Valor, Variant - 2: A Dark Genetic Manipulation Romance, page 26
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, and he reached out to gently take the now sticky diamond engagement ring from her hand. He smiled up at her and held the ring out between them. “I cannot remember a time that you didn’t rule my thoughts. Even when I didn’t know your name, I knew I belonged to you. I will always belong to you, Becky. Will you be mine, too? Marry me, promise to stand beside me for the rest of our days. Please?”
Becky shoved her chair back and knelt beside him. “Yes,” she said, holding her hand out so he could slip the ring on her finger. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you, Valor. More than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life. I’m yours forever,” she said.
Valor’s smile couldn’t be contained as he pulled her close to kiss her. “I love you. And now, I’ll never want for anything else as long as I live. I have everything I’ll ever need right here. You and Sky,” he said.
“Whoot! Whoot!” Feral shouted, then placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled loud and sharply.
Scorn leaned over to Two and nudged him. “Now that’s how it’s done. Pay attention. Just saying.”
Two scowled at Scorn and shoved the chair Scorn sat in so hard it flipped backwards, dumping Scorn onto the ground as he howled with laughter.
“Congratulations,” Nina said. “I’m so happy for you both.”
“Hopefully, we’ll all have this moment one day ourselves before we’re done,” Steel said.
Lethal raised his beer in the air. “To Valor and Becky. May you be forever at one another’s side.”
“Here here!” they all said, raising their beers in the air in salute as well.
“What do you think about Mama and Daddy getting married?” Shauna asked Skylar.
“Can I wear a sunflower dress?” she asked.
“You can wear whatever you like,” Becky answered, grinning ear-to-ear.
“Sunflower dress,” Skylar repeated. She didn’t really care if her mama and her daddy got married or not. She had both her mama and her daddy, and they both loved her, and each other, and they were all finally together. That was all she cared about.
~~~
Much later that night after everyone had gone home and left them to the quiet of their own home, Valor lay with Becky in his arms. His hands stroked her back, then lightly scratched against her scalp as he gently sank his fingers into the hair at the base of her skull.
“You’re quiet,” she said softly.
“Just enjoying the feeling,” he said.
“Of what?” she asked.
“Of belonging. Of everything being just as it should be, in just the right time frame. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” he admitted. “I always felt like something was missing, just out of reach, and I could never identify it,” he said. “Drove me insane.”
“That feeling’s gone now?” she asked.
“Yeah. It was you. I was missing you. But now, I’m whole again,” he said, turning his head to look at her as she raised up off his chest.
“So am I,” Becky said. “I love you, Valor.”
“I love you, too, Becky,” he said, kissing her.
“Make love to me again,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” he agreed. He rolled her onto her back and situated himself between her thighs again. “Gently this time?” he asked, knowing he’d lost control not ten minutes earlier, taking her hard and fast.
“Yes,” she answered, stretching her arms above her head, and closing her eyes.
“I’m going to kiss every inch of your body before this night is through,” he promised.
“Mmmmm,” she moaned as he started to kiss a path from her jaw leading down to her collar bone. His chest rumbled as he lifted his hips, lined himself up and pushed inside her.
Becky arched her back as he ground his hips against hers, lifting her leg to give him better access.
Valor began to rock into her at a steady, though lazy pace, as he took his time, kissing every part of her he could reach. His eyes found the bite on her breast and he licked across it.
Her breath caught. “I love when you do that,” she said.
Valor rose up, holding himself off her so he could move a little more freely and rocked his hips, snapping them forcefully when he felt her pelvic bone nudging his. Every time he did she gasped a little. “Won’t be long now,” he said proudly as he watched the telltale flush of her skin letting him know her orgasm was building.
“That’s because you already have me so sensitive,” she said.
“Hold on then, I lied. I can’t take it slow. Every time I touch you is like the first time. I just can’t get enough,” Valor said, looking down into her face.
Becky opened her eyes and looked up at him. “I love that you feel that way. So do I,” she said.
Valor increased his speed, and minutes later she was clinging to him, trembling as they both found release again.
It wasn’t long before Becky recovered, lying on top of him almost exactly where she’d been before. She raised her head and smiled at him seductively. “Third times a charm?” she asked.
Valor laughed. “We can try all night!” he said. “At some point, gentle has to come into play.”
“We have forever to work on it,” she said, laughing with him.
~~~
The next morning, Lethal, Grudge, and Savage along with their teams sat in Law’s office which doubled as a conference room, with Law and all the members of the board, waiting for General Ferriday to address them. He’d called an emergency meeting of the SOT teams and the board of directors only.
“What the hell is going on?” Steel asked.
“I don’t know,” Lethal answered.
“He didn’t even tell you?” Savage asked.
Lethal shook his head. “I’m as clueless as you are.”
The door opened and General Ferriday walked in with Roscoe. “Good morning,” he said.
“Morning,” everybody answered.
