Chapter 50 Derek
Vincent
A loud ping throughout the cabin was what alerted me to Ariel's arrival and I stepped out of the study to confirm that it was her car driving up the narrow pathway to the cabin.
I sat back on one of the couches in the living room and stared at the camera display as she stepped out of her car, her eyes darting around like someone might pop out at her at any moment. She walked up to the porch after a few more seconds of looking around and she slid the small bag in her right hand to the left as she tapped on the keypad to key in the door code.
I cocked my head to the side when the keypad made a loud noise, indicating that she had entered the wrong code. What? I let out an exasperated sigh, my eyes still on her as she jumped and tried again.
It let out another loud ring.
Okay, that's it. If she entered another wrong code, the cabin was going to shut down. I stood up and pulled open the door before she could complicate things for me.
Her embarrassed gaze met with mine and I knew she was a hundred per cent red in the face even though things were quite dark.
“S-sorry. I didn't know you were in.”
I stepped aside for her to get in and did a quick sweep of the area before going back in and locking the door behind me. “I told you to memorise the keycode.”
“Y-yes. I did. Sorry. It… it skipped my mind.”
“Skipped your mind?” She fiddled with her fingers nervously as I stared at her for a moment, not saying anything.
"I-I'm sorry.”
“Yeah, you should be, to yourself, because if this had been any other situation, that little excuse right there, which you think is passable, could snuff your life out within minutes.”
I saw the slight shudder go through her, not sure if it was from cold air seeping in through the light top she had on or from fear. I continued either way.
“When I tell you to memorise or learn something. Learn it. It's for your own good.”
She nodded. “Okay… sir.”
“Good. Now repeat after me: 2-2-4-9-2.”
“2-2-4-9-2.” I moved past her to the couches after she echoed after me and I gestured for her to take a seat opposite me. “I'm guessing that's the dress you wore to the party?”
“Yes.” She replied and stretched forth the bag for me to take. I took it and immediately pulled the bag open to inspect the dress.
“You mentioned something about a man getting dragged out of the party house bloodied…”
“Yes. I don't know much about the circumstances but when I woke up the morning after the party, I was told by a… woman there that he was in a meeting with some people and then I saw the guy.”
“You said his name is Stefan.”
“Well…” she hesitated. “I'm not sure. I… I'll just be honest. I've been experiencing blackouts… every morning after my meeting with General Yuri… well, the two times we've met now. It's probably me just having too much to drink, which I shouldn't, but… I… just don't want to give you information that isn't correct. Thankfully we have the wire stuff so we can confirm the name.”
I’d stopped listening at blackouts. “You've been experiencing blackouts?”
“Yes… I…” she fidgeted with her fingers again. “... like large chunks of hours were just taken away from my brain..."
“And you still don't recall any of it?”
“No.”
Fuck!
“I've been having these weird dreams, though. Like very real, trance-like dreams that seem like…” I said nothing as she hesitated once again. “...like I've experienced them before.”
"It's probably just me being paranoid," she added almost immediately.
No. It wasn't just her being paranoid. Her memory was being erased for reasons I'm about to find out.
I tore open the bodice of the dress, my ears registering the surprised gasp she let out.
“This started from the cruise ship, right?”
She nodded in response. “Yes.”
“And then the birthday party?”
She probably sensed something was up because she asked. “Why? Is something wrong?”
I shook my head, though. Then fished out the little bug in the dress. I don't need her getting hysterical or more paranoid. That might just ruin things.
“Do you recall anything from the night?... Before things went blank?”
She paused a moment before shaking her head. “Not much. I remember us arriving at the party, General Yuri talking with the celebrant—”
“His name? Do you remember the name of the celebrant?”
“Uh…” her eyes filled with an expression of uncertainty mixed with fear. “Caine… Caleb… it's kind of jumbled in my brain but it sounds something like that…”
In a different situation where she wasn’t getting her memories erased for malicious reasons, I would have been pissed at her inability to remember such simple information, especially after just a few hours but I understood the situation, which was why I just nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“Right, while they were talking, he mentioned something about him getting word of his arrival as soon as he stepped foot on the soil… that is the Stefan… Sergei guy in America. I also think he’s the same person that was getting dragged out of the house while I was leaving.”
I pondered her monologue in my head.
“Maybe he knows something incriminating.” She muttered a second later, voicing my thoughts, and oh boy, was she right?
I listened to the audio recording immediately after Ariel left the cabin and I found out two things: one, General Yuri was in fact the slimy bastard everyone had always rumoured him to be. Getting off on sleeping with helpless drugged women?! I wasn't actually surprised but was still quite disgusted, especially after hearing… the things he’d done to her.
I shook the memories away from my head.
Two, Project Y was much different from anything I'd thought. Dangerous even for me if what I'd heard was actually true.
I picked up my phone about a few minutes later in my car when it started to ring. It must be Kael; I'd put a call through to him right before I left the cabin, which he didn’t pick up for some reason or so I thought until I glanced at my screen to see an unknown caller ID. I furrowed my brows right before focusing my gaze back on the long stretch of empty road again.
I picked up the call.
“Vincent.” I cocked my eyebrows at the voice, my guts already telling me something was wrong.
“Who is this?”
“Take a wild guess. Who do you think would be pissed at you for hacking into their organisation's systems and leaking confidential information, then threatening their family for no reason?”
I gritted my teeth and fisted my hand slowly around the steering wheel. There's no way it was… “Derek?”
“Yes. Me. You motherfucker!”