. “Your role is observation only. Do not approach the creatures, do not leave your designated area. We need to monitor them, not interact with them.” His glance flickered to Nikolai, who lowered his eyes. Well, that was interesting. “You have until midnight but you shouldn’t need that long,” he said. “Do at leasttryto follow protocols this time. I can’t keep making excuses for the two of you.”

Nikolai and I exchanged a glance but it didn’t give me any hint as to what he might be talking about. I assumed that in the past, Nikolai and Other-me had gone off-task putting their plans in place. I really wished that Other-me had kept that handy bullet-point list around, so I knew what I was supposed to be doing. How hard is it to jot down a few notes, I wasn’t expecting a whole manifesto, just something like “knock evil dad over the head with a brick at 9PM” or something.

“Well then,” not-dad said, finally looking at us. “What are you waiting for?”

I looked at Nikolai again, not sure what I was supposed to do, but he was looking expectantly atme.Was this the point we were meant to stage our coup? We were there alone with him, soit might be our best chance, but even so, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

After a moment, Nikolai turned, and I followed him to the far door.

“You said you brought it,” he whispered out the side of his mouth.

I didn’t know what to say in reply, so I shushed him.

Once we were on the other side of the door, out of sight of my not-father, he turned to me.

“You’re backing out?” he asked.

“No,” I whispered, frantically trying to think how to buy some time. “Of course not. I just…”

He narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously. If I was in his position, I’d be worrying about being double-crossed. I didn’t know much about Other-me or her relationship with Nikolai, but when it came to siding against family, it must always be in the back of your mind, all that blood being thicker than water stuff. He might be thinking I was actually on my not-dad’s side. I had to reassure him.

“I don’t want to go ahead unless we’re absolutely sure it will work,” I said.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” he said sharply, all sign of the usual Nikolai flippancy gone. “After you saw what happened last time.”

That piqued my curiosity but I couldn’t exactly ask him about it then and there. The last thing I needed was to make him even more suspicious. I had to reassure him, and as much as it gave me the ick, the fastest way to do that was through physical touch. I reached out and took his hand.

“Come on,” I told him. “We need more information before we do it, and this is the best way to get it.” I wasn’t sure if that was true but I hoped it sounded feasible. I squeezed his hand. His skin was oddly smooth and dry, but apart from that it wasn’t asunpleasant as I’d expected. So long as I tried not to think about it being Nikolai.

He gave me an odd look but didn’t argue. He dropped my hand and walked toward the elevator.

We traveled to the ground floor in silence. He seemed deep in thought. There was a security camera above us, and I didn’t want to risk my not-dad hearing me asking weird questions, so I flipped through the folder he’d given me.

There wasn’t much in there but what I saw made me feel sick. The first page was a table, clearly meant for me to fill out. In the left column was a list of names, such as “test subject 322: M. approx. 18yo. possible lycanthrope” and “test subject 179: F. approx. 68yo. Control.” There were around fifteen names. The fields I was to fill in were what really turned my stomach. Speed. Speed while pursued. Accelerated healing rate. Accelerated healing rate (wounded with silver weapon).

When I turned the page, it just went on. Different ways I was to observe these people being tortured. I wish I’d seen this before telling Nikolai we’d wait to overthrow not-dad, I’d have attempted it even with no idea of the plan.

The worst part was on the third page. That was a list of tests to see which powers could be drained, to what extent, and whether they might be transferable.

So that was his plan. He was draining off these powers to use as his own. As disgusted as I was, I wasn’t surprised. Whichever world I was in, my father just wanted to use everyone around him to his own advantage. He didn’t care what lengths he had to go to, as long as he kept all the power for himself. I wondered if that was my actual father’s endgame as well. I’d assumed he just wanted to exterminate all the various types of supernatural beings, but this seemed much more his style. I wondered if that was what he’d done to Nikolai, drained all his power andthen forced him to work under his evil regime. If so, I could understand why he was so annoyed that I’d thwarted him.

I glanced up at him from over the folder and saw that he was watching me. He shook his head a little and looked up at the camera. I nodded and looked back down at the papers. Maybe I should’ve stayed out of it and let Other-me come. I’d wanted to rescue Sam but in the bigger picture, wouldn’t everyone have been saved, if not-dad was taken down completely. For a moment, I was consumed with guilt.

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