Page 72 of Night of the Living Manny
“BRENDEN?”Susanna’s whisper was sharp. “I need to talk to you. Now.”
He sat up, blinking at the dark room. “Is everything okay?” Moose was with Britt now, and Peter was snoring.
“Uh-huh. Come on.” Susanna’s eyes were wide, staring into his.
“Okay.” He eased up, hoping not to wake the others. It was the dead of night.
She took him to her room, where her phone was plugged in and on. Fuck.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I read the news, and I have location services off. But Dad emailed me.”
“What?” He walked over to take the phone.
“We have a system. See? It’s him.”
The email was a bit nonsensical, random stuff about a peanut butter sandwich recipe and seeing a deer in the woods and shit.
“Explain.” He had no idea what all that meant.
“Basically he’s safe, he’s not hurt. He doesn’t trust them, so stay hidden until he says otherwise.”
“Okay. So we shouldn’t go look for him?”
“Not yet. He’ll tell us.” She was so sure, so he trusted her.
“Feel better?”
“God, yes. There’s no panic. Just chill and wait.”
“Oh, sure, don’t believe me,” he teased.
She grinned, then poked his arm. “I adore you, Brenden, but he’s my dad.”
“I totally get it. Think you can get some sleep?”
“Yeah, I’ll go stay with the other two.”
“Cool. I’m heading to the basement.”
“Holler if you need me. Don’t do anything stupid. He loves you, I think.”
“I love him.” He gave her a one-armed hug, and she kissed his cheek.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage this, but he’d be damned if he didn’t figure it out. The instructions were right there. Brenden knew he could do it.
And now that he knew Liam could contact them, he was feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof.
LIAMkept his head down and tested, recreating data as best he could while mankind shattered around him.
He heard soldiers talking. They hadn’t soundproofed his room. The whole thing was a giant clusterfuck. He thought they were just as scared as he was, maybe more. Hell, they were treating him with kid gloves after the initial roughness bringing him in.
While he wished he had his notes, it had been far more important to leave those with Brenden. Selfish? Fuck yes, but his kids were his kids.
Besides, he still didn’t know if he could trust these assholes. With his notes, they could make sure no one ever fixed this, if that was really their aim.
He knew he hadn’t been able to trust the higher-ups at the lab. Kimberly had been the one to really shove it to them, which had surprised him. Steve had ended up okay.
He blinked hard, clearing his field of vision so he could test the serum he’d made from memory.
