The Switch, Debra Kayn [best books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

and do calisthenics and then played a game of kickball, which was lame." Zach rolled down the window. "Math class was cool, though. They're ahead of my old school."

"You like that?" She pulled out onto the main street.

"Yeah."

The pressure in her chest eased. At least one thing was going right. Zach was a hard student to impress. He liked challenges and would thrive with new material to learn.

As she turned onto the county road and headed home, she passed a black van with no windows. Rubbernecking, she tried to see the license plate, but it was darkened out.

The hair on the back of her neck rose. It would be the exact kind of vehicle those men who arrived at the get-together would drive.

"So, what did you find out at the bank? Did the key work?" asked Zach.

She'd wanted to wait until she got home to talk to the boys. Ever since leaving St. Maries, she'd felt disconnected from her body. It took all her concentration to watch the steep, winding mountain roads.

"We'll talk about it later."

"It worked, didn't it?" Kenny grabbed the back of her seat.

She tensed, gripping onto the steering wheel tighter. "I'll tell you everything as soon as I can. Promise."

"Geez, Mom. Way to build up the suspense." Zach let his head fall back on the headrest of the seat. "There's probably nothing in that box or whatever it is, except papers to another scavenger hunt."

"Yeah, you did say Grandpa Gene always sent you on them when you were young. He died when you were our age, so he'd think he was doing...you know, one last thing for you by sending you after some toy or something." Kenny rolled down his window. "It's hot in here. Can't you turn on the A/C?"

"It's not that warm, and we're almost home." She rounded the last turn, more exhausted than if she'd worked all day.

Two minutes later, she parked in front of the house. "Go ahead and put your bag in the house. If you have homework, set it out on the table."

"It was the first day. I didn't get homework," said Kenny.

She looked at her oldest son. "What about you, Zach?"

"Nah, I don't have anything.

Once they'd trudged into the house, she popped the trunk and stared down at her backpack. The initial excitement of visiting the bank had worn off. Now she wavered over whether she should leave Avery Falls in the middle of the night or hide the truth from the boys.

Because she wasn't sure what was going on, she hadn't told the boys that the scavenger hunt wasn't something she'd made up for fun. She'd weaved a tale, teaching them about Grandpa Gene and how much he'd loved his mountain, his wife, and away they'd gone in their hunt.

Walking into the house, she went straight to her bedroom and dumped the pack. She then went into the kitchen to see what they could have for dinner and found the boys staring at her.

They weren't going to let her get away with not telling them what had happened. And unlike certain people in her life, she wasn't going to refuse to talk to them.

Riding on the back of her fear, urging her to discover everything she could that minute, she needed time.

"I will tell you, but I need to talk to someone first." Only one person knew what was going on and could tell her how much danger she was in.

"Who?"

She met Zach's gaze. "Trip."

"Well, let's go talk to him," added Kenny.

"Not tonight."

"I want to go." Kenny moved toward the hallway. "I'll grab my swimming trunks."

"Wait." She sighed loudly. "You guys know that Trip and I hit a little road bump in our relationship."

"Yeah, but you'll work it out." Zach frowned. "That's even more reason to go talk to him."

"He's probably not even home."

"You won't know until you call."

Could she handle seeing him tonight? She looked down the hallway, knowing what was in the backpack in the bedroom. It was probably a good idea to get it over with now. It wasn't safe to leave Grandpa Gene's gift in the house when she goes to work tomorrow, and nobody was around.

Chapter Thirty Four

The handler clasped his hands behind his back and met Trip's gaze. "We've had reports of your changes over the last six months. At each checkup, you've stated there have been no changes."

He barely heard because his thoughts went to Bonnie, hoping she was safe and nowhere near anyone who could harm her.

"You've failed to inform the handlers and the controller of the vicissitudes you've experienced as a participant of the Alpha Bio Project," added the other handler.

"Unknown to you, we've given you a different daily dosage over the last nine months, expecting new results."

The first handler picked up the clipboard. "Because of skewing the results of the program, we've had to rely on other means to track the changes."

He willed his body not to tense up. Someone had ratted him out.

"Do you know what happens when your training fails?"

"I'm switched," he answered.

They'd order him away, have him killed, or he'd destroy himself. They couldn't risk the information he had about the project getting out. They couldn't risk someone getting ahold of his body and finding the drugs and DNA adjustments that were done to him.

He was enhanced. His eyesight, hearing, smell worked better than any wild animal. He had the strength of ten men. He had ways of killing others.

All they had to do was switch him. A single command and he'd be powerless to stop them.

"Correct." The handler pulled out a container.

Trip recognized the case that he was given weekly with the correct dosage to keep his body and mind at a heightened ability to accept the training and retain everything they implanted in his head.

"You were not aware that while we put you in charge of training the others, we were still experimenting on you. But your time in the Alpha Bio Project has come to an end. As one of the