Chapter 5 - No Going Back
━━━━━━━━━
5. No Going Back
━━━━━━━━━
(POV) Mr. Davenport
"What are you doing here?" I asked as I looked up to see Leo walking down the stairs. Leo stopped and smiled slyly at me.
"I live here. I'm the one you didn't cobble together in your basement." He said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes as he continued to walk towards my desk.
"I mean, why aren't you at school?" I asked more directly. He shrugged and held up his tissue box.
"I was in class and I sneezed. I don't know what came out, but I came out 2 pounds lighter." Leo explained. I shuttered at the visual. He really didn't need to tell me about that.
"Donald, something's wrong with your credit card. I went to buy groceries today, and it was declined." Tasha called as she walked over. I frowned in confusion as I pulled up my credit card information.
"I know where all the money went! She spent it all!" Eddie exclaimed as he popped up on the screen. I turned to face him.
"I didn't spend all of his money." Tasha said calmly. I turned back to see the worst thing that could ever happen to me.
"That can't be right... Someone must have hacked my account! All my money's been spent on a speed boat, hair dye, colored contacts..." I ranted as I read down the list. I looked up to see Tasha and my step son eyeing me.
"This time it wasn't me!" I said holding my hands up in surrender. Tasha rolled her eyes.
"Well then who did it?" Leo asked. We all looked to each other, waiting for the other to come up with the answer. Truth he told, I don't think any of us would be able to figure it out up here. It was lab time.
"Do you want to come down to the lab with me, Leo? We might be able to find this guy." I asked as I began to head over to the elevator. He nodded and followed me.
"Don't spend too long in there! We may just want to call the police." Tasha yelled after us. I nodded as the doors shut. We stood back silently, letting it all sink in. How could someone do this? I'm so smart and my system is locked up so tight merely from my own genius. This was simply impossible for anyone of average to above average genius to accomplish. The only person that should be able to do this should be... Me.
"Who do you think did this?" Leo asked as we entered the lab. Leo sat down at his mission specialist desk and waited for my answer. I walked over to the cyber desk and began to follow the trail this guy, or girl, may have left.
"I don't know. But we'll find out." I said reassuringly. Leo nodded and began to search. I clicked on every link known to man, and still came up with a dead end. From the looks of it, Leo was coming up with the same.
"This guy is good. I can't find anything." Leo stated as I tried again and again; every time only coming up with the same ex mark on the page.
"I can't find anything! Leo, this isn't just some run of the mill hacker. This is obviously someone who hates me, and wants to ruin my life." I thought aloud. Leo looked up in though before continuing.
"Well that could be anyone." Leo said. I glared down at him as he held up his hands in surrender and went back to work. Then, I got an idea.
"I'm going to have to call my friend at the FBI." I said as I got my phone out and began to scroll through my contacts.
"You have a friend in the FBI? That's so cool." Leo said excitedly. I laughed and nodded. I do know some pretty cool people... Including myself of course.
"Yeah, we're yoga buddies." I said before holding the phone up and waiting for an answer.
"And now it's not cool." Leo replied before turning back to his laptop. I rolled my eyes and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello, Donald." He said.
"Hey. How's it going?" I asked, trying to start up the conversation. He laughed.
"Great. How about you?" He asked.
"Bad, now that you ask. I was wondering if you could give me some help." I asked.
"Of course. Do you want me to come over?" He asked.
"Yeah. That'd be great. See you in a bit." I replied.
"Yep, be there in a minute." I smiled and ended the phone call. I turned to see Leo was still coming up with a dead end. I sighed.
"Don't worry, Leo. The FBI is going to help us." I said reassuringly. Leo nodded and followed me over to the elevator. We got out when we reached the ground floor to see Tasha holding the door open for my friend.
"Donald, the FBI is here." Tasha called warily. I laughed knowing she thought it was more serious than that. No one had found out the kids were bionic. I smiled at Tasha, trying to tell her it was okay, that I would take care of this. She smiled back, for real this time. Tasha and Leo walked back to the game room where I'm sure Leo was about to explain the situation to her. I led the agent over to my computer where I showed him all the unusual activity that had been happening. He took down notes and asked me to email him everything I could find to help him with the search.