“Thank you for being here so early,” General Ferriday said. “I apologize for the lack of notice, but a communication came in overnight and after viewing it first thing this morning, Roscoe called me down to look at it. I felt it important enough that each of you see it.”
“What is it?” Lethal asked, his face showing his concern.
“I’ll let you watch it for yourselves, then you can decide how we proceed,” General Ferriday said.
Roscoe pulled the curtains closed that draped the windows so that no one could see what they were about to view but them. Then he walked over and turned out the lights. He took a seat at his laptop and opened a program then clicked a few times with his mouse. He raised a remote control unit and pointed it at the T.V. mounted on the wall. The T.V. powered up and almost immediately an image of Dr. Waller could be seen coming into focus.
“As General Ferriday said, this came in over night. I saw it first thing this morning. No one outside this room has seen it, nor will they see it until those here today have made some decisions on how to proceed,” Roscoe said.
Roscoe pressed another button and the image of Waller on the T.V. began to speak.
“Greetings, my children. I see you've all continued to develop and expand on the gifts I’ve given you. Since you’ve never bothered to thank me, let me take the first step in good manners and say, “You’re welcome, anyway,” he said, his face askew with rage despite his controlled conversational tone.
“It has come to my attention that you have been methodically attacking and rendering useless multiple locations established for the sole purpose of further study and creation of those like you. Let me just say… Shame on you!” he spat. “How can you deny others the gifts you’ve all received? How very selfish and ungrateful of you all! I am almost ashamed to be your creator!”
Lethal’s chest was not the only one rumbling steadily as the demented man who’d destroyed their lives, then rebuilt them as they were today, scolded them as a father would a naughty child.
“I’ve sat in the shadows, waiting for you to realize what wondrous males you all are. Waiting for any of you, just one of you, to figure out that without me you’d be nothing. Instead, you’ve attacked and likely killed a very important associate. She was key in discovering just the right DNA strain necessary to turn you into the elevated life forms you are. And how do you reward her? By infiltrating her facility during the night. By taking her and all her employees into custody and treating them like common criminals. As I’ve said, you should be ashamed. Or better yet… punished,” he said, grinning evilly.
“Punishment… how to punish those who care about nothing and no one but themselves, because they now have nothing and no one. I took everything in order to make you stronger, and now you have only yourselves, so there was no way to punish you effectively. You see, that was what plagued me. How could I effectively make you see the error of your ways when you cared so little for anything at all. Then I realized the answer was right before my eyes the entire time. You may not know who you were, where you came from. Whether or not you had wives, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters… but I do. I know. And that is where the answer lies.
For every single one of my people that have gone missing, I’ll take one of your family members. For every single facility that has been destroyed and rendered useless, I’ll take a whole family. Only, I won’t literally take them, I’ll leave them right where they are — cold, dead, lifeless — waiting for you to find them. Waiting for you to finally figure out who you are and make some feeble attempt to rescue them. That is what you’ll do, isn’t it? Since you’re all so concerned about what is right versus wrong rather than just looking at yourselves objectively and saying a simple fucking thank you?!” he screamed.
The very next second Waller smiled suddenly, then laughed, his eyes widening, as he stared into the camera. “What I haven’t decided is if I’ll start with your next assault on my people, or if I’ll begin now and consider it payback for all the years of research you’ve set me back.
What I do know, is that I’ll be willing to share this bit of new information with those who still have… what did you call yourselves again? Oh, yes, the Variant. How cute,” he said condescendingly. “I’ll be sharing my plan with all those who still hold the Variant within their grasp. You will not know when we’ll strike, how we’ll strike or if we’ll strike. But we will strike, and you’ll know it’s all your fault.”
Waller sighed and shook his head. “I am a genius…” he commented aloud. Then he focused on the camera again.
“Gentlemen, I bid you adieu,” he said, turning and walking away from the camera. He paused and looked back after a few steps. “Oh, and, check and mate,” he spat at the camera before it went dead.
“Holy fuck!” Feral said, getting up to pace around the room.
“Apparently, this crazy motherfucker is going to start hunting your families for sport,” Roscoe said.
“He could be full of shit, just trying to goad us into leaving what’s left of his fucked up plan alone,” Malice said.
“Possibly, but we can’t take that chance,” Law said.
“How the hell are we supposed to protect them?” Scorn asked.
“Most of us don’t even know if we have families!” Steel shouted.
“I do, most of you anyway,” General Ferriday said. “We’ve been steadily identifying as many of you as we can as you’ve been steadily arriving. Some have chosen not to know, like Lethal’s team. Some have been interested. Others as of yet undecided. And then there are still some that we’ve not been able to identify which leads me to believe that not only military were taken. If they were military there’d be a record of them somewhere.”
“Unless they are listed as killed in action. Have you accessed killed in action records?” Grudge asked.
