Chapter 197The Last Resistance

Valerie had drained the man as best she could without killing him. But it was on the edge, his heartbeat was slow and his consciousness faded soon after she released him. He'd have a hell of a headache when he would wake up again, feeling light-headed for a day or so. Jason, however, was still awake. I'd interrupted Khuna before she would come in that danger zone, but Jason should now feel as if he'd been drugged.

Exactly according to plan.

"Jason."

Khuna looked up sharply first, the blood was rushing through her body at top speed, filling her up and putting everything back into commission. It was kind of intriguing to see the change, from someone near starvation to a strong, beautiful woman in mere seconds. The blood gave her back her life. My father's blood...

Jason himself was looking around to the three of us, his eyes darting from one to the other. He looked so small and so hurt I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But this was a lesson he had to learn. He mumbled softly to himself. 'Trojan horse...' his lips seemed to say.

"Jason!"

He looked at me, annoyed by our position. He didn't speak, he probably was running possibilities in his head, I could barely feel them.

"I'm taking all of this away from you. You will come with us." I spoke like a leader, trying to sound stronger than I felt.

How much I wanted to hold Khuna and Valerie now that they felt better, but it wasn't the right time. Intimidation was the game now. It felt like the only way to talk to him. It wasn't fun, far from it. But it was needed.

Valerie saw my plan and as I turned around she grabbed Jason and pushed him to follow me. Khuna quickly understood as well and moved to the other side of Jason. He had nowhere to go. Despite their frail states just a moment ago, he knew, he felt, they were beyond his strength. Of course the feeling that we drugged him on purpose helped as well. All just a game?

"What are you doing, Amy?"

"Ah, so you can still speak." We walked up through the mansion, trying to remember the room he was writing in. I presumed it was one of the more important rooms. "You're going to stop with this and destroy all research into that drug. I know you kept copies of the research here." It was so odd, bluffing against my father. But I had to remain resolute.

He gasped, my bluff worked. "I'm not letting you do this."

"You don't have a choice, when the police arrive, we'll be gone. I know this is tied too deeply for us to properly remove. But know that I am not the only one wanting to stop this."

The door was locked but wasn't hard to open. He had the keys on him but a show of force would help a little. I pushed, the wood tearing loudly in the silent house and the door opened. I'd done it easily without destroying much of the door, the wood just tore in the weakest places around the lock. This door wasn't meant to resist force, just to keep curiosity away.

"I'm not giving the code to the safe!"

I smiled. It had been a long shot, but I could place myself in his place. This is where I would have the safe if I were him. And he had. I closed my eyes for a moment to feel where I would put it. Of course there weren't many places to truly place it. The idea of a safe is that it isn't necessary to hide it, as it's strong enough to make it either too hard to open or too difficult to keep the contents intact if you do.

It wasn't behind the painting, but moving the desk showed it easy enough. Predictable in a way.

"You will open it." This time, however, I backed up my command with pushing him mentally. And, better still, both Khuna and Valerie sensed what I was going to do. And they helped.

He was strong. After all, my strength didn't just come from my mother, but he was losing. Getting someone to do something they really didn't want to do was a lot harder. A mind is pretty strong, the only thing you can try and do is confuse it. Which is exactly what we did.

We didn't hurt him, we just changed the flow of his inner thoughts. Gave him reasons, more or less, to follow my command. Thoughts like 'I guess I have no choice' and 'Maybe it is time' probably seethed through his head, filling him with doubt. That was all.

That was all that was needed.

He gave in and opened the safe, we had to keep on pushing though. Like being hypnotized he couldn't quite see why he was doing this but was just going along for now. He could stop any time he wanted, he thought, he just didn't feel like it.

The only problem was, I didn't know if this was the last.

"Would you kindly tell me if this is the last?"

He scowled at me, Valerie and Khuna were still keeping him confused. "That I know of. The others never knew of the research itself."

My eyes darted from him to Valerie and Khuna. They were still concentrating but something in their stance made me think they didn't know where to go from here either. I never expected to get this far. Now... what did I need to do... The children were safe, the research was gone...

My father needed to leave, so my mother would be safe again.

"Jason, I will never call you my father anymore. You did terrible things so you will leave the city. I'm sure you will try and reproduce what you've done here. But I will warn some people to look out for you."

Khuna and Valerie still kept him subdued in a way, but he rallied quite well. "I will leave the city, if only for Myriam. But, I don't know what organization you are part of, you cannot stop me!"

I sighed. "We just did." I looked at Khuna. "Make him sleep" Nodding softly at her to give her permission to bite him once more.

She had been through the worst of it and probably didn't mind to give him the final blow, in a way. She was clear of mind enough to know exactly what I meant, she had to drink him enough to make him faint immediately, but not kill him. Her teeth sank in his skin like before, but she drank very slow this time. Time slowed down as I listened to her heart beat next to his. Valerie listened as well.

Khuna stopped before it got too dangerous. Jason slumped down and fell asleep instantly. I didn't have to kiss his neck again as Khuna healed the wound neatly, thankfully. Khuna wanted to speak but I stopped her with the shake of my head. Though no one was awake anymore, we were still recorded, and this time it wouldn't be easy to get rid of it.

We cleared out the safe, there weren't many documents in there surprisingly. But there were a few unlabeled discs. I wondered if he kept them unlabeled on purpose, so people would think they were just home-video's or soemthing. A plastic bag, filled with two notebooks, was standing next to the desk and served our purposes nicely once emptied.

A quick search of the house led us to the room with all the recording equipment. Quite high-tech. There weren't as many screens as there were rooms or, as I suspected, cameras. But a large panel probably allowed people to switch smartly between views. If it didn't all do it for you. It recorded directly to something that looked like normal DVD discs. Pity Kai wasn't here, he could probably dance to his wishes and record something silly instead of everything tonight.

We took as many of the DVDs with us as we could, taking care to find the copied discs as well, and put them in the bag together with the rest of our loot. We didn't just take today on purpose as the others might come in use later. If he, Jason, was as I thought he was. He'd record business deals as well, to make sure things went his way.

As we left the home, one final idea to give something really nice to those that have been through all these horrors.

"Khuna, Valerie, come close to me."

Khuna looked surprised. "Why?"

I smiled. "Just do it, stand next to me."

A little hesitant they stood next to me, wondering what I would do. I looked up and smiled. I guess this was a nice gift to give them. After a deep breath I let them know what I planned.

"Let's fly."