After about an hour of investigating, he left. He did tell me this was on the top of his list, though. This could be a wanted criminal who was behind all of this for all we knew. I sighed as I shut the door. I turned to see Leo and Tasha walking over to see if I was okay. I smiled and wrapped my arm around Tasha's shoulders.
"How did it go?" Leo asked hopefully.
"We couldn't figure it out just yet, but they're going to do everything that they can." I explained. Tasha sighed. I hated stressing them out like this. There was a knock at the door. Tasha laughed and walked back to our room.
"I wonder who that is?" I asked as I walked over and opened the door. Leo's mouth dropped as I opened the door to reveal Terry Perry standing on the other side.
"Does our front gate even had a lock?" Leo asked. Terry shrugged and welcomed herself in, like she usually does.
"You don't make it out of a women's correctional facility without scaling a few fences." Terry hinted. I shuddered at the thought that she was actually able to become a principle.
"Anyways, I just stopped by to see how everyone was doing and to tell you... that I know your kids are bionic!" Terry yelled in triumph. I stopped breathing for a second as Leo let the tissue box he was holding fall to the ground.
"Bionic? Who's bionic? We don't know anything about bionics." I stumbled. She was already on to us. She rolled her eyes as Leo continued to scoff at her accusation.
"The tall one could shoot lasers out of his eyes, the girl could move faster than lighting, and the stubby one, could move things with his mind." Terry yelled. Leo stopped fighting and turned to me. I sighed knowing it was too late.
"She's got you there." Leo said simply as we waited for Terry to continue.
"So, is this one bionic?" Terry asked motioning to Leo. I laughed as I turned to look down at my step son.
"Seriously look at him." I replied. Leo looked up at me with offense obviously taken from my last comment.
"Leo, go find Adam, Bree, and Chase. Now!" I ordered as Leo ran off to go find them. Terry laughed as she paced around the room.
"So, what do you want?" I asked, knowing Terry wouldn't be here unless she got something from it. She smiled brightly as she turned to face me.
"Principle Perry. What a surprise to see you." Tasha said as she walked over to my side. Terry scoffed at her.
"Hello, Tasha." Perry hissed. Tasha rolled her eyes.
"Donald, what is going on?" She asked in a teasing tone.
"She knows." I said simply. Tasha didn't understand.
"What?" She asked, still in a light mood.
"She, knows." I said, hinting at the fact that three out of our four children had abilities other kids could only dream of. Tasha's eyes widened at the realization.
"Oh... That. They were here when I got here!" Tasha said in defense. Terry rolled her eyes as she waited to answer my earlier question.
"What do you want?" I asked again.
"Well my first instinct was to go straight to the authorities but then I though, I have secrets too. A lady of mystery if you will." Terry said simply. I could breath again.
"So you'll kelp this between us? Thank you." I said as I ran over to hug her. Just as I reached out, she ducked and hoped back up with an evil look in her eyes.
"Not quite. I'll keep your secret, but it's going to cost you... A lot!" Terry said maniacally.
"Who do you think you are? Blackmailing us? We will never-"
"Deal." I cut Tasha off. Tasha whipped around to face me.
"What? You're just going to let her win?" Tasha asked quizzically. I shook my head.
"Yes! If it allows us to keep our family together." I whispered. Terry threw her hands up in triumph.
"So the leprechaun finally got her pot of gold." I mumbled as I walked over to Terry.
"I'm gonna be rich! I'm gonna be rich! I'm gonna be rich!" She cheered. And again, there was a knock at the door.
"What now?" I mumbled as I opened the door. A bank official walked trough the threshold and assessed the area.
"Donald Davenport? We're with the First International Bank. This house and everything in it, no longer belongs to you." He stated simply as he played with his clip board.
"What? That's ridiculous! I have billions of dollars in your bank" I asked worriedly. My accounts had already been hacked, they had to know.
"Not anymore. All of your accounts were liquidated hours ago." The man explained. I stood back in shock.
"What? I never authorized that!" I asked. This could not be happening.
"Well your signature says otherwise." The official stated simply. I shook my head.
"Look, whoever hacked my accounts must have forged my signature.' I argued as my voice slowly rose. I couldn't lose everything.