“Some. We’re still working on it. Unfortunately it’s a slow, painstaking process,” General Ferriday said. “But, the question is, do we bring all of the Variant people in on this, give them the opportunity to protect their families? Or do we just do our best to do it ourselves?”
“We can’t tell them all what’s happening. Some would go off half-cocked, rushing back to families that believe they’re dead as soon as they are told where they came from. How the hell are those people going to feel when their sons show up with no memory of them, demanding that they agree to disappear for a while?” Grudge said.
“Bullshit. They’ve been fucked with enough, had their lives yanked from beneath them. I say show them this video, let them choose for themselves. If they care to find out if they have families, let them. Let them decide if they want to take action. If not, we have the military take action. Give them some line about their names having come up in a terrorist chat group, probably gleaned from something to do with the disappearance of their husband or son, and because of that security must be put in place to protect them. Install security systems. Have the local authorities advised that threats against their lives have been received. We do the best we can with what we have,” Lethal said.
“I agree,” Savage said passionately. “Let them decide individually what they want to do, or have done without their involvement.”
“One thing remains clear, though,” Nina said, “All these families need to be warned and they need protection. And each new family you identify as time goes on needs to be warned as well.”
“There are some out there that already suspect their loved ones may be here,” General Ferriday said. “We field calls regularly from grieving mothers and families hoping their sons are here.”
“Why haven’t we heard of this?” Callous asked.
“Why would I present it? Most of you have no interest in finding out who you were. Why pick at a wound?” Roscoe asked.
“We don’t have a choice in this,” Lethal said. “We have to give this information to our people, let them decide if they want to pursue it individually, or if they want to add their names to the list we’ll turn over to the government for their families to be protected on their behalf.”
“Agreed,” Roscoe said.
“Only certain factions of the government will be trusted with this, though!” Feral said, his temper barely contained. “You can’t just turn it over to the government in general. Even some of those who seem trustworthy aren’t!”
“Absolutely,” General Ferriday said. “Those we’ve deemed trustworthy and supportive of us are the ones we plan to work with.”
Once discussions died down General Ferriday stood and addressed them all. “We’ve had a few minutes to absorb this new threat. It’s time for a decision, majority will rule. All in favor of the plan to allow each Variant citizen the right to view this video and choose the path of protection for their own families?”
Every single male in the conference room agreed, as did Nina.
“Alright. Let’s bring General Howard in on this. We’ll get a security plan in place, then we’ll present it all to our community and let them choose how they each want their families provided for. I have no doubt some will prefer to remain shrouded and hidden away from their families — they feel they belong here now,” General Ferriday said. “In the meantime, keep this information to yourselves. We don’t want to advise them of a problem with no solution. It will only be a couple of days until we present the entire package.”
Everyone agreed and gradually began to drift back toward their own individual homes to discuss it further in private.
Valor sat where he was, staring at the blank T.V. screen.
“You okay?” Nina asked.
Valor nodded. “Yeah. I just can’t believe how lucky I am. If Becky and Skylar weren’t here already, I’d be in the same boat. As it is I’m outraged he would dare to cause us any more pain. It’s unconscionable,” Valor said, clearly hurting for all his brethren.
“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to make it okay,” Nina said.
“And we’re going to catch this fucker,” Lethal said, walking back over to them.
“What’s going on?” Scorn asked.
“Those that the government provide security for, we’re going to be wired into their alarm systems. If he shows his face anywhere, we’ll use his arrogance to track him,” Lethal said.
Valor smiled. “I want to be in on the development of the software. We’ll run it through facial recognition.”
“I’ll let them know,” Lethal said. “Let’s get a move on, though. We have a lot to consider,” he said, reaching for Nina’s hand and turning to walk out of the conference room with her once she placed her hand in his.
~~~
Nina sat beside Lethal looking into the campfire they’d made. He sat so close the side of his body was pressed against hers, holding her hand in his, but his gaze was glued to the stars in the night sky above them.
“This is nice,” she said, trying to get him out of his head. She knew this was not just one of their standard overnight camping trips into the woods of Alliance. He had something heavy on his mind, but she was giving him the opportunity to bring it up himself.
“Yeah. I always relax more out here with you than at home,” he admitted.
“It’s been a while since we did this. I’m glad we made time,” she said.
Lethal pulled his gaze down from the stars and looked at her. “You can stop,” he said.
“Stop what?” she asked.
“Pretending you think this is just a regular overnight camp out,” he said.
Nina laughed softly. “I figured you’d tell me what’s on your mind when you’re ready.”
He nodded. “You know I remember nothing,” he started.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Don’t want to know, really,” Lethal said.
“I know,” she said.
“But if I have anyone out there that ever meant anything to me, and they get hurt because I don’t take the initiative, what kind of scum does that make me?” he asked.
“Doesn’t make you scum, makes you no longer involved in their lives,” Nina said. “If there is anyone, they are as dead to you as you are to them. It’s perfectly acceptable to allow General Howard and his people to protect them.”