"Well that may be, Mr. Davenport. But until you get that cleared up, we are going to seize all your assets." He said. He motioned for his followers to join him back outside.
"What do you mean?" I asked, growing more worried by the second.
"I mean, you're broke." He finished before walking off.
"I'm Broke! You're broke!" Terry yelled in aggravation. Tasha ran after them.
"Donald. They're towing the cars!" Tasha announced. I sighed and fell back onto the couch only to have Terry follow my actions.
"Wow, rough day." Terry said. I nodded.
"Yeah, no kidding." I said agreeing. She turned to face me.
"I meant for me." She replied harshly. I shook my head.
"Well I guess our little deal is off." She called as she rose from the couch.
"What?" I said numbly. She couldn't do this. Where are Adam, Bree, and Chase anyway?
"If you're broke, you can't buy my silence. What to do, what to do. This isn't over!" Terry said deep in thought as she drug the bench from outside down the driveway. I sighed as Tasha glared down at me. This wasn't my fault. I'm just an incredibly wealthy, and smart, man that has been targeted. Technically, she got herself into this. She didn't have to say yes when I asked her to marry me.
"Big D! We have a problem!" Leo yelled as he ran in with something in his hand.
"Great! Leo, where are Adam, Bree, and Chase!" I yelled. Leo shrugged. Tasha walked over and rubbed my back as we waited for Leo's answer.
"I found this in the lab." Leo stated glumly. He set it down to reveal a hologram of my three bionic teens.
"Testing... Testing. Echo, Echo-" Adam said. Bree slapped him in the arm as Chase rolled his eyes.
"Mr. Davenport. We really messed up." Chase started.
"We didn't mean to expose our bionics to Perry. She was in danger, and we had no choice." Bree continued.
"You always trained us to handle any mission, and right now, the mission is survival. Yours and ours." Chase went on.
"I mean, if we aren't around, there's no proof we exist, so we're leaving... For good." Adam said. You could hear and see the sadness coming from the three teens.
"Thank you. For all that you've done for us. You've made us who we are. We're sorry we let you down." Bree finished on the verge of tears. Chase smiled over at her, trying to comfort her from a far. The hologram cut out right then.
"We have to go find them." I decided, making my way to the lab. Leo held his hand up.
"I already tried. They disabled their GPS signals. There's no trace of them anywhere. They're gone." Leo finished. We all stood, not able to comprehend what had happened to us within the past few hours.
"Well we have to pack and then we can look for them. Basically we just have to get out of here." Tasha ranted as she raced up the stairs to collect our things. I headed down to the lab. Hopefully they wouldn't find it when they took over the house. I waited until the doors slid open to reveal the lab. I sighed as I walked over to pick up my tablet. This was the one piece of technology I could actually take with us. I walked over to the three capsules standing empty on the back wall. I opened Bree's and looked inside to see if she left anything. Of the three of them, she would be the one to leave something behind; something that would lead me to them later. I glanced around only to see an empty capsule that should hold my daughter. I turned to see Leo walking out of the elevator as I looked from one capsule to another. This was crazy! They couldn't have just left and not thought we wouldn't go looking for them. Chase shouldn't have turned off their GPS signals. I know they thought that the FBI was after them but still. I needed them, and so did Leo and Tahsa.
"The guy from the bank says we need to leave now. They're changing the locks on all the doors." Leo stated as I walked over to the cyber desk by him.
"I can't believe they're gone." I breathed.
"I should have been at school today. It's my job to watch out for them and I didn't! Thus is all my fault!" Leo yelled as he talked himself down. I shook my head.
"No it's not. It's not their's either, I've got to find them!" I announced as I ran over to the cyber desk. I shook my head and tried to pull up the results on the desk. When they didn't come up, I lost it. I slammed my hands down on the desk before walking away.
"I can't even use my cyber desk! Who is doing this to me?" I yelled through out the lab. I was happy Leo was here and not Tasha, she would have tried to calm me down. Leo on the other hand, knew I had to yell while I still could.
"It's obviously a tech whiz who will do anything to destroy you. Someone and knows important details of your life..." Leo left off. I turned away for a moment.
"Wait a minute, I know who it is." Leo paused. I turned on my heel to face my coming of brilliance step son. He might even take over the business someday.
"It's your brother." Leo replied. I shook my head and pulled out my tablet.
"Leo, that's impossible. We froze Douglas in a block of ice! He's under 24 hour security at my most remote offshore facility. See... He's gone! How?!" I swiped my fingers over the security footage only to see Douglas' ice cube had been smashed and he was gone.
"Wait, rewind the footage... There!" Leo yelled as I stopped it just in time to see a masked figure break Douglas free. Who was that?
"Wow! There's another bionic dude?" Leo asked as the figure walked away with Douglas laying on his shoulder.
"I don't know who that is." I mumbled as I watched closer, trying to find any sort of recognizable feature about him. I sighed as I came to terms with the obvious.
"If Douglas escaped that means Adam, Bree, and Chase are in real danger, we all are." I looked over to see the monitors flashing. I motioned for Leo to look as well just in time to see my brother's face pop up on the screens. It was terrifying to see that many of my brother. Bree was right, he did have a barber with a sense of humor.
"You sure are Donny! I'm back!" Douglas maniacally said into the camera.
"Yeah, Leo already figured that out." I said simply. Douglas frowned, thinking he was so much smarter than me and the kids combined. The five of us have been able to outsmart him every time he try's to ruin us. He forgets the genius that is, Donald Davenport.
"Anyway, I just thought you should know that it was me who did this to you! Well, I had a little help. And now that I'm out, I think that I'll spend some quality time with my three, wonderful kids." Douglas yelled in triumph. I shook my head.
"If you go anywhere near them it will be the last thing you ever do." I hissed. Douglas laughed.
"They're mine, Donny!" He yelled back while he smiled evilly back at me.
"II'll find them first." I said as I glared back at him. He couldn't have them.
"Good luck. How are you gonna find them without your lab?" He asked as he held up a trigger. I could feel my eyes grow wide at the realization of what he was about to do.
"Leo that's a detonator, run!" I yelled. Leo and I began to race for our lives to the elevator. By the time that Douglas hit the button, Leo and I were able to get into the elevator. As the doors slid close, I could see the flame taking over the lab. All my hard work. All the money that I spent. That was Adam, Bree, and Chase's home. Now they had no where to return to. If they were to even come back. I looked to see Leo looking worriedly up at me as I stood and tried the buttons.
"The phone is dead. Hopefully my sprinkler system put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the house." I said as I threw the phone at the wall. Leo looked up at me worriedly.
"So we're trapped in here? What are we going to do?" He yelled.
"I'm working on it, Leo." I said calmly. I had to stay calm. I couldn't think about the lab... the kids...
"Well hurry up. I mean, if we don't get out of here, Douglas and that creepy mask guy are going to beat us to Adam, Bree, and Chase." Leo pointed out.
"I will figure something out, Leo." I said reassuringly. Leo rolled his eyes.
"How? Your lab is gone, your cars are gone, Davenport Industries is completely ruined-"
"I got it Leo!" I yelled back. I already knew Douglas ruined everything, I didn't need Leo retelling this same horror story.
"And to top it all off, you're completely broke." Leo said. I could feel the tears welling in my eyes. I remember seeing all that money in person... They were so young! I turned to see Leo looking at me.
"I'm crying about the kids!" I cried out. Leo rolled his eyes. He stood and began to walk around the elevator.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Leo asked. I shook my head and stood up. Then, I got an idea.
"I can't fit up there but you can! If you can shimmy up the shaft and hit the emergency button... It will turn back on and take us upstairs." I explained. Leo shuddered at the thought.
"What if the whole house is on fire?" He asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about that. Only the lab was hit with the fire. The sprinklers turned on before the fire spread... I hope. But either way, we have to make sure Tasha's okay." I explained. Leo nodded and began to climb up to the shaft. I sighed as I waited patiently. Douglas destroyed the most important thing to me and now he was going to take the kids back. I couldn't let that happen. As soon as we get out of here, I'm going to find the kids. Then, the only job left... Will be to kill my brother.
━━━━━━━━━
Thanks for reading!
Vote, Comment, or Follow either me or music501 when you can!
~Shay
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